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You’re tired.
Not just physically; though yeah, that too.
You’re tired in your bones. In your soul.
Trying to be a steady husband, an intentional dad, a man of God… but deep down, you feel like you’re falling short. Like you’re carrying more than you know how to hold.
Dad Tired is a podcast for men who are ready to stop pretending and start healing.
Not with self-help tips or religious platitudes, but by anchoring their lives in something (and Someone) stronger.
Hosted by Jerrad Lopes, a husband, dad of four, and fellow struggler, this show is a weekly invitation to find rest for your soul, clarity for your calling, and the courage to lead your family well.
Through honest stories, biblical truth, and deep conversations you’ll be reminded:
You’re not alone. You’re not too far gone. And the man you want to be is only found in Jesus.
This isn’t about trying harder.
It’s about coming home.
Hey guys. Welcome back to the Dad's Hired podcast. We're glad that you're here, man. Happy New Year. Still kind of blown away that we're already in 2024. Just as a reminder, I've said this a million times. I know I'm a broken record here, but I'm gonna Google right now as I have you here with me. What is the average age average life expectancy?
US male. 77.28 years. 77.28 years is the average life expectancy if you live here in the us. Just as a kind of fun facts to think about, if you're in Canada, it's 81. That's feels significant. 84 if you're in Japan. Uh, 78 if you're in China anyway, if you're here in the United States, you're listening to this best case scenario.
You're likely gonna live to about 77 years old. Best case scenario, if you live a normal life expectancy, you'll make it to 77 years old. Hey, happy, uh, Monday or whenever you're listening to this, I'm halfway done, man. I'm halfway done. About halfway done already. You look at the years, you think about, for me, COVID was like, you know, you have those major timestamps in your life, like those flags that you plant, and you're like, that was a major moment I will never forget.
That month or that year or that event, and you kind of place a flag into the ground of your mind and it's something you'll always look back at and remember a timestamp that you'll always remember. And COVID obviously was a huge one for all of us. Our whole, all of our worlds got massively shaken up during that time.
And so you think back that flag 2020 was a super weird year. And for so many of us, that still feels, for me, that still feels like it wasn't that long ago. You know, like I remember it vividly. I remember everything getting shut down and things happening and all that stuff. I remember really vividly everything that was going on that year.
And so it feels not that long ago, and it was already four years ago. Four years, you get 77 of them, and that was four of 'em gone just like that. Four of 'em just gone. You think about your kids, man, I just potty trained my daughter and in the same exact week moved her from a crib to a bed like an actual big girl bed.
Dude, I was in her room. This was Christmas. We were like rearranging the kids' rooms 'cause we knew she was gonna move out of her little crib nursery and into a big girl bed, which she'll be sharing with her sister. She'll be sharing a room with her sister. And so we were taking her outta the nursery and I was breaking down the crib.
And bro, outta nowhere. Outta nowhere. I just started crying because I, I'm, I'm gonna cry thinking about it right now, man. I remember putting together Ha cheese. Darn it. Uh, I remember putting the very first crib together 13 years ago, man, uh, for my son, and that was the last crib that I will ever deal with.
Wow. Dude. It's so crazy, man. 13 years of cribs. That makes me emotional, bro. Just thinking about that. I put four cribs together. I took four cribs apart. And then in that same exact week, I potty trained that same baby girl. And so she moved out of diapers and out of crib in one week, bro. And I just lost my like, baby girl.
Like I went from baby to toddler and I thought, that's it, man. Dude, what the heck? I'm gonna make myself keep crying. All the uh, times I just held my babies, you know, like I rocked 'em and I laid 'em in that crib. And as much as you right. Exhausted and as much as you are. So you're just like looking forward to getting out of those newborn years and stop changing diapers.
Oh man. And just like that, bro, in one week. I'm done with that and uh, it makes me really emotional and I miss, I miss my baby already. I miss having little babies around and just thinking about, I'm freaking gonna be walking those girls. Ah, down the aisle. Oh man, this took a weird emotional tol turn that I wasn't expecting.
Literally had no plans about talking about that as we started this. Today's episode. Crazy, bro. All that to say is 2024. Whatever you're chasing after this year, man, that's stupid. Just stop chasing after it. If you are chasing after money or women or stuff or a toy, it's gonna be gone soon. Who cares about any of that stuff, man?
