Go Beyond Your Limits – Sermon Notes

Go Beyond Your Limits

Relentless

oppressively constant; persistent

Jesus said to him, “As far as possibilities go, everything is possible for the person who believes.” Mark 9:23 GWT

23 “Calm down!” the Lord told Gideon. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re not going to die.”  24 Gideon built an altar for worshiping the Lord and called it “The Lord Calms Our Fears.”  Judges 6:23-24 CEV

The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.  Judges 6:11 NIV

The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”  13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? Judges 6:12B-13A MSG

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah 1:5 NLT

Gideon said to him, “Excuse me, sir! How can I rescue Israel? Look at my whole family. It’s the weakest one in Manasseh. And me? I’m the least important member of my family.”  Judges 6:15 GWT

To Go Beyond Your Limitations

Deal With Your Insecurities

The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!” 13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? 14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?” 15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”  Judges 6:11-15 MSG

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  Luke 6:38A KJV

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, 1 Peter 2:9 NIV

To Go Beyond Your Limitations

Trust God

14 Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”  15 Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”  16 “Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you! Defeating the Midianites will be as easy as beating up one man.” 17 Gideon said, “It’s hard to believe that I’m actually talking to the Lord. Please do something so I’ll know that you really are the Lord. Judges 6:14-17 CEV

36-37 Gideon said to God, “If this is right, if you are using me to save Israel as you’ve said, then look: I’m placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only, but the floor is dry, then I know that you will use me to save Israel, as you said.” 38 That’s what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece—enough dew to fill a bowl with water! 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be impatient with me, but let me say one more thing. I want to try another time with the fleece. But this time let the fleece stay dry, while the dew drenches the ground.” 40 God made it happen that very night. Only the fleece was dry while the ground was wet with dew. Judges 6:36-40 MSG

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5 NIV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.  Proverbs 3:4-6 TLB

To Go Beyond Your Limitations

Look Beyond What You See

33-35 All the Midianites and Amalekites (the easterners) got together, crossed the river, and made camp in the Valley of Jezreel. God’s Spirit came over Gideon. He blew his ram’s horn trumpet and the Abiezrites came out, ready to follow him. He dispatched messengers all through Manasseh, calling them to the battle; also to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. They all came.  Judges 6:33-35 MSG

2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”  Judges 7:2-7 MSG

To Go Beyond Your Limitations

Go… Beyond!

16-18 He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He gave each man a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch in the jar. He said, “Watch me and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do. When I and those with me blow the trumpets, you also, all around the camp, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘For God and for Gideon!'”  When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords throughout the camp. Judges 7:16-18;22 MSG

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