The Baker and The Battle Cry

In one paragraph

This was week six of Tribe's "Work Smarter, Not Harder" series, preached by Brian Hunter on Father's Day. The message drew on the story of Gideon to lay out a distinction between occupation, how a person makes a living, and ministry, how a person makes a difference. The conversation was interactive throughout, with the congregation contributing observations and questions as the passages were read...

Read together

1. 1 Kings 5:6 Series springboard verse about the Sidonians being skilled at cutting timber, used to introduce the sharp tools theme
2. Judges 6:11-12 Angel appears to Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress and calls him a mighty man of valor
3. Judges 7:12-14 Dream of a barley loaf rolling into the Midianite camp, used to suggest Gideon's occupation as a baker
4. Judges 6:27-32 Gideon tears down the altar of Baal at night with ten servants, townspeople demand his life, his father defends him
5. Judges 6:33-35 Spirit of the Lord clothes Gideon, he blows a ram's horn and rallies the men of Abiezer and other tribes
6. Judges 7:2-8 Lord tells Gideon he has too many warriors, reduces the army from 32000 to 300, Gideon collects provisions and ram's horns from those sent home
7. Judges 8:22-23 Israelites ask Gideon to rule over them, he refuses and says the Lord will rule over them
8. Judges 6:24 Gideon builds an altar called the Lord is Peace in Ophrah belonging to the Abiezrites
9. Judges 6:34 Spirit of the Lord clothes Gideon with power, he blows a ram's horn and the clan of Abiezer comes to him

Talk about it

1. Brian drew a distinction between occupation and ministry, saying occupation is how you make a living and ministry is how you make a difference. How have you seen those two things get tangled together in your own life or in conversations with others?
2. Gideon was hiding in a winepress, afraid of his own family, when God called him a mighty man of valor. Has there been a moment when someone spoke something over your identity that felt completely disconnected from how you saw yourself at the time? What did that do to you?
3. Brian said that sometimes your ministry comes out of that which has tried to kill you. Is there an area of pain, failure, or hardship in your own story that you have mostly filed under God protected me and moved on from, rather than asking whether it might be pointing toward a ministry?
4. Several people in the room noticed that Gideon did his first act of obedience at night, out of fear, and Brian said fear does not disqualify you. Where in your life right now do you feel something pulling at you but fear or a sense of not being qualified is keeping you from stepping into it?
5. Brian mentioned that we are probably already in ministry without realizing it, and challenged the group to step into it intentionally. What patterns do you notice in the kinds of people or situations God keeps putting in front of you, and what might that be telling you about the ministry he is inviting you into?