Sending Sunday
Have I Not Sent You?
Judges 6:11–24
Edward Rangel · August 9, 2026
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God often calls when confidence is lowest.
The assignment may arrive before you feel ready.
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New places expose the limits of borrowed confidence.
College, school, travel, and gospel work move us beyond familiar support.
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Am I capable of what God has put before me?
Gideon understood the question.
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Gideon was hiding, weak, and unequal to the assignment.
God met him in a winepress, not on a battlefield.
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God gave Gideon more than self-confidence: His command and His presence.
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The LORD looked at him and said, " Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?"
Judges 6:14 · NASB
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But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
Judges 6:16 · NASB
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The God who sends His servants also goes with them.
His presence—not our adequacy—is the strength by which we obey.
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Gideon’s call came during Israel’s repeated rebellion.
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The cycle of Judges
Israel rebels
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Enemies oppress
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Israel cries out
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God raises a judge
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The land rests
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Midian stripped the land and left Israel hiding.
The raids destroyed crops, livestock, security, and hope.
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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 · NASB
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Israel’s deepest problem was disobedience, not Midian’s strength.
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God found Gideon hiding from the enemy.
Judges 6:11–13
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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 · NASB
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The winepress displayed fear, not strength.
Gideon hid the little wheat Midian had not taken.
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God addressed Gideon by the work He was giving him.
Present fear did not cancel God’s call.
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Fear may describe you, but it must not decide your obedience.
God never required His people to wait until obedience felt safe.
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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 · NASB
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Gideon examined God while leaving Israel’s disobedience unexamined.
Pain can obscure the harder question: Have we listened to God?
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II
God’s command exceeded Gideon’s estimate of himself.
Judges 6:14–16
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14 The LORD looked at him and said, " Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" 15 He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house."
Judges 6:14-15 · NASB
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The command came from the LORD.
The Sender’s authority gave Gideon reason to go.
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Gideon measured the mission against his standing.
By his calculation, the numbers did not work.
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God did not flatter Gideon. He sent him.
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But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
Judges 6:16 · NASB
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God answered Gideon’s weakness with His presence.
Confidence belongs in the God who accompanies His servants.
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18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20 · NASB
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The pattern of Christian mission
Christ has authority
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His people go
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Disciples are made
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Christ remains present
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Enter new places knowing who sent you.
His word governs you, and His presence remains with you.
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God’s presence does not remove obedience; it makes obedience possible.
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III
God gave Gideon peace before victory.
Judges 6:17–24
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17 So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. 18 "Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You." And He said, "I will remain until you return."
Judges 6:17-18 · NASB
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19 Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. 20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
Judges 6:19-21 · NASB
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God’s assurance prepared Gideon to obey.
It did not remove the hard steps ahead.
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22 When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." 23 The LORD said to him, "Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die."
Judges 6:22-23 · NASB
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Peace did not promise an easy road.
It meant the God who sent Gideon was not his enemy.
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Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Judges 6:24 · NASB
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We belong to Christ wherever we go.
Different locations do not change the calling.
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Choose now whose word will govern you.
Pray, open Scripture, worship faithfully, and speak when silence feels safer.
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Sending people means more than watching them leave.
Pray by name, make contact, encourage worship, and ask about their souls.
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Go under Christ’s authority, sustained by His presence.
Judges 6:14–16
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Trust the God who sends you, and obey His word.
If you need to answer His call, come as we stand and sing.
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Created with Ed Slide Gen · Keeping the Faith