Open your Bibles, if you will, to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6, again, a familiar passage of scripture for most of you, I'm sure. We're going to be reading a little bit about Gideon here. Judges chapter 6. starting in verse 1. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them dens, which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them. And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till they had come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle, and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for the multitude. And for both they and their camels were without number. And they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and draved them out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was an orpha. that pertained to Joash the Abizorite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the wilderness to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers did which our fathers, excuse me, told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father again, we just come before you this morning. I'm glad to be here, glad to be in a place that's warm, that we can have fellowship one with another, that we can sing praises to Your name, that, Father, we can have the words of God opened up. I do pray that You administer to each and every individual here this morning. Lord, set me aside. Pray that You might work in the hearts of these people that have shown up. You're a great God, You're a mighty God, and we have great need of You, not only in our personal lives, but, Father, in our country as well. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We come back to a passage of scripture, like I said, very familiar with you, Judges chapter 6, and we read about Gideon. And I was thinking about this as I was kind of putting this together of, you know, the similarities and some of the different things that are going on in our country, some of the different things that Israel was having happen in their country. It, you know, it just, it stuck out to me for some reason. And Judges 6, 13, the verse says, And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? Why then is all this befallen us? In fact, that's what I titled the message here this morning, Why Has This Befallen Us? You stop and think about the condition of our country. You think about what's going on. You think about everything going on. And you can't help but ask at a certain level, why then has all this befallen us? Amen? You take a look at your own life. You take a look at things that have happened. And that question comes up, why has this befallen us? Why, Lord? We ask, you know, we ask that question all the time. And reading through here, some pretty basic, pretty simple answers. But I wanted to cover them briefly here this morning. And the first thing, the first thing that we need to know and really get a grasp of and really understand when it comes to the question of why has this befallen us this morning is a very simple principle. And it's kind of hard. It is because of our decisions. Amen? You know what your life has been? You know what my life has been? Basically, our lives have been a sum of all the decisions that we've made along the way. Right? The result of the decisions that we've made along the way. Some of them have been very good decisions. Some of them have been not so good decisions. There are some sources that suggest that the average person, and I'm sure this is done on some research and then everybody copied it, but anyway, they suggest that the average person makes about 35,000 decisions a day. That makes my head spin. 35,000 decisions a day. Decisions a day. Assuming that most people sleep, I don't know, somewhere around seven hours. You divide that out. Makes it roughly about 2,000 decisions per hour. One decision every two seconds. We're constantly, constantly making decision. And I realize that's just an estimate, but John Maxwell put it this way. He said, life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make, makes you. I mean, think about it. Just this morning, you had to decide whether you were going to get out of bed or not. I'm glad you did. You made a good choice. You had to decide what you were going to wear and whether you were going to go to church or not. Well, maybe that was your mom and dad's decision. But you had to decide whether you were going to throw a temper tantrum about it or not, right? And you had to make a decision. Do I have one cup of coffee or two? cream or sugar in the coffee and just on and on and on and on. You're constantly, constantly making decisions. And that's what has gotten you to where you're at in life. So how do people make decisions? What do you use to make decisions? I wonder what Israel used to make a lot of their decisions. There are certain different categories or certain different ways that everyone can make decisions. We'll just take a look at a few of them. A lot of times people make decisions based on impulsiveness. You know, the first thing that comes to mind. They're quick. They snap a decision. They don't necessarily give it a lot of thought. They see something that presents itself, and they make a decision to do it or not do it. This can get you in a lot of trouble if you're not careful. Because a lot of times, the first thing that pops into your mind to make a decision on, sometimes the devil's throwing