Greg Laurie - What to Do When the Odds Are Against You (11/07/2017)
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Pastor Greg Laurie shares the story of Gideon from Judges 6, showing how God calls ordinary, fearful people to become world changers. When the odds are against us, God sees potential where we see weakness, uses the humble and faithful in small things, and turns impossible situations around through obedience and His power.
Opening Prayer of Gratitude and Adoption
Father, we are so thankful that while we are no longer a slave to fear, we are children of God. And we became that way through adoption because we believed in and received Jesus into our lives. As your word says, for as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become sons and daughters of God. So as your children, we come to you, our Father in heaven, today. Knowing that you hear our prayer, and knowing that you also want to speak to your kids, so do so, we would ask now, as we open your word. It's alive. It's powerful. And we pray that it will speak to us now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You can all be seated. Good to see everybody today.
Series Introduction: World Changers
We're in our series that we're calling World Changers. It's based in Hebrews 11, but we're not going to go to that text today because the reference to the World Changer we're going to look at is just a part of a verse that mentions Him by name. So we're going to go to the story of His life in Judges chapter 6. So go there now. Judges chapter 6. If you've never heard of that book before, it's in the Old Testament. Judges. And make your way over there.
Sermon Title and Personal Question
And the title of my message is, What to Do When the Odds Are Against You. Does that sound like a good sermon title? Does anyone have the odds against them right now? You're facing a challenge, a difficulty. Okay. This message is for you. Okay.
Let me start with a question. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you like what you see? Now the narcissist out there is saying, Yes. I like it very much. But then others don't like what they see, especially a magnifying mirror. Those things are almost traumatizing. You know what I'm saying? You see all the blemishes and all the problems and all the flaws. Someone once said, quote, Mirrors don't lie. Lucky for you, they can't laugh either. Yeah. That's true. That would be bad to have your mirror laugh at you.
I don't know what you see when you look in the mirror. But let me tell you what God sees when He looks at you. Because God sees you maybe differently than you see yourself. For instance, you probably see weakness when you look at yourself. God sees potential. You see what you are. God sees what you can be. You see your past. God sees your future. You see a lump of Clay. God sees a beautiful sculpture. You see a blank canvas. God sees a Van Gogh. You see a lump of coal. God sees a perfectly cut diamond. You see a vacillating, unsure Simon. God sees a rock-like Apostle Peter. We see a Saul of Tarsus hunting young Christians and murdering them. God sees a mighty Apostle Paul preaching the gospel.
Gideon's Call as a World Changer
I bring that up because now we are going to look at Gideon who is a world changer. And when the Lord came to him, the greeting was, Hey, you mighty man of faith. The Lord is with you. And if there is anything Gideon was not in that moment, it was a mighty man of faith. But that is because God saw what he would become, not what he was.
You know, frankly, I am a little surprised Gideon made it into the hall of faith. Because he had, well, a challenging beginning and not the greatest end. But what I find fascinating about Hebrews 11, which tells us about the great men and women who stepped out in faith that I call world changers, is that God never mentions their sins. He mentions their accomplishments. He talks about what they did through their faith. But he never brings up their shortcomings or sins. I find that fascinating.
So Gideon, he is like the representative of all the ordinary people out there. Maybe that describes you. You have never been extraordinary at anything. You have been very ordinary. You were never the best student. You were never the most talented musician. You were never the homecoming queen or the president of the class. You were always sort of on the bottom of the ladder. In fact, when they picked teams for baseball, you know, you were the last one picked. That was me, by the way. I mean, I was literally the last one picked. And that is so humiliating. Everyone is getting picked and you are waiting to get picked. And finally, it is like me and a three-legged dog, right? And they picked the dog. And then someone says, fine, we will take Lori. And I am like, okay. They said, Lori, we want you to be first base. I get to play first base? No, we want you to be actually the first base. We will slide into you with our cleats and, you know, get you good when we come in. So that was me growing up. Never an extraordinary person.
