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Judges 6:11-27
11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
[1] 6:14
[2] 6:19
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. I thought we would take a break from Acts. It's been too long since we've been in the Old Testament, and so I just at least have to get one Sunday in with the Old Testament. So Judges chapter 6, if you're not sure where that is, it's there in your worship guide or 246 in my bible.
Jeffrey Heine:And full disclosure, it for me, it is always it's already been a long day. A very long day. I get up early on Sunday mornings, very early, and it just kind of got off to a terrible start this morning. I stumbled down the steps, and I turned on the coffee maker and took a shower. Went back to the coffee maker to realize I didn't put the pot quite in right, and so I had, you know, 12 cups of coffee all over the counter, all over the floor.
Jeffrey Heine:So after I finished cleaning that up, I, my joints are just I'm old, you know. So they're starting to hurt and I thought I I just need to take something before church. And so, I took to Advil. They just happened to be Advil PMs. So, so I I took those and then I realized 15 minutes in what I'd done.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I thought I I gotta hurry to church while I could still drive. And, and so I I rushed upstairs. I just grabbed stuff out of the closet, and I got here to church, and I grabbed my new bargain hunt dress shirt. And I looked at it, and then it was the most wrinkled mess you had ever seen and I didn't want to just hear what my wife would say at that when she came. So I thought how do I iron this out?
Jeffrey Heine:I thought water will work and so I go to the bathroom down here and I'm just splashing water all over me and I just I drenched the shirt and I got it pretty decent. I tried to dry it off and it was a little too aggressive and I knocked off 2 of the buttons. So then I had to call up my wife and say, would you just bring me a shirt? She gave that to me right before the service and then I got up to preach. So it's been a long long day and and all the while this was happening, I kid you not, I've had the song, all I can do is win win win stuck in my head.
Jeffrey Heine:The the irony of that. So, have you ever had a day like that? Like just just one of those long hard days. If so, the comfort for me was that this message was tailor made for me and it's tailor made for you. Because the story we are about to read is about how God uses weak, incompetent, tired people.
Jeffrey Heine:And he uses them for his glory. We've been in acts for a while now and in the past few weeks, one of the things we have focused on is the mission that God has given his church. And how we've all been given a task, this task of being salt and light into a dying world and and it's an enormous task and this task far exceeds our abilities. And I'm not just talking about maybe an ability to go, you know, to the ends of the earth and be so missionary out there. I'm talking about just even living the normal Christian life exceeds our abilities.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, Jesus has commanded us to do things like, love our enemies. Bless those who persecute us, but if we were to be honest, we have a hard time loving our friends. We have a hard time sometimes loving our spouse who we're in a covenant relationship with, let alone loving our enemies. And so the task that God has given us is enormous. Let me ask you this, have you ever thought this?
Jeffrey Heine:Why does everything have to be so hard? Have you ever reached kind of a place like that in your life where you're just, why does everything have to be so hard? Why is everything a struggle? If that's you, my hope for you, this evening is that this message would be an encouragement to you. It was an encouragement to me as I preached it, this morning.
Jeffrey Heine:So Judges, chapter 6, We'll begin reading in verse 11. I'm not gonna read the entire text you have in front of you. We'll read I'm not sure how many verses. We'll see how this goes. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites.
Jeffrey Heine:And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor.' And Gideon said to him, 'Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not the Lord bring us out from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and he has given us into the hand of Midian. And the lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of the Midians. Do not I send you?
Jeffrey Heine:And he said to him, please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:If you would pray with me. Father, we pray that in this moment, you would wake up sleepy hearts and minds to receive what you would have for us, that we would hear your spirit calling to us. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. So this story here in Judges, it it comes at a time in Israel's history where they had finally settled into the promised land. They've endured 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and then they endured another 40 years wandering in the desert, and then a few more years crossing the Jordan and fighting all of these battles so they could settle in the land of Canaan, and now finally, after all of this time, they've arrived and they have peace. Finally, they have rest. They have that rest that they've dreamed about for so long.
Jeffrey Heine:They have they have the white house or the with the picket fence. They have the 2 car garage. They've got not just a job, but a career. And they're feeling pretty good about themselves. It's a good neighborhood, good school systems, it's everything that they ever wanted, But then something happens.
Jeffrey Heine:They they had those things, but God began to take them away because they were distracted by those things. Like we looked at, the last couple of weeks, God's greatest adversary is his gifts. And the people of Israel began to focus on his gifts and not the giver of those gifts. They began to be inert and not to fulfill their mission that God has called them to be. As salt and light into a dying and dark world.
