Breaking The Bondage Of Wrong Belief

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.360 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.080 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.480 gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:23.479 Enjoy the message. 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.960 I thought you were going down, but you're not anymore. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:44.240 Howa flathose hands and give God praid. He didn't lead 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.520 me where I was like I was, and I believe, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:54.040 somebody shout, I believe that I'm not leaving like I came. 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.920 Today, It's time for the Word of God. Put your hands. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.160 Together and welcome Ebath all around the world. 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:04.920 Let's go. 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:12.280 Into the Word of God. This word that God gave 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.639 me today. He began to speak to me on March seventh, 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.319 twenty twenty three, and it has taken me that long 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.600 to figure out how to share it with you. Today, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.560 the Lord has released me to share it. I'm thankful 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:32.399 and excited and expected about the implications to your life. 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:34.160 In Judges chapter. 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.440 Six, verse twenty two through twenty nine, there is an 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.880 encounter with God between the Angel of the Lord and 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.760 a man named Gideon, and the Bible says in verse 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.960 twenty two, when Gideon realized that it was the Angel 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.680 of the Lord, he exclaimed, a last sovereign Lord, I 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.360 have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.400 But the Lord said to him, peace, do not be afraid. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:10.519 You are not going to die. That's a good thing. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.600 Oh he's good to know. And I'll explain why he 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.000 said that in a moment. But look at what the 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.120 Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid, you 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:28.000 are not going to die. So Gideon built an altar 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.600 to the Lord there and called it the Lord is Peace. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.120 To this day, it stands in Ophrah of the Abiez Rites. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:38.960 Now, that same night. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:41.960 The Lord said to him, take the second bull from 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.240 your father's herd, the one seven years old. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:46.600 Tear down your father's alter. 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.280 To bail and cut down the ascheropole beside it. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:52.600 Then build a proper kind. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.119 Of altar to the Lord, your God, on the top 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.680 of this height, using the wood of the asheropole that 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.120 you cut down, offer the second bull as a burn offering. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.400 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:10.320 the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.480 his family and the townspeople. He did it at night 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.040 rather than in the daytime. Now you call him a whimp, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.639 I call him wise. He did it how he had 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.360 to do it, And sometimes you do man. Sometimes you 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.600 have to sneak in those victories at midnight. It's not 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.519 always going to be some huge triumph and amazing things. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:32.799 Sometimes the victory is going to be that you made 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:34.320 it through the night and you woke up the next 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.600 day and you got to learn to praise God because 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:41.440 of those two. So look what happened in the morning, 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.120 verse twenty eight. When the people of the town got up. 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:50.080 There was Bale's altar demolished, with the Ashero pole beside 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.200 it cut down in the second bull sacrificed on the 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.160 newly built altar. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:57.280 Last verse for now, verse twenty nine. 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:04.840 They asked each other who did this. When they carefully investigated, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:12.080 they were told, Gideon, son of Joe Ash did it. Gideon, 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.040 son of Joe Ash did it. Now I want to 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.039 speak to you from this subject today. I want to 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.480 talk to you about breaking the bondage of wrong belief. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:29.800 Breaking the bondage of wrong belief. And that's not one 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:31.599 of those titles you can say to your neighbor. So 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:33.480 let me give you a say to your neighbor. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:33.800 Title. 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.080 Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, I know I 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.839 look a little different. I know I got a little 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.360 extra pep in my style. Tell them I know I'm 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:50.880 smiling more than the last time you saw me. But 0:04:50.960 --> 0:05:01.800 it's because me and God got back together. Yeah, me 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.240 and God got back together. You may be seated. Me 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:11.720 and God got back together. Thank you Lord for this word. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.120 I know he meant well, but I completely disagreed with 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.200 his method. The preacher stood before a room full of 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.640 professing Christians and asked a question, on a scale of 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.800 one to ten, how close would you say you are 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:36.159 to God right now? I gave him ten minutes, twenty minutes, 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.480 thirty minutes benefit of the doubt, even to the end 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.839 of his message, because I just knew that he wasn't 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.120 going to give the people a scale to determine how 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:47.279 close they were to God. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:49.280 Yet he did. 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.040 I was waiting for the twist where he talked about 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.919 the grace of God. And you know in the Bible, 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:58.840 this one man prayed and he said, Lord, I thank 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.000 you that I'm not like this. Enter over here praying 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.080 next to me, and the sinner was beating his breast, saying, 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.360 God have mercy on me. And Jesus said, the one 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.200 that beat his breast was the one that went home 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.279 justified because he had faith to believe that he needed God. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.159 And the one who thought he was so great, he 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.039 wasn't so great because he was actually not close to 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:20.440 the kingdom. But the preacher didn't do that, he continued. 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.119 I asked Holly if she remembered it, and she remembered 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.880 it too. Simon, just make this up to tell the 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:29.520 people everything they could do. Watch this to move from 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.400 a four to a five. You know, there's there's this 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.680 big line, this linear approach to knowing the Lord. And 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.760 you can go from four to five if you read 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.320 the Bible daily, you go from four to six if 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.440 you make it through the Book of Leviticus bonus point 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:52.280 for certain Bible books. And he goes through everything that 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:53.040 you can do to. 