it there. And sometimes we're a little too impulsive when we make our decisions. There's another way that people can make decisions. They can make decisions based upon compliance, which is basically choosing the thing that's the most pleasing. Do what you like. Make the decision based upon what's going to not offend or hurt the most people around you. What's the most popular thing to decide? Do what's easy. Again, what are we talking about? We're talking about decisions that we make in life. Every day you make decisions, and you and I are gonna be the sum total of all the decisions that we've made in life. Now, I understand the Lord throws circumstances in there to guide and direct us, and I'm not ignoring that part of the thing. You know I believe in that. But in essence, when the Lord does throw those things in our path, we make decisions on how we handle them. We make decisions on how we go about navigating through those things. And sometimes our decisions are kind of impulsive. Sometimes we make decisions because it's just what we like. It's what I want to do. Sometimes people make decisions by delegating. That is, you don't want to make the decision yourself. Right? Sometimes you push it off and you tend to let others make the decision for you. On the surface, that may seem easy, especially when the decision is kind of difficult. But in the end, you have to remember that you ultimately cannot blame them for that decision because you were the one that decided to let them decide. Amen? You can't, you know, you can't get away from it. They used to say this in the Marine Corps, you can delegate authority, but you can't delegate responsibility. You're still ultimately responsible even if you let somebody else make the decision. Some people make decisions by avoidance or deflection. That is, they don't want to make a decision. You see this an awful lot when it comes to salvation, when it comes to people trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. You see a lot of people that it comes right down to the point of, are you going to trust Jesus Christ to pay for your sins on Calvary? Or are you going to trust your own good works, your own religion, the fact that you're a good person? And they kind of just really want to avoid that decision altogether. It makes them very uncomfortable, right? And so they choose, or I should say they decide not to decide. It's an amazing thing. It's one of those things that we all have a tendency to do. We don't decide at all. As long as I don't have to deal with it, then I don't have to worry about the pressure that comes with that decision. Sometimes you avoid decisions because you're afraid, right? It's out of fear. Another way that we make decisions is by balancing things out. We weigh the factors involved. We think about it and we think of the pros and the cons. I wish more people would do this when it came to salvation. Amen? I wish more people would consider what the Lord Jesus Christ had done for them on Calvary's cross and what an eternity in a devil's hell is like and look at a free gift of salvation, eternal life for somebody who loves me versus an eternity in a devil's hell with somebody who hates me and will do anything he can to destroy me. It shouldn't be a difficult decision. And if somebody can ever get to the point where they balance that out, where they honestly look at that, where they look at the Bible and they look at what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for them and then they look at what the devil has done for them, nothing. Right? All the troubles, all the turmoil, all the problems we have in life, listen, are all because of the devil. I mean, he's the one that came down and tempted Eve. Eve fell and she sinned, and that sin was passed on to all mankind, right? It was the devil's fault. The Lord created something beautiful and perfect and holy and true and right and just, and the devil came along and ruined it. And every time in our lives when we try to get ahead in life, and we try to do right, and we try to get ourselves on the right path, you got the Lord who offers us one path and one perspective, and you have the devil who's coming along right behind him, just like he did in the garden, He does the same thing today and he'll throw something up there and try to get you to make that decision. Maybe you make it out of impulse because it looks good. Maybe you don't make a decision. Maybe you use one of those other methods. But either way, if we could get people to get to the place where they balance things out and they contemplate them and you think about heaven and hell. You think about right and wrong. You think about, how do I get to heaven? Folks, there would be many, many, many more people saved, born again, on their way to heaven this morning. Amen? But people, you go to the Bible and you read, but people are comfortable where they're at. They're afraid to challenge their own beliefs. They're afraid to challenge maybe the things they've been taught as a child. They're afraid to challenge the things that they learned maybe even in Sunday school. Maybe they even grew up going to church. It's easy to convince somebody who's never gone to church about how great Jesus Christ is. Because he has really nothing to compare it to. The more difficult thing is when somebody's brought up in church and they think they're doing okay. And they don't want to