Jeffrey Heine:And, and so they began to just worship what God had given them. They began to see God is optional. No longer necessary. I mean, why do you need God when, when you have everything already? So so God is no longer there sustaining bread.
Jeffrey Heine:He's more like he's more like the cherry on top of their dessert. I mean it's great if you want to add him, but it's not necessary. And so God, what he does to get their attention is he allows suffering. He allows chaos back into their life. And He causes the Midianites to come in and begin making raids against the Israelites.
Jeffrey Heine:Begin attacking them. And sure enough, it worked. Once again, they they woke up and they remembered the Lord. Like, what are we doing? Why have we rebelled against them?
Jeffrey Heine:Why have we forgotten God? And so they call out to him and God sends a judge, Gideon, to come and to rescue them. When you think of a judge, don't think of, you know, somebody with like a black robe and a gavel. This judge is just a name for a deliverer, a rescuer. And there is more written on Gideon in the book of Judges than on any other person.
Jeffrey Heine:And so when we study Gideon, what we see is a really good picture of how God delivers and also the type of person that God uses. And so the story that we read, it begins with the calling of Gideon and this angel of the Lord comes to Gideon and we read these words. Let me read them again in verse 11. Says, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebin that Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor.
Jeffrey Heine:Now this is this is somewhat comical actually because Gideon here, he's hiding from the Midianites. He's threshing wheat, but he's not doing it in the threshing floor because the threshing floor is way too open and visible. And so he does it at the wine press where he can remain hidden because he's a coward. He's scared of the Midianites, and now the angel, the Lord appears to him and says, oh, mighty man of valor. And I've I've gotta confess.
Jeffrey Heine:And when I first read those words, I thought, I think the angels being sarcastic. Oh mighty man of valor, you know, that's how I kinda picture the the tone and the inflection there, but I'm not sure if angels use sarcasm or not. What is far more likely is that the angels declaring to Gideon what he will be. Not who he is at this moment, but who by God's grace he will become. God does this over and over in scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:He looks at someone and He sees their potential that with His power, they will realize. Peter, he named rock. Not because Peter was a rock, but because God was going to make Peter a rock. And he names Gideon or says, mighty man of valor, not because he has any valor in him, but because God will make him that. You see when God calls us to a task, he he calls us to this task not because he's looking down from heaven and he thinks things like, wow, look at Joel, like, gosh, that guy, he's got so many talents and gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:I really need to find a way to use him. It's not how God works. God looks at us and he sees that we're absolute nobodies and then he gifts us. Equips us, calls us, uses us, and he makes us somebody. So God looks at us and He declares our strengths.
Jeffrey Heine:He declares our courage. He declares the love that we will have for one another. He puts these things in us. So just as in creation, when there was nothing, and God spoke, and there was light. God looks at us and we are nothing, and he speaks, and we become something.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, when the angels spoke to Gideon, he got a little angry. I don't know if you you caught that. He was a little ticked off. I mean, he was ticked off from one being called, I think, oh man of valor. I think that kind of rubbed him the wrong way because he knew he wasn't.
Jeffrey Heine:But what really ticked him off was when he heard this in verse 13. When the angel or when Gideon or sorry. When verse 12, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you, o mighty man of valor. It's those first words.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord is with you. The Lord is with us. The Lord is with me? That's what really sets off Gideon. And he responds by saying, please sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all of this happened to us?
Jeffrey Heine:And where then are all those wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and has given us into the hand of Midian. Gideon, he hears what this messenger says to him and then he looks around at his circumstances and he says, you've got to be kidding me. The Lord is with me? Are you you serious?
Jeffrey Heine:I live in a trailer in a horrible part of town, crime infested part of town. I work my hands to the bone for nothing. My life has been nothing but pain and hardship and here you go saying God is with me. I'm sick of this. You know I've heard all of those tales growing up about, oh, how God parted the Red Sea.
Jeffrey Heine:How God, he provided manna and food in the desert. I heard all that. You know what? It's nothing more than fairy tales. God has forsaken us.
Jeffrey Heine:If that God existed, he's forsaken us. He's angry here. Let me ask you, have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt this disconnect between what you read here in the bible and what your life actually is like? Like, I mean, I read about all these amazing things, and then then I look at my life and it's nothing but pain and hardship and struggle.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, some of you, you read things like, you know, David. He takes on Goliath and he wins, and and you can't even take on your 2 year old. Alright? Your 2 year old wins any of your battles of the will. So you're like, you you read how God parts the Red Sea and God's people walk through on dry land, and you're like, I can't even get a promotion.
