What have I to dread? What to fear?
Leaning, everlasting, us in peace with my Lord so near.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, and secure from all sting.
Let's get our service started with a word of prayer.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us another day.
That we can come here to your house, hear the preaching of your word.
We ask that you please just bless our service this morning.
Each and every aspect of it, please bless the singing.
That it will be pleasing to your ears.
That it will prepare our hearts for the preaching.
And most importantly, Lord, please fill Pasadena with your spirit as he preaches unto us.
And give us your spirit in the congregation as well.
That we may leave here changed.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
You may be seated.
Please turn your songbooks to song number 310.
Song number 310, "Footprints of Jesus."
Song number 310, all together nice and strong on that first verse.
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling,
Come where Thy footprints follow Thee.
Does that make the steps of Jeel dark and sea?
Zillowum's fountains have banked,
The steps of Zus we're poor and Zus, Zus we're sorry.
Great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which will be 248.
Now I Belong to Jesus.
If you want to get that ready in your song books, 248.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Some important information on there.
Of course, we welcome you to come back to our Sunday evening service at 5pm.
And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
And we are currently going through the book of Isaiah.
But this coming week is our last chapter.
We'll be in chapter 66.
And then the following week we're going to start a brand new book.
So we're looking forward to that.
We are a family integrated church.
And so infants and children stay with their parents in the service.
But for the parents' convenience, we do have mother/baby rooms
located throughout the building.
And if you so need one, you can talk to one of the ushers
and they can direct you to one of those rooms.
And there are changing tables, speakers and screens available there.
So you can still tune into the preaching.
You see the soul winning times and teams listed there in the middle.
The list of expecting mothers, if you can keep them in prayer.
And then the stats for salvations and baptisms.
I do want to mention before I continue on with the announcements
that Brother Eddie's surgery went well.
And he's actually at his daughter's house.
So he's recovering right now.
Thank you for praying for him.
And I'm sure he would still appreciate a text letting him know that you miss him.
And that you're praying for him.
And so he had open heart surgery about two weeks ago.
But he did go home this week.
And so praise God for that.
Please make sure you message him.
Just let him know you're thinking about him.
On the right hand side is the upcoming church events tonight.
After the evening service is our nacho fellowship.
And so that's the beginning of our family nights.
I want to encourage you if you're not accustomed to coming on Sunday nights to make it a habit.
This week start coming on Sunday nights, get some preaching in.
Of course, singing the hymns, being a part of the service.
But then afterwards we're going to have a little fellowship.
And so looking forward to seeing you all there tonight.
And then we have the TJ missions trip coming up this Saturday, 9 15 meeting at the building.
Make sure you bring your passports, see brother Ulysses Hernandez if you'd like to participate in that.
And then continuing on with our family nights, next Sunday we're going to have jumpers and hot dogs.
And so the jumpers are the bouncy castles.
You've got to clarify that just in case anybody doesn't know.
We will have jumpers for the older kids and then jumpers for the little ones as well.
And who knows, maybe something for the adults.
I'll take a consensus later on, we'll see.
And of course we'll have hot dogs, that'll be next Sunday.
We have the 4th of July picnic also coming up on Friday, July 4th.
You have the address there.
Please sign up at the guest station so that we can get a head count.
I think they have a sign up sheet for food there because it's a potluck style.
And then lastly, please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching
so as to not be a distraction during the service.
And that is it for our announcements, 248 Now I Belong to Jesus.
Song number 248 Now I Belong to Jesus.
Altogether nice and strong on that first verse.
Jesus my Lord will for him no pass ever.
He gave his life to ransom my soul.
Now I belong to him.
Belong Jesus, Jesus belongs to eternity.
Once I was lost in station.
Jesus came down to salvation.
Let me so now belong in Jesus.
Hesacious blood.
At this time the ushers will come forth to receive the offering.
Turn your Bibles to Judges chapter 7.
Judges chapter number 7.
Then Jerubal, who was Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the hosts of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Mori in the valley.
And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from the Mount Gilead.
And they returned to the people twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand.
The Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many, bring them down into the water, and I will try them for thee there.
And it should be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
He brought down the people into the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone that lapeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lapeth, him shalt thou set by himself.
Likewise, everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink, and the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men.
But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
The Lord said to Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped, will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand, and let all the other people go, every man unto his place.
So the people took vittles in their hand, and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men, and the host of Midian was beneath them in the valley.
Came it past the same night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Fura thy servant to the host, and thou shalt hear what they say, and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host.
Then went he down with Fura his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers from multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside from multitude.
And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it, that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
And his fellow answered, and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. For into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host.
And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers.
And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do.
When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle wash, and they had newly set the wash.
And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal.
And they cried the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the hosts ran and cried and fled.
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the hosts.
And the hosts fled to Bethshedah and Zerorath and to the border of Abel and Mahola unto Tabath.
And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali and out of Asher and out of all Manasseh and pursued after the Midianites.
And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto the Beth-Berah and Jordan."
Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together and took the waters of Beth-Berah and Jordan.
And they took two princes of the Midianites, Orab and Zeb, and they slew Orab upon the rock Orab.
And Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Orab and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan.
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you for your word, and if it's an opportunity to hear it preached, ask that you would fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit now.
Please bless the preaching, use it to edify us, help us to be better Christians. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Judges chapter 7 this morning, and the title of my sermon this morning is Jerubal, the mighty man of valor.
Jerubal, the mighty man of valor. This morning and tonight, we're going to look at two particular characters in the book of Judges
that are unlikely candidates to win a war, to be used of God.
And Gideon, also referred to as Jerubal, is the first one we're going to look at this morning.
Now, go to chapter 6 if you will. We're going to come back to chapter 7 in just a bit.
Go to chapter number 6. Now, the first thing I'm going to mention regarding Gideon is the fact that
obviously we see that his name is Gideon. However, his name is changed unto Jerubal,
specifically because of the fact that he becomes loyal to the Lord,
and he expresses that loyalty by casting down the image of Baal in his father's house.
Now, let me give you a little background of the book of Judges
to get us caught up to where we're at here in Judges chapter 6.
In the book of Judges, of course, the timeline of the nation of Israel,
you essentially have the land or the inheritance already distributed to the 12 tribes.
That's what the book of Joshua is all about. It's about the distribution of the lots to the 12 tribes of Israel.
However, in the book of Judges, we essentially see that when the leadership is no longer there,
when it's absent, when the cat's away, the mice come out to play, right?
In other words, when there's an absence of leadership, people have a tendency,
they have a propensity to do evil, to do wrong. Why? Because we need magistrates, we need leaders,
we need people to tell us when we're doing wrong, we need people to tell us and shame us
when we are involved in sin. And because there is an absence of leaders here,
then you have the children of Israel going to worship false gods, they're worshipping Asteroth,
they're worshipping Baal, and it's causing God to judge them. So this is the vicious cycle
that we see in the book of Judges, where you have a strong leader available,
and because of that, people worship the Lord. That leader disappears, they die,
and what happens? The children of Israel begin to worship false gods.
They worship false gods, and what's the result of that? God ends up judging them,
delivering them into the hand of their oppressors, and then while
they're under that oppression, they cry out unto God, "Lord, save us!"
God raises up a deliverer, that deliverer helps them,
they get delivered out of the hand of their oppressors, they worship God again, that leader dies,
and the cycle continues over and over and over again.
And so this is essentially what we see.
And during this particular time, you don't have an earthly king in the nation of Israel.