It's gonna be gone soon. Chase after what matters. Pursue Jesus this year like you've never pursued him. Pursue your wife this year like you just met her. Recapture her heart, bro. Love your kids. Just throw, take, delete your social media accounts. Look your babies in the eye. Spend time with them. Give them your attention and your time.
Go outside more, bro. This life is so short. Holy cow. I didn't plan on going into any of that today, but I just, it blows me away that we're in 2024. Uh, alright, let's get into the episode that I planned on getting into today. I want to give you guys a part two of that. Remember I told you last week we were gonna talk about just going into this year as spiritual leaders, not leading with anxiety, not being anxious leaders, but having this deep sense of confidence and peace.
We know how the story ends. So last week I played for you a message from Chris Kin, and then today I wanna play a message for you today from my pastor Caleb, who taught at the last meetings. Our dad tired retreat. He'll be at this year's dad tired retreat, which by the way, tickets will go on sale this week.
By the time you're listening to this, you will be able to go click and get your registration. We're expecting 400 guys this year. We've gone from 100 our first year, 200 our second year, and now I believe we're gonna have 400. This year, I'm confident that that's gonna sell out just by the way that DA tired is growing and the momentum we have, it is always a life changing weekend.
And we have an incredible camp. Absolutely incredible. It's gonna be in North Carolina. You need to come check it out. It's going to be amazing. Go get tickets for that. But today's episode is brought to you by lc Coffee. I talked to you guys about them last week. Just an amazing coffee company. Owned and run by dad.
Tired guys. These are dad tired dads who are already part of the dad tired community. Listening to the Dad Tired podcast reached out to me and said, Hey, we would love to sponsor an episode of the show. And I said, let me hear about your coffee company. Whatcha guys doing? They told me about it. My. Passion for what these guys are doing is that they pick people over product, meaning they're more passionate about loving people than they're just turning a buck.
And so they, their whole thing is we use good coffee to bring people in the door. We have the best coffee. We treat our farmers and everyone really well, but we use coffee, good coffee to get people in the door. And then we just want to, like, Jesus loved us. We wanna love our community and the people around us.
So like I said, they treat their farmers well. They've got the best beans. They treat their employees well. The customers are well, they're very, very highly rated. My mother-in-law actually surprised me this morning, so I should say she surprised the kid. She came over super early this morning with donuts for the kids, and so I brewed her a cup of coffee with this lc coffee.
The dad tired coffee and she's like, oh my gosh, this coffee is so good. I said, that's. Dad tired coffee. That's the dad tired coffee. So anyway, she was really excited about that was totally unsolicited. Anyway, it's a really good coffee and we've now branded, we've partnered with them to do a dad Tired branded coffee.
If you go to shop.dad tired.com, you could learn more about the Dad Tired coffee and more about lc Coffee Roasters. So excited to be partnering with them. But anyway, let me jump outta the way. I've rambled way too much already and uh, let's get into our part two as we start this year of being men. Who lead from a place of peace.
We're in Judges seven today. If you wanna start turning that direction, I got a lot I wanna say today, so forgive me if I move a little slower. You're the worst listeners I know, so it might take a extra minute. So, Lord, in Jesus' name, we love you, we love your word. We ask that you shape us, mold us. Lord, would you accomplish all that you intend to accomplish in our hearts and our souls for the days ahead?
We love you. Father, we ask you make us better disciples of Jesus. We wanna look like him, talk like Him, carry ourselves in the manner in which he carried himself. It's in your most holy name we pray. Somebody say amen. Amen. Well, we're returning to Gideon again, chapter seven. If you're still flipping. And we're really today gonna approach the climax of the narrative.
Gideon, again, lives in a day where Israel is surrounded by pagan nations, and as Israel has began to worship false gods, God has allowed these pagan nations to oppress Israel. And so there's this injustice that's happening in the land as Israel grows crops, as they prepare for the days ahead, as they you kind of labor for food.
These Midianites and Amalekites. They, the scripture calls 'em mo locus. They sweep in over the Israelites and steal all of their food. And remember we said last time I spoke with you that, that the book of judges is called judges because God raises up these men and Deborah, one woman to bring justice to injustice.
