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January 23, 2013 12:35 pm
Harvest messages are brought to you by harvest partners to receive free email daily devotions or to become a harvest partners, please visit us online@harvest.org this is a really interesting person working a look at the title of the message is a lot with a little I wanted to turn in your Bibles to judges chapter 6 Judges chapter 6. Let's start with the word of prayer. Now father as we open the word again. We believe it's true.
We know it's a Florida. We know that it will speak to us where we are at right now.
So Lord we want to hear what your word is saying to us, and I pray that this will be a message that will inspire people to want to serve you. I pray that it will encourage many who herein to want to say Lord use me so I pray that you'll bless this time as we look in your word for we ask it in Jesus name, amen. And I have to say that I think that our culture of the United States seems to be turned upside down right now it seems like in the perception of many that would was once considered good is now perceived as bad that which is once perceived as bad is now thought of as good. I think it's funny how you see certain slang expressions over the years in a long time ago there were expressions like G with orgy will occur are holy smokes or hunky-dory now though many people use those expressions anymore unless there pretty all you know horses hunky-dory Lord you will is enough. That's kind of of another generation that my generation out expressions like far out man or wound that's really heavy right and then as we move forward we have expressions like oh totally tubular.
Did anyone ever really say that for holy cow within it's funny how certain expressions have always think current one word that was used in the 50s that still use today is the word cool that's cool that's really cool and a lot of people still use the word cool but then another word that is popular is high. That is so hot that's really cool. And yet, something can be cool and hot at the same time right will figure that out and then if something is really goal or super odd. We think that is right you know if you have a fast car.
How fast is that bad boy go.
You don't say how fast is that good boy.
Go right.
That's because good is bad now and dad is good and David's really bad or good, we might say all that thing is wicked and we mean that in a positive way, not in a negative way for we might even insert the word killer okay and then if it's really great killer good bad we say that thing is insists this is all getting very confusing.
Good is bad. Really good as killer and/or wicked and really, really good is now the old days of someone was doing something immoral, we might say that that you know I have someone was living with a girl or a guy in front of other gods that interviewer married.
All that's good. Nowadays, of course, that's all turned upside down and if you think marriage is between a man and a woman all that's Right That's Narrow You Can't Believe That and so Everything Turned around Will Bring This up Because God Says This about That Mentality.
Isaiah 520 Disruption Is Certain. For Those That See Evil Is Good and Good Is Evil That Dark Is Light and Lighted Start in the Bittersweet and Sweet Is Better Constructed a Certain for Those That Think This Way. So God Says Look I'm Telling You What Good Is That If You Want to Call It That I Wanted to Find What Good Is It If You Say What I Say Is Good Is Bad Then You're Wrong. Okay Now I Bring That up Because Here in the Book of Judges. Everything Was Upside down.
Then, Much like It Is Now That Judges 17, Six Is a Verse That Shows Us How and Why This Happened Instead in Those Days Israel Had No King and the People Did What Ever Seemed Right in Their Own by It. We Were Updated. Everyone Was Kind of Doing Their Own Thing.
Everybody Had Their Own Truth That You Will and so One Might Say Hey Man Your Truth Is That Mike's Truth and That I Live by My Value System. You Can Live by Your Value System. Unless of Course It Encroaches on My Value System. Everyone Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes so God Raised up 13 Judges to Provide Leadership for the People Normally Think of Judges We Think of Judges We Would See in a Courtroom Today or Maybe a Supreme Court Judge. But That's Not the Way Judges Were Back in These Days. These Guys Were like, You Know, the, the Officers of the Law and the Wild West.
There Were like Lawn. Then Think of Wyatt Firm That Was What It Judge What Because a Judge Would Be a Warrior, a Judge Would Enforce Things Not Just Give Ruling so 13 Judges That Were Raised up 13 Men and One Woman. Now As We Come to the Beginning of the Book of Judges. It's Sort of Sad Because Remember up Prior to Judges Is the Book of Joshua and Is the Book of Joshua Begins Moses Is Died and Joshua Is Emerging As a Leader and He Did a Really Great Job but Now Is the Book of Judges Begins Things Have Gone Downhill of the Book of Joshua Is a Book of Conquest, the Book of Judges Is Primarily about the Fee.
Joshua Is a Book of Faith While Judges Is a Book of Unbelief and Disobedience. Joshua Is about People Uniting around One Men Believe That It Was Joshua Judges Is about Everyone Doing What Was Right in Their Own Eyes so Would See Here 1256 BC Approximately 200 Years Have Passed since Joshua Led the Israelites on Their Famous March around the Walls of Jericho by God's Power. As You Recall, Israel Saw the Walls Fall and They Conquered Many of the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, Including the Amorites and Hittites, the Army Knife the Jebusites.
The Parasites All the Sites but They Didn't Finish the Job That Was a Problem. They Did Not Finish the Job They Did Not Drive All the Canaanites from the Land and They Lived to Regret It. I Bring This up Because This Can Happen to Us As Christians As Well, and We Commit Our Lives to Christ, We Effectively Give Them the Master Key to Every Door in Our Life Will Maybe Not Every Door We Leave A Few Closets Locked up Because We Have Some Skeletons in Them. We Have Some Areas We Don't Really Turn over to the Lord and Then Those Little Problems Turn Later in the Big Problems Is Not Unlike Having a Tree That's Overtaking Your Yard so You Decide It's Time to Remove It so You Cut It down so You Can Just Cut It down. You Gotta Pull out the Stump You See, Because It Will Grow at Back in a Might Even Grow Back Stronger Next Time and Cause More Trouble in the Same Way Sin Needs to Be Rooted out and You're Likely to Compromise a Little Here and a Compromise a Little There Little Things Turn into Big Things. We Forget That It's Sort of like at Easter People Glutton by Cute Little Bunny There so Adorable. But They Forget That Bunnies Turn Indo Rabbit and They Poop Everywhere, or You by Little Chick That's Nice Little Chip, and Then They Turn into a Chicken Who Wanted Chicken for a Pet so We Take These Little Things That Turn in the Big Things in That Cell. Sin Can Work in Our Lives. And That's I Was Working in Their Lives to 200 Years Later the Canaanites against Frank and Begin to Dominate the Israelites Oak Here Is Israel Conquered This Land, the Land of Canaan under the Direction of Joshua 200 Years of past the Tables Are Turned. Now Their Enemies Are Overtaking Them in His Judges Chapter 6 Opens, We See the Israelites Living under the Power of a Group Known As the Midianites. This Was a Result of God Disciplining Them. Why Because They Had Disobeyed Him They Did Evil in the Sight of the Lord. So Were Told That God Turn Them over to the Midianites, so This Was Punishment for Their Sin.