Listen, there is hope for people that didn't make People Magazine's most beautiful people. If there was a most ordinary people issue, you might be in that one. And God goes out of His way to take ordinary people to do extraordinary things through. Why? Because when it happens, God gets the glory. They dare not take it for themselves because they know themselves better than anybody else does. And God used Gideon to change His world.
The Chaotic Time of the Judges
And by the way, His world was messed up big time. Things are really spiritually and morally upside down in the book of Judges. In fact, whenever things are spiritually out of whack, they will be morally out of whack and they will be culturally out of whack as well. So here is a good verse to describe how things got the way that they were. Judges 17:6 says that Israel had no king and everyone did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes. Let me update that. Everyone just kind of did their own thing. Everyone sort of had their own truth. Not unlike today, frankly. Where someone will say, well, you know, that's your truth. That's not my truth. And I live by my own truth and my own values and my own rules. Because my God that I believe in would never have me do this and so. And they just sort of make it up as they go.
So things were chaotic. It was a little bit like the Wild West. So the Lord raised up 13 judges to rule over Israel. 12 of them were men. One of them was a woman. Now when you think of a judge, I don't want you to think of like Supreme Court judges running around in long black robes. Actually, these are more like warriors. They were like old time sheriffs. Think Dodge City and think Wyatt Earp. You know, when there was no law in town. So they would call in the marshal or call in or hire a lawman to get things under control.
So God would raise these judges up to sort of tame the unruly behavior of Israel. And we are looking at Gideon. Now kind of to pick this up chronologically, our last message in our World Changers series, we were looking at Joshua. And Joshua succeeded Moses. God used Moses to deliver the Israelites out of the bondage of Pharaoh, take them through the wilderness. He got right to the brink of the promised land, but was not allowed to enter in. Then God raised up Joshua to carry the people into the land. And they had a series of conquest, including the fall of the massive Canaanite city of Jericho.
At this point now, Joshua has died. And this just reminds us that God raises up world changers for every generation. So one generation had Moses. Another had Joshua. Now this generation was going to have Gideon. It was the year 1256 B.C. 200 years have passed since Israel marched on Jericho. And they saw the walls fall. But here was the problem. God told the Israelites to go into the land, Canaan's land, and drive out the inhabitants. Drive out the Amorites, the Hittites, the Ammonites, the Jebusites, the Parasites. All the sites. Drive them out. And they obeyed partially. They didn't finish the job. So it came back to haunt them now 200 years later. And we find that the Canaanites are back in power, oppressing the people of Israel.
Partial Obedience and Its Consequences
And this is something that can happen to Christians. You know, you commit your life to Christ. You say, Lord, come into my life. Forgive me of all of my sin. And you can have the key to every lock. You can have access to every room except this closet here and that room over there. I like to keep skeletons in this closet. And I like to keep secrets in that room. So you just stay out of those rooms and you can have the rest. Listen, if He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all. Jesus wants the key to every lock in your life. He wants every area of your life.
You say, well, Lord, you can rule in my life but leave my finances alone. Those belong to me. Lord, you can have my life but leave my marriage alone. Or leave my singleness alone. Or leave my career alone. That's my thing, Lord. But you can have this. .. No, no. The Lord says, I want it all. And then when we don't give it over to Him, things that were slightly problematic can become big problems later.
Let's say you have some unruly tree uprooting all of your plants. And so you decide to cut it down. But instead of properly uprooting it, you just chop it off. And it's only a matter of time until that stump begins to bud again and problems continue on. And you've got to pull it all out. And the problem was they didn't deal with this. So now it's coming back to haunt them.
And here come the Midianites. And why did this happen? Well, we're told in verse 1, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord handed them over to the Midianites. So this was a result of their disobedience. Israel turned from God. Israel worshipped false gods, including Baal. And the Lord said, alright, I'm going to let the Midianites rule over you.
