Let's look back at verse number one. We've been going through the Bible study on judges,
and chapter number six had kind of been a setup chapter to this chapter. We'd learned about
Gideon. Gideon was commanded by the Lord to go and deliver the children of Israel,
and they've been oppressed by the Midianites for a very long time. Well, he threw down the altar of
Baal, and that's why he's called Jerubabel, because he threw down his altar, and he had
gathered together the Lord's people. He had a couple different signs that were trying to
encourage him that the Lord was with him. As we kind of remember from chapter number six,
Gideon was a little bit timid. He was a little bit shy in his approach in this situation. He
wasn't necessarily sure of himself, and he kept asking the Lord to give him a sign, give him
another sign, so that he'd have enough courage to go and to fight this battle. Look at verse number
one. The Bible says, Then Jerubabel, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him,
rose up early and pitched beside the well of Harod, so that the host 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, this is a very
interesting verse that we have here mentioned in the Bible, where God is basically bringing up the
idea that they have too many people to fight their battle. Now, that would go against all conventional
wisdom. I mean, you would never think that having too many warriors is a bad thing. You would never
think that having a large enough army would be somehow negative, but God does not want the
children of Israel to be prideful, to be haughty, or to think that they're somehow better than other
people. The only thing that makes them better is that God is their God. That's the only thing that
makes them better. It's not a race. It's not, well, we're the Jews, though. Oh, well, we're
sons of Abraham. We're the sons of Isaac. We're the sons of Jacob. We're the sons. You know, it's
not about that. It's not being of a physical nation of Israel that makes you better than
anybody else. No, it's having God as your God that makes you better. And He's the one that delivers
you. And this is a consistent theme in the Bible, where God is trying to show His might and His
power through weak men, through weakness, so that He can get the honor. He can get the glory.
Keep your finger and go to Deuteronomy chapter eight. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number eight.
Let's see an interesting verse that says the exact same thing.
Now, in Deuteronomy chapter number eight, we have the law. This is way before the book of judges,
but it's the same concept, the same idea that God wants to reiterate with them.
Look what it says in verse number 16. The Bible says, Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna,
which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee,
to do thee good at thy latter end. So, God used the manna. He used these things of traveling
through the wilderness to humble the children of Israel, for them to realize their need and
dependence upon God, because you cannot survive in the wilderness on your own. It's impossible.
It's literally an impossible task. It was a miracle of God that He could feed the children
of Israel in the wilderness for as long as they journeyed. He says in verse number 17,
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
Isn't that the same concept we just read where it's saying, I wanted to prove you guys. I wanted
to humble you guys so that you would not think it's by some might of your own. It's not by some
power of your own that you're accomplishing these great tasks, that you're able to enter into the
promised land, that you're able to destroy the Philistines. You're able to kill the Anakins.
You can't kill the Anakim on your own. They're really better than you.
They really are. When they look at you, you're like a grasshopper in their sight.
It's true. The problem is they have a false God. You have the Lord God on your side,
and He's going to defeat them for you. Verse 18, But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God,
for it is He that giveth thee power to get well, that He may establish His covenant,
which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
There is a temptation in the heart of man to think that everything you own is because of you.
It's easy to think. Well, of course, I have this job. Look how smart I am.
Look how intelligent I am. Look how strong I am. Look at all the attributes of myself
that have given me the things that I have today. But God could take it away in a moment.
We see this constantly in the Bible. Men lose their status, lose all their power,
lose all their wealth, lose everything when they get lifted up. Or even sometimes God just
wants to take these things away to test them. He tests Joseph. He tests Job. He tests Daniel.
But He also tests unsaved people. He tests Nebuchadnezzar. He failed.
Nebuchadnezzar thought because of how great he was is why he took over the whole world.
It was because God allowed him to take over the whole world. And because he thought,
oh, look at this great house that I built for myself. God ends up humbling him,
making him like a literal reprobate. I mean, he's literally become an animal where he's eating grass.
He's lost his mind completely. It's like a physical picture of what a reprobate is like
on the inside. Nebuchadnezzar. Why? Because he thought of how great he was. He thought how
wonderful he was. And so it's a warning to you, Christian. Don't think that your money, your power,
your wealth, your job, your status, your position in church, anything is because of you. It's by
God's grace that you have that. Now, at the end of the day, this is not to teach that you don't
have personal responsibility. Of course, God is going to work in tandem with your efforts.
God rewards those that are humble. God rewards those that are hardworking. God rewards those
that are diligent and going to seek him and follow his commandments. But at the end of the day,
it's God that sets one up and puts another one down. And we should never lose sight of that.
We should never get this attitude or this idea that, well, of course I'm successful. Look how
great I am. Look how smart I am. Look how strong I am. This is what athletes do. They break their
leg. They lose their contract. Now they're a derelict. And they're hooked on the drugs that
they got fed whenever they got that injury. Now they are hooked up with all this debt that they
inquired. They overpaid for their house and yacht and boat. And you know what's the best day in the
life of a boat owner? The day he sells it. And here's the thing. You can get caught up thinking
that you're great. And what does this do? It allows you to turn a blind eye to sin.
It allows you to think, well, you know, I can cut some corners because no matter what happens,
I can always take care of myself. I can always have this job. I can always have these things.
But that's not true. And whenever you turn a blind eye to sin, whenever you look the other way,
when you think, I don't really need church. I don't really need to go soul winning. I don't
need to read my Bible. I don't need to serve God. It's okay if I lie every once in a while.
