Beforehand: Be sure to check out Pastor Ben’s message online if you were not able to catch it on Sunday morning.

Below is the outline of Pastor Ben's message.

The Deep Six Study follows.

Epic - “Preparation”

1 – Adversity is Opportunity – Judges 6:1-3,6

2 – The Mundane is Mighty – Judges 6:11-12

3 – Do I Really Want to Hear God’s Plan? – Judges 6:16-18

Deep Six Study

Introduction

In John 6:44, Jesus is quoted as having said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” In Philippians 1:6, Paul says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” God has purposes He greatly desires to accomplish in us and through us. However, if left entirely to ourselves we would never respond to nor even seek God to start with. Apart from God‘s intervention, we always go our own way and do our own thing in defiance of our Creator, who made us, loves us, and longs to have us for His own to accomplish the purposes for which He brought us into existence in the first place. Of course, God has intervened by giving us the gift of His Son. The Father draws us to His Son by His Spirit and helps us respond and receive Christ and the redemption which we desperately need and He alone bestows. Thus, He begins an “epic” work in our lives that He will complete someday. What a great pattern: God initiates, God delivers, God begins and completes an epic work of sanctification (living fully for God). This week’s Deep Six Study introduces us to the “epic” plan God has for our lives.

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Part 1 - Corresponds to the first point of the message

Judges 6:1-3, 6 - “The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel …. So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.”

Genesis 50:15-21 – “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!’ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father charged before he died, saying, Thus you shall say to Joseph, Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong. And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.’ And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

James 1:2-4, 12 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

1 Peter 1:6-9 – “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”

Hebrews 12:1-3 – “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Comment – Our own waywardness often places us in the middle of adverse situations just like the Israelites in our story. Sometimes, however, we find ourselves in the middle of adversity and it has nothing to do with waywardness, but simply our living for the kingdom and God accomplishing His special purposes.
Whether we are wayward and in need of being brought back or just going along in the process of growing in Christ and in need of being propelled forward, we can be sure God will use adversity to get us to where He wants us to be in the outworking of His master plan. With hearts filled with humility, submission, and dependence we must cry out to God for His mercy and help. We must forsake crying “foul” and blaming and being angry with God. He can be trusted. We can be confident that our losses in the end will always be gains. God is in the business of producing beauty from ashes. So, we must view adversity as the harbinger of new and better prospects in regard to all that God desires to bring about through the “epic” plan He has for our lives.

Question # 1 – What is one encounter with adversity you know you experienced because of your own waywardness and how did God use it in your life to move you forward in living more fully for Him?

Question # 2 – What is one encounter with adversity you know you experienced that had nothing to do with waywardness and how did God use it in your life to move you forward in living more fully for Him ?

Part 2 - Corresponds to the second point of the message

Judges 6:11-12 – “Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”

Luke 16:10-13 – “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Matthew 10:40-42 - He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”

Matthew 13:31-32 – “He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.’”

Matthew 18:1-4 – “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

Comment – Someone has said, “little is much when God is in it.” A cup of cold water, a mustard seed, a child; these are small things relatively speaking. While we might minimize them, there is more than meets the eye with these and many other things that have great potential. Our tendency is to categorize some things as mundane and then set our sights on bigger and better things, forgetting that we are called to be faithful in little things. At the bottom of a winepress where he is secretly threshing wheat in fear of his enemies, Gideon is told that the Lord is with Him. God delights to come along side of us as we engage in the mundane and small aspects of life and manifest His presence and power. We must be diligent to seek the Lord and learn to walk in His presence and strength day in and day out in the routine of our lives. Preparation and training in the art of experiencing God’s presence and strength all along the way as we engage in the mundane and small things of life is essential to experiencing victory in the midst of so-called weightier and bigger Kingdom matters.

Question # 3 – Can you recall a specific struggle you had with giving yourself to something that was mundane and small and you didn’t embrace it and go forward with it in a good way?

Question # 4 – Can you recall a specific struggle you had with giving yourself to something that was mundane and small and you did embrace it and go forward with it in a good way?

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Part 3 - Corresponds to the third point of the message

Judges 6:16-18 – “The LORD said to him, ‘I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.’ Gideon replied, ‘If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.’”

James 4:13-17 – “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Romans 8:12-17 – “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Matthew 6:9-10 – “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”

Romans 12:1-2 – “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Comment – There is a very interesting dynamic that often exists in our lives. As we have already discussed, we regularly struggle with giving ourselves to the mundane and smaller matters of life, but puzzling enough, while we say we long for the weightier and bigger challenges, often when they come we become reluctant and not so willing to go forward into the foray that such challenges present to us. We question whether we are equipped for the task and we worry about what will happen with all the smaller and lesser things that must be set aside to be available for the so-called bigger and better challenge. Far too often we are more talk than walk. It is essential that we maintain an active conviction about God’s sovereign control and a ever present awareness of how He is at work orchestrating the affairs of our lives on all levels. We must consistently perceive the voice of His Spirit while maintaining a readiness of spirit to give ourselves to anything and everything to which He calls us – small or large, mundane or weighty.

Question # 5 – Can you recall both a time when you were not prepared for a bigger and weighter challenge that was put before you and a time when you were?

Question # 6 – How would you describe where you are, at being led by and yielding to God’s Spirit and what adjustments do you think God wants you to make at this point in your life?

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Conclusion

There is a problem that we need to recognize. We convey to those around us that we are absolute proponents of the plan God has for our lives and that it has become our heartbeat, when in reality we have become practiced at making sure that whenever we are exposed to instruction about God’s plan for our lives, it merely touches us superficially. When this repeatedly happens to us as Christians over an extended period of time, we become less the product of God’s plan and more the product of whatever else that is going on around us and in us. May God have mercy on us and deliver us from this plight. May it be that this Gideon series both through Pastor Ben’s messages and this Deep Six Study serve to help us launch out more than ever before with the “epic” plan God has for us in serving Him and His kingdom.

Under “comments” in the Deep Six section of the church website post your thoughts, applications, and questions from this week’s Deep Six Study.