Well, were starting a new series this morning called Heroes. Well be talking about finding the hero within us. By the way, I want to thank the Vegter family for their good sportsmanship here, especially for Brian-Mr. Incredible-for working with that. I love that poster, and I just think its genius. Would you open your Bibles up to Judges 6, please? I dont know about you… I cant speak for the ladies out here, but for the guys…All the guys in this room at some point or another fanaticized about being a hero. I know I sure had my fair share of that. I remember putting on a mask, getting a cape, making a utility belt [and looking just] like Superman. I remember pretending I could fly and jumping off the couch. [I remember] just being a superhero and saving the world for hours, until Brenda (Pastor Jeffs wife) said, Thats enough! Youre too old for that! (Congregation laughing) She spoiled the fun; she doesnt understand. We try to be a hero. We want to save the world. My first exposure to superheroes was Superman, the black and white version-the guy who bounced bullets off his chest; yet, when you threw the pistol at him, he had to duck-that guy. Remember him? I remember Superman being so cool. He was always on his game. He never had a bad fight, never an untimely word; [he] was always there on time; [he] did the job; he loved being a superhero. He was like goody two-shoes perfection, squeaky clean-you know, the hero. Well, thats not you, and thats not me. Thats not what were striving for today. Were not trying to be the superhero that never makes a mistake and always does the job. There was another superhero that I really identified with. He was a teenager. He didnt fit in at school; he was a nerd, a geek. There was a guy named Flash who used to pick on him all the time. In fact, he beat him up. His aunt told him what to do all the time. He had glasses. He obtained these super powers, and he really didnt want them. He was reluctant, but Grandpa always said, With great power comes great responsibility. I could identify with Spidey. When Stan Lee brought the idea for Spiderman to his boss at Marvel Comics, the guy said, No way! First of all, spiders are creepy. Nobody wants to be a spider. Second of all, nobody wants a superhero who is depressed, who struggles with life, cant get a girl, doesnt have big muscles, lives with his aunt: nobody wants a superhero like that. Nobody wants a vulnerable superhero. It turned out, he couldnt have been more wrong, right? They said no, and then in the last issue of Amazing Fantasy, Stan Lee sort of snuck him in without permission. It was a big hit, and you know the rest of the story. People identify with Spiderman more than we do with Superman. We identify with a guy who struggles with life; who sometimes makes wrong choices; who struggles with wanting to quit; who is just a human being-only hes been gifted with these powers that he doesnt necessarily want. Real life does not always match up to our idealized self-who we think we should be, who we think we could be, and who we desire to be. When I was in grade school, I thought there was a conspiracy. I felt like my teachers all got together and corroborated what to put on my report card because second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade [they would write], Jeff is a good boy, but hes not working up to his potential. I just figured they all got together and said, Well, heres what I said last year. Use it if you want to. How come they all write the same thing about me? Whats potential anyway? What they were saying was hes a smart boy, but he doesnt try. He is apathetic toward school, and that was the truth. I didnt try. What about you this morning? Are you living up to your potential? Are you all that you think you could be for God? Are you all that you think God desires you to be? Are you accomplishing everything He created you to accomplish? Are you fulfilling the purpose and mission for which He created you? What do you think today? Are you living up to your potential? Do you have room for improvement in your life today? How many of you think you can improve a little bit-you have some room? Let me see your hands. Okay, so Im talking to the right crowd. So, whats it going to take to get that potential out of you? Whats it going to take to motivate you? Do you know what it was for me? It was a good swift kick in the seat. In seventh grade, I had a teacher named Mr. Trotter. Mr. Trotter was my biology teacher. Like normal, I was doing an average to a below-average job in his class. I didnt really care. One day, I felt like I received an unjust mark on a test. I thought I should have received a C instead of a C- sort of thing. I raised my hand to object to what was on my paper, Mr. Trotter! Mr. Trotter! I stated my case, and basically the gist of what he said was what do you care? You dont try. That embarrassed me. It also made me angry. I remember saying, Ill show you, Mr. Trotter. Ill show you I can try. So, I began applying myself and began receiving good grades. Then I began to discover that getting As and Bs is a whole lot more fun that Cs and Ds. I [found] I could do the work; I wasnt dumb. I worked harder and I got good grades. That change lasted all the way through middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. I earned good grades because I tried. I had the same mind; I had the same abilities, but I wasnt living up to my potential until somebody kicked me in the pants. This morning is going to be a seat-kicker sermon. For some of you, its just a good wake-up call kind of a sermon that says-Im not going to call you out by name like Mr. Trotter did. Im not going to pull you out in