So this is still under what we would consider to be a theocracy,
meaning that God is their king, and God ordains specific earthly leaders,
such as the judges that operate somewhat like military generals,
they also teach them the word of God.
And you know, the first judge is Othniel.
Othniel is the nephew of Caleb.
After Othniel, then you have Ehud.
And Ehud is famously known because he's left-handed, right?
And he kills Eglon, who's the king of the Moabites.
He's the one who has the famous story that, you know,
Eglon is a very fat man, and you know,
Ehud comes and he thrusts them through, and the dirt comes out.
It's an incredible story.
After Ehud, then you have Gideon coming on the scene,
or excuse me, you have Bayrak on the scene,
and Bayrak along with Deborah,
and along with Jael,
they end up destroying the oppression of the Canaanites,
and of course, because Bayrak is a weak leader,
that glory, that honor is actually given to Jael.
She's the one who essentially drives a tent spike
through the skull of Sisera.
Incredible story there.
After them, then you have Gideon,
and then after Gideon, then you have Jephthah and so forth.
This is where we're at when it comes to the stories of the book of Judges.
They're under this theocracy, but they're living wickedly,
and so God has to raise up leaders in order to do so.
One thing you'll notice is that he often will use people who are of might,
people who are of strength, people who are talented,
but he also uses the exact opposite as well.
Gideon is a great example of this.
Why is that? Why is it that God would use someone like Gideon,
or like we're going to look at tonight, someone like Jephthah,
to deliver God's people. I'll tell you why,
because he gets more glory out of it.
When God uses people who are talented, intelligent,
you know, often their success, when people view their success,
they say, "Oh yeah, that makes sense.
This guy is talented. This guy is intelligent.
This guy is a hard worker. This guy is whatever."
But when you look at someone who may be deficient in those qualities,
then you have a tendency to say, "Oh, you know, that must be God,
because I just don't see how this guy could succeed like that.
It must be the Lord." And what happens?
God ends up getting more glory because of it.
Now, this is not to say that we should not be people who are intelligent.
We should work on our gifts. We should, you know, get talents and be hard workers,
but allow God to make up that deficiency.
So if you have deficiencies in your life, if there's areas in your life
that you feel like, "Well, I'm just not as talented or as intelligent,"
that's okay. God can make up the difference.
And because of that, He can get more glory out of you.
Gideon is a clear example of this.
Now look at verse 11 of Judges chapter 6.
First thing we're going to look at here is how is it that God views Gideon?
And this is important because we all have a perception of ourselves, right?
And sometimes people, you know, they have low self-esteem.
They don't really view themselves the way God views them.
And obviously, you know, I think we have more of an issue with narcissism in our society.
But there are people that exist that maybe, you know, they don't think very highly of themselves.
And you may think to yourselves, oh, that's very humble of them.
Yeah, but hold on a second.
If you're so humble that you just refuse to step out in faith and obey God, then guess what?
You're just being prideful at that point because you got to exercise faith in God.
And in spite of your deficiencies, you should still serve God.
You should still obey the Lord.
And so we see this example. Look at verse 11.
We're going to look at how God views Gideon. It says in verse 11,
"And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was an oprah,
that pertained unto Joash and Abysarite.
And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Medianites."
So we see Gideon, they're under the oppression of the enemy here,
and he's threshing wheat by the winepress.
He's trying to hide it from the Medianites.
He's not necessarily involved in the conflict. He's not involved in the war.
Verse 12 says, "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him,
'The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.'"
Now, Gideon has not done anything valorous up until this point.
He hasn't done anything mighty. He hasn't done anything of might
or of exploits that would be deemed as being a person of valor,
but yet God looks at him and says, "You are a mighty man of valor."
He says in verse 13, "And Gideon said unto him, 'O my Lord,
if the Lord be with us, why then is all this be fallen on us?
And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of saying?
Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?
But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites."
So the first thing I want you to notice here is that right off the bat,
before God even instructs Gideon on how to overcome the Midianites,
before he gives him the instructions and what to do,
first of all he tells him, "You're a mighty man of valor in my sight."
Now this is a clear principle in the Bible that God often calls
those things which are not as though they were.
We often talk about us having faith in God.
You've got to understand, God has faith in us too though.
God believes that you can do great things for him.
God believes that you can obey him.
God believes that you can make a huge difference in this world,
that you can make an impact in this world.
You are a mighty man of valor in God's eyes.
Even if you lack the characteristics and the qualities that we would deem to be of might and of valor,
God looks at you and says you are a mighty man of valor.
Now obviously, this is all in the context for us in the New Testament as being in Christ.
Because without Christ, we can do nothing, right?
We need to make sure that whatever endeavor we seek to accomplish or achieve in this side of eternity,
that we do it with God's hand on us.
Because at the end of the day, if we do not, guess what happens?
Everything just comes to naught.
Your business endeavors will come to naught.
Your educational endeavors will come to naught.
Whatever you seek to do, if you're doing it for your own glory,
you're not attached to the vine, then you're not going to succeed.
Because Jesus Christ said, "Without me, ye can do nothing."
However, the Bible also says, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."
We just need to understand that if we want to succeed in this side of eternity,
we need to make sure we're doing it God's way.
The Bible tells us that if a man strives for mastery, yet he's not crowned, except he strives lawfully.
We've got to make sure that we are obeying the commandments of God,
we are serving the Lord, we are walking with God, we are winning souls to Christ,
and therefore God is essentially obligated to bless us in our endeavors according to the Bible.
The point that I'm making here is that before he even accomplishes anything of any significance for Israel,
God is already looking at him and saying, "You are a mighty man of valor."
Now Gideon is kind of stubborn here because if an angel appears to me and says this,
I'm not arguing. I'd be like, "Did I consume this wheat? Is this old wheat or something?
Is this marijuana or something?" He's obviously having this supernatural experience here.
And instead of just taking the compliment, right? Instead of just taking the compliment,
taking what the Lord is saying to him, what does he do? He begins to accuse the Lord and make excuses.
He says, "Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then has all this been falling on us?"
What is he referring to? The fact that they're under Medianite oppression.
"And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up
from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Medianites.'"
Now, it's important to note that one thing that Gideon does not understand is that the reason
Israel is in the situation they're in is not because of God, per se, it's because of their decision
to reject God. You know, sometimes people have to understand that people suffer the consequences
of their actions, and you know what? God allows punishment to come upon that person's life,
and it's not God's fault. It's just like, you know, you disobey God, you get involved in sin,
and you do things that are displeasing to the Lord, and then you're upset when God punishes you for it.
It's like, "Why is God allowing this?" Maybe because the nation is evil and wicked,
and because, you know, the Bible promises that He chastises His children,
that He will bring sore punishments upon those who disobey Him. That's why.
And so Gideon is asking this, but he's really asking the wrong questions, right?
And I want you to notice verse 14 here. Verse 14 says, "And the Lord looked upon him and said,
"Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?"
Now, I love this verse and what he says here because of the fact that Gideon is saying,
"Look what's happening to us," and he's basically saying like,
"Didn't our fathers tell us what you did in times past?"
And then what does God say? "I've sent you, though. I'm sending you."
And you know what? We need to stop blaming previous generations for our failures.
"Oh man, I just didn't grow up with the dad. I didn't grow up with this and that."
"Yeah, but God has sent you, though."
"Oh man, I just didn't grow up in church. I didn't grow up with the Bible."
"I didn't grow up with that type of character. I didn't grow up with godly parents."
"Yeah, but God has sent thee, though."