hear anything else. I'm good. I'm okay. I think Brother Baker preached that, didn't he? I'm good. I'm good. So if you've been brought up in church, if you've been brought up and you learned the basics of God and you've lived a pretty good life, and in your mind you're thinking, you know, I'm doing okay, I'm all right, I was raised in the church, I've been a good person, I love people, I help people, that's the most dangerous place to be. Why? Because those type of people aren't willing to put the Bible on one side, the Bible on one side, and their church on the other. I'll tell you this, I know this is a Baptist church. I will put the Bible up against the term Baptist any day of the week. And the Bible will win every time. Right? I am not so wrapped up on the term Baptist that it overrides the Bible. I wouldn't be wrapped up on my denomination overriding the Bible. I mean, think about it. Where did your denomination come from? The Bible, right? Shouldn't that be the authority? And if we could just get people to understand that, listen, you are, and your eternity depends upon the decisions that you make. And if you could just understand that concept that, listen, I know what I was taught, I was raised to be a good person, and praise the Lord for that, I wish more people were. Right? We'd have a lot less trouble in this world. But when it comes to salvation and putting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I can't necessarily go by what my denomination says, whatever that denomination is. I know a lot of Baptists who, quote, do the Baptist thing and think they're OK. But it never got to their heart. They walk the aisle. They get on their knees. They pray the prayer, ABC, 1, 2, 3, pray after me. And they go, oh, yeah, I'm saved. I'm born again, because that's what Baptists do. We walk the aisle. We get saved. But it never was a part of their heart. It never permeated that hardened heart. I know a lot of Catholics who, even though they don't know the Bible as well as a lot of Baptists, have made the right decision because the Lord was able to get a hold of their heart. And it's a matter of the Lord getting a hold of your heart and you realizing your own sin and realizing my church can't pay for my sin. Baptists, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, you name it. But Jesus Christ can. And I may not know all this stuff, but when I make this decision about salvation, I balance things out And I look at the Bible and the Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ died on that cross to pay for my sins And that if I would put my faith and my trust in him alone It's not like oh yeah, I like Jesus, but I better Keep the commandments or I better get confirmed or I better get baptized no no no all that stuff can go aside You know people can get saved on their deathbed The Lord can get a hold of somebody's heart on their deathbed. That person's laying there and the eternity becomes very real to them. And they know just in a few moments maybe I'm going to slip off into eternity. And this concept of heaven or hell becomes very, very real. And all of a sudden, they remember things that were taught to them. And they remember things they heard. Or maybe there's a pastor sitting by talking with them. And they explain the simple plan of salvation about, hey, listen, it's not your church. And this person may have been a good church member their whole life. But it never permeated their heart to the point where they decided, I'm going to put all this church stuff over here. Whatever church it is, I'm going to put it over here, and I'm going to trust the Savior. Amen? I'm not trusting my church. I'm trusting my Savior. You say, well, then why do you have the name Baptist out there? Because technically, that's what Baptists are supposed to teach. And if I had another name out there, I would supposed to be teaching something else. So that describes the best in denominational terms what I just described to you the Bible says. And you make those decisions on balancing. Another way people make decisions sometimes is they prioritize, right? You put the big things first. Don't sweat the small things. Right? You take, you consider your past experiences. Decisions. We are the sum of all the decisions that we've made in our lives. Now, in all fairness, there's a time for each one of these types of decision making. Amen? I mean, there are some things that you have to decide immediately. Right? You're driving down the road and somebody pulls out in front of you. You don't want to balance out, well, you know, should I hit the brake or should I hit the gas? Maybe, right? There are times where an impulsive decision is very handy. Okay? But the problem is we can run into the trap of making all of our decisions only using one or two of those methods. Which is not necessarily good if that happens to be impulsiveness or compliance. Or we can avoid using one or two methods. I don't want to avoid using balancing or prioritization. Right? But however we make our decisions, listen, our life is the result of our decisions. And you know what? Your eternity is going to be the result. of your decisions. We're given a glimpse into some of the decisions that Israel made along the way here that got them to this point. Right? That's, take a look at, take a look at verse one. And the children of Israel did evil. They decided to do evil. And for