And these Midianites, by the way, were the first to domesticate the camel. Camels are weird looking animals. Don't you think? Someone once said, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Right? So you know, camels, they're just bizarre looking. But the amazing thing, these animals can run quite fast. They can go days without water. And they also spit. I know this from experience. Because when you go to Israel, you know, you can you can get on a camel. It's free to get on the camel. It costs you money to get off the camel. See? So you get up there and you get your picture taken. And your token Israel picture. I'm on a camel. Hi! You know. And then you have to pay in shekels to get off. And I've gone up to them and and they spit right at it. Crazy looking things.
So imagine, you're the Israelites and here come the oppressive Midianites. Hundreds of thousands of people in their military with their shields and their swords and their Spears riding camels. Man, it'd be like something out of Star Wars or something. Scary. So these people are living in fear. And so they call on God. And that's a good thing to do. So if you're in crisis, call on God. I don't care if it's a crisis you created for yourself. Call on God. There's no shame in that.
You say, well, I don't know. It's Christianity is for weak people. It's, you know, it's, Christianity is a crutch. Christianity is not a crutch. It's a whole hospital. And you need it. And I do too. And you're a fool if you don't think you do. So maybe things are going well for you. Maybe things are not going so well. But whatever it is, it's caused you to realize you need God. Okay, good. Call on God.
And that's what Israel did. They called out to the Lord. And God says in Jeremiah 33:3, Call to me and I will answer you. I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. So the Lord's going to answer their prayer. And you know how he does it? He sends Gideon, the most unlikely candidate ever, to get them out of the mess they were in.
Gideon's Encounter with the Angel
As our story begins, we find Gideon trying to prepare the little wheat he had hiding behind the walls of a small wine press. But he was like the rest of Israel. Hungry, hurting, and humiliated. But God's going to turn him into a world changer.
So we're introduced to him in Judges 6 starting in verse 12. I'm reading from the New Living Translation, by the way. And the angel of the Lord appeared and said to him, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you. Gideon said, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us and why has all of this happened to us, where are all the miracles which our fathers told us about saying, Did not the Lord bring us from Egypt? And now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? Stop there.
Now it's interesting. Here comes the Lord calling on Gideon. And he starts in with the complaints. Well, why has this happened to us? You know, we remember hearing about all these miracles you used to do. Where have you been lately? I heard the story of a mother that was telling Bible stories to her little daughter. You know, the stories of Joshua and Daniel in the lion's den and those great stories of heroism. And the little girl turned to her mom and said, Mommy, you know, God was more exciting back then.
Maybe you felt that way. You hear about what God used to do. What's God doing now? And really, if you get technical, everything that Israel was facing was their own fault. They were reaping what they sowed. And the Lord could have dealt with that but He needed to get something done. It's sort of like when you're trying to get your kids out of the house. Come on, kids. Get in the car. We have to go to church. And, oh, Mommy, I lost a shoe. And, you know, Mommy, I lost my doll. And sadly, that's your husband. But, you know, just get in the car. We'll sort it out in the car. Come on. We're late. Let's go. And, you know, but they're whining and complete jazz. Come on. Let's go. So, that's Gideon. He's kind of whining. Well, I would have been... Just, come on. Let's go. We've got a job to do. And you're the guy I'm going to use to do it.
So, now the Lord is going to use Gideon to change things in a dramatic way. But Gideon protests. And he says in verse 15, Oh, Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh. I'm the least in my father's house. Lord, are you serious? I'm like the runt of the litter. I'm the lowest of the low.
Principle 1: World Changers Are Humble
And that brings me to principle number one on how to be a world changer. World changers are humble. God uses people who are humble. Say, Well, how do you know if you're humble? Well, I find that the people talk the most, who talk the most about humility are often prideful. They'll come and say, You know, I'm a very humble person. I'm so humble. I'm so humble I drop the H and just say, Humble. Hello, I'm humble. I'm an humble man. You see. No, you're kind of weird and probably prideful too.
