Things start to go wrong when a Christian forgets his or her dependence on Christ. Things don’t usually go wrong immediately. There’s a drift that happens over time.
You might be drifting right now without realising it. Falling into spiritual danger, into sin, away from grace. And because it happens slowly over time, you don’t think it’s even happening. You think you’re ok. But you’re not.
If you drift from dependence on Christ, you’re drifting to ruin.
We’ll take a look at what happened to Gideon when he drifted, and think about how you can learn from his mistakes.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in September 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Beware your deceitful heart
We’ve looked at Judges 6 and 7, and how God took this weak man, taught him faith, and used him to lead a hopeless attack on a massive Midianite army.
- There were 135,000 Midianites, and 300 men with Gideon.
- But the victory was won – and it was clearly a supernatural victory attributable to God alone.
- God’s battle, God’s victory. Not Gideon’s.
- Everything about Gideon emphasised his weakness so that God’s help and strength would be glorified.
So read Judges 8:22.
The people don’t recognise God as their saviour, they only see Gideon. Our own society loves winners, loves to recognise success. But it won’t praise God for anything he has done – not even Creation!
They want Gideon to rule. They don’t use the word ‘king’ but that’s obviously what they’ve got in mind. Gideon is tempted. But his response is good: Read Judges 8:23.
This is absolutely how Israel was supposed to function. It’s called a theocracy: God as king.
But whatever Gideon said, his actions over time were different. It begins reasonably enough: Read Judges 8:24. A worker deserves his wages, and sometimes even a bonus.
But the haul he gets is over-the-top: Read Judges 8:25-26.
It’s a king’s wealth. Their ‘tribute’ was what a subject would bring to a king. And notice that some of the purple garments and gold ornaments of Midian’s kings were in the loot. Gideon said he wouldn’t be their king – but he’d dress like one and act like one. But then it got worse: Read Judges 8:27.
An ephod is a sort of sleeveless tunic. One was worn by Israel’s high priest as part of his formal clothes of office. It seems like a nothing thing to do, but there are obvious religious overtones.
Added to his ‘kingly’ behaviour, Gideon became a man who said one thing but did something else. He was stealing glory that wasn’t his. But the land did at least have peace: Read Judges 8:28.
We’ve see that after each of the judges so far. But in this book the cycle of activity is a downward spiral. We won’t read of peace coming again. In that time of peace, Gideon lived like a king: Read Judges 8:29-32. In case you think I’m reading too much into that, notice that Gideon called one of his sons Abimelech. Abimelech means “My Father the King.”
So Gideon was guilty of forgetfulness and idolatry. That meant that that’s what happened to the people too. Read Judges 8:33-35. But the narrator is in no doubt in v34: The victory was God’s.
What went wrong for Gideon?
- He started to believe the praise people heaped on him.
- Over time, he forgot his lowly roots and believed himself stronger than he was. Gideon was not a strong man.
- He allowed himself to drift from what he knew to be true – and he did that because he liked it. He wanted to.
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you may well be falling into similar sin. You might have confidence in your maturity. It’s easy to trust in your orthodoxy, your longevity, or even your reputation. But Gideon was like others you can read about in the Old Testament: Kings like Asa or Uzziah, who started so well but ended so badly. Don’t think for a moment that you’re too old to fall.
Be wholly holy
You need to remember who you really are as a Christian if you’re going to learn dependence on Christ, rather than self-sufficiency.
A Christian is someone with a new heart.
The essence of Christian life is inside out, not outside in. You’re naturally sinful and twisted away from God. And yet God set eternity in your heart – you know there’s meaning somehow, and you search for it. The thing is, you’re accountable to God for all the wrong you’ve done, said, and thought. He knows. You’re guilty. Your sin deserves punishment from a holy and just God.
But he loves you, so he came to you in all your weakness to do something you couldn’t do yourself (just as he came to Gideon to save him). Jesus is God in human flesh. He came into the world to save you. In his death, Jesus takes the punishment for your sin – if you’ll trust him to, and ask him to. In your weakness, turn to God. Turn from sin, and ask him for forgiveness.
Having gone to so much pain to save you, he won’t turn you away. He’s promised that.
But when you do that, you are radically changed. God is Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. The Three are One God. It’s a holy mystery. When you come to God for forgiveness, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in you – in every believer. He remains there, a kind of down-payment, a security. You are God’s, and he is yours forever. You have a new heart as the Spirit works in you. And you’re a new person, in union with Christ forever.
So with the Spirit in you, and you joined to Jesus through the Spirit, you’re a child of God the Father – forever.
This indwelling Spirit of God will produce fruit in you. He will change your desires – some quickly, some slowly. You will hate sin more and more. And you’ll come to love righteousness, justice, and compassion. You want to do right and put right. As you’ve been forgiven, you want to forgive others. Paul’s letter to the Galatians speaks of the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
You can’t ‘do’ those things, but by the Spirit’s work in you you ‘bear’ them as fruit. It’s his work in you. That’s why being a Christian is inside-out, not outside-in.
