Hey, listen, let's get into judges six.
That's the chapter in in our city, through the book of judges.
Here's the tendency when you look at the Bible,
especially the Old Testament, is to try to see yourself in the pages of Scripture.
That's a dangerous road.
Because when we look for ourselves, primarily
in the pages of Scripture, we miss Jesus and we miss God.
And so as we go through judges six, I want us to keep an eye out for
who God is and how God responds, what he asks,
how he interacts with his people.
Because when we understand who God is
and we understand his heart and how he interacts with his people,
then we can better know how we are called and called to respond.
So let's start.
Rather than looking for self in Scripture.
Let's look. This sounds weird.
Let's try to find God in Scripture.
That should be pretty easy.
But when we start from the starting block of self,
we miss God and we think it's about us.
And it really is about Jesus and the kingdom of God.
One of the things that I've realized throughout the years in my own life,
and in doing church ministry for decades,
is that when people feel nudged by God,
called by God, encouraged by God.
Well, when we feel that we typically respond
with an initial sense of reluctance.
In other words, I feel like I might
I feel like I might need to, God.
Is is that right?
Is that real? Do you really want me to?
Another way we try to we we try to make God
prove himself to us.
We we say, God,
I feel like maybe this is what you're where you're leading. But.
But I'm not sure.
So I'm a little reluctant to say yes.
Prove yourself to me a little bit.
Right.
Right, right.
We see in this church all the time.
Let's say yes to God on the front end.
And then as we move through, we'll figure out what we said yes to.
But we don't know exactly what we said yesterday on the front end.
It's called faith.
And we want God to give all this confirmation
so we don't have to move in faith.
And this is what we see in the Bible.
We see it in our lives, you see in Scripture.
And we're going to see it in this, this guy named Gideon's life.
And in judges six, I want to introduce you to my friend named Gideon.
Gideon.
judges six one through two.
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
After seven years, he God gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared
shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds.
The Bible says in judges six one again
the Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
This is the cycle we see in judges over and over and over.
They do what's right in their own eyes, which means they don't do what's right
in God's eyes.
It leads him into trouble and pain and defeat.
In despair, they cry out to God, and God in his mercy and grace, delivers them.
And they're appreciative.
They love him. They're fantastic.
They're walking with Jesus until they're not.
and then they
do what's right in their own eyes rather than what's right in God's eyes.
And they fall into sin again.
Despair, defeat, destruction.
And they cry out to God, and God in his mercy and grace delivers them again.
It's over and over and over.
I was talking to Michael, our youth pastor, and he said this morning,
he reminded me of this quote that God's capacity to forgive is greater
than our capacity to sin, which I appreciate.
It's Second Timothy
213 that says, while we are faithless, he remains faithful.
And this is why God continues to rescue us when we cry out to him,
though in judges we see it over and over,
and if we're honest with ourselves, we see it in our lives as well.
That we start living in ways that are right in our eyes.
And the culture we're in right now has a lot to say
about what is right in our eyes.
And most of what the culture says is right and okay in our eyes is not right.
UN okay in God's eyes.
And when we live in ways that are right in our own eyes,
but not in the eyes of God, that leads us into captivity, despair and destruction.
And when we get in enough pain, we cry out to God and ask him to deliver.
And because God is merciful and gracious, he does.
this is what we see in judges, and this is what we see in me,
and this is what we see in you, and this is what we see in us.
So again, they did evil.
And when the eyes of the Lord
and God allowed them to experience
pain, God allowed them to experience suffering.
God allowed them to experience defeat.
God allowed them to experience bondage
because he wanted them to come back to him.
This is the way God's economy works.
Oftentimes, we have
difficulty and pain in the physical
because of a spiritual failure.
in other words, oftentimes
when life gets really, really, really difficult and painful, oftentimes
and sometimes it's because though we experience it
in the physical world, it's related to a spiritual failure.
So why Ephesians six 212 is so important?
We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers
and authorities of powers.
And evil.
But this is it's not primarily a physical all the time.
A physical issue.
There's a spiritual reality behind it.
And these, the people of God, were walking away
from God spiritually, so they were suffering physical defeat.
You follow me.
So when we have these same issues in our lives,
we often want God to fix our physical without repenting
of the spiritual.
We do this all the time.