Humble people are just people that see themselves as they are. You know, they see their flaws. They see their shortcomings. They see their weaknesses. In fact, Gideon says in verse 15 to the Lord, Who am I? Why would you want me, Lord? Who am I? And I love God's response. God says, Who am I? I'll be with you. Who am I, Lord? It's not about who you are. It's who I am. And I'm going to be with you, Gideon, so let's get going because you're a mighty hero, verse 12, and the Lord is with you.
I mean, calling Gideon a mighty hero was almost like a joke. I mean, here he is hiding behind a wall and the Lord says, Hey, mighty hero, the Lord's with you. It's like, Is there somebody else here I've not seen? Mighty hero, who would that be? He probably felt more like a pathetic zero than a mighty hero. But as I said earlier, God saw him for what he could become, not just what he was. So he was going to grow into this title that the Lord gave to him. It'd be like going to a kid who can't throw a football and saying, Hey, Tom Brady, how's it going? Or a child failing in class. Hey, Einstein, how are the grades? Almost like mockery. But the Lord was not mocking him. He was seeing his potential.
Principle 2: Faithful in Little Things
But before the Lord was going to allow Gideon to amass his army, there was a test he had to pass in his own home. The Lord told him to go home to his family where there was a family altar erected by his father, Joash, to the god Baal. God said, I want you to go and tear down the altar. Then I want you to take the second best bull from your father's herd and barbecue it on the remains of the altar. Okay, this is a way to get in trouble with dad, okay? And incur his wrath.
But in Gideon's defense, he went and did exactly what God told him to do, bringing me to principle number two. World changers are faithful in little things. World changers are faithful in little things. You see, before you can do big things, God will test you in little things.
Remember when I was a young Christian and I was attending Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, I had not started preaching yet or doing anything of that kind. I was drawing cartoons and doing little evangelistic booklets and things like that. But I felt called to ministry. And so I made an appointment to see Pastor Chuck Smith. And I sat down in his office and I said, Pastor Chuck, I want to be used by God here at the church. And I thought Chuck might say, well Greg, why don't you, you know, teach a Bible study here and maybe preach for me Sunday. And he said, okay Greg, that sounds great. Listen, I want you to go talk to Pastor Romain. Well, I didn't know who Pastor Romain was and so I met Romain and I didn't know he was a drill sergeant for the Marine Corps.
So here comes this scrawny little hippie kid, me, who, I wish I was still scrawny or at least there was less of me. But anyway, I walked up, hi Romain, Pastor Chuck sent me to you, I want to be used by God. That was code for free janitorial work. There, you see. So I said, okay Greg, here's a broom, go start sweeping under that tree there and then I want you to go into the bathroom, I want you to clean the toilet. I'm like, wait a second, so months went by, I'm doing free janitorial work. I'm thinking, what does this have to do with being used by God? It had everything to do with being used by God. Because if you can't do the small things, why would God entrust you greater things?
So a little time passed, they said, okay, you can answer a phone and counsel somebody calling in for help. Okay, you can go do that hospital call. Okay, you can go and teach this little Bible study. And they gave me a little bit at a time and it was a great way to do it. And we do the same thing with our people here. Everyone you see on staff at Harvest, they're like cream that Rose to the top. Okay, they worked faithfully and were already doing these things on their own as volunteers, you see.
Jesus says in Luke 16, unless you're faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. So, Gideon tears down his dad's altar, but he did it at night. And some people have been critical. Oh, should have done it in the light of day. Did it at night. Did it at night. Hey, yeah, okay, so what? At least he did it. Got the job done.
You know, there's some people that just love to criticize. They think they have the gift of criticism. By the way, there's no spiritual gift of criticism. Just be aware of that. You know, they critique this, they critique that. They'll say, well, I don't like the way you do evangelism, Greg. We don't like your events. We don't like I like the way you, you know, speak at these events. And I'll say, well, what are you doing in evangelism? Not really anything. Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it. Okay?