It's okay if I cheat every once in a while. It's okay if I do things that my wife doesn't know,
or my husband doesn't know. You know what? God knows. And God's the one that gives you every
single thing that you have. And whenever you start turning a blind eye to God, the one who
even gives you everything you have, he could take away what you seem to have. And you say,
oh, I don't have that much. You have a lot. And there's a lot of things that God could take away
from you. And it would be great suffering. We should never forget of God's mercies and grace
and what he's given us. He's the one that gives us the power to even get the wealth.
And if you want to have these things, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. We have one goal, one vision. It's to serve God
with our lives. Go back to Judges chapter number seven. And actually, I still want you to go to
another place. Go to 1 Samuel chapter number 16, if you would. Go to 1 Samuel chapter number 16.
There is a danger of us being prideful at any moment. We can always be prideful.
And we need to constantly be reminded of how we need to humble ourselves with the word of God.
We need to humble ourselves by serving other people. We need to humble ourselves by realizing
the things that we have are by God's grace, not by our own power and might. As soon as you get that
and you understand that in your heart, it will help you. 1 Samuel chapter 16, look at verse seven.
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not in his countenance, or in the height of his stature,
because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Now, what I wanted to point out about this verse
is that God does not look at situations the way that we look at them. If you were to say,
well, I'm going to go into battle, and I could have 30,000 troops or a lot less,
I could have a couple hundred, which one would you pick? Like, let's go with the 30,000,
you know, or let's look at a different way of making this an applicable verse. Some people say,
I would rather go to the 30,000 person church, rather than the 300 person church.
And you say, well, obviously, the 30,000 person church is better. Is it though? In God's eyes,
how does he look at things? Does he look at things on the outward appearance? Or does he look at the
heart? Would you rather have 30,000 people with a bad heart, or 300 with a good heart?
And so at the end of the day, some people also think that the things they have,
they always want to increase. But notice what God's doing in this story. He's not increasing,
he's decreasing. He's going to do more with less, more with less. God can do more with less when
people get their hearts right with him. And some people think, well, God just wants you to have
more. Where does the Bible say that? You know, I think some churches, they have this attitude
where they feel like if they're not growing in attendance, or they're not growing in persons,
that there's something wrong. Like it's bad, it's a negative sign. That's not negative to me.
You could be growing because you're doing bad things. You could be growing because you're
not preaching the Bible anymore. You could be growing for all manner of carnal reasons,
and you could be shrinking for spiritual reasons. We shouldn't look at church attendance as really
a factor. Who cares? We should not care about that. What we should care about is the hearts
of the people in the room. Whenever I evaluate the health of my church, it's not based on the
attendance numbers. It's based on the decisions the people in the pews make every single day.
Hey, are people deciding to go sowing more or less in my church? Are people deciding to come
to church more or less? Are people deciding to read the Bible more or less? Are people becoming
more godly or less godly? Is there more strife in the church, less strife? Do people know more
of the Bible or less of the Bible? That's how I measure the health of a church.
Because we shouldn't have eyes of man. We should have eyes like God, and we should use the mind
of Christ to determine what's the better scenario. And God wants 300 men that have their hearts right
with him rather than 30,000 all puffed up and vaunted and think that they won the battle
themselves. Look at chapter 14 where you are and look at verse 6. Chapter 14, look at verse 6. The
Bible says, and Jonathan said to the younger young man that bare his armor, come and let us
go over under the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for
there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. Notice how much God cares about numbers.
Zero. None. He says there's no restraint. Well, if we had more people, we could do more.
Nope. There's no restraint. Well, we just have to get more. We just have to have more and get more.
No. God can do the same thing. He just wants your heart. He just looks for one man to have
his heart right with him. Look what God's done with just one person. Oh yeah, he saved the entire
world through the Lord Jesus Christ with one person, didn't he? By one man. We look at Moses.
One man makes all the difference for the children of Israel and Egypt, doesn't it?
It just takes one person to get you saved.
One man can make such a difference. It's about the hearts of people. Jesus Christ didn't care
about the numbers. Hey, I got to preach a 5,000. It's now whittled down to 11 and a devil. He's
like, well, you go away also. He doesn't care. How many people do we hear about in Acts once we get
like to the midpoint? Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, one guy. It's about just getting some
people just fired up for God and getting their hearts right with God. You can do more with less.
So you say, Pastor Shelley, why do you preach hard? Because I want to fire someone up,
just one person. If I can just get one person to want to serve God, that's worth it. Then to have
3000 lukewarm Christians, then to have 30,000 lukewarm Christians, let's just find one guy
and fire him up. Let's just not hold back any of the Bible and let's just preach to the one guy.
And you say, who is it? I don't know. Well, let's keep whittling it down.
But at the end of the day, I'm not, there's no point in softening the message. Hey, it's the
same battle. Go back to judges, chapter number seven, judges, chapter number seven. God is after
the hearts of men today. He's not after a quantity of people. He can have a quantity.
If he wants it, he doesn't want that. He wants quality. He wants the quality of people that
love him and want to serve him. Look at verse four or look at the verse three. I don't know
if we read it yet. Verse three. Now, therefore go to proclaiming the ears of the people saying,
whose server is fearful and afraid? Let him return it apart early from Mount Gilead.
And they return to the people 20 and 2000 and their main 10,000. So we have a first division
here. In fact, two thirds of their group or more leave. That's a big Exodus. Hey, is anybody afraid?
And notice a ton of people were afraid. A ton of people were fearful. Now, some people would look
at our church and they would say, well, we're all those people. You got saved out soul winning.
They got afraid by the Google star review. They were afraid by the little protester out there.
They were afraid that you meet in a shopping center. You know, they were afraid by some
faggot article written against us because they're all fags that write these articles against us.