front of the congregation and say, You could be doing more! Thats not going to happen. Were going to see an example of a man who definitely was not living up to his potential. Lets turn our Bibles to the Book of Judges 6. Joshua has passed away. Israel is in a world of hurt. Theyre going through the cyclical pattern called the time of the judges. Theyd fall into sin; then theyd pray to God; God would bring a judge or deliverer. Things would go well for a while, and then he or she would die. Then theyd fall back into these same patterns-this cyclical pattern. Now that Joshua is gone; theyre like people without a shepherd. Theres no king; theres no leader. So, they struggle. They had just come through a very wonderful time-40 years of living for God under the leadership of Deborah and Barak. This is not Barack Obama; this is a different Barak. Deborah and Barak provided great leadership; and now that they were gone, Israel fell back into this pattern of idolatry. A prophet is sent by God. They pray; they cry out to God, and a prophet comes. He says, Look, heres the problem. The problem is youve forsaken the Lord, your God. The problem is youre following after the Gods of the Amorites, the Jebusites, Hittites, Midianites, and all the other ites around there, and God has not called you to do that. God is expecting better things from you. Right now, youre reaping what youve sown. You need to get your act together. There was a group of people called the Midianites who were harassing, intimidating, and bullying the Israelites. They were like the high school bully or the grade school bully that comes to you, looks in your lunch, and he says, What have you got there, jerk? He starts picking through it, and he takes all the Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, and cookies-all the good stuff. Whatever he wants [he takes], and he just ransacks your lunch and steals your lunch money. He pushes you around a little bit. He bullies and intimidates you, so you dont even want to go to the lunch room anymore because youre afraid youre going to find that guy. You look for any other place in the school or on the campus to eat your lunch because this guy is going to ransack and pillage your stuff. Thats [what] the Midianites [were like]. As soon as Israel would grow a crop, they would come in and take it all. Theyd raise livestock. The Midianites would come in and take the livestock. [They] just bullied and pushed. Economically, Israel struggled because they were out-manned and out-numbered by this civilization called the Midianites. They cry out to God, and God is going to raise up a deliverer. He is not going to be your typical superhero. When its time to apply for superheroes, Gideon is not going to be on list. Gideon is an average guy. In fact, on the social economic scale, hes the bottom of the barrel. He is young; his family is poor; and he is the least in his family. He is a man nobody really knows; he is man who is not of the military at all; he has had no experience in leadership. Yet, God is going to pick him to lead Israel out of this time of bondage. We pick up the story in Verse 11 (of Judges 6, page 239 of pew Bibles), The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah… Weve had Barak, and now we have Ophrah. This is kind of a democratic service here today, ha? …that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite… I struggle with this word; Ive even looked it up in Hebrew, and I still struggle. You probably do too. …where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. So he is hiding where they cant see him. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon… By the way, wherever it says the angel of the Lord, youre always going to notice it seems like after a while, people start talking like theyre talking to God and not talking to an angel. Youll see that all the way through the Old Testament-when it says the angel of the Lord…When it says an angel, you dont see this, but when it says the angel of the Lord, youll see that person refer to that angel as the Lord, as Jehovah, every time. Thats because many scholars feel that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, a theophany, a physical manifestation of God in the world. Im not saying thats so, but Im just saying there are many scholars who think that way. Anyway, before you distracted me, we were here in Verse 12, When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. This has to be where De Niro got his inspiration for his character in Taxi Driver. You remember that part where he ad-libs in the movie where hes looking in the mirror? Its not in the script. Gideon is probably the first one to go, You talking to me? Mighty warrior, are you talking to me? I dont see anybody around. You must be talking to [someone else]. Are you talking to me? Me? Mighty warrior? Gideon is thinking, You have the wrong guy! Mighty warrior? I am hiding in a winepress because Im afraid of the bad guy. The angel doesnt have the wrong guy. Gideon speaks. He says, But sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. Has the Lord abandoned him? No. Has the Lord put them in the hands of the Midianites? No. They did it themselves. They abandoned God. Theyre simply reaping the consequences of their poor decisions. Sometimes you and I make poor decisions, and then we blame God for the outcome. Not you, but the 11 oclock service… No, but they get all upset like this is Your fault, God, that I am the way I am or that this has happened to me in my life. Did Gideon sound to you like hes a man of great faith? No, hes not. Hes rather skeptical. Hes rather pessimistic about God. He sees God as a God who abandoned him. He