Now, look, I'm not saying everything we do is perfect. It isn't. But, you know, you have to be willing to take risk. You take chances. You get out there to do what you can to reach people. And I think it's very easy to be critical of these things. But my question is, what are you doing? Well, he shouldn't have gone at night. Well, he did something. He got the job done. He tore down the altar. And the people freaked out.
By the way, the reason he did it at night, according to verse 27, was because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town. Gideon knew when he did this he was going to anger a lot of people. In fact, they were so mad they wanted to kill him. Let's kill him now. That's kind of harsh, but that's what they wanted to do.
And guess who stood up and defended Gideon. His father. The very father, Joash, who erected the altar to Baal. And he came out and said, Hey, why are you defending Baal? Why do you argue his case? If Baal is really a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar. I think deep down inside, dad was proud of son. Joash was proud of Gideon. Boy, you did good. Hey, he even took down the old man's altar. Way to go. I think the faith of the father was rekindled by the courage of the son.
Reaching Family Members
But this just brings up a very important point which is the hardest people to reach are your own family. Right? Does your family know that you are a follower of Jesus? Your parents need to know. Your husband and wife they need to know for sure. Your kids need to know. Your extended family needs to know. But sometimes they are the hardest to reach because they have known you since you were knee high to a grass hopper. That's pretty small isn't it? Knee high to a grass hopper. Oh yeah we knew when you were a little kid. You've gone through your fads. Another fad. Yeah we'll see.
So you know there's a point where you preach sermons. And then there comes a point where you live sermons and model it for them. But listen to this. Jesus said a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. And Jesus himself did not reach in quotes all of his siblings. Yes Christ had siblings. He had brothers and sisters. And they did not believe in him until he was crucified and risen again from the dead. And yet Jesus was... do you think he was a good example? I think so. I mean I could see Mary bragging on Jesus to the kids. Kids why can't you be more like Jesus? Jesus always makes his bed. Jesus always does his chores without complaining. He shows the greatest respect to Joseph and to me and he's just so full of love. In fact your dad went out into his wood shop and he made these little bracelets. WWJD I want you to wear them and just ask yourself the question what would Jesus do? Mom he's like perfect. He never gets mad. He never does anything wrong. Yeah but they didn't believe in him and he was a perfect example.
So here's what I'm saying. Just don't give up on your family.
Gideon's Army Reduced by God
It to follow him in the battle. Very impressive. Now of course the Midianites had an army surpassing 100,000. So it's certainly not an equal army but it's a start. And that brings us to Judges 7 verse 2. The Lord said to Gideon you have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites the Israelites opposed to me that they save themselves by their own strength. Therefore tell the people whosoever timid or afraid they may leave this mountain and go home. So 22,000 of them went home leaving only 10,000 who are willing to fight. Wow.
I think Gideon was thinking okay if you're afraid you can't handle this go home. It's interesting the phrase that's used there for go home is from a Hebrew phrase. mamito returnus which translates to return to mommy. I made all that up okay it just means go home. I just want to see if you're listening sometimes. So loose paraphrase hey if you want to go home to mommy if it's too scary go home now. 22,000 guys are like see ya. what. 22,000.
Why did he want them to leave why did the Lord want the fearful ones to leave answer because fear is contagious. Fear is contagious. Listen if you're looking for life on easy street with no conflict or challenge go home to mommy the Christian life is not for wimps the Christian life is not for light weights it's not for cowards it's not for people who are afraid to stand out from the crowd and so maybe some of you are saying well I can't handle this maybe you can I don't whatever you give up to follow Christ is more than worth it.
But some are afraid. They are afraid of the opinions of people. Afraid of this. Afraid of that. Listen, I am more afraid of hell. An eternal separation from God. I am more afraid of a pointless, meaningless life lived for myself. That is what scares me. But a lot of people go for those things.