Jeffrey Heine:It's just career roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. I mean, I was even thinking this week of something silly. I'm reading in Exodus how God rains down manna on his people. Delicious, wonderful manna in the middle of a desert. And here I am at my house, I have this great kitchen, yet a lot of my meals exist when I'm sitting in traffic, eating from a bag of Doritos, rushing kids off to soccer practice.
Jeffrey Heine:Like this is my life, what does it even have to do with scripture? Just this disconnect between us and we begin to wonder, is it true? I mean, I know I've heard these stories and people say they're true, but but really, when I look at my life, and I look at this God in the Bible, I have some doubts. And so he, Gideon, he poses these things through the angel of the Lord. Seriously?
Jeffrey Heine:Seriously? And so here's God's response in verse 14. And the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. I mean, once again, this is hilarious. God completely ignores him.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know if you noticed that. He raises all of these objections and God completely all these questions and God completely ignores his questions and just says go in this might of yours. You ever feel like that where you have a lot of questions you ask God in prayer? God, why are these things happening and God just ignores it? If so, you're in good company.
Jeffrey Heine:You're in good good company. And what God does though is, once again, he declares who Gideon will be. You're gonna be a man of valor. God looks at you even when you have all these questions in the midst of your hardship and He declares, but you will be this. And God doesn't lie.
Jeffrey Heine:There's not a doubt in His mind that He can make you strong, fearless, courageous, and use you to accomplish His purpose. Now at this point in Gideon's life, I honestly don't know if he's a believer. We we really don't know. We don't have any evidence that he's a believer. If he is 1, he's nominal at best.
Jeffrey Heine:We know later that, he grew up in a house where his family worshiped idols. His dad had a house full of idols. And so, if he did grow up hearing some of the stories of the bible, his dad didn't really practice it. And so maybe he had a little faith, maybe it was a mustard seed of faith, but at no time do you see Gideon as this is happening, seem excited that an angel the Lord is talking to him. Like, he he's not excited.
Jeffrey Heine:Is there's nowhere is he going. This is amazing. God with you on my side. I mean, nothing can stop. Think of all the good I can do.
Jeffrey Heine:It's non existent. So after God's non response to Gideon, Gideon, he takes the tactic of giving a personal objection. Look at verse 15. And he said to him, please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house.
Jeffrey Heine:Today, this objection would be something like, I I don't run-in the right circles for this. I don't have the right education or wealth for this. I don't have the connections that are necessary to pull something like this off. And God responds with these words in verse 16. And the Lord said to him, but I will be with you.
Jeffrey Heine:And once again, this is kind of a non response to his objections. He doesn't deal with any of those objections. He simply says, but I'll be with you. And it's the greatest response you could possibly hope for. Everything changes when God says he's with us.
Jeffrey Heine:When God says he will be with Gideon, what he's essentially saying is, Gideon, get over yourself. You're a non factor in this equation. What you do really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is if I am with you, and if I am with you, there is success. I'm gonna do all the heavy lifting.
Jeffrey Heine:A number of years ago, I I took my first mission trip, overseas mission trip. I went to Jamaica. I know, suffering for Jesus. What you realize is a lot of those trips like the Bahamas, you know, Jamaica, Belize, things like that, you know, there's the tourist areas and then there's the actual, real country. And so we went to the real country of Jamaica.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I was with the college ministry, the University of Georgia, and we were working in the slums of, some Jamaican village. And and we're there and decided to sneak out one night from the place that we were staying in and, and go to the the closest village. And, so one of my friends, Andy and I, we we snuck out and we began to walk out there. Now now, Andy, was a cheerleader for the University of Georgia. And what that means is, he had more muscles in his ears than I had in my body.
Jeffrey Heine:Like he he was just, he was incredibly massive and and very fit. And, and so we went out together and we could hear music just thumping, from one of the streets, but we we didn't know where and so we're walking in the village and we don't see a soul. So we're walking up and down these streets and we literally do not see a single person. We we don't know what in the world happened, but we keep hearing the music and so finally we go around a corner to where we think it's happening and it it was like one of those movie scenes or a a nightmare that you might have because, when we round the corner, there's literally about 200 people packed in the streets, all dancing to music and they see us and the music stops. It just stops and it's like every eye just turned and looked at us.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we stopped for a moment and like, hey, be cool. Like just saying, you know, we're just you're just walking trying to be cool, but inwardly I know that I'm about to die. Like I'm just this is it. Because we're in the middle of nowhere and, and so we walk to the middle of all of them. And at this point, we're we're surrounded by by 200 Jamaicans here.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? And, and I didn't know what to do. And my friend, Andy, he went and he just grabbed the kid. Grabbed the kid and pulled him to him. I was like, what are you doing?