Can God Ever Use an Nonbelieving Nation to Overtake a Believing Nation Is a Form of Punishment.
The Answer to That Is Yes and That Should Stand As a Warning to Us in Our Country If We Continue to Thumb Our Nose at God, and We Continued to Break His Laws Left and Right, and We Continue to Go Out Of Our Way to Remove Him in Every Way. We Should Never Think That We Could Not Be Overtaken by Another Nation a Godless Nation If You Will. We Want to Turn to the Lord. That's What Israel Forgot to Do.
Now Here's an Interesting Little Footnote about the Midianites. They Were the First in History to Domesticate the Camo. This Gave Them a Huge Advantage Militarily. Maybe Have You Ever Checked out Account a Good Definition of a Camel Is a Camel Is a Horse Designed by a Committee. Units Are like Subcommittees Never Can Agree Anyway Tells a Weird Looking Creatures. I Spent A Lot Of Time with Them, but When I Bent over and Israel. You'll See Them Here and There and Get Pictures on Them. Another Camel Stands up, but There Explains There They'll Spinach You That They're Hard to Figure out and so Imagine What That Would Be like Here You Are Used To Fighting in Hand-To-Hand Combat and All of Us in Your Enemy Comes over the Elf Writing on Channel Juno That Length of the Israelites Are Dealing with and Then They Would Make a Little Progress, and They Would Be Harvesting Their Crops in the Midianites Would Come over the Hill and Their Camels and They Would Take Everything That the Israelites Said Don They Would Take Their Crops and Take Away Their Things That They Own and Such and so Israel Was in Despair at This Point Heather Calling out to God They're Saying, Lord, Help Us Deliver Us and the Lord Decides to Answer Their Prayer the Most Unexpected Person Possible. His Name Was Gideon. There's a Story Begins, We Find Gideon Trying to Prepare the Little Weedy at Hiding behind the Walls of a Small Wine Press.
Hardly a Picture of Heroism. Encourage He Was like the Rest of Israel.
He Was Hungry. He Was Hurting. He Was Humiliated and He Was Great, but in the Story of Gideon Working to Find the Kind of Qualities That God Looks for in the Manner Woman He Will Use the Let's Read A Few Verses Judges 6 Verse 12. So Here's Gideon. He's Hiding out Right. So, an Angel of the Lord Appears Again and Says the Lord Is with You, Mighty Men of Valor. Gideon Says All My Lord of the Lord Is with This and Why Is All of This Happened to Us and Where Are All of His Miracles Which Our Fathers Told Us about Save Did Not the Lord Bring Us from Egypt and Now the Lord Has Forsaken Us and Delivered Us into the Hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord Turned to Him and Said Go on. This Might Have Yours and Show You Not Save Israel from the Hand of the Midianites Have Not.
I Sent You so Right off the Bat. Here's an Angel of the Lord and Gideon Subjectively Arguing with Him. Hey, Wait a Second.
Why Is All of This Evil Will Fall Enough While Things Turned out the Way That They Turned out. What about All Those Miracles I've Heard the All Seem to Be in the past Heard the Story about a Mom Was Reading Bible Stories to Her Little Girl. She Told Her Little Daughter All about the Great Heroes of the Bible like Moses and Joshua and Daniel and Esther and Deborah and All the Rest and the Little Girl Turned to Her Mom and Said You Know What Mom, God Was A Lot More Exciting That Sentence We Might Feel That We Will Hear of the Way Things Were Was an Innocent That Way Anymore. I Wish It Was like That Again.
That's It.
Gideon Was Saying He Heard of the Good Old Days When God Was Really God Was Protecting Them.
God Was Providing What Where Was God Now.
Now God Could Have Rebuked Gideon Because As I Said Earlier, the Domination of the Midianites Was a Result of the Disobedience of Israel and Many Times in Life. Things Are Going Well Because of Bad Decisions.
We May and Then We Have the Audacity to Blame God for the Way Things Turn out. Knowing the Submittal Lord I Went up and Married This Nonbelieving Guy and Nothing This Personally. Of Course Putting Myself in the Position of a Girl Speaking I Went over Married This Nonbelieving Guy and Now We've Been Married 10 Years with His Lousy Marriage and That II Don't Know Why Internet When You Made the Decision and Now You Reap the Consequences of It You Don't like It, or Are You Know What I Went out and Did This Other Thing and You Reap the Consequences of That and That's Effectively What Was Happening the Israel to Say Why Things Turn out This Way Because They Prompted on Themselves.
But Here's the Good News. Even When We Made Mistakes God to Intervene and Bring Redemption Evil Only Messed up Guidance about Your Problem. You Made Your Bed Sleep in It. God Can Bring Good despite the Bad and the Bible Says God Can Bring Beauty out of Ashes Board Could Rebuked Gideon but Instead Here's What God Says in Verse 14.
Going This Might Have Yours and You'll Save Israel from the Head of the Midianites Haven't Had since You Payment Gideon We Can Talk about That Some Other Time.