those of you that know the Bible, you're more familiar with the Bible, you realize this is not like a one-time event. This is a pattern that Israel has gotten into over and over and over and over. And now we're coming down to a place where the decisions are starting to take effect. And we're starting to see the results. So Israel decided to do evil. Take a look at verse 10. And the Lord, excuse me, after the prophet, and I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But ye have not obeyed my voice. Ye have not obeyed my voice. Listen, Israel is a result of the decisions that they had been making. And now here they are. And here they set in turmoil, in trouble, right? Why? Because they decided to do evil. Because they decided not to obey God's commandments. You and I, every time we make a decision, should wonder, is this the right decision? Okay, maybe not every time. Right? I mean, there are some things you kind of do automatically and you get out of bed. How many of you actually made a conscious thought, should I get out of bed this morning? Sometimes it happens, but usually you just get up and you don't think about it. But the decisions you make, folks, matter. The decisions that you make about do I trust the Bible or do I trust my church matters. The decision, do I trust Jesus Christ as my savior or do I think I'm going to get to heaven by being a good person matters. And in the end, everyone has to answer for their decisions. Proverbs, Proverbs verse chapter two says, my son, if thou will receive my words, hide my commandments with me so that thou incline thy ear unto wisdom. And then it says this, and apply thine heart to understanding. The Lord says, listen, I want you to take those things that you've learned in the Bible and apply them when you make your decisions. Why? Because we're the sum of our decisions. We're the sum total of our decisions. That applying is deciding. I venture to say that each one of you can look back and say, man, I can think of a couple things I sure would have decided differently if I knew then what I knew now. Amen? Maybe that was, you can look back and you can see some decisions that you made that were very good. And I hope that's the case. I really do. I hope you can look back and see more decisions that were made well, rather than decisions that were made not so well. But either way, you look back, and there's bound to be some decisions that you regret. Amen? Either way, the thing to remember is this. You make about 35,000-ish decisions a day. If that number's anywhere close. It's a big number. I'll go with that. And while most of them are relatively minor, in consequence, in the scope, I mean, you know, does it really matter whether you have one or two lumps of sugar in your coffee? Or none? Okay, you can argue in 27 years you'll have diabetes. Alright, I got it. But most of them are relatively minor. But folks, I would venture to say every day of your life, you face decisions that can change your world around if you're not careful. Amen? How fast do I drive? Do I try to beat the yellow light or not? So before you know it, you're going to wind up in a place, in a world that you have created. Why? Because of all these decisions. Now the upside is this. You've only been up for a few hours. Let's say five or six maybe. You probably have a good 20,000 of those 35,000 decisions left today. Right? You know what you can do? If you had the desire, you could at this moment rearrange your thinking and start from here on out. You can't change the decisions you made in the past. But ladies and gentlemen, we can sure change the decisions we're going to make in the future. And if I apply Proverbs chapter 2 and the wisdom and the things that God gives to me and I decide and I set my heart that I'm going to apply biblical principles to making my decisions, listen, you can change your little world drastically for better. Amen? Obviously, the biggest decision that I would recommend that you make is that decision of salvation. If you've never decided to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I'm not talking about getting baptized. I'm not talking about going to church or being a good person. I'm talking about, the Bible says, the Bible says that by faith, I'm saved. I'm saved through faith. Plus nothing, minus nothing. It says when I realize my sin and I put my trust in Jesus Christ and I say, Lord, you died on the cross for me, and Even if I never step foot in church another day, how's that for a pastor to say? Even if I never step foot in church another day in my life, it doesn't matter. If I put my trust and my faith in what the Lord Jesus Christ did for me, and I say, Lord, listen, I'm a sinner, and I'm deciding to ask you to be my savior because you're my only hope. The Lord will come down, he'll honor that request. If it's from your heart, he'll honor that request immediately. That's one of the decisions you could make today. 