Let me just wake you up. OK, virtually, if not 100%. But notice that the majority are afraid.
And look, there's there's still a picture of people that are saved.
You know, there's probably like 500 people that have like come to our church in the last few
years. Where are they? Well, most of them are just afraid. They're just fearful and they're
going to depart. That shouldn't stop you from wanting to serve God. And you know what? When
one person leaves, it drags a lot of people with them. Look, it dragged over two thirds of the
church with them, two thirds of the congregation, two thirds of the warriors with them. They were
just like, yeah, I'm not in this battle. Yeah, I don't want to fight. But there was still a lot
left over. Ten thousand that were still left over and wanted to serve God. You know, it just makes
me think of Psalms 12 where it says, Help, Lord, for the godly man sees it for the faithful fell
from among the children of men. It's just hard to find people that want to serve God that are not
afraid, not fearful of taking a stand for the word of God. But why do people leave? Why are
they afraid? They're afraid of persecution. We kind of mentioned that. Not only that,
they're also afraid of losing relationships. I feel like this is probably a big reason people
won't come to a church like ours. They're afraid of losing the relationship with their mother,
with their father, with their cousin, with their brother, with their uncle, with whoever it is.
Maybe it's not even a family relationship. Maybe it's a relationship just of a friend.
They don't really want to go. They love their friendship more than church. They love their
friendship more than God. They end up loving their work more than God. They end up loving the things
of this world more than God, and they're afraid of losing those things. I've been there.
I remember, you know, even going to the most worldly, carnal church, I mean, just the big
non-denominational fun center. They would still preach on sin, okay? It was just generic,
but if you have a good heart, you can always make it personal for yourself, right? They would just
talk about not doing simple things and not looking at things that you shouldn't or talking about
wasting time. I would always apply it to TV for myself. I'd be like TV and video games and these
things. I said, you know what? If I really want to serve God, I would probably give those things up.
But being a young teenage boy, I was so afraid of giving that up. I literally was just afraid of,
I was like, how can I give up TV? How can I give up these things? And, you know,
you talk to people in the world, they don't even understand it. I was talking to a guy working on
our church and he was saying, you know, you're going to put a TV up here for the church? And
I was like, no. And I was like, yeah, I was like, I don't even have a TV. He's like, what do you
mean you don't have a TV like in your main room? And I was like, no, I don't have, I don't own a TV.
He was like, how do you watch TV then? I was like, I don't. But you know, honestly,
whatever fear it was of giving up television, it's like a thousand percent confirmed because
I don't miss it that much. I honestly don't even miss it at all. The only thing I would even kind
of miss is like watching a sports game or something like that, but like actual television
programming, it's so bad. And when you walk away for at least a month or two and you try to come
back, you're like, whoa, I feel like this is just an advertisement for fags and just the vaccinations
and just public pool system. I mean, it's just like a constant advertisement. You're like,
is that the commercial? No, the program's like more of an advertisement than the commercials are.
You're like, what is this agenda driven, you know, box here over here? I don't even desire it.
And now every show's like just only about fags and transgenders and freaks. I think that there's some
show called like Lucifer, where he's like a good guy or something. It's like, what in the world?
Who watches this trash? Everybody. And they're afraid. They're afraid of leaving the world.
They're afraid of leaving Egypt. They're afraid of leaving Sodom. They say it's comfortable. It's
fun. We enjoy it. We love laughing at the fags. We love all the little jokes and all the little
innuendos and it's so cool and so fun. And they're so terrified of separating from the world. But let
me tell you, when you make those separations, you're never going to think, oh man, what a bad
decision I made. Just take a step of faith and remove the junk. You won't miss it. Most cases,
sometimes you will. And sometimes it can be a struggle. You know, they're afraid of missing
the sports. They're afraid of missing out on the money and all the lusts of the flesh. But I tell
you, Christian, when you start serving God and you get a real purpose in your life, you see how vain
it really is. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.
And those things are vanity and you're afraid of a boogeyman. You're afraid of something that's
really not even to be afraid of. And let's say you skip TV. You skip the world for a month
and you come back. It's going to be waiting for you. Egypt's always ready to take you back in
their arms. They're afraid of you walking away and realizing it's not that great.
Now you have so much time on your hands. I remember when me and my wife, we used to watch
so much TV. It's gross. Okay. Let me confess my fault. I think we watched like four or five hours
of TV every night, you know, and I'm a, once we stopped watching TV, it was like, what do we do?
Oh man, we have to talk to each other. We have to actually have a relationship. We,
we play games, play lots of board games. And honestly, it was like the funnest time.
It was like, all of a sudden we had a new life that we just regained. It was like,
now I don't have to watch all this filth and I can play a game. We can talk and hang out
and you go to bed on a good time instead of binge watching 24 until it's over, you know,
like what's going to happen next. He's still not going to die. Okay. The world's still going to
keep going. Go to let's, let's keep reading in this chapter. Cause we have a lot more verses
that are really good in this chapter, but look at verse four. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
the people are yet too many, bring them down under the water. And 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 into the water and the, and the Lord said unto Gideon,
everyone that lapeth of the water with his tongue as a dog lapeth him shout, they'll set by himself.
Likewise, everyone that bowed down upon his knees to drink a number of them that lap,
putting their hand to their mouth for 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed
down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped,
will I save you and deliver the many nights into thine hand and let all the other people
go every man unto his place. So we see a first mass Exodus, the Bible says 20 and 2000. So they
were left 10,000. Then he has this unique way of dividing the people where essentially 9,700
drink water bent down on their knees and 300 lap like a dog. Okay. And what we see is God
whittling it down to the smallest number of people and insane amount of people of being whittled down
to, I mean, from thousands and thousands to 300 men. And God says, let's pick those guys.
