Music Music Music Happy day. Happy day. got a
little heart. I got a little heart credit. A
little lung credit. Alright. That's alright.
Okay, so we come to that moment in time where
we ask ourselves how has the Lord been working?
What have you seen? What have you heard? What's
in your Bible that maybe God pointed out to you
this week? You've been studying? You read something?
He said something to you in prayer? What is it?
What do you got? Tell me. I wanted to read this
real quick and then talk after. Okay. So it says,
looking back in my life, you can tell that I
needed a change. I was a fire -burning, twisting,
turning hurricane. Know the sermon, never learning.
One foot in the grave, asked for God to save
me, just to go right back and do the same. Too
scared to ask for help, thought it made me look
weak. So the pain that I felt brought me straight
to my knees, took me out of this hell, took me
out of this wonder, because God, I give it to
you, I fully surrender to you. And it says, who
the Son sets free is free indeed. So I get a
lot of inspiration from music, and this is one
of the songs I write. The guy's name is Joe Nestor.
He's got a really great testimony if you want
to go look it up. He's got a really good testimony.
He was an addict and he got saved. And then he
started writing music about the gospel. And he's
got a lot of really good music. But a lot of
it speaks to me because I was in a similar place.
I never wanted to ask for help because I always
thought he looked like a weak man. Because a
real man is supposed to figure it out and do
it himself. or at least that's the way I was
taught and I was born and raised, is if you're
a real man, you have to do it yourself. You have
to figure it out. And so for most of my life,
that's how I lived. I was too scared to ask for
help because it made me feel less of a man if
I asked for help. And that is a lot of my struggle
even today still, is there's a lot of things
that I don't like asking for help for. And one
of those is I don't like... To talk. I don't
like to talk about how I feel. I don't like to
talk about. Things that are. Struggling with
mentally. I do have a lot of. Bad thoughts. And.
I try not to slip back to the old me. And then.
At the very end of that I said. Sunset free is
free. Amen. And that is a constant reminder to
me. That you know. Jesus died for my sin. I don't
have to worry about going back to who I was.
I don't have to worry about the old me creeping
back in because I'm free in Jesus. And I think
that's a reminder for a lot of people that are
struggling and is if you have Jesus in your heart,
you are free. You're not, you don't have to worry
anymore. You don't have to struggle anymore.
You can just give it to God and let him handle
it. And I think looking forward. It's something
that I need to focus more on. I think it's something
I need to focus more on because I need to remember
that God set me free from who I was. And there's
things that I need to be able to talk about,
things that I need to be able to say and get
off my chest without worrying about it making
me look like a weak person. Or less of a man
because, you know, I have feelings and my feelings
get hurt too. Strength is protected in weakness.
It's funny how we become weak and that's when
we realize how strong we can really be. That's
a powerful message. All right, anybody else?
Tim? I just wanted to share, I woke up great
this morning. You know, the last three days,
I just wanted to see if it was a gimmick. And
it was just, you know, another step back or what,
you know. And they changed my medicine around
until they dropped. And they dropped corn out
of my stomach. It's okay. And so I got up this
morning, got up for a nap, and went to work.
And I'm here, and it's just in my feet. It's
like the neuropathy ripped my legs and went back
down to my feet. It's just in my feet. I can
do a little bit more. And I figure every time
I praise him, do whatever he wants me to do,
he pushes it just a little bit more I can do.
A little bit more he gives me. He don't give
me all at once, but he gives me just a little
bit more. And I feel better than I ever have.
You know, I'm not going to do no jumping jacks
or nothing, but I do feel great, and I thank
the good Lord, and I thank everybody. And I want
to thank Carrie. You come in, and you help out
a lot. And you do. Even days that I miss. So
I want to thank you. You're one after one. A
man coming in and helping someone that can't
do it myself or you help. I want to thank you.
So I was in Corinthians last night. It was probably
about 1 o 'clock in the morning so I was a little
bit tired. But I wasn't giving up because I read
the whole chapter. And I'm going to tell you
what. It's just put so much peace in my heart
because over the last week, I have been under
such attack from having to call the cops on my
sister, from dealing with an alcoholic mother,
from just constant attack. And I'm a recovering
addict myself, and I do know it's hard to ask
for help. Because every time I've ever reached
out for help, I've always been beat down a little
more, beat down a little bit more. But that's
how the devil makes it play. When you're coming
out of something and you want to do good and
you want to live by God, it just shows me right
there that it's okay to forgive those. who who
keep trying because it's not them really it's
the spirit in them and sometimes when i'm in
my word the way i'm in my word and when i'm feeling
the way i'm feeling it like and when i feel it
i mean it raises the hair on my arms it raises
it raises my kids out of talk to their feet you
know um and that's really hard because my kids
have said through a lot between me and their
dad being um addicts recovering addicts and you
know their family still being an addict you know
so it's It just shows me that I'm really happy
my heart didn't start cold because over the years,
over the years, I've had so much opportunity
just to shut down and just give up on people,
give up on everybody, give up on myself and just
go with the day -to -day flow. But with the Word
and with everything around me, God's shown me
that it ain't over. And I'm not done yet. Amen.
Keep sharing that message right there because
there's a lot of people that are in that same
place that don't need to hear that. I don't know
where he's gotten going, but I know he's gotten
going somewhere. Amen. All right. Good word.