So the injustice is the Midianites are stealing the food of the Israelites. The judge will bring justice, and so God calls this young man named Gideon to be the prophetic warrior who would overthrow the Midianites. Now. As we've read and studied Gideon's life, we've learned that Gideon seems to continually struggle with fear and anxiety and insecurity.
Like around every corner we find Gideon biting his nails and fear becomes a huge motif or a, a huge theme in the story of Gideon. We are learning as we read this story, that God is calling his people out of fear and into confidence, into courage. And so the very moment that Gideon's called. Remember, he's hiding in a wine press, beating out his wheat, and the angel of the Lord calls him a mighty man of valor.
He is in the act of cowardice. It's like you, you're running home from a bully, crying and an angel showing up and saying, you're strong. Like, no, I'm not. That's quite literally the position we find Gideon in, in the act of cowardice, and the angel of the word says, you are a mighty man of valor. Now there's a wild parallel here for the Christian.
Because the moment I said yes to Jesus, God called me a saint. God says He calls you Saint and he, he speaks things about me that I am holy and spotless. And it's like all of my life, he keeps calling me Saint. And it's like I am in the act of wickedness, right? Like I'm, I'm in the throes of my own sin and guilt.
And what we find is that God calls me a saint, and for the rest of my life, he's teaching me, molding me, shaping me into Saint Leader. And so what you see today is not what I'll be in 20. You ain't seen my best years yet. He's still working me into some things, and that's what we find in the narrative.
Gideon, from the start, God says to Gideon, you're a man of valor. For the rest of the narrative, he struggles with fear and God is using the struggles to slowly form him into VOR and out of fear. Around every corner, we're kind of facing off with insecurity, and in our text today, we'll stumble into the same themes again.
Now remember that the Midianites and the Melkites, at this point in our text, they're camped in a valley and the scripture says there's about 130,000 soldiers. And God told Gideon who had rallied 30,000 soldiers, that he had too many, right? And the the first batch of soldiers. Who were afraid or shaking with fear, God told him to go home.
Eventually, Gideon's left with just 300 men. Now, Gideon, who struggles with fear, has 300 soldiers and he is supposed to fight against 130,000. Those are not good odds unless the Lord is with you. So. We're gonna like wrestle through a few things today. The first thing we kind of want to consider is if Gideon is called to become a man of courage and valor out of his insecurity and fear, where does courage come from?
What is this courage, this strength, this interior fortitude that God's calling Gideon into? I wanna say this, the world has taught us now for decades that we should conquer fear and anxiety through self affirmation. Positive thinking. Even psychologists now are admitting that this is a great disservice to humanity.
Like if you just wake up every day and you tell yourself like, I am successful and I am strong, and I am in myself competent. What that does to you is it actually creates a kind of stubbornness in you where you just keep walking around, lying about yourself. Okay? It's like, and this is what happens, man.
You've got a family member like this. Like they are so rude. And the moment you say, man, you hurt my feelings. They say, I'm kind by God, I'm a person of kindness. And they just double down on their stubbornness about how great they are. And it's like you're not, and so even psychologists are today are saying like the self-affirmation, the positive thinking thing, and it's actually does more damage than it does help because you're just lying to yourself about where you are.
And so if we can affirm and establish that what God's calling Christians to is not this kind of. Self-help, self perception of me being strong and I am courageous what God calls Christians to Imagine this. Now go with me. Here is something called theology. Okay? And so the confidence, the strength, the current that the Christian is being called into, that Gideon's being called into is not a look.
Gideon looking at himself in the mirror and saying, you're strong, and you are bold, and you are courageous. It's actually looking at God and saying, you are competent. And you are sufficient and you are sovereign and you love being with a steadfast love that knows no win, and you hold the future in your hands.
The future belongs to you and no one else. And now we're building confidence and strength, not from looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying, you're great, you're great, you're great. But by turning to the scriptures and finding good theology and what I'd like to call biblical prophecy man.
And what happens when we, when we're called as Christians, we, every one of us, he calls us Saints on day one. And for the rest of our lives we kind of live disjointed. Like we're trying to, we're we're trying to build consistency about what we believe into our souls. And for Gideon, he's there. God's saying, you're a man of valor.