20,000 more chances to make a decision today that'll impact your life. Positive or negative, I don't know. But you have that option. Gideon asked, Gideon asked, why then is all this befallen us? Well, verse 1 says, the children of Israel did evil. And verse 10 says, you have not obeyed my voice. Why did it befall them? Because the decisions they made were the wrong decisions. There's another answer to that question. Why then has all this befallen us? All this has befallen the nation of Israel and you and I. because they're facing destruction. You say, wait a minute, what do you mean? You remember that explosion they had a little while back over, what was it about, how long ago was it? Was it earlier this year? That blast with the ammonium nitrate over in Beirut? Yeah, it was only a couple months ago. Chaos. Destruction. Gideon asked, why has all this befallen us? You know what the nation of Israel was facing at that moment in time? Think about what the Midianites were doing. The nation of Israel was facing destruction. They were pretty close to being wiped out. They were pretty close to being starved out. They didn't have much going for them. We'll talk about a little bit later the groups, especially the Midianites, but the Midianites and all these other groups kept coming in. They're taking their food. Gideon's hiding and trying to just scrape together a little bit of food just to survive. The nation of Israel is about ready to be destroyed. Kind of similar to where our nation's at. The things that are destroying us are a little bit different, But those decisions put the nation of Israel in that spot. Our decisions as a country has put us in this spot. And the Lord looked down and saw the nation of Israel like the Lord looks down and sees us. And the Lord knew this. As a nation, if you continue going down the path you're going, you're gonna face destruction. Right? Gideon says, why hath all this befallen us? Well, the Lord put them in that spot because he knew if they kept going the way they were going, they were gonna face destruction. The nation of Israel was gonna face destruction. So Israel starts seeking help. Israel starts asking God for help. Right? See, we're funny creatures, human beings. If there's nothing going wrong, we kind of have a tendency not to change. Right? I mean, why would you change? Everything's going good. So what does the Lord do if we're making bad decisions and he knows we're headed for certain destruction? He says, well, let me give you a little bit of, let me give you something to think about. Right? It's merciful. Sometimes when you and I go through these struggles, we go through these trials, we go through these troubles. Listen, sometimes, I'm not saying every time, but sometimes the Lord puts those things in our life so that we're uncomfortable and we sit back and think about, oh, Lord, why has all this befallen us? Now, usually we don't come to the conclusion, oh, it's because of my own decisions. Sometimes we do. We probably should more often than we care to admit. But the Lord puts these things in our lives because he knows, like Israel, was headed for destruction. Why do those things befall the nation of Israel? Because the Lord knew if they didn't change, they were going to be destroyed. Listen, if you're lost here this morning, if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, can I say this? The Lord is going to throw things in your life that are going to upset your apple cart. Amen? It's going to challenge what you believe. It's going to make you think. Sometimes it'll make you angry. Sometimes you'll get mad at the preacher. Imagine that. Why does the Lord do that? Because he sees what's coming. He sees the destruction. And like Gideon, Gideon's sitting there and Gideon's going, why has all this befallen us? Because the Lord knows the destruction that's going to happen if something doesn't change. Right? Take a look at verse 2. The Lord allowed the Midians to prevail. Israel's been losing wars. Verse 3, when Israel sows their crops, the Midianites come in and take them. Verse 4, they destroy the increase. They left no sustenance. There's no food. Verse 5, there are so many of them. They came as grasshoppers. They were just all over the place. There's no way we can defeat these people. They're just everywhere around us. And it's not only the Midian. It's the people from the east. It's the Amalekites. It's everybody. They're coming in. They're like grasshoppers. And in verse 6, Israel is greatly impoverished. Everything is going wrong for the nation of Israel. They're facing destruction. God allowed Israel to reap what they had sown. Brethren, the sad part about where our country is at now is a lot of it is because of the decisions that we as a country have made in the past. And we're reaping what we've sown. But the Lord knows you and I will need something very important to recover from that destruction. See, the Lord's not interested in the destruction of Israel. Neither is he interested in the destruction of our country. But the Lord knows that we're going to need something if we want to avoid that destruction. So the Lord goes down, and the Lord The Lord starts dealing with a man, Gideon. When Joshua took over for Moses, the Lord told him this several times. You know what he said? He said, be strong and have a good courage. Be strong and of a good courage. The nation of Israel was about to falter. They were on the path of destruction. The Lord knew they were on the path of destruction. And the Lord looks down, and he picks out a man, and he says, listen, be strong. Be of a good courage. Why? Because the Lord doesn't want that destruction to happen. How does he prevent the destruction? He reaches down to people like you and I, and he says, be strong. Be of a good courage. I've got something planned. I'm here, I'll give you the inheritance. And