Okay, I Would Jump for You to Do and I Wanted to Do It Now Is Not the Time to Question This Is a Time to Move. You Know I'm a Pretty Practical.and I like to Sit around and Talk about Things Forever. You Know, We Can Talk about This Opportunity of This Problem When I'm Really of the Mind to Come up with a Solution Come up with a Plan and Listen to Something and That's Pretty Much What God Was Saying to Gideon, Okay, It's Nice to Talk about It but Now It's Time to Act. It's Nice to Even Pray about It. But Then There Is a Time to Take Action and I Will Use You to Deliver Israel Will Gideon's Not Getting This All Verse 15 Lord, How Can I Save Israel. Indeed My Clan Is the Weakest in Manasseh and I'm the Least of My Father's House Loose Paraphrase Pay Lord on the Run of the Litter on the Smallest of the Small and the Least Significant How Can I Be the Guy but Don't You Get It. Gideon That's Why I Chose You Because You Don't Think You're the Guy. And That's the Kinda Guy in the Kinda Girl I'm Looking for the One That Doesn't Think They Could Ever Do It Unless I Did Something Miraculous That Brings Me to the First Principle to Look for in a Manner Woman That God Will Use God Uses People Who Are Humble.
God Uses People Who Are Humble and If You're Really Humble. You'll Say Your Humble Will Drop the Eight and Seven Humble I'm Just on Both.
I'm Actually Sounded a Bit British As Well Commit Them Talking a Bit like a Butte, so I'm Not Really Sure Get out but Pulling so Humble Now. If You're Talking about How Humble You Are. You're Not Humble, Legal and Safe so Humble to Humility Isn't Being.
We Can Now See. Humility Is Strength under Constraint You Want Another Perfect Example of Humility. Christ, Who Is Stronger Then Jesus Know but yet Jesus Would Humble Himself and Get down on His Hands and Knees and Wash His Disciples Feet Jesus Would Humble Himself and Put the Needs of Others before Himself. Gideon Was Humble and This Gives Hope to All the People out There Were Not Extraordinary but Ordinary. They Want the Best Students with the Class President. They Were on the Homecoming Team. They Want the First Chosen for the Team but Usually the Last. By the Way That Me Whenever We Pick Teams for Baseball. No One Wanted Me Because I Couldn't yet and I Couldn't Catch Apart from That It Was Really Good Numbing Yellow Pop Fly. I'm in Centerfield.
Lori Always Drops It I Get into Bad I Strikeouts. So When They Were Picking up Teams.
I Would Always Be the Last.
I Think That Is so Humiliating When Everyone's Been Taken.
You're Just Standing There Can I like Take That Dog No Get to Pick People up Table to Glory. We Will Lori to Be First Base Flavors Base That We Actually Want You to Be First Base When When a Sliding View with Art Enough so You Know That Was Really Are No Such Is the Punchline with Dan and I Was so Happy about It Is Gives Hope to the People Who Are Not Beautiful Are Not the Most Handsome. You Were Never Featured on the Cover of People Magazine's Most Beautiful People That You Are Featured on That One off Issue. They Did the Most Unattractive People on Earth, Which Is Really Hard Right You Know There's A Lot Of People I Think This Is Sort of a Turn in Our Culture at Think There A Lot Better Than They Really Are. If You Don't Believe Me. Once the Additions for the X Factor and American Idol Who Still These People Was so Much Self-Esteem Know or Always Send Anymore. Something I Know A Lot Of People Need a Whole Lot Less Self-Esteem. They Need a Reality Check Girl You Can't Say You're Not Even on Picture Horrible or We Will Get out There and Then You Know and the Judges Know Your You Know You're Not Going to Make the Cut. They Cursor to Grow Things Are You Know Then the Parent Comes into You Were Great You Were Great You Will Be a Star One Day and You're Yelling at the Screen. You Will Be Asked to Read an Interesting Article on How Narcissistic Our Cultures Become of This Article Says a New Analysis of the American Freshman Survey, Which Is Accumulated Data for the past 47 Years from 9 Million Young Adults Revealed That College Students Are More Likely Than Ever to Call Themselves Gifted. I Even Though Their Test Scores Are Decreasing in Time Spent Studying Is Decreasing. One Psychologist Said That the Tendency Is toward Narcissism and Student, and It's up to 30% in the Last 30 Year Say We All Think More like Rockstar Because It Only Tweets Stop.
We Have Our Follower's Right, We Are Faced with Page and We Only Put the Pictures and Make Us Look the Best of Their and We Watch Shows an MTV That Show the Lives of People That Are Weirder Than We Are. And There Starts with a Go.
I'm a Star to and You Know We Play Video Games and Were the Best Night for the Best Baseball Player, the Best Whatever All This While Living in Our Parent's Basement Reality Check. You're Not All That You're Not As Good As You Think You Are. It's Important You Know That about Yourself and unto Gideon Nearly Done and I'm I'm the Least of My Father's House. Why Would You Call Me That's Not a Bad Thing. That's a Good Thing and Here's Why. Here's Why This Parkway Was God Goes Out Of His Way to Pick Unexpected People, but Why so He Can Get the Glory If He Only Uses the Most Beautiful of the Most Handsome, the Most Talented of the Most Intelligent That Doesn't Give Hope to A Lot Of Us 20 K If He Thinks That Ordinary Person, or Even Take the Person We Never Thought Would Amount to Anything and Then Does Something through Them We Say Then There Is No Way They Could Have Done That. That Has To Be Number One. Jesus Called Simon Peter and Said, Follow Me and You'll Be a Fisher of Men. Peter Fell down and Said Apart from Me on the Sinful Men Effectively.
Peter Was Saying Jesus. Listen, I'm I'm Really Thankful You Would Even Think of Me, but I'm Only Going to Disappoint You, Let You down. I'll Never Measure up. He Knew What He Was. He Saw Himself As He Was God Tells Getting His Ghetto Do the Work through Them and Getting Number 15 Says, Who Am I God's Responses Is Not about Who You Are about Who I Am Used To Map Me and I've Chosen You and I Will Work through You.
The Calling of God Is the Enabling of God That God Calls You to Give Me the Strength to Do What He Wanted to Do. I Mean, I Love How Gideon Was Addressed the Lord Is with You, You Mighty Man of Valor. Verse 12 I Love This Mighty Hero. The Lord Is with You, so like Bumper Impact in the Book of Joshua That Expression Refers to Brave Soldiers Marching in the Heat of Battle, but Gideon Wasn't Marching into the Heat of Battle. He Was Hiding Sure Hiding behind the Wall. I Hope No One Sees Me Here. I Hope the Midianites Don't Come and Steal My Little Crop Here.
