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Female Announcer: Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

Jack Graham: God uses ordinary people like you and me. The lowest of the low, the selfless, but surrendered people. The people that are available to God.

Female Announcer: On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can do great things through the power of God. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, the person God uses.

Jack Graham: It's now 200 years after the walls of Jericho have fallen. And the country is in full compromise because they didn't get rid of the false deities and the idols and the altars of Baal and other false deities, Canaanite gods, and so on.

That's the way it is with sin. You can't compromise with sin. You can't settle with sin because soon sin will settle in you. And sin must be dealt with radically, removed from our lives, because compromise is a killer. And this compromise brought decay and decadence and disobedience to Israel.

God used the Midianites in this case. Mean, dirty Midianites to be the assaulters who would raid Israel and the people of Israel and steal their crops and destroy their families. These Midianites were vicious people.

The children of Israel cried out in their captivity, in their misery. And God in his love and his grace heard their cry. Just as he heard their cry in Egypt and raised up Moses. He heard their cry now in the land of promise and raised up this judge, Gideon.

When we meet Gideon, he is broken, he is beaten down, he is afraid, he is fearful, he is eking out a living with a stick in a hole, a wine press, just threshing wheat. Normally you would thresh wheat in the wide open where the wind could blow the chaff, but he's down in a hole. He's so low. He's down in a hole hiding and beating this wheat and the chaff is blowing in his face for fear of his own life.

And yet God broke through. God intervened. And in chapter 6, we meet this man for the first time, verse 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 wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor."

At this point, Gideon looks over his shoulder to see who he's talking to because he figures it can't be him. He's anything but a mighty man of valor. He he's a loser. He's the least of the least by his own admission.

And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where all 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?"

And the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you?" And he said, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, 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."

God, the angel of the Lord, appears to Gideon. "The Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor." And Gideon begins to argue with the Lord. "Why is all of this happened to us? If you say God is with us, why are we living like this? Why are we so beaten down? Why are we so broken?

"And what about all those miracles that our fathers talked about? Where are the miracles?" Now now get this. He's asking, where are the miracles and an angel of God is standing right in front of him. He's losing it. And he wonders, where is God?

And I think a lot of people wonder, where is God? Why is God not more exciting? Why doesn't God do what he used to do as if God were dead or maybe God's just older now and he can't do the things he used to do. He's in retirement mode.

No, God is the same as always. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's still a God of might and miracles. I'm excited about him every day. But Gideon did exactly what people do today. They start blaming God for their troubles.

"Why is all this happened to us? Why has God allowed this to happen?" God just ignores Gideon's objections and says to him, "Now is the time, verse 14, go in this might of yours and save Israel."

He's saying, "Gideon, I'm not here to discuss the philosophy of suffering and evil. Why bad things happen to good people or bad things happen to bad people? That's not what I'm here to talk about. You go. I'm here to call you to go and get something done in my name. You can change this situation in my name, in my power, if you will follow me. Go in my name."

Gideon then says, "But wait a minute, Lord, I'm just a nothing. I'm the least of the least. I'm a nobody. I'm I'm the I'm like the runt of the litter of my own family."

And that brings me to the first characteristic of the kind of person that God uses. God uses ordinary people who are dependent upon him. It's a simple but profound thought that God uses and chooses those people not because they're the most talented or they're the superheroes. He Gideon wasn't a hero, he was more like a zero.

But not just the Phi Beta Kappas and the brightest or the most beautiful, the most handsome man, the captain of the football team, the most beautiful girl, head cheerleader. God may use people like that if they're dependent upon him, but for the most part, God doesn't use the super talented, the super wealthy.

God uses ordinary people like you and me, the lowest of the low. Not those who think lowly of themselves, but those who don't think of themselves, the selfless, but surrendered people. The the the people that are available to God.

God uses unexpected people in unusual places. Why does he do this? So that God gets the glory. So that God gets all the praise. If God just used all the talented people, then people would say, "Hey, well done." But when God uses people like us, then when the victory comes, we know it's his victory and not our own.

God said, "You mighty man of valor." A mighty man of valor was a brave warrior in the face of courage and conflict. He was not. But you see, God saw Gideon and he sees you not for who you are, but for what you can become.

When Jesus called Simon Peter, calling to fish for men, he gave him a new name, Rock, Rocky. Everyone around him knew Peter was not solid, he was not rock-like, he was vacillating and weak and and stumbling around. But Jesus saw the promise in this man and he gave a prophetic word about who he was and what he would become.

Gideon says, "Who am I?" That's not the question. It's not who am I, it's not about me. The question is, who is God? And if you have a great God, he will use you in a great way for his glory. He sees your promise. He sees your potential. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called.