sees God as a God who has shirked his responsibility. He sees God as a God who is not trustworthy. Isnt it peculiar that God would tap a guy like that on the shoulders and say, Im going to use you? Thats strange, isnt it? Gideon is saying, You know, look around you. We are just an oppressed people. This is the way its always going to be. When we do not live up to our potential, we have to ask first why not. One of the first reasons you come up with… When you say, I cant be a hero for God. I cant be a champion for God. I cant do this or that, its because your circumstances dictate otherwise. You look around at your circumstances, and you think, Well, look at my life! Look at where Im at! Look at my surroundings! Look at whats going on in my country! Look whats going on in my church! Look whats going on in my family! Look whats happening in my school! Look whats going on in my workplace. Instead of focusing on God and His promise, you focus on the circumstances around you which change and fluctuate, but God does not. Through the whole story, God is going to try to get Gideons attention and say, Dont look at your circumstances, Gideon. Dont look at your situation. That will change, but I dont. Sometimes you and I do not live up to our potential, do not become all we can be in God because instead of looking at God and His promises, we look at our circumstances. Frankly, were rather skeptical or rather pessimistic. Because of the way things are, we think maybe thats the way they always will be. Thats not true. God doesnt buy the excuse at all. The response says, The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midians hand. Am I not sending you? Save Israel. You, Gideon, are going to save Israel. Gideon, with no military experience, youre going to save Israel. Gideon says, But Lord, Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. Do you know another reason why not? We dont live up to our potential because we think we just dont have what it takes. Were not good enough; were not smart enough; were not talented enough; were not motivated enough; were not energetic enough. You look at yourself, and you say, I fall short. Look at his resume. Youre sending out a resume for a hero, someone who can deliver a country from oppression. God looks at all the applicants, right? He looks over the whole land, and then Gideons resume comes into His hands. He says, Gideon, young Gideon, background: poorest in the poorest family; youngest in the weakest family. Military experience? None. Leadership experience? None. Level of faith? Weak. Outlook on life? Pessimistic. Current situation: Hiding in fear from the bully. God looks at that resume, and He says, This one looks good. This is the guy I choose to lead My people. Thats not logical, is it? Have you noticed how it seems like every time God taps somebody on the shoulder and says, I pick you, he or she says, Me? You have the wrong person! Im not this. Im not that. Im not old enough. I dont speak well. There are all these excuses. Did you notice that God never picked somebody, tapped him or her on the shoulder, and said, I choose you, and he or she said, About time. Thats right. Youre lucky to have me on Your side. Im the man. Im the woman for this job. It doesnt happen because it says, God opposes the proud, and He gives grace to the humble. So, if youre using the excuse, the second excuse, that you just dont have what it takes, I just dont have what it takes. Im not smart enough. Im not talented enough; Im not this, Im not that, God looks at you and says, Exactly. Exactly. You are the person Im looking for. If you are humble in spirit, willing to step out in faith, allow God to live through you and minister truth through you, touch lives through you, though you have these shortcomings, you are exactly who God is looking for. So, you cant use that excuse. God uses the weak; God uses the humble-not the proud, not the strong. Gideon, youre the man for the job. Well, Gideon shows us a little bit about himself. It says, The Lord answered, I will be with you… God doesnt accept that excuse, the excuse of self-doubt. He says, …you will strike down all the Midianites together. Gideon replied, If now I have found favor in Your eyes, give me a sign that it is really You talking to me. Apparently, the sign of the angels appearance is not good enough for Gideon. [Imagine] youre in your room tonight, and God sends an angel who appears in your room. The angel says, I have a mission from God, and God wants you to do this or that. Are you going to look at the angel and say, Yeah, I just need a sign. If I could just have a sign… The angel might say, Well, hey? Isnt this good enough? Physical manifestation, audible voice, directly from heaven, just left His presence… What do you say? Yeah, I just need a sign. Gideons going to need many signs before its through. Gideon is going to encounter more obstacles. Gideon is going to encounter the third reason-or the third excuse-you and I dont live up to our potential in just a little while. That is that others let me down. I cant do it because others let me down; because I got burned; because when I count on people; they dont follow through. They may not follow through, they may let you down, but what in the world does that have to do with you? What does that have to do with what God called you to do or say or be? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Others can give up, quit, and surrender, but you dont have to. You stay the course. Gideon assembles his army of 32,000 untrained men. They dont have a leader; [they] havent had a leader. They finally do get a leader, and hes untrained. Theyre under-manned, so there are over 100,000 highly-trained specialized Midianite warriors, and they have 32,000 guys they just pulled together. Gideon has to give a speech because God looked at those 32,000 guys, and He said, There are too many men. Youre already out-numbered 10 to 1, and God says, Too many. Gideon obeys God. He says, Give a speech. Those who are afraid can go home. Those who are not can stay and fight, so Gideon gives his best brave heart speech. Theyll take away our lives, but never our freedom. Hes like, Whos with me? Im sure you want to stay! Im sure youre not going to abandon God; youre not going to abandon me! If God can use me, God can use you! Im sure you understand. Youre tired of being bullied! Whos with me? Hes talking to this crowd, and finally he says, If youre afraid, you can go, though Im sure youre not. Twenty-two thousand people leave. Talk about being let down by others. Im counting on you a hundred percent to stay! and 22,000 people leave. More than two-thirds of the people leave. He is just let down. Do you just quit? Do you give up? Theres no way youre going to defeat the armies of the Midianites with 10,000 men. Gideons frustrated. God looks down and says, Still too many men. Yeah, thats what I was thinking, You know. Too many guys. God says, You can take them to the stream, and theyre going to drink. Youre going to separate them from those who get down like a dog and drink and those who get down on one knee and sip the water. Youre going to put them in a separate group. So he was like, Okay, you go over here. You have one knee down; you go over here. When its all done, there are 300 guys over here, and there are 9,700 over here. Gideon looks at that, and he says, You know Id like to have all 10,000, but Im going to lose 300. Thats not as bad as it could be. Its a lot better than losing 9,700 guys. God says, Yeah, send them home. Keep the 300. With the 300, I will deliver you from the hand of the Midianites. Gideon doesnt want to let them go. They dont want to go, but he sends them home. God, with 300 men, delivers the army of Israel from the Midianites. Read the story when you get home. Its a cool story. Gideon learned something before the battle. Look at Verse 15 of Chapter 7. He had just finished spying on the camp that night, the night before they were going to attack. It says, When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Do you see there? What did Gideon learn? Its not about you, Gideon. Its not about depending on others, Gideon. Its not about your circumstances because your circumstances are more dismal now than ever. Its about God. Its about allowing God to work in you and through you. Gideon learns that lesson. What a contrast between Gideon hiding in the winepress from the bullies to Gideon ready to have 300 men take on an entire highly-trained army of warriors. God doesnt buy his excuses. What if youre here today, and you say, You know, I havent lived the excuses. Ive obeyed what God has told me to do. Ive gone where Hes called me to go. Ive said what Hes called me to say. Im not seeing the results. Im not seeing everything that was promised. Im not seeing everything that was expected. What do I do? Do I call it quits? To answer that, I want us to turn to the Book of Genesis 12 (page 11 of pew Bibles). A man named Abram is living there. Hes been living in the same spot his family has for generations. Hes at the stage in life when you kick back a little bit, not work as hard and enjoy your remaining days; but God has other plans for Abram. In Verse 1, The Lord had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your fathers household… Leave everything youve known, everything that is familiar, everything that is comfortable to you, …and go to the land I will show you. Its one thing to leave everything youve known your whole life. Its another thing to do that at an old age, and its another thing to do that by going to another country you dont even know about. It would have been an interesting dinner table conversation that night with his wife, Im sure. …I will make you a great nation… Now, understand, he doesnt have a son. He doesnt have an heir with his wife. …I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Thats quite a promise: All peoples on earth, all people everywhere. Hes talking here about the future, isnt He? Because, obviously its going to take a long time if you have one guy. When He talks about nations, obviously its a promise thats going to outlive Abram by a long shot. All those nations will be blessed by his seed. He doesnt understand that what God is saying here is a prophesy. The Messiah will come from his lineage. The Messiah will be a direct descendent of Abraham. So Abraham left. He did what the Lord told him. He took Lot, his nephew, with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. How old was he? Seventy five, seventy five years old. I want you to remember that because you might have missed that when you heard this story before. You may not have caught what I am about to share with you. Maybe you did, and thats great, but I want you to turn to Chapter 17 (of Genesis, page 14). Abraham, this great man of faith, this man who is the first one who is saved by faith: He is the first one whose righteousness is imputed to because of his faith in Genesis Chapter 15. Hes not only the father of Israel; he is the father of faith. He is a key figure in the Scriptures. We pick up his story in Chapter 17, and were going to find out how much time has passed. When Abram was ninety-nine years old… How old? Ninety nine. How old was he the first time he received a call? Seventy five. Now, theyre not expecting yet, but they will be soon. When Abrahams