May 19, 2023
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It's been a fun assignment over the years to speak for some professional football chapels, especially my old hometown team, the New York Giants. Of course it's pretty funny seeing me in a room with them. "Here's the New York Giants with special guest, "the little guy." But on several occasions I have been able to go to the game that same day with the team chaplain. In one game he leaned over to me and he said, "Now I want you to see one of the most powerful men in this stadium." There were 70,000 people there and I knew how powerful some of the men on the field were. And I wondered maybe if it was an owner or an executive. Nope! The chaplain pointed to this little man with a big bright orange glove on one hand. "Him?" "Yeah." He said, "Just watch." And after a play, that man stepped out on the field, put his orange-gloved hand on his chest and the game totally stopped. Now that is power!
Who is that man? He represents the TV producers who are broadcasting this game all over the country. And when it's time to stop everything for the next commercial, He just steps out and shows his magic glove. Nothing resumes until he puts down that glove and steps back off the field. One guy - power over lots of big people!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Disproportionate Power for Your Disproportionate Challenge."
That's what you have to call this kind of match up, or the kind talked about in our word for today from the Word of God. Joshua 23:10 - exciting words: "One of you routs a thousand because the Lord your God fights for you" just as He promised.
Let's say you're a battlefield reporter. On one side you have a force of 1,000 people. On the other side, one little guy. Who's going to win this? Well, if the Lord God is fighting for that one guy, you will see the thousand running for their lives. That is disproportionate power. A biblical principle that opens up otherwise unthinkable possibilities for you, your family, your ministry, your church. The numbers are only slightly less lopsided when God says in Leviticus 26:8, "Five of you will chase a hundred and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and your enemies will fall by the sword before you."
When we were launching much of this ministry that our team is involved with today, we looked at the incredible work God has given us and then the comparatively small size of our team and we said, "How?" Then God gave us this verse. To this day it's still like five of us chasing a hundred because of the difference that a mighty God can make when He's fully trusted. In the unforgettable words of the invincible Apostle Paul in Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us."
Right now you may be facing some overwhelming odds, or obstacles, or needs. They look very big and honestly you look very small beside them. But, that's where God's miracle math comes in. You plus God equals a majority, but if you try to anticipate the outcome based on earth math, you'll probably hold back, you'll probably miss the amazing thing God wants to do.
His ancient people looked at the walls and the giants in the Promised Land and they said, "We feel like grasshoppers" (Numbers 13:33) so they gave up. But, two spies out of all those spies, Joshua and Caleb, looked at those same walls and giants and compared them to the size of their God rather than the size of themselves, and they were ready to go for it. But because earth math and earth odds prevailed, people who could have been living in the Promised Land ended up just surviving in the wilderness for forty years.
Remember this disproportionate power and you'll be more likely to make God's will choices. Because the less there's going to be of you, and the more there's going to be of God, you know what that means. The greater the victory is going to be.