<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Nina Nguyen

G.I.D.E.O.N.

I'm really excited to be up front, being able to share some of the things that God has been placing on my heart.

And I have a quick question for you guys.

How many of you guys have heard of the Big Bang Theory?

So the Big Bang Theory is actually a show about a girl and 4 nerds.

The Big Bang Theory is also how some people believe the world came to be.

Well, the Big Bang Theory to me is actually something I learned about and developed more in elementary school.

Essentially, it's a way to get the audience interested in your paper or your presentation.

And it starts with hitting the audience with a big bang of interesting facts about the topic or about the presenter to essentially grab their attention.

It's equivalent to a visual hook with the social media videos that you guys see nowadays.

So I thought it would be fun to show you guys some fun facts about myself since most of you guys don't really know who I am.

So, fun fact number 1, I am an extreme puzzler.

I have done a 60, 000 piece puzzle and a 32, 000 piece puzzle.

I know you guys have a lot of questions and I have a lot of answers for free to ask me after the sermon is done.

It is a really great introvert hobby to have.

And fun fact number 2, and this stems from fun fact number 1, I love doing escape rooms.

And before you guys get super impressed with me, I want to say, number 1, I have very smart friends.

And number 2, we are not afraid to ask for help or hints.

I think these are 2 really good principles to live life with, like have really smart people in your life and don't be afraid to ask for help from God, family, and friends.

And fun fact number 3, even though I've been a loyal attendee of Advent Hope for many years, this is actually my first time speaking up front.

And while I'm really, really excited to share the things that God has placed in my heart, I'm also very, very nervous, very nervous.

But thankfully, I know 1 person who can help me with the nervousness.

So if you guys will just bow your heads with me and pray, we're going to ask God for a lot of help.

Dear God, thank you so much for the Sabbath, for the gift that you've given us.

Whatever kind of weeks we've had, it's just nice to know that we have the Sabbath coming up.

I just pray that you'd be with each person here who's here in person or listening online.

Other things that I have to share will be relatable and encouraging.

And mostly I pray that John 3 30 will come to fruition where I must decrease, you must increase.

Everyone here see less of me and more of you in the things I have to share today.

As you guys can see from the title behind me, the topic today will basically be on the story of Moses.

I'm making sure you guys are paying attention.

And to be honest, this is actually a Bible study that I made a couple years ago and I kind of repurposed it to be a sermon.

And the same way I repurposed a Bible study to be a sermon, I also repurposed Gideon's name to be an acronym.

Now to be honest, I actually had 6 reasons why faith is hard to have because Gideon's name has 6 letters, but due to the sake of time, I'm only going to go through 3 of those reasons or 3 obstacles to having faith.

For those of you guys who might be type A people, you're like, oh, this seems like an incomplete message.

At the very end of the presentation, I have listed all 6 letters with the obstacles and some encouragement.

But just for the sake of time, I only can go through 3 obstacles to having faith.

We'll be spending most of our time in Judges 6 and Judges 7, and I'll be honest, I'm not gonna be reading all the verses.

I'll just be kind of talking about specific sections, so feel free to read it on your own time.

But before we even meet Gideon, I wanna talk about the context of the story.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for 7 years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.

Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel, either sheep, or ox, nor donkey." So let's just take a step back and double check this.

Israel did evil on the side of the Lord, and then we see that the Midianites have been oppressing Israel now for how many years?

It's not like for a day, it's not for a month.

They took their resources, they took their food, they took their supplies, right?

That's pretty difficult, you need that stuff to live.

So for 7 years, these people, Israelites, were being oppressed by the Midianites for 7 years.

So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

I think it's fair to say that if you guys were Israelites during this time you probably would cry out to God too.

Oppression for 7 years, again, that's really difficult.

Now we meet Gideon in Judges 6 verses 11 to 15.

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, while Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Gideon said to him, oh 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?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

It says Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press.

To me, when I was reading this, I was like, that seems weird.

What's he doing threshing wheat in the wine press?

If you read, it says in order to hide it from the Midianites.

The resources, they keep being taken by the Midianites.

So he's like, well, if I thrush wheat in the wine press where they would least expect wheat to be, maybe I can keep these resources for me and my family.

And that is literally the moment when the angel of the Lord comes to him.

I don't know if that was his proudest moment to be caught, but it's like, okay, so this is how Gideon meets the angel of the Lord.

And then of course he proceeds to tell him, why has all this happened to us?

Where are the miracles we've heard about in the past?

And then the angel of the Lord continues to tell them, actually, you're going to be the 1 who's going to help us get through this oppression.

Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

He's essentially saying, I am the weakest of the weak.

But you know, God works in mysterious ways, and Gideon is going to be the 1 who's going to help them with their oppression.

So the first obstacle to having faith that we see in the story of Gideon, G stands for grievance, grievances.

Back to Menu

G.I.D.E.O.N.

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Surprised by Love

1h

The Parables

The Rich Man and Lazarus

43m

Morning Devotional

Three Dreaded Words

25m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 4

1h 3m

Plenary

Sabbath School Q&A Panel

57m

Youth Week of Prayer

2 - Jesus Delivered Dorothy

27m

Plenary

Radical Practice

1h

Remember Lot’s Wife

28m

Righteousness By Faith

5. The Woman of Romans 7

1h

OYC 2011 Seminars

The Long Campaign: Lucifer, Lies, Love & Logic

59m

Sensationalism or Conviction

43m

Sexual Purity: Lost and Found

1h 19m

Sound Doctrine