Gideon, I mean, I know it took him a little while, he's arguing back and forth, he's not completely settled, but ultimately Gideon's, Gideon derives strength from what the Lord's doing. Amen? It says in verse 14, and the Lord looked upon Gideon and said, go in this thy might. And Gideon can't figure that out. You and I are sitting here in America and we think to ourselves, what can I do? I'm a nobody. I can't change the course of our nation. I can't change the course of our church. I can't change the course of our family. Listen, the Lord looks down and he sees if a nation or a family or a church is headed towards destruction, the Lord looks down and he picks somebody out and the Lord picked out Gideon. Why couldn't he pick you? You've got your influence. You've got your sphere of influence that you know people I don't know. Why couldn't the Lord pick you to have courage for them? Right? That's how the Lord does it, folks. The Lord looks down and he sees one guy down there and all he's trying to do is just get by, just survive the Midianites, just scrape up enough food to make it the next day. And the Lord looks down and taps him on the shoulder and chooses him and says, by the way, you know what I want you to have? I want you to have courage. I want you to have courage. He says, go in this thy might. Now Gideon doesn't know what's going on yet. What do you mean that my might? Come on, we're surrounded. We're losing the battles. What do you mean might? There's no might here. And Gideon kind of starts arguing back and forth with the Lord. You know the story. Gideon doesn't believe it. But nonetheless, didn't the Lord give Gideon courage? Didn't Gideon kind of get over that fear and rise up and do what he was supposed to do? And didn't Gideon prevail? The Lord said this in verse 16, a couple of verses later. He said, surely I will be with thee. You know what the Lord Jesus Christ has promised you and I? If you're saved here, if you've been born again, the Lord Jesus Christ promised he would never leave or forsake us. Amen? We can count on him. We can count on him. But I tell you what it takes. It takes you and I having courage. Why has all this befallen us? Well, because there's destruction coming. In order to get In order to avoid that destruction, the Lord looks down and He chooses people like you and me, hopefully everybody in this congregation. And He says, I've got a place for you to have courage in your sphere of influence. I got a job for you to do. And just like Gideon, we all go, I'm the least in the tribe of Manasseh. What are you talking about? I can't do anything. I don't know any Bible. You know more than you think. And if you don't know it, I bet if you read for just a couple of days, you can figure a bunch of it out. But this is how the Lord operates. He sees a country headed for destruction, and he reaches down and he starts grabbing people. Didn't it say he sent prophets? So Gideon wasn't the only one, but that's just who the story's about. The Lord looks down and he starts picking people out and goes, this country, this nation here, Israel, is headed for destruction, and I'm going to give that guy courage. I'm going to give this lady courage. I'm going to give this child courage. You know what it takes to change how you and I make decisions? It takes some courage. It takes a little bit of guts. It takes guts. I better hurry. But I know this. I know when I read about Gideon, I know that when a nation's going down the path to destruction, the Lord's interested in finding some people he wants to tap on the shoulder and give some courage. And then he uses those people to make a big difference. Gideon didn't think he could do it. You and I may not think we can do it. But it's the Lord that's giving the empowerment, not you and I. Right? You'd be surprised what you can do if you give it over to the Lord. Why has this befallen us? Well, because of decisions that were made in the past. That's true. Why is this befalling us? The Lord's got them right there because if they keep going, they're headed for destruction. The Lord has to bring in the Midianites to get them broken down so that they'll cry out to him, right? Because of the destruction. And finally, why is all this befalling us? I'll tell you why. Because there's an enemy out there that needs to be defeated. Amen? In this case, it's the Midianites. Right? In this case, it's the Midianites. So who are these Midianites? Well, if you go back in the Bible, you know, go all the way back to Genesis, and you're talking about Abraham. And of course, Abraham was supposed to have a child with Sarah. Right? And you remember the story, and he got carried away, and he got impatient, and the Lord, was Lord has taken his time and Abraham jumped the gun and he wound up having a Midian. He wound up, he wound up fathering this child called Midian. Uh, in verse one, it says, then again, Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah. Guess who's Israel is having problems with right now? The Midianites. Those pesky little Midianites, they show up. And this is not the only time they show up. The pesky little Midianites were around. Guess who they were? They were the ones that grabbed Joseph, sold him into Egypt. It was the Midianites. They just keep showing up over and over and over. Every time you turn around, they show up. Is there two going now? Okay. You want to go see