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Cultivate Humility, CurbAmbition
8 Plays1 day ago
Judges 7:23-8:32
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Meaholics'
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We all know people like this. You paying attention?
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It's a set of people who live with an unspoken assumption that everything is about them.
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Uh-oh.
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Conversations they have always seem to circle back to them and their stories.
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Somehow they're the hero of every story they tell. and they want to make sure you know it in a subtle way sometimes. Decisions bend towards their preferences.
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Success somehow always features their name at the very center. I call these people lovingly meaholics.
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They suffer from a not so rare condition called it's all about me.
Gideon's Success and Emerging Pride
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And while it's very easy to spot that attitude in others, the harder truth, friends, is that same attitude often quietly lives in each one of us.
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It's the mindset that says it's all about me. It's not confidence. It's pride. And pride is the enemy of humility. Humility says God is at the center of the story.
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Pride says I'm the one at the center of my story.
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our passage this morning confronts this very sobering reality that our success in life can sometimes expose the pride a lot more clearly than our failures ever do.
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Gideon, we'll see today as we wrap up Gideon's story, his unraveling didn't happen until God gave him some victories.
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Gideon, like many of us, slowly redirects, if I can use that word, redirects our ambition away from what God would have us do, and it always just turns right around back on ourselves.
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want you to think about this this morning before we read our passage. When God grants us success, where does our ambition land? Does it land back on God's glory or on our own glory?
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is where we're gonna look at as we close out the story and of Gideon, the the remainder of chapter two and the first half of or of the remainder of chapter seven and the first half of chapter eight. If you were here last week, this is a ah quick review. if you If you weren't here, this will catch you up so that it doesn't seem like I'm just jumping right into the story.
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Last week, we talked about Gideon. We talked about how skeptical he was initially, how fearful he was, But yet God called him out and gave him victory. he assured him that don't worry, I'm going send you into battle. I know you have 32,000 men, but I really want you to only have 300. I'm going to give you that success because I'm going to be with you.
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And sure enough, victory followed. And rightly so, all the glory should have been given to God, but somehow Gideon interjects himself in that story, like many of us do.
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And he Attempts to grab some of that glory for himself.
Conflict with Ephraimites and Gideon's Diplomacy
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Okay, that's where we left off with Gideon last week. Let's pick back up chapter 7 starting in verse 23. 23 through 83 says this from the New Living Translation.
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should be on your screen if you don't have your Bibles. Then Gideon sent for the warriors of Naphtali and Asher, Manasseh. who joined in chasing the army of Midian.
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Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, come down to attack the Midianites. Cut them off at the shallow crossings of the Jordan River at ah Beth Barah.
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So all the men of Ephraim did as they were told. And they captured Oreb and Zeb, the two Midianite commanders, killing Oreb, the rock of Oreb, and Zeb at the winepress of Zeb. And they continued to chase the Midianites,
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after Afterward, the Israelites brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan River. Then the people of Ephraim asked Gideon, why have you treated us this way?
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Why didn't you send for us when when you first went out to fight the Midianites? And they argued heatedly with Gideon. But Gideon rep replied, what have I accomplished compared to you?
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Aren't even the leftover grapes at Ephraim's harvest better than the entire crop of my little clan of Abizur? God gave you victory over Oreb and Zeb and the commanders of the Midianite army. What what have i accomplished compared to that?
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When the men of Ephraim heard Gideon's answer, their anger subsided. It's an interesting tale. We're told that Gideon is given this victory, right, with 300 men initially.
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They chased the the Midianites, and you'll remember from last week this crazy battle, not battle, I called it, because there was really no swords that Gideon had. They had trumpets and jars that they cracked open, and they were screaming loudly, and the Lord confused the Midianites so much so that they started stabbing each other with swords. It was the craziest battle.
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Those who didn't kill themselves were told in verse 22 that they fled to a place as far as Beth-Shittah near the Zehariah in the border of Abel-Mahah near Tybal. The battle, understand, is won by these 300 men.
Impact of Pride on Community and Church
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And the enemy, what's left, this remnant of the enemy enemy is is now headed for the hills. And ideally what Gideon should have done, which everybody else before chapter 6 has done, is he should have just let it be.
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God had already given him the victory.
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He should have just let his people rest and the land rest because that's what we've been told through all these chapters before this. But Gideon in his own pride decides I'm going build up my army back.
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And it says he goes to Naphtali and Asher, Manasseh, and they join this army army to go chase off this remaining set of Midianites. I put in my notes, this is a cleanup effort.