God does a saving work in you, giving you a new heart. Then he dwells in you, and the good things you do come from his work within you. Being a Christian is never, ever about having a set of rules written on stone to be obeyed. It’s about having God’s laws written on your heart and a desire to serve your Saviour.
If you’ve not come to God for that forgiveness, then you need to realise that you will die in your own sin. Hell and punishment are waiting for you.
But God would have you go to him – he’d love you to. If that is you, it’s also important that you see Christians for what we really are: We’re not special people with an aura of godliness. Nor are we cleverer than others with some kind of spiritual awareness that we’ve worked out somehow.
Christians are forgiven sinners. And we still sin.
Every Christian struggles with indwelling sin. If you’re a Christian, saved by faith in Christ’s work, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you’re still not the finished article. Every one is a work in progress, each with weaknesses and temptations – often things others don’t see. You will not meet a perfect Christian!
As the years go by, a maturing Christian should be able to look back and reflect on the progress the Lord has made in them. You’re not what you will be, but you’re far from what you were! As you look at the sinful world around you, you can see how your desires and wants are so different.
And it’s at just that point where you are in danger of Gideon’s failure:
- Indwelling sin will pat you on the back and tell you what a great job you’re doing.
- You’ll feel pretty good about yourself, maybe a little proud about the stuff you know.
- And you’ll become complacent, drifting. Adrift.
But you need to be wholly holy.
The inner person that is in union with Christ must be the outer reality of a life lived for him. If what goes on in your life looks much like the people of the world around you, you need to take a good look at your heart: Are you even saved? Does the Spirit of God dwell in you? Where’s the fruit?
Gideon’s drift was disastrous for him – and for others. What goes on in your heart spills into your actions and affects others. What example of godliness are you to your children, your grandchildren, or the younger people here? Do they see hospitality, generosity, kindness, forgiveness, prayerful dependence on Christ?
You must put sin to death in your body and cling to Christ in union with him by the power of the Spirit in you:
Be deliberately dependent on Christ
What does it look like to drift away from Jesus? It’s self-sufficiency, rather than deliberate dependence on Christ. But what does that look like in action?
- Giving in to distractions
Everyone has distractions in life. Life pulls us all in different directions. Family life – the school run, shopping, meals to prepare. Work absorbs a lot of thinking time, many hours each week. Then there’s illness in ourselves or others.
These are legitimate factors in normal, healthy living. But we can see them as distractions from Jesus. Our thoughts don’t turn to him in them.
And yet, because you’re in union with him, he goes with you.
You’re not separated from him, even if you’re distracted from him. So cultivate a mentality that says – even in the most mundane moments – “Lord, I’m glad you’re here with me. I need you.”
What else does self-sufficiency look like?
- Lack of focus on sin and temptation
Whoever you are, I can tell you this morning that you are far too comfortable with your idols. You barely know you’ve got them. Like Gideon before you, your idols are a snare to you.
Ask the Lord to help you see them, and then smash them.
Your lack of focus on sin and temptation will also come out in how you lie to yourself and to others about how well you’re doing. You’re still more sinful than you realise. So you should be struggling more with your fight against temptation than you are. You might find Life Groups to be a place where you can be a little more open with one another about such struggles.
Your lack of focus on sin and temptation will mean that you have blind spots – or even that you choose to have them. You’re doing so well in these 9 areas of temptation, you don’t pay attention to this other one over here (or you embrace it).
But in all these things, you would be very different if you were deliberate in your dependence on Christ.
A third way of exhibiting dangerous self-sufficiency is this:
- Separation from Christ’s body, his church, his people.
That might be a physical separation – absent on Sundays or midweek. Or a spiritual and emotional separation – where you allow hurt and unforgiveness to drive a wedge between you and other Christians.
But you need to know: You are not ok alone. You need Jesus. And he will minister to you through his church, his people: In the Bible read and preached, in singing together as one, at the Lord’s Table, and through the relationships, friendships, help, and encouragement of one another.
As you drift in these things, how can you reverse? How can you be wholly holy?
Get this loud and clear: It’s not in your own strength. Ever.
Cultivate a daily, hourly, ongoing dependence on Christ.
Ask Jesus for help, strength, wisdom, boldness – all day long. Give him glory when things go well. And also give him glory when things don’t go as you wanted.
Are you young? Trust Jesus every day; keep close to him all your life long.
Have you messed up? Trust Jesus now, again. Cling to him.
Gideon forgot his weakness, and forgot that salvation was from the Lord alone. He drifted over time into idolatry and lived a lie.
You, me, everyone here must live in dependence on Christ.