So he says in verse 17, and he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then
show me a sign that thou talkest with me.
So this is the first of many times when Gideon doesn't have a lot of faith, he needs a lot
of confirmations, and he's not very sure of himself.
And I'm pretty sure that's why God greeted him that way in the first place.
He knew that about him.
He knows everybody.
He knows that he's insecure, and so that's why he says, Hey, old buddy, old pal, thou
mighty man of valor.
He greets him as mighty man of valor, go in this thy might, because he knows he's humble.
Now look, the key attribute to being used by God is being humble.
God is the number one most important attribute to be used by God.
You must be humble.
Why?
Because God can't put you in a position of authority if you're prideful, because putting
a prideful person in a position of leadership is like giving drugs to a drug addict.
You know what it's like?
It's like taking someone who struggles with gluttony and giving them a job at a bakery.
That's not the right place for them to work.
Just like somebody who's struggled as an alcoholic, let's give them a job as a bartender.
Now look, everybody struggles with sin.
There's not a person in this room who doesn't struggle with sin unless they're just giving
into it all the time, but nobody just lives a good life with no struggle with sin.
Even the apostle Paul struggled hard with sin in Romans chapter seven.
Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
We all struggle with sin, but we don't all struggle with the same sins.
Some sins that people struggle with in this building, other people in this building don't
struggle with that sin at all.
Other people, it's a major struggle in their lives and vice versa.
So the sins that you struggle with, I may not struggle with.
The sins I struggle with, you may not struggle with, but we all struggle with sin.
It's just not the same sin.
Some people struggle with a bunch of different sins.
Some people, it's just a handful of sins.
The Bible says some men's sins are open beforehand going before the judgment.
Other men, they fall after.
Likewise, also the good works of some are manifest beforehand and they that are otherwise
cannot be hid.
So the Bible tells us some sins are more public than others.
Some sins you can just look at people and say, this guy's an alcoholic, whereas other
people's sins could be just as grievous or wicked, but they're not as easy to spot publicly.
But don't be fooled into thinking that there's anybody without sin or that anybody doesn't
struggle with sin or have these battles in their life because every single person has
temptations and struggles and sins.
But we need to know ourselves and we need to know what our besetting sins are, what
are the things that are temptations for us, what are the things we struggle with so that
we can be careful about those things.
Now let me give you an example.
For me, alcohol is not a temptation for me.
It's something that I've just never been involved in.
It's something that never enters my mind.
It's just not a thing for me.
But I guarantee there are people in this room though where alcohol is something that for
the rest of their life they are going to struggle with.
They're going to have to be careful.
I've dealt with people and talked to people who I've as a pastor tried to help them and
give them advice and they keep falling off the wagon and they're struggling with alcohol.
Is that my struggle?
No.
Is that ever going to be my struggle?
I'm 39 years old.
If I didn't start drinking by now, the chances of me starting to drink after I'm 39 years
old are pretty much zero.
Does that mean that there aren't a whole bunch of other sins that I would indulge in?
Of course, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
But here's the thing.
One person has a struggle with alcohol, another doesn't.
One person could struggle with stealing, another doesn't.
But all of us have sins that we struggle with.
And here's the thing.
You don't want to put the guy who struggles with gluttony working in a bakery.
And you don't want the guy who's struggling with alcohol working as a bartender.
Now, I don't believe that anybody should be a bartender, period, as a Christian.
Obviously, that's not an acceptable job for a Christian.
But here's the thing.
I could probably be around alcohol more than someone else without it messing with me because
I have no desire, no temptation there.
But other things I would say, hey, I can't work in that environment or I can't be around
that.
None of us should actually be working in a bar or serving liquor or anything like that.
But the point is that somebody who struggles with a certain sin may have to be more careful
than another person who doesn't struggle with that sin.
And I'm telling you, a prideful person, some people, their sin is pride.
That's what they struggle with.
And they're these big ego people who just, they just go around bragging about themselves.
Every story they tell is a story that glorifies themselves and they're just full of themselves,
haughty, arrogant, proud.
Well, let me tell you something.
Putting that person behind the pulpit or putting that person in any leadership position is
like putting the alcoholic at the bartender job or the glutton at the bakery.