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He's going to clean up these little guys that are running off. I also put parentheses, it's a personal vendetta. God never told Gideon, go wipe all these people out.
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He gave them victory and it was just that. But now Gideon jumps in the picture and he grabs these folks from Naphtali and these other couple of tribes and they go off and they rattle the cages and they clean up these people.
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What's interesting to me is the response that we get from
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Gideon.
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Ephraimites were called after the fact, if you want to say that. The main battle had already happened, and then Gideon picks up the phone and calls the Ephraimites. Hey, by the way, they're going to be running down through your land. Would you mind helping me get them down here in the shallow area by the Jordan River?
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To which they do, and they rout this enemy, the rest of these Midianites. But then they come up to Gideon afterwards, and they say, hey,
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Why didn't y'all call us first? Why didn't you call me first when the big battle happened? And I put here to myself, it's the first church business meeting in Bible history.
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They felt left out.
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And you gotta like Gideon's response. It appears humble.
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It diffuses conflict.
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But Gideon's concern is less about the unity of God and it's more about managing perception. You know these people when an argument comes up in the church? They seem to want to get in and smooth it all over.
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Hey, it's going to be okay. Don't worry. I know your feelings were hurt. It's going to be okay. Let me tell you how I'm going to solve
Personal Vendettas and Community Fracture
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this problem for us.
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right And immediately... They've turned a conflict back onto themselves and they're now the center of attention.
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Friends, this is exactly what Gideon's doing. His ambition is no longer fully aligned with God. He has other purposes in mind. im going to use this word misplaced ambition often because it's not ambition that's gone awry.
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It's not wrong to have ambition in life, but your ambition can become misplaced.
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Gideon's is misplaced. He's focusing on maintaining influence over this tribe rather than fostering unity and faithfulness.
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You'll remember last week I said pride does not always coming in roaring. It often whispers. Remember, you got this.
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Friends, it also comes in and it whispers like this. Diplomacy. Flattery. And control. Because friends, this is exactly what Gideon's doing right here.
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That type of misplaced ambition fractures community. It breaks up a church. It turns fellow servants of God into rivals.
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You'll remember if you know you'll bought your Bible history, Ephraim Israelites. They're Gideon's people. And now he's causing strife with his own people. And it only gets worse. It only spins out of control.
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I put something to think about this week. How often have we seen this in the church, this type of divisiveness? Misplaced ambition gone awry. Something that starts out good, something that starts out God-honoring and God-centered and God-focused, but our personal ambition gets in the way and it starts steering it away from God and back to ourselves.
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Feelings are hurt, people take sides, and the community fractures.
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And you have five Baptist churches in Milam County.
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I know what you're thinking. This is Old Testament only. This doesn't really apply to us. Well, the reason I had several of you guys stand since Kim and I had got here, if your memory, those of you who were seated, that means that you've been here a longer time.
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You'll remember that this very church has experienced that fracture and not too distant of a past.
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I mention that because I think we need to be constantly on guard. We need to be constantly looking and have some safety checks in place. And I put safety checks around me, your pastor.
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So that my ambition, which hopefully is aligned with God's plan, doesn't become my ambition and my plan.
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So that I have some accountability from you folks. So that we each have accountability to one another. So that we don't have somebody that steps in the picture and says, hey, you know what? got a I got this great idea, which by the way, they always start out as great ideas.
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Nobody ever comes to the pastor or to the church council or to the board of elders and says, you know what? I have this idea that I really think is gonna cause division in the church and hopefully we'll split it.
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It never starts that way. It always starts with, it's a great idea, and there are many great ideas, brothers and sisters, that are not God-honoring.
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We've got to be real careful.
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Let's look continue here, verse 4 and 5. Gideon then crossed the Jordan River.
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Am I there? Thank you. um I apologize. My screen up here is off, and and I'm just um reading, strangely enough, right from the Bible.
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I hope that's recorded and blasted everywhere on the Internet today. Pastor reading directly from the Bible. eight
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Chapter 8, verse 4 and 5. Gideon then crossed the Jordan River with his 300 men. And though exhausted, they continued to chase the enemy. And when they had reached Succoth, Gideon asked the leaders of that town, get this, please give my warriors some food.
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They are very tired. I am chasing Zebeth and Zemulna, the king Zemulna. But the officials of Thuccoth replied, catch Zaba and Zemulna first and then we will feed your army.
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do you catch what's happening here this first couple of verses in 4 and 5? He says, hey, we've been running all day and all night. My people are tired and they're hungry.
