Message Notes

At Once
Week 2: Gideon
June 8th, 2025

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7

Again the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites fled to the mountains, where they made hiding places for themselves in caves and dens.
Judges 6:1-2

Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah…

Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.  The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, Mighty warrior, the Lord is with you!
Judges 6:12

Sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?
Judges 6:13

But Lord, Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel?
Judges 6:15

My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!
Judges 6:15

God won’t answer
I’m not good enough

But God won’t answer.. but You’re not good enough.

God often uses an unsure, insecure and fearful person to do the impossible.

God often uses an unsure, insecure and fearful person to do the impossible.

Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!
Judges 6:14

I am sending you!
The Lord said to him, I will be with you.
Judges 6:16

Gideon replied, If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me.”
Judges 6:17

Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Judges 6:39

The Lord said to Gideon, You have too many warriors with you.
Judges 7:2

If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.

Therefore, tell the people, Whoever is timid or afraid may leave and go home. Twenty-two thousand of them went home, leaving only ten thousand who were willing to fight. 

Judges 7:2-3

When the three hundred Israelites blew their horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords. Those who were not killed fled …
Judges 7:22