son is born, hes 100 years old. You do the math. One hundred minus 75: how long did Abraham wait before God fulfilled his promise? A quarter of a century. You get upset when God doesnt answer your prayers in two weeks. You get upset when you dont see the results you desire in two months. Maybe Ive missed God. Maybe Gods not there. Maybe God doesnt understand! You become all frustrated and bent. Abraham receives the promise for 25 years; nothing happens! Its abnormal to come home to your wife when youre 90 years old and say, Any news? Is the strip blue? Are you pregnant? Thats just not normal. Its not normal to be walking around an older woman with a baby. She thought that was humorous. She said, Everybody is going to laugh at me. God has a sense of humor too. He says, His name will be Isaac. Laughter. You can be reminded of this incredible story. So God reiterates the promise to Abraham. Hes expanded it and says, Not only will you be the father of a nation, Im going to change your name to Abraham because youll be the father of many nations. Your decedents will be as the sand of the seashore. Because you have been faithful, Abraham, I will enlarge your responsibility. What do you do if youve done everything Gods called you to do, and youre not seeing the results youre expecting? You stay faithful. You persevere. You obey, and God will reward. Because its not about numbers; its not about earthy success; its about faithfulness and obedience. Thats how you become a hero for God. Dont let those excuses stand in your way. Self doubt-you wonder whether others will let you down, if they have let you down, or whatever your circumstances are. Some of you have been looking for signs like Gideon. Give me a sign. God gave you a sign. You say, God, give me another sign. He gives you another sign. Give me another sign. Its time to stop looking for signs, and its time to get busy. Lets pray together, and well receive communion: Father, we thank You this morning for an opportunity to study an important life. There have been times we have been like Gideon. There have been times weve needed sign after sign when Youve given enough signs. There have been times when weve used excuses of our circumstances. [Weve] looked around us, and weve said, No way. A leader doesnt do that. A leader doesnt allow circumstances to dictate our actions and attitudes. Youve called us to persevere regardless of the doubts we have. The truth is we all have self-doubts. We all have shortcomings, but You are able to use us in spite of those. The truth of the matter is others have let us down, and they will-just as we will let down others, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the call, the purposes, Youve placed on our lives. I pray that we together would strive to live up to the potential that Youve placed within us-the call and purposes that Youve put in our lives and our hearts. [I pray] that wed be like Abraham, that wed be faithful one decade, two decades, half of another decade. And even with no resolve, he did not abandon the mission, and he never gave up hope that You would answer. Help us to be people like Abraham. Now when we receive communion we think of our hero who faced the cross, who faced everything the world had to give-every temptation and more. [He] experienced the pain of the cross and not just the pain of the nails, the weight of His body against those nails, the struggle to breathe but the weight of sin that was placed upon Him. He did that willingly. In the Garden of Gethsemane, they came to arrest Him. It says, Knowing all these things were coming upon Him, He went forth, and He said to them, Whom do you seek? They said to Him, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. You went without a fight. You endured their trial; you endured the beating. You did not fight as they stripped You of Your robes. You did not pull back Your hand as it went to be nailed to the cross. You fought the battle, and You took on the cause of sin and death to redeem a fallen mankind. You are our hero, Lord Jesus. Because of what You have done, we want to lay down our lives for You, to be all that we can become for You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. As the ushers distribute the communion, just hold on to the elements until weve all received. Were going to use this time for quiet reflection, meditation, and prayer. Maybe there are some things that youre struggling with. Maybe you need to say, God, here are some excuses Ive had that have been holding me back. I need to lay those excuses down today. Maybe its a time to just thank Him for being your hero, for being your leader-your champion. Whatever that is, just spend a time of prayer and meditation, and then together well receive of the Lords supper. If youre here this morning, and youre a first-time visitor-new to our church-if youre a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ, you are welcome to participate. Youre one of us; youre part of our family, the Body of Christ. Im reading from 1 Corinthians 11:23 (page 1136 of pew Bibles). The Apostle Paul writes these words to the church. He says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way after supper, He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me. Remembering His broken body and His shed blood, lets receive together of the bread and of the cup this morning. Are we onboard? Are you going to commit yourself these next few weeks to reaching the potential, being a person who desires to live your whole life wholeheartedly for the things of God? Let me see your hands. All right, lets do it together. Go in His name. God bless you, and thank you for being here this morning.