You know whether or not you have committed your life to God.  The problem is there are a lot of funny voices running around with superspiritual messages that God’s got to speak to you and tell you what brand of paper towels to buy when you go to the drugstore.  I think you better get a voice from the Lord before you buy pills today.  Make sure they’re sealed good and steer clear of capsules, with the idiocy going on in today’s world.  But there’s been an exaggerated need of God to speak openly.  God has already spoken.  He says, “You put your life in my hands, I’m gonna lead it.”  The problem is because it doesn’t look like His path, I wanna dig a hole a little deeper in the winepress and hide out.  God says, “Get out of here, this is your might:  I’m sending you out now into the arena of challenge!”

Now most people would think if the angel says that to him he’d say, “Yes Sir!”  “And he said unto him,” now Gideon’s turn, “Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family’s poor, and I am the least.”  And God said, ‘Enough’s enough!  Twice I’ve said to you!  Twank!  Give him what he wants!  Make him poor!  I agree, you bone-head allyoop!  Stay here and I’ll find somebody that won’t talk doubt to me.’  That’s Verse 16.  Is that what the Lord said?  You need to get a Bible and read because, see, you don’t know till you check.  “The Lord said unto him,” ‘You big mouth complaining idiot!’  No! “The Lord said unto him,” the third time now, “Surely I will be with thee.”  Well, that’s enough for Gideon.  Three times the Lord spoke. “Doc, that’s enough!”  “Okay, where do you want me to go?”  Right or no? 

Hey, all I want....  “You know the introduction of this message is long: I’m gonna get up and go in a minute.”  I want you to see that God’s used to dealing with people like you and me.  All Gideon’s done is bellyache out the language of faith, I mean of doubt—‘Oh my, if.’ 

          Circle those words: ‘Oh my, if, why, where be, forsaken, Oh my, wherewith, poor, the least.’  “And the Lord said unto him,” ‘You said it.  Stay that way.’  Thank God He didn’t.  “The Lord said, Surely I will be with thee.”  Nothing changed—from the start of the conversation nothing changed.  Circumstance still the same, Gideon’s still the same, the Lord’s still the same.  Nothing changed.  The Lord: “I will be with thee.”

Gideon should’ve shut up but he didn’t.  “He said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign.”  “Show me a sign!”  And God said, ‘I’ll show you a sign all right!’  Aren’t you glad I’m not God?  I mean, if I were God and not Gideon—but I’m like Gideon so I’m sympathetic with you—I mean, if I were God....  Like I say, if you want somebody to be hard on a thief get a thief to sit on the panel that judges it, but I’m so much like Gideon I’d have killed him.  When he said show me a sign, I’d given him one—one he’d never forget!  He’d wake up somewhere in eternity and say, “I got a sign!  Come to think of it, that’s the last thing I remember!”

“Show me a sign that thou talkest to me.”  How’s that for an insult?  I mean the Lord’s been talking to him for an hour and he says “show me a sign that thou talkest to me.”  ‘Don’t you go away God.’  You know, if you’ll just pause a minute, isn’t it—isn’t this a funny conversation?  I mean, he’s down there in a winepress.  He doesn’t say, “Oh my God, you are an angel!”   He just carries on the conversation bellyaching.  Finally, the Lord’s stuck with it and Gideon says, “show me a sign”.  ‘Now don’t go.  Stay right here.  Hey God, wait on me!  I’ll be right back.’  “Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee.”  God’s gonna wait now.  “Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee.  And he said, I’ll tarry until thou come again.”