We want God to fix my situation,
but I don't want to repent in my heart.
God fix my finances, but I don't want to do anything different to
fix my marriage.
But I'm still going to be bitter and angry,
fix my
kids, but I'm still not going to lead them biblically.
Fix my temptation.
But I'm still not going to read the Bible, memorize it, pray and have a heart.
Be a part of a huddle
right?
Right.
And Amen.
As my daddy used to tell me when I was little,
driving down the road, I'm not afraid to pull this car over.
And you know.
Whenever
the Israelites planted their crops, that's how bad it got.
Whenever there's lights play on their crops, the Midianites,
Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.
They camped on the land, and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza.
You've heard of that place?
did not spare a living thing for Israel.
Neither sheet nor cattle, nor donkeys.
They came up with their livestock and their tents like a swarm of locusts.
It was impossible to count them or their camels.
They invaded the land to ravage it.
The Israelites did all the work.
They labored, they they they stressed, and they produced a crop.
And then this entity came in and took it all over.
It sounds like our government that's story.
They did all the work.
They land and the land produced a crop.
And then the Midianites and the Amalekites came in
and they just ravaged everything.
So the Israelites, though they should be enjoying
the promise of God and the blessing of God and the favor of God
in the land that they gained by faith.
They were unfaithful in the land, and because they were unfaithful,
though they were given the promise of God by faith, they were not faithful.
And as long as they were faithless,
they were subjected to living in caves and holes in the ground of heaven.
All of the produce that they should have enjoyed taken away from them and stolen.
We could say that about our lives.
The innocent, these Midianites and Amalekites,
you know the Midianites were.
You've heard of Abraham, father Abraham have many sons.
Many sons, father them.
You know that old song?
Yeah. Okay.
So Abraham was married to a lady named Sarah.
She died, and he made her married to another lady named Keturah.
And from Abraham, a good Torah was this son named Midian.
So the Midianites are part of the family tree of Abraham,
part of the Hebrew people's family tree.
When Moses came and led the people out of captivity,
he married a gal and his her or his father.
Last name was Jethro, who was the priest of Midian.
So the Midianites have this history
with God's people, though they're not walking with God, obviously.
And so they're fighting against the work of God.
The Amalekites come from the line of Esau.
There was Jacob and Esau.
Jacob was the chosen one of God.
Esau was his brother.
Esau cared
not of the things of God, sold his spiritual birthright for a pot of stew
from from Esau.
Esau had a grandson whose name was Amel, from the Amalekites.
That's where the Amalekites came from.
Generations later, King Saul, God raises up
King Saul to be the king of his people, the king of the, of Israel.
God tells King Saul to destroy all of the Amalekite army
because they're the enemies of God.
They're they make all of God's work in the world.
Saul goes out to war, destroys
most of the Amalekites, but leaves the king of the Amalekites.
His name is a guy. Got a life,
was unfaithful.
Saul was
because he kept Agag alive.
Generations later, we read of an aggregate
from the line of our God, who was an amalekite
who should have been destroyed really, or in a governmental position in Persia,
who set in course the
the edict to exterminate all the Jews.
His name was Heyman
from the Book of Esther.
Every problem
that God's people are, have gone through and are going through come from
people who used to be a part of the line of God's people
still to this day,
and it all stems from unfaithfulness,
and it all stems from sin.
And here's what I know unrepentant disobedience
breeds difficulty and defeat it did in their lives.
It doesn't. Ours.
Unrepentant disobedience breeds difficulty and defeat.
And this is what the people of God were experiencing.
Midian so impoverished the
Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
This is a cycle over and over.
Now, how long did it take them to cry out to God?
They remember
seven years took him seven years.
We see this over and over and judges.
It takes a year and after year, year after year to year, year before.
Why did it take him so long?
Nobody.
Well, before you answer, let me suggest this.
That's the wrong question.
The right question is this.
Why does it take us so long?
Right.
Because some of us have been
living in defeat year after year after year
in struggle, year after year after year in oppression,
year after year after year
with the same sins, year after year after year.
Why does it take us so long
to bend the knee and cry out to God?
And so they cry out to God and.
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
he sent them a prophet who said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.
So this prophet comes and says,
this is what God says, I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians,
and I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors.
I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
I said to you, I am the Lord your God.
Do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.