Jeffrey Heine:Like And he told the kid, be still. Tight. The kid got tight and he tossed the kid up and he balanced him. And then he started doing this. Just just kinda moving the kid around while balancing him.
Jeffrey Heine:And I mean, everybody's just looking at him then all of a sudden, applause. Everybody, they cheered, then they started doing, little hamstrings down the street. It became this like carnival atmosphere at this point and the music started back and I'm just kind of over here like a bump on the log. Like nothing to contribute, nothing to do. I had no part, no variable of in the equation.
Jeffrey Heine:It completely depended. The success of this completely depended on my friend being there. God's saying, yeah. That's that's kinda what I do. Like, you're a non factor.
Jeffrey Heine:The success of it all just depends if I'm with you or not. I do all the heavy lifting. On Sundays, before the service starts, a lot of times, some local pastors, we text one another. We, typically text some kind of encouragement. And often, what we text is, hey, remember today, you're not as important as you think you are.
Jeffrey Heine:You're not as important as you think you are. It's a lesson we all need to hear. The Lord's first words to Gideon in verse 12 were, the Lord is with you. And now, in the verses we just read, he says, and the Lord will be with you. So first is the Lord is with you, and now it's this promise, and the Lord will be with you.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, when I first studied this passage a number of years ago, I decided to look up every occurrence in the old testament, in which we have God saying, I am with you or I will be with you. I just got some new bible software. Just kinda wanted to try it out. And, and so you can you can look up that those exact words, I am with you or I will be with you or any kind of variation of those words. And I was expecting to get hundreds of results.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, doesn't it seem like something God would say all the time? Hey, I'm with you. I will be with you. No. And it didn't occur that often.
Jeffrey Heine:I was surprised. There's only 21 times in the old testament that you find those words or any variation of them. I am with you or I will be with you. So, I will be with you, is used 9 times. God uses those words to declare things, like to Isaac.
Jeffrey Heine:When Isaac is wondering where he should go when a famine hits. Like, where should I go? And God responds in Genesis 26, I will be with you. Later he responds to Jacob when Jacob is scared about meeting his brother Esau. He says in Genesis 31, I will be with you.
Jeffrey Heine:When Moses is to go and to meet with pharaoh and to deliver God's people and he's scared, God says, I will be with you. When Solomon is given this task of, of establishing a house for David, yet he just sinned big time. And so he's super scared at this point. God tells him it's okay. I will be with you.
Jeffrey Heine:And so when you look at those 9 occurrences, every one of them with with one possible possible exception. God says, I will be with you to people he has given a task. He gives you a task, and then he says, I will be with you. And it's a task that seems like it's gonna have insurmountable obstacles in front of it. And the reason he says, he will be with us, is because the only thing that matters when it comes to the success of this task or mission is whether He's with you or not.
Jeffrey Heine:You're a non factor. So what about the I am with you? Those are the I will be with you's, but the I am with you's, that occurs 12 times in the old testament. And what I want us to do is read through all 12 of those times. I mean, what else are we gonna do?
Jeffrey Heine:You're you're here. We might as well. I I wanna just I don't wanna just tell you what they mean. I I want to show you. I want to show you.
Jeffrey Heine:So and hopefully, you will see a pattern as we go through every one of these. What does God mean? What is he trying to accomplish when he tells us, I am with you? So the first occurrence comes in Genesis 26. In Isaiah, he's he's digging wells and he digs a well and somebody steals it from him.
Jeffrey Heine:He digs another well, somebody steals it from him. I mean he just keeps digging wells and people keep stealing from him. He's like, God I thought you had given me this land. I thought this was my land. The promised land.
Jeffrey Heine:What am I supposed to do? And we read that the Lord appeared to him that same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not for I am with you and I will bless you. 2nd time we have this phrase, I am with you, is in Genesis 28. So when Jacob is scared to death from Esau, about Esau because, well, I mean, he's just cheated Esau out of a birthright and out of a blessing and, well, Jacob's a swindler.
Jeffrey Heine:And up to this point in his life, he's never even prayed. Alright? Yet, God finally appears to him in a dream and says, behold, I am with you, And I will keep you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until what I till I have done what I promised. 3rd occurrence. It's in Isaiah 41.
Jeffrey Heine:Here we have Babylon is right outside of Israel and Babylon is knocking on the door about to Israel. So the Lord raises up Isaiah to speak. And Isaiah says these words, you are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Fear not for I am with you.