And his commandments are his enablements to do what he calls us to do. God says, "I will be with you. I am with you." And that's all that matters.

Really, the key to this entire passage, the key to the the point that I'm making, the kind of person that God uses is seen in chapter 6 and verse 34. Mark it. But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and clothed Gideon. The Spirit of the Lord came within him and wore Gideon like a suit of clothes.

You say, "God can't use me. You're like Gideon, I'm just I'm just a little old nothing. I'm just I'm not anything. I just serve God in my poor little old weak way." Well, cut it out. Quit serving God in your poor little old weak way and start serving God in the power of his spirit, in his strong and mighty way. So God filled his man with his spirit. And he began serving God and taking a stand in small ways, first in his own home and then on the battlefield.

Female Announcer: You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The Person God Uses. We are excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It's our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint. You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content. To join, start a new text conversation by texting the word connect to 59789. Again, text connect to 59789.

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Jack Graham: God uses people who are faithful in small things. Jesus said in Luke chapter 16 and verse 10, "He that is faithful in that which is least shall be faithful also in that which is much." You do right what's right in front of you, even if it's a seemingly small thing. You take care of business at home.

Now, Gideon was the son of an idolater. His father, who was a Jew, was a compromised Jew. He had erected altars to Baal. The Baal gods were among the worst. There were poles and Asherah, which which signaled the place to worship Baal, these altars. And Gideon grew up in a home where Baal was worshiped.

And God said, "Before we go to battle, I want you to start in your own home, and I want you to go tear that altar down." Now that was a scary thing to do because to defy your father was was worthy of death. And all the people in the community had joined in the idolatry, and to tear down one of these altars of so-called worship was that put that puts you in people's target zone. And so Gideon obeyed God.

It says that uh this is verse 25, that night the Lord said to him, "Take your father's bull." Notice what he did. "And the second bull seven years old, got the got the best animals, pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, cut down the Asherah, that pole that is beside it, calling people to worship, and build an altar to the Lord your God." In other words, tear down the altar of Baal and build there an altar to the one true God.

The last verse of that section, verse 27, says that he was afraid of his family and of the men in the town to do it by day, so he did it by night. His faith is not fully formed, but at least he started with the faith that he had. He didn't do it in the broad daylight. But he wailed on that altar of Baal at night and tore it down.

The men of the city were so angry, they demanded his death, but his father defended him and said, they said, "You know, he tore down the altar of Baal." And his father said, "Okay, well if Baal's God, let Baal contend with him. We don't have to kill him. If if Baal exists, let Baal deal with him." And Gideon began to be known as the contender with Baal, Jerubbaal. That's where he got his name.

But the fact is that God uses ordinary things, small things. He started with his own home. You know, isn't it interesting that sometimes, really most of the time, our own families are the hardest for us to reach, especially if they're compromised like Gideon's family. They don't believe in God. But you you just simply must start loving your family and living for Christ so that they can know Jesus too. And take a stand in your own family. Compromise never works. Compromise never works.

It may work in politics, but not in your home, not in your family, not in your faith. Take a stand. You're never going to reach people. Sometimes we have the idea that we can reach people better if we, you know, kind of outworld the world. Be like the world. Do the same things my friends do.

No, stand up, stand out. Take a stand for God. Don't be a compromiser. Tear down the idols. Every stronghold must be torn down. Every high place must be torn down. The high places were where these altars were built. Tear it down.

So after he deals with his own family, God told him to choose an army, and this brings us to the third point, God uses people who are obedient to him. And Gideon to his credit was able to put together an army of 32,000 men. And verses 1 through 3 of chapter 7 tells us what happened next. Then Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them. And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me saying, my own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim to the ears of the people saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead."

God says, "As it stands today, you've got 32,000. That's too many, because at this point if there was a fight, when the battle is is on and and Israel wins, then Israel will just say, 'Great fight. Look what we did.'" "So we're going to thin the ranks, Gideon. And what we're going to do is to tell all the people that are afraid to go home."

I don't know what Gideon was expecting, but I'm sure he wasn't expecting a stampede when 22,000 left. And God thinned the ranks of his army down to just 10,000, because, you know, God can't really use fearful people. People who are unwilling to stand for what is right, who are afraid for whatever reason, afraid of the culture, afraid of the media, afraid of their family, afraid of their friends, what others are going to say, who are ashamed of the gospel. God can't use people like that.

Your fear is infectious. You let fearful people hang around together and and uh and negative people and critical people. You don't believe in the in the cause. It just tears the whole thing down. And so God said, "You just tell everybody who's afraid, go home." And you know what? That's a message for today. Maybe we need to thin the ranks.