I'm sure whenever Gideon saw, okay, there's 9,700 and 300. I know which ones to pick.
Let's pick the 9,700. And then God's like 300, like the 300. All right. Well, that was,
that was discouraging. I mean, we're going to go against the multitude, which can't even be
counted. Can't even be numbered. And I've got 300 guys with me. That's a small number, but again,
God can do more with less. Don't get this idea that I have to have more in my life to serve God
better. You know, bad philosophy would be for us to think that we constantly have to grow to serve
God. This church could shrink and serve God better next year. Don't think, and look, I'm all for
growing. I'm not against growing. I would love that, but we shouldn't get this mentality that
growth is just the bee's knees. Growth is where it's at. Cause sometimes you can have fake growth.
And then when you get a lot of fake growth and then you have to trim off the fat,
everybody dislikes that. Everyone dislikes liposuction spiritually.
Okay. Everybody gets a little queasy whenever you start trimming a bunch of fat and everybody's
like, Oh, what are you doing? You know, why are you getting rid of that? Why do you call that
trash? You know, it's like, cause it's trash, you know, just call it as it is. Right. But,
so it's better to have slow and steady growth and have a bunch of people have their heart right
with God. Sometimes you need to whittle down things in order to be effective because God
doesn't want us to ever get this mentality or this idea. Well, we're just better than everybody
else. No, it's God. That's going to fight the battles for us. It's God. That's going to be
the one that gives us his power and might think about the parable of the sower and the parable
of the sower. You have this whittling down of Christianity, don't you? And what do you get at
the bottom wrong? You just get those that have a good heart. Remember? Cause God's after your heart,
who does all the heavy lifting? Just that small group at the bottom. Everyone else does nothing.
Don't think it's shocking that most Christians are doing nothing for God. If most Christians
were serving God, the Bible wouldn't make sense because every time you see in the Bible,
it's this constant whittling down. It's the few. Jesus Christ said, pray for more laborers.
He wasn't like the laborers abound and the harvest is little. Go out there and fight over a grape.
He's just saying like there's, there's handfuls to be taken. Just someone pick them up. Someone
go out and work someone labor. He's looking for more laborers and those that actually work.
There's plenty to do. There's more than you can gather in. There's more harvest to be gathered
than we can even do. We need to get to the work. Look what he says in verse number eight.
So the people took bittles in their hand and the Trumpets. And he said, all the rest of Israel,
every man is 10 and retain those 300 men. And those are many and was beneath them in the valley.
And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to them, arise, get the down into the host
where I have delivered in mine into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go vow with Fura,
thy servant down to the host. And thou shalt hear what they say. And afterward shall thine hands be
strengthened to go down into the host. Then when he down with Fura, his servant unto the outside
of the armed men that were in the host and the many nights, the malachite, all the children of
the East lay along the Valley like grasshoppers for multiples. And their camels were without
number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. So we have here a whittling down. And I think God's
just reading the thoughts of, of Gideon here and understanding that Gideon's probably nervous now.
You know, he kind of got pumped up with all these signs, with all these things,
even though he needed one after another, after another, after another. But then he had this host
from like thousands whittled down to 300. So he's probably thinking like,
you know, so God's like, you know what? I'm going to give you another, another sign.
Why don't you go down? And he's like, Gideon doesn't even bring it up. He's like,
if you're afraid, go ahead and take thy servant Fura. But really we know that he must've been
afraid because he does take Fura. Doesn't he? He takes his servant with him. So Gideon still
a little bit nervous. Gideon still a little bit unsure of the situation and God can use someone
weak like Gideon who still just take steps of faith. God will show himself strong.
So you have to balance the idea. Hey, you could maybe be a little bit timid or a little bit shy,
but you're still going to take that step of faith. Not really knowing, not really understanding,
not really comprehending necessarily and saying, well, you know what? God said it. So let's just
do it anyways. Even if I can't quite see the outcome, even though the circumstance just
changed a lot and don't look at your circumstances and think that they're negative. I mean,
at any point of us reading this, having full knowledge of the situation, are we getting
less comfortable when they got whittled down? Did we think, oh man, what's going to happen? Oh,
this is getting intense. We're just like, we already know what's going to happen.
God's going to deliver them. But you know, in your life, there's going to be moments
when it starts to feel intense. When you have something negative happen in the flesh through
your eyes and you're thinking like, it's still, is God still with us? Because wasn't that the
whole point of chapter six? He's like, if God before us, you know, where be all those miracles?
If God be with us, he's still there. He's still got his commandments. You can still follow him
and still have power and still have might. And one thing that helps though is having a companion.
God uses this illustration. Ecclesiastes chapter four, go there for a moment.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number four for a moment. God uses a companion and it's in
coordination with the scriptures. Ecclesiastes chapter four, very famous section of scripture.
Let's read it verse nine. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth,
for yet not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one
be one alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is not
quickly broken. So obviously we've been talking about numbers. Obviously having more is better
in just a generic sense. Even God is letting us understand that two is better than one.
But what's the most important concept is that people have their heart right towards God.
Okay. So you want to whittle down to the smallest number of people that have their heart right with
God. And then from that perspective, you want to multiply. But having two can be better than
one. That's why we go soul winning by twos. It's not better to just say, everybody, here's one map,
you go by yourself. And human reasoning, wouldn't that be better? Oh, it's double the work.
We can knock on more doors. We can have more people talking. But what does the Bible say?
Two are better than one. Why? Because if one falls, the other one can lift up his brethren.