what's ours? I may have hit the red button. Where am I at? Those pesky Midianites show up. They're the ones that sold Joseph into slavery. That's a Midianite. I just wonder if she stopped both of them. So they were around when Joseph showed up. They were around, it was the Midianites. If you remember Moses, he's in the land of Egypt. Moses is in the land of Egypt and he, you know, he wants to deliver the children of Israel. He gets, you know, maybe a little impatient. He winds up killing an Egyptian. And then he gets himself in trouble and he gets scared and he leaves. And he goes to where? Midian. And for 40 years, we say Moses was backslidden in Midian. That's where he went. Then he marries someone from Midia in Exodus 25. Pharaoh sought to slay Moses. He spent 40 years in Midian. In Exodus chapter 2, I'm sorry, the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, filled the troughs to water their father's flock. A little bit later, Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Sipporah his daughter. Moses got out of the will of God, got a little ahead of God. Next thing you know, he's in Midian. Fast forward a little bit, you go up to Numbers 22. Balaam. Balak. Numbers 22.6 says, come now therefore I pray thee and curse me this people. You remember the story, Balak is trying to get Balaam the prophet to curse Israel. For they are too mighty for me. Preadventure, I shall prevail that we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land. And the elders of Moab, that's Balak, and the elders of Midian, departed with rewards of divination in their hand. Midian was tied in with that whole Balak-Balaam thing to try to get Balaam to curse Israel. A little while later, of course, we know Balaam couldn't curse Israel. Instead, he blessed him, and Balaam got awful upset with him. And then a little while later, Balaam told Balaam how to get Israel all messed up. Hey, intermingle with them. Marry their daughters and take their sons and give them your daughters. And that's what started happening. And next thing you know, Israel is a mess. Tangled in with the Midianites again. And then you come down to Baal Peor, and the Lord's fed up with it, and Phineas goes out, and, you know, we wind up killing the Israelite and the Midianitish woman. It says, and Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of the congregation of the children of Israel. And the name of the Midianite-ish woman that was slain was Cosby, the daughter of Zur. He was head over a people and of the chief in Midian. They showed up again. It says in chapter 25, vex the Midianites and smite them, for they vexed you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor. Once again, the Midianites rear their ugly heads and they've caused Israel a lot of trouble and a lot of turmoil. The Midianites almost wind up being like a picture of something that just keeps nagging at you, keeps coming back, keeps coming back, keeps coming back. It had its roots way back yonder with Abraham. And something went wrong. And then for years and years and years and years after, the Midianites kept showing up, kept showing up, kept after Israel, kept after Israel. Israel kept falling. Israel kept falling to pray to the Midianites. Israel kept falling to the wiles of the Midianites. Finally, the Lord says, we need to get rid of these Midianites. Why had this befallen us? I'll tell you why sometimes things befall us, because it's time to get rid of the Midianites. Amen? Sometimes we have things that keep creeping up in our lives, creeping up in our lives, creeping up in our lives, and then we wind up going through some kind of turmoil and maybe facing destruction, and they're in the position that the nation of Israel is in, and the whole purpose of that thing in Judges chapter six and Judges chapter seven, right in through here, is because the Lord wants to get rid of the Midianites. Amen? The Lord wants to get rid of the Midianites. Sometimes it's a picture of maybe a habit we picked up along the way that's not good. Maybe it's a bad character trait. Maybe it's a certain sin that doth so easily beset us. Why hath this befallen us, Gideon said. He's sitting down there just trying to scrape up enough food to survive the day. And the Lord's put the nation of Israel through all of this. And he told us right up front, because the evil they did, because they didn't follow the Lord's commandments, right? Because of the decisions that they had made. And now, another reason why sometimes things befall us is because the Lord's got us to a point where he says, you know what? It's time, brethren. It is time to get some victory. over that thing that's been pestering us for so long. The Lord reaches down, and the Midianites are the problem, and they have been for the nation of Israel for hundreds and hundreds of years. Abraham was way before Egypt, right? They were in Egypt 400 years. Judges happens way after Egypt. Well, not way after, but after Egypt. We're talking four, 500 year span, these Midianites have been plugging away at the nation of Israel, plugging away at the nation of Israel. And sometimes, sometimes the Lord raises up stuff in our lives because it's time to get victory over the Midianites. Amen? Time to get victory over the Midianites. Hebrews 12 says, wherefore seeing We are also encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin with which death