The Lord Says You Mighty Men of Valor, We Joking and Be like Going to Some Scrawny Little Guy and Say Hey Puffed up Bodybuilder Going to Another Student Save Pay Einstein What Are You Kidding Know He Actually Wasn't Kidding Because God Saw Him for What He Could Become. He Wasn't Really a Here He Was Really More of a Zero but You Know What God Was Gonna Let Him Live up to That Title Knew When God Looks at You. He Sees Potential We See a Lump of Clay. God Sees a Beautiful Sculpture We See a Blank on Candace God Sees a Van Gogh We See a Lump of Coal.
God Sees a Sparkling Diamond We See Failure God Sees Potential We See a Vacillating I'm Sure Simon God Sees All Rocklike Simon Peter. You See, We See Persecuting Saul of Tarsus, God Sees a Mighty Apostle Paul.
We See a Gideon God Sees a Mighty Men of Valor Cement but I I'm Not That We Want Now but You Will Be One Day so God Saw His Potential and Now It's Time to Get Started Her First It Would Be a Test in the Test Would Begin in His Own Home. Here's What the Lord Wanted Gideon to Do. He Wanted to Go Home and Take a Stand Here Was a Problem. Gideon's Father Joash Was Engaged in Fulltilt Idolatry of the Lord Told Him to Take the Second Best Ball from His Father. Third, Barbecue It on the Remains of the Altar, in Other Words, You Go Make a Stand in Your Home That Brings Us to the Second Principle for the Person That God Uses.
God Uses People Who Are Faithful in the Little Things.
God Uses People Who Are Faithful in the Little Thing. Jesus Said in Luke 1610. Unless You Are Faithful in Small Matters, You Will Be Faithful in Large Ones. If You Cheat Even a Little, You Will Be Honest with Greater Responsibilities. So God Told Gideon to Turn on the Altar. His Father Had Built to a False God. Now Gideon Loved His Dad and Not Only That, but This Is Really Pushing the Envelope You Know When You Were the Father, the Patriarchal Figure of a Tribe in Israel over the Family. You Were the Law. Are You Could Give the Word and Have Someone Executed so to Mess with Your Father Was a Pretty Big Deal Here and That He Effectively Risked His Life Now for Pointing out the Gideon Did This at Night, Not in Broad Daylight.
Some Commentators of Criticize Him for This but I Still Think It's Admirable That He Did It yet.
I Did It at Night so No One Would See Him, but At Least He Did It. He Knows A Lot Of People That Will Critique Those Are Going to Think We Don't like the Way You Do That We Don't Agree with This. We Don't Agree with That.
What You besides Critiquing You Know What Is Your Plan and There's A Lot Of People That Are Armchair Quarterbacks and Professional Critics Had to Little to Nothing. Then There Are Others That Go out and Get the Job Done.
Some People Are Setting the World on Fire While Others Are Still Looking for a Match.
I like People to God and Take Risks Even If They Don't Always Do It Perfectly, Even If They Make a Mistake Here and There, I'd Rather Try and Fail Then Never Do Anything Okay so Gideon Took a Big Risk Here, and He Took a Stand and 1/4 This Altar down. Yet He Did It It Not the Least He Did Reminds Us of Nicodemus Remember Him. The Great Religious Leader. In John Chapter 3 and What We Know about Nicodemus.
He Came to Jesus by Night or at Night That's Mentioned More Than Once in Scripture, so Obviously It's Not an Important Nicodemus Came to Christ at Night, Make It Not Right. Why Did Nicodemus Come to Jesus at Night Because Nicodemus Was Famous. Everyone Knew He Was around Today That Paparazzi Chasing Them around, You Know He Was Celebrity.
He Was a Religious Leader. He Was a Guy Was Supposed to Have All the Answers. That's Why Christ Said, Are You the Teacher in Israel and You Don't Know These Things, but Hey It's Joey Came by Night for the Least TK.
And You Know It When Jesus Was Crucified. It Was Nicodemus That Came Forward Publicly, along with Joseph Varmint There and Took His Body and Laid It in a Two Know Some People Start off Week, but They End up Strong Better to Start Week and Then Strong Then to Start Strong and Weak. Better yet, to Start and Then Strong Okay but He Finished Well. Coming Back to Gideon, yet He Did It at Night, but He Did It so Everyone Wakes up the Next Morning, and Here Is the Altar Billed by Joash, the Father of Gideon's Lying in Ruins People Are Angry That They Said Whoever Is Done. This Need to Be Put to Death but yet Instead of Wanting to Discipline the Sun or Even Execute His Son Joash Actually Defends Him. Judges 631. Would You Please for Bail.
Would You Save Him the One Would Plead for You. Be Put to Death. My Morning Visa Galbanum Plead for Himself Because His Altar Is Been Torn down.
The Were 20 Guys All Worried about Bail for Bail Can Take Care Of Himself. If Even Exist. So He Kind of Respected the Stand.
His Son Took in the Home and Almost Prompted Joash to Move in the Right Direction. This Is a Good Reminder That Number One the Hardest People to Reach Our People in Your Home and Number Two You'll Never Reach Them by Compromise. Here's the Thing You Need to Know When People Become Christians and Their Families. Not a Believing Family. You Need to Live. I Know Were Tempted to Give Everyone a Sermon You Want to Preach a Sermon Every Day to Your Unsaved Husband or Unsaved Wife or Unsafe Parents Are Whatever the Other Comes a Point When You Preach in the Service. Now You Need to Live the Sermon.
Now You Need to Be a Good Example.
So If You're a HUD Home of the Nonbelieving Wife Feel Really Good House.
If You're Nonbelieving Wife Are Cynthia Believing Why Were the Nonbelieving Husband Be a Godly Woman and When Him without a Word by the Way That You Live First Peter Three Tells Us If Your Kids That Have Nonbelieving Parents, You Know, Be Responsible unto the Things Your Parents Ask You to Do Apply Yourself.