But you have not listened to me.
They cried out to God.
They said, God, we need you.
And God doesn't send them.
Initially a deliverer, he does not rescue them initially.
The Bible says rather than sending them a deliverer, he sends them a prophet.
A prophet simply says, this is what I have heard from God.
And so I'm going to tell you what I've heard, and what I've heard God
say is this
look at all God has done for you.
And even in light of all he's done,
you have not listened.
The message of the prophet
I brought you out.
I rescued you from.
I drove the enemies out.
I am your God.
And it was all I've done for you.
You have turned a deaf ear and you do what is right
in your own eyes, not mine.
Not an encouraging message,
right?
It's a message of conviction.
It's the same message.
I wonder if God would say to us today,
I know that you want my help.
However, though I have brought you out,
though I have delivered you from though I have rescued you out of.
Though I am supposed to be your God, you're not listening to me.
The question we would ask ourselves is this
what are all the good things
that God has done for us in the past?
We could say the same God, you have brought me out,
God, you have rescued me from God.
You have not allowed me to receive all that I've showed.
God, you have defeated my God.
You are my God.
Think for a moment.
From where has he brought you?
What devouring thing has he withheld from your life
that it hasn't devoured you when it should have?
What has he rescued you from?
What has he defeated
that used to be conquering you?
Is he your God?
Has he done those things?
If so, are you listening?
Are you doing what is right in his eyes,
not your own?
The angel of the Lord came and sat down
under the oak of okra that belong to Joash.
That is right where he said Gideon
was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
There's a lot going on here. I'm going to talk about it in just a minute.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said,
the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.
When the Bible in those doesn't use this phrase, the angel of the Lord,
we understand that to be what we call
the pre incarnate appearance of Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity, God the Father, God
the son, God the Spirit, Jesus is the second person of the Trinity.
This is what we understand biblically.
The angel of the Lord is the pre incarnate before he takes on human form.
In Bethlehem on December 25th.
This is Jesus.
And so he shows up.
and what I love about that is what it tells me about,
my God that that Jesus shows up to where I am.
He is so good
that he comes to where I am.
This is what is so unique about Christianity.
Every other world.
Religion is about man somehow trying to get to God.
Christianity is the only one where God comes to man.
Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
You don't have to look for him, for he is near.
The Bible says
an easy to find because he has come here.
And Gideon is doing what do you remember?
Threshing wheat where?
The wine press, I mean.
Now, some of you Bible students understand this already,
but let me explain it to those of you who for whom this is new.
Threshing wheat looked like this.
The one, this the one who was threshing.
We would get a like a big basket or something, and have all the wheat
and the kernels and the chaff and the and the dust and the dirt and the stars.
I mean, in this big, this big basket.
And they would throw it up in the air and as the wind blew, it would blow away
all the chaff and all the dirt and all the nasty and the grain being heavier,
fall back down.
And it was this constant process of doing this as the wind would blow,
to constantly blow all the chaff and all the nasty away,
so that you're left with all the good grain.
And they did this at the top of the crust of a hill,
because we all know that the wind is stronger up at the top of a hill.
Right?
And so they'd be at the top of the hill threshing wheat.
But where does it say Gideon is threshing wheat
at the winepress.
The winepress was at the lowest part of the valley.
That's where the wine, that's where the grapes grew.
So they would process the wine by the by the vineyards
down in the, in the valley.
When the wind is strong at the hilltop,
it is not strong in the valley.
And so here is Gideon.
No wind
throwing all this nasty up, and it comes right back down and up
and right back down it up and right back down it up and right back down.
And he's just absolutely covered in all this itchy, scratchy dirt
and chaff and all the work he does is useless.
And all the work he does is exhausting.
And all the work he does produces no benefit whatsoever.
You're been there.
He's threshing wheat at the winepress. Why?
Why isn't he up on the hill?
Out of fear, the Midianites?
Because he's afraid.
And so he's working his tail off.
And it is to no avail.
And Jesus calls to him
and says, the Lord is with you.
What do you call him?
Mighty warrior.
He's threshing wheat in a winepress because he's scared to death.
Why does Jesus call him mighty warrior?
What?
I think because God has a sense of humor.
I think he's like mighty warrior and get.
It's like, oh God, that one hurt.
But here's why else I think God tells a mighty warrior.