It's my battle. I'm gonna use you. And Gideon's wrestling with his own inconsistency still. And we see this, uh, in the life of every one of us. I, I wanna show you a few things, theologically speaking, that should shape the way you view yourself and view your future. I wanna establish really plainly, one, the future belongs to Jesus.
The world says, your future is either in the hands of the enemy or up to wildly unordered circumstances. Up to chance. The Christian says, my future belongs to Jesus. You have three options to believe. And I'm trying to show you that two of these options are anti-biblical. You can believe of yourself. I'm a victim of the enemy and his plans.
Some of you believe that we need to throw that out the window. You can believe the future is up to chance. That's what people call open theism, believing that God is not in charge of the future. We are not open theists. That is plainly heretical. You can believe that about your life though, that everything's just kind of open to chance and I'm rolling the dice.
Or you can with scripture, believe that the future belongs to Christ Jesus. And when you begin to really believe, not just kind of checked off in your Sunday morning box that the future belongs to Jesus. And when you start thinking about your life in that way, you stumble out of fear and into what I call laughter.
Now let me show you a few things really quick. Psalm two, you guys with me? 'cause I, I, again, I just wanna say a lot, feeling really chatty today. Psalm two. I think this is really fun. Okay, gimme that on the scripture there. Back there, Brandon Psalm two verses one through six. Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers, they take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds and cast away their courts from us.
Listen to this. He who sits in heaven, he laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury and say, as for me, I've set my king on Zion, on my Holy Hill. When the enemies of God plan and plot and gather and attempt to overthrow God and to to distort the future, the enemies of God, the world demonic entities, they plot together about how they can control, manipulate the future and God in heaven, chuckles.
God in heaven giggles. Now I wanna show you this, and I know this seems almost like, what is the word? It almost feels like I'm, I'm being too silly, but I'm, but I'm not. God has a pleasure and a delight, a jubilate perspective concerning the future. He does not biting his nails. When our political systems seem to fall apart and they're trying to lobby against the word of God and and great philosophers rise up to claim that they've now established through their logic that Christianity cannot be true.
God does not bite his nails. He literally chuckles and he just goes, you guys are ridiculously dumb. I wanna show you Proverbs 31. You guys remember the Proverbs 31 woman? We used to talk a lot about that. Proverbs 31 woman is righteous and just. One of the chief characteristics concerning the Proverbs 31 woman.
I'm trying to throw you, show you a theme in scripture. Give me a Proverbs 31 verse 25. Is this, strength and dignity are her clothing. So she's strong and dignified and she, she does what at the time to come. She laughs at it. She laughs at the idea that her future should be something she should be scared of.
This is the opposite of anxiety. This is speaking of the days to come with great joy, not because you've looked in the mirror and convinced yourself that you're competent and will conquer all things. Because you've looked long enough at the scripture and believed the prophetic narrative that there is a day coming night drawing near in, which all things will be made right, and I will be finely betrothed to the Lamb of God, the son of God who loves me with a wild, infinite, beautiful love.
There is a great banquet right around the corner. What do I have to be nervous about? This is biblical Christianity. The transition from. Fear into laughter concerning the days ahead because the future belongs to who? Belongs to Jesus. Now, lemme show you one more thing before we get to our text. Maybe 10 more things depending on how I'm feeling.
Okay? Fear is not the Christians. Laughter is, fear is not a part of your inheritance. Fear belongs to hell. It's the inheritance of the demonic. Now, let me show you this from scripture. I love when Jesus begins to approach demoniacs or people possessed. Because the things the demons say are hilarious are, are really funny.
So Matthew eight verses 29. Behold they cried out they being a, a plethora of demons, not just one. They cried out what have you to do with us. Oh, son of God, have you come here to torment us Before the time, just leave that text there. Have you come here to torment us before the time. Now this is funny on several angles.
One, the tormentors are worried about being tormented. Okay. The demons who plague humanity lie to us, deceived bind us. When Jesus arrives, they're going, you're gonna torment us. And they know that there's a time. Okay? So they know there's a time coming when they will be tormented and they're worried that Jesus came early.
So that is the definition of anxiety. It's being worried about what's coming around the bin. Anxiety belongs to demons. It doesn't belong to me. I am not worried about what's coming around the bin. What comes around the bin is glorious. Are you guys following my line of thought? And so Gideon's gonna be shown today.