He can help his partner. He can encourage him. Iron can sharpen iron. I know me personally,
if I go soul winning by myself or I go with a partner, it's way better with a partner.
It's way better. Hey, you run into a stream of doors where nobody's answering. They're slamming
the door in your face. You got someone to laugh with. You got someone to talk about it with.
You got someone to remember it with. You have someone to just, you know, talk about spiritual
things. Talk about the Bible. Talk about your lives growing. It makes soul winning so much
better when you have somebody there by your side. And you know what? This is in every area of your
life. God looked at the man and said it wasn't good for him to be alone. So he made him a help
meet. He made someone to be his companion. And what we can learn from this, go to Proverbs 27,
flip backwards to Proverbs chapter 27, is sometimes in life you can be someone's furah.
There could be a Gideon in your life who needs just a companion to be there with him.
And in fact, typically we would see this through the wife. The wife is the husband's furah in a
lot of cases where Gideon's kind of the hotshot. Gideon kind of gets more attention and everything
like that. But notice what gave him comfort was furah being there by his side. And not just that,
even just a friend. You can be someone's furah today. Would Gideon have gone down there without
furah? Maybe not. We don't know. He needed furah to be there with him. And you know what? We need
other people. There's been times where I feel like maybe I wouldn't have gotten soul winning
if the other person hadn't showed up. Even if they weren't even a talker.
You could be a silent partner and encourage someone to go out soul winning, even though you
can't even talk. You could motivate someone. Hey, say, I want to learn how to go soul winning. Will
you take me out soul winning? And you can encourage that Gideon in your life. Look what
it says in Proverbs 27 verse 10. Thy own friend and thy father's friend forsake not, neither go
into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity. For better is a neighbor that is near
than a brother far off. We should not forsake our friends today. If you do, you're not a friend.
A friend is not just going to be there in the good times, but in the difficult times as well.
And when we have someone needing to lean upon us and say, hey, you want to go down with me
to the enemy's camp? Because I'm a little afraid. What if we were to say, no, I'm not interested.
No, that's a little bit scary. Or if we were to say, yeah, let's go. Be like Jonathan's
armor bearer and say, Hey, I'm with you, man. Hey, wherever you're going to go, I'll be there
with you. I'll be your companion. I'll be your friend. We need to have men of integrity today.
That'll be friends to people when they're going through a difficult time,
whenever they want to go into the battle, whenever they want to do something big for God,
we don't even know what you said. We don't have any mention of you're even talking yet.
He's a very significant character. Why? Because there's a lot of people that influence others,
not through their word, but through their actions.
The wife can influence her husband's life through actions.
A man can influence another man through his actions. You know, there's a lot of people
in this church that help assist me and they don't have to go around and brag about it,
but you know what? It means a lot to me. It means a lot to God. Why can't you just be someone's
Fura and help them do great things for the Lord? The Fura is the unsung hero of this chapter,
but you know what? God did notice him and God was like, take this guy with you. He will
help you go to chapter six, go back and let's look at verse 16.
At the end of the day, there's only two people you can please God or man.
And let me tell you this pleasing man. It's not worth it,
but all the stuff that you do that pleases God and no one sees, you're going to get greatly
rewarded for it. You know, there's going to be a lot of people that'll surprise you how much God's
going to reward because of how much they were a Fura in their life, how much they did for other
people. Let your hidden works be something that you do more than the ones that people see.
Do more for God in private than in public. Be a Fura today. Look at verse number 16.
And he divided the 300 men in three companies and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with
empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said to them, look on me and be likewise.
And behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do. So shall you do
when I blow with a trumpet, I, and all that are with me, then blow you the trumpets also
on every side of all the camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
So we have an ex we have the picture here. What's going to happen? Well, they're going to go into
this camp. They're going to sneak up upon them. And they have three instruments here. They have
a trumpet, they have kind of a vessel, a pot, and they have a lantern. Now, if you're going to sneak
up on someone, don't shine light in their face. Okay. So they're going to take these lamps and
they're going to hide them in these vessels. They're going to hide them in these jars and
these pitchers, and they're going to sneak up and then they're going to have this blast of the
trumpet. They're going to break the pitchers and that light's going to shine. And really
the point of this from a carnal perspective is to try and make it feel like there's a lot of
troops there. That's going to kill them because the people carrying the lamps and the people
carrying the trumpets are going to typically only be like one out of 50 or one out of a hundred of
troops. So if you have 300 people playing the trumpet, it sounds like 30,000 people or whatever.
It sounds like that original troop that was there to them because typically not everyone's going to
be a trumpet player. You're not going down to the battle like I'm going to bludgeon you with the
trumpet, you know, or just blasting your ear like, you know. No, that's a few people within the army
ranks. So when they have 300 blowing the trumpet, 300 carrying the lanterns, it makes it seem like
there's so many more people with them. That's the point of what God's having them do or what
Gideon's going to try and do with this scenario from a carnal sense. But here's the thing,
nothing in the Bible is just carnal. Everything is spiritual in the Bible. Okay. Now let's read
what they do. Let's see if they follow this plan. Verse 19. So Gideon, the 300 men that were with
them came on the outside of the camp and in the beginning of the middle watch and they had but
newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands.
And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers and held the lamps in their
left hand and the trumpets in the right hands to blow with all and they cried the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon and they said every man in his place round about the camp and all the hosts ran
and cried and fled and the 300 blew the trumpets and the Lord said every man's sword against his
fellow even throughout all the hosts and the hosts fled to Bethshitta and Zerath and to the border of
Abel on the tabith. So it works. What happens? They blow the trumpet, they break the pitchers,
the light shines and it scares this huge host so much that they start turning on one another.