Because God doesn't see us
as who we are, nor who we've been.
He calls us according to the greatness of his mission.
I want
you understand this God doesn't call us or name us according to who we were.
God doesn't call us or name us according to who we are.
God doesn't cast or name us according to our potential.
God doesn't care about our potential.
The only real potential we have is to failure.
What God does is call us and name us according to his mission for us
in the world.
And his mission for Gideon was not a thresher at the wine press.
His mission for Gideon was as a warrior of his people,
had nothing to do with Gideon's
potential, had nothing to do with Gideon's ability.
And we'll see that in just a moment.
It had everything to do with God's mission for them in the world.
And he still sees us.
Ephesians five seven God says he sees us as his people,
wholly without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish.
Can you believe
if you have a relationship with Jesus, that that's how God sees you?
That is not how other people see you, I guarantee you, right?
And some of you have been so beaten down
by the monikers and names and vision of how other people have seen you.
You don't believe that about yourself, about how God sees you.
This is what the Apostle Paul said
in second Corinthians 516.
He says, I desire I will know no man according to his flesh.
What he is saying is, I will know nobody according to who they used to be.
I will only know them according to who God sees them to be.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
I don't want to know any of you.
According to who you who you were.
I don't want you to know me according to who I was.
I will know no man according to the flesh.
I think about the how that would change
relationships.
So our problem
is we oftentimes still see people
according to their worst moments.
Right?
Right.
God sees us
according to our highest call.
So mighty warrior.
Well, pardon me, my Lord.
Gideon says to Jesus.
But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
You've been there.
We're all his wonders that our ancestors told us about
when they said, didn't the Lord bring us up?
Honor, you just.
But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.
The Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have,
and save Israel out of the Midianites hand.
Am I not sending you?
I love
this Gideon starts with, okay, let me hold on.
If you are with us, why has this happened?
All of us has been there.
God, if you're mighty, if I'm yours, why didn't you allow this?
If you are with me, why is this happening?
Why that diagnosis? Why this failure?
Why this defeat?
Why did the marriage fall?
Well, if you're with me, why?
Right?
Every one of us.
I heard the stories of the past.
And you were great for my grandma.
But where are you now?
I read all the stuff in here, and that would have been great
if I was back there.
But I'm not back there. I'm here.
So where are you now?
Right.
Look at Gideon statements
there. If statements.
Why statements and where statements?
God if God, why God? Where?
Here's what I know.
If God why God and where?
God always leads us to fear and why and presses.
To understand.
And this is where most of us live.
We live in the land of if God.
Why God where God?
And as a result, where he lived defeated,
destructive, oppressed lives of fear
and the low wine places of life and all the work we do
and all the struggle we do, it results in nothing
but exhaustion,
feeling filthy, worn out and defeated.
She knows what Gideon said.
He said, the Lord, you've abandoned us.
If you and I ever feel
as if the Lord has abandoned us, we have the wrong perspective.
Because if you go back to verse one, verse one tells us
that they walked away from God for seven years.
They did what was right in their own eyes for seven years.
Who abandoned whom?
Right?
Were.
The Lord turned to him
and said, go in the strength you have, and saved Israel out of Gideon's hand.
Have I not commanded you?
Have I not sinned?
I'm the one sending you.
Let's go.
Do it.
I love the fact that God didn't respond to the whys.
And where's
did you notice that?
If God. Why God? We're God.
God never response to is if why somewheres?
Guess what?
God isn't going to respond to our if what is and where's either
we going cry out all day long? Yes, God.
Why God where God?
God is not going to answer those.
How different would it be if we focus left on the if?
Why isn't where's and rather focus on the what God in this moment?
What would you have me do?
Rather than the if God why God?
We're God.
See God in this moment.
What would you have me do?
I'm at a complete loss and I got no answers.
Rather than if God. Why God? Where God?
I'm at a complete loss.
I got no answers.
God, what would you have me do?
That's sorry.
Just get in. On I.
And you just go
look at get his response
again. Pardon me, my lord.
He's like, excuse me, one more thing.
How can I save Israel?
My clan is the weakest man and I'm the least in my family
here.
This is such a significant statement from Gideon,
because I think it's I think it's our statement as well.
Here's what he's saying.