Well, there is one final test. So remember, he has 10,000 guys left. And by the way, I was telling this story to my grandkids the other day. I like to tell them Bible stories. And I act them out. And I do the voices. Not unlike what I do here. Just kind of down to a kid's level a little bit more. But I'll put jokes in and things to keep them interested and all that. And so I told this whole story. And I'm at the end. And Stella, my granddaughter, says, Papa, you left out the part about where they went to this spring. And sure enough, I did. And I said, wow, thank you for pointing that out. Theologian Stella, well done.
So I don't want to leave this out for you. Because it is a very important part. I can't believe I left it out. Here it is. Judges 7, verse 4. The Lord told Gideon, you still have too many. Bring them down to the spring and I'll sort out who will go with you and who will not. And Gideon took his warriors down to the water. And the Lord told him, divide the men into two groups. The one group put those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. And then the other group put those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.
So here's how it worked. The Lord said, let them go down and drink water. These guys are thirsty. They're dehydrated. So some of them just buried their face in the river and they're just drinking. And others were very careful and they're looking around and they're very alert. And the Lord says, those are the ones I'm going to use to save you.
You know, we were in Israel a number of years ago. We went to Gideon Spring, probably the spring where this happened. So I wanted to illustrate it. So I asked for two volunteers, one to represent each group. And so they went down, they're drinking the water. And then I looked and I saw a sign, water contaminated, don't drink. Oh no. Someone is going to die for a sermon illustration. This is bad. Fortunately they were okay, but it's like, wow.
Well this water was not contaminated. But apparently some of the people were. They didn't pass the test. Now he's left with 300 men. He has 3% of the original 10,000. But these now are the cream of the crop. This is Delta Force. These are the Army Rangers. These are the SEALs. These are SEAL Team 6. You know, this is the SWAT team. These are the elite warriors now.
The Battle Plan and Victory
I love the battle plan. Okay, get the warriors together. I mean, think of these. These are the battle-hardened, toughest of the double. All right, what do you want us to do? What swords are we going to take? What Spears are we... Yeah, we're not going to use swords or Spears. Okay, what's the plan? Okay, got a torch. See a torch right here? Okay, we're going to put a pot, a Clay pot around the torch. Yeah, and beat the Midianites. No, not beat them. Just hold. And then what do we have on our other hand? A big, giant spear. I got you a little trumpet. Here you go. Here's everybody's trumpet. Take your trumpet.
See these guys standing here with this stupid torch and a pot and a trumpet. Uh-huh. Now what? Okay, we're going to run down the mountain and we're going to yell out, For the Lord and for Gideon. Then what? That's it. I love this story. It's so crazy. It's classic. It's biblical.
So they do it. They obey. They come running down. It's nighttime. The Midianites are down in their camp. All of a sudden they hear this noise. They see fire suddenly appear. They hear these trumpets blowing. They think it's some kind of ambush. And they're so disoriented and discombobulated. They start killing each other. They don't know who the enemy is. They say, let's get down. They're all dead. It's like, okay, good plan.
They were outnumbered 450 to 1. Of all of the upsets celebrated by military historians or sports fans, there's none more amazing than what God accomplished through Gideon. This would be like a Pop Warner team going up against the New England Patriots and the Super Bowl and winning. This would be like a Little League team taking on the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and winning.
So you say, well, thank you for that nice little Bible story. Can we go home now? Well, wait, let's make an application. God doesn't just tell us these stories to entertain us. He tells us these stories for a reason. Because you see, we too are in a spiritual battle. And we have to recognize that it rages around us every single day.
In fact, Ephesians 6 says, we're not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world. Against those mighty powers of darkness that rule this world. against wicked spirits in the heavenly realm. See, we're in the natural world right now, but there's a supernatural world coexisting with us at the moment. It's the world of angels and demons. When there are rankings of angels and rankings of demons. And it's the world of God and Satan. And ultimately, it's the world of the afterlife of heaven and hell. It's as real as the world you're in right now. And this battle rages.