I know this is like sweeping big thoughts. Gideon's gonna be shown today that fear belongs to the enemy of Israel. And laughter, joy, and confidence, a jubilate heart, spirit. These are the fruit of the spirit that belong to God's children. And so some of us, the the statistics say that we are the most anxious.
Generation that the world has ever known. Maybe God's leading us into this text today for our ears to perk up and for us to begin to establish within us the strength and dignity of the Proverbs 31 woman that laughs at the days to come. Maybe God is trying to build up within our souls a particular kind of confidence.
It's established upon our theology, not established upon our kind of pseudo psychology that we learned from Oprah and Dr. Phil. Let's, let's establish it on the truth of the word. Okay, you guys with me so far? Alright, let's go to the text and I'll do my best to make some kind of sense here. Judges Chapter seven verse nine through 25.
That same night the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp where I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid, go down and go to the camp with Pura, your servant, and you shall hear what they say. And afterwards your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Perra, his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp, and the Midianites and Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley like locusts and abundance and their camels were without number.
And the sand as the sand that is on the seashore is in abundance. When Gideon came, behold a man was telling a dream to his comrade and he said, behold, I dreamed a dream and behold a cake of barley bread. It tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned upside down, and the tent, they flat and his comrade answered.
This is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given into his hand, Midian and all the camp. As Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and he said, arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.
He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets into their hands and all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars. He said to them, look at me and do likewise when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do when I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon.
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. And they had just set the watch and they blew the trumpets. They smashed the jars that were in their hands, and then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands, the torches, and in their right hands, the trumpet to blow.
And they cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon, every man stood in his place around the camp, and all of the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man soared against his comrade and against all the army. And the Army fled as far as Beth Sheta towards Rera as the border of Abel Majola by tab and the men of Israel were called out from Nepali and from Asher and from Allman, nasa.
And they pursued after median Hiden sent messages throughout all the hill country of Efrim saying, come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them as far as Beth Barrah and also the Jordan. So all the men of E RM were called out and they captured the waters as far as Beth and also the Jordan.
And they captured two princes of Midn or a and Zeep they killed, or a, at the rock of Ora and Ze. They killed at the Rhine Press of Ze. Then they pursued Midn and they brought the heads of, or a and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. When all of this is said is done, the man who is hiding in a wine press so afraid of the Midianites is standing, holding.
In his left hand, the the head of a man named Ora, who was one of the kings of the Midianites and holding in his right hand, the head of Zeeb, who was also a king of this host, okay? That night, that night, God said to Gideon, remember the, the night is. We've done the fleece thing where Gideon keeps saying to the Lord, if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, then I know it's you.
Or if the ground is dry and the fleece is wet, then I know it's you. Gideon's saying, God, help me. Help me. Help me. Gimme courage. And then God said to Gideon, remember you've got 30,000 men. That's too many. 10,000 men. That's too many. You're gonna conquer 130,000 of your enemies with 300 men. So that night, God says to Gideon, go down and take.
The territory of the Midianites. Remember, there are 130,000 camped in a valley. The scripture says they looked like locusts. Their camels were without number like sand of the seashore. As Gideon looked out, there were so many, and so God says to Gideon, but if you're afraid, go down to the camp with your servant and I'll tell you what's gonna happen.
Now, the obvious implication of the text is that Gideon was afraid because he took his servant and he went down to listen to the things the mid night warriors were saying. What he hears as he's listening is one midianite warrior saying to another Midianite warrior, I had a dream. And in this dream there was a cake of barley.
And the cake of barley rolled down a hill and it crashed into a tent, a midian. His comrade, the fellow soldiers, he, he interprets the dream. He interprets it by saying this, that cake of barley was Gideon and the tent was the Midianites. And the dream tells us that God has given. Gideon, the House of Midian.
And in other words, as Gideon comes down into the valley to listen to the things that his enemies are saying, they are dreaming prophetic dreams about their own destruction. Barley is the bread of the poor and it's common bread. And so the fact that there was a cake of barley, it's they interpret that to mean the poor man.
Is going to roll down a little cake of barley. It's gonna roll down and destroy our whole tent. God allows Gideon to see his enemies with prophetic terror. And what we're seeing is God's saying, okay, Gideon, I'm gonna show you who should be afraid and who shouldn't. And so the enemies of Gideon are up in the middle of the night biting their nails.