And you know, at the end of the day, we can look back at what our ancestors have done,
what our parents and grandparents have done,
I've done. And maybe we could even highlight the failures in their life that maybe led to us making
some bad decisions. But let me just remind you, we're the ones who made the bad decisions though.
No one's putting a gun to our head making us make bad decisions. And at the end of the day,
it doesn't matter how bad the situation is in our life. God has sent thee. God sent you to raise
a godly family. God sent you to raise those children. God sent you to homeschool those children.
God sent you to win the souls to Christ. God sent you to live a holy life. God sent you to make a
difference. Can't blame your husband. You can't blame your wife. You can't blame your mom. You
can't blame your dad. God has sent thee. That's what he's telling them. So what do we see here?
We see God has an expectation of people regardless of what situation they're in, right? And look,
it's real easy to just shift the blame on someone else because of our personal failures. But you
know what? I'm just not going to pastor a church of victims. We got way too much of that going on
in society where no one wants to take responsibility for their actions. And you know, we all have a sob
story. We all have, you know, suffered at the hand of someone else's ill will, ill intentions towards
us, ill intentions in our family with our friends or cousins and uncles, whatever. But at the end
of the day, can we just be a Gideon and just sit there and say, you know what God had sent me though
to make this difference? I was like, oh man, I struggle with alcohol because alcohol just runs
in my family. Yeah, but could you not drink alcohol though? Could you be the one that doesn't
though? God has sent thee. Can you not give yourself over to that vice? Oh man, I'm diabetic
because it just runs in my family. Yeah, but can you not be diabetic though? Can you just change
the eating habits? Can you get some exercise in? You know, oh, I just grew up with just like, you
know, having the worst types of meals and we, you know, we had hot Cheetos for breakfast and, you
know, Coke for breakfast. Okay, but can you start eating red meat now though? Can you start, can you
start, I just didn't grow up with like exercising, but can you do it now though? Can you change now?
You know, and one thing you'll notice is that the more excuses you make, the more years pass
and things just don't change. So, you know, break the cycle, okay? Break the generational curse.
Why? Because God has sent thee. And Gideon can't change what the bad decisions that the previous
generation made that got them, that got them into that mess that they're in. He can't change that.
But what he can change is what he does from here on out. What he can do is change and quite frankly,
step out in faith and be used of God to make that difference, okay? I didn't grow up in church,
we didn't grow up going to church. Yeah, but God has sent thee to bring your family to church,
though. God has sent thee to come to church. God has sent thee that you don't make the same mistakes
as your parents and you actually bring your kids to church. You know, instead of complaining about
what your parents did not do raising you in a godly home, why don't you make up the difference
and be faithful to church with your kids and exemplify faithfulness to your children by
bringing them to church. And so, you know, we can go on and on and on about that. The point that I'm
making here is that God has an expectation of you. He has an expectation of me. He expects us to
live up to a certain standard in the word of God. And you know what? Saying, oh, I'm not eloquent
of speech. I'm slow of speech. I just don't have the means does not cut it with God. God is not
keen to excuses. He's not going to listen to your excuses because at the end of the day,
he's provided every resource. He's provided the environment for you to succeed and to be a mighty
man of valor. And it's your choice whether you want to do it or not, right? I mean, think of
Moses. Moses is funny because, you know, he's just like, oh, I'm not eloquent of speech. I'm slow of
speech. And obviously he's lying because the New Testament tells us that he was mighty in word.
And indeed bro grew up in Egypt with the best educational system for military might and for
speaking. And so, you know, the Lord's like, who made man's mouth? And people often misinterpret
that person to think like, oh, you know, if I gave you a speech deficiency, it's okay. You know,
I made man's mouth. I can help you with that. No, what he's saying is I'm the one who gave you the
mouth. I know you don't have a deficiency. I know you don't have a handicap. Okay. He's obviously
just making excuses because he doesn't want to take the responsibility to go out and deliver God's
people. God has an expectation of you. And look, let me just remind you, "To whom so much is given
of him shall be much required." When you're in an environment where more truth is given, you're
responsible for more. You know, when you know more Bible, guess what? God holds you accountable
for more. When you know more of what the Bible says, you are accountable for more. If you know
what God's expectation is of you, you are accountable for more. Why? Because obviously
the more light that we have, the more God holds us accountable for this side of eternity. And so
we see how God views Gideon. We also see his expectations of Gideon. Now look at verse 25,
if you would. He calls Gideon and of course, you know, he calls him to deliver the children
of Israel out of the hand of the Midianites. But you know, he wants him to take care of business
first within his personal life and in his home. Look at verse 25, it says, "And it came to pass
the same night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock
of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove
that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in the ordered
place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove,
which thou shalt cut down. So, what do we see here? Before he can even go out and actually
deliver the children of Israel, God comes to him and he says, "Before you do all that, I want you
to do one thing first." Actually, it's a two-fold thing. One, you need to offer a sacrifice. Two,
you need to get rid of the false gods of your father, which is Baal, okay? And what does this
mean? It means that God demands loyalty, right? Because his dad is like a devil worshiper. Now,
he's more like, it's not necessary that he is like staunch about his religion of Baal, but it's
obviously a part of his culture since he has an image of Baal in his house. And the reason we know
that he's not very zealous about that religion is because of the fact that when Gideon actually does
get rid of it, you know, his father defends him against others who weren't for it. So obviously
he doesn't have strong convictions regarding his religion, but he does have idols in his house,
right? And this is Israel. This is the nation from which salvation comes from. And so God wants
Gideon, like if he's going to use you, you got to make sure you get rid of some stuff first. I'm
not going to use you all the while. You're still like having bail in your house. He wants some
loyalty out of you is what it's saying, right? He demands loyalty. Look at verse 27. "Then Gideon
took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had sent him. And so it was because he feared his
father's household and the men of the city that he could not do it by day and he did it by night."
Okay, so yeah, real mighty and valorous of Gideon, right? You know, he's afraid of his dad. He's
afraid of the men of the city. So he's like, let's tear down bail. Let's go do it at like 10, though,
at night. Let's do it at midnight when no one's watching. It's kind of like Nicodemus when he
comes to the Lord by night, right? Because he doesn't want anybody to see him. Now let's give
him some credit. He still did it, though, right? And this is obviously a major thing in his life
where he's taking a stand, you know, in front of his family because obviously his father knows
that it was him. People are going to make a report that it's him. People are going to know
that he's the one who cast down Baal. Now, how do we apply this with us today? Well, you know,
God expects loyalty of you as well. Okay. And you know, you may have grown in a Catholic home.
You may have grown in an Orthodox home in a home that is involved in some sort of false religion.
Well, guess what? Jesus Christ expects loyalty from you. He doesn't want to be added to the
myriad of other false gods that your family worships. He wants loyalty solely from you to
him. Right. There's no blends of religions here. Okay. And it's just not like, well, you know,
I come from a Catholic background and it's just tradition that, you know, we have little Virgin
Mary at our home. Guess what? Bail needs to be cast down. It needs to be thrown in the trash and
you need to get rid of it. Why? Because God expects loyalty. Well, how are you going to call
that an idol? It's the mother of God. No, it's not the mother of God. And you know what? You know,
it's nonsensical to believe that that's not an idol when the Bible, it's an idol according to
biblical standards. Okay. And you say, well, that's a little, that's a little much. Yeah,
it was a little much that he has Gideon to do that too, right? To go into his father's house.
Not only did he want him to cast down Baal the image, he wants him to do a sacrifice on top of
that. It sounds to me like the Bible tells us, as for me in my house, we shall serve the Lord. Okay.
