ࡱ> CEBq` *bjbjqPqP 8>::f"%       84. N N "p p p p p p       $@h/  p p /  p p Dm m m | p p m m m  m p B ДYU m Z0m t vtm t m p L 6m , p p p // dp p p         18/Feb/2007 Who, me? Judges 6:1-11 (Gideon and the angel in the wine press) My nephew has a reputation in our family for being willing to eat anything weird that crosses his path. He seems to see it as a personal challenge. At an age when most self-respecting toddlers would look at a bowl of olives and go yuck (and some of us have never got past that stage!), he would say, can I try one of those as if they were chocolates. On family holidays abroad you knew that while the rest of us would still be keen on chicken and chips, he would probably try the squid tentacles cooked in their own ink, or hed be drawn to the fisherman on the beach cutting open sea urchins and eating them raw. Now aged 18 hes just set off on 6 months of travels around the world, and he has a wonderful web site where we can read his travel diary his blog is the technical phrase I think and see the photos. And lo and behold, less than 24 hours after leaving the UK, and within 3 hours of arriving in Bangkok, he found a street stall selling fried bugs! Having been warned on no account to buy food on street corners, he got himself a bag of fried termites, locusts and other assorted grubs, and even a deep fried scorpion Ive got the photo to prove it. He seems to have lived to tell the tale no doubt years of training have given him a cast iron constitution. But its typical of him, hell have a go at anything, not just food, and never mind the fact that he might end up in hospital. Anything thats a challenge, theres no holding him back. When my sister, his mother, saw the photo of the scorpion she said, why am I not surprised and none of us are, its what we expect of him. Which does in case you were wondering bring me neatly on to Gideon. Because he is the complete opposite. If he sees a challenge he wants to run away. He doesnt want to know. He is the weakest of the weakest of the weakest, he says to the angel. He expects nothing of himself, and hes drawn to hideaway places where he can go about his business hoping no-one will notice him. In the midst of that God turns up and says, hey Gideon, Ive got something for you to do. God calls him mighty warrior, which couldnt seem further from the truth, but nonetheless its what God sees, when he looks at Gideon. And Gideon does become a mighty warrior eventually although his story is quite long and complicated. He does keep saying, Are you sure Lord? Are you really sure Lord? How can I be really sure, Lord? Three times he gets an answer by means of bread rolls that blow up and fleeces that are wet when they should be dry, and dry when they should be wet I told you it was complicated! And then just when Gideon is getting confident because now hes got an army of 32,000 men, and so, well, maybe he can do it, God says no, 300 men will do and sends the rest home. And still, with Gods help, the job is done. The Midianites are defeated. And finally the people of Israel are left in their land in peace. This story should encourage us hugely that God is strong when we are weak, and thats a wonderful message in itself, that he can act even when we ourselves feel powerless. But I dont think thats all there is to it. Why did God choose Gideon? Was it just because he was the weakest, and God had a point to make? I think theres more to it than that, that God could see the potential in Gideon and enabled him to fulfil it. He patiently brought Gideon to the point of courage. He challenged him, he guided him, he encouraged him, and in the end, he completely transformed him, into a man who risked his life to help his people. I dont know if you remember Robins sermon at the beginning of the year Im sure you do, but just to remind you he used the example of a map, and talked about how the only way to map the shape of a country is to explore, to go out right to the edges and find where the limits are, to go as far as you can, otherwise you dont know how far you can go. With Gods help, Gideon pushed himself, and found his limits were not where he thought they were at all. In the end he did become the mighty warrior that God had always considered him to be. In the end he fulfilled his potential, his God-given potential. So, what about our potential? What does God see when he looks at us? Perhaps wed be surprised. Perhaps, like Gideon, wed be very surprised. How can we discover what it is? Someone once said that life is like a bike with 15 gears, most of them end up unused. How can we extend ourselves, set new limits, discover