There's a confusion in the camp. They start fighting one another. God sends this confusion
and they end up destroying themselves. Another picture of the carnal sense you have to understand,
a lot of times these military conquests, they have a lot of mercenaries mixed amongst them.
So they're different groups from different cities and different areas. So it'd be easy for them to
be confounded not knowing who the enemy is because they're not all from the exact same place. They
don't know everybody that well. So they start just fighting one another and they end up destroying
one another. Notice they don't even have to fight. Gideon and his soldiers, they didn't have to do
nothing. And all those people that went away afraid, what were they afraid of? Their own
shadow. They're afraid for no reason. Now think about this. You had the opportunity to be at the
battle of a lifetime and you walked away because you're afraid. That's what happens in the Christian
life. When you decide to be afraid and you just go home, you're going to miss out on the battles
of a lifetime. You're going to miss out on the coolest things. You're going to miss out when you
see the enemy defeat themselves and destroy themselves. And so it's important to go to every
battle because you never know when that sermon is going to be that sermon that really means something
to you. Changes your life, changes your kid's life, changes your wife's life, changes somebody
else's life in the church that you're just caring about and praying for, that you're encouraging.
You see that person baptized. You see that person saved. You see whatever events that are going to
happen when you serve God, when you go on that soul winning marathon and you meet somebody that
changes your life forever. You need to get on the battlefield. And when you don't, you're going to
miss out on some of the coolest ventures that you could ever have seen. What a shame to have not
gone. You could have been that person, but you didn't laugh like a dog. So, but let's get to the
spiritual picture here. Cause there's a really awesome spiritual picture here. So let's slow
down and think about these, uh, basic elements that are in this story. First of all, we have a
trumpet. What does the trumpet represent? Well, good Isaiah chapter 58 for a moment, and we're
going to take a break from judges. We're going to flip in our Bible for a few different places.
Good Isaiah chapter 58. Let's keep these elements in our mind though.
We have the trumpet. Let's get a verse and then we'll find another one.
Isaiah 58 verse one. The Bible says, cry aloud, spare, not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and
show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob, their sins. The Bible likens preaching
unto a trumpet to a trumpet being sounded. Go to first Corinthians chapter 14, first Corinthians
chapter number 14. Let's see another clear picture where the Bible just tells us plainly
that preaching is like a trumpet. Now not all trumpet players are made the same.
And first Corinthians 14 points that out, that it's important to play the trumpet well,
to play it loud so that people are able to fight in the battle. And a trumpet,
it's always been an instrument of war to help assemble the troops, to help tell the troops to
go out, to charge, to have might, to have courage. But if you play the trumpet with an uncertain
sound, you're going to discourage the troops. They're not going to know what to do. They can't
fight. They can't prepare themselves in the battle. That's why it says in first Corinthians 14,
look at verse eight. For the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself
to the battle. Look at verse nine. So likewise, he accept the utter by the tongue words,
easy to be understood. How shall be known what is spoken for you shall speak into the air.
So the Bible likens a trumpet under the preaching of God's word.
And it needs to be clear. It needs to be distinct and it needs to be loud.
Now I'm not saying you have to preach really loud. You don't, you can preach in a normal volume.
Okay. But it needs to be with some zeal. It needs to be instant. And the message needs to
be thundering forth. And we like hard preaching, which is what showing people their transgressions,
showing people their sins. And when you don't show people their sins,
how can they serve God? When you don't tell people what to do, when you're not explicit saying,
show up at this only time here and get this sin out of your life. And don't go here and don't
do this. And don't have these people in your life. And you're trying to admonish the people.
What is that? That's sending forth the trumpet and saying, don't go over here, come over here.
And you're trying to assemble the troops. You're trying to get them prepared
onto that battle, that battle of going out and preaching the gospel.
Now go, if you would do second Corinthians chapter four, just flip to the right.
What did they have with them though? They had the trumpet, but they also had another thing.
They had a pitcher. A pitcher is an earth and vessel. It's a vessel made of the earth,
of clay or some mixture there in okay. Now what was inside of this was a light.
Now let's read first or second Corinthians chapter four. And let's understand these pictures.
It says in verse one, therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy,
we faint not, but ever announced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, committing ourselves
to every man's conscience on the side of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost and whom the God of this world is blind to the minds of them, which believe not less the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine under them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake
for God who has commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure
and earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Now this explains this passage perfectly. What is the picture? They have a light in the lantern.
When they sound the trumpet, what do they do? They break the earth and vessel and what ends
up happening, it shines the light. The Bible says that you are that earth and vessel.
The Bible says through hard preaching, we must crucify the flesh. We must die to the flesh.
We must break our earth in pictures and let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
shine in darkness and give us the victory. Not by our might. We have to break ourselves and let God
shine through us and God get the victory. That's what we have to do is go out and preach the gospel.
But those that never break the picture, those that never hear the sound of the trumpet, you know what
the gospel's hid inside of them. There's so many Christians today. They have that gospel light
inside of them, but they're not willing to break the picture. They're not willing to break the
earth and vessel. They're not willing to get the battle of the victory. They go and they hide it.
They bury their treasure in the earth today. It's sickening. It's sad. How can Christians today not
go out and preach the gospel? How can they not go out and shine the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ? It's because they're not willing to break that vessel. That vessel is weak. It's pointless.
It's vanity. It's not going to last you. It's not worth it. But you know what? You can't have both.
You cannot have the flesh today and have the spirit. You have to pick one. And whenever you're
in the flesh, you're hiding that light. And whenever you're in that light, the flesh is broken.