And let me just make something very clear. The Bible doesn't teach that we should respect all
religions. It doesn't exist in the Bible. You know, the Bible, nowhere in the Bible, it does
not exist in the Bible. Just like the verse bless Israel and I will bless thee, curse Israel and I
will curse thee. Just like that verse just does not exist in the Bible. Here's another verse that
doesn't exist in the Bible. Respect all religions. It's non-existent in the Bible. And in fact, in
Genesis chapter two, the Lord says that he did not respect the offering of Cain, which is like the
first false religion that he proposed, you know, in human history. And there's nowhere in the Bible,
he's like, well, aren't we supposed to like love people? There's a difference between loving people
and respecting their religion. Because what does it mean to respect the religion? It means to regard
it as being sufficient, something that is authoritative, something that should be redeemed
with respect. But hold on a second, the Bible says, I hate every false way. So the Bible says,
and what did Jesus say? He that gathereth not with me is against me. Okay. And you know what,
you can add Jesus Christ to your myriad and plethora of other false gods and false ideologies,
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Oh,
just kidding. I'll let some of these people in too. And some of these false religions. No,
no man. There's no exception to the rule. Let me just remind you, God is no respecter of people.
Okay. You know, if, if he's no respecter of people, he also expects us not to be respecter
of people either, and not to respect false religions. And so, you know, even though this
may seem as a, as a, a major command, an overly zealous command, you know, it's reasonable for
the Lord Jesus Christ to request this of us. If any man come after me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me. And you know what? This goes for anyone, including family.
Let me just repeat that. This goes for anyone, including family. Okay. God expects loyalty from
you husband over your wife. Yes. Now, hopefully your wife's on board with the Lord Jesus Christ,
loves the Lord Jesus Christ, wants to serve God. But you know, at the end of the day,
God's not like, well, you know, if your wife worships bail, you just got to go along with that
program or something. That's not the way it works. God expects you to be loyal to him and vice versa.
Okay. And this is not a sermon on marriage. So I'm not going to give a whole bunch of principles
on that. The point that I'm making here is that it's God first. It's the Lord Jesus Christ first.
And may I say parents, the Lord Jesus Christ over your, even over your children. Now these
don't need to conflict, right? It should be that we all just worship the Lord together. That is the
ideal situation. And if you have your family with you in church today, you should do a backflip
after church. That's like, that's a wonderful thing. But you know, not everyone is in that situation.
And if you're not in that situation, God expects loyalty from you even over your children and over
your wife, over your husband, over your cousins, over your aunts, over your uncles, over your
grandparents. He wants loyalty. He wants to be the preeminent one in our lives. So even though
we're not commanded today, you know, and by the way, if you're a young person listening to me
right now, this is not a command for you to go back home and start, you know, throwing idols
that belong to your parents or something like, oh man, we'll be like, get in, you know, obviously,
you know, you don't pay rent there. Okay. And so you're not putting food on the table. You have
no right to do so. However, when you get married and you move out, you better make sure you get
rid of bail. Okay. Point that I'm making here, the way you would apply this is that you need
to make sure that you don't compromise your beliefs, your convictions, just because you
want to placate family members or something. Okay. Now look, the Bible says when a man's ways please
the Lord, he make it even as enemies to be at peace with them. And that is a surefire promise.
That's an ironclad promise. It does exist. Are there exceptions to that rule? Of course there is
because there's going to be instances where you do, you know, please the Lord, but your enemies
are not at peace with you. Your spouse is not at peace with you. Your children are not at peace
with you. And guess what? You still need to please the Lord. It's not like, "Well, that didn't work,
so let me just go ahead and compromise." No, you still need to please God over the long haul
because at the end of the day, it's right to do right even if the results that we want don't come.
Right? It's always right to do right even if it seems that we come out losing in the short term,
yeah, maybe even in the long term. Because you know what? We do right because we want to be blessed
of God but let me just remind you sometimes the blessing doesn't come immediately. God is not a
microwave. He's not a drive-through service and we need to build in the conviction into our hearts
that we need to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord regardless if we benefit from it
in the short or even the long term. Right? You know God commanded Gideon I want you to offer a
sacrifice. I want you to throw down Baal and he didn't say like nothing's going to happen to you.
He just said I want this is what I want you to do. You know the New Testament says this if you love
me keep my commandments. It's not like if you love me keep my commandments and I'll be really nice to
you. I'll be really good to you. Now let's just be honest God is good. He does bless us but I just
don't want you to become disillusioned if you don't see that right away. Okay because God is not a
genie where you just rub that bottle you're serving God and then it doesn't go your way and all of a
sudden it's just like well this is worthless. Why do I even serve God to begin with? Because it's
right to do. How about this because he saved you? How about this because how about this because
you're not going to hell now that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because he's worthy of our
service and let's just be honest if all we got after salvation was just salvation that's that's
enough but we all get more than that. The point that I'm making here is that God is demanding
loyalty of Gideon by even turning against the the gods of his fathers okay and you know what you
may not even be in a family that worships false gods or is in a false religion but you might be
in a family that has ideologies that are against the Bible though right just ideologies and beliefs
that are contrary to the word of God you might be even in a family where they have where they
think they have Christian principles they think they believe what the Bible says but they're
actually wrong on a lot of stuff right it's just like they're not far from the kingdom of God
but they're far enough to be wrong and you know what when we talk about Christianity that's
obviously a broad term nowadays it can mean a lot of things I mean Mormons even consider themselves
to be Christians it's a broad term and so sometimes we even have to stand against so-called
Christians who claim to believe the Bible and espouse the teachings of the word of God but
actually don't they espouse false philosophies ideologies that contradict the word of God okay
and so it's important for us to cast down Baal look what it goes on to say in verse 28 says
when the men of the city arose early in the morning behold the altar of Baal was cast down
and the grove was cut down that was by it and the second bullock was offered upon the altar
that was built and they said one to another who hath done this thing and when they inquired and
asked they said Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing then the men of the city said unto Joash
bring out thy son that he may die because he hath cast down the altar of Baal because he hath cut
down the grove that was by it now one thing I want you to notice here is that you know Gideon is
kind of outnumbered because it's the men of the city and let me just remind you is that the truth
is often only believed by a select few right and so it's not a multitude that verifies if the
truth is true right it's if God says it's true and so sometimes Christians if they're not careful
they think well I don't know if this is true because not everyone believes it you know not
all of Christianity is on board with it but hold on a second something that is found in the word
of God a clear principle of the Bible is true regardless of the multitude of Christians believe
it or not and let me give an example of this you know the Jews being God's chosen people
is believed amongst mainstream Christians you know that we should bless Israel is believe amongst
mainstream Christians and they're wrong and I would even say this you know I guarantee you
the majority of Christians today on a Sunday morning thought it was great that we bombed Iran
bomb them all or what you know what no sorry that's not a biblical principle oh no I'm glad
we're doing the Lord's work by protecting Israel they got like a white lion on a flag with with
you know Israel behind or whatever we're doing the Lord's work and it's great bomb them all to hell
like God sort them out wicked wars never right it's like yeah but don't don't you think it's
good that they did it because they have weapons of mass destruction Israel has weapons of mass
just an excuse my friends and you show me a verse in the Bible that condones that well I
got a verse for you Genesis chapter 12 bless those who you know bless Israel and you'll be blessed
protector Israel and you'll be protected no that's not what it says and you know what I promise you
a very small group of people believe what I just said in comparison to Christianity and you know
what I don't care if the comment sections are filled with people who are just like pro-Israel
pro-Judaism pro-Jew they're our greatest ally blah blah this and blah blah that it doesn't matter
