Pastor Rich Brown – Trinity Alliance Church
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do
you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalm 10:1
Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the
Lord is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all His
miracles which our fathers told us about,
saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from
Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us
and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Judges 6:13
1Then
the sons of Israel did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into
the hands of Midian seven years.
2 The power of Midian prevailed against Israel.
Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for
themselves the dens which were in the
mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
3 For it was when Israel had sown, that the
Midianites would come up with the
Amalekites and the sons of the east
and go against them.
Judges 6:1-6
4 So
they would camp against them and destroy the
produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no
sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or
donkey.
5 For they would come up with their livestock and their
tents, they would come in like locusts for number,
both they and their camels were innumerable; and
they came into the land to devastate it.
6 So Israel was brought very low because of Midian,
and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.
Judges 6:1-6
Wrong Assumptions
1. We assume we know WHEN we need God
7 Now
it came about when the sons of Israel cried to
the Lord on account of Midian,
8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel,
and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of
Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and
brought you out from the house of slavery.
9 I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and
from the hands of all your oppressors, and
dispossessed them before you and gave you their
land,
10 and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall
not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you
live. But you have not obeyed Me.”
Judges 6:7-10
7b …she
will chase after her lovers but not catch
them; she will look for them but not find
them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my
husband as at first, for then I was better
off than now.’
8a She has not acknowledged that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and
oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold…
Hosea 2:7b-8a
When we assume we know WHEN we need
God, we are often wrong.
Wrong Assumptions
1. We assume we know WHEN we need God
2. We assume we know WHAT we need from
God.
Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord
Once it was the feeling, now it is His word
Once His gift I wanted, now the Giver own
Once I sought for Healing, now Himself alone.
A.B. Simpson
7 Therefore,
in order to keep me from becoming
conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it
away from me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
When we assume we know WHAT we need
from God, we are often wrong.
Wrong Assumptions
1. We assume we know WHEN we need God
2. We assume we know WHAT we need from
God.
3. We assume we know WHERE God is.
WHERE IS GOD?
v.1 “for seven years He gave them into the hands
of the Midianites. “
v.7 “He sent them a prophet”
11 Then
the angel of the Lord came and sat
under the oak that was in Ophrah, which
belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his
son Gideon was beating out wheat in the
wine press in order to save it from the
Midianites.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and
said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant
warrior.”
Judges 6:11-12
14
The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the
strength you have and save Israel out of
Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save
Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh,
and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and
you will strike down all the Midianites
together.”
Judges 6:14-16
JUDGES 6:14-16
When we assume we know WHERE God is
(not) when we need him, we are often
wrong.
6 You
see, at just the right time, when we were
still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died
for us.
Romans 5:6,8
TAKE HOME THOUGHT
IT MAKES MORE SENSE
TO ASSUME THAT
GOD IS HERE
ALL THE TIME
ANDREW KLAVAN
TAKE HOME THOUGHT
IT MAKES MORE SENSE
TO ASSUME THAT
GOD IS HERE
ALL THE TIME