Okay, so we're going to pray together at this
time, and then we'll do tithes and offerings
and another song, and then we'll move your children
to their class. If you can come, would you lead
us in this prayer, and we'll pray along with
you. Please remember anybody the Lord lays in
your heart that needs help. Another day, you've
given us thanks for this place we've come to.
And as your people, as a body, worshiping you,
hearing from you, Lord, we just invite you here
to be with us and directly lead our service.
Thank you, Lord, for these new faces we have
with us. Thank you for their searching out and
deciding to come and worship with us today. We
just ask you, Lord, to be with us. Lord, there's
many hurting. many people recovering. And Lord,
you are the great physician. You are the protector.
You are the healer. So it's been on you, Lord,
to watch over them and see them through. And
just ask you, Lord, to, I mean, I'm not mentioning
anybody, but we all know of someone who is going
through an ordeal maybe at this time. Just ask
you, Lord, to be with them as you see them in
their mind and in their hearts. And ask you,
Lord, just to... Bless this time. Bless this
offering as we pick it up. And thank you, Lord,
that we can give. And thank you for all the gifts
that you've given us. Because every perfect gift
is from you. And some of them are not so perfect.
But everything we have is because you allow it.
And help us, Lord, to be good stewards of what
you've given. And I ask you, Lord, that you let
us do this in your service. In Jesus' name I
pray. Amen. You're awake now. This should be
a good song. I speak the name of Jesus over you.
In your hurting, in your sorrow, I will ask my
God to move. I speak the name because it's all
that I can do. In desperation, I'll seek help.
Thank you. So this is how this is going to go.
So I'm going to adjudicate the fight. When the
fight begins, I'm going to give this sword to
you. And you're going to fight Jason. And if
by some chance you should defeat Jason, then
Josh, you'll go next. So if she defeats you,
you have to give the sword to Josh. I only brought
two swords. So this is the sword that you're
going to use to defeat Jason. Jason, you're going
to fight fair? You're going to fight fair, right?
Okay. Okay. All right. Well, that's one down.
Okay. Back to Josh. Here you go. Okay, Josh.
All right. So as the fight begins, I'm going
to give you this sword. Okay. And if you manage
to defeat Josh, then you're going to have to
defeat Tommy. You understand how this is? Okay.
You got this figured out? Okay. I'm sorry. It
appears there's no one to resist. Tommy, you're
up, man. Okay. So as the fight begins, I'm going
to give you this sword, and then you're going
to have to fight. I want you to understand, Tommy
has beaten me in sword fighting on many an occasion,
and even left me bruised and battered. So I'm
going to give you this sword, and you're going
to fight Tommy. Okay. Okay. All right? Are you
ready? Okay. Oh, look! The winner! The winner!
Okay, thank you, gentlemen. Thank you so much.
All right? Very good, gentlemen. Thank you. Yes,
indeed. Okay. Bear that in mind then as you go
to the text today. I think you can kind of already
begin to see some of the truth in that little
display for us. We've been working through the
book of Judges. We do tend to give a little who
to holler amen, or if we had Tyson in here, we
could get ourselves quite a hallelujah. But we're
going to go to Judges chapter 7. Amen. That is
not good enough. I will not go to Judges chapter
7. So limited excitement. I want you to take
a breath and give me an amen, a hallelujah. Somebody
say Yahtzee. Like a Yahtzee, right? Judges chapter
7. Okay, I'll settle for that, but we're going
to work on it, okay? So Judges chapter 7 is the
story of Gideon we had already begun, okay? So
not only have we already looked at Gideon, and
so if you want to get a little bit more about
Gideon, you're going to have to kind of go back
and read. I can't drill down too heavily on him
today because the Lord has really laid on my
heart something out of this text that we do need
to drill down on. So I would encourage you to
be kind of reading along, studying along with
us. Let these words of the Lord sort of sit in
your heart and ruminate and change us, that kind
of thing. But as we read today, it is important
to know that Gideon has been called of the Lord
to be one of the judges, or we've said maybe
more appropriately, Savior might be a better
word, rescuer of the kingdom of Israel in light
of the armies of Midian and the other eastern
tribes that have been coming and just like basically
taking everything they have. And now they are
there again. Gideon is called out. Now God has
reduced his army down to just 300 men. That's
a pretty scary thing with a massive army that
reaches as far as the eye can see with camels
and warriors galore. And yet he is asked by God
to go and fight this massive army. In verse 8
of Judges chapter 7, it begins like this. It
says, so 300 men took the people's provisions
and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon
sent all the men of Israel, all the other men
of Israel, each to his tent. But retained the
300 men, and the camp of Midian was below him
in the valley. Verse 9 says, Now the same night
it came about that the Lord said to him, Arise,
go down against the camp, for I have given it
into your hands. So God is telling him, you're
going to go now. I've given you the victory.
Verse 10 says, But if you are afraid to go down,
go with Purah, your servant, down to the camp.