according to the Bible it's not biblical and look don't make this a Pepsi versus Coke thing
oh you know you're against Israel you must be pro-Iran or something no I'm pro-Jesus Christ
I'm pro-Bible and to a certain degree I'm pro-America man like why are we getting involved
in other people's matters what is that what is that he that involves himself in conflict not
belonging to him the Bible says it's like taking a dog by the ears and you know what here's a verse
for you the Bible says shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord therefore
wrath is upon thee from before the Lord that's a principle where the Bible says that we should
not help Israel because Israel hates the Lord Jesus Christ that's what the Bible actually says
and and he and by the way that's in its context because second chronicles chapter 19 deal is
dealing with a nation that got involved with Israel to fight against Syria I'm not talking
about Fox News here this is like in the Bible Jehoshaphat who's the king of the southern
kingdom of Judah Jehoshaphat was a righteous king got involved with a war aiding Ahab who
is the king of the northern kingdom of Israel and Ahab we'll just call him you know Benjamin
let's you know you know Ahab aka Netanyahu you know basically coaxed Jehoshaphat into
getting involved in a war with him against Syria and there's all kinds of false prophets
telling him oh this is a good thing you're gonna win you're gonna do well now you know Ahab ends
up dying in that war and Jehoshaphat escapes and you know what God wasn't pleased with Jehoshaphat
so he sends Jehu the son of Hanani to go and rebuke him and that's where he says the famous
line should us that help the ungodly and love them to hate the Lord therefore wrath is upon thee from
before you help someone who hates me you think that's change you know it's funny how you want
to pull out all these verses from the old testament let me pull out a verse from the old testament too
the bible teaches we shouldn't aid those who hate the lord why don't we just focus on america why
don't we just focus on what's going on here you know instead of getting involved in other people's
matters and you know what you may not agree with this but sorry it is bible though and no one can
ever come to me and try to justify war using the bible especially the new testament doesn't exist
i'm not interested in your fox news you know philosophy and ideologies it's not in the bible
and you know what i'm fox news fatigued i'm zionism fatigued i'm judaism fatigued point that
i'm making here is that gideon is taking a stand in spite of the fact that the entire city is
against what he did verse 31 says and joash said until all that stood against him will you plead
for bail will you save him he that will plead for him let him be put to death whilst it is yet
morning if he be a god let him plead for himself because one hath cast down his altar so you know
kudos to joash you know joash is gideon's father they're coming to him they're saying hey your son
should be put to death for casting down bail and joash is like you know why are you guys defending
bail can he defend himself you know if he's a god let him plead for himself but it's like it's kind
of funny though because he's the one who has the idol in his house right but you know obviously he
loves his son and probably he agrees with his son you know and so look at verse 32 therefore on that
day he called him Jerubal saying let Baal plead against him because he had thrown down his altar
so it's this defining moment in the life of Gideon where his name is changed from Gideon to Jerubal
because he's known for casting down the image of Baal it's a powerful little uh verse there look
what it goes on to say verse 33 then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and and the children
of the east were gathered together and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel but the spirit
of the lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and Abiezer was gathered after him and he sent
messengers throughout all of Manasseh who also was gathered after him and he sent messengers into
Asher and into Sibulun and into Naphtali and they came up to meet him what do we see here we see
that one man can make a difference and you know one thing I noticed here in this particular
story is that maybe Gideon's a little reluctant to do what he did but it's not until he actually
stepped on in faith and obeyed the Lord that he inspired others to do the same it wasn't until he
cast down Baal then everyone is just like you know what maybe he's right about this so let me just
remind you you know if you're afraid to take a stand in your family you might be the one needed
to take a stand in your family because you might be you know the spark you might be the person that
when you take a stand other family members will see and say you know what maybe he's right about
this maybe she's right about this you just never know now again it's always right to do right no
matter what the results are but i'm just telling you right now sometimes when you take a stand
you end up inspiring others to join the movement as well to join christianity to get saved to
believe it the bible way and look it may not happen overnight you know sometimes christians
particularly in our church they get frustrated because it's just like oh my family just doesn't
agree with a lot of these doctrines and you know and and and let me just tell you you know sending
my most hottest sermon against sodomites probably not the best idea i'm for it i'm not hey i'm not
condemning it i'm the one who preached it but you know you know sending like the craziest clip of
one of my sermons and saying yeah this is the church you need to go to right here don't you just
love i know you love i love it and if you sent it to me i'd be like right on you know not everyone's
really like that though you know and so you know you might want to send them like a sermon on grace
or something like that or just invite them to church and you know what one thing i've learned
is that people who love the truth yeah they may resist the truth initially but i'm going to tell
you right now if people love the truth little by little they end up liking the truth more and it
takes people a little while you know they need to see the legitimacy of the person the legitimacy
of the church the legitimacy of the doctrine and as the holy spirit begins to work in that person
they come around you know this is this is the progression of liking this kind of preaching okay
you know and i and i've used this illustration many times they go on youtube and they hear a
clip or you know they they listen to the clip you sent them and they're like unbelievable i cannot
jesus is not involved in this this can't this is not of god i just can't send him another one and
it's just like i just don't like no i just don't like it i just it just bothers me and then you're
just like kind of leave them alone you know but then because they watch two clips then it becomes
like a recommended and they see another clip and they're just like see what this idiot is saying
this time you know and they watch and they're just like unbelievable and then the algorithm picks up
on it then they get another clip and then it's just like again i can't believe this guy oh and
then a couple weeks pass by he's like oh a new clip i wonder what he says and they watch it and
then they they laugh a little they have this thing of like kind of like this but then it's like i just
can't see no i just don't see the lord in this you know but then it comes up again it's just like
you know okay you know i like what he says i just don't like how he says it right isn't that a
common thing it's like you know because they can't deny the truth because the bible is being shown
so they always say this you know okay i agree with what he says just you know how he says it
you know and some of the words that he uses but then after a while they find themselves actually
liking it you know and then they they grow in their appetite for that kind of preaching
and then after a while then they're here front and center hoping i talk more about that stuff
and enjoying the preaching that's how it is that's how it always is but it does take time and so you
know the the point that i'm making from the story is sometimes we just gotta blow the trumpet
tell people what the bible says and allow god to work in that person's heart allow god to work in
that individual allow the holy spirit to do a work in that person's life you know what if they love
the truth eventually they'll come around and you know what you say well i know someone who doesn't
live around here that i keep sending stuff to and they don't like it i'm just gonna tell you right
now they're gonna end up liking it and they'll probably lie to you and say that they still don't
but they're secretly listening okay it happens all the time folks i've had people tell me like they
did not like my preaching they thought i was rude they thought that this is just wrong and
they can't believe it now they just they just binge watch my sermons and they can't help but
like it because they just because why because it's the truth that's why gideon had to take a stand
first he had to fix himself first he had to cast down bail first and then what he blew the trumpet
people followed him thereafter you want your family to follow you you keep serving god you
keep casting down bail you're like i feel like all hope is lost not when you're serving god
not when you're serving god okay look at verse 36 it says in gideon said unto god if thou will
save israel by my hand as thou has said behold i will put a fleece of wool in the floor and if
the dew be on the fleece only and it be dry upon all the earth beside then shall i know that thou
will save israel by my hand as thou has said and it was so for he rose up early on the morrow and
thrust the fleece together and wrought and wring the dew out of the fleece a bowl full of water
and gideon said unto god let not thine anger be hot against me and i will speak up but this once