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I'm not. See how the story just turned back on him? I'm not tired. I don't need any food. I'm the one who's out chasing this guy right here, Zeba and Zolman.
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He's turned it right back on himself. It's not showy, but it's subtle.
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I am. They're hungry. My warriors. I'm the one chasing.
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Succoth and Peniel don't give them any food, verse 6 says. They say, first, you go win that battle, then you come back, then we'll give you ref food. Look look how responds. This is Gideon.
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Humble, patient, diplomatic Gideon, verse 7 says, after the Lord gives me victory over Zeba and Zalmanah, I will return and tear your flesh with the thorns and briars from the wilderness.
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What? Come on, Gideon.
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What happened to that guy that was so diplomatic and humble? Well, I put my notes here, his true motivations are revealed. This is what happens, brothers and sisters, when these great ideas that are not God-honoring start taking feet within a church.
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These people that were your brothers and your sisters that you thought loved you, that worshiped with you Sunday after Sunday, that sat in Bible study classes with you.
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Now they're questioning you. Don't you want what's good for the church?
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Then that questioning becomes a little more attacking. You must not love this church. What kind of Baptist are you?
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What kind of Christian are you? Real Christians don't believe that way. I've heard that before.
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He's got this personal vendetta that is all-consuming.
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It's got so bad that he's going after his own people, the Succoth's and the Penulite's. who who are Israelites. And he says, going to make you pay. I'm going tear your flesh. And he goes on the Penelites here in the next verse or two.
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He says, when I come back to you, verse 9, he says to those people of Peniel, after I return, I'm going tear down your tower.
Gideon's Ambition vs. Christ's Humility
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So I'm going tear flesh and I'm going to tear down your tower.
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If that doesn't scream vengeance, I don't know what does. And let me let you in on a little secret if you keep reading. He does both. It's a vicious attack. It's vicious revenge.
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It's gory details that I'll spare you and the children.
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I just simply put, misplaced ambition reduces people, oftentimes, to obstacles. When somebody gets it in their mind, I have to have this accomplished in the church, and you don't agree with them, guess what? You're no longer Vicki and Monty.
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You're no longer Wes and Judy. You're obstacles to them getting their way in the church. Which, by the way, I use those too because they're never obstacles.
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You've got to be real careful, brothers and sisters.
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Power goes unchecked.
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Pastors, congregational groups, elders,
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and that dirty D word, deacons. Nobody wants to hear that here at this church. because That's what happened for those of you who don't have history. The deacons got way too much power in this church. By the way, biblically the deacons are never supposed to have power.
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They're servers. They come to serve. The elders are the ones who hold some type of office, some type of function within the church. But what happens quite often is these people who are not supposed to have power get power and then they wield that in ungodly ways and trust breaks down and dehumanization happens and grace is lost and compassion disappears.
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We've seen it time and time again in church after church after church.
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You've heard the old adage, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Absolutely.
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It gets so bad, brothers and sisters, if if you'll just keep reading on with me. and I know I'm jumping. We've got a lot of scripture to cover here today. Jump down to verse 22 with me.
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Then the Israelites said to Gideon, We want you to be our ruler. You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers. For you have rescued us from Midian.
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But Gideon responded, I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you. However, I do have one request.
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Each of you give me an earring from the plunder that you collected from your fallen enemies. These would be the enemies, enemies the Israelites, who wore these gold earrings. To which they respond gladly.
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They spread out the cloak and each one of them threw gold earrings he had gathered from the plunder. The weight of the gold earrings was 43 pounds. Might want to highlight that. Not including the royal ornaments and the pendants and the purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian and the chains that went around their necks.
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Gideon made a sack a sacred ephod from the gold and he put it on warph war war Orphra. I always want to say Oprah right there. I'm just going to be honest with you.
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his hometown. But soon, get this, the end of verse 27, but soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping And it became a trap for Gideon and his family. what What's going on here?
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It's the spoils of war. They've won the war. The Israelites have come to Gideon and they said, you know what? Things are going so great, we want you to be our our king, our ruler.
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And Gideon rightly so says, who am I? I'm not going to be a king. The Lord will rule you. But, side note, if you just give me a little bit of that goal you guys have.
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I'd like to melt that all down and make an idol.
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Any red flags going off for anybody right now? It should. He started off so good. He started off with the right motivation. But then this moment reveals his true heart.
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He doesn't want the title as king, but he wants all the influence as king.
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He doesn't want to rule officially, but he wants to rule and reign behind the scenes. Brothers sisters, there are many people in the church that function like this.
