You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
“When Success Fails”
Judges 8:22-9:57

Gideon
	Huge military upset
	300 vs. 130,000
	Not 1 causality on his side   

Gideon used success to substitute himself for God.

When success fails
	God takes an ordinary person
God helps them accomplish something great
	The person slowly believes they had more to do with it
	The person makes it all about them 
	
“An isolated man seeks his own desire…” – Proverbs 18:1

Indicators that is “all about you”
	Infrequent prayer life 
	Failure to consult others
	Resentment 
	Materialistic expectation
	Constantly guarding reputation 

2 things that pulls our hearts away from God
	Our strengths that turn into success
	Our prosperity because of success

Results
	Your heart sours
	Your relationship with God becomes distant
	You lose joy in life
	It spoils the next generation of your family 

Gideon (Jerub-Baal)
	70 sons
	Abimelek – “My dad is king”
	Kills 69 of his brothers
	Jotham – “Yahweh is perfect”

Lessons from a spoiled son
	God may be silent, but He is not absent 
	Our ultimate problem isn’t around us; it is in us