That'll Save Volumes to Them. It's Hard to Reach Her Own Family. Even Jesus Had a Hard Time Reaching His Siblings and Who Was a Better Example Than Jesus. He Was God. Can You Imagine What Would've Been like Back in Those Days Be One of Jesus, Sibling, You Know, Mary Would Say That One of the Brothers or Sisters in Jesus Had Brothers and Sisters in a Why Can't You Be More like Jesus. He so Responsible. He's so Hard-Working He's Respect Mom He's like Perfect Okay What You Want, You Should Be More like Your Brother 05.
I Have a Little Bracelet Made for You. What Would Jesus Do I Want You to Wear That Not but He Was Perfectly yet the Bible Tells Us Her Prior to His Crucifixion and Resurrection His Own Family Did Not Believe in Him and in Fact They Thought He Was Crazy and They Lived in the Presence of a Perfect Flawless Example and They Thought He Was Not until They Saw Him Die and Rise Again from the Dead, Solicit, Jesus Had a Challenge Reaching the Family Juergen Have a Challenge. I Spent My Whole Life. It Seems like Praying for My Mom Who Did Not Raise Me in a Christian Home Was an Alcoholic and Married in the Were Seven Times in and You Know Right after My Conversion I All I Prefer Bold Sermons to Her. You Know I Give Her Both Barrels of My Gospel, God, You Know She Didn't Believe in You Know Honestly, It Wasn't until Probably 25 Years Later, When She Was Only a Month Away from Dying That She Didn't Know What and I Didn't Know What That She Finally Really Made That Commitment to Christ.
And so It Took a Long Time to Read Sure and Maybe You're in a Situation like That. Well Keep Took a Stay. This Is a Thing No One Is Reached through Compromise, the Book of Genesis You Read about the Story of Lot Wanted to Fit in. He Never Wanted to Offend Anyone He Wanted to Be Everyone's Friend and so on. The Lord Told Him That Judgment Was Coming on Sodom and Gomorrah Lot Told His Own Sons. A Lot Guys Are Going to Get Out Of Town Judgment Is Coming.
The Bible Says He Sounded to Them like One Who Was Joking and Kidding. Why Would We Listen to You and Even As He Left His Own Wife Didn't Want to Leave. Remember She Looked Back Jesus and Remember Lots Wife Even Lot Didn't Want to Leave the Angels.
I Did Drag Him out. He Loves Saw Them Is like Singing I Love My Sodom and Gomorrah.
I Don't Know What Was Wrong with This Guy. He Was so Compromised He Reaching No One. God Couldn't Find 10 Righteous People in the City of Sodom. So We Judgment You Would Think One Guy Could Reach 10 People Family Know Why. Well Gideon Didn't Compromise It to Stand.
So Now He's Passed the First Test the Null Gideon Put Some Tests in Front of the Lord, Wanting Confirmation, the Lord Condescends and and Help Him Do Understand and Believe These Things.
So Finally Get Answers All Right under the Put an Army Together. He Sends out the Word I Need an Army to Fight the Midianites. He Was Able to Rally 32,000 Men Greatly Outnumbered by the Least. It Was a Start over.
Judges 7 Verse Two See What Happened Here.
Gideon's Got 32,000 Men against Hundreds of Thousands of Moabite and the Lord Said to Gideon, the People Who Are with You Are Too Many for Me to Give the Midianites into Their Hands with Israel.
Vainglory Prince up against Me Say My Own and to Send Me Though, Therefore, Proclaim in the Hearing of the People Say If You're Fearful and Afraid.
London Turn in the Park at Once from Mount Gilead. I so Say the People of Your Prey, Though Now and 22,000 of the People Return What He Has 32,000 Men.
Hey Guys If You're Afraid You're Not Really into This You Don't. If I Go Home 22,000 Isaac See about How He Only Has 10,000 Left. This Was Crazy Because the Midianites Army Was Huge Judges.
712 Tells Us the Armies of Midian, Malic and the People of These Had Settled in the Valley like Swarms of Locusts, Their Camels Were like the Grains of Sand on the Seashore. There Were Too Many Accounts and Now He Has 22,000 Men Lead Two Thirds of His Army Is Gone. Why Does God Do Stuff like Yorty Said He Wants to Get the Glory. Sometimes You Will Find Yourself in Circumstances in Life Were the Only Way out Is God and If God Doesn't Come through. You Are Dead. Is It That's Horrible. No Touching. That's a Horrible, Glorious, and I'll Tell You Why God Always Comes through.
And Then When He Comes to Use a Was the Lord. I Exhausted All My Resources.
I Tried Everything I Can Try. There's No Other Way. This Could Have Happened, but the Lord It Was a Lord That Would God Wants to Hear.
There's Going to Be Insurmountable Obstacles in Your Life. Obstacles like the Red Sea That Won't Seem Possible Will Be the Towering Walls of the Jericho That He Wants Us to Fell for the Frightening Giant Goliath. He Wants Us to Defeat What You Gonna Do Well There's God's Partners. Your Part.Always Will Give Us a Plan yet the Red Sea Parted, but God Told Him He Had to Cross through It. The Walls of Jericho Fell but God Told Him We Had to March around It. Yeah the Giant Goliath Fell, but David Had to Attack Him. You Feel like You're Overwhelmed by Your Odds Right Now It's Okay Call on God I Love the Story of Jehoshaphat When Facing Huge Odds As His Enemy Approached, He Prayed This in Second Chronicles 2012 All God Will Do Stop Them We Are Powerless against This Mighty Army That's about to Attack Us. We Don't Know What to Do, but Our Eyes Are upon You for a Better Translation Were Looking to You for Help to Get Vertebrate Lord Is No Way Out Of This. The Doctor Just Gave Me This News That My Cancer Is Incurable. Lord I Just Was Fired. Lord, This My Marriage Is Done. Lord, This Other Think There's No Way Lord I'm Looking to You Right Now for Help. That's Great: the Lord That's What Jehoshaphat Did. That's What Gideon Did. So the Cowards Go Home. Why Did God Want to Purge Gideon's Ranks of Cowards Because Fear Is Contagious. Hey, If You're a Little Baby You Want to Go on the Mommy Get Out Of Here. We Don't Want You in the Army We Don't Want You in This Fighting Force.
We Need Courageous People to Fight Another's One Final Test.
This Was Going to Be a Secret Test Know My Granddaughters. I Liked Always Telling Looking to Do Something Secret.
Walking to a Restaurant, Nothing That We Can Go on the Regular Way the Front Entrance like Everybody Else. We Can Go to Secretly Who Wants to Go to See Quick I Don't Pop I Do, but I Think You Meant a Side Door. It's Really No Big Deal When They're Excited Were in This She Were Going This Secret Winter Started Tiptoeing the There Were Just Sissified Door. That's All It Is, but Make It a Little Bit Fun. Sometimes God Tests Us in an Open Way. Sometimes Our Secret Test. Now Judges Seven Verse Four and Am Reading from the New Living Translation. The Lord Told Gideon There Are Still Too Many Bring Them down of the Spring and I'll Sort out Who Will Go with You and Who Will Not. Gideon Took His Warriors for the Want of the Lord Told Him Divide Them into Two Groups and One Group Put All of Those, 2 Cups Water in Their Hands and Laugh It up with Their Tongues like Dogs and the Other Group Put All of Those Who Kneel down and Drink with Their Malls and the Screen Only 300 of the Men, Frank from Their Hands.
All the Others Got down on Their Knees and Drink with Their Malls in the Stream. The Lord Told Gideon with 300 Men, I Will Rescue You and Give You Victory over the Midianites Send All the Others All so Gideon Comes down over This 10,000 and Okay Guys Getting a Break Go and Just Get Yourself Some Waters of the Comedown That This Little Brook. One Group Only Thought about Getting Some Water Will Call Them the Loppers They Forgot about the Midianites They Dissatisfied Their Thirds Agent Buried Her Face in the Water Exhibited in Any Numbers They Would Have Been Killed Immediately Them.
When There Were Those That Cup the Water to Their Mouth They Kneeled Bringing the Water to Their Lives While Still Watching Their Were Cautious. They Were Alert Not Letting down Their Guard and Are Only 300 of Them, and God Said That Some of the Savior That We've All Heard the Stories of 300 Spartans Right, Who Faced off with Persia, but These Are the Original 300 and These Are the Ones That God Chose These down to 3% of the Original 10,000. This Is the Cream of the Crop. This Is a Delta Force. These Are the Navy SEALs. These Are the Green Berets. These Are the Only Now Here Comes the Battle Plan Guides Is Divisor 300 and the Three Groups Is What You're Supposed to Do. I Wanted to Take Fire Torches Quickly Jars around Them in One Hand and in the Other Hand It to Good Trump. I Want to Take Swords or Knives or Spears or Anything like That No Weapon, Just Your Little Clay Pots Run Your Torch and Keeping Little Trumpet and You Run down the Hill's Pasture Jar so They Can See the Torch to Blow Your Trumpet and Yelled As for the Lord in Gideon Adds a Great Idea against so Many Midianites.
We Can Even Count the Number Get a Yellow Play Little Trumpet Does Not Work out Perfectly Well at This Point Gideon's Been Assured the Lord Is with Them. So Is Co-for Knowing Come This Far As Go and They Run down the Elevator's Master Tripods and the Torches Appear They Blow Their Trumpet. Meanwhile, down among the Midianites They Hear This. They Think It's Some Kind of an Ambush and They Freak out When They Start Killing Each Other.
So Here's to Another like 00 Check This out. The This Is Working out Pretty Well Will Just Let You You Guys Carry on and When You're All Done Let Us Know This Is Amazing of All the Upset Celebrated by Military Historians Are Sports Fans Never Seen Anything like This. Basically, Gideon Was Outnumbered 452, One, yet They Won a Crushing Victory over the Midianites This It Be like a Pop Warner Team Going up against the San Francisco 49ers or a Little League Team Playing the Angels and Winning Maybe That's Not Too Far-Fetched. I Don't Know, but You Get the Idea District Just What Is a Story like This Say to Us Today. Well, We Too Are in the Spiritual Battle These in Six Says Were Not Fighting against People Made of Flesh and Blood, but against the Evil Rulers and Authorities of the Unseen World against Those Mighty Powers of Darkness. The Rule This World, against Wicked Spirits in the Heavenly Realm. This Battle This Spiritual Warfare That We Are Engaged in Is Not Going to Be One by Clever Strategies or Plans. There's No Way We Can Impact Our Culture with the Gospel without His Help. There's No Way Were Going to Win That Nonbelieving Family Member to Christ and Our Own Ability. There's No Way That Feeling. Marriage Can Be Saved with Our Own Resources We Need to Look to God and Do God's Word and God's Way. Sometimes the Lord Will Allow Things to Happen in Our Life to Keep Us Humble. Paul Talked about His Thorn in the Flesh, and We Don't Really Know What That Was, by the Way, Some Commentators Think It Was a Physical Infirmity Which I Would Lean toward. Don't Forget Paul Was Beaten and Shipped Direct and Stoned and so Obviously He Bore Those Marks in His Body and He Made a Reference to the Believers in Galatians Chapter 4 Verse 15 of the Book of Galatians Talk about His Eyesight Think It More Possible You Would Have Given Your Very Eyes to Me. So, Some Believe That Maybe Paul Was Referring to Failing Eyesight or Some Kind of Impairment with This Vision but Whatever Was He Had This Physical Problem That He Described As a Thorn in the Flesh, and He Spoke about in the Second. Second Corinthians 12 and He Says I Received Wonderful Revelations from the Lord, but so I Wouldn't Get Puffed up. I Was Given a Thorn in the Flesh Know Some of This on Messenger from Satan to Torment Me from Getting Trout Three Times. I Asked the Lord to Take It Away. God Said My Grace Is Sufficient for You Are My Gracious Favor Is All That You Need My Power, God Says Works Best in Your Weakness. So Paul Response. I'm Glad to Boast about My Weaknesses, so the Power of Christ May Work through Me, since I Know It's All for Christ.
