May 30th, 2021 “The Battle Belongs to the Lord!” Partners in Prayer: “Memorial Day Celebration” Study of Gideon- “We may be small, but God is mighty!” Dear Partners in Prayer Team, “His friend responded, ‘This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.’ When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped.” Judges 7:14-15 (NIV) “The LORD Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:14 (NLT) “So will the LORD do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. You must not fear them, for the LORD Your God Himself fights for you.’ Deuteromony 3:21-22 (NKJV) How do you feel entering Memorial Day knowing we are remembering people who died for us and fought our battles for us? How does it make us feel? Do we feel incredibly humbled, because of the cost others paid for our freedoms? Does it make us feel honored and loved by the lives of those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms? Does it make us feel special and encouraged? Absolutely! Here is just one of the most inspiring stories of a father who remembers and honors his own son: On June 21, 2006, in the Nuristan Province of Afghanistan, Staff Sergeant Jared Monti's sixteen-man patrol came under fire. One of his men was wounded and fell over a ridge into what the soldiers described as a "death zone." Despite an intense firefight, he tried three times to save the soldier. On his third try, Jared was killed. He was posthumously awarded America's highest honor for heroism, the Medal of Honor. Paul Monti, Jered’s father, started an organization in his son's memory called “Operation Flag for Vets.” Their volunteers recently planted 57,000 flags at the Massachusetts National Cemetery. Paul drives Jared's pickup truck, the military decals still on it. Paul explained: "It's got his DNA all over it. I love driving it because it reminds me of him, though I don't need the truck to remind me of him. I think about him every hour of every day." He continues to do this as a great tribute in love and honor. A Nashville songwriter heard this story and turned it into a song that country singer Lee Brice recorded. "I Drive Your Truck" earned Song of the Year honors at the 2013 Country Music Awards. As of this morning, the YouTube video had more than twenty-eight million views. I urge you to watch it on this Memorial Day. It’s not a ‘Christian’ song, but it really touches the heart. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/yCSMCgqlc-0 How do we feel when we pay homage and respectful honor to those who paid a cost for us? And an even greater question I want to ask is really this: “What does it make you feel knowing that in our spiritual battles in life, there are times when God fights the battle for us?” When Greg was graduating from the Marines at Paris Island, he went through a final “crucible.” This was a several days’ long graduation event which entailed different exercises to remind the cadets of great battles and moments in previous wars. As they reviewed those battles, they built courage and were enabled to serve. So on this Memorial Day we are going to do the same and will be looking at Gideon, seeing how God fights our battles and how the victory for spiritual battles belongs to the Lord. So here are some questions to wrestle through as we remember Jesus our great Savior who won the battle for our salvation: 1. When has God fought and won the whole battle? Beside this story of Gideon which we are looking at today in our sermon (Judges 7:8-22), when had God actually fought some amazing battles? Just as Greg needed to study and become familiar with some of the Marine Corp’s greatest battles, here is a summary or just a few to wet your appetite: ü The battle of Drowning Redemption: The most noted and important moment when God fought the battle is the redemption of God’s children of Israel when He took them through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:14-15:21). A small child came home from attending his Sunday School class, and retold the story of Moses, how he took huge missiles and helicopters, and destroyed the Egyptian Army. The mother exclaimed, “Johnny, that wasn’t what the Bible said happened!” And Johnny replied, “But mother, if I told you how the Bible said it happened, you just wouldn’t believe it!” How many still don’t believe God’s word about the Red Sea where God said: “The Lord will fight for you!” ü The battle of Shouting-Down-a-Wall: Joshua had this amazing victory entering the Promised Land, when the children of Israel shouted so hard, that the walls of a city caved in (Joshua 6). Can you remember the name of the city? ü The battle of a Midget and Giant: David stood alone facing a giant, but in comparison, David wasn’t alone because he said, “I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.” David knew God was with him even if he only had a small sling. Guess what the last thing that went through Goliath’s mind was? Goliath didn’t say, because he was stoned (1 Samuel 17:45-50). ü The battle of the Stopped Clock: A warrior was fighting for the Lord so long and hard that God stopped the sun, and gave him an extra amount of time (Joshua 10:13). And another battle related to that, each time the general went forward and won, it happened only when Moses’ praying arms stayed up. Then each time Moses’ arms lowered, the general lost the battle. So two men had to prop up Moses’ arms and hold them up as Moses prayed, in order to win the battle (Exodus 17:11). That itself causes us to wander how prayer is so important to our battles. ü The battle of Trench Warfare: When King Joram fought a war with the Moabites, the prophet Elijah told him to just dig a bunch of trenches in the desert and Israel would win the battle. During the night, God caused the trenches to fill with water, and in the early morning sun rise, the Moabites mistakenly thought it was blood from the Israeli army. They mistakenly walked unarmed right into Jorams' hands and surrendered (2 Kings 3:4-27). ü The battle of the Blindfold: When the king of Aram (Syria) decided to attack the king of Israel, they surrounded the prophet Elisha. When Elisha’s servant saw all the army against them, he cried in fear. Elisha comforted his servant and said, “God will open your eyes to see the army of God and His angels”, and suddenly, the servant was able to see the millions of chariots of fire surrounding the enemy which they couldn’t see. So when the captain of the Armeans demanded surrender, Elisha offered to walk him to the place of surrender. The Lord blinded the entire army, and they followed Elisha along the road right into the gates of the king of Israel’s prisons and they were captured and trapped (2 Kings 6). ü The battle of Overnight Disappearance: When a mighty world power called Assyria invaded Judah, and lay siege against Jerusalem, the king didn’t know what to do but pray. God used the prophet Isaiah to pronounce that God would win the battle overnight for Hezekiah. In the morning, two forgotten men, who had leprosy, came to the city gate and showed the king that the Angel of Jehovah killed the entire enemy during the night while they were hiding inside the city walls (2 Kings 19; Isaiah 37; 2 Chronicles 32). ü The battle of Valley of Blessing: When a king with a funny name, Jehoshaphat, was told that “God would fight his battle” with the Moabites, he marched to the battle field with a band playing praise music in front of all the soldiers. Imagine the piccolo person in front of the infantry, but what if the enemy attacked them first? But even while praising God for the victory before it happened, the king arrived to the valley for battle only to find the enemy already dead before his army got there and so they didn’t have to fight. (2 Chronicles 20:1-29). Yes, these are just examples of battles God won to remind us that “the battle does belong to the Lord.” 2. Does God still fight our battles? In Exodus 14:14 Moses told the children of Israel, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” At that moment, they were standing at the edge of the Red Sea, hemmed in by the sea before them and the Egyptian army behind. The Israelites were in a seemingly impossible situation, but it was a situation brought on by the Lord Himself. It was God who had hardened Pharaoh’s heart to pursue the fleeing slaves (Exodus 14:4, 8). Why would God do such a thing? The Bible gives some of the reasons: because God wanted to make it crystal clear to both the Egyptians and the Israelites that He was LORD so that He got the glory over Pharaoh (Exodus 14:4); and because God wanted to teach Israel that He is their Deliverer (Exodus 6:6) and their Salvation (Exodus 14:13).