let me prove i pray thee but this once with the fleece let it now be dry only upon the fleece
and upon all the ground let there be dew and god did so that night for it was dry upon the fleece
only and there was dew on all the ground so what do we see here we see that Gideon is a man of
faith and in fact Hebrews 11 highlights him as being a man of faith but you look at the story
like i don't know that doesn't sound like he has a whole lot of faith you know he's asking for this
miracle where he puts a fleece out and he wants everything else to be wet except for the fleece
and then vice versa right he reverses it where the fleece is wet and then everything else is dry
and you think to yourself well you know that doesn't sound like a whole lot of faith though
if he's asking for one miracle god does it and then he asks we'll do it again but do it in a
different way it just doesn't sound like a lot of faith but let me let me remind you what faith is
faith is believing for sure the promises of god but let me also remind you that faith is when you
keep asking over and over and over again that's what faith is why because you believe that he's
going to answer it see he asked for one miracle and he's like well i want to see it again i want
to see it again and you know people are like well i just don't think that you should like say that
to god okay then you're not going to see anything because you know there's a biblical principle
called what importunity meaning that when you pray to god you keep asking him for that one thing
over and over and over and over again why because that's an expression of faith my friends why do
you keep coming back to ask god i'll tell you why because you believe he's going to answer it one
day but you know what i'm going to tell you right now in a crowd this size there's people who have
prayed for things and they've stopped praying for it because you don't believe it's going to happen
you've lost hope you've lost faith like all right pray for it for years pray for it for five more
years can god do it of course he can but you know what sometimes he needs god's people to be
importune in their prayers he needs you to just keep asking and keep asking and you know what
the bible says if any of you lack faith let him ask of god who abradeth not in other words he's
not gonna he's not gonna chastise you for asking over and over again he's not gonna abrade you
he's not gonna get angry with you and in fact he's gonna fulfill his promises that because you keep
asking him he's going to come through on your behalf and he's going to show himself strong
i just don't think look if you look at my circumstances if you look at the situation
that i'm in yeah you know god has this amazing capability of not being bound by our circumstances
and you know what when we look at our situation it's it's very like you know here are the walls
and i can't go beyond that god doesn't view it that way and god always see he has a bird's eye view
of our situation and let me just remind you things can change in an instant things can change in a
year things can change in five years things can change in a day let me admonish you to be a people
of faith and think about that one thing that you've just stopped praying for maybe it's the
salvation of a family member maybe it's the you know it's the um you know a wayward christian
a wayward son a wayward daughter a wayward spouse maybe it's the salvation of your spouse
maybe it's the salvation of your children maybe it's it's a reconciliation of a relationship that
went awry you're like well i just don't think it could be fixed have you did you stop praying
you know god's will is that we pray that all men pray and not faint and you know it takes endurance
in prayer sometimes you know it's like i remember hearing a story back in the old ifb of a guy who
just like prayed for his friend to be saved for years and he would give him the gospel the guy
wouldn't get saved he'd just pray and he prayed every single day for his friend to be saved that
god would just soften his heart and you know what he ended up dying the guy who prayed ended up dying
like he just became old and you know age came upon him he died and at the funeral his friend
got saved that's faith because you know what sometimes we pray for things that we may not
even see in our lifetime but it comes now i don't think that's going to be the majority of the case
for all of us i think that we need to endure in prayer you know we often talk about enduring
sound doctrine that's great but you know you also need to endure in prayer and you know don't be
sloppy in your prayer life either have a list with you don't just like oh let's see what i want to
pray about i don't know god provide for me you know i don't know bless my pastor bless the church
i guess you know um i love you you know be systematic have a list of things and and so
that you can see when god answers those prayers i i think gideon is a great man of faith because
he asked for it twice and you know he and same thing with abraham right he's just like praying
and praying obviously you know the only prayer he got answered was the fact that his his nephew
lot was saved right and he wasn't praying for any sodomite to be saved he was just praying for the
righteous to be saved and ended up happening because his law ended up getting delivered
point that i'm making here is that gideon is a mighty man of valor is he not he ended up casting
down the image of bail he gathered all of these nations to help him against the enemies the
medianites he's leading them he's stepping on in faith this is a lot of faith this is a mighty
man of valor to accomplish all this and yet the best is yet to come go to chapter seven
says then jerry bale who is gideon and all the people that were with him rose up early and pitched
beside the well of herod so that the host of the medianites were on the north side of them
by the hill of more in the valley and the lord said into gideon the people that are with thee
are too many for me to give the medianites into their hands lest israel vaunt themselves
against me saying my own hand has saved me so he's you know gideon's feeling good you know he's got
all these people with him he's just like man i got faith god showed him something strong i got a new
name he's got 22 000 people with him that's a good number god comes to him he's like yeah you know
that's a little too much actually we need it we need to trim the fat a little bit and you know
if i was getting happy like really i think i think we have enough but he's like no we have too much
and what's the reason why god wants to trim the fat he says in verse number two the latter end of
verse two lest israel vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand have saved me so he says you
know if 22 000 go out and fight they're going to end up thinking that it's because of the numbers
that they won but why are they going to win in the first place because god's going to allow it
because god's delivering them but because there's 22 000 there's going to be a temptation within the
nation of israel to think oh it's because of us it's because we got the numbers right goes on to
say in verse three now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people saying whosoever is
fearful and afraid let him return and depart early from mount gilead and the return of the people
20 in 2000 and there remain 10 000 so what do we have here we have god basically instituting the
old testament law in deuteronomy chapter 20 of if you are afraid go home so 22 000 leave actually
so it's actually more than 22 000 initially 22 000 leave leaving him with only 10 000 22 000
people are afraid so that means 22 000 are just like as soon as they hear that that commander like
hey i hope you guys win you know and they just go home now this is god instituting that law from
deuteronomy 20 because in deuteronomy 20 he would tell them if you guys go out to war and there's
someone who's afraid they just need to leave they need to go home why because if not they can infect
the other soldiers to become afraid as well right and you don't want fear spreading throughout the
camp you're on the front lines and then some wuss is in the front he's scared he starts running
it's gonna it's gonna cause everyone else to run so basically he just wants valiant bold men to
stay behind right i don't know about you if i was giddy and 22 000 dudes just walked out you just
lose 22 000 subscribers 22 000 followers you'd be like oh man you know i had a lot of faith before
but i don't know about it now i mean 10 000 is still a lot but not as much as 22 000 so you know
22 000 leave 10 000 remain and look what it says in verse four and the lord sent him to giddy and
the people are yet too many oh man he's like this is still a little too much actually he says bring
them down into the water and i will try them there for thee excuse me i will try them for thee there
and it shall be that of whom i say unto thee this shall go with thee the same shall go with thee
and of whomsoever i say unto thee this shall not go with thee the same shall not go so he brought
down the people unto the water and the lord sent into giddy and everyone that lapeth of the water
with his tongue as a dog lapeth him shall thou set by himself likewise everyone that boweth down upon
his knees to drink and the number of them that lapped putting their hand to their mouth were
300 men but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water now i've
heard different interpretations of this but i don't agree with them i think that what i'm
going to tell you right now is the correct interpretation because what he's telling
them here is this okay you're going to take these 10 000 to go drink water don't tell them how to
drink just let them drink water well you know 300 actually get on their knees they scoop the water
and they bring it to their mouths whereas the other group they're actually like a dog just kind
of putting their face into the water and drink it like a dog okay and god basically says he ends up