And you will hear what they say. And afterward,
your hands will be strengthened that you may
go down against the camp. So he went with Purah,
his servant, down to the outposts of the army
that was in the camp. Now the Midianites and
the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were
lying in the valley as numerous as locusts. And
their camels were without number. As numerous
as the sand on the seashore. So I submit to you,
what Gideon sees before him is what was probably
already a completely undefeatable enemy. Even
if he had maintained the 22 ,000 soldiers. But
God has reduced him now to 300. And so he sees
before him an army that will surely be the undoing,
not only of his army, but of the entire nation
of Israel. And they will run to the hills and
hide in the caves in their fortified... Fortresses
that they've built in the caves the best they
can up in the mountains. Again, that's what they've
done season after season, time after time, against
forces like this. Now, Gideon and his 300 -man
army, God is saying, will defeat this massive
army of Midianites, Amalekites, and the sons
of the east. When Gideon came, behold, a man
was relating a dream to his friend. And he said,
behold, I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread
was tumbling into the camp of Midian. So a loaf
of barley bread would be this kind of like, almost
like a football, kind of a round thing like this,
oval shape. It's a low -grade bread. It's not
the kind of bread that most people would want
to eat or make French toast out of or anything
like that. Mostly it would be used to feed animals
and stuff. But if it's all you got, obviously
you'd eat it. It's a pretty low -grade bread.
And so it was looked down upon, if you will.
And the dream of the man, he says, was that a
loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp
of Midian. And it, that is the loaf, came to
the tent. Could be a reference to the command
tent, but a tent in his dream in any case. And
struck it so that it fell. So the bread tumbles
into the camp, strikes the tent, and the tent
falls down. And, it says, and turned it upside
down so that the tent lay flat. So this bread
comes down. Not only does it maybe hit a main
post and the thing collapses or breaks some wires
and it falls down, but it hits the tent, it strikes
the tent, and the tent is literally flipped upside
down and lies flat on the ground, completely
destroyed in structure. 14 says, and his friend
answered and said, this is the guy, remember
the guy telling the dream is talking with one
of his friends, and his friend then answers and
said about the dream. This is nothing less than
the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man
of Israel. God has given Midian and all the camp
into his hand. So this is one of the Midianites
interpreting the dream of another one of the
Midianites, and Gideon is listening on. And it
came about when Gideon heard the account of the
dream and its interpretation that he bowed in
worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and
said, Arise, for the Lord has given the camp
of Midian into your hands. May God add blessings
to the reading of his word. There's a few things
I want you to see in this text that really jumped
out at me. The first one resonates with me as
a person. And that is that even in the midst
of God doing amazing things in his past, remember,
there was a fleece. There was a testing of the
army that limited the army from 22 ,000 down
to 300. There was a call to go and burn. The
Asherah pole burned and removed the worship of
Baal in his hometown and his dad stood up for
him and God preserved him. There was all of that
in his past. He's already seen God do amazing
things. And even though he had seen God do amazing
things, Gideon's fear was justifiable. There
is a justifiable fear. It arises sometimes out
of what we know. This is a massive army. And
here we have this little army that God has given
us. Sometimes it arises out of what we don't
know. Like, God said he's going to do this, but
how? How does 300 men, if they kill one man with
every swing of the sword, if one guy goes down,
they're going to be hacking at this army for
hours, maybe a day or more, just to cut them
all down. So how can this be done? Sometimes
our fear arises out of what we know, and sometimes
it arises out of what we don't know. But according
to the Bible, according to the teachings of our
Lord Jesus Christ, faith stands opposite that
fear. The fear is justifiable, but trusting God
defeats that fear, removes that fear, overcomes
that fear. We can't have faith in what we already
know. If God had called up an army of 100 ,000
Israelites and then called Gideon to go against
an army of innumerable Midianites, then he would
have been like, hmm. Maybe we can do it. Surely
we can probably do it, right? Especially with
God's help a little bit here and there, kind
of fix things up a little bit, brush it up a
bit. We can take that army. There's 100 ,000
of them. We might be able to do it. With 22 ,000,
we're told that if they had done it with 22 ,000,
they might have thought, well, we were pretty
victorious. We did some pretty incredible things.
We did really step up, right? But the truth is,
that's not what God wanted. God wanted faith
in that which had not yet been seen. That's what
God has been calling his people to since the
beginning. Do you know, do you realize that the
Midianites are fostered from a man named Midian?
Does anybody know who he was? He was a son of
Abraham. Abraham is the one who had the Genesis
12 promises that says, out of you I will raise
a great nation. And he did. Israel. But also
he did. Midian. And so, Gideon knows his history.
He knows what God has done. He knows that God
has blessed Abraham and Abraham's descendants.
So this is a battle, a warfare, if you will,
between two nations arising out of Abraham. Both
could possibly have received the promises of
Abraham. So it makes a lot of sense for Gideon
to go, I don't know. I'm not so sure. And then
a fleece and a fleece. And I'm still, I... Yes,
God has done miraculous things. Yes, God has
made promises. Yes, God is capable. But will
he do it? It's justifiable fear. Sometimes that
justifiable fear arises out of the things that
we know, and sometimes it arises out of the things
that we don't know. But it's justifiable nonetheless.
Faith is believing in what we haven't yet necessarily
seen. It is the great struggle of mankind. We
got more pouring into our eyes and ears and our
taste buds and our flesh. More thoughts in our
head and more yearning of our body. There's more
of that than there is the simple testimony of
the Lord to be observed. What do you need to
know about Jesus to be saved? That he died on
the cross, he rose again on the third day, that
he has a right to be Lord of your life and you're
believing and receiving what he said? That's
about it. That's pretty fast. I just gave it
to you in your eyes and ears for, you know, it
took like less than 30 seconds. And yet the world
is testifying all the time, the people, the enemies
of God are testifying all the time to an alternative
to that. If you watch TV for four hours, you're
going to get more content in your brain than
I can give you in the next 25 minutes or so.