And sometimes we're caught in this battle. And we're trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical weapons. So in this war we're fighting in the world today, this spiritual war, this moral war, some even call it a cultural war, understand it's not going to be won with boycotts or protests. It's not going to be won by withdrawing, but by praying and preaching.
The most effective weapons God has put in our arsenal is prayer and proclamation. Praying for people, praying for our country, praying for our culture, praying for situations we're facing, and then preaching the gospel to those that do not know the Lord.
I bring this up because there's a book that's quite popular right now where the author is suggesting that we've lost this battle. And there's no reason to fight the flood. Just stop fighting the flood, he says. And basically says, there are people alive today who may live to see the effect of death of Christianity within our civilization, end quote. So he says we need to withdraw now from... No, no, no. This is not the time to withdraw. This is the time to attack. This is not the time to isolate. This is the time to infiltrate. This is the time to permeate.
You say, well, you're rhyming a bunch of stuff. I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you understand what I'm saying? When I say attack, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying go down to the ammo store and, you know, fill your trunk up with bullets and AR-15s or something. Well, here's what I'm saying. I have something better than an AR-15. I've got John 3:16, okay? John 3:16.
And what do I mean by that? John 3:16, See, when I say we're fighting a battle and we need to infiltrate, I mean we need to go out with the loving message of Jesus Christ and tell people about Him and how they can have their lives transformed by Him. God's looking for people to do this. And the best place to start is in your own home with your own family and those closest to you. And then continue on.
I love the statement of a British preacher from years ago, John Wesley, who once said, quote, Give me a hundred men who love God with all of their hearts and fear nothing but sin and I will move the world. I would add women to that, of course. Give me a hundred men, a hundred women who love God with all their hearts and fear nothing but sin and I will move the world.
There is more than a hundred people here right now. And then we have a lot of people watching as well. We don't have a hundred. We have hundreds. We actually have thousands. What if just a hundred would say, No, I am going to take this seriously. I want to be one of those men. I want to be one of those women. I want to be a Gideon. I want to be a world changer. I want to step forward and say, Alright, Lord, I am an ordinary person. I don't bring a lot to the table. But what I have, I bring to you. Use me.
I am telling you, God can use you to change the world. Gideon turned his world upside down. Or should I say, right side up. God is still looking for people to do that.
Nicodemus Came by Night
Final thought. Remember Gideon tore that altar down by night. The Bible tells the story of a religious man named Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night. That is mentioned a few times in particular. So it is important. He came to Jesus by night. Why? Because Jesus was a famous man. Being a religious man, he was supposed to be the guy with all the answers. But the problem is the guy with all the answers had a lot of questions. And he heard about Jesus. And he heard about the miracles Jesus did. And the teachings Jesus gave. He said, I got to just talk to this guy.
So he made an appointment. Imagine an appointment with Jesus tonight. And he sits down with Christ. And he says, good teacher, we know you can't do these things you do unless God is with you. Starts with this opening spiel. Jesus is like, yeah, whatever. Listen, bud, you need to be born again. I love this. Jesus just cuts to the chase. Let's just get past that right now, Nicodemus. You need to be born again. Or literally born from above.
Here's what Christ is saying to Nicodemus. You're a religious guy. You're a moral guy. You're supposed to be a guy with the answers. But you have an emptiness in your life. Because religion can't fill it. And morality can't fill it. And what you need is a relationship with God. You need to be born from above. And by the way, it was to Nicodemus, Jesus said, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And you know what happened after Nicodemus came to Jesus or Nick at night, if you will? His life was changed. So that's the thing. You need to just come to Jesus. I said this earlier. Maybe it's crisis that brings you to Jesus today. Maybe things are going reasonably well and you've reached a lot of your goals but there's something missing. Listen, it's not a something. It's a someone. It's God that you've been searching for all along. Not a new toy. Not a new relationship. Not a new experience. It's God. And you need to be born again. The same thing Christ said to Nicodemus 2,000 years ago. He says to us right here, right now. You need to be born from above.