There's a lot of excuses
when he says,
when he says, my clan is the weakest.
And Manasseh.
Manasseh, according to the numbers of fighting men,
Manasseh was the smallest tribe.
There's 12 of them.
And according to the numbers of fighting men, Manasseh was the smallest tribe.
Here's what he's saying.
My family is the smallest family.
In the smallest tribe.
Not only that, I'm the smallest man.
In the smallest family in the smallest tribe.
Do you see the excuses?
God, you got the wrong person.
I am, I can't, I'm the smallest person in the smallest family.
In the smallest tribe.
You got.
Excuse after excuse after excuse.
But listen, all of what Gideon said was true.
It was just inconsequential.
He was right.
He was the smallest man in the smallest family.
In the smallest tribe. Didn't matter.
All of our excuses might be true.
Statements.
They're just completely inconsequential.
So, my dear friends, when God calls us, when he asks of us,
when he presumes to us, well, you know what?
That you know what that feeling. You felt it hearing.
You've known it. You you've heard it here. You've seen it here.
You know what God is asking?
You know what God's requiring.
And all of us have excuses.
Why not? Why not now? It's not the right time.
I don't have the right, I can't do it, blah blah blah.
All those all might be true excuses.
Just they're just inconsequential.
You understand?
Do you really understand?
Oh, you can if you understand.
All those things
that you know, you have felt from God.
About doing.
About changing.
About committing to about invest all those things,
about giving, about serving all those things,
all those excuses you've offered in the past, all those things
I've offered in the past.
They might be true reasons why you haven't.
They are just inconsequential.
Do you understand?
Have you ever heard that that statement
that God gives his toughest assignments to his strongest soldiers?
You're heard that
that's the stupidest thing you could ever say.
Don't believe it.
Don't say it. Don't repeat it.
Don't give it any mind whatsoever.
It's that it's the most idiotic thing.
It's not biblical, it's heresy.
And it is so incredibly arrogant.
Let me tell you why.
Because that puts all of the
focus on you, not on him.
God does
not try to make Gideon feel better about himself.
God does not try to puff up, Gideon.
God does not try to convince Gideon.
Uno. Gideon. You're capable. You're worthy.
You can do it. You're strong. You're. You are.
He doesn't do any of that.
He says you're right. You're nothing.
But I'm sending you, and I'm with you.
God doesn't need to give Gideon a pump up.
God needs to help Gideon.
No. He is with him.
To understand that.
We have to shift our focus from how can I to God?
How will you?
See, first Corinthians 127 tells us,
But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the life.
He chose the weak things.
So the world to shame is strong.
And that's why Paul can say,
My God can say to Paul and Paul, us
migration is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ power may rest on me.
I don't have to act like I got to.
I got to act like I'm capable.
I got to act like I'm strong and I'm the God's strongest warrior.
So I get the tough assignments that is so arrogant and so non-biblical.
God, I am so weak
and I will glory in my weakness, and I will proclaim my weakness
because I want your power to rest on me.
You're strong.
I'm not.
I think it's so refreshing that God doesn't ask us to be strong.
He just says, rest in my strength
and rest.
I'll be with you
all straight down.
The Midianites.
You don't have to.
I'll do it.
He just wants to get into realize
God's presence with him.
And so then watch what happens.
Get. He replied, if now I've found favor in your eyes,
give me a sign that this is really you talking to me,
please don't go away until I bring back my offering
and said it before you and the Lord said, I'll wait here till you return.
Gideon went inside, preparing a young goat,
and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast.
Pay attention to that.
Putting the meat in the basket.
And it's a broth.
Pay attention that in a pot
he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
Angela, God said, take the meat and the unleavened bread.
Place it on this rock, and pour out the broth.
Gideon did so.
Then the angel of the Lord, which is Jesus, touched the meat and the
unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand.
Fire flared from the rock,
consuming the meat and the bread, and the angel of the Lord disappeared.
When get realized
that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, alas, sovereign Lord,
I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.
Let me tell you what's going on.
Gideon is fearful.
He's timid, he's unsure.
He doesn't know, and he meets with Jesus
at the table.
Jesus, prepare unleavened bread.
Prepare a liquid offering
because there is flesh that's being offered
you. Why?
We do communion every week?
Because it's at the table of the Lord that we share the bread of the Lord,
the drink, the liquid that's poured out.