It's just not... That's not how it works. There
is much to be seen and heard in this world, much
to be known, and we can be burdened by it. We
can be affected by it. We can even be changed
by it. But God says, your justifiable fear, okay,
it's justifiable, but I'm calling you to faith.
God called Gideon to believe despite the numbers
that he could see. And he called Gideon to believe
despite the numbers that he could see because
it was hard. Not because it was easy, but because
it was hard. He called Gideon to do a hard thing,
to believe despite the numbers. God is calling
us to believe despite what you see in the world.
Despite the very concerted attempts of evil to
redefine even the most simplest concepts of Christianity,
of godliness, of faithfulness, of kingdom, even
the words that you have used your entire life
are being redefined in society right now to mean
something that you don't agree with that they
mean, God nonetheless is calling you to trust
in his promises despite your justifiable fear.
The second thing to see in the text then is that
out of that, out of that between us seeing what
we could rightly be afraid of and us knowing,
believing what we know will be God's intervention
on our behalf comes God's agents emboldened to
see the impossible happen. That's who we are.
It's what we are. The church is God's people
drawn out of the darkness, lifted out of slavery,
raised to be right with God, not in our own righteousness,
but in the righteousness imputed to us by Jesus
Christ. We are the people that God is emboldening
to make the impossible happen. I have lost count
of the number of times that I have personally
stared in the eyes of a person affected by an
evil spirit or a demon and rebuked that evil
spirit or demon to give them the freedom that
they needed to follow Christ if they so chose.
And on many an occasion they did do that. God's
agents emboldened. I told one man he wanted me
to testify and witness with his wife and I'm
sitting there and every time I would start he
would chime in and say, see I told you so, see
I told you so, see I told you so. And finally
the Holy Spirit led me and said, And I said to
him, I said, look, I'm here. I'm talking to your
wife. Just shut up. Don't say another word. You're
not helping. You've been working on this for
months or years, and you're making it worse,
not better. Just sit there and be quiet. And
for 40 minutes, he didn't say another word. I
don't know if he wanted to. He never told me
later that he wanted to. But he never said another
word. And at the end of it, she accepted Jesus
Christ as her Lord and Savior and has lived for
Jesus to my knowledge ever since. People are
receiving plenty of stimuli. Let me be this clear
with you. If it isn't the gospel and it isn't
Bible, people don't need you to say a word to
them in order to receive and believe Jesus Christ.
What they really need you to do is to shut up
and stop saying all that other stuff and let's
get around to talking about the stuff that matters.
We are God's agents, emboldened to see the impossible
happen, souls saved, churches started, the gospel
testified to, giving, serving, going the extra
mile, faithfulness beyond what we even think
we're capable of. But we are fighting a battle
in enemy territory. Now I understand, and we'll
get there in a second, that Jesus Christ has
already conquered the earth. I get that. But
the enemy who was conquered, who had his weapon
death stolen from him, who was defeated by Jesus'
resurrection and the coming, starting of the
church and the arrival of God's Holy Spirit,
the one who was defeated, still exists. He still
resists. He still rebels. He's still there. And
I know, In you, the same as in me. In fact, there's
a great line from a movie, the Lord of the Rings
movie written by Tolkien. The book was written
by Tolkien, made into a movie where the king
now, the new king stands up and he says, I see
in your eyes the very fear that would grip the
heart of me. We have a justifiable fear. You're
wondering what will happen with your family,
your friends. You're wondering what will happen
with your finances, with your health. You're
wondering what will happen if you just make your
whole life about living for Jesus. What will
actually happen? If you really step out, let
it all go behind, just the way the Bible says
happens when you actually got saved. If you really
do that, what will that look like? Will people
desert you? Spoiler, yes. Will the world hate
you? Spoiler alert, yes. Jesus said, if you walk
with me, they will deny you, they will hate you,
just the same as they denied me and hated me.
It's really just a question of, are you going
to be emboldened by the faith versus fear victory
of faith? Are you going to allow God at work
in your life as he has done? He's done things
to bolster your faith to this point. Are you
going to allow that to be sufficient to set you
on fire, to give you passion, to give you strength,
to empower you in your own weakness, to do the
things that God has led you to do that otherwise
you just wouldn't be able to do? You just aren't.
You look at it and go, I know what I can lift.
And you know how many times in the last month
I've lifted more than I can lift? It's just become
a common thing. I know what I can do as far as
my, I'm an inhibited individual in my flesh.
I cannot preach. There is no physical way that
I can do this. Before I got saved, I couldn't
even order my sandwich without mayonnaise. Because
I was afraid of what a minimum wage worker behind
the counter would think of me ordering my sandwich
without mayonnaise. So I would order it just
the way it comes and scrape the mayonnaise off
because I hated mayonnaise. Now I'm standing
up in front of you. And yesterday out in front
of 300 people, perfect strangers, half of them,
preaching the gospel. I can't do this. It is
impossible. And yet, God is the God of the impossible.
If you will allow the friction between your justifiable
fear and the faith that God is calling you to,
to have the effect that it is intended to, you
will become God's agent, emboldened to see the
impossible happen. It's great that we get to
see God already at work. It's wonderful that
we can account miracles. And if you won't believe
in Him because of what He has done for you, then
at least believe in Him because of the miracles.