It's a poisonous combination.
You must, if you ever want to be a pastor, you must be a humble person.
And if that's even a sin that you struggle with, if that's one that you battle and struggle
with, pride or feelings of how great you are, you know what?
You're probably just not even cut out for pastoring, period.
Because even if you're conquering that sin right now, if you have that proclivity, there's
a good chance that when you get in the position of pastoring, you know, it could get even
worse.
Okay.
There's that.
But we have a bunch of, of course, power hungry, prideful, egomaniacs, you know, running our
country in politics because, you know, politics is going to attract a lot of people like that.
But also clergy could attract people like that.
You know, a lot of people like that could gravitate toward being a pastor because they
want the fame, the accolades.
They want people to praise them and lift them up and exalt them.
But here's the thing.
God can't use you when you're proud.
And here's why God can't use you when you're proud.
Because if God exalts you, then you're going to start being all high and mighty.
You're not going to give him the glory.
You're going to abuse your power.
You're going to get even more puffed up and you're going to destroy yourself.
And I'm not just talking about someone who's actually in ministry as a pastor or a deacon
or some other, you know, position of, you know, being ordained in the local church.
You know, even as a layman, you know, let's say God granted you a whole bunch of success
out soul winning or God granted you a whole bunch of success and in discipling people
and mentoring people and just serving God in whatever capacity, you know, even being
a musician and, you know, succeeding in music and excelling in music.
You know, if God grants you to succeed in those areas and you're a prideful person,
then it's again, it's like giving drugs to a drug addict.
You're going to get worse.
You're going to, you know, a guy like Gideon.
God's looking at a guy like Gideon and say, okay, this guy's humble.
Maybe he's in a little too humble because I can barely even get him to go out and do
anything because I have to keep pumping them up and telling them how mighty he is to even
get him to do anything.
But here's the thing.
It's better to be a little too humble than a little too prideful.
And so Gideon's a little too humble and God can work with that because here's the thing.
God's interest when we get to the next chapter, chapter seven, God says, I don't want Israel
to think that they won this battle because of their power and their might.
That's why when Gideon assembles an army of 32,000 people, God's going to tell him this
is too many people.
Tell everybody who's scared to go home.
So he says, hey, whoever's fearful, go home.
22,000 people go home.
Then he's got 10,000 left.
Then he does this water drinking test and we'll get to that next week.
And then he sends home everyone except 300 people.
He's like, all right, this is it.
This is perfect size.
It's like, what?
We're going up against this army that's just without number.
32,000 troops is already a joke compared to what they've got.
But God's like, nope, too many.
I don't want anybody to think that this was through the power of man.
You know, we want this to be through the power of God.
So he goes with 300 guys, which is just, I mean, think about that's like a Sunday morning
crowd at faithful word against an innumerable army.
Think about that.
That's insane.
It'd be crazy.
It'd be like, what?
This is it.
It'd be nothingness compared to that innumerable multitude.
But God wants to get the glory.
Is he going to get the glory from some prideful, arrogant pastor who's just up there taking
all the glory for himself?
You know, Pontifex Maximus up there, you know, getting worshiped like the Pope.
No, he wants somebody who's humble where the power's not going to go to their head, where
even if they do great things for God, even if they get hundreds of people saved or even
thousands of people saved and maybe pastor a church or go to the mission field and do
great exploits on the mission field or whatever, or maybe they become extremely skilled on
the piano or other instruments or they're a great singer, great song leader.
You know, he doesn't want them to get pumped up.
He wants that person to still go home at night and get on their knees before God and confess
their faults before God and confess to God that they're unworthy and ask for his grace
to continue.
That's what he wants.
That's why he's using Gideon because Gideon, number one, believes in the power of God and
number two, Gideon is humble about himself and he's not going to let it go to his head
when he wins.
And by the way, when this is all said and done, you know what they say to Gideon?
Rain over us, Gideon.
Be our king.
Rain over us.
He says, no, the Lord's going to rain over you.
Now if he was a prideful, power hungry guy, he'd just be like, great, sounds good.
But he didn't.
He declined being king.