Nothing Missing | Pastor Marcus St.Julien | MOTIV8 Church

Jehovah Shalom is not peace as silence, a quiet room, or a life with no problems. Shalom means whole, complete, nothing missing, like a wall with no gaps, a body with no wound, a debt paid with no cosigner. Peace is not the absence of something. Peace is the presence of wholeness.

Judges 6 opens with Israel doing evil, getting crushed, crying out, getting rescued, and then doing it all over again. Israel treats God like a reset button, like blowing on a Nintendo cartridge instead of learning how to endure. Midian drives Israel into mountains, caves, and strongholds, and hiding becomes infrastructure. Hiding places become home when people stop expecting anything to change.

Gideon threshes wheat in a winepress because fear has put him in the wrong place. A winepress is a hole for grapes, while wheat needs open ground and wind for separation. Gideon does the right work with the wrong tool, trying to do with a stick what the wind was meant to do. The Holy Spirit and godly community bring the breeze that separates wheat from chaff, kingdom from whatever has been attached to it.

God finds Gideon hiding in a pit and calls him a valiant warrior. God does not describe what He sees. God announces what He created. Gideon answers with complaints, receipts, and a whole resume of why God could not use him, but God does not argue with any of it. God says, “Go in the strength you have,” because the calling is not waiting on a degree, an endorsement, a breakthrough, or somebody else’s anointing.

Gideon receives a sign, offers costly food in a famine, and watches fire come from a rock. God says, “Peace to you. Do not be afraid,” and Gideon builds an altar called Jehovah Shalom. Midian is still in the valley, Gideon is still from the weakest family, and the wheat is still in the pit. Shalom shows up before anything gets fixed because God is not merely trying to fix circumstances. God is making people whole.

God gives Gideon an assignment that same night: tear down Baal in his father’s yard. Shalom does not make fear disappear. Shalom makes fear stop being in charge. Rest returns people to assignment, but hiding removes them from it. Jesus carries the punishment for peace, and surrender to Him is the only way out of the winepress.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Peace is the presence of wholeness [04:43] Shalom is bigger than relief from noise, pain, pressure, or conflict. God gives a completeness that reaches the gaps fear has taught people to manage. A person can have unresolved circumstances and still stand in the settled wholeness of Jehovah Shalom. [04:43]
• 2. Hiding is not the same as rest [19:42] Rest is God’s idea, but hiding turns temporary shelter into permanent identity. Fear can make a winepress, a calendar, a screen, or even church activity feel safer than obedience. Rest brings a person back to God’s assignment, while hiding keeps that person alive without making that person whole. [19:42]
• 3. God calls what He created [15:33] God calls Gideon a valiant warrior while Gideon is trembling in a hole. God’s word does not wait for appearance to catch up before it speaks identity. Faith begins when a person trusts God’s declaration more than the evidence of present fear. [15:33]
• 4. Go in the strength already given [20:29] God does not send Gideon after he becomes impressive enough to qualify. God sends Gideon with the strength formed through pressing, survival, and honest cries. The thing a person tries to leave behind may be the very thing God redeems for kingdom work. [20:29]
• 5. Shalom sends people into obedience [33:24] God gives Gideon peace and then tells him to tear down the altar in his own yard. Peace is not permission to avoid hard things, especially idols that have shaped a home, heart, or future. God’s wholeness gives courage to confront what fear once allowed to rule.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [01:05] - The Foster Child and Fear
• [03:16] - Jehovah Shalom Defined
• [05:08] - Israel’s Cycle of Hiding
• [09:50] - Gideon in the Winepress
• [12:24] - The Wrong Tool and Wrong Place
• [14:07] - Called a Valiant Warrior
• [16:23] - Gideon’s Honest Complaint
• [20:10] - Go in the Strength You Have
• [25:44] - Fire From the Rock
• [27:42] - Peace Before Circumstances Change
• [30:14] - Tearing Down Baal
• [34:12] - Peace Does Not Delete Fear
• [37:07] - Busyness as a Winepress
• [39:04] - Jesus Is the Way to Shalom

Bible Reading

Judges 6:11-24
“The angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.” Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you.” He said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s family.” “I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.” Then he said to him, “If I have found favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me. Please do not leave this place until I return to you. I will bring back my gift and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.” So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from a half bushel of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat with the unleavened bread, put it on this stone, and pour the broth on it.” So he did that. The angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. When Gideon realized that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, “Oh no, Lord God! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” But the Lord said to him, “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.” So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites today.” [09:58]

Isaiah 53:5
“But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.” [39:04]

Judges 6:25-27
“On that very night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old. Then tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on top of this mound. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.” So Gideon took ten of his male servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city to do it in the daytime, he did it at night.” [30:14]

Observation questions

1. What details in Judges 6 show how deeply Midian’s oppression had shaped the way Israel lived, including where they made their homes and hid their food? [08:08]
2. What makes Gideon’s work in the winepress an unusual way to thresh wheat, and what would normally be needed for that work? [10:52]
3. How does Gideon respond when he is called a valiant warrior, and what reasons does he give for believing he is not the right person? [16:38]
4. After Gideon receives peace and builds an altar, what assignment does God give him that same night, and how does Gideon carry it out? [33:35]

Interpretation questions

1. Why does God call Gideon a valiant warrior while Gideon is hiding and afraid? What does this reveal about the difference between God’s declaration over a person and that person’s current appearance? [15:33]
2. Gideon brings God honest questions and complaints instead of pretending everything is fine. How can honest prayer become a step toward faith rather than an excuse to remain stuck? [17:56]
3. God gives Gideon peace before Midian is defeated or his circumstances change. What does this show about shalom being wholeness rather than simply relief from trouble? [28:24]
4. Gideon is still afraid when he tears down Baal’s altar, yet he obeys. What does his nighttime obedience suggest about courage, fear, and faithful action? [34:07]

Application questions

1. Where might fear have become a hiding place in your life—not necessarily a physical place, but perhaps busyness, a screen, constant noise, isolation, or even church activity? What would it look like to stop calling that place home? [37:30]
2. Is there an area where you are doing the right kind of work but using the wrong tool—trying to force through something that may require the Holy Spirit’s help or honest community? What is one practical step toward openness and godly support? [12:35]
3. What label about yourself do you repeat most easily: weak, behind, unqualified, abandoned, too broken, or something else? How does God’s way of speaking to Gideon challenge that label? [15:35]
4. God told Gideon to go in the strength he already had. What calling, conversation, act of service, or next step have you delayed until you feel more prepared? What strength has God already given you for that step? [20:35]
5. Shalom does not mean fear disappears; it means fear no longer gets to lead. What is one obedient action you could take this week even if you still feel nervous or uncertain? [34:34]
6. Gideon’s first assignment was to deal with the idol in his own father’s yard. Is there something in your own “yard”—your priorities, relationships, finances, habits, or ambitions—that competes with trust in God? What could surrender look like in a concrete way? [30:24]
7. Jesus carried the punishment needed for our peace. In what area do you most need to stop trying to earn, manage, or manufacture peace and instead surrender it to Jesus? [39:14]