What does that sound like? Yes, it's great to
look back at God's, the story that He has written
in your life. But the truth is, the faith versus
fear battle that's going on in you is to have
the purpose of making you bold. Beyond the possible.
God does not want you to do what's possible.
You were not born to do what was easy. After
Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, he beat
the ground into submission. And there are 289
,000 people living in the city of Toledo that
could directly attribute, mind you, after thousands
of years, their success in building cars or selling
fast food to Adam. And his hoe growing crops
in dirt that resisted him every single day. He
did the impossible. And people have been doing
the impossible from the beginning. Because that's
what God made us. We were not made to do the
easy thing. We were made to find our identity.
In faith overcoming fear. Ecclesiastes 1, 18
through 20, Solomon talks about how there's a
lot of knowledge in the world. There's a lot
of wisdom to be found. There's a lot of good
things to be found in the world. Then he says,
but the truth is, the more of that you find,
the more vanity it is, the more struggle it is.
You could go right now, you could go right now
and spend five minutes a day for the next five
years reading on any topic or practicing or whatever,
and you could become an expert better than 96
% of the people in that topic. So let's say you
wanted to know about the stars. Spend five minutes
a day for the next five years reading about the
stars. By the time you're done, you will know
more about the stars than 96 % of the people
in the world. You could pick any topic. You can
take a musical instrument and play it for five
minutes a day for the next five years, and by
the time you're done, you'll be proficient. Some
days your fingers will bleed, but you'll be proficient.
I can't do that because I can't bring myself
to do it, and God has not called me to do it.
But I can preach the gospel. I can serve. I can
lift things that I shouldn't be able to lift.
I can do work that I shouldn't be able to do
because I am responding to God in faith. And
he says, do it. and we do it. God's agents emboldened
to see the impossible happen. And notice the
response of Gideon when he realized that he is
being emboldened. It's not that he sees an army
that's too big for his army, and he now suddenly
realizes that he's going to win. Right? He didn't
have to go down and listen to that to know he
was going to win. All he had to do was start
the attack. Right? God said, if you're afraid,
Go down and listen, and what you hear will show
you you have no reason to be afraid, that your
fear, while justifiable, is defeated in the coming
victory. And that's what he did. So he praised
God because he realized God was making him bold.
That God was taking away his fear. That God was
making him able to do the impossible. Not just
that he was going to defeat a huge army with
only 300 men, but that he could even take the
first step. Sometimes it's hard to even take
the first step to do the right thing. Some of
you are here in church today, first time in a
long time, and it took a bit, right? It was something
to get there, to take that first step. So you
should be feeling right now, understanding that
God is making you bold to do more. than what
you ever thought you could do in the kingdom
and at large. And that's a reason to praise.
That's a reason to praise the God of the universe.
To put things behind that you never could have
put behind. To win victories that you never could
have won. And if it stopped there, that would
be awesome. We could live that. That would be
great. But there's another key thing to notice
in this text. And that is that what we are talking
about is nothing short of the total upheaval
of the enemy. The total upheaval of the enemy.
Now, if there's a set of reasons that bring about
justifiable fear, the enemy is one of those.
Let's be realistic, right? The wicked works of
the world, that's part of the enemy. Evil spirits
and demons, that's kind of scary stuff, right?
The devil himself. Now, odds are you and I'll
never face the devil personally, but rather face
his schemes. But facing him personally, one -on
-one in a room, that's kind of a scary thing.
I mean, that's a justifiable fear. He's an ancient
being that knows God's word better than we do.
You'd probably lose in a word battle with him,
most likely. He's not really capable of us physically
killing him. He's an eternal being. He'll spend
eternity in hell burning, proof positive, eternal
being. And so if we ever faced him personally,
that'd be a justifiable fear, wouldn't it? And
if you continue to resist his efforts, probably
his efforts are going to, you know, kind of spiral
up against you. Things are going to get kind
of bad. And so there's a justifiable fear in
thinking about this enemy. But in the text we
see, God is showing Gideon that he's not only
going to give Gideon victory. Because, you know,
there could have been a victory. 300 men go down.
Three men survive. But they kill 30 ,000 Midianites
and the Midianites are routed. That's a victory,
is it not? I mean, would not everybody give God
the glory for 297 men who died, three men survived,
one being Gideon probably, you know, to be a
total victory. And then the rest of the army
is routed and they kill them just like they are
going to do later in the story. Would that still
be a huge victory and an obvious outcry for God?
We say, God did an amazing thing, 297 to 40 ,000.
There were battles in the Civil War, for example,
where 150 died on one side and say 800 died on
the other. They went, huge victory. Right? This
would be like they would kill a thousand or five
thousand men apiece. That would be a huge victory.
But that's not what the dream says. The dream
says that God is providing a total upheaval of
the enemy. Notice it didn't just knock down the
tent. Not just a victory. But it flipped the
tent over and laid it flat. It destroyed the
assembly of the tent. God did not come to open
our eyes to count camels or our ears to hear
the battle cries or for us to win simple victories
over greater numbers. God didn't even come for
us to hear the enemy's death cries. Right? To
think, wow, what an incredible number that is.