And we remember the body that's been offered.
It's at the table of the Lord, or Gideon
changed from fearful to faithful.
It's at the table of the Lord.
Every week when we remember the body of Christ
through the bread and the liquid
that's poured out.
Do you see this?
And so here's Gideon.
That same night, the Lord said to him,
take the second bull from your father's herd, the 70.
That is the one that seven years old
and tear down your father's altar to bail and tear down the Asherah pole beside it.
Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord
your God on the top of the height, using the wood from the ashes
of all that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.
So Gideon took ten of his servants, and did as the Lord told him.
But because he was again what afraid of his family now not just me,
but I was family.
And the townspeople.
He did it at night rather than the daytime.
Almighty warrior.
Listen,
Gideon is obedient,
but imperfectly obedient.
And that's what I love about my Jesus.
That's what I love about my God.
Imperfect obedience is still pretty good.
Gideon's family worship
the God of income, the God of increase, and the God of pleasure.
Sounds like our culture.
And God says, destroy your
father's idols and sacrifice the bull.
In other words, what he says is deal with sin
in your own house before you try to lead other people.
You deal with sin at home before
you try to lead outside the home.
We say this all the time in my men's ministry.
These guys I meet with every month and and in our larger men's ministry associate
all the time.
You cannot lead others until you lead yourself,
and you cannot lead yourself until you know yourself.
Men hear me.
You cannot lead others until you lead yourself.
And you cannot lead yourself until you know yourself.
And so the question we have to ask ourselves is this do
you know your own life well enough to know what needs to be repented of?
Men and women like children a little to like.
Do you know your own life well enough to know what you need to repent of?
You cannot lead others, so you lead yourself.
And you got to know yourself, to lead yourself.
How old was the bull they sacrificed?
Why? Seven year old bull?
How long did they walk away from God?
God says you got to come all the way back.
This ain't no half hearted thing.
You walked away from me seven years.
Get a bull at several.
This bull has been alive since you turned away.
Sacrifice.
And I put it on the altar,
symbolizing the full way of combat, full repentance.
The Bible says run was off your bodies.
Now is living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God.
Your whole self?
I don't think any of the Israelites at this point
would have said, it's not that I'm not worshiping God.
Like, why are you so upset?
Just like many of us would say, it's not like I don't believe
in Jesus.
I'm not. I'm a Christian.
I'm going to heaven. It's just
they would say the same thing.
So I'm not believing God.
He just add a lot of other stuff that's right in their own eyes to it.
It's called syncretism.
And rather than being God and His way alone,
it's God his way, my way, their way a little bit.
Everything.
I'm a wrap up with this.
I know, I get it in the morning when the people of the town got up,
there was build bills, altar demolished and with ashes pulled beside
it, cut down and the sacrificed on the newly built altar.
They asked who did this?
Like we went to bed.
It was okay. We woke up and all changed. Like the election last year.
Like what happened?
When they carefully investigated,
they were told Gideon, the son of Joash, did it.
Then the people of town demanded that Joash bring out your son.
He must die because he's broken down Bill's altar and cut down the Asherah pole
beside it.
But Joash finally grew up and became a dad.
He displayed a hostile crowd.
You got to care cause you're trying to save him.
Her fight for him shall be put to death by morning.
He finally stands up for his son.
If Bill really is a god, he can defend himself
when someone breaks down his altar.
Let's take care of it. He's. If he's really a god
says, back off from my son.
He did what's right.
So because Gideon broke down the altar, they gave him the name.
Gerald Bell was one of the one who contends with Bell,
saying, let him continue with him.
His daddy finally becomes a daddy.
But listen, his daddy finally started acting like a father
because the faith of his son
isn't that beautiful.
Dad, sometimes
it may take the faith of your children to bring you back to him.
Moms, sometimes
that will be the faith of your children
that bring you back to Christ.
It's not supposed to be that way.
Fathers mothers are supposed to lead
their children to Jesus, but sometimes
when parents don't get it right,
because God's mercy and grace, the kids do.
And sometimes it's
the kids that bring the parents back.
And I am so thankful,
not just from my mom and dad who raised me in the ways of the Lord, but for three
sons, Joe and Caleb and Wyatt,
who are pictures of faithful men.