We know through prophecy that God has given us into Gideon's hands. The scripture says that Gideon, as he heard this, he worshiped that is the plight of the Christian to worship the sovereign God of the future while our enemies bite their nails. So at this, Gideon goes back to the, the spring where his 300 are gathered and he tells them, this is what we're going to do.
Now, the plan that he contrives is kind of crazy. It seems to me that the plan came from the Lord and was a part of his conversation with the Lord. That seems to be implied that what they do, God told Gideon they should do. Now, what they're gonna do is this. Each soldier, the 300 soldiers, are gonna be broken up into a groups of a hundred.
So now we have three groups of a hundred, and each soldier is gonna carry in one hand a trumpet, and in the other hand, a jar with a torch that's lit on the inside of it. Now imagine this. I've got a trumpet in this hand. I've got a jar with a torch in this hand. Where do you see me carrying a shield?
Where's my spear or my sword or my super cool slingshot? I don't get it right. My hands are full. And so what they do is they, they go down and they surround their enemies with no weapons. Quite literally, they have no weapons. And at the charge of Gideon, when Gideon shouts. They blow their trumpets. There are several things I wanna say about this.
If I could say one like sweeping theological thing here really quick. The idea of a trumpet here in the text is obviously not like a brass. It's more like an animal horn that you would blow, um, to create this, this awful sound, right? The sound of war. Jewish scholars in rabbinic tradition often talk about the idea of the, the blowing of the horn.
Was supposed to cause the Israelites to remember the day that Abraham was supposed to sacrifice Isaac. Okay, go with me here. The day that God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Mariah and Abraham, who's the old man, takes Isaac up the hill and prepares to sacrifice Isaac and has Abraham. The old man draws back a dagger to get ready to ucci or to to murder his son.
What happens? An angel of the Lord says, stop. And there was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And God said, I will provide. Right. You guys following the, the story here. So the idea a lot of times in rabbinic literature is that when the Israelites heard the sound of the Rams horn, they were supposed to remember that God's provision was provided for Abraham and that God would be the provider and ultimately the one who would, would atone for their sin.
And every time they went to war, they blew the trumpet to say, God is our provider. Now, obviously it doesn't take much biblical knowledge to draw all that connect. It's the same place Jesus was crucified, where God did provide you guys following me. Jesus is the provision of God. Isaac didn't need to be crucified.
God's only son would be crucified for the, his blood would atone for our sins provision, and the future was fully established in the blood of the lamb. He purchased a bride, he stabbed. So when the horn is blown, there's prophetic significance that points even to the cross of Jesus. And when the horn is blown, the the enemies of God should tremble with fear, not the people of God.
They should rejoice because God's provision has arrived. So with one hand, 300 men have horns. And with the other hand, they have a jar with a torch on the inside so that the light is not yet being shone. Does that make sense? You can't see the light 'cause the torch is covering it. The torch is not, its light's not fully shone.
And so when Gideon shouts, they blow the trumpet and they break the jar. And all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, there's 300 torches surrounding the camp of median. Now, logically speaking, if you were to wake up in the middle of the night in this scenario. And you heard 300 trumpets and you saw 300 torches, you would not think there are 300 men.
You would think there are probably 300 groups of men, right? Like you would think. Surely it wouldn't even cross your mind that 300 men are carrying trumpets and torches. You would think that each group of soldiers had one man with a trumpet and a torch. So now what looks like what they, what is only 300 men, they assume is 300 sects of men.
And they all out panic. And they start kind of in the waking up from sleep in the middle of the night. They start just swinging their, their swords kind of violently left and right. They're in total upheaval and they begin to murder one another. Fight. Everyone who comes this way and the hundred and 30,000 mediaite in the melkites begin to take off and run.
Now, what are they running from? 300 men without weapons? I wanna suggest, and I, I, and again, this feels like. I wanna suggest that God does stuff like this sometimes just because it's funny. This is coming from pure theology here. Like when God wanted to destroy Sodom Gaur, he destroyed it with fire. When God wanted to destroy the Egyptians who were pursuing Israel, he called a Greek sea to swarm On top of them, he tricks the Midianites 'cause it's funny he is.