No. God came for us to see that He has already
provided A complete upheaval of the enemy. That's
the message to Gideon, is it not? I've already
done this. See, even the Midianite knew that
God had already provided a complete upheaval
of the enemy. He had knocked them down flat and
flipped them over so that it wasn't 297 to die
versus 40 ,000. It was zero. He was going to
give them a complete and utter victory. That
brings us then to our conclusion already. And
it is beginning with this thought. The devil
knows the word, and so he knows the time will
come. There's a great moment where Jesus is casting
out demons in the New Testament, and the demon
says, basically calls him by name, recognizes
him as Jesus, and he says, have you come to torment
us before the day? And Jesus says, no, but, and
he casts him out. The devil, the demons, the
evil spirits, all of those that have enough intelligence
to understand what's going on, know that they
will eventually face the ultimate eternal judgment
and spend the rest of their existence in a fiery
hell. The enemy's death throes have no eternal
significance to us. The fact that he's trying
to redefine words, the fact that he's trying
to tempt souls away, the fact that there is a
doctrine of demons by which they warp the truth
about Jesus, and in the end, many will walk away
from faith in Jesus and follow a Jesus of their
own design, essentially, or a Jesus of demons'
design, if you will. Even though that is true,
The death throes of the enemy have no eternal
significance. They can't actually take anyone
that doesn't want to be taken because there is
that lifeline that is Jesus always available.
But what they actually do is they offer an alternative.
And God is asking you to choose a side. Now I'm
going to give you a point here in this next point
in the conclusion. And I'm going to ask you to
commit right now to not leave the room under
any circumstances before I finish this thought.
It will only take me about two or three minutes.
But I want you to hear the whole thing. So if
you've got to go to the bathroom right now, don't
go. Hold it. Here we go. You cannot defeat the
enemy. Now that is the opposite of what a lot
of Christian pastors, teachers, preachers will
tell you out there. I understand that. And I'm
going to explain why this is true. You cannot
defeat the enemy because... The sides are thus.
The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God
the Holy Spirit. The faithful, those who are
following the Lord as they actually have professed
to be Christians, actually are following God.
New Heights, our church. Angels, the servants
of the Lord who did not rebel against him. And
kingdom values. And you might add a little more
to that list, but the bottom line is those who
respond in faithfulness to the God of heaven,
that's one side. And God is asking you to choose
that side. At the same time, there is the devil,
demons, evil spirits, sinful desires, the world
system, wicked men. Facing that by yourself,
if you would face an evil spirit without Christ,
you would be defeated. If you would face your
own sin, most of us have, right? Faced our own
sinful desires without relying on Jesus and already
been defeated. Most of us have already done that,
right? So we know that to be true. If you would
face the world system and go out in the world
and try to make your way in the world system,
you would be... You just did the exact opposite
of what I said. You're going to hear the rest
of this point later, son. Okay. You would be
easily defeated, but as part of God's plan. You
understand? If we stand without God, we face
the wrath of God, part of which is those very
things that I just named. Submission to, defeat
by, devil, demons, evil spirits, sinful desires,
the world system. We can't overcome. It's impossible
without the intervention of the Lord. But if
we will walk in God's kingdom, if we walk as
part of the church, we'll walk in the family,
you will win. Ultimately, you will win. And the
upheaval of the enemy will be complete. But it
will not be because you defeated the enemy. You
cannot defeat the enemy, here it is, because
God has already defeated him. There is no more
defeat to be delivered. There is no more victory
to be won. You need only join the winning side.
The time has already run out on the clock. The
score is already decided. The victimization of
the enemy is complete. The barley bread has already
rolled. upside down. We are victorious in Christ,
not because we do better, not because we are
better, not because we overcome or resist the
temptation of the devil, but you cannot defeat
the devil because it has already been done. God
already did it. And people get out of bed in
the morning and say, I'm going to win over the
devil today. And they decide to do it, and your
decision is worthless! Unless your decision is
actually to join the winning side. Jesus going
to the cross, begging God, if there is another
way, let this cup of wrath move away from me.
Let me not have to go through with this. But
he knew that the crucifixion was the way that
God had planned. He's praying that for that very
reason, right? But in the end, He doesn't stay
and beg until he just dies or until they come
to arrest him. In the end, he says, your will,
not my will, be done. Mary says, such as you
would, do unto your maidservant. And you can
find them all over the Bible as people say, okay,
God, whatever you say, God, I'm with you, God.
I'm on your side, God. And that's what it takes
to win the victory. And if you get out of bed
tomorrow morning and you fight the devil with
the Bible without God in you and on your side,
you will lose. In fact, you'll think you're fighting
him when in reality you'll be fighting for him.
You cannot defeat the enemy because it's already
been done. A couple of illustrations. The first
one is about trappings. Years ago, I used to
run a role -playing game called Warhammer. I
still run role -playing games. Now it's part
of the Christian Games Team Ministry of the Church.
But we haven't played that game in a long time.
And in that game, you would move from profession
to profession, job to job. And as you move from
job to job, you would get the trappings of that
job. So like if you were a furrier trapper guy,
then you would have furs and traps and things
to make snares and whatever. people in that job
need, right? And you would have the trappings.
And then when you get done with that job, you
move on to another job and get the trappings
of the next job and whatever you picked up along
the way. So you get the new trappings and whatever
you picked up along the way. Well, this is the
way life is. There are trappings of life. Whatever
you're doing currently is giving you the trappings
of whatever you're doing currently. So for example,
if you're watching about four hours a day of
TV, you're picking up a whole bunch of fiction
stories and things and interaction. may or may
not be realistic. You might think that right
around the corner is a guy, you know, waiting
to mass murder you and your family. You might
be walking down the street thinking that you
literally can't walk anywhere safe in America,
which is not true. You know, you have all these
ideas that are being pressed on you, right? You
have redefinition of marriage, relationship,
teachings about political things, and it's all
done very subtly, but you're getting it. That's
a trapping of the choice that you're making,
okay? Life is not about trappings, because when
you're done, All of that is gone. You're going
to die one day and then face God for the judgment.
It says it is appointed once for the man to die
and then the judgment, right? So once we'll stand
in front of God and God is going to judge you.
And he's not going to judge you based on how
many trappings you had. Hear me now. Let me say
this very simply. He's not even going to judge
you on how much you knew. If you could quote
the whole Bible from Genesis 1 to the end of
Revelation and you memorized the whole thing
and could quote it all and you show up in front
of God, And you say, God, I memorized the whole
Bible. And God says, yeah, but did you accept
Jesus Christ your Lord? Were you living for Jesus?
Was your life about Jesus? I know it was not.
I'm only asking you to show that if you memorized
the whole Bible, you clearly did not understand
the intent of the Bible because the whole Bible
is about living for Jesus. So you memorized the
whole thing. So if anything, I can judge you
all the more harshly because you knew what was
there. You gained all that knowledge and no relationship
with the one who could actually save you. You
chose to join the wrong side. You joined the
side that knows the Bible well and does not know
my son. Which side is that again, by the way?
That would be the side that the devil's on. That
would be the side that evil spirits are on. That
would be the side that the demon's on, the wicked
of this world, the selfish desires of this world,
and so on. You chose to join that side, the side
that knows but still does what they want to do.
Trappings. You're gaining trappings of this life,
and so here's what I suggest you do. Whatever
trappings you get, you submit them into the use
of the Lord. If you got something, and it isn't
God's to use the way God sees fit, you may have
a problem. You might be on the wrong side. Second
illustration, we live in a day of updates, downloads,
and refinements. Today, your cell phone will
get updated in its software, and tomorrow, You
may go to push a button and that button may not
be there anymore. You have no control over that.
They just update your phone via Wi -Fi or on
the cell. So just walking down the road. One
day I was doing that. I'm like, look at my phone.
Like, I don't even know how to do it. Last two,
two, three weeks ago, I went to Meyers to buy
groceries. And there's that little button that
you push with the Mperks button. And you put
in the number, the phone number that you use
for Mperks. And then you put in your pin over
on the little side pad. Well, they moved that
number up at the top on the banner. And I'm standing
there for like a whole two minutes. I'm looking
at this thing. I'm going like. How do I put in
my Mperks number? I can't figure it out because
they moved it. It just looks like a banner now,
and it says, you know, enter, or it says alternative
ID, right? Because they, believe it or not, some
people have cards. They got an Mperks card. I
didn't even know that was a thing. So you push
the button, and you put your Mperks number in
or whatever. Whatever it says. The point is,
they moved it. I couldn't find it. For two minutes,
I couldn't ring up my groceries because I wanted
to make sure I get my points. You know what I'm
saying? The whole world is updating. The whole
world is refining. The whole world is receiving
downloads and all knowing better. When I was
a young kid, for example, there was two nurses
from the doctor's office that came to my fourth
grade class. I had never in my life done a good
job of brushing my teeth until fourth grade.
And they showed us how to brush our teeth. Circles.
So that the brushes go just gently across your
gums and pull out whatever is there. Circles.
And they said, you should brush your teeth after
you eat because you don't have that food on there.
Some people, and I said, well, could you brush
your teeth three times a day? After breakfast,
after lunch, after dinner? And she's like, well,
I mean, you could, but it's kind of overkill.
It might not be good for your teeth to brush
that much. Just brush them in the morning after
breakfast. Brush them at night before you go
to bed. Especially at night before you go to
bed because you're not going to eat anything
overnight. So it would be a perfectly good time
to have nothing on your teeth and they can kind
of recover and blah, blah, blah. Did you know
that current science says that one of the worst
things that you can do for your teeth is to brush
after you eat? So from fourth grade to twelfth
grade, I brushed after I ate my breakfast every
single morning. And then I got a bunch of cavities,
and the dentist told me it was because I drank
a lot of juice, and juice sits between your teeth,
and I wasn't flossing. But also, I know now,
it was also because I brushed my teeth after
I ate every time. You're supposed to brush before
you eat, not after. Because if you eat after,
then it messes with the enamel on your teeth.
The brush will actually take off some of the
enamel on your teeth. Science is changing all
the time. What's healthy is changing all the
time. I went to the doctor's office. When I turned
50, she said, I want you to take a tiny baby
aspirin every day. Be good for your heart. I
never could do it. I mean, like, to remember
to take a tiny baby aspirin every day, I probably
took about 50 a year, you know. And then I went
in when I was at this last appointment at 55
years old. She said, are you taking that baby
aspirin every day like I told you? And I said,
well, the truth is... No, I never really could
do that. She said, okay, good, don't. The what?
She said, don't. The new science is now indicated
for men over 50 to only take that baby ice cream
every day if you have an ongoing heart condition.
Otherwise, you should not. They've determined
it's bad for you. Shall I go on? The world is
being updated constantly. The truth is being
updated constantly in the world. But here is
the reality. If we delve into his word to know
him better, we have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians
2. She was saying, she was just reading that
last night. Yep. And we are victorious if for
no other reason than that, Jesus is with us.
It's not a set of rules, guidelines, changing,
updating. People come in and say, oh, you say
that about the gospel, but let me tell you a
little better how to know. A little better. And
the Bible says, we no longer really need that.
If you know Christ in person, he'll take care
of you. So what we are doing here, allowing the
word to infect our thoughts, to alter, redirect
our efforts. We are doing that, knowing Him better,
allowing Him more to use faith to overcome fear.
There is no more refinement of the truth. There
is no more knowledge that saves. Rather, there
is a steady, progressive reveal of our victory
and the losses of the enemy as declared by the
living God, and there is no refinement of the
original, but a simple testimony and an exposing
of the truth. You can't defeat the enemy. It's
already done. If you are here today and you have
been trying to defeat the enemy, now this includes
your sin and temptation. Right? That's part of
the enemy. On the enemy's side is your sin and
temptation. If you are here today and you are
trying to defeat the enemy, beating yourself
up all the time about what you're doing wrong,
you can't defeat the enemy. It's already done.
What you have to do is believe it, to receive
it, to claim it, to walk it, to live it, and
to let everything else fall away. That's what
we're called to as Christians. One last illustration.
Sometimes we think the gospel is like this, a
really long spoon that can stir the very bottom
of the pot where everything has settled. They
make Kool -Aid or soup and all the stuff sitting
on the bottom. You're like, where's that long
spoon? I don't put my hand in the boiling hot
or I don't put my hand in the Kool -Aid. I need
that long spoon so I can stir the bottom. And
we think the gospel is like that. We come to
church or we talk about it in our homes or we
read our Bible thinking the gospel is like that,
a really long spoon that stirs the bottom. No,
the gospel is what made. The top and the bottom
and the middle and the spoon, all possible. You
can't defeat the enemy. He is already defeated.
I'm asking you today to realize that as you have
partaked in your sin, you have adjusted to justifiable
fear. You thought, well, I can't step out. For
God, I can't really truly just be on fire for
the Lord, just do what God wants me to do. I
can't go to church every Sunday, can't worship
God in a world where they say, well, you really
don't have to do that anymore. I can't give or
serve or go the extra mile in a world where they
say, you're just being abused, you don't have
to do that. I'm just waiting for people to do
what God says. But I'm not just waiting. I'm
a people that wants to do what God says. And
so I'm asking you to join my side. I think it's
my side. And if ever I'm on the wrong side, then
don't join my side. Join Jesus' side. Join the
church. Join the servants. Join the victors.
And let God show you that there are barley bread
rolling downhill and that kingdom of the enemy
that's already flipped over. Everything that
you think is the enemy winning some kind of victory
today, that's just him parking the camp. It's
just him stacking up an army. You know that in
the Bible revelation at the very end, it says
that after a thousand year reign of Jesus, that
God will let the enemy out again. And he'll come
out again and he'll raise a great army, a ton
of people will go away and walk and follow him.
And they'll believe in what he says rather than
what God says. I submit to you, God allows that
for one reason and one reason alone. Because
God wants you to know that your justifiable fear
and the faith that you're called to has one purpose.
And it is to embolden you as his people to do
the impossible. And the upheaval of the enemy
is already complete. If you're here today and
you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord
and Savior, you come in this room today and say,
I'm thinking about God. I might believe, I think
I might believe that what Jesus did was real.
I think I might need to follow him because of
what he did. But I'm saying to you, you head
better. Because you can't defeat the enemy. He's
already defeated you. You had better. Because
your fear is justifiable, and it isn't going
away. It's not going to end. You're a human.
Outside Christ, you will live in fear. Some days,
some parts of days, some very long periods of
time. Sometimes. Or, you can trust God. I let
him do the work that he already promised. The
sword of the Spirit belongs first to the Lord.
And with it, he did slay the enemy. And now he
has given it to you. So that by the time you
enter the fight, you already have the victory.
I ask the priest to come forward at this time
and lead us in our final hymn. And if the Lord
is somehow touching your heart to make a decision
today, then you do that. You can come to me at
the front and say, I'm choosing Jesus. I know
He has already chosen me. We don't really choose
Him. He chooses us. But I'm choosing Him back.
I want to follow Him. I want everything that's
in my life submitted to Him. And you do that
today. It might be you getting saved for the
first time. Or it might be you committing your
life to the Lord in earnest for the first time.
Or it might be you coming back to the Lord. It
might be you saying, I know just one thing that
God wants me to do. Start a ministry. Be baptized.
Join the church. Find a church, it's not this
one, but find the one that God is calling you
to. I hope it's this one, but where it might
be. If you know one thing that God wants you
to do, and you're committing to do that today,
then open your mouth and tell us what that is.
We'll pray for you, we'll support you, and we'll
claim the victory of the Lord as He has already
defeated the enemy. Would you stand with me and
sing this song? But if the Lord's moving in your
heart, and for you to move, then you just don't
sing, you just come. It's just us now. Some guy
like me.