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Flipside Christian Church
Madera Ranchos, CA
Well again, welcome.
I appreciate you being here this morning.
And if I had to pick my
my favorite season would be winter.
I wish we had one,
but it is my favorite.
Hey, in our series,
through the book of judges,
we're in judges chapter eight today.
and we are looking at a
at a man named Gideon.
He's been a
the main character for the past two weeks.
And judges six and judges seven.
And the totality of his story wraps up
really today in judges chapter eight.
So if you have a Bible and brought one
with you and encourage you to go to judges
chapter eight to believe the seventh book
of the Bible,
Genesis, Exodus of Alex,
numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, judges.
In my Bible, chapter
eight comes right after chapter seven.
I think it's the same in yours.
and so if you can
navigate there, it's also on our app.
If you download that and, and follow
along, it's a great resource to have.
Let me just recap chapter seven.
God's people are in the Promised Land.
They've been given the Promised Land
by faith.
Everything we see in the physical world
in the Old Testament
has spiritual lessons
and correlations for us
in our, lives, in our time.
And so the promise of God,
the Promised Land, there,
in essence eternal home, was given to them
by faith acquired by faith.
Similarly, salvation in our eternal
life is gained
not by our activity, but by faith,
but for them to enjoy the benefits
of the promise of God that is contingent
upon their faithfulness.
Though it's gained by faith,
it's enjoyed by faithfulness.
Similarly, with us,
salvation is granted by faith,
but the promise of God
and living with God in relationship,
the enjoyment of that is contingent
upon our faithfulness.
So salvation, the Bible says,
is by faith alone.
But the promises of God is contingent
upon our faithfulness.
And so the people, God's people,
though they're in the Promised
Land, are not enjoying the Promised Land
as they were intended
because they haven't been faithful
to deal with the enemies of God
that are still there.
Similarly,
if we're to enjoy a relationship with God
that we've been given by faith,
we have to deal seriously with the enemies
that are still in our lives.
I sin, you follow me so far, okay, so
in Genesis six and seven
the people have been under oppression
by this group called them
this clan called the Midianite
six people group called the Midianites.
And they were oppressing and harassing
God's people.
It got so bad that they finally rise up
and say, God,
you have to help or sorry for our sin.
You have to help us.
And so God sends this man Gideon.
Gideon,
has all kinds of
reasons why he should not be the one,
to work on God's behalf.
And for every excuse Gideon gives God,
God says your excuses
are of no consequence to me.
I've chosen you.
I've called you. You just need to respond.
And so God takes Gideon through this,
this strange
boot camp of sorts
to get his military guys ready.
The forces of the Midianites total
135,000 men ready to fight
Gideon's forces.
He starts with 32,000.
God gets rid of 22,000.
Gideon's left with 10,000.
And God gets rid of all but 300.
And so get.
He's got 300 guys going up against 32,000.
And in an incredible work of God
and God alone,
God routes 120,000 of them.
So there's still 15,000
Midianite soldiers left
that Gideon has got to do away with.
So as the people of God can be set free
and enjoy
God's faithfulness
and promises once again.
So we see in this guy Gideon, he's humble,
he's faithful,
he's a leader,
but he is a man of great duplicity.
It's like there's two Gideon's,
there's two characters
resonant within this one man.
And we're going to see the conflict
that is within him.
And I think it'll be the same conflict
we see in us, the same duplicity.
What I love about, about judges.
And in this case,
Gideon is not the story of Gideon
in these pages,
but the story of God in these pages.
And so let's jump into this.
Let's see the story of God
as God reveals himself
through this man of duplicity
named Gideon.
That's what the Bible says
in chapter eight, verse one.
Now the Ephrem might ask Gideon,
so this is after the the big battle.
120,000
Midianite soldiers have been killed.
The every a the Ephraim.
I was one of the 12 tribes
and they were kind of up
in the northernmost area
of the Promised Land, and they were
the largest of the northern tribes.
They were the greatest ones,
the most military guys. The.
And so they say to Gideon, who's Gideon
was part of the smallest tribe
as far as the fighting men were concerned.
So the biggest tribe with all the fighting
men talked to get in the leader of this
300 men
army who's part of the smallest tribe.
Why did you treat us like this?
Why didn't you call us
when you went to fight Midian?
And they criticized Gideon sharply.
These are Fremont's.
You know, people just like this.
They're arrogant, they're immature,
and they are very ready to criticize
what everybody else does.
Yeah, but we see this over and over
in, in, in these Ephraim,
which they're going to do the same thing
to another judge and judges.
Chapter 12 named Jephthah.
They're going to do the exact same thing,
same complaint.
They didn't want to fight.
They just wanted the spoils
of another person's fight.
This is their problem.
They don't want to go to war this month.
The benefits of someone else's victory.
Does that make sense?
They don't want to do the work
they just want someone to give them
resources from someone else's work.
Yeah,
it's the offer.
Might.
And the Bible says that they criticized
Gideon sharply.
That Hebrew word criticize means
they complained about him and to him.
They chided him.
They argued with him. They debated him.
They were critics.
Let me give you some advice about critics.
A critic is one who thinks
they know the way but can't drive the car.
You understand?
you know what these people are like.
They always got.
Some say
they're not in charge of doing anything,
but they will sure criticize
those who are.
And so here's the rule of thumb
with critics
don't accept criticism from one
you would not go to for advice.
You got it.
As Joey from
friends would say, it's a closed opinion.
It's a moot point.
That is doesn't matter.
And so this is their complaint
against Gideon.
And now watch Gideon.
He's such a masterful leader sometimes.
Watch how he responds.
And this is great on his
part, but get to answer them.
What have I accomplished compared to you?
Authored Gleanings of Ephraim's Grapes
better than the full grape
harvest of abbeys or.
God gave.
Or of the Midianite leaders
into your hands.
What was I able to do compared to you?
And this their resentment against him
subsided?
You see what he's doing?
He's not explaining his decision.
He's not trying to reason with them.
He's just saying, oh, no, you guys,
you're so good.
What am I compared to you?
The the leftovers from your table
are better than our whole harvest.
You. You took care of their princes.
They were all. Yeah,
we put them on the run.
But you took care of their princes.
You guys are awesome,
right?
Listen,
he's a very diplomatic leader.
He understands
what will be written in Proverbs 15 one.
A gentle answer turns away wrath.
A harsh word stirs up anger.
So they're upset. They're criticizing him.
And he doesn't offer defense.
He doesn't say, well, you know what?
This is why.
And but he says, oh, no,
you guys are you're too important
to do this menial stuff that we did.
Sometimes
immature, arrogant people
just need to be puffed up a little bit,
right?
And once they feel good about themselves,
they quit complaining.
This would be a good lesson
for many of us to learn,
right?
But we want to tell the truth.
We also want to explain why we did not.
Sometimes.
Sometimes some people are so frail,
right?
So tender.
And you know that you're dealing
with a frail, tender person
when after 1 or 2 compliments,
they're gonna have problems in more.
That was the after.
Might.
And so watch, watch how this goes down.
There's still 15,000 Midianites
that are, that are fleeing the Gideon's.
Tell us to resume Gideon and his 300 men
exhausted
yet keeping up the pursuit,
came to the Jordan and crossed it.
He said to the men of.
Suck off that little community.
Give my troops some bread.
They are worn out, and I am still pursuing
Zeba and Zalman, the kings of Midian.
He said, look, we're fight,
we're still going.
And from where they started the battle,
to where they were at,
suck off is 20 miles.
So they've been chasing these kings
for 20 miles.
300 guys just running
and huffing for 20 miles,
and they're exhausted and they're tired
and they're hungry and they're worn out,
but they are keeping up the pursuit.
Listen,
we got to understand that sometimes,
even though you're exhausted,
you gotta keep up the pursuit.
This is true in life.
It's certainly true in faith.
It's true in your marriage.
It's true
with your children, in your family.
You will get exhausted.
But you don't stop.
And I want you to understand
the context of what they were.
They were tired in the work,
but they weren't tired of the work.
And it's an important distinction to make.
We will get tired in the work.
We'll get tired again. The work of faith.
We'll get tired in the work of God.
We'll get tired in the work
in the kingdom.
We'll get tired
in the work of our marriage.
We'll get tired in the work of raising
children.
We'll get tired in the work.
But we ought not let our hearts grow
tired of the work
to understand the difference.
It's okay to be tired in.
If you're doing the work
you're going to get tired in.
That's okay.
Just don't confuse
being tired in with tired up,
because the moment you let your heart
get tired of, you'll stop.
Whether it's your faith,
your obedience, your commitment,
your marriage, your family,
don't allow yourself to get tired.
And some of you right now
have confused yourself.
You think you're tired of,
but you're really just tired in.
And you're supposed to be tired in.
It's work.
But the moment
you let yourself slip into an hour,
I'm tired of
right.
You understand?
It's okay to get tired in
Jesus.
In John chapter four,
it tells the account when Jesus
was traveling with his disciples
and they stopped at this little
well in the heat of the day,
and they were tired.
The Bible says literally in John chapter
four, they were tired in the journey,
and they're exhausted.
And the disciples
say, Jesus, you stay here.
We're going to go into the town
and buy some food,
and some refreshments will come back
so we can be refreshed.
And while they're gone,
Jesus being tired in the journey,
this woman comes up to him
to draw water at the heat of the day.
And Jesus gets into this conversation
with her about living water
and who he is and the Kingdom of God
and a new life through him.
And she leaves completely reborn.
And when the disciples come back,
he is refreshed and renewed,
no longer tired. Why?
Because the work of the kingdom.
Though there are moments and seasons
when we're tired in, when we stay in it,
refreshment comes,
but most people confuse.
I am so tired right now in my walk.
I'm so tired right now.
In my it's is so it's.
And I'm I just you don't stop.
You hear me?
You're going to get tired in.
Just understand that's a part of life.
It's a part of faith.
It's a part.
Don't allow yourself to get tired of.
Being mindful
of the biblical instruction
to rest called a Sabbath.
Be mindful
of the biblical instruction of pace.
Be mindful of the biblical instruction
of boundaries,
and be mindful of the biblical example
of Christ himself.
That even when you're tired in the work,
you stay in it.
Because times
the Bible says of refreshing will come,
you follow me.
So they're tired in it,
but they're not tired of it.
You should always
be tired in it.
But never
allow yourself to tire of it.
So they come to this.
This group of people in soccer often say,
hey, give.
Give my men
some bread and some refreshments.
We're tired, but the officials just talk.
I said, do you already have the hands
of Zeba and Zalman in your possession?
Why should we give bread to your troops?
Here's what they're saying.
Have you already to feed them?
Because if you haven't defeated them
and they end up defeating
you, they're going to come back on us.
Do you see what he's saying?
Like, we don't want to commit to this
until we got a guarantee
it's going to work out.
They're cowards.
But this is the way a lot of us approach.
Certainly obedience.
God, if you'll guarantee me
that what you say is going to come true,
then I will.
There are some things that you say.
You know what?
This is the right thing
and this is the verb.
And I'm going to say yes to it
on the front end, trusting
that the back end
is going to be all right.
They're cowards,
and cowards abound.
Don't be one of them.
Then Gideon replied, just for that.
Now listen, this is a
this is a man of duplicity.
Such great diplomacy
with the one issue, but not what she says.
Just for that, when the Lord's given
Z bends our money into my hand,
I will tear your flesh
with desert thorns and briers.
Where is the gentle answer?
See, he also knew what the second
half of Proverbs 51 will say.
But a harsh word stirs up anger.
From there he went to Peniel and made the
same request of the people in that area.
But they. And as the minister God had.
So he said to the many people,
when I return in triumph, I'm
to tear down this tower,
and all of you are going to die.
When I do.
Do you see the shift in Gideon?
Do you see this?
I don't see anywhere in this.
In this scenario where he stopped
and talked to God about anything.
He's responding
from his own human emotion.
I get it,
he's tired, I get it, he's exhausted,
I get it, he's frustrated and angry.
I get it.
But at no point in all that emotion
does he stop and say, Lord, I am tired.
I'm exhausted, I am angry,
I am frustrated,
and all I want to
do is leave all these people.
But I want to make sure that I'm in
step with you.
What's my next play?
He doesn't do that, right?
He just for me.
He responds in his own emotion.
How many times
have we been in those situations
where we're tired and we're exhausted
and we're frustrated and angry
and want to burn the whole thing down
right?
Do you see what a conflicted man he is?
Sometimes he is on the money,
and other times
he's just responding in his own flesh.
Let me tell you this.
Emotional, exhausted responses
never amount to anything good.
And some of us have had to reap
the consequences
of exhausted emotional responses
to those we love the most.
And so I'm not going to read to
you verses ten through 17.
I'll just tell you what happened.
So Gideon moves on with his three
and they pursue these two
kings, Zeba and Zalman,
and they capture him.
They actually capture him,
and they capture a young man
from the community of Suck Off that Gideon
first asked for resources and bread
so his troops can be refreshed.
He captures one of those young men
and he asks this young man of God.
He says, give me the names and the numbers
of all the leaders in that city.
Give me
their handles, give me their contact info.
I need to get in touch with them.
I want to have a conversation with them.
And so the guy gives them all
the information about the leaders
or suck off.
And Gideon, with these two kings in tow,
gathers
all the men of suck off and of Peniel.
And he says, look, I told you I was going
to get these guys, and I got them,
and I told you what I was going to do,
and so now I'm going to do it.
And the Bible says he
tore the flesh
of the leaders of suck off
with thorns of the desert,
and he tore down the Tower of Peniel
and killed thousands of people.
And he tore down that tower.
He did what he said it was going to do.
Was it the right call?
I don't know, man.
That seems pretty brutal, right?
Do you see the conflict that's in him?
Do you see how sometimes he is so in tune
with God and his heart and his ear,
and sometimes he's just so human.
Do you see that in yourself?
For there are times
when we're just getting it right,
and there are times when we are so
destroyed
by our own vile humanity.
Yeah.
And so he goes to these two kings,
he said as he bends down.
Where are the men
whom you killed at Tabor?
See, these guys had rolled into
where his family and his and his is.
His relatives lived,
and they slaughtered a bunch of people
and get he says, where are they?
And they answered, as you are,
so were they, every one of them.
Well, look at the words
resembled the son of a king.
Now and get in. Ask them,
where are the men?
What he's literally saying is, what
kind of men were those that you killed?
That's what he's asking.
What kind of men were they?
And their response was, they're like,
they resembled the son of a king.
Now, like I said,
everything we see in the physical world
here, there's a spiritual correlation.
So pay attention.
Spiritually,
I want to draw some connections.
What kind of men were they?
They looked like the king.
They bore the image of a king.
The question spiritually,
you and I have got to ask is this
what image do I bear?
We have to ask, what image do you bear?
Who do you look like?
Do you bear right now before the world,
the image of the culture?
Or do you bear right now
the image of the king?
Who do you look like?
These men looked like the image.
The son of a king.
Do we look like
sons and daughters of the king?
Or do we look like
the product of our culture?
Jesus addressed
this very issue in Matthew 22,
in a discussion about taxes of
of all things the religious leader
said, tell us then, what do you think?
Is it
lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Jesus, aware of their malice, said,
why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin for the tax.
And they brought him a denarius.
And Jesus said to them,
whose likeness and inscription is this?
They said, Caesar's.
Then Jesus said to them,
therefore render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's.
When they heard it,
they marveled,
and they left him and went away.
Listen,
Jesus was saying, look, you bear an image,
and if you bear the image of the world,
you belong to the world.
But if you bear the image of God,
you are God's.
Whose image are you? Carrion?
He's saying.
Whose image do you bear?
See, because Jesus knew
what God had already recorded in
Genesis one, so God created
man in his own image in the image of God,
he created him male and female.
He created them male and female.
The image bearers of God.
We have to consider
whose image do we bear?
Do we look most like the image
of our creator,
the King of Kings, the Lord of lords?
Or do we look
most like the image of the culture?
And let me just press into this
for a minute.
God created man in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him, male and female.
He made them listen.
Every created
human is one of two genders.
And this may fly in the face
of the current culture,
because the current culture is messed up.
But every created
human is one of two genders,
the only created being
that is non-binary are spirits,
angels and demons.
And the only spirit
that would purport a way
other than God's way
is not the Spirit of God.
You have to understand.
And if it's not the Spirit of God,
it's demonic and its nature.
Because the Bible is true
that we don't wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against rulers,
authorities of powers of this dark world.
Whose goal is to drive humanity
away from the image of its creator.
I mean, give back to judges eight.
And Gideon says to them,
they were my brothers,
the sons of my mother.
As the Lord lives.
If you had saved them alive,
I would not kill you.
So he said that you are his firstborn
son, right?
And kill them.
But the young man
did not draw his sword, for
he was afraid, because he was still young.
Let me tell you what's going on.
It was disgraceful for a military
man to be killed by someone
who was not also a military man.
So for a military man
to be killed by a woman
or as a youth was an absolute humiliation.
So do you see what Gideon's doing?
He wants his young son, who is not
a military man, to kill these kings. Why?
Because in his heart, all he wants to do.
He does just want to destroy.
He wants to humiliate them.
Do you see the duplicity in him?
Like he doesn't just want justice.
He wants.
He wants to humiliate them
before he kills them
and his sons like dad.
I can't
like there was either something
about his character or about his.
He just wasn't ready to take a life.
I'm. Who can blame him?
And he can't go through with it.
And so they say in response,
and Zeb and Zalman had said, rise
your self, Gideon, and fall upon us.
For as the man is, so is his strength.
And Gideon arose and killed himself,
and he took the crescent ornaments
that were on the next of their canvas.
Let me tell you what's going on when they
say, as the man so is his strength.
What they're saying is like father, like
son, your son is a coward, and so are you.
That's what they're saying.
They're saying your son could kill us
because he's a coward.
So he has no backbone,
and he's just like his daddy.
So what is Gideon? Do?
They share business, right?
And then he says he took the ornaments,
the crescent ornaments
that are around the camel's necks
that literally
is the image of Islam.
The crescent.
And this is where
the Islamic people in Islam
in part originates.
And Islam has always been at war with God
to this day.
And he was right.
Said Gideon, will rule over
us, you, your son, your grandson,
because you saved us
from the hand of Midian.
And Gideon told them,
I will not rule over you,
nor will my son rule over the Lord
to rule over you.
I mean, getting his all over the map.
The first
issue great diplomacy, great godliness.
The second one.
I'm gonna tear your flesh up.
I'm gonna tear down this thing.
I'm going to humiliate you before I quit.
And that was like, oh, it's not like
God is the one you should be following.
Not me. Can you see the dichotomy in it?
Can you see the duplicity in this,
in this character?
Can you see it?
Here's the question I have to ask myself.
Do I see it in me?
Do you see the same duplicity in you?
For sometimes you're like,
God, yeah, I get it.
I'm yours.
I'm doing it right.
And other times.
We just live in our own
broken humanity, and we go back and forth
and back and forth.
It reminds me of what James says.
A double minded man is unstable,
and all he does,
you never know what you're going to get
right?
It's so like us.
He's why says I want to be your king.
My son's not going to be a king.
My grandson is going to be your king.
He said, there's no there's no monarchy.
There's
no there's no lineage of, of leaders here.
Here's here's what I know
and here's what we have to understand.
It's only the truly great
that can choose to be humble.
Everything else that is insecure
and false will self-promote.
And that's the danger
of a social media society.
Only the truly great
will choose to be humble.
Everything else that is insecure
and false will self-promote,
because they have to convince themselves
and everybody else that they're real.
And that, my friends, is that part of
the danger of this social media society?
It's all about self-promotion.
Pay attention.
Those who promote themselves the most
are the most insecure,
faulty, and false
mean.
Isn't that what advertisement
is convincing the public
that the product is valuable?
I mean, the interesting thing
in this passage is
at least the people have all agreed
this is our candidate.
They want handed a candidate and said,
I guess this is who we got this.
So watch Gideon.
I don't want to be your king.
The Lord only should be your king.
I do have one request, though.
This guy
that each of you give me an earring
from your share of the plunder.
It was the custom of the Israelites
to wear gold earrings.
The answer
would be glad to give them to you.
So they spread out a garment,
and each of them
threw a ring from the plunder onto it.
The weight of the gold rings he asked for
came to 7000 shekels,
not counting the ornaments, the pendants,
and the purple,
garments worn by the kings of Mideon,
or the chains that were on their camels.
Next, Gideon made the gold into an effort
which he placed in Ofra, his town.
All Israel prostituted themselves
by worshiping their,
and it became a snare
to get in his family.
Let me show you what's going on here is
I want to be your king.
God, long as you're king. However,
I do want to live like a king.
I don't want to be your king.
But I do want to live like one.
So give me the gold.
All of it.
When it says 7000 shekels.
If you were to equate that to gold ounce
and the price of gold.
He's asking for more than $2 million.
I don't want to be the king.
But boy, I sure do want to live like one.
Such a conflicted man.
He seems to have forgotten
that if you want to live
like a king God, obey
what God says about living like a king.
And there were three things in Deuteronomy
17 that God forbid a king to do.
One was to amass horses
so the king shall not amass horses,
because that's like having a proliferation
of their military.
And they would trust in their own strength
rather than in God.
So don't get a lot of horses.
The second thing was,
if you're going to be a king and live
like king, don't amass a lot of wives.
Because honestly, you got a lot of wives.
You gonna have a lot of mother in law.
One is enough.
I want to save you that pain.
So just be smart about this.
And the third thing
is, don't amass a lot of money.
Gideon, we don't have any
indication of the amass a lot of horses,
but you get down to verse 30
and you realize
he amassed a lot of ladies.
And here he wants a lot of money.
Do you see the conflict in his own soul?
I want to be gods,
but I want to live like the world.
I want to do it right.
But I also want my own way.
And he took that gold
and he made an effort out of it,
like the breastplate of the priest.
And they ended up worshiping.
This created gold in the image.
See what often happens
when God chooses a man or a woman
and gives them a ministry?
If you're not careful and humble,
that becomes a monument to the man,
and sooner or later that
monument turns into a mausoleum.
And it's just all about death.
Getting gets it right.
Sometimes you just drop the ball
just like us.
Thus,
median was subdued before the Israelites
and did not raise its head again
during his lifetime.
The land had peace for 40 years.
Gerald Bell
that's the nickname for Gideon.
And as you go through the next chapter
in judges, whenever refers
to get in refers to him as Jeru Bell.
Because what they're doing there,
they're telling us
that the spiritual sensitivity
of the nation is sliding.
They don't even call him by.
They call him
by the name of the foreign God.
The son of Josh went back home to live.
He had 70 sons of his own, for
he had many wives.
His concubine, no wife,
but his concubine who lived in them
also bore him a
son, whom he named Abimelech.
He Gideon was one of these God.
Was he a godly man?
Sometimes
was he a great godly leader?
Sometimes
did he walk in the ways of God?
You know where we're going.
This right sometimes.
But he was also a man of great complexity
and duplicity
because we would say it like this.
He was a man
who had a woman in every port,
everywhere he traveled.
He got a lady waiting for him,
70 wives.
And he named his son Abimelech.
You know why that's important?
Abimelech means the son of a king.
Gideon.
How are you going to say
you don't want to be a king?
Yeah. You want to live like one?
Are you going to name your son
the son of one?
Do you see the conflict in his own heart?
So conflicted.
And you would think someone
who is this conflicted
God would finally say, you know what?
It was a great run we had, but I'm
washing my hands, right?
Right.
But that's not who my God is for
this Gideon.
This man of duplicity
makes it into the Hall of Fame of faith.
Hebrews 11,
talking about the great people of faith.
And what more shall I say?
The writer says,
I don't have time to tell you about whom?
Gideon and Barak
and Samson and Jephthah, David, Samuel,
the prophets.
There's so many great people of God
that God used.
I wish I could tell you about him.
And so he makes this film a hall of fame,
a faith
with as messed up as he is.
I love the
story of getting not because it's a story.
Get him.
Because it's the story of my God.
And the Bible says Gideon, son of Josh,
died at a good old age and was buried
in the tomb of his father Joash.
And oh, for the of the abyss right?
He died.
And the good old why he was so messed up.
But the Bible reminds us,
if we're faithless, God remains.
What? Faithful?
And so, my great duplicitous friend,
when we dropped the ball.
God has already leveled
the condemnation against Jesus
so he doesn't have to throw us out.
When we are faced less,
he remains faithful.
Because if I am an image
bearer of the King of Kings,
he cannot deny himself.
There may be consequences I deal with,
and I pray God's mercy
and grace over them.
But even when I,
and even when you are faithless,
God remains faithful
for a man like Gideon,
to make it into the Hall of Fame of faith
ought to give you and I great courage
and expectation and joy and assurance.
But no sooner had Gideon died,
then the Israelites again
prostituted themselves to the bills
they set up
as their God,
and did not remember the Lord their God.
That was our first problem.
They didn't remember that he had rescued
them from the hands of all their enemies
on every side.
They also.
The second problem is that they failed to
show any loyalty to the family of Jethro.
Bill. That is Gideon.
In spite of all the good things
that he had done for them.
They made two grave errors.
The moment Gideon died,
they went back to the cycle
of disobedience, defeat, despair,
and crying out for deliverance.
Right back to it.
The moment Gideon was in the ground,
right back to disobedience,
defeat, despair, deliverance.
So many times in our lives,
God does something fantastic
and we celebrate it for a moment,
only to get right back into disobedience,
at least our defeat and our despair.
And we cry out to God for help.
And he is merciful
because he cannot deny himself.
And even when we are faithless,
he remains faithful.
And so he delivers.
And we enjoy that deliverance
for a little bit.
And then we get very back
into disobedience, defeat and despair.
This is the cycle.
But they made
two grave errors, two great sins.
Please understand this that it's easier
to gain victory than to maintain victory.
It's easier
to enter into the victory of salvation.
It's hard to maintain a righteous life.
Confession of sin.
Victory and salvation is much easier
than maintaining a life of righteousness.
And so they slip back into it.
And these two great sins
that they commit, one
they don't remember to tell their kids
and their grandkids about God
didn't mind.
Four nine only be careful
and watch yourselves now closely,
so that you do not forget
the things your eyes have seen.
And, nor let them slip from your heart
as long as you live.
Teach them to your children, and if you
got grandkids, teach them to them, too.
That was their first great sin.
Parents, pay attention.
Teach the things of God
that you know
and that you've seen to your children.
Don't forget them
and don't let your kids forget them.
And if you got grandkids,
it is your still ongoing goal
and responsibility
to teach to your grandchildren
the things of God,
what he has done and what you know.
There's no time limit on this.
If you're a parent and you got kids
until you don't, you teach them.
If you got grandkids until you don't,
you teach them.
That was their first sin.
Their second thing is that they didn't
honor Gideon nor his family.
And Paul will tell Timothy,
this is a great verse.
The elders who direct the affairs
of the church
well are worthy of double honor.
Especially. There's a great verse,
especially those
whose work is preaching and teaching.
This is a fantastic passage.
For the Scripture says, don't muzzle
the ox
while it's treading out the grain,
and the worker deserves his wages.
When he said, when Paul tells Timothy
that that these people
are worthy of double
honor, he's just talked to them about
two issues of honor, respect and finances.
He says that they deserve it,
and that's what they didn't do for Gideon.
So they slip right back into that cycle
of disobedience and defeat and despair.
But God is faithful. He'll raise up more.
We'll read about those
in the weeks to come.
Let me wrap up with this
and this next chapter.
You're going to read about
Abimelech, that son.
And what we'll see
is he is a broken son of a conflicted man.
Daddy's.
Pay attention.
Conflicted men
raise broken kids.
Men, we've got to get this right.
Guys, it's not about being perfect.
It's not about not making mistakes.
Gideon was imperfectly obedient.
And most of us
live in perfectly obedient strife
and perfectly obedient lives.
And guys like us still make it
into the Hall of Fame of faith.
But we're going to read about this son
who washed his daddy, a conflicted man,
and he was a broken son.
Let that be a warning.
Let me wrap this here. Parents,
moms and dads.
It's easier
to build a boy into a godly man
than to repair a broken one.
Same thing with daughters.
It's a lot of work.
It's difficult. It's exhausting.
It's trying.
You're fighting
against a very strong current,
but it is easier, as difficult
as that is to build a boy
or a daughter into a godly man or a woman,
than it is to repair a broken one.
Please understand me at that.
You will get tired.
And don't you ever get tired of.
You understand?
And if you're a young woman, pay
attention.
It's easier to grow as a godly youth
than to repair your brokenness
in adulthood.
There are scores of adults
in this room
who would attest to that very fact.
As difficult as it might be
for young people to stand on the truths
of God's Word in spite of a culture
that is pushing them the other way,
to stand on truth,
in spite of a culture that continue, lies
where lies become norm.
It is easier to grow as a godly
young person than it will be
to repair your brokenness in adulthood.
Please, you gotta get this.
You gotta get it.
And the key to all of this is the Bible
and is community.
These huddles.
And personal obedience
that starts with repentance.
In our duplicity,
repent,
God, I realize the duplicity
of my own nature.
I realize that there are things in my life
that are not according to your word.
And I get it. I agree you're right.
I'm broken and I repent.
I'll do what I can do to walk
the other way.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for your word,
and I thank you
that you've given us so much insight
into you and your heart through people
like Gideon.
In him we see us,
and I thank you that you are
the same God to us as you were to him.
Even in duplicity and brokenness,
you remain faithful.
I thank you
that as we bury
your image through your son.
That you remain faithful.
Father, there are some of us in this place
who have known for far too long,
who are realizing again
with pointed precision,
the duplicity of our own hearts,
the conflict we feel,
though we say we are yours.
Oftentimes we bear the image of a culture
that is not yours.
So for
those of us
who will choose to admit that and agree
with you about our own duplicity,
we ask your forgiveness.
We repent.
Guys, this is your turn right now.
If that's your realization
and that's your desire,
I encourage you in the name of Jesus
just to simply
say God, I agree.
I am double minded, often.
And there's a lot of my life that looks
just like the culture I'm living in,
and I repent.
I choose to turn the other way.
Tell him, say God in my repentance.
Give me all that your grace will allow.
Father, I thank you
for who you are.
I thank you for what you do,
and I thank you that you have called
imperfect, duplicitous, conflicted
people like me
and like us
into your kingdom,
into relationship with you.
And dare we dream into the pages
of the Hall of Fame, of Faith
because we've said yes.
We pray this things Jesus in your name.
Amen.
I said, I love you
and going through Bible is good for us.
Yeah,
the Bible tells us of itself that it is
sharper than any two edged sword
and is profitable for correction
and discipline and rebuking,
so that the man and woman of God
will be able to live according to the call
that we receive. It's good for us.
And so today, I want you to think
this week, and I want you to go through
and read for yourselves again.
Judges six, seven and eight, the totality
of of of Gideon's life, and kind of let
God put it all together for you
as we get ready.
Keep going through judges.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, listen.