You say, well, what does that even mean? Well, you were born once physically. I assume that because you're all here. Okay, so we'll just take that as an established fact. Now you need to be born spiritually. You say, but how does that happen? It happens when you ask God to forgive you of your sin. You say, I'm sorry for my sin. I turned from it and I want Jesus to come into my life and he will come and forgive you right now if you want him to.
Invitation to Be Born Again
So we're going to close in prayer and I'm going to give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ and have all of your sins forgiven. And know with certainty that you'll go to heaven when you die. If you've never asked him to come into your life, do it now. Somebody else can't do this for you. You need to do it for yourself. Remember I said earlier, the Bible says, for as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God. See, only you can receive him. Only you can say to Jesus, come into my life and he will come in.
Let's all bow our heads. Father, I pray for every person here, every person who is watching or listening as well. If they don't know you, let this be the moment where they're born again. Let this be a moment where their eternal address changes from heaven to hell. Let this be the moment where they believe in Jesus.
While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, how many of you would say today, I want Jesus. I'm ready to come to Jesus. I want him to forgive me of my sin. I want a new start, a fresh start in life. I want to be born again. I want to go to heaven when I die. If that's you, if you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want your guilt taken away, wherever you are, will you lift your hand up right now and I'll pray for you. God bless you. Raise your hand up however I can see it. You want Jesus to come into your life today. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Some of you are watching the screen there in Riverside. Would you raise your hand? No, I can't see you right now, but the Lord sees you. Would you take this little step of faith and say, yes, I want Jesus. Pray for me. Wherever you are. If you ever raised your hand yet, lift it now. Let me pray for you. You're saying, I want Christ. I want a fresh start in life. Pray for me. Anybody else? Raise your hand now. God bless each of you. God bless you.
Now you that have raised your hand, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Right where you sit. Just pray this prayer. Pray this now. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I know you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and Rose from the dead. Jesus, I turn from that sin. I ask you to come into my life. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name.
Father, you heard those prayers. I pray you'll answer them now. And now finally, Lord, I wonder if in this group of people there's some world changers. People who would say they love you more than anyone or anything else and they hate sin. That would stand up like a Gideon and make a difference. And Lord, I pray you would just touch their hearts even now.
Now while our heads are bowed, if you want to be a world changer, if you're willing to get serious with God, if you're willing to say, Lord, I'll go where you want me to go and I'll do what you want me to do and I'll say what you want me to say to whomever you want me to say it to, if you're ready to make that stand in your house or in your world, I'm going to have you pray a prayer out loud after me and I'm going to ask you to stand up if you're going to pray it. I only want those who want to be world changers to stand. I only want those who mean this prayer to stand. I do not want you to stand If you don't mean it. If you remain seated, I'll assume you already are doing this or you don't want to do this. And I would respect you more for saying you don't want to do it than standing up and praying it and not doing it.
So you stand if you feel so inclined by the Lord. Because you're going to pray a radical prayer right now. And God answers prayers like this, so only do it if you mean it. I'll wait another moment. Some are standing. This is not about how many stand. I'd rather a few stand and mean it than a lot who don't? Anybody else? Say, I'm ready to be that man, that woman, to make that difference. God bless all of you standing.
Alright, all of you that are standing, you pray this out loud after me. This is a prayer to God Almighty. "Lord Jesus, I want to be a world changer. I want my life to make a difference. I'll go where you want me to go. I'll say what you want me to say. To whomever you want me to say it to. So I dedicate my life to you. Help me be faithful in the little things. Help me to be ready and alert. Use me for your glory, I pray. In Jesus' name".
"Lord, bless every person who just prayed this prayer. And I pray you'll answer it. Even before the day is over. We commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen".