(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you All right, we're in judges chapter number seven as I mentioned We're gonna go over chapter seven this evening and we're continuing with the story of Gideon. Obviously as I mentioned Two weeks ago or so that the next couple chapters really talk about and highlight this character this judge in this book referred to as Gideon and there's a reason for this because he had to exercise a lot of faith and the exploits that he was doing for God and Chapter six. We really see when God calls Gideon and the exploit that he does of tearing down that the image of bail at his father's house and basically Getting the guts to go out and actually deliver God's people from the hand of the oppressor in chapter 7 now We get into one of the greatest stories in the Bible, which is Gideon's 300 men the real 300 This is the real 300 you said which is the fake 300? Well, the fake 300 is a Spartan 300 that everyone talks about from 7 479 BC Okay, and you know if you study history It's always gonna have this slant and it's favorable to the Spartans and the Leonidas and his 300 How many ever heard of Leonidas and his 300 how many saw the movie? Hey, we got some honest people here. All right, great Everyone's all yeah. Yeah, that was great First of all, the movie is a kiss. It's not great. I'll just be honest with you. The movie is a complete fraud Okay, and sorry to say that to you, but it's true. It's a complete fraud It's an exaggerated story They try to make Leonidas seem as though he's like some sort of hero of Thermopylae and Sparta But nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, Leonidas and his in his 300 are a bunch of fags That's number one Okay, Spartans were known for being sodomized or a bunch of reprobates and that's why they were good at fighting by the way It's because of the fact that they had no regard for life All right, and that's why they're able to just they practice infanticide They practice genocide They're just a bunch of wicked people that God judged And in fact, one of the last thing that Leonidas supposedly said right before they died is tonight. We shall dine in Hades Well, he had one part of that correct. They were gonna be in hell, but they weren't dining in Hades I mean, they're gonna burn in Hades where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched So that's the fake 300 which by the way The 300 that squad of 300 was actually like a suicide squad Okay, and they're not really telling the entire truth because it was 300 that died and then you had the Athenians who came and kind Of backed them up afterwards and that's how they were able to win the war against the Medo-Persian Empire But that isn't necessarily very heroic is it and here's the way that story works is that it just gets better with time So it becomes more exaggerated as the years go by So just keep that in mind right as the years go by people begin to add more Facts to it and what they're trying to do is immortalize Leonidas and his Spartan 300 and kind of bury who they really were the Spartans were wicked Okay, and as opposed to God's 300 Gideon's 300 these were actual men who loved the Lord led by the man Gideon who was a man of God and None of the 300 perish and in fact, it was literally 300. Okay. It wasn't like a 300 squad They were fighting at a peninsula, you know this narrow place and they had all these battle tactics where you know They had to make sure it was like, you know, a three-day fight and most of them perished No, it was 300 and 300 came in 300 went out Hey, the Spartan 300 had to wait for the enemy to come to them The Medo-Persian had to come to them the Gideon's 300 went to the enemy Because upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. My gates is a defending Thing Thing there that it's supposed to keep the enemy out So that shows us that God's people are supposed to be on the offense. It's not on the defensive so that's one of the differences between You know Leonidas is faggot 300 guys who are burning in hell They're burning hell for thousands of years and the real 300 Gideon's 300 you say well How come no one knows about Gideon's 300 the real the same reason why no one knows about the true men of God Throughout history, you know, the true churches and the ones who have gone soul-winning and preached the Word of God I've done great exploits for the Lord, you know, these people are going to be hidden in history but the reality is they are recognized of God though and Here's the thing, you know, Leonidas wanted to become immortalized as much as he could and you know, yeah He's remembered thousands of years later, but these 300 will be remembered for all of eternity You know, they're forever ingrained in the Word of God they're part of the Bible This is the real 300 right here. Now look at verse number one of chapter 7 It says then Jerubal who is 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 media nights were on the north side of them by the hill of Mora in the valley now Let me first of all remind you that Gideon is called Jerubal because of the exploit that he did in chapter number six if you go to chapter six in verse 32 Or excuse me 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 bullet was offered upon the altar that was built skip down to verse 32 Therefore on that day He called him Jerubal saying let Baal plead against him because he had thrown down his altar So we see that his name represents a man who stood against Satan who stood against the devil who stood against evil That's why he was named that he did a great exploit by doing that and he was really risking a lot by doing that wasn't he not because he tore down the image of Baal in his father's house and Obviously we see earlier in the chapter in chapter 6 that he did it by night He was a little fearful But the fact remains is that he did it and that's why he's named that now look at verse 2 of chapter 7 It says in 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 where you will find out why Gideon is in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11 Because of the fact that he's going up against an army that is without number doesn't mean there's an infinite amount of soldiers It just means that there's so many of them. It's just like innumerable. Okay, it's a lot and Gideon at this point from what we can tell on this chapter had 32,000 men and you know what? Maybe he he was going up against the people who was approximately that much or maybe even a little more But God is basically saying goes that's too many people Thirty two thousand is way too many people and the purpose of really dwindling down the numbers was trifled And that's what we're gonna talk about in this next couple moments number one The reason he wanted to dwindle down the numbers is because he said lest Israel vaunt themselves against me Now, what does that word font means it means to boast? So in other words, we can kind of basically estimate that those 32,000 were maybe a formidable Unit of numbers in comparison to those whom they were fighting against so if they were to beat the media nights You know if they were to beat them and conquer them they had the temptation to say that's because we have 32,000 You know, we're good soldiers. We know how to fight we go to war and God's like that's not the kind of mentality I want my people to have You know and in like manner we as God's people should never have that mentality Then when a great exploit is done we see a lot of people say Oh, you know a lot of things are being done in the city of Los Angeles in the city of Omani We should never vaunt ourselves against the Lord and say oh it's because God chose me because I'm XY and Z You know, it's because I'm so great or it's because I read my Bible. I'm so godly No, in fact the battles of the Lord's you see the horse is prepared for the day of battle But the against the day of battle, but it's the victories of the Lord We need to make sure that we recognize that yeah, there is preparation Amen And the flip side of that there's people who don't prepare at all and the reason God doesn't bless them The reason God doesn't honor them The reason God doesn't come through is because they're not even doing anything on their own in to make sure they prepare for it Now I want to go start a church read your Bible be faithful learn some leadership skills do that Which is your responsibility to do and therefore when God uses you you can't bond yourself against the Lord Because of the fact that you know, God gets all the glory because we're nobody You know people look at us as like, oh man, the LA Church is like the gangster church or you know, it's just in LA That's okay. Because when great works are done, they'll say man God's doing a great work It's not Bruce Mihia. It's not anybody else. It's God who's doing it and that's exactly what we want Why do we want that? Well, as long as the glory keeps going to God God will keep honoring us God will continue to bless us. God will continue to give us great success And that's what we want. We never want to vaunt ourselves against the Lord We never want to brag as the temptation was for these gentlemen right here It says lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand had saved me You know humility is recognizing that your success was based upon God and others. Just remember that Humility is recognizing that your success is based upon God and those who invested in your life even those who maybe are your enemies or maybe who don't like you anymore because of your Association with the new IFB with Pastor Anderson or whatever it may be, you know It should be that you still honor those who have helped you in times past. So why should I do that? Because that's humility So you don't vaunt yourself against the Lord by just say well I brought myself here I'm the one who saved myself from this, you know Army here or whatever may be So that was the number one reason right there is he didn't want them to be prideful You know, he wanted to recognize that yeah all the other wars and all the other armies. They need to know how to fight They need to know how to swing a sword. They need to know how to You know a hand-to-hand combat they need to know how to go into battle, but you guys don't need to know that You guys need to just depend on the Lord and obey God that's what we need to do You know, it's like today they'll say, you know, oh if you want to be a pastor you got to go to Bible College You know or you got to go to Bible Institute For those for those Spanish speakers out there, you know, he needs to do though You got to go to Institute or you got to go to Bible College Okay, and and you got to you know, follow their format If not, you can't be a pastor, you know, that's kind of like the world's way, right? That's the way of the heathen actually, you know but if we do it God's way why because if they if we do it that way then it's just like what's because I got a Degree and you know, yeah, I'm a master of theology. I'm a master of Israel and that's why I don't know these things You know, I got a pass I'm a pastoral major or whatever may be and they and here's the thing most of those guys who graduate from Bible College, you know Don't know diddly-squat about the Bible I've known a lot of people throughout the years. They graduated from Bible College Spent four years five years six years of Bible College and they don't they don't even know the basics Don't know about salvation. They can give you a clear testimony They know how to how to get people saved and all how to soul win, but as far as doctrine is concerned No, nothing, you know, but hey, they're a Bible College student In fact, I remember years ago not too many years ago a few years ago Someone in this in this room here was a discussing doctrine with one of the these Bible College students Okay, and they're discussing, you know end times Bible prophecy something about you know preacher poster or something like that. And and I heard them discussing this right and this person who was in this room in this room was Discussing this with the Bible College student and I overheard them and I was just like I want to butt it I just want to but I don't know what's going on. And this is before I really talked to this person who's in this room Yeah, everyone look back at David. That's what I'm talking about, right? so The guy who's there, you know, he's obviously upset and later on we found out that he this guy's like a major hyper dipstick major hyper dipstick Okay, he loves this this fixationalism that's what he loves and You know, he's like he goes to me he goes Bruce Tell this guy refer him to David He's like that. We're gonna be raptured before the tribulation Like he thought I was just gonna bring the hammer down on on on David and obviously this guy didn't know I was poster And you know David didn't really know me from from from anybody else from Adam And he's trying to explain to me like he's just like oh look Can I show you and I look at David and I was just like look the Bible says No, because he was the one of his main arguments is like Matthew 24 is to the Jews, you know although the the preacher rhetoric and I said Mark 13 and he you know the guy he stands next to me, you know against like like David and He go and I said the Bible says in Mark 13 what I say unto you I say unto all And then the guy he's staying next to me is all He's all are you post trip I said, let me just show you from the Bible And I said look Matthew 24 and I was trying to explain it from Matthew and I wasn't like rude about it I wasn't mean to him and I was just let me show you from the Bible I was like look you always got to look at context. Okay, chip Which is his name. I was he got look at context chip I said, do you know what context is and this is what he told me He said this how are you gonna ask me that? I'm a Bible college student Well, shut my mouth I'm sorry You know, like I didn't know I was his teacher. I was one of his teachers okay, and I wasn't teaching them that crap by the way and You know at that point I was like this guy's an idiot. This is this is the poster boy For Bible college students right there. That's the kind of mentality that they have well, how are you gonna tell me that I'm a Bible college student and Actually you made yourself look even worse because you don't even know something as basic as this and That's the kind of mentality that we don't want to have you know, where we place ourselves in a position where you know We can vaunt ourselves not just against the Lord but against everyone else we boast right He that glories let him glory in the Lord Okay So that was the one reason right here that we see here in chapter 7 Chase the rabbit there, but you know, it's true. That's what Bible college does It just makes you proud. It gives you a really nice paper That they printed at Staples With really nice borders really nice Typography and good fonts and it's nice and thick and you put it in the frame and you hang it over your wall That's all it is. I can make you one if you want I can make a I can make it a pastoral theology degree for everyone here. It's not hard at all Very easy, okay So there we see the try one of the trifle purposes is that they would vaunt themselves they would brag against the Lord But also he wanted to minimize it because what do we have here? We have 32,000 soldiers and then it dwindles 22,000 leave dwindles to 10,000 then 9,700 leaving he's only left with 300. Okay. Now why is that? Well look at verse number three It says 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 their return of the people 20 and 2,000 and there remained 10,000 so he said all right, let's purge this a little bit anybody who's scared Can just go home and then 22,000 are like man. I was hoping you'd say that Like I'm going home, you know and they take off now I'm not sure if they knew this. I'm not sure if Gideon knew this I'm not sure if Israel knew this but what God was doing here is basically Reinstating the law of Moses once again because this is exactly what they were supposed to do anytime They went to war go to Deuteronomy chapter number 20 if you would Deuteronomy chapter number 20. Hold your place there in Judges Deuteronomy chapter number 20 Deuteronomy chapter 20 is Instruction of when Israel's If they went to battle, there's a couple things that they had to do It's not like all of Israel just went to go fight and even those who are formidable or they knew how to go to war there are some certain qualifications and Stipulations that were placed upon them if they wanted to go out and fight look at Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse number 1 It says well now goes out to battle against thine enemies and see his horses and chariots and a people more than now Be not afraid of them For the Lord that God is with thee which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt now They needed verse 1 in chapter 7 of judges Because 22,000 just left and they need to remember this and say hey, they're more than you but don't be afraid Right, it's like us today. There's more of God's enemies out in the world than us. Is there not? But we shouldn't be afraid You know, you have a lot of Christians today who are scared They're scared. They're afraid of the persecution. They're afraid of the affliction. They're afraid of the media They're afraid of the sodomites out of all people The freaking Chihuahuas of this world They're scared of these beasts. There is like man, you know Have you no stones? You know the Bible tells us here be not afraid of them. Why for the Lord that God is with thee And if God be for us who can be against us? It's not saying like if God's is for us that no one's gonna be against us. It's saying who that matters Can be against us because if God is with you who cares who's who's all right God is with you You know who cares who's against you you and God make the majority That's the way that works Looking first number two and it shall be when you're come nigh into the battle Look what it says here that the priest shall approach and speak unto thee. I like this So when they're supposed to go to fight Before they go into battle the priest comes and then he lays this out for them It says here and shall say unto them verse three hero Israel you approach this day into battle against your enemies Let now your hearts faint fear not and do not tremble neither be terrified because of them So he's like don't be afraid, you know, don't let your hearts faint. Don't tremble. Don't be terrified He's just covering all all aspects right for the Lord your God is he that goes with you to fight for you against your Enemies to save you know what that shows me well, the priests of the Old Testament were like the spiritual leaders and the spiritual leader is supposed to get up and exemplify boldness exemplify trust in the Lord exemplify confidence right to instill confidence in the people in Order for them to go out the battle, but that's not the kind of leadership we have today We have the type of leadership that pastors get up and they don't instill boldness in their people They don't instill confidence. In fact, they they instill a cowardice spirit tolerance You know, you know, I look the homosexuals It's an abomination It's an abomination, but you know what we gotta love them we gotta love them He doesn't the people who say I don't believe that They're just scared Little sissies little pansies little pussyfooters is what they are That's what they are. They're scared. By the way, that's not a bad word pussyfooter just means that they're sissies. Okay You know, they're just scared of What might happen unto them if they actually take a stand for God is what it is And unfortunately what they do is they instill fear in the hearts of the people as well Because the fact of the matter is is most of most of those congregations, you know, they know it's disgusting They know it's anti Bible But you know what they see man. My leader looks afraid And if my leaders afraid I'm afraid now Because if the spiritual leader is scared, he's the one who's supposed to be reading the Bible. He's supposed to be the man of God Then that instills fear in them as well But I like this priest don't be afraid fear not don't tremble. It's trouble. You're just shaking You know when we have to throw people out of the church the two fags no one was trembling on that Sunday I'll tell you that much. In fact, if they were trembling it was because of adrenaline I came like literally at 930 and like all the guys were outside ready to fight I mean ready to defend and ready to handle business with a smile on their face a cup of coffee in one hand And a taser gun in the other. No, I'm just kidding It was exciting for them But that's the kind of atmosphere we have at our church not a fearful Now it's gonna happen what so what do we do it's just shaking no, it's more like You know, yeah, let's go Now obviously we don't want to have a fighting spirit a physically fighting spirit And sometimes we have to tone that down a little bit But I rather have someone who is not afraid than someone who is and doesn't even show up to church because they're too scared You know, they hear we're gonna throw someone out. I was just like I'm not going on that date I'm skipping that day right there. I'm gonna get sick on that day I'm gonna get sick. I'm gonna have the flu. My hair is gonna hurt, you know all that other stuff fear Not do not tremble neither be ye afraid because of them for the Lord your God is he go verse 4 that goeth with you To fight for you against your enemies to save you and the officers shall speak unto the people saying What man is there that hath built a new house and that's not dedicated it Let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle another man dedicated. That's pretty nice of them Right. He's like look if you have a house, but you haven't dedicated you should go back You shouldn't be fighting for six and what man is he that hath planted a vineyard and it's not yet eaten of it Let him also go and return into his house lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it I mean God is gracious So we put all all that work into doing that vineyard and then you know Your your brother's gonna end up marrying your wife and then eating of your vineyard No, you go home and eat of your vineyard because you worked hard for that. That's a blessing Amen verse 7 and what man is there that betrothed a wife and that's not taking her Let him go and return into his house lest he die in battle and another man take her because that's exactly what's gonna happen He's like look if you just got engaged Don't go fight. I know you're you're zealous for the Lord. You need to go and be with your wife That's that's for you verse 8 and the officers shall speak further unto the people and they shall save What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return into his house. Why lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart So the main reason why he would tell them hey if you're fearful go home Was because he didn't want God did not want them to influence the other people in that battle Because he knows the propensity of people who are fearful is to influence others to become fearful as well. Hey Fear is contagious It's contagious Cuz then you know people who are fearful they exaggerate everything don't they? You know, the boogeyman becomes a lot bigger Chupacabra. I mean when Chupacabra first came out He was just a little Mexican hairless Chihuahua and then after a while these shirts were coming out I don't know when I'm talking about Chupacabra. Okay, it's just Mexicans have all kinds of cool stories La Llorona, you know Chupacabra means goat sucker. That's what it means It was this monster That was like killing all these cows and goats and sucking out their blood and it went from like being this little mole rat Hairless mole rat to being this gigantic monster. I remember literally as a kid buying a shirt at the swap meet Because that's where that's where all hispanics go to get their clothing and socks And you know I gained a shirt and like the Chupacabra was this huge monster was like all buff had like a pack and stuff and Literally people made them out to be why because people who are afraid exaggerate everything, you know, I Saw this funny mean A little bit of or someone sent it to me and it's like it said my pile of clothes on the chair during the daytime You know, I just sort of showed a normal pile of clothes and he said my pile of clothes at 3 a.m In the morning, it was like some demons in there, you know, cuz like when you wake up in the words like man Is that a person or is that my pile of clothes over there, you know? but why because Fearful people tell him I'll call him back Fearful people exaggerate everything don't they and What it what causes that their heart causes that okay their heart causes them to exaggerate to imagine things that are not really there And God knows the propensity of a heart of a person that if they're fearful They're gonna try to instill fear in other people as well. So maybe there's a guy who's just like gun hoe He's like let's fight God's gonna deliver them into our hands and you bring this other guy. I don't know man. They're without number I'm all in this but I'm a little scared Why this is like because there's there's a bunch of there's more than them than us we can die And then the guy starts questioning him himself, you know, like man should I do this? You know so that's the reason why those who are fearful and faint-hearted were to go because they didn't want their brethren's heart to faint as their heart Now go back to judges if you wouldn't So he's reinstating that law again He's saying look anytime you go to battle anytime you go to war Make sure you give a big open back door to those who are fearful and faint-hearted and it's not like they're ungodly people They're not bad people if they're if they're just afraid they just can go home because God is not necessarily thinking about them He's thinking about those who are bold Who can be potentially affected by them? Okay, because look fear is contagious, but so is boldness And if you get 300 guys who are all bold that's all you need Because you all feed off of each other. You're all confident in the Lord and if there's a slight fear in your heart It's boosted by the boldness of other people within that 300 is it not? You know, I guarantee you maybe there was someone who was fearful when that whole debacle took place a couple weeks ago But you know what as soon as they got around the guys, they're they're good to go They were like, I'm not afraid anymore. These guys aren't scared. I'm not scared and then boldness Was instilled, you know, and that's how it ought to be. That's not bad. That's not you know, sissy of them That's how it would needs to work Where boldness is instilled by our brethren when we provoke others to good works a good work is to be bold in the Lord okay, and we need to in the Lord's battle a men and This war that we're in we need to be bold so let's they bond themselves as they brag He wanted to reinstate the law again remove those who are afraid lest they should tempt others to be fearful as well Look what it says in verse number four in the Lord said unto Gideon the people are yet too many. Oh, man So put yourself in Gideon's shoes. He's like man 22,000 just walked away. I mean you got to really think about those numbers He's just like bye guys like That's a lot We're only left with with you know 10,000 or whatever, you know and God comes back to him and says that's still too much Are you? Oh, you mean too much that laughing goes? No too much that stayed That's still a little too much. He's like what see now you're starting to realize why he was a man of faith Because you know what he did everything that God told him to do It's like well, I prefer 32,000 now we have 10,000. He's still saying that's too much. Okay, I'm just gonna trust God without having Hebrews 11 Without having judges chapter 7 yet, right without having any of the Bible other than you know, the law Genesis through Deuteronomy He's stepping out in faith and obeying God It says now therefore go to proclaim or excuse me verse 4 and 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 shall be that of whom I say unto thee This shall not go with thee the same shall go with thee and of whomsoever I shall say unto thee This shall not go with thee the same shall not go So this is a little different purging we see here because the first purge was basically God coming and telling him Hey reinstate the law once again, if they're afraid go home gives them the option this time He's not telling them that he's gonna dwindle the numbers even more this time God says Bring them down to the water and I'm gonna try them there So this is more of an individual testing for the people who are already there Okay, and what is the test? Let's read on so he brought verse 5 So he brought down the people into the water and the Lord said unto Gideon Everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth him shall thou sit by himself Likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink verse 6 and the number of them that lapped Putting their hand to their mouth were 300 men So this was a little bit keep reading here, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water so what was the test he goes right let him go down to the river and Naturally, they're gonna want to get water because they're thirsty and that's my test for them So those who actually get down and you know, they basically grab the water and they drink what are they doing? They're not Drinking it like a dog drinks it where they just you know drink out of the river because at that point they can't see anything Right, whereas the others are scooping it up and they're bringing it to their mouths Now I'm sure they're both thirsty and the guys who are on their knees just shoving their head in the water and drinking They're thirsty. The other guys are thirsty too. The difference is these guys they're vigilant We can actually say that they're actually selfless or yeah selfless Why is that because they're doing it in that manner because obviously they need to drink water They need to hydrate themselves, but they're also thinking of their camp Like man, everyone's drinking water. They're good guys drinking like a dog, you know They're just kind of sipping up the water and they're not they're not paying attention I'm gonna watch out for these guys because if we all do it like that the enemy can come and we can get overtaken get destroyed and That's how God tried them That's a cool test Because it was a natural test to see what people are naturally inclined to do in a situation like that Even though there is no enemy even though there were not an enemy's camp these people in spite of the circumstance Behaved the same exact way that they were gonna behave when they're actually fighting They were vigilant. They were aware. They were selfless. They were thinking of their soldiers their partners That's what they were doing and God said all right, and by the way, only 300 did that 9700 all drink like a dog 300 were the ones who are actually looking out for those nine thousand seven hundred people. They're very small amount. Okay, and That's a good quality to have Vigilance to watch right or how about this just to be selfless? To make a decision based upon not just how it benefits you but how will it benefit those around you and That takes a special quality right to not only think upon yourself, but think upon what the decisions you make How will that affect my church? How will that affect the brothers and sisters in Christ? You're drinking up the water, but you are you're also looking you're drinking up the water and you're doing it in such a way You're making that decision. You're you're you're fulfilling your need But you're also doing in such a way that you're taking others into account You know when you hear a sermon preach you not only apply to yourself you think about how you can help your brethren to Apply it as well Right or you apply the sermon, but you apply it in such a way that you want to be a blessing to someone else So it's not like you're just benefiting from it What can I do to be a blessing to someone else and this is a quality that's important for Christians to have amen Because our life is meant to be lived for others Not just lost people The brethren as well Brothers and sisters in Christ. We always need to take them into account be considerate of one another when we make our decisions and Often that takes just spiritual growth Okay, because you know just as a baby is selfish and just wants everything for me myself and I and all that You know Christians can be that way, too Where they just when they first start off it's just they need to just kind of survive They're coming to church because they want to learn the Bible, you know They want to learn the doctrine they want to learn how to sew in it and that's good But we got to get to a point in our Christian lives where we grow beyond that and now it's not about me It's about others. It's about investing in others It's about the decisions I make and how will they will hide how they will affect my children my wife my husband You know my family. How is it gonna affect others lap? But bring your hand up to your face to your mouth Yeah, fulfill your need when you're pretty when you're hearing the preaching when you come to church, enjoy it Enjoy the singing listen to the preaching apply it grab that water and bring it to your mouth. Make sure you're watching as well right and Another way we can apply that is just that to be vigilant right when we come to church we come to have a good time man We don't come with the intention of I think I'm gonna throw someone out today Unless I already know beforehand or whatever, you know or like man. I really hope I get to throw someone out today I really hope I find some reprobates there No, I come to church with the intention of just seeing the brothers maybe a couple visitors We have a good time hearing the preaching of God's Word getting our faces ripped off Seeing some good hymns Talking about doctrine You know fellowshipping But you know what we take that water and bring it to our mouths and we keep looking we don't just come Just like run just don't pay attention to anything And you come on your face is just drenched, you know, hey drink up the water But bring it up to yourself Always be aware. Hey when you come if you have children be aware of your for your children's sake, right? You're here you're talking to the parents your Fellowshipping but you don't want what I do and luckily I have my wife to help me as well I'm fellowshipping but my my eye is like looking at Bruce see where he's running making sure that I keep an eye on him Okay You know, oh, this is faithful. We're about the church. Yeah, but you just never know, right? We don't know And now I mean in my opinion this is like the safest place in the world Other than my home Right. This is the safest place in the world But you know what just because it's a church doesn't mean I'm just gonna trust my son going into some room Some dark room if I know there's an adult there or something Even if I even if there isn't an adult there, you know, I'm still I'm gonna tell him Bruce get out here So as I'm ripping on John MacArthur in our conversation, you'll hear me just veer off and just yell my son's name every once in a while Why because I'm drinking the water of fellowship, but I'm bringing it up to my mouth and then watching Oh, that's too much work. That's what we got to do. This is the day and age in which we live This is the day and age in which we live we can't be careless and just though, you know I know I know parents and other churches who just let their kids run into the parking lot and Just hang out with every Tom Dick and Harry under the Sun Let every adult grab them and take them and take them fuck forget that They're drinking like these guys that the nine thousand seven hundred What's in church what can happen in church churches were infiltrators like to come into To take advantage of people and I don't think we have an infiltrator here right now Okay, but you know, I'm still not gonna allow my son because it just takes one it takes five seconds To destroy the life of your child It's all it takes to ruin their life for the for the rest of their life to just completely destroy them It's all it takes You know, so We need to make sure that we're like the 300 who actually bring the water up to ourselves and not be careless You know and this is just how we should live life in general not on edge obviously, right not going around suspecting people Obviously right not going around suspecting people just vigilant just aware not Careless making sure that we're always watching even when we're having fun, right? Hey, I'm thankful that there were some vigilant people at the park on that 4th of July. Hey, man Well, all of us are drinking from the water There's other guys who are just like man I don't know about these guys and it raised the question and then that's how that whole debacle end up coming to come into play But that's how we always have to be. Okay. Hey when you're out soul winning preaching the gospel We're focused on what Sony? But you need to be aware, too You need to pay attention Hey ladies, ladies, you need to pay attention where you're out there Because sometimes ladies can be naive just be honest Naive and sometimes they don't pay attention Hey when you ladies when you knock on a door and a guy answers and you're giving them the gospel and he invites you in Don't go in Never go in. Oh, but you look so nice and you know, it's just I don't care what he looks like You know, that's what they call wolves in sheep's clothing Don't just go in, you know, I got pepper spray Yeah, but here's the thing you may have pepper spray. But as soon as that door is closed and locked You can have as much pepper spray as you want You don't know how many people are in there. Hey when you drink the water of soul winning bring your hand up to your mouth You know watch out for dogs. I Know that's practical but that's true. Isn't it? Not when you go up to when you go past sorry for the Corridos and the banda and Some of you just completely ignored everything I'm saying. They're just going it's just taking you back. Is it not? And I'm having a hard time bringing the water up to my mouth right now because I keep it's distracting me So when you go out, you know, you gotta be aware of the dogs, don't you not do you not? don't just walk in the gate and Just like go up to the door. Don't even look around you Well, God will protect me. Yeah, but you gotta show something. You gotta have wisdom Well, I'm willing to die whenever okay, then go get eaten by a pit bull if that's what you want then I'd rather have a more honorable death than that Well, I'm willing to give it all for Jesus me too. That's why I want to keep knocking doors So I want I like to stay alive to do that Okay, that's how you do more for God is by staying alive Now if someone come and takes your life, that's different obviously But I'm talking about, you know, just practical things where you don't you don't have to be reckless When you go to a gate you shake it Well, not me brother. I don't care. All right, then I'm going so any with you and I'm sending you in first And once that pit bull runs out I'm grabbing you by the shirt and just using you as my shield and I'm gonna tell you remember how you say you didn't care right Wiggle the gate knock on it Do one of those I'm serious and then you walk in and even when you walk in Look around if there's cars look under the cars I'm serious. This works Look under the cars and look when I go out with my sowing partner if the house is a little deep You know what? I mean by there's like it's really in there Let's say if I go out with Marcos We go there and it's his turn to go knock. I stand afar off And I'm keeping an eye out because if there's a dog I'm out. I'm leaving him See you sucka, and I'll just play You know sacrifice yourself for me I I'm serious. I stay back a little bit if there's a driveway. He can't see the driveway I purposely stand afar off to see if there's a dog or something and it's also a good opportunity to scare your soul winner You know Katie like oh, there's a document there just I got you, you know But I'm just being aware. You're just taking up the water and you're bringing up, you know, be aware of what's going on Look and that's why I'm not spending a lot of time on this, but this is good That's why we have look ladies don't just go tonight Don't just leave and go get in your car by yourself The rule is take two guys with you pick two any two Okay, because unfortunately there's a lot of stinking disgusting pedophiles You know, I've been seeing on the news coming through Omani. They're not from I don't believe they're from Omani They come from other cities coming to Omani and I've been seeing a lot of that on the news But you know what? Thank God for the city of Omani. I see some some hoods on that Instagram page It's like Omani hates pedophiles and they're always posting stuff like hey ladies. You got to be careful. You got to be careful You know, there's some sick perverts out here Okay, they're always trying to get girls to come into their car or whatever, you know So you said what do I do? Well number one get you some guys to go with you But even if you're in broad daylight pay attention Get That cup get that water and bring it to your mouth I know there's this your euphoria that you have when you leave church is like man church is so great and all this but you Got to pay attention We have to make sure that we're paying attention Being vigilant we're watching Spent a lot of time with that But I think it was necessary look at verse 7 and the Lord said unto Gideon by the 300 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 that the people took vittles in their hand and their trumpets and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tents and retained those 300 men and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley and It came to pass the same night that the Lord sentence or sentence him arise Get thee down unto the host for I've delivered it into thine hand But if thou fear to go down go thou with furor thy servant down to the holes now I find that interesting Because of the fact that earlier in the chapter he said if you're afraid go home But here we see that God knows that Gideon is afraid This shows me one thing right here. It shows me that those who You know, it could be that even these 300 were also afraid but there's a big difference between those who are afraid and those who? Afraid but they still step out in faith in spite of being afraid Because Gideon took furor with them which shows us that he's afraid and look that's a scary thing to do He's like you go down to the camp of the Midianites and I just want you to listen to them It's like there's like they're without number. I'm the leader if I go down there and they catch me Who knows what they're gonna do right and God basically tells them? Well, if you're afraid you go with furor And go down there and just do as I tell you that takes a lot of faith obviously But it shows that he was still fearful. So it's not bad necessarily to be fearful What's bad is that you keep that fear from obeying God? You allow that fear to keep you from obeying God Because we all get afraid every once in a while But you got to make sure that in spite of fear you do that Which is right in the side of the Lord no matter what and if you still struggle with that You get furor you get the brothers in the church you get around some bold brethren. They'll help you become bold look what it says in verse 11 and now shall hear what they say and Afterwards shall thine hands be strengthened to go down into the host then when he down with Europe 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 for multitude and their and their camels Were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. Okay, so that's a lot of people and When Gideon was come behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow So there's a reason why God is sending Gideon down into the camp If you notice there's like a pattern with Gideon. He always needs like a sign doesn't he? You remember the previous chapter? he needed a sign the fleece and The the the broth that was you know, the flesh that was consumed in the fire by the angel of the Lord You had the miracles of the fleece, etc But here we see that God is telling like go down and what's the miracle that he's gonna see? One of the soldiers talking about a dream of Gideon overcoming them basically And he says there in verse 13 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 into the tent and smote it and it fell and overturned it that the tent lay along and his fellow servant Excuse me 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 hosts. This is a pretty cool miracle Who's oh, I don't see anything special about that. What's so many? What's so miraculous about that? He just got finished saying That the host of many were as grasshoppers that were without number That means there's a grip of them and they just so happen to stumble upon the one guy who's actually talking about him That's a miracle Tens of thousands of soldiers he stumbles upon a conversation about him It's like for example, let's say you go to the LAX to go catch a flight You just so happen to be happy You stand behind a line of someone who knows who you're on. They're like, they're like gossiping about you. What are the chances of that? right it's a miracle and the reason why is because of the fact that he's Instilling more boldness into the heart of Gideon by having him hear that it's like dang these guys are actually scared Because if they're saying this there has to be probably more that are saying this as well You know verse 15 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 had delivered it into your hand the host of Midian and he divided 300 men into three Companies, 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. So what is he doing here? He's exercising leadership He's saying look God is delivered into our hands. This is what you do. You do what I tell you to do You do as I do Look on me and do likewise and behold when I come to the outside of the camp It shall be as I do so shall ye do when I blow with the 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 them came unto the outside of the camp at 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 now I believe there's a dual meaning to verse 18 of the sword of the Lord and of Gideon because of the fact it's Exemplifying that it's not only God who's gonna deliver them But God requires a man to lead them and that's where the principle of having one man as a leader comes into play, right? but another reason why I believe he's saying this is because I'm guessing Because verse 14 of that conversation of Gideon. He's probably thinking other people are saying this so he's saying look Let's feed into that the sword of the Lord and of Gideon So those people who heard that rumor in verse 14, they're like, oh man, it's actually happening The dream was right. Here's the fulfillment of that dream because it's not just the sword of the Lord. It's of Gideon That's the guy that other dude was dreaming about Sounds kind of weird verse 19. So Gideon Where we at actually? verse 20 and the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and the Trumpets in their right hands and to blow withal and they cry the sword of the Lord and of Gideon and they stood every man And his place round about the camp and all the hosts ran and cried and fled and you see at the remainder of the chapter Basically, what's happening is they break these lamps with those buckets and they blow the trumpets and they make themselves bigger than they really are That's what they do So they use a lot of wisdom this tactic that made them basically seem like a far greater army than what they really were Now even though he exercised wisdom, even though he used these strategic battle schemes in order to win We obviously understand that was Gideon But you know what? It's also the sword of the Lord because this could have not been done unless God had raised up Gideon for such a time as this And it took so it took a lot of faith We're gonna finish right there because I'm over time. So what's the story with Gideon right here? We see a great exploit being done We see is we see his ordination so to speak in the chapter prior where God comes and he calls him and he kind of Proves himself by throwing down that image of Baal and by seeing the miracles but chapter 7 is where the battle takes place He went from 32,000 men to 300 men. He exercised faith and there were victorious and all 300 lived Not like the Spartan faggoty 300 men who died are in hell today. Okay, the wall of Gideon's men eventually died Yeah, but they're alive forevermore Man and thank God for that. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed father We thank you for the story of Gideon the real 300 not as though the wicked pagan reprobate Spartans but true men that Believed in you and they trusted you and had a leader to lead them in this great exploit against the media nights And these men who were vigilant may they may have been fearful, but they didn't act upon their fear In fact, they they acted in spite of it They weren't fearful to draw back But rather to go forward and I pray that you'd help us as your people as a church to exemplify these 300 men May we be counted as the 300? Gideon's 300 the Lord's 300 Jesus Christ is 300 Here in LA that we would not be fearful That we would have boldness that we would be vigilant and just trust in you And I pray God that you'd continue to help us to do great works for the end in Jesus name we pray. Amen