so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Here's where we sit, brethren. We sit in a nation that's headed towards destruction if we're not careful. The Lord's looking down, tapping each one of us. And he wants to give you courage. Why? Because it's time to get rid of the Midianites in our lives. Right? Now, Gideon got to do it very carnally. Even if it was, you know, pitchers and lamps and they all, Midianites all killed themselves because they got afraid. You remember the story. But the idea is the Lord taps us and says, I want you to have courage. I want you to have courage. I want you to have courage. Why? Because the nations go in towns towards this destruction. And if we don't get a hold of this Midianite problem, the nation of Israel is a goner. And the Lord wants you and I to be part of that solution. He wants you and I to rise up, to have that courage, and to be part of the solution that has victory over the Midianites. Right? So what are the Midianites? Well, it may be different for each one of us, but there's things we can, we can get victory over. We can rise above and the Lord can give us courage. Why? Because we're in a, we're in a place where there's a lot of things going on around us that there's destruction that's eminent and, and somebody's got to step up and do it. Amen? Let us lay aside every weight and the sin with which death so easily beset us. Brethren, this thing we're talking, we're talking the Lord Jesus Christ and the devil. And we're getting closer and closer and closer to the time when the Antichrist comes in and takes over. And all this stuff we've been reading about in biblical prophecy becomes reality. And I know that the rapture is going to happen first and we're going to be covering that in First Corinthians and on Sunday evenings when we're covering that in Bible study, we're getting ready to get into the whole thing. I'm going to do a bunch of stuff on the raptures and the tribulation and all that stuff. We're getting ready to talk about that. But we know that it's getting close. And what the Lord needs from us now is to have courage. That's why he picked out Gideon. so that we can stand up, brethren, we can do our part to transform whatever we have the influence to transform. Maybe it's only ourselves. Maybe it's our family. Maybe it's our church. Maybe it's our town. Maybe it's our country. But we gotta have enough courage to stand up and be the influence the Lord wants us to be. And you know what happened? And I'm done. By the time we get to Judges 8, this whole thing is over with Gideon. The Bible says this, thus was Midian subdued. You understand? It worked. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted up their heads no more. And I was glancing through, trying to find the references to Midian, the Midianites after this in Judges. And every reference that I find, found, excuse me, was just kind of a reference to back, remembering what happened back then. It worked. The Lord tapped Gideon. And yeah, Israel had made a lot of bad decisions along the way. And they were headed for destruction. But the purpose is the Lord wanted to get rid of those Midianites. And the Lord tapped Gideon. And Gideon had the courage to stand up. And they got victory over the Midianites. Amen? They got victory over the Midianites. I don't know in your life what the Midianites are. But brethren, we're in a place right now where the Lord needs us to have the courage to stand up. and get victory over the Midianites. Amen? And he's trying to tap every one of us. If you're saved here this morning, he's trying to tap every one of you. If you've never been saved, that's the first tapping that he wants to do, is to get that part settled. If you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, that's the best decision you'll ever make in your life. I'd encourage you to make that before you leave this building. You don't know what a day may bring. None of us know. But for those of us that are saved, our job, let's get rid of them Midianites. Why? We got a country and a family and our sphere of influence is kind of depending on us. And we need to be the ones that have courage. Amen? Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you again for a chance to be here on a Sunday morning. You are a great God. You're a mighty God. And Father, I do realize that the time, the prophetical time clock of your book, we see it clearly. It's running out. We're getting closer and closer to the point where you're going to be ready to come back. You're going to be ready to get us out of here. Father, as that approaches, help us to remember there's some things still that need to be gotten victory over. There's decisions that need to be made on a daily basis that are godly and that are the right way and that those decisions, Father, they form the core of who we are. They form who we are, what our life is. And Lord, you allow us to make those decisions with a free will, but I pray that you'd help us to remember the bigger picture. Help us to remember there's a nation that's headed for destruction. You would like to tap somebody and give them courage. And Father, there's Midianites that need to be destroyed, victory that needs to be achieved. I pray, Father, you'd put in each and every one of our hearts to be a part of that. Help us, Father, to be able to conquer the Midianites in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.