saying like you need to get rid of those guys and just keep the 300 who brought the water from
their hand into their mouth and the reason i believe he said that and i think it's pretty
explicit here is that those who are doing it are obviously being more vigilant they're being more
aware right someone who's just kind of getting on their knees drinking water you know bro that's
not who you want next to you when you're fighting the guy's careless right he's just kind of like
eating he's just like you want someone who is just like watching and I believe that's the reason why
he's telling him to do this because if you think about it you know God obviously delivers us God
obviously is going to fight for us but he does want us to do our part we do play a role in the
success of the battle it's just that God's percentage of success is much higher than ours
the effort that he puts in is a lot higher than what we put in right but that's not to say that
we are not to do our part we're supposed to do our part which is why he tells them those who are
afraid go home what that's our part that means God wants us to be bold he wants us to be valiant
he wants us to be courageous and he says all right now get rid of the guys who are not vigilant
and so only 300 are left now those are some discouraging numbers to fight against a great
army but here's the thing though if God before us who can be against us and we with God make
up the majority always so it doesn't matter if you have 22,000 it doesn't matter if you have 10,000
quite frankly it doesn't matter if you have 300 if you have God on your side you can't lose you
cannot lose and look this battle is pretty epic because they actually win without a sword even
though they say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon no sword involved from God's people it's
there they literally win by psychological warfare instituted by God bringing them strong delusion
look what it says in verse seven and the Lord said unto Gideon by the 300 men that lapped
will I save you and deliver the medianites into thine hand and let all the other people go every
man unto his place the quality of vigilance of watching and you know what when it comes to
spiritual battle we need to be vigilant do we not not be careless and reckless not paying attention
and when it says that we need to watch as christians it doesn't mean watch fox news
it doesn't mean watch the podcast why you know prophecy watch israel watch what's going is the
bible prophecy being fulfilled that northern kingdom's coming it's the russians and all this
is just like you know that's not what it means by watch watch means to be awake and to be awake
means you're walking in the spirit and so when we do spiritual battle against the principalities
powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world it's important that we're reading
the bible and look folks you may not be going through a hard trial today but you still you're
still in a spiritual battle and we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities
powers of the darkness of this world and you know we need to make sure that we're reading the word
of god we're in church we're praying we're asking god to be filled to fill us with with his spirit
that we're winning souls to christ and we're not carnally minded okay why because you know the enemy
as a roaring lion our adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may
devour and you know who he devours those who are not vigilant those who are not watching you know
who who gets the gazelle the gazelle I know the guy's like he can't laugh with his hand but you
know the one who's just sticking his head in the water the crocodile just comes out and snatches
them you know and so it's important for us to make sure that we are vigilant that we're being
watchful and it doesn't matter if only 300 men agree with us are in the battle with us
that's the remnant that's okay god can do great things you know uh horses are prepared against
the day of battle but safety is of the lord okay and so he had strong faith minimal amount of
soldiers you know he wanted them to be fearless he wanted them to be vigilant and look what it
goes on to say in verse 9 and it came to pass that night came to pass the same night that the
lord said unto him arise get thee down unto the host for i have delivered it into thine ham so
he wants him to kind of do like a recon type of a thing to see what's going on in the camp now again
this takes a lot of faith because he doesn't have the 22 000 anymore he doesn't have the 10 000 he
barely has 300 then god tells him i want you alone to go into the camp kind of dangerous now
i like this verse here because it says here in verse 10 but if thou fear to go down go down with
furor thy servant down to the host so you know as much as god expects of us he knows that we're
human he knows that we have flaws he knows that maybe we fall short and he knows gideon's heart
and look gideon is courageous he is a valiant man but you know what that doesn't mean he's absent
of fear though and anxiousness and worry and care so god's like i want you to go down there
i've delivered him into your hand and he's like hey but if you're scared though go take furor with
you right and you know gideon probably didn't say hey i'm scared he's probably just like in his heart
i'm scared but let me just say this is that we all need furor in our lives right because it takes
courage to serve god but you know it's a lot easier when your spouse is your furor and is
encouraging you to continue to go forward right hey spouse be a furor don't be a zipporah right
you said who's zipporah read that back in exodus she's the one who threw the foreskin at the feet
of uh moses there okay you don't want that be a furor that when you are discouraged or maybe you
are afraid to serve god and step out in faith your furor will come to you not mine furor okay
your furor your furor will come to you and say hey we can do this you can do this you're a mighty
hey tell your husband you're a mighty man of valor even though he you know he might not be you know
even though he can't squat a whole lot he can't deadlift a whole lot but he's strong in the lord
empower his might tell him like you are a mighty man of valor you are strong you're godly you love
the lord and let me see your muscles you know because men have large egos just naturally have
large egos and they're easily inflated but they're also easily deflated so don't point out his caps
like you got larger you got to work on that but he's the point that i'm making is we all
need someone to encourage us right be a furor to your wife encourage her when she's discouraged
be a furor to the people in our church that when they are going through a spiritual battle you're
encouraging to continue in the lord to be strong in the lord and the power of his might and look
sometimes we have discouraged christians and we who are strong in the lord need to bear the
infirmities of the week and go to them and say you know what i know you're going through a hard
time but we're here with you you know we love you we're praying for you what do you need from us
we know that you we know that you're a mighty man of valor you can hold on people need to
hear that stuff i need to hear that you need to hear that we all need a furor in our lives
when we are afraid to obey god when things don't make sense we need someone who has a level head
to come to us and say it's gonna be okay you're gonna be fine and look sometimes we get emotionally
just like you know not thinking straight isn't what i'm talking about sometimes when you're going
through trials you're just not thinking straight and when you don't think straight your judgment
is impaired so you you know what you need you need a furor to come to you and say hey i'm thinking
straight this is what you need to do okay this is the decision you need to make and so we all need
that look at verse 15 and it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation
thereof that he worshipped and returned to the host of Israel and said arise for the Lord had
delivered into your hand the host of Midian so what do we have here so he goes down there
and he hears these guys just talking around the campfire and this one guy's like man i had this
dream and a cake of a wheat barley comes into the camp and the guy's like oh that's Gideon he's
gonna do that you know that's the sword of Gideon such a crazy thing right but obviously God gave
that man that dream and God gave that other man the interpretation of the dream but God
preordained it in such a way that Gideon would hear that why did God want Gideon to go down
into the camp because he knew that he needed to hear that right he knew that's exactly what he
needed to hear so it could be that Gideon was having second thoughts we don't know we don't
know if he was having cold feet we don't know if maybe he was lacking a little bit of faith so he
needed a little push by going down into the camp and hearing that specific statement that got him
going he's just like oh for sure we are going to win and let me say this you know here's a really
uh a bad application to a certain degree you know if you're lacking faith come to the camp
which is the house of god so i can tell you what the bible says about it faith comes by hearing
hearing by the word of god i can tell you what the lord says i can tell you what the bible says and
give you the interpretation thereof and it'll increase your faith to make the right decisions
in your life and so he hears that and he's like oh i mean it's in the back it's in the back we're
gonna win this looking verse 16 divided the 300 men into three companies and he put a trumpet in
every man's hand and with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers and he said to them look on me
and do likewise and behold when i come to the outside of the camp it shall be that as i do so
shall ye do when i blow with the trumpet i and all that are with me then blow you the trumpet also
on every side of all the camp and say the sword of the lord and of gideon so no swords involved