Good Listen to This Pulses. I'm Content with My Weaknesses with the Insult with the Hardships of the Persecutions with the Calamities. For When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong. Gideon Could've Written That Maybe You Could Could've Written That to Get This Person That You Teach You Have This Physical Infirmity. You Have This Problem That Continues to Bother You Your Fear God Take It Away. God Says I've Allowed It for of Allotted to Keep You Humble. That Allowed It to Keep You Dependent on Me Because I Don't Want You to Be so Inflated with Pride. I Can't Use You Anymore and You Know the Lord Has a Way of Doing That in All of Our Lives Tell You I Know Is Done in My Life. There Are Things That Have Happened to Me That That Keep Me Grounded and and They Keep Me Dependent on God and Are Realizing That I Need His Strength to Get through Each and Every Day and Week and Month, Etc. and I'm Sure There's Something like That in Your Life As Well and so God Does Some of His Greatest Works of the Most Unexpected People Listen to This Statement by the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 126 to 31.
I'm Reading from a Paraphrase Now so Just Listen, Take a Good Look Friended Who You Were When He Got Called on the Fly. I Don't See Many of the Brightest and Best among You Know Many Influential Many. From High Society Families. Isn't It Obvious That God Deliberately Chose Men and Women.
The Culture Overlooks God Chose These Nobodies to Expose All the Pretensions of the Somebodies That Makes It Quite Clear That None of You Can Get Bye-Bye Blowing Your Own Horn before God. Everything You Have This Come to You from God. So Give a Blow Horn Blow a Trumpet for God I Love That Translation.
Dr. Gideon Did. He Blew a Trumpet for God and God Is Looking Today for Men and Women That He Can Use Men and Women That Will Make a Stand That Will Make a Stand. First of All, at Home, Have You Made That Stand Does Your Family Know That You're a Christian If You Told Them All Your Course or Brothers or Sisters or Cousins.
Your Grandparents and Your Grandchildren. Depending What Your Age Is That They All Know That You Believe Make a Stand in Your Marriage. What Right Do We Have To Tell the World to Believe in Jesus and We Can Keep Our Marriages.
One of the Things That Concerns Me Is I See Christian Marriages Breaking up for Un-Biblical Reason. Another Words, Then They Say What We Just Couldn't Work It out with Irreconcilable Differences Shot up. That's Not in the Bible. Every Marriage Has Irreconcilable Differences. I've Been Married for 39 Years I've Read 39 Years of Irreconcilable Differences with My Wife, There's This We See Things Differently. My Wife Is Never Even Thought Once of Divorcing Me Murdering Me Yes Divorcing Me Know Know You Can Work through These Things. What Right Do I Have To Say Doing Nonbelieving World You Should Believe in Jesus Have I Can Love My Wife. Did You Know That the Marriage Is One of the Very Thing Things God Shows to Be a Visible Representation of His Love for the World. What Is God Saying to a Husband Love Your Wife As Christ Loves the Church to Go to St. Page Nonbelieving World. Check This out. See Description Husband See This Christian Wife See How This Guy Loves This Girl. That's How Much I Love You Kawai. See You There. You See, That's a Simple Check It out.
Hey World, Check This out.
You See That Christian Wife See How She Loves Her Husband and Submits to His Loving Servant Leadership. That's How My Church Submits to Me What a Perfect Picture. What a Lousy Witness. It Is When Our Marriages Fall Apart. God Help Us to Make That Stand in Our Own Home and Make That Stand in Our Culture Today. This Is What It Comes down to If You're Going to Do This Do That to Be Christians.
Let's Be Christian. Real Christians If You Want to Be a Committed Christian. Go Party Doing Everyone Go to Hell Really I'm Dead Serious Goods Are Going to Go to Hell. Hell, I Missing Doing to Get a Doing Face the Consequences or Be a Follower of Jesus and Glorify God with Your Life and Don't Compromise and Seek to Bring As Many with You. As You Can with This in between. Stop This Kind of a Little of This a Little of That. This Gets You Nowhere, and This Will Give You One Miserable Life You Love Too Much of God Too Much of Jesus to Be Happy in the World but Too Much of the World to Be Happy in Jesus Here That Miserable.
No Man's Land of Compromise. I Think Far Too Many People Are in This Category. Today You Know Jesus Also Thinned out the Ranks. Gideon Wasn't the Only One That You Know Jesus Was Very Popular Early on in His Ministry, Especially after He Performed His Most Popular Miracle Today. You Know That Was Raising of Lazarus from the Dead Know the Raising of Gyrus Are from the Dead Know Restoring Lepers Know It's When He Gave Him a Free Lunch. When He Fed the 5000+ Women and Children, and They Said No Talking. Now We like This Guy That Gives Us Lunch. This Is Awesome and the Crowds Swell Huge Multitude and What Happened. Jesus Turned to Them and Challenge Them, and the Result Was Many of Them Turned Away. Why Because They Were Following Them for the Right Reason People Survive a Christian, but Then Little Hardship Comes in Our Life Is a Falloff I Don't Believe Anymore What I Lost My Faith in Really Your Faith Was Worthless. The Faith, It Cannot Be Tested Is the Faith That Cannot Be Trusted. If You Tell Me You Lost Your Faith Because Hardship Hit You or Difficulty Came Your Way Even a Tragedy That I Say I'm Glad You Lost That Because That Isn't Real Faith. If You Have Real Faith in God. It Will Be Weakened by Calamity. It Will Be Strengthened by If You Have Real Faith, It Will Grow through Hardship That the Bible Teaches You See, Tragedy or Hardship. Our Trials Don't Produce Faith Is Much As They Reveal It. What You Really Made up, and I Think of Your Faith Is Really in Jesus You'll Get through the Storms of Life. If You're Telling Me You Turned on God or Turned Away from God Because This or That Happened in Your Life. Didn't Go the Way That You Wanted It to Go to Even Empty. Maybe It's Time to Get Some Yeah Got Shrunk the Group down.