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There are people that say, i don't want to sit on the elder board. I don't want to be a deacon. I don't want to sit on the church council.
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But what they do is they like to use their influence and their power and their position here and their money to make helpful suggestions, as my mom used to always tell me growing up.
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I'm not telling you what to do, but here's a helpful suggestion.
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Let me tell you what, brothers sisters, I can count on one hand since I've been here Helpful suggestions that certain people have given me here at the church.
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Helpful in the sense that it came with some power behind it.
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Some misplaced ambition behind it.
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We have to be real careful. matter of fact, this is the third time in my notes I put we have to be real careful.
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Subtlety, pride creeps in.
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I kept coming back to verse 23 all week long. Look at verse 23. I will not rule you, he says, nor will my son. Let the Lord will will rule you.
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This is Gideon. Doesn't that sound real religious sounding? Real spiritual sounding?
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Sounds great.
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But misplaced ambition often hides itself in spiritual language.
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Confessing Jesus as Lord or King means little, if not anything, if our actions quietly redirect our attention or our dependence or our devotion away from God onto ourselves.
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want to make a real point that this is a cautionary tale for you and I today. It's a sad story, Gideon, really. Because it says verse 27, soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves.
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Meaning they've laid themselves down and they began worshiping this idol that Gideon has made. This ephod that Gideon has made. And it has become a trap not just for Gideon, but his family.
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See, that misplaced ambition just didn't affect Gideon. It affected his family. It trapped his family. Do you know who Gideon's son is? Abimelech that you read in your Bible.
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you know what the name Abimelech means? My father is king. How would you like to name that? Who's the center of that story? Gideon.
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Even through his kid. Every time somebody says, hey, Abimelech, come here. Everybody hears that, oh, Abimelech's father, Gideon, is king. A life of misplaced ambition.
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Tied up in his legacy.
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It's a cautionary tale for you and I. We've got to be real real careful.
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Gideon's story doesn't close with faithfulness, but in this foreboding silence.
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It didn't just affect Gideon, it just didn't affect his family or his son. We're told in verse 33, if you look down there, as soon as Gideon died, Israelites prostituted themselves by worshipping the images of Baal, making Baal beareth their God.
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They forgot the Lord their God, who had rescued them from all their enemies that were surrounding them. Nor did they show any loyalty to Gideon despite all the good that he had done.
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Brothers and sisters, he had been wiped off the face. Nobody remembered him at all. Didn't matter if he said with his mouth that the Lord will rule you and that my son and I will not rule you.
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His actions proved disastrous that he makes this ephod and that's what gets worshipped. And they don't worship Yahweh. They end up worshipping this false god.
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Stands in stark contrast to what Jesus did. Gideon redirected glory back to himself. Jesus emptied himself. Gideon protected his honor. Jesus bore our shame.
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Gideon built an object that displaced God. Jesus became the perfect meteor between us and God.
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Jonathan Murphy, who took over, well, he was my preaching teacher at Dallas Seminary, but he took over Chuck Swindoll's church. He's now the main preacher out there. He said this in regards to Gideon. He says in this story, he says, Christ is it front and center in this story. Christ shows us what rightly ordered ambition should look like.
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Gideon shows us what misplaced ambition looks like.
Cultivating Humility and Redirecting Ambition
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Christ says obedience without self-promotion and authority exercise is what we are looking for when it comes to sacrificial love.
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I circle, by the way, obedience without self-promotion. Because it's really easy, brothers and sisters, for you and I to be obedient when we're telling everybody, look at how obedient I am.
00:27:11
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Right? Boy, I went to Sunday school today. I was there i got there 10 minutes early. helped set up the class. i you know I interjected five or six times and the teacher didn't even ask me to.
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Which, by the way, if I can say in the most loving way, is a dead ringer sign as your pastor is if you are the primary person talking in a Bible study class and nobody else is, that's a problem.
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Everybody needs to be joining in in those Bible study classes. That's why I sit in each one of your Bible study classes. Listen to the teacher, for one, but listen to you guys and how you respond. One person can't monopolize that conversation. What that does is that's just pointing back to me. Look at me, look at me. I have to be heard. I have to be the one.
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on center stage. I know the teachers spent tons of hours prepping and everything, but I want to be the one who's heard. We've got to get away from that self-promotion. What do we do with this today? As I was told before I got up here, make sure you know when the football game's happening today because we've got to get out on time.
00:28:15
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I'm fully aware.