See as Lewis, some of my favorite writers would probably call this cheeky. This is a cheeky way to defeat your enemy. He could have defeated them with strength, but he outwitted them in a way that for the rest of their lives, they were gonna have to tell this story. How about 300 men with, with trumpets and jars scared them into killing each other?
Go back to your kings and tell them that you ran away from 300 men that you got, you got you had panicked. Panic is, this is too much information. The etymology of the word panic, it comes from the Greek God pan. Do you remember the Greek God pan? Is that that goat dude? Okay. With the, with the horns and the goat butt.
I told you before that Pastor Seth likes to imitate, um, a goat man from time to time. It's really weird. Pan was known to, in the forest calls a shriek of noise that would cause animals and herds of animals just to freak out and panic. And there are a few like Greek mythological stories where pan goes to war with a friend and.
Pan doesn't really have a weapon, but he just shrieks a or, or he blows a horn or something. And everyone just goes into like pan's. Superpower is that he makes people act out of total illogical, irrational fear. That's where the word panic gets its term. And what we find in the text today is these men just panicked, irrational fear.
They reacted to something that they should not have been afraid of. They, they totally trembled and, and I'm suggesting again that God did it that way only because. Only for pure comedic relief. Only for the chuckle of heaven only so that that, that the saints who read the story for generations to come would acknowledge not only has God sovereignly strong, okay, follow my line of thought.
Egypt is pursuing Israel and God. God shows off his omnipotent power over the seas. He calls us the seas to split rise up and then he just. Throws them down on top of Egypt. And as we read that story, we were reminded that God's strength is unmatched, right? He's, he's sovereign over even the natural elements.
When Jesus tells a storm to sit down and stop, he's sovereign over the natural elements. When we read this story, nothing in us is reminded necessarily of God's sovereign power over even creation. What God reminds of in in this story is that he's the wittiest of the witty. That, that he is, he cannot be out.
He's reminding us again that, that you're playing checkers, trying to outdo me, and I'm playing chess and I'm laughing about it. He's reminding us again that as the nation's rage and fought about how to destroy Israel, he leans back and laughs with jubilant joy because all of their plotting is really amateur compared to the excellence of his wisdom.
The text says that. At this point, when the Mediaite began to run, the soldiers who were dismissed the other 27,300 700 now gather back and begin to chase the enemies of Israel out of Israel all the way back to the Jordan. And eventually two of the kings lose their heads and they put the heads of these men in the hands of Gideon.
And the climax of the story today is the man who was hiding in the wine crest called a man of valor now stands before all of Israel, the left hand one. One head of a king in the right hand, the head of the other king, and no longer will Israel be tormented by the evil injustice iniquity of the Midianites and Amalekites.
And their victory was purchased solely by the superior wisdom and tactic of their God. Now, where does that, where does that lead us? Where does that lead us to, to settle in our souls? I'll give you this. If you were to embrace the idea that your life is up to chance, there would be a reason, a logical reason to live with an underlying anxiety.
I'll give you that. If you believe that the future is just chaos, ready to happen, then anxiety is a logical inference, but you would then have to give me that if the future actually belongs to Jesus. And he's sovereign over it. He's declared to us what's to come, and he has declared covenant contractually that he loves you with an endless love that cannot be shaken.
You would have to give to me. Therefore, that the future belongs to the God who loves you endlessly. Then there's no reason to bite your nails at night. And if we, if we're just doing logic here, you would have to give me that. The proper response of the Christian is to learn day after day, how to walk in jubilate joy, how to walk in this, this confidence and this strength.
That's not the pseudo psychology. Looking in the mirror telling yourself how great you are. Christianity actually calls you to do the opposite, to remember your brokenness and your frailty. It's a different looking. I'm not looking in the mirror. I'm looking at the text of scripture at my theology and at the prophetic declaration of this book, which says right around the corner, the feet of Christ, Jesus will touch the Mount of olives and all injustice will be eradicated and all of the sick will be healed and the saints of God will spend eternity in the presence of the bride group.
Which says that he is currently preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies. The book says that there's a banquet ahead. The book says, no height or depth wit breadth can separate me from the violent love of the one who holds to mark. Now. Now I said this to, to the team earlier, and I've said this to you guys like 150 times.