Jesus Thinned out the Ranks. Gideon Did the Say Why God Can Do More with 300 Committed People Than He Can with 10,000 Halfhearted People and He Still Looking for Real, Committed People, British Evangelist John Wesley Once Said This My Quote Give Me 100 Men Who Love God with All of Their Hearts, and Fear Nothing but Said That I Will Change the World. We Plan 100 People like That. Today, Tonight Is More Than 100 Here Hundred Men and Women Who Would Love God in and Fear Nothing but Sin, We Could Go and Change Orange County We Could Change Southern California, We Could Change so Much, but It Starts with Making the Stand in Our Own House. I Love the Description of Paul and Silas in the Book of Acts When It Was Said of Them Not As a Compliment but As a Criticism. They Turn the Rest of the World Upside down. Now They're Here Disturbing Our City.
Amen We Need More Disturbances like This Today. G. Campbell Morgan Said, Quote Organized Christianity That Fails to Make a Disturbance Is Dead. Let's Make a Disturbance. Let's Take a Stand. Let's Blow Our Trumpet.
Let's Take Steps of Faith. Let's See What God Will Do. Let's Do What God Has Set before Us.
Let's Not Be Halfhearted. Let's Not Be Compromised.
Let's Be Fully Committed to Jesus Why Because God Can Do A Lot with a Little Cinnamon Much to Offer.That's Okay, the Little Boy Was Going Home Probably with Us, Lunch Probably Had Some Stale Bread to Sardines Big Multitudes Gathering. There's No Food Jesus Is a World and Find Food to Feed All These People All Others That We Don't Know Lord We Were No and Then the -looking Comes Walking up on a Visible Sack or Something Little Star Wars Lunchbox That You Know It Is One of My Wishes Kidder.
He's Yes Some Stale Crackers and Some Sardines. What Is That among so Many Jesus to Bring It to Me, You Watch What I Can Do for the Little Boys Finish in His Bread and He Blessed and Multiplied It.
There Was so Much Food That Everybody Ate and Was Full and There Were Leftovers like That to God Can Take What You Are from and He Can Multiplied He Can Expanded He Can Use It to Just Say Lord Here I Am Using Here I Am Lord Cindy before Any of That Can Happen You Have To Believe in Jesus and I Wonder If There Not Some Here Who Always Thought They Were a Christian Because They Were Raised in the Church Are, or Because They Went to a Christian School or They Seem All of the Veggie Tales and All about Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber or You Know They They've Seen This or Her Dad and They Say Yeah I Know All about This Because You Know about Jesus Doesn't Mean You Know Jesus This Because Your Parents Are Christians Doesn't Mean You're Necessarily a Christian.
There Has To Be the Moment When You Follow Jesus and You Make a Commitment to Him. He Died on the Cross for You. 2000 Years Ago and Took All of Your Sin upon Himself and Then He Rose Again from the Dead, If You Will Turn from Your Sin and Believe in Him Tonight. She Will Forgive You and You Can Have a Fresh Start in Life and God Can Start Working through You, but You Have To Come to Him First, and If You'll Been Done That yet. Do It Now Organized Close Right Now for a Little Bar Heads Father, Thank You for Your Word to Us and Now I Pray for Any Here That May Not Know You.
Maybe They've Always Thought They Knew You Because They Went to Church Occasionally, but the Reality Is There's Been No Change in Their Life Lord, Would You Help Them Become Due, Know and Believe and Be Forgiven of Their Sentence on a Heads up. Your Eyes Are Closed and Were Praying Together.
How Many of You Would Say Tonight. Greg Pray for Me. I Want My Sins Forgiven. I Want to Know That When I Die I Will Go to Heaven.
I'm Ready to Say Yes to Jesus Christ Right Now. Pray for Me. I Want Jesus to Come in My Life and That Your Desire Were of Your Sitting Would You Lift Your Hand up and Let Me Pray for You If You Want Christ to Come in Your Life You Want Your Sin Forgiven Tonight. You Want to Know the to Go to Heaven When You Die, Just Lift up Your Hand Wherever You're Sitting a Prayer for You. God Bless You Accomplish Your Hand a Break and See It. God Bless You and the I Have Done Her to the Front.
God Bless You in the Aisle Knew What He Offers. You Can Apply. Please, for I Can See It, Should Lifted up There in the Back, but She Was Well on the Heads Are Still Valid. Maybe Some of You Would Say You Know What I Been Living This Compromise like I Know What You're Talking about, and I'm in This No Man's Land Where I Don't Have a Real Commitment, but I'm Ready to Make a Total Commitment to Christ to Nine.
Pray Firmly Affect Your Desire. Once You Raise Your Hand up Right Now.
Let Me Pray for You, Bless You Bless You to You As Well.
Anybody Else Raise Your Hand Accomplish the Bless Each One Nominally Ask All of You That Have Raise Your Hand If You Would Please Just Stand Your Feet and on the Lead to an Approach Just Stand Upright Know Wherever You Are on the Lead Juniper That Tried to Stand up, Others Are Standing You Will Be the Only One.
Many Others Are Standing so You Stand Too If You Want to. Even If You Did Not Raise Your Hand but You Want to Make This Commitment or Recommitment to Christ Stand up Nominally Juniper Publishing Guy Standing Anybody Else down Now They're in the Back of Bless You to. You Want God's Forgiveness. You Want to Make This Commitment to Jesus or Recommitment Stand Not One Final Moment in the Stand Stand.
Now Anybody Else Stand Them. One Final Moment Anybody Else. All Right All of His Understanding of What You Do Pray This Prayer out Loud Right Where You Stand Again As I Pray Pray This out Loud after Me. Okay Pray This after Me Know. Lord Jesus, I Know I'm a Sinner but You Died on the Cross and Shed Your Blood for Every Sin I've Ever Committed. I'm Sorry for My Sin.
I Turn from It Now.
I Choose to Follow You from This Moment Forward You My Savior Be My Lord Be My God, My Friend in Jesus Name I Pray. Amen. God Bless All of You