Jeffrey Heine:Be not dismayed for I am your God and I will strengthen you and I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. 4th occurrence comes just 2 chapters later in Isaiah 43, in which he says these words, fear not for I am with you. The 5th and the 6th occurrence of these comes from Jeremiah chapter 1. When God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet and Jeremiah scared out of his mind because he's just a young boy.
Jeffrey Heine:He's an experienced and he knows that people are going to reject him. And so God says these words, do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you. And then the next time in verse 19, he says this. He goes, yes. These people are gonna fight against you, but they will not prevail against you for I am with you, declares the Lord to deliver you.
Jeffrey Heine:7th occurrence. God has to remind Jeremiah of the same thing. And so in chapter 15, he says these things. He says, I will make to you I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze. They'll fight against you, but they won't prevail, for I am with you to save and to deliver you.
Jeffrey Heine:The 8th occurrence comes in Jeremiah 30. Here Israel's been taken away into captivity, And so they're obviously frightened. They felt abandoned by God. God says these words through the prophet Jeremiah. He says, for I am with you to save you, declares the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:The 9th occurrence comes in Jeremiah 42. And we read these words, do not fear Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear the king, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you. The 10th occurrence comes in Jeremiah 46, fear not, oh Jacob my servant, declares the Lord, for I am with you. The 11th occurrence occurs in Haggai.
Jeffrey Heine:This is many years later when the Israelites, they're returning from exile, and, and they're finding their homeland in shambles. And yet God has given them this mission to rebuild the temple, but they don't have the resources. They still get keep getting raided. Things are very difficult. And so he speaks through Haggai, and we read these words in Haggai chapter 1.
Jeffrey Heine:Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. The final one is the next chapter in Haggai 2, in which he encourages the people to finish the task of building the temple. And he says, be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay. So why go through all 12, and that's it? That's all you'll find in the old testament of these times in which God says, I will I am with you. It's because I wanted you to see a pattern there, and I I hope you saw the pattern. Every one of those times was in the context of people being scared, fearful, thinking they were about to perish, because they were given a task that seemed beyond them.
Jeffrey Heine:And each time, God comes up to them and says, it's okay, because I will be with you. The success of everything just depends on this one thing, my presence. There's no reason to be anxious. There's no reason to be fearful, for I will be with you. God promises to be present with us in fearful times.
Jeffrey Heine:Even when we look around and we see no evidence of that, God tells us that, yes, I'm indeed walking with you and there's no reason to be scared for I'm with you. Now in light of all of this, I want us to go to Jesus' words that we've been looking at the past few weeks. His great commission in Matthew 28. Those last words before Jesus ascends and he says, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go.
Jeffrey Heine:Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. If it's the same pattern of a people being fearful, because they've been given this enormous task, and they think there is no way I can do this. God says, it's not about you.
Jeffrey Heine:I am with you. I am with you. It's living out the Christian life when we think it's beyond us or impossible. Not just to go and make disciples, but to even obey Christ and then God comes along and says, hey, it's not up to you. My presence is what determines the success of this mission.
Jeffrey Heine:Hear me, God, and when he gave us this commission, he he did not promise us that it would be easy. He didn't say that there would not be challenges. Of course, there would be challenges. The only thing he has promised us is his presence. And I hope you noticed the the the one difference between what we hear Jesus say and all those other 12 times we hear in the old testament.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus doesn't just tell us, I will be with you or I am with you. It says, I am with you always to the end. Did you get that? You don't find that in the old covenant, in the old testament that I I'm with you always. He's just with them, but here as a new covenant person, as a child of God, God looks at us and He says, I am with you always to the end.
Jeffrey Heine:There is never anything that will come into your life in which I am not with you, God will not abandon His children. We know that because we look at the cross in which Jesus was abandoned for us, so that we would never be abandoned. But now He has given us His spirit, and He is indeed with us. And so, yes, the task in front of us is great. It's extraordinary.
Jeffrey Heine:But we never have to worry about being left alone. No fear can separate us from God. No anxiety can separate us from God. No sin can separate us from God. Paul says that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:He's with us, and that's really all we need. If you would pray with me. Father, I still can't get over the words that you are with us always to the end. That there is nothing that we can do to be separated from you. No sin in the past.
Jeffrey Heine:No sin in the future. All those things have been dealt with by the blood of Jesus, and you have called us your child, and you do not abandon your family. Thank you for being present with us. And yes, the task you have given us is huge, with enormous challenges. To go into the world and to make disciples and to teach them to obey all that you have commanded us.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not easy, but the success of it does not depend on us. It depends on you being with us, and you have promised us that. So I pray we would go in that confidence, and we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.