You know, Jesus said, "I wish that you were hot or cold. I wish you were on fire for me or just totally cold and out of it, but don't be lukewarm." He said, "Because you're lukewarm, I'll spew you out of your my mouth. You make me sick." We don't need more lukewarm, bench-warming, pew-sitting, sit-soak-and-sour kind of people. If you're afraid, you don't want to be in the battle, go home. Just go home.

That's what all these people did. Jesus thinned the ranks. Remember when he fed the 5,000, there was a multitude. There was a free lunch, everybody loved it, everybody was following Jesus. And then he started giving the demands of discipleship and picking up the cross and how hard it was going to be, to take a stand. People left. That's what these guys did. He got it was going to get difficult. They left.

It's going to get difficult for you. Tragedy and struggles and battles make real faith stronger. Maybe you ought to get rid of the faith that you so easily lose and get a real faith in Jesus Christ, because faith will make you courageous and strong in the day of trial. The faith that can't be tested is the faith that can't be trusted.

So he said, "Just go home." And then God said, "You still got too many." "What?" He said, "Yes." And he said, "Give them this test." And here's what God told them to do. We won't read the text for the sake of time. Let me tell you what happened. He said, do a simple test, it's a secret test. Well, nobody's watching, it's a nobody knows they're being tested. Have you ever noticed how God measures us when we don't realize it? He marks us whether we know it or not, in the secret place, in the small place.

So there were a certain group of among the soldiers who went down on all fours like a dog and stuck their snout right in the water and began to lap like a dog. They were more concerned about their comfort and themselves and careless about the battle. They turned their back on the battle and on the enemy and just stuck their face in the water.

There was another group who got down like this with their sword bearing and they cupped the water and like this and they were alert, they were alive, they were ready, they stayed ready. And God said, "That's your army." Guess how many? 300. 450 to 1 odds. Impossible.

And God said, "Here's how we're going to win." And he gave them a battle strategy. He said, "Gideon, give everybody a clay pot, a torch for the pot like a lamp and a trumpet. And get in companies of 100, 100, 100. And when you hear the word shouted for the sword of the Lord and for Gideon, then tell everybody to crack their pot, to light and lift their torch and to blow their trumpet." "Really? That's your plan?"

And they obeyed God. And when in the middle of the night, those pots started breaking and those lights started streaming and those trumpets started blaring, and those 300, that magnificent minority, began to shout for the sword of the Lord and Gideon, those Midianites in the middle of the night, they started turning on each other, pandemonium broke loose, they're stabbing each other, they're killing each other, they're running away. And the children of Israel, they're just standing by and say, "Hey, tell us when you're dead. We'll come in and clean up." And God gave them a great victory that day.

For the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. They overcame the insurmountable odds. Not because, you know, sometimes we look at the 300 and and I even kind of said it this morning in the first service, "These are the seals, these are the elites, these are, you know, these are the the the Delta Force." Not really. They were just 300 guys who weren't afraid and who were alert to the battle, who let God use them because they were obedient to him.

God is looking for people like that. God's not waiting on our clever strategies or our plans or our money or our resources. The way we're going to win the battle is through prayer, the word of God, blowing the trumpet of faith, and letting God use us in the power of his spirit.

Female Announcer: You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The Person God Uses. We want to remind you about a powerful resource Dr. Jack Graham has created to help strengthen your prayer life. It's his book, Ask. This practical and encouraging book explores Jesus's invitation to ask, seek, and knock, helping you discover that prayer is not about saying the right words, but about growing closer to your heavenly Father through faith-filled relationship.

When you give today to support the outreach of PowerPoint Ministries, you'll help share biblical truth and the life-changing hope of Jesus with people around the world through broadcasts, podcasts, and digital ministry. Text July to 59789 to give your gift of $10 or more. Again, text July to 59789. So that everyone has a chance to receive this helpful resource, please limit one per household.

We're excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It's our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint. You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content. To join, start a new text conversation by texting connect to 59789. Again, text connect to 59789.

Jack Graham: Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? God chooses and uses ordinary people who are dependent upon him to make a difference in the world. He doesn't automatically choose people who are the most talented or the most intellectually astute, or the most handsome, or the most beautiful, or well-connected, or wealthy. He uses ordinary people who are surrendered to him and full of his spirit. People like you and me. So when he uses us, he gets all the glory and all the praise.

God called Gideon a mighty man of valor, even though he was anything but that in the eyes of men. But God saw Gideon and God sees you not for who you are, but for what you can become as you give your life to follow him. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. And as you trust and wait on him, he will give you the gifts and the skills you need by his spirit to do everything he has called you to do, whether it is in your family or in your workplace, in your community and in your church.

Female Announcer: And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Ask. Just text July to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about why God promises to forgive you when you turn back to him. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.