For me
who are godly Jesus followers.
Because of the impact my sons have on my life.
It's beautiful.
Gideon's dad knew his life.
Need a purifying
and that's why he finally did what he did.
Stood up because he knew.
Then the spirit of Lord came upon Gideon.
He blew his trumpet, summoning the abuser I to follow him.
Then.
Then means after.
After what?
After getting knowledge, his fear and doubt.
After what?
After he dealt with sin in his own life.
In his own family. After what?
After he met with Jesus at the table.
Then the Spirit of God.
After we acknowledge our sin and our doubt
and our fear, after we meet with Jesus at the table, after we deal with sin
in our own life, in our own family, then the Spirit of God,
not before and not until
after you and I deal
with our own doubt and our own fear and our own disobedience.
After we meet with Jesus and understand the price he paid on the cross for us,
after we deal with that sin and repent, then the Spirit of God,
then we step into what God sees us as according to his mission,
the world Almighty warrior.
Not before.
And that is the clarion call for all of us
to acknowledge your fear and doubt and disobedience.
Meet with Jesus personally
and deal with sin
in your life, in your family, and repent.
Then the spirit of the Lord will come.
This is why we start a flip side.
This is why me and Shelly
and Joe and Caleb and Wyatt
20 years ago moved here.
For something that I did not know was going to happen
in a way that God was going to do it very differently than what we planned,
but so that we and so that you
could meet with Jesus personally,
could live a life of repentance.
And live with the spirit
of the Lord upon us,
so that his kingdom will come
and his will will be done in this place
as it is in heaven.
So mighty warrior.
Ready?
Let's pray together, father.
Thank you,
thank you, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your heart.
Thank you for your love.
Thank you for your call.
Thank you for your forgiveness.
Thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your grace.
Thank you that when we are
faithless, you are faithful.
Thank you.
That's your capacity to forgive far exceeds our capacity to sin.
Thank you for your son.
Thank you that you don't treat us according to what our sins deserve.
But you respond to us with mercy and grace.
You are a good God.
You're a God.
There are some of us in this place.
There are some of us who hear my voice that truly do desire your spirit.
Lord, to fall and be on us.
And according to that desire, father, we confess to you, and I encourage you
to walk through this process in your own life,
in your own mind, in your own heart, right now.
God, this is what I'm afraid of.
This is what I doubt.
This is my concern.
This is my hesitation.
Jesus, I come before you today.
And I acknowledge
and I admit that you are my Savior.
And through you is my forgiveness.
And I confess my sin to you.
And I repent.
I turn around.
I feel the need right now,
just simply to invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to convict you.
Sounds odd.
But I would encourage you right now just to say, Holy Spirit,
I give you permission to convict me of my sin.
Convict me of how I have lived
in ways that are right in my eyes, but not yours,
to convict me of my selfishness, convict me of my apathy,
convict me of my lethargy, convict me of my excuses,
convict me of how common my life is like the rest of this culture.
Holy spirit, for all of those of us who desire that,
I pray that you would convict us not for our shame or destruction,
but rather for our repentance
and in repentance.
Give us all that your grace will allow us.
To give us all that your grace will allow.
Jesus, thank you.
Thank you, God, for keeping me in this game for 19 years
here with this church, for keeping us in the Ranchos for 20.
Thank you for keeping flip side open.
The 19 years of ministry.
God, you could have.
I probably should have chosen someone else many, many, many times over.
But I thank you that you chose me.
You could have given this church
a lot of different people that you, you gave us us, and I thank you for that.
Prayer.
You keep us in it for another 20.
You're a good God and we love you.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, if any of you made some decision to follow Jesus or to take some steps
to get right with him,
I want to know about it so that we can walk with you and help you.
You're right on the car. Do it on our app.
Drop in the box there. The start here. Boo.
See? David? He's in the back there. David, they're back there.
They'd love to walk with you through that.
Next week we're going to finish chapter six
and look at Gideon and his fleeces.
That's probably the most common story of Gideon's life.
We'll finish it out next week.
And look at chapter seven and see how patient God is with him and with us.
He's a good God.
So this week,
read chapter six again and see how stuff pops.
And read chapter seven and get ready for the next Sunday.
You understand this and I love you.
I'm proud of you.
It's good to go through the Bible together, And let's think.