new purpose? I think, based on what weve heard of Gideon today, there are three things to bear in mind. Firstly, believe in yourself. Not in a self important Im the best sort of way, but believe in your value to God and to others. Believe you have something to offer. Perhaps just like Gideon youre thinking Gods not going to make use of the sort of person I am, and if he thinks he can, then he doesnt really know me. But we all have gifts. How often do we hear that, especially here in church. And yet how much do we really believe it. Not me, not me, we think. But we all have something to offer, something were good at. And often were the last one to see it. When someone says, hey, youre good at that, often our reaction is youre just saying that, or well, that was just a fluke. Well, humility is good, but we should listen to the encouragement too. And God, who of course knows exactly what were like, and is not in the business of meaningless flattery, wants to encourage us too, and wants us to develop our gifts. Believe in yourself as Gods beloved child, and believe he has a purpose for your life. Which brings me on to my second point, which is, listen to angels. Listen to Gods message, by which Im really saying listen to God. I know that most of us have never had a luminous presence, with or without wings, telling us what to do. But God speaks in many ways, a nudge, an idea, a thought that doesnt go away. Were not all called to be warriors, but God has lots of plans for us and theyre all important. I wonder how many good ideas youve ever had and never done anything about them. Id own up to that. I know that if I have an idea, Im very good at then coming up with lots of reasons why something wont work, or why someone else should do it. While I was writing this I was thinking about Solos on Sunday, which if you dont know about it, is a once a month lunch we have here for people living on their own. Thats been a good idea. Im not going to embarrass the lady who had that idea by naming her, but shes an ordinary member of our congregation by ordinary I dont mean that she isnt very interesting, but that she doesnt wear a dog collar or have a title. She had the idea and got the ball rolling, and yes, she roped in others, and it was a team effort, and it still is a team effort because it takes a lot of commitment to keep these things going. But Solos on Sunday is great, its clearly going down well, it was a good idea that had potential, and its been made reality I think because somebody listened to an angel and did something about it. So believe in yourself, and listen to angels. But the danger is that this can all start to sound self-fulfilling. This is my job and Ive got to get on with it, and Im going to make it happen. So my final point, and by far the most important one is trust God. Rely on him. Gideon did, and thats what made it work. These gifts that we have been given are his gifts. This work that we may have discovered is his work. We all have potential, but not on our own. We cant do it on our own, Gideon was absolutely right. But we dont have to do it on our own. That was never the plan. The Lord is with you, the angel says to Gideon. The Lord is with me, wonders Gideon, even with me. Take those words, the Lord is with me, and say them to yourself. Say each word carefully and think about what they might mean. As the angel said in our drama, its a real privilege to offer God our gifts, our potential, our effort, and our obedience, but then just look and see what he can do with them. Trust God, because he takes the ordinary things we offer, and makes them extraordinary. He can transform our lives, and in so doing, change the world we live in. George Bernard Shaw was once asked by a reporter who he would like to be if he could live his life again. He replied that he would like to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been, rather than the man he was. God sees in each of us the person we could be, and with him on our side, anything is possible. The Lord is with me, and also with you watch this space.     PAGE  PAGE 1   PYL n v    6    A M ` l оuuffufufufuuh hhCJOJQJaJh hG1LCJOJQJaJh hRcTCJOJQJaJh h CJOJQJaJh CJOJQJaJh h 5CJOJQJaJ"h h 5>*CJOJQJaJhG@5>*CJOJQJaJhG@h  >*CJOJQJaJhG@h >*CJOJQJaJ& OP noX$Y$((f*h*i*k*l*n*o*$a$gdG@gd f**  Y w YAXZGRS]  X^z5,өөөөǩǜөh hHCJOJQJaJh 6CJOJQJaJh h^?9CJOJQJaJh hG1LCJOJQJaJh CJOJQJaJh hRcTCJOJQJaJh hhCJOJQJaJh hOCJOJQJaJ7!=BHYYr+'VuwxEmnBCMj  0P|ĸөĚӚӋċ񚸚񸚋񋩋h h:CJOJQJaJh hcg;CJOJQJaJh hhCJOJQJaJh CJOJQJaJh h]CJOJQJaJh hHCJOJQJaJh h^?9CJOJQJaJh hG1LCJOJQJaJ62%&$Ees% . 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