Let's do it again. I'm sus, I got little suspicion, little, little inkling suspicion in the back of my head. That in about a year, the world's gonna be buck wild, crazy again. I got, you know, it's just, just lingering. I'm, maybe I'm wrong. Uh, maybe I'm wrong. I think that this time, pandemic, political upheaval, racial riots, whatever comes, I think this time for us as a house, we've got to learn to stand on our feet and say all of y'all's crazy, chaotic.
Garbage that's going on out there. That's dumb. I'm not afraid of all of your idiosyncrasies. I'm not afraid of all your garbage. I am. I'm resting fully in what God has done and will do and will accomplish in me in the days to come. I wanted to show you one more thing and I totally missed, and Brandon, could you take me back to the quotes that I was, I said I was gonna hit earlier and I didn't this week as I'm pondering these thoughts.
I was thinking again about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was that German theologian who tried to participate in the overthrow of Hitler and ended up, uh, losing his life at the very end of World War ii. I was reading some quotes that Bonhoeffer about Bonhoeffer as he got ready to be hung. He was hung on kind of a cinder block, Gallo, and I was thinking about this.
This is historically speaking. Now, lemme say this. First of all, my wife reads everything about World War ii. Every conspiracy theory about Hitler. I know. Okay. I've heard that he might be in Latin America. I've heard that the skeleton that they, they grew up from the ground was a woman and not a man. I mean, I've heard every conspiracy theory.
Okay. But putting all that aside, let's just assume that history that we were taught is true. History says that on April 30th, 1945, Hitler put a gun through his head and pulled the trigger out of anxiety and fear, uh, of what was to come because. Fear belongs to the enemies of God. History says that roughly two weeks earlier, on April 9th, 1945, the Nazi red Dream brought Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the gallows to be hung for his participation in the plot to overthrow Hitler and that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, although his life was getting ready to end, walked in, total confidence and joy.
Fear belonged to Hitler. Anxiety belonged to Hitler with a pistol to his head. An anxiety did not belong to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the the theologian who was grounded in his understanding of God. And so here are a few quotes that people said about Bonhoeffer in his last days. Uh, one fellow prisoner said this, I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor and praying fervently to his God.
I was most deeply moved by the way his lovable man prayed in the so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, this is actually a doctor talking about, uh, the day that he died at the place of execution. He again said a prayer and then climbed the steps of the gallows, brave and composed.
His death ensued in a few seconds, and almost 50 years that I've worked as a doctor, I've hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God, gun to his head, worried about what's to come. Bonhoeffer goes to the gallows. Totally submissive to the will of God and devout prayer with peace.
And the moment he breathes his last breath, he is caught in the presence of Jesus and all things are redeemed. The moment Hitler breathes his last breath, when you can only imagine what was to come, the emphasis that I'm trying to lead you to is who does fear belong to? Where, where's anxiety rooted and who should carry it?
And, and I'm suggesting that anxiety is, is rooted in. A fear, a terror of what might be around the bend, a terror of what might happen after the next political cycle. A terror of what might happen if the school board keeps doing the things the school board is doing. A terror of what might happen if radical Islam gains a foothold in the United States.
A terror of what might be to come and, and even if some of those things come, the Christian does not live in terror of the future. The Christian puts his head into the crown and intercedes and cries out for the day in which Jesus will step his foot on Mount of olives and all will just be right. Yes.
Emma, if you wanna come for me, alter team, if you want to get into place, I, I want to just say again. God is teaching us to enter into the laughter of heaven. He's teaching us the lesson of the Proverbs 31 woman as she laughs at the future. Laughter belongs to the Christian. God is sovereign. God loves me and the future is his.
The end is near. Go ahead and stand to your feet and we'll get ready to wind down.
Alright guys, uh, after two weeks of talking about this topic, I pray that you feel a deep sense of peace, man. We're gonna get into the podcast, uh, in the coming weeks, and we're gonna talk about all kinds of exciting stuff and have great interviews and all the, all the things that we're normally talking about.
But I just wanted to really solidify for you before we jump into this year. That you have a deep sense of confidence and peace in the midst of chaos. So as always, I hope that that episode was helpful to that end, to help point you closer to Jesus and eventually help your family do the same. I love you guys and I'll see you next week.