The flesh is shattered. Look at Romans chapter 9. Flip back. Let's get some more Bible on this
concept that we just learned. Nothing in the Bible is accidental, coincidental. It's all on purpose.
It's all to picture our lives and the preaching of God's word and the gospel light being shined.
Romans chapter 9, look at verse 21. Have not the Potter power over the clay
of the same lump to make one vessel in honor and another unto dishonor? God likens us unto clay.
You know what he wants us to do? He wants us to die to ourselves. Go to Matthew chapter 5.
This is an important concept that we need to do is we need to die to ourselves.
Why? So we can shine that light. Matthew chapter number 5, look at verse number 14.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hit. Neither do men light a
candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that
are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, but not
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
Notice what gives glory to God is the light. And you say, what is that light? It's not your
cleaning up of your drug past. It's the gospel. It's not you getting over sin. It's not turning
from your sins. You still sin every day. It was the gospel light. And that's what gives glory
to God is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Go if you would to Revelation 6. And I'm going to
dig in here in a moment again. But what happens when they shine that light? The enemy just kills
themselves. The enemy just defeats themselves. God fights the victory for them. God takes them out.
Revelation chapter 6. We see when Jesus Christ comes the first time, the same thing. These
people are tripping all over themselves to be destroyed. Revelation 6. Look, it says verse number
15. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bondman and every free men hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the
mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come
and who should be able to stand? Notice they want to die. They're wishing that rocks would
come and destroy them and kill them because they can't stand just the light of the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Go to Revelation 19. Revelation chapter 19. What did they yell
whenever they broke the pitchers? The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Notice what killed them.
It was the sword of the Lord. It's the exact same picture in Revelation chapter number 19.
Look what it says in verse number 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,
King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried a loud voice,
saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together
into the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains
and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the
earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against
his army. And the beast was taken and with him, the false prophet that rock miracles before him
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast. And then that worshiped
his image. These both were cast alive in a lake of fire, burning brimstone and the remnant were
slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth.
And all the fowls were filled with the flesh. So notice there's going to be another battle
and you don't want to be the ones that were afraid. You want to be in this battle. You want
to be there with the Lord and notice it's not just him that's going to the battle. You're with him.
It's the sword of the Lord and of Gideon and of Gideon. Without Gideon, there would be no story.
God uses men to fight the battle, but notice who's getting the victory. Jesus Christ,
the sword of the Lord. And what does Jesus do? He destroys them with the sword that proceeds out of
his mouth. It devours his adversaries. Go to Galatians chapter five for a moment.
Now let's dig into this. If we want to be used by God though, we must die to ourselves.
We must die to ourselves to be used by God. God wants you to be there with him using his sword,
using the sword of the Lord, the sword of the Lord and you can be used, but you have to die
to yourself. You have to break that picture through the what? Hearing of the trumpet,
through the preaching of God's word today. Galatians chapter number five, look at verse 24.
The Bible says, which things are in allegory. I'm sorry, I'm in verse 24, chapter five, verse 24.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So the Bible says, if you want to be spiritual,
you have to crucify that flesh. Now what does that flesh back up a few verses? Look at verse 19.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things do not inherit the
kingdom of God. So we have a list here of several sins that are going to cause you to be in the
flesh that come from the works of the flesh. And the Bible says you have to crucify them.
Now, fortunately, a lot of things on this list. I mean, if you're involved in this,
you're not even welcome in church. Okay. Adultery and idolatry and a lot of these things. But there
are things on this list that I think could infect this church that could cause us to not go to the
battle, especially when we think of Judges, chapter number six. How about this one? Strife.
Strife. Now it's really hard to go to battle with someone that you're mad at
when there's strife in the camp. And you know what? This is not a temptation only to this
church. This is a temptation common to man. Strife. Strife amongst brethren. Strife. The
devil wants to come and sow strife into a church and destroy it. A church like ours especially,
where we're already a little bit vigilant. We're already kind of looking and trying to to be leery
of the world, leery of the temptations of the world. You know what can happen when you start
identifying reprobates? Everyone's a reprobate now. This guy didn't shake my hand at church.
Probably because of reprobate. You know, this person wasn't gracious to me. This person wasn't
kind to me. This person didn't write a thank you note back to me. This person did even worse.
Reprobate. And cause a lot of strife in God's house. Cause a lot of problems amongst God's
people. We need to be some of the most gracious, kind, merciful, loving people and not let the
devil come in and destroy our church. Destroy our work. We want to keep as many people on fire for
God. We need to be working together and at peace with one another. Go to First Thessalonians,
chapter five. First Thessalonians, chapter number five. And I'll tell you, it is not a stretch to
see strife destroy this church. It can happen easily. We have to be diligent and we have to
try our hardest to not allow strife to cause us problems. To try and end strife. To try and cause
people that are, you know, contentious to be thrown out of the church, first of all.
But even amongst ourselves, even good people, godly people can be in the flesh. They can be
in that strife and it can cause them to stop serving God. Stop shining the light. First
Thessalonians, chapter five. Look at verse 12. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labor among you and over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. Now that's the last phrase. And
be at peace among yourselves. If you are not at peace with someone in this room,
change that. Change that. Let me give you a verse. Go to Mark, chapter number 11.
Mark, chapter number 11. Especially in a smaller church. The smaller you whittle down the soldiers,
the more you're going to know each other. The more you're going to annoy each other. The more
your kids are going to annoy other people's kids. And yes, your kids annoy me just as much as my
kids do. Okay? Everyone can have this problem. Everyone can get annoyed with other people's kids.