and they go around the camp they have these pitchers they have lights in them they have trumpets so
what they do is they play this psychological warfare on them where they blow the trumpet
because one trumpet is like oh there's one army but multiple trumpets the camp ends up thinking
that they're surrounded by a multitude of people then they break the pitchers that have light in
them and it's causing them like to have like this just chaotic atmosphere where guys are coming out
of the tent and they think everything is on fire trumpets are being blown i mean it's just utter
chaos and this in turn causes god to send them this strong delusion that it's not 300 it's
probably like 30 000 or something and they're being overtaken by the enemy and what happens
the guys who are coming out of the tent end up just stabbing each other so one dude's coming out
he's just like ah he's just like but that's like his that's his homie you know so the enemy is
just basically destroying themselves and Gideon didn't have to do anything but blow the trumpet
and break the pitcher and look folks this is a great principle for us to learn in the new testament
that all we have to do as God's people is blow the trumpet and make sure that this earthen vessel
is broken so the light of the glorious gospel of Christ can shine forth right the Bible says if
our gospel be hid it's hid to them that are lost and the Bible says that we have this treasure in
earthen vessels to let your light so shine before men let me just remind you the most effective way
the biggest impact you can make is by blowing the trumpet and letting the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ shine forth no I think I gotta be a mayor I gotta be a governor I gotta get
involved we have to reform the nation by getting involved in politics no blow the trumpet break
the vessel let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine forth and God will make up the
rest say the sword of the Lord amen no I think we need to take a literal sword I think we need to
bear arms I think no we just need to make sure that we're blowing the trumpet because this is a
spiritual battle how do they win they won and look the enemies just destroyed themselves like
Gideon didn't even have to do much they just end up destroying themselves in a big way point that
I'm making here is that when you look at the story we obviously give credit to Gideon for winning the
battle but when we look at the details we realize it was God who did it though through Gideon and
you know what he's still a mighty man of valor even though he didn't take up a sword in his
particular instance he's still a mighty man of valor why because he stepped on in faith he obeyed
the Lord and he trusted God with the victory now here's my last point go to chapter eight if you
would look at verse number uh verse four and Gideon came to Jordan and passed over he and the 300 men
that were with him faint yet pursuing them so the men are running from them the 300 are chasing them
and I'm gonna I'm gonna cover the first three verses later on tonight but the point that I
wanted I want you to see here is that Gideon is trying to get the job done you know he defeats
them here but then they're on the run and he's chasing him down and you know what he's tired
his men are tired they're faint the Bible says but I want you to notice faint yet pursuing you
know it kind of reminds me of last week we went on this this hike and um how many men was it like
22 like 22 guys and you know we all got egos and so we just want to make it seem like it wasn't
affecting us at all we're dying we're dying it was hard and i remember like on the way back
you know it was you know jose lied and he said that no i'm just kidding he said it was about
like a three and a half mile or something like that or it was going to only take like three and
a half hours i think right six hours is basically what it became right and you know on the way back
we're like going back to the cars and it's just the trail just never ended we just kept walking
and walking we're just like you know we're done with the trail but we're still there's more
You know and then someone had this bright idea. I don't know who did it. They're like
Someone started talking about running. Oh, it's brother Maury. He was the Gideon. It was Jerub Bale
Someone started challenging with the running like you think you can run and you know the guys with egos. They're like I can do it
Oh, yeah, you think you could do it. Oh, yeah
Oh, you think we could make it all the way in the back who thinks they can are and so everyone just starts challenge
And then we all start running and I'm running. I'm like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this?
We're all running and we're just like this is the dumbest thing ever now luckily
You know as we're hitting corners, we're thinking like the next corner that that's where the cars are
We're like, oh once we make it right the cars gonna no car, but I remember just thinking like I can't be a punk
I have to continue now we eventually stopped because there's just no end to the road and
Eventually, there's a peacock. I'm not lying to you. This is actually happening
The peacock distracted us and his name was Francis. There's a peacock that let me just tell you this
there's a peacock that was there he came out of the fence and we just hung out with this peacock for like 20 minutes a
Car drove by and he said that's Francis
So then and he wouldn't get away from us
We ended up feeding him taking pictures of them and stuff and use a really cool peacock
But I remember running thinking to myself like I'm faint and you know what I did not pursue
The point that I'm making here is like in the Christian life
We can't be that way though and there's times when you're tired because you're going through a hard time
You're having problems in your marriage. You have problems with your kids. You're you you you got let go from your job
You're having health issues. You got to keep pursuing though, you know, you had a bad week
You're faint. You got to keep pursuing though, you know, oh man you you're depressed you're discouraged
We're here for you, but you got to keep pursuing though, you know, you you are
Experiencing emotional trauma. I get it, but you need to keep pursuing and you need to keep jogging
You need to keep pressing forward. There's no quit in the Christian life. We cannot throw the towel in you know
What that's why getting is a great man of faith because in spite of the fact that there is they're tired
The job wasn't done it needed to get done and you know what you may be just sick and tired
You're tired of people backstabbing you you're tired of people doing you dirty. You're tired of
Financial issues you're tired of this that and the other I'm sorry, but the job is not done though now luckily
You're not you're not running alone. I had brother Chris Carey right next to me
You know and in the footsteps of the men running around me caused me to at least finish what I did
But you know what you have an entire church running with you. You have people running alongside you and there's no temptation taking you
But such as is common to man, okay
There's people who are struggling to point that I'm making here is that don't be a quitter finish the job
When is the job finished when we go home to be with the Lord when we go home to be with the Lord and by the way
Don't sprint either. You know, yeah, I quit but I didn't quit faster than the guys who sprinted though
You know, this is a marathon you need to keep keep pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ keep pursuing
Reconciliation with your spouse keep pursuing the the restitution of your children keep pursuing godliness
Keep pursuing souls keep pursuing the Lord keep pursuing
success in the Christian life even when you are
Tired why because if thou faint in the day of adversity that strength is small and the Bible tells us not to faint
That we shall reap in due season if we faint not so Gideon. He is a mighty man of valor
Why because in spite of the fact that he was tired in spite of the fact that a great victory was won
He knew the job was not done and it needed to get finished. And so that's the sermon. Let's pray father
We thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the example of Jeroboil
Help us all to have a little Jeroboil in us that we would step out in faith believe the Lord believe your promises
Fight the battles pray ask you for wisdom ask you to show yourself strong on our behalf Lord
Take a stand in our families
Take a stand in the world and help us to recognize that if you dwindle our numbers
22,000 to 10,000 to 300 at the end of the day
You with us we make a majority
I pray you bless us Lord as we go on our way
Help us Lord to recognize that the spiritual battle is the most important battle to be a part of and not to faint in
The day of adversity. We love you. We thank you. Pray the things in Jesus name. Amen, please turn your songbooks a song number
377 song number
377 rescue the perishing song number 377 altogether nice and strong on that first verse
rescue the perishing care for the dying snatch them in pity from sin and the grave
We for the airing was lived up the fallen tell them of Jesus the mighty to save
rescue the perishing care for the dying
Jesus is merciful
Jesus will say
They are sliding him still he is waiting
waiting the penitent child to receive
Plead with them earnestly plead with them gently he will forgive if they only believe
rescue the perishing care for the dying
Jesus is merciful
Jesus will say
Down in the human heart crushed by the tempter
Crushed by a loving heart awakened by kindness cords that are broken will vibrate once more
rescue the perishing care for the dying
Jesus is merciful
Jesus will say
The perishing duty demands it strength for thy labor the Lord will provide
Back to the narrow way patiently with them tell the poor wanderer a savior has died
rescue the perishing care for the dying
Jesus is merciful
Jesus will say
Amen wonderful singing you're dismissed