00:28:22
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curb this misplaced ambition because it's so easy. It creeps in all the time in our lives. How do we curb that? How do we redirect that misplaced ambition? And then how do we cultivate humility? that's Those are the two things i want to look at. I just have three questions.
00:28:38
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Well, it's like that Rodney Dangerfield movie when he goes back to college. He goes who takes this test. The teacher says, only one question on the test. And he's like, whoo. And the teacher says, it's broken up into 99 questions, or 99 parts. So I say it's only two two or three questions, but I want you to listen to these questions and think to yourself, where am I at in this diagnostic questions?
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When success comes in your life, who receives your gratitude, God or you?
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Success comes in many forms in our lives. Who's taking credit for that? Does God get the glory? Do you get the glory? and Second, I put in here, think we need to ask ourselves this week as you sit down and you reflect on this sermon, hopefully looking at your notes, what am I building?
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And who is it meant to glorify?
00:29:34
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You can easily answer what you're building by looking at where you spend your time, your talent, and your treasure at. That's what you're building, brothers and sisters. If it's a ranch and outside of Milam County, and that's where you spend all your time and all your money and all your treasure,
00:29:51
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let that be very telling. Is that a kingdom-building effort? Are you pouring into the youth? Are you spending time with the youth? Because they're the ones filling the seat when we are long gone.
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Are you teaching a Bible study class? Are you preparing? Lord, I might not be ready for that. Can you work in my heart? can you Can you help me help people here at this church?
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Who is it meant to glorify? God or ourselves? So how do we redirect this ambition? I wish I would have these three slides, but it's all right. I'm just going to tell you.
00:30:33
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I was reaffirmed, by the way this first one, as I read somebody else's comment this week on a completely different subject. This lady, who is a a fantastic biblical scholar, had said this in ah in a posting that she had wrote, and in a long posting, but she put in the highlights this one section. She said, every time I get in trouble in my life, it's because I haven't consulted my brothers and sisters in Christ.
00:31:01
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So my first practice for you if you want to put this into into application today, this week. I would say submit your plans or submit your goals that you have in your life to prayer and to some trusted community, whether you're brothers and sisters in Christ, before you pursue them.
00:31:24
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So that doesn't mean, hey, I'm gonna go down this road and then I'm gonna get Kathy and Darrell and Kim and I'm gonna get them on board with my plan. No, it means going to them first and saying, this is what I feel like God has placed on my heart. Is this something God honoring? Do you think this is the direction I should be going?
00:31:43
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You'd be surprised when you get two or three or five godly, Holy Spirit-filled people praying for you, consulting with you.
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keeps us from going misaligned or misplaced ambitions. Second, if you struggle in this area where it's all about me, it's all about you.
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I'm not asking you to raise your hand today. I know that would be fruitless.
00:32:15
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Here's one way you can start curbing that desire. Start celebrating others publicly, even when it costs you your recognition.
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Even if you and somebody else say at your job or your school, both of you do something and and both of you are deserving of the credit, imagine how great it feels if you just go, Frank deserved that.
00:32:42
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Frank's the one who did all that. Frank did a great job, didn't he? It's less about me, it's all about Frank. It's that type of practice over time that curbs this desire to shift the attention back to us all the time. I don't know why we're always doing that.
00:33:01
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And third, I just put this, practice hidden obedience. Hidden obedience means that you're faithful even when nobody sees it except for God and nobody applauses you, not even God.
00:33:14
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You just do it to do it and you're not looking for any applause. And I know you're thinking to yourself, sign me up for that. We all want the applause. But brothers sisters, that's what humility is. It's just doing it because God requires us to do it. And we don't need the applause of man. All right, I'm going to end with just a really great illustration one of my teachers gave me a long time ago.
00:33:41
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Imagine, if you will, two ladders leaning against the wall. Same height ladders leaning against the wall. One ladder is is labeled ambition.
00:33:53
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The other ladder is labeled humility. From a distance, they appear to be the exact same height. Both require the same amount of effort to climb.
00:34:03
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Both require intentional movement towards that ladder. The ladder that's labeled ambition asks this question. How high can I climb so that others will see me?
00:34:19
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The ladder of humility asks a different question. How faithfully can I obey so that God is seen?
00:34:29
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Friends, the difference is not effort. It's not your effort. It's the direction.
00:34:37
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Misplaced ambition always answers the wrong question. Whereas Christ-centered humility, what you and I are called to display, trusts God with a height and concerns itself with our faithfulness or our obedience.
00:34:52
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May we be a people who redirects our misplaced ambition and cultivates hum humanityity humility in all God's people's sake.