When the best of me is barely breathing When
I'm not somebody I believe in Hold on to me When
I'm missing light, the night is starting When
I'm slamming all the doors you open He's listening
to your prayers right now. Hold on to me when
it's too dark to see you. When I am sure I have
reached the end. Hold on to me when I forget
I need you. When I let go of me, I could rest
in peace. Because I know nobody loves me better.
Hold on to me. Hold on to me. We are working
through the book of Judges, and we're just going
to kind of give a quick synopsis of where we've
been. So as we look at the story of Gideon, Another
judge, a deliverer, a savior, if you will, for
Israel. He is being called up because the country
is being so heavily persecuted by the Midianites,
formerly an ally, going back far enough, formerly
an ally. But in this day and age, they have been
sweeping in the land with a bunch of Eastern
peoples, Amalekites and others, and they come
in and there's so many of them that they're literally
taking everything. They're taking all the crops
as they're about to be harvested. They're taking
all the money. They're taking all the women,
taking children into slavery. I mean, it's just
a complete... Complete overrun, basically. And
this is happening, we have heard in the scripture,
because God's people have drifted from worshiping
only God, and they have begun to worship the
peoples of the land, some of which are the gods
of the land, some of which are pretty vicious.
They're all wrong, but some of them are pretty
vicious. For example, the god Molech, who had
that rite where if you burn the firstborn child
in the fire alive as a child, then they would
be... you would receive blessings on your house
ongoing. And so they were worshiping the god
Molech and that kind of thing was happening.
It's kind of hard to believe. And then it's kind
of hard to believe that as they are doing that
and they cry out to God for help from the Midianites,
that God is going to give them a deliverer, a
savior in the form of Gideon. But as God begins
to work in Gideon's life, there's a prophet,
there's an angel, there's some miraculous consumption
of his sacrifice, which we saw last week. And
as all that happens, Gideon is having a little
trouble believing the amazing things that God
is doing in his day. And that's kind of where
we pick up the story. And give me a little who
to holler amen as we go to Judges chapter 6.
This is God's word. And we're just going to read.
Eight verses of it. And so it'll go by moderately
quickly. And then the points are relatively brief.
But the action is significant. So stick with
me and be prepared to adjust. Verse 25. Now the
same night. So this is after he constructed the
altar to God in that place where he'd been having
the interaction with God. It says, Now the same
night it came about that the Lord said to him,
Take your father's bull and a second bull, seven
years old, and pull down the altar of Baal, which
belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah
that is beside it, and build an altar to the
Lord on the top of this stronghold in an orderly
manner. Take a second bull and offer a burnt
offering with the wood of the Asherah, which
you shall cut down. Okay, so that's a big, kind
of like a long run -on explanation of what God
wants him to do. We're going to break it down
for a second. So first of all, remember that
as we're looking at the book of Judges and throughout
this book, even in this chapter, there is some
very old Hebrew language that goes way back.
And so theologians struggle a little bit with
some of the translation. And so the phrase where
it says, take your father's bull and a second
bull, there is a word there which kind of gives
you the and a second part of it. that's challenging
to translate from Hebrew into English. And so
if you go reading on this, you'll see in a variety
of commentaries, whatever, if you would do that,
that they kind of debate whether there was a
second bull or not. Not a problem for the story.
What is important is that a seven -year -old
bull, that part is easily translated, or relatively
everybody translates it the same anyway. A seven
-year -old bull was in the mix. It may have been
one bull, and it was a clarification that bull
needed to be seven years old. This is a mature
bull, strong enough to tear down the altars,
right? So that work was going to be done. And
even with men pushing or whatever, it was going
to be a major job to tear down the altar. And
also at the same time, it's a full, high -quality
piece of livestock. And so they were going to
kill his dads, prized bull as a sacrifice. They
were not only going to kill him, but they were
going to kill him to sacrifice him on the altar.
They were going to sacrifice him on the altar
that they would build in the place of the altar
of Baal and Asherah, which was on his dad's land.
Now understand, if the altar was there, so what
goes on on the altar is people leave their sacrifices.
Okay? Now because Baal is not a real god, those
sacrifices are not consumed. Right? They don't
go up in smoke or nothing happens. Right? And
so the sacrifices that are left, who do you think
gets them then? Well, it would be Gideon's dad.
That's their property. This altar that is on
their property, the Baal and Asherah, is somewhat
their sustenance. They have made a ton of money
and a ton of wealth and animals and whatever.
when animal sacrifice lay there bleeding out
or whatever, that's just meat, but it's still
meat, right? Who wouldn't like to, somebody come
back from hunting and say, hey, you need a deer?
I killed a deer. I'll give you 300 pounds of
hamburger, right? Who wouldn't want that? Most
people, if you're willing to eat it, that's awesome.
That's a huge blessing. So this was going on
on his property all the while he was receiving
resources because they had this altar there.
And now God is calling Gideon to shut that all
down. and in the process to take his father's
prized bull, full -grown, perfect, without blemish,
bull, and sacrifice it on the newly created altar
to God. This is an extreme betrayal. It's as
if you became an adult at 25 years old, and you
went into your dad's work where he worked for
30 years, and you kicked his boss into private,
and you beat him in the face and threw him all
across the desk, and you told him that your dad
told you to do it. And the next day, your dad's
going to be in hot water, probably lose his job,
and now his family loses all of his financial
sustenance. It's like that. It's that kind of
thing. Or you just go up to the police station
where your dad works, he's a cop, and you start
spray painting all the cars. That's the kind
of thing we're talking about. He is damaging
this line of revenue, this wealth. It's going
to be gone. Unless the people will adjust, and
we already know that people kind of don't want
to adjust. We've had plenty of opportunities
to do so. Unless they would adjust and leave
their offerings for God. And the problem is,
a lot of times the offerings for God would be
consumed. And so that would not be adding wealth
to the family, just glorifying God. So he gets
this kind of long, drawn out command to go and
cut down the Asherah pole that's next to the
altar of all, cut them both down, get rid of
them. Tear down the altar, which probably made
of stone, and then cut down the pole and get
rid of it, use a seven -year -old bull to do
so. That's what's important in the story so far.
Notice that he was to construct atop that a stronghold.
Atop that stronghold would be in an orderly manner,
to do it all in an orderly manner, to tear them
down and construct the new altar in an orderly
manner, and that's significant. sacrificed the
bull on the wood of the Asherah pole that he
cut down. 27. Then Gideon took ten men of his
servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him.
And it came about because he was too afraid of
his father's household and the men of the city
to do it by day that he did it by night. So he
goes into the barracks where the men are sleeping
or whatever or they're getting ready to go to
bed and he gathers ten servants. This guy, his
father's pretty wealthy. He gathers ten servants
and he says, come on, we got a job to do. They
go get... The bull, one or two bulls, whatever
it was, and they go out there and they tear it
down and they construct the new altar just the
way that God commanded in an orderly fashion.
A little further. When the men of the city arose
early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal
was torn down and the Asherah, which was beside
it, was cut down. And the second bull was offered
on the altar, which had been built. And again,
there is enough struggle in the Hebrew. was it
a second bull or the bull of priority, the most
important bull, whatever, was offered on the
altar which had been built. And they said to
one another, who did this thing? And when they
searched about and inquired, they said, Gideon,
the son of Joash, did this thing. So they basically
informed a committee, or they made up a committee
to inquire who did it. They had some people investigate
it, right? And they found out it was Gideon,
son of Joash, that did it. Not too hard, because
if you have ten co -conspirators, the secret
usually gets out. So he had ten servants. It
probably wasn't going to be retained. Even in
the middle of the night, people probably saw
what was going on. A lot of noise being made.
Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring
out your son that he may die. For he has torn
down the altar of Baal, and indeed he has cut
down the Asherah which was beside it. But Joash
said to all who stood against him, Will you contend
for Baal? In other words, that word there means
to fight or war on the behalf of. So you're going
to go to war on behalf of Baal, is what he's
asking them. Or will you deliver him? In other
words, are you going to save Baal, the false
god? Do you have the strength, the authority
to save the false god, Baal? Whoever will plead
for him shall be put to death by morning. Now
this is an interesting turn of events for Joash,
who is the one who had the altars on his land.
Right? So he's now saying that if anyone will
plead on behalf of Baal, he'll be put to death
by morning. In the Bible, not to get ahead, in
Deuteronomy 13, Moses leaves instructions with
the Israelites that anyone who pleads with the
people to worship a false god should be put to
death. If it was your mother, your father, your
brother, your son, your grandfather, your co
-worker, Doesn't matter. Anybody that pleads
with you to worship, you report them to the authorities
and that person is put to death if they're pleading
with you to worship a false god. That is a very
stark command. And now Joash was instead himself
leading people to worship. But now here, when
now his son has torn down the altars, he now
says, if you plead for Baal, we'll put that person
to death by morning. He says, if he is a god,
let him contend, and there's that same word there
that means fight on behalf, let him contend for
himself, because someone has torn down his altar.
Therefore, on that day, he named him Jeroboam.
That is to say, let Baal contend against him.
So the term Jeroboam, which is his new kind of
battle name, if you will, or his activist name,
if you will, means... Baal can contend against
him if he wants to, but everybody else is kind
of like out of the mix. Let Baal contend against
him because he had torn down his altar. That
ends our text for the day. There's a few things
in here that I want you to see. They're kind
of obvious, but then the implications are not
as obvious. The first thing is that God wants
us to emphatically remove idol worship from our
courts. Okay, so now we need to break that down
a little bit. So emphatically means purposefully,
forcefully, one direction. Well, one purpose
in mind. We're going to emphasize doing that
over anything else. Okay, and then idol worship
is when you worship something, you declare the
worth of something or someone, and you set that
person or thing up in your life in a way that
they're going to get your attention. Okay, so
for example, when Jesus says a man cannot worship
both God and mammon. Okay, mammon being money
or wealth. And so when you put money in a position
in your life that it's going to kind of get a
little control over you, it's going to get your
focus, it's going to get your emphasis. When
that happens, you have created an idol out of
money. And the system that we live under, capitalism,
kind of does that automatically. If you're not
intentional about it, it kind of just happens
because you need money to pay your bills and
so on. Right? So you're just kind of like, well,
I've got to make a priority of it, so I've got
to go work for the man, and I've got to do that
even if I don't really want to. You get out of
bed and you're not feeling well, you really would
rather do something else, but you still go in
to get paid. But then you get out of bed on a
Sunday morning, for example, and you're not feeling
well, and you don't really want to, and you don't
go to church. So the idols slide up and down,
and pretty soon money is above God. And it could
be anything. It can be any form of entertainment.
It can be health or wealth or relationships or
whatever. And so people make idols out of all
kinds of things. But God wants us to emphatically,
with emphasis, it's an important thing. It is
probably the number one thing that we need to
be focused on as Christians is removing idol
worship from our courts. Now, what do I mean
when I say our courts? So in the Bible, there's
kind of a principle. There's your house, right?
There's your tents. So your tents is your larger
family, your children, maybe cousins that live
under your roof or whatever, your larger family.
And then there's your courts. And your courts
is wherever you have influence. So that would
be on the job, at school, at your boyfriend or
girlfriend's house, wherever you go and you have
influence. If you're in the room and people look
to you, for guidance, direction, opinion, or
whatever, you must emphatically tear down idols.
So people say, well, I'm struggling with money,
and they start to ask you how to budget, how
to plan, how do I get my electric bill paid,
things like that, then your response must include
an intentional removal of money as an idol. So
first thing we need to realize is you don't really
need money. In fact, Money really is nothing.
It's literally only paper. And that's why it's
possible in a capitalistic economy or whatever
for money to lose all of its value. Because once
upon a time, it represented gold or silver. There
was actual value attached to it. But now the
government can just print more anytime they want
because there's nothing actually attached to
it. Not even the labor. Nothing is attached to
it. So it's just paper that we pass around or
getting to the point now where it's not even
that. It's binary code, right? It's your money
moved from account to account. And so it really
is worth nothing. Your labor is worth something
and you're trading your labor for money, which
is worth nothing. But then someone else will
trade their goods also for money, which is worth
nothing. And so you're able to trade your labor
for their goods using the medium of money. And
so the truth is you don't need money. You do
need a house. You do need clothing. You need
food. You want to buy birthday gifts for your
kids when they are growing up. There are things
that you want to have, but you don't need money
to do that. And there are people in the world
who don't have anywhere near as much money as
we have on a regular basis. In fact, all of the
per capita income For households in the world,
United States people on disability make more
than 96 % of people in the world. So all they
get is $1 ,000 a month or whatever for their
disability, and they make more than 96 % of the
people that live in the world. Not the U .S.,
the world. And then people like Elon Musk or
Donald Trump or their billionaires or whatever,
they're in like the 98th percentile. So all the
struggling that Americans are doing are between
the 96th and 98th percentile, essentially. Don't
quote me on those exact numbers, but it's right
in that area. Okay. And so the bottom line is
there are people out there living in squalor
compared to what we are living in. And yet they
still have birthday gifts on birthdays. They
still have food on the table. They still survive.
They're surviving. They may go hungry some days,
but they are surviving. And so what I'm saying
is we think we need the money. We idolize it.
We need to, in our courts, inside our influence,
wherever we can spread our influence, we need
to remove it as an idol. And social media and
TV and jobs and better clothing and better looks
and better entertainment and take all of it out.
See, wherever there is an idol, they'll make
a commercial to strum it, to make it vibrate,
so you'll pay attention to it. So if you think
you need to lose weight, then when a commercial
comes on TV about losing weight, They're trying
to trigger you, trying to get you to pay attention
to their message, and so on. The list goes on.
If you think you need to be entertained, then
when a commercial comes on TV or streaming or
social media or whatever that looks entertaining,
then that strums your idol so that you will go
after that thing. And what God is asking Christians,
in particular in this text, men and their sons,
but it's all Christians to do, is to emphatically
remove idol worship from our courts, from our
area of influence. Listen, it's not... Gideon's
house. It's Joash's house. They're not Gideon's
servants. They're Joash's servants. They're not
Gideon's bull or bulls. They're Joash's bull
or bulls. But Gideon has influence in his house.
And so when God activates him, he moves. We already
know he's a skeptic. It says right in the text
that he was afraid. Right? He was afraid of the
response. And so he did it at night. Jesus, in
the Sermon on the Mount, says, in the same way,
let your light shine before others that they
may see your good deeds and glorify your Father
in heaven. He's talking about in your courts,
let your light shine, in your area of influence,
let it shine so that they will look to God as
the one true God and glorify him. In 1 Peter,
it says, live such good lives among the pagans
that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they
may see your good deeds and glorify God on the
day he visits us. These verses emphasize the
power of a life lived with integrity to influence
non -believers. You can, through whatever means
you have, Fight idol worship in your influence.
Now, if you want to spread your influence, fine.
If you want to go somewhere that you've never
been or begin to speak somewhere you never have,
that's all good. Just make sure that your emphasis
is on removing idol worship. In the Ten Commandments,
the first of the Ten Commandments says, you shall
have no other gods before me. And it means that
God, Yahweh, is to be the one true deity worshipped
and acknowledged rather than any other beings
or idols. And as I mentioned before in Deuteronomy
13, he says anyone who would attempt to lead
you, family member, friend, whatever, at that
time would be killed. Because as a people, they
only had God. And they should have all known.
They saw the miraculous interventions of God.
And so while we don't kill anybody, for disagreeing
with us. We don't kill anybody for trying to
lead us astray. We don't do that. We should be
ready to put an emphasis on shutting down idol
worship. So when you're trying to follow God
and somebody else is trying to talk to you about
what else is going on, you say, why are we talking
about football instead of talking about God?
Why are we talking about camping instead of talking
about God? Why are we talking about sports instead
of talking about God? Why is God not the main
focus of our football, camping, and sports instead
of the other way around? God did not give you
freedom so that you could spend your freedom
on an idol that will enslave you. Rather, he
wants you to emphatically remove idol worship
from your courts, not just your tents or your
house, or his house really, but your courts,
wherever you have influence. The second thing
to see there is that fear is a real thing. It's
not going away. It's going to be here for as
long as you have flesh, as long as you have a
heart, blood, veins, brains, right? And it has
a place, especially cut out in the life of an
unbeliever, of a person who has not accepted
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, of a person
who has not begun a personal relationship with
the God of the universe through Jesus. And the
place is this. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Or, as Job said, fear is wisdom. In Job 28, 28,
he says, the fear of the Lord is wisdom. And
to depart from evil is understanding. Proverbs
1 .7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 9 says this, Give instruction to a wise
man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous
man, and he will increase his learning. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For
by me your days will be multiplied and the years
of life will be added to you. If you are wise,
you are wise for yourself. And if you scoff,
you alone will bear it. The bottom line is this.
Fear has a place. You should fear walking away
from God. You should fear offending God. It is
a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a
vengeful God. But Baal is not a vengeful god.
Baal is no god at all. Asherah, not a vengeful
god. Allah is not the god of heaven that we know
and worship. He is nothing. At best, he is a
demon, probably higher up in the ranks. But still,
no god. There are beings in the universe, both
positive and negative, those on our side and
those against us, that if you met them personally,
you would think of them as a god. A demon that
can disappear in one place, appear in another,
inhabit a human being, warp your mind, speak
into your brain. If you met a human being that
could do that, you would begin to wonder, are
they a demon? If you met a human being or a demon,
you'd begin to wonder, are they a superhero?
Superheroes are real? Supervillain? Whatever?
Is it a god? This thing that can speak into my
head? But they are weak. Nothing compared to
the god of the universe. They cannot speak creation
into existence or destroy it as he could. They
cannot renew it, regenerate it, or save a soul.
And ultimately, they will spend eternity locked
away. In fact, in some sense, they're locked
away now, many of them. And so the point is,
there are beings that could be recognized as
quote -unquote gods, but they are not. And we
should have fear, healthy fear, of God if we
are not walking with him and in his strength
and by the Lord. And if we don't do that, we're
missing the point of fear. And so when Gideon
is afraid of the men in the town, and he does
this thing by night, we learn another valuable
lesson. And that is this, that overcoming fear
and acting in obedience starts at home, in the
dark, and with help. The truth is, when I was
becoming a Christian, I was attending East Toledo
Baptist Church, and I was questioning everything
about Christianity. I went through all the different
theories. I read some books, a lot of secular
books, of things of why Christianity wasn't real
and stuff like that. I never read cover to cover,
but I read excerpts and articles and stuff like
that for six months as I was searching it out.
And once God had called upon my heart to accept
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I kind of knew
two things at once. And one of them was that
I would never do it. I knew that I would never
become a Christian in the traditional sense of
the word because I could not walk forward in
the room. I could not stand in front of 125,
150 people, 95 % of which were strangers. I could
not stand in front of them and say that I was
going to live for Jesus. I didn't know for sure
that they were. Many of them, I had heard their
profession. Some of them sang in the choir, sang
songs about Jesus. We all sang worship together.
I had heard a few of them preach. I heard the
pastor preach. I knew some of them were professing
to be Christians. I didn't know who was a Christian
and who wasn't, but I knew for a fact. Number
one, I would never be one. I would never come
forward in a church service. That's not who I
am. I would never stand up and boldly say, I
know who I am and who I'm living for. I knew
I could never do that. And at the same time,
I knew I could not not do it. I knew I could
not continue as I was. I was terrified of the
God of the universe and his, if he would ever
become unwilling, that he would ever become not
for me, but somehow against me. I eventually
discovered Ephesians 2, which is to say that
he was already essentially against me. You were
once objects of wrath means that doesn't mean
he hates you. He still loves you, but he's against
you and he opposes your course of action unless
you have committed yourself to be 100 % for him.
If you're 99 % for God. then you're 100 % against
him and he's 100 % against you and everything
that you're doing and your finances will suffer
and your health will suffer and your jobs will
suffer and your mouth will suffer and your mind
won't work the way you want it to and so on and
so on and so on. And you may stomach it. You
may survive it for weeks, months, years, decades.
Some people make it a whole life and then lay
on their bed preparing to meet their maker and
scream and cry, oh, what have I done? Some of
the most famous... atheists and agnostics out
there who did not believe in God on their deathbed
said, oh, I go to meet my maker. Now what have
I done? And so you can cope and survive by pushing
fear of God out of your life, but the actual
overcoming of fear and acting in obedience starts
at home, in the dark, without help. Where was
he? He was at home. on his dad's property. He
wasn't called to take down somebody else's false.
There were lots of them, right? It could have
been a neighbor. It could have been in the next
town. He could have been sent somewhere where
he could go out there, do it, and disappear before
anybody ever knew what happened. An investigation
might not have yielded anything. I always wonder,
boy, if you're going to rob a convenience store,
would you ever do it anywhere near home, right?
That would be dumb. But that's what people do.
And God called him to tear down an altar on his
dad's property. So who was he hurting the most?
His dad, his family, it was at his home. And
then, to us, at home is where you live. It's
where you have peace and safety. It's where you're
okay getting away. So you say something harsh
to your wife, to your kids, or to your husband,
right? Or to a guest. But it's your house. You
can do it. It's your house, right? And you feel
safe doing that. But let me ask you, Is your
house a mess? If your house is a mess, your life
is a mess. If your time at home is focused on
entertainment rather than growing in faithfulness
and following the Lord, then you will not be
found faithful when you are out and about. There's
those that can't share the gospel at the grocery
store, at a restaurant, on the job, where they
work, where they go to school. And when you go
home, you find them playing video games, watching
their TV, doing things. Maybe their house is
a mess or they're projecting, cleaning up, fixing
things and whatever. But their house is not about
God. And if your house is not about God, that's
where fear ends. When your house is about God,
that's where fear is overcome. So if everything,
all the language in your house is about God,
then when you go out and you're called to emphatically
remove idol worship from your courts, which is
where you have influence, wherever that may be,
then you have your home behind you. You have
your family behind you. You can always retreat
to a place of safety if it doesn't go well. At
home, we have to make a concerted effort truly
in the face of worldly opposition, of worldly
distraction, to make a concerted effort to place
an emphasis on removing idol worship and focusing
on the Lord. And realize that if you do not make
God the king of your house, you create a hive
of fear. And you'll feel like, well, why can't
I get my kids to do? Why won't my parents do?
Why doesn't it go the way I want? Why don't my
bills? Why don't my money? Why don't my relationship?
And you'll always have nagging in the back of
your mind that idea that you're really not right
with God. God is not first in your house. I want
you to think about your house. Because that's
where overcoming in fear and acting in obedience
starts. It starts at home. Next, it starts in
the dark. It starts when you can get away with
it. When you're not risking being opposed. So
when I was first teaching after we got saved
and Sherry kind of like talked me into teaching
Sunday school even though I thought I would never
do that. I did a lot of nevers when I was a young
Christian. I still do them today as a matter
of fact. And I was teaching Sunday school and
we would teach the Sunday school lesson. We didn't
really prepare it in advance because we didn't
know any better but we would teach the Sunday
school lesson and we would tell people about
Jesus in Sunday school. And if we had visitors
we would share the gospel. If it was part of
the message we would do that. But I never did
it on my job. I never did it on the parking lot.
I remember hanging my head in shame as the pastor
shared the gospel in the parking lot. Not because
I was praying. I wanted everybody to think I
was praying. But I was hanging my head in shame.
Because I had only been able to share the gospel
and fight idol worship in the dark. Where I could
get away with it. Where there was no question
that people were going to oppose my point of
view. So when I first told Sherry that I was
going to get saved, she didn't immediately go,
oh, me too. I love this idea. Let's do this.
She said, well, you do what you got to do and
I'll do what I got to do. And I didn't know exactly
what the matter. I was afraid to ask, but I knew
I was screwing up my marriage. I was a horrible
husband and a pretty bad father. And when I was
first guy, I put it off two weeks to tell her
about my possible decision that what I might
do because I was afraid I might be opposed by
her, my wife. I wasn't afraid. to oppose her
or be opposed by her when I wanted to spend my
Saturday night some certain way, or I wanted
to change the schedule without asking her, or
I wanted to bang the pots and pans in the kitchen
because I was ticked off at her because she said
something, and she's in the living room going,
oh no, now what did I do? I wasn't afraid to
be a complete jerk most of the time, but when
it came to talking about Jesus, I was afraid
to say I wanted to follow Jesus with my whole
heart, my whole life, and I wanted our house
to be like that, and then she didn't give me
any real immediate hope that she was going to
do the same thing. So if we can't live for Jesus
when there is no risk of us being opposed, if
He's not going to be first, and our emphasis
is not going to be wiping out idols, we have
no healthy fear of the Lord when we're safe.
How are we going to do anything out there where
it's not safe? If you can't stand for God in
the dark, you can't stand for God when the chips
are down. And then, lastly, Acting in obedience
starts at home, in the dark, and with help. He
didn't go alone. Now God didn't tell him to take
ten servants to tear down the altar or cut down
the Asherah pole. He didn't tell him to do that.
He told him to take an ox. And probably Gideon
and the ox together could have done all the work
and the ten servants when they needed to be there,
but he didn't go alone. He took the ox and he
took ten servants. He took ten of his dad's servants.
He had a right to do that, being one of the sons
in the house. Now he was the youngest son, so
maybe ten was stretching it for him. Maybe he
only sort of had the authority to do that. But
he did, and they went, and they did it. He didn't
do it alone. If you won't be bold, firm, and
decisive when you have troops, when we're in
here in church, if you are intimidated to sing,
if you are intimidated to share, If you're intimidated
to share, if you're afraid to come forward to
the altar when you know you need to repent of
sin or you need to accept Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior or join the church or be baptized
or something like that, if you won't do it here
where everybody in this room is yearning to see
you, each one of us is yearning to see everyone
else that's supposed to be like that in the room
activated for Jesus, if you won't do it when
you have troops with you, in his case servants
of his dad's, then what happens when you have
to go it alone? If you'll only profess Christ
in here, but truly mean it, that would be plenty.
You'll go to heaven when the time comes. But
if you'll only ever profess Christ in here, how
will you ever overcome fear? How will you ever
turn your fear to be the one good thing that
it's supposed to be? You're always going to struggle
with it. Always be tied up in it. Notice that
there's a 3B. That was three. Overcoming fear
and acting in obedience starts at home in the
dark and with help. But there's a 3B. The results
of overcoming fear and acting in obedience stand
in the daylight. If you truly in this room accept
Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, commit yourself
to follow Him, and you really are living for
Jesus, or you go to camp, and at camp you say,
I'm really living for the Lord, then when you
get home from camp or when you get home from
church, the results of what you did, they'll
show. The change will be exhibited. The effect
will be ongoing. They got up in the morning and
God's altar had replaced the altar and the Asherah
pole. The results stand in the daylight when
they are genuine results. And so I'm asking you,
if you have taken a stand in here, then take
a stand out there. Take a stand everywhere. Get
your mouth under control and speak for the Lord
and be bold, but be loving and kind. Be willing
that a lost person might be forgiven even when,
by all accounts, they don't deserve it. Because
we didn't deserve it either. That brings us to
our conclusion. Recapping the three points. Before
we're done with this conclusion, I'm going to
kind of offend the men in the room a little bit.
And I apologize in advance, so please bear with
me. God wants us to emphatically remove idol
worship from our courts. Fear is a real thing
and it has a place in the life of an unbeliever.
But with God, that fear is cast out. And experiencing
his perfect love, it doesn't have a place. And
then overcoming fear and acting in obedience
starts at home in the dark with help. But the
results stand in the daylight if they were genuine.
Brings us to a conclusion. So here's what I think
God is calling us to do. Number one, he's telling
us to take a stand. I want you to take a stand.
If you don't believe in anything enough to take
a stand, then you need to do an internal survey
and figure out what you believe in enough to
take a stand. Maybe you just believe that a person
ought to be paid well for an honest day's wage,
and that is the most significant belief that
you have. Then stand for that. It ain't much.
It's not eternal. It may or may not be world
-changing. It's not going to save a soul for
sure, but it's something. You ought to have something
to take a stand for. And by taking a stand, I
don't mean whip up your cuss words or raise your
voice. I mean speak out in what you believe and
try to convince others to believe similarly.
Not in a hurtful way, but try to convince them
to believe what you believe. And in the process,
be prepared that your own decision might be informed.
but take some kind of a stand. Own the ground
under your own feet. Take a stand. Brace yourself
so that when life gets rough, you can still be
standing. Now in the scripture, we know that
that surrounds the name of Jesus and he that
is in us is greater than he that's in the world.
And you can take a stand in the day of evil and
then you can still be found standing if you will
armor up with God's armor. Take a stand. Secondly,
unleash your family, your children, your spouse,
whoever it is, those closest to you, unleash
them. Tell them. Tell them that it is your intention
that we are going to live for God. That our house,
the center of our house, the highest point, the
attention getter, the thing, the person, the
being that we serve is God. Tell them. That God
is the one. Not you. Not mom. Not dad. Not money.
Not entertainment. Not sweets. Not food. Not
fun. Nothing. Nothing should rise above anything
else. Everything else is kind of even. And God
is on top. Tell them. With your mouth. Say, I
want our house to be first and foremost God's
house. Unleash your family. Tell them. Then support
them. Step up. When the world comes against them
to stop them standing firmly for the Lord as
you have encouraged them to do, you be there.
When Joash said, anybody that comes after him
to contend for Baal will die in the morning.
That's a pretty bold statement. And I submit
to you, he was going to back it up. Where are
you in the lives of your children? Where are
you in the lives of your teenage? Where are you
in the lives of your close friends or family
members or those that you act as an uncle to
or an aunt to? Where are you? Have you taken
a stand and then unleashed them by telling them
and supporting them so that if they do indeed
run that race and it starts to get ugly that
you will be there? Provide the resources for
the race by God's grace. Bring in the word. Financial,
if necessary. That was Joash's seven -year -old
bull. That was Joash's livelihood. That was Joash's
servants. And when they came against Gideon to
kill him, the would -be, eventually, savior of
the nation, Joash said, I know I've worshipped
Baal and Asherah. profited very much by this
altar that's been on my land. But would you contend
for Baal? Would you protect Baal? If Baal's a
god, then let God protect himself. Let him come
against Gideon. But if any of you come against
my son, I'll kill you dead by dawn. Where is
that? That's the kind of people that we are called
to be. And provide the resources by God's grace
as he provides them to us so that they may partake
in the warfare. That they can be then influencing
their courts. That they can go out and do what
it is they need to do. Take a stand and support
their family and provide the resources by God's
grace to continue generation after generation.
This faith must be populated by men and where
men will not step up by women and where men and
women step up together, that's when it works
the best. I understand, but if there's only one,
then that person, whoever's the leader of that
household, has to be the one. to tell them, to
support them, to provide the resources by God's
grace, to counsel with them with regard to fear
and say, look, you really have nothing to fear.
If, God forbid, somebody takes your life because
you're doing what it is that God has called you
to, you'll go straight to heaven. Let's talk
about what that looks like for a minute. You
don't have to fear that. But if you will walk
away from the Lord, if you're only half in, man,
the worst thing you could possibly do is being
half in because you'll be ripped in half. And
possibly not be saved when the time comes. Devote
yourself to God. Let me tell you what it feels
like to be afraid of the living God. Because
we know the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
There is a place for fear. And we ought to stand
firm in the day of evil. And if you won't, then
be prepared that they may. Did you hear me? If
you won't stand up for God, if you won't tell
them, support them, and provide the resources
by God's grace, and stand firm in the day of
evil, if you won't do that, then be prepared
that your children may do it without you, and
it will cost you. Maybe everything. Maybe them.
Maybe your very own soul. Because when your child
steps up to follow God the way you never did
or would, when they truly become a Christian,
the way God called us to be, if you have not
done so, one day you will die and go to hell
and they will die and go to heaven. And you'll
go, wow, their faith is so, they love the Lord
so much. They're doing everything that they think
God wants them to do. And it's crazy how committed
they are. And you'll be like in the wings, like,
oh, it's so exciting, so exciting, whatever.
Never thinking about the fact that you never
really did that. They need to step up. God deserves
their allegiance. Even if he doesn't fully have
yours, God deserved Gideon's allegiance even
though he did not have Joash's allegiance. The
story's not about Joash. But Joash knew the Bible.
Gideon knew the Bible. And when Gideon stood
up and did what God wanted him to do, Joash backed
his play. How about you? Would you make this
commitment? I'm going to start with this. This
is obviously Joash and Gideon. These are men.
The men in this room. Would you make this commitment
that as far as is under your control, as far
as God allows you to do, would you say, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord? That
God will be first? As much as is under my control,
we will live for God? Even when we are afraid,
we still choose God and serve Him and worship
Him more than anyone or anything else in this
world. Would you make that commitment? For your
house? For the single men in this room? Can you
make that commitment for what goes on inside
the four walls of your office? Will you make
that commitment that if you're on the job and
the opportunity arises, you will tear down idols
as God has called us to do? Will you make that
commitment? When you say, we will locate and
tear down anything that stands in our way to
honor God. That's the beauty of the freedom of
religion in the United States, is that if anyone
does anything to stop you from fully honoring
God, that's against the law. They can't do that.
And yet, in a country where no one is allowed
to do that, we do not see people stepping up
to do that. Even people who claim the name of
Jesus sometimes. Will you say to your children,
to those that you have influence over, will you
say to them, I want you to learn to listen to
God and do what He says even if you don't think
I will support you or if you think the world
will come against you? Are you ready for that?
Chris, are you ready for your girls to come to
you one day and say, yeah, Dad, I hear what you're
saying, but I've got to do what God wants me
to do? Aaron? Are you ready for Caitlin to come
to you one day and say, I hear what you're saying?
But I really got to do what God wants me to do?
RJ? Are you ready for that? Kenny? You ready
for that? She's young, but it could be coming.
This is what I'm talking about. This is what
we're called to. Nothing less. We have to be
able to say to them that they have to be able
to overcome their fear. They have to want to
learn and to listen to God and do what He says,
even if they don't think that you will support
them. Or even if they think that the world will
come against them. Today, this morning, Charlie
Kirk is better off than millions of people who
woke up and moved one step closer to being a
billionaire. Because he's with God. By his profession.
You can be courageous and overcome your fear
and do what's right. Through God and His Son,
Jesus Christ. Are you willing to deliver that
message to your house? We're not going to have
a traditional invitation today. But we've got
a little bit of business we're going to conduct
first. And then we're going to have an activity
to fill in the gap. And then we'll call the children
in. Are you with me, Ricky? Here we go. First
of all, if you're in this room and this version
of Christianity that I'm talking about today
is foreign to you. If you cannot say that before
today you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord,
that means he tells you what to do when you do
it. And that could include sacrificing your life
if necessary. And it definitely includes turning
your house over to the Lord and tearing down
idols and idol worship. If this version of Christianity
is foreign to you, then I'm asking you right
now to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. Oh, in the
world, there's a whole bunch of people who take
Jesus Christ as Savior and never take him as
Lord. But the Bible doesn't say that you get
saved by taking Jesus Christ as Savior alone.
It says you get saved by calling him Lord. Jesus
is Lord and recognizing that God raised him from
the dead. Romans 10, which he did do. If you
have not accepted Jesus that way, then do it
right now. It's an instantaneous thing. He is
literally waiting. The God of the universe is
waiting on the edge of your willingness. All
you have to do is say, yes, that's me right now.
Just say, yes, that's me to yourself, in yourself,
in the dark, right where you are. Say, okay,
I'm going to do it for real right now. Go ahead,
God, do what you want to do. Is that you? And
now we're not going to have a song of invitation.
We're not going to. Ask anybody to walk forward.
So this is as easy as it's ever going to get
for you. If you have said today, I realize I
have never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior that way. I've never let him be in charge
of my life and whatever sacrifice is necessary
and stepped out of my box and said, I'm living
for Jesus. If that's you, but you're starting
to do that today, then I want you to raise your
hand right where you're at. Anybody else? It
doesn't matter who you are or where you're at.
Right now. Going once. Father in heaven, bless
us as we stand firm together. That Jesus would
be Lord of our house, of our tents, of our courts,
and anywhere we put our feet, that we would take
a firm stand and stand up for what is right.
That we would not fear and realize that fear
only has one place in us. And that one place
is when we cross you. And that We commit ourselves
to never do. In Jesus' name, amen. Now maybe
you're here today and you've been listening to
the message and you say you're a Christian. Now
there could be those in the room, I understand,
you're in the room and you're not a Christian.
And you just had your opportunity to change that.
You still can do it while I'm talking, but there's
not going to be another invitation. But you can
still do it. God's always asking. But if you're
in the room and you're a man and you're a leader
of the house that you lead, Then I'm asking you
to commit to do this, to set this standard for
your house and say, we will live for God. Even
when we are afraid, we will choose him and serve
him and worship him more than anyone or anything
else. Locate and tear down anything that stands
in our way of honoring him. And then you say
to, if you have a child, Or someone who is under
your wife, for example, you say, I want you to
learn to listen to God and do what he says, even
if you don't think I'll support you or if you
think the world will come against you. You can
be courageous and overcome your fear and do what's
right through God and Jesus. That is the commitment
that I am asking leaders of household. You may
be a woman in the room and you might be the leader
of your household. If you're a man in the room
and you're willing to say that to your family
before we call the kids in, we're going to do
that now. If you're here and you know that you're
responsible for that, then you go get that group
together if you're willing to do that and have
that conversation right now. I told you I was
going to offend you. So that means, RJ, if you're
making that commitment today, You're going to
get together with Jason, Caleb, and Zayden. Get
Zayden out of class right now and have that conversation.
Ken, if you're making that commitment today,
then you get together with your daughter and
you'd have that conversation. Ricky, you get
Kyler and Carson right now and have that conversation.
Aaron, you talk with Caitlin right now. This
is interactive. Chris, you get together with
your girls and your wife right now. And I understand
some of us don't. So if you're here and you have
a son or a daughter that's not currently here,
You're going to have this, if you want to, right
now, you can call them on the phone. Curtis,
obviously, you would go with your dad. So Alicia's
going to play some music. We've got like five
to eight minutes, however long it takes. You
blow this off if you want. You can not do it
if you want. That's entirely up to you. But I'm
going to do it. I'm going to go get Ariana. And
get to a sherry and we're going to have this
conversation. For the rest of you, you have this
five to eight minutes to do whatever you feel
God would want you to do. But I would ask you
to search your soul and prepare yourself because
someday you're going to be responsible. And if
you're a single man, you're already responsible
for your own house. If you're a single woman,
you're already responsible for your own house
now. So the music's going to play for the next
five to eight minutes. I'm going to pray briefly
that we'll be bold, and then I'm going to go
get my crew together. Father in heaven, we praise
you and thank you for this recognition that we
must live for you, that as leaders of our households,
we must decide to live for you, and that even
when we are afraid, we must still choose you
and serve you and worship you more than anything
or anyone else in the world. God, I pray that
we will stand up.