Everyone can get annoyed with one another. Everyone can get annoyed with their parents
and their spouse and their friend and their brother and their cousin and their little
children. And you know what? In a church, there's going to be times where people are rubbed the
wrong way from one another. Where there's strife in God's house. And this is an enemy
invention. This is a tool of the devil to come and sow strife amongst God's people and cause
them to stop serving God. And if you have strife with any single person in this church,
if there's someone that you just, your heart's not right towards them, let this verse ring in
your ears. Mark 11, verse 25. And when you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any.
If you have ought against any, that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses. God is saying, hey, if there's someone in this room, do you have ought against,
forgive it. You say, well, Pastor Shelley, they don't deserve it. You don't deserve it either.
Let's talk to God. Okay? God, do they deserve all your forgiveness? No. It's mercy. It's grace. And
hey, if you have a problem that you cannot just forgive tonight, you talk to that person.
You try to resolve it. And you go in meekness and a gracious spirit. And you say, look, brother,
I love you, but I just have this, you know, this contention. Can we resolve it? Or there's
something that you had. Don't harbor bitterness and ill will towards your brethren. Fix it.
Fix it. Fix it. You say, hey, I need to get this fixed and fix it now.
There's no shame in fixing a problem. What's a shame is to not say anything about it and
keep harboring bitter ill will towards your brethren over and over and over. When people
come to me and they say, hey, I have this problem. This is what I say to them. Well,
if you can let it go, let it go. And when I mean that, I mean that. Let it go.
Or address it with the person. Go to the person and say, hey, I can't. There's a problem here.
Can we address it? I love you. I want to fix it. Otherwise, forgive. And you know what it
means to forgive? Forget as much as humanly possible. Don't mention it. Don't hold it
against them. Treat them as if they're your best friend. Treat them well. Treat them kind.
Salute the brethren. Be kind and gracious unto them. That can destroy a church. That can destroy
our warrior spirit. When everybody's mad at one another, look what happened to the enemy when
they didn't know each other. They just destroyed each other. We want everybody to love everyone in
this room. And look, I'm not saying you have to invite them over to every one of your kid's
birthday parties and your house and whatever, but you should not hold bitter ill will towards them.
You should forgive, and you should go and address it with them, and you should try to fix problems.
You say, are you talking about me, Pastor Shelley? Yes. How do you know about the situation?
Because there's no temptation taking you at such a common man. You fix the problem. You don't want
to come to church and just constantly, I hate that person. I can't stand that person. You know,
Doug Trowbridge doesn't go here, so you don't have to worry about that. Okay.
I can't stand that. He's so annoying. You know, he doesn't go here. She doesn't go here.
You don't have to worry about that. Love the brethren. We'll fix the other problems.
Don't worry about that. And don't be on reprobate alert. Okay. Like every person is a reprobate
that you don't like. It's not all works. Okay. There's plenty of people that you don't like,
and they're saved too. Go back to Judges chapter six. Judges chapter number six
or seven. I'm sorry. And we'll finish the chapter. We want to work together,
and you know how you work together by forgiving one another. Constantly forgiving. Constantly
forgiving. And you know what? When you forgive others, they'll forgive you. And when you forgive
others, God will forgive you. That's the person I'm most concerned with. God. Because you know
what? I know I need His forgiveness every day, every moment in our life. We want Him to be with
us. We want Him to fight for us. Look at verse 23.
So notice once they get this battle, once they have victory and the Lord shows themselves strong
on their behalf, they send out messengers and other people are provoked. Other people are
inspired to serve God with them. And you know what? As we fight the hard battles, as we go
through and we do more work for God, I guarantee it's going to cause a lot more people to get
inspired. You know, it's hard to grow a church of five people because people, they're like,
I don't know, it's kind of awkward. It's hard to grow a church of 20 or 30, but you know,
as you get bigger, it's actually easier. And what we should do, we shouldn't look at them and be
like, why are you here? Were you there when we fought with the lanterns? You know, we should be
just glad that they showed up. Hey, there's never a bad time to get in the fight. Don't get mad at
people that show up late, the late comer. Well, you got to kill these guys. You got to do these
fun battles too. No, we just want to get as many people serving God as possible. Who cares what
battle you were or weren't in, or they were, or they weren't. Hey, forgive. Forgive your brethren.
Don't let strife enter this church. Don't make it a competition. Don't think, well, we're the one,
we're the brave 300 that won the battle. God won the battle. You did nothing. You broke a pot.
Oh, you're so strong. Are you sure you could do that again? You blew the trumpet. Oh man. No
offense, Jared. I like the trumpet. Okay. But at the end of the day, don't get a prideful,
hottie attitude, even when you win battles. And yeah, you know what? We're going to win battles
and we're going to keep winning battles. And the only reason is if God gives us the victory. And
when God gives us victory after victory after victory, don't get prideful and hottie and forget
who's the one giving you those victories. It's God. And allow God to work through you to inspire
others to serve him. That's the whole point of this chapter. Look what God did with one man,
Gideon. Took a whole group of people that are greatly oppressed and he gave them great
deliverance through God's power. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for this
chapter. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you
and that you're willing to fight all the battles for us if we would just be humble, willing
servants. I pray that you would just help work on our hearts, that we'd be humble servants,
that we would not get a hottie or a vaunted attitude, but rather we'd realize that we're
nothing without you, that you're everything. You are all the power and the might that we have.
I pray that you would continue to give us victory, not for our name's sake, but for your name's sake.
And that as we continue to work to serve you, that you would encourage and inspire others to get into
the work of the ministry, to give more honor and glory to your son and his sacrifice. And it's in
his name we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.