"So God has a Plan..."

Judges7 v 16 ff.

Today we will aim to learn from Gideon victory, lessons for creative and counter-intuitive thinking in the Church's mission today. We will pick up some points that came out in discussion last week (there were only a few of us because of the snow!)

The main points to not are....

1. Use your brain! Find strategies appropriate your resources. As I have already hinted, when the Lord reduced Gideon army to 300, Gideon must have felt like panicking. How on earth could he beat thousands and thousands of men with 300? It had to be something unusual. A surprise attack… the idea was forming in his mind… so he gave his men, from the supplies left by the 29000 who had gone home, a jar and a trumpet.

Last Sunday one of the questions we asked was “Do we as Christians use our brains enough?” Ian had the answer… “No” … and Dawn reminded us about the teaching of Jesus in Lk 16. 1-9 (“The parable of the shrewd manager”).

God is not squeezed out when we use our brains. God does not get more glory when we decide to do something really stupid. What Gideon did was not conventional. It was unusual and counter-intuitive. But it was not stupid.

What has God given us? Loads of challenges. A rapidly changing world. We are surrounded by a culture that we don’t often understand us and often misunderstands us and our message. He has given us amazing communication tools such as the world has never seen. We need to use our brains, try to understand our world and use the communication tools we have available. We need to use our brains and connect with people in our world. He has given us a small group of wonderful people. He has given us unique gifts. We need to use our brains, and take these gifts God has given us to where they can make a difference in our world.

2. Break with the familiar So we find Gideon and his 300 using the most extraordinary weapons you could imagine: torches (Sticks with one end soaked in tar) jars, trumpets. Gideon never stopped to find out if any of the 300 knew how to play the trumpet. They were in unfamiliar territory.

Last Sunday one of the questions we asked was “What familiar ways of working may the Church need to abandon?” Dawn gave the answer… “Everything...”

The world is hugely different to the world of 1955 (the year before I was born!) when Dr Billy Graham preached in Glasgow, and almost a million people went to hear him. We live in a world that is changing: where lots of people think it’s stupid to believe in a God. And in our world, it is daft to think that the same old methods will keep on working. And even dafter to keep on using them in the hope that after not working for years, maybe they will work next time.

In 1955 Billy Graham was “state of the art”. Twenth-five years ago, Alpha was “state of the Art.” The wife of a vicar in Norfolk told me around 1991, “Do the Aplha course – your church will grow.” Now people are only likely to go to a big celebration or an Alpha course if a friend recommends, and says “I’m going will you come along with me”?

But God can use us in unfamiliar territory. Praying for the sick. Tell our story to people who don’t know Jesus, at home, in a cafe. Serve somebody.

3. Observe what God is doing and join in! Dawn noticed last time that Gideon starts with worship and thus puts God at the centre. Pam noticed that Gideon had heard from God. As we were hearing last week, Gideon and his army needed the confidence to put their faith into practise. And God was giving them that boost when they went and sneaked down to listen to the Midianite soldiers talking. One of them had a dream about his tent being knocked down by a loaf of bread. (I would be cross if someone said my bread was heavy enough to knock a tent down!) And another said, “that must mean Gideon and his army are going to knock us all down!”

Where did they get that dream from? How did the decide what it meant? God was at work. Serving God would be a whole lot easier if we looked and listened, noticed and wondered what God was doing… and then joined in!

Last Sunday we were asked “What do you realise” from this passage? Ian had the answer “If God is for you, who can be against you”

The great thing about Gideon's strategy was that he was able to get a handle on what God was doing – sowing panic and fear among the Midianites, capitalising on the fact that they were a mixture of people who didn’t know or trust each other… And all Gideon's strategy did was join in with what God was doing – to bring more fear, panic, distrust to the enemy camp so that they destroyed each other.

4. Be what you are: and be trustworthy. So these 300 men took their jars, their torches, and their trumpets. Remember, they were the ones who drank from the river by using their hands, so they were always looking around. They didn’t stick their heads in the water and slurp even though they were thirsty. They were brave. They were alert. They were dextrous and careful. The were the ones who could sneak up on an enemy camp. And that is exactly what they did… It would be no use the scared ones doing that. When you are nervous, you drop your jar, you stand on someone else's feet, you blow your trumpet to early.

So we need to be what we are. Use what God has given us. Because there is something good that God has placed in you. Now that doesn’t mean you can say “I am no good at anything so I’ll just do nothing!”

5. Follow and trust you leader. Pete noted: Gideon has "arrived" he seems to be the finished article. He was ready for this. Noa wanted to say that God knew what he had given to Gideon and the Holy Spirit used what God had already done in him. And Pam added that the 300 men totally trusted Gideon.

The three hundred had to follow Gideon. To keep quiet until he said the word. If one or two got impatient, and said “old Gideon has bottled it: I knew he would” and started blowing their trumpets too soon, the surprise attack would have been ruined, it would have been a disaster. The band would have started up in bits and pieces; the Midianites would have had plenty time to realise it was a trick. But they did exactly what Gideon said, because they trusted his judgement and his leadership.

In mission leaders need to lead. That doesn’t mean they order people around or don’t consult. It doesn't mean everyone else is stupid. It doesn’t mean that nobody gets to suggest anything. But sometimes we need to say, “I’m not sure this is going to work. It sounds a bit mad – but let’s give it a try!”