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:54.480 Get closer to God. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.240 Now here's why I thought that the exercise was ridiculous 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.159 respect to the person doing it, because I've done some 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.360 ridiculous things and I'll probably say something ridiculous in here, 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:06.000 and then I get up in ten years and tell 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:10.280 you it was ridiculous. I'll tell on myself. It's ridiculous 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:17.840 because it's relative how close are you to God right 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:24.400 now compared to what compared to Jesus, who always knew 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.520 the will of his father, who is supposed to be 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:31.600 my standard. So if we're going by that, I'm staying 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:38.400 zero until I die and compared to who I mean. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.080 I just don't even think the question is like you 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.280 can rate a restaurant? Can you relate a rate rather 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:50.280 a relationship with the eternal God who's spoke into nothing 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.720 and there was something with the invisible God who exists, immortal, 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.360 not seen to humanize, but known by the spirit, not 0:07:58.480 --> 0:07:59.640 by the flesh. 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.840 I can't rate something like that. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.040 That's another thing is not only is it relative how 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.480 close you are to God compared to what you think 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.320 other people might be praying or doing or whatever, because 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.840 you don't really know what the other people around you 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.280 are like, and you judge yourself off of your delusions 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:21.720 of them. 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.560 So that's kind of dumb. But also also I. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:27.720 Didn't think it was a very good exercise because of 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:29.120 something called recency bias. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:30.560 Do you know what recency bias is? 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.920 It's when the last thing that happens carries the most 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:41.200 weight with you, and you judge an entire thing off 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.559 of the most recent thing that happened. So you begin 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.760 to kind of act like the way it is right 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.760 now is the way that it always is. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.640 And the way that it always was. But it's not true. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.000 And what I'm really trying to say, I guess I'm 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.040 using fancy language to say that if you answer that 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:02.360 question at a time i'm close to God, I'm a ten. 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.240 It wouldn't really take that much to put you at 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:09.520 a two. I can't figure out what happened to my church, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.720 because my church used to be real and honest. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.520 But I'm looking at a bunch of tens today. Okay, ten. 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:21.240 There are days where at ten am you are a ten. 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:27.720 But if I caught up with you at two, because 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.520 at two you've had to deal with some people, and 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.760 it can move you right back down the scale. Some 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:36.880 of you are one text away from going from ten 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:37.240 to two. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:39.880 Some of you are just. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.520 A little bit of traffic from a ten to a two, riding. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:43.840 Down the road. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.760 Oh my god, you sure big got. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:47.960 Of my way. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.120 Ten to two, just like that, not ten and two, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.839 ten to two, just some traffic no cross, no persecution, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.199 no martyrdom, just forty five ten to two like that. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.160 So stun question because it's relative. Who am I comparing 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.960 myself to? Oh, I'm a two compared to Holly, Ali's amazing, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.040 Allie's perfect, Allie's wonderful, comparing myself to who I mean 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:13.720 comparing her. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.600 To who's she? Not Mother Teresa, but she's great. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.760 So you see, I didn't really appreciate the guy saying 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.840 you can move to a four from a three if 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.760 you just make five minutes a day with the Lord. 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:26.559 I thought that was so ridiculous. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.800 But the real reason that I thought it was so 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.360 ridiculous is because it was a room full. 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:39.400 Of people who are believers in Jesus. So why are 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:40.320 we pulling out. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:45.520 A scale to try to measure something in our own 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.160 minds and our own feelings based on our own experience. 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.440 It's based on our own moods. How close are you 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.640 to God? It depends if I had my coffee, Yet, 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:57.640 it depends did I open a bill or did I 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.320 open a check that was made out to me? Why 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.400 are we measuring this on a scale that is subject 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.319 to situations and self righteousness? Because I can always find 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:13.959 somebody that I think I'm doing better than when I 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:18.840 belong to Jesus, who already taught me that my relationship 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.160 with him is not something. 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:28.680 That is achieved but received. It's a gift. Somebody shouted, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:29.240 it's a gift. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.120 I know y'all are looking at me funny because I'm 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.160 trying to get from a seven to eight. I'm trying 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.160 to be a better man. I'm trying to be a 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.200 better mom. Good try. I'm trying too. But understand that 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.480 there is nothing that you will see on your reel 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.400 and put into practice in your life. Some advice that 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.840 you will scroll past and finally click with God, and 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:51.920 God will say, oh, I've been waiting. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.640 For them to get to six. They've been stuck at. 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.120 Five point nine. This is not the Olympics, and God 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:02.040 is not watch this. God is a scale. God is 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.679 not a religion. God is a person. His name is Jesus, 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.520 and I got him. 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:12.760 So I don't mind telling you. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.640 Ask me the question, pastor, how close are you to God? 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:20.800 One to ten? 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:27.880 A ten because of him, because of what he did. 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:34.520 It's a ten because my relationship is not based on 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.800 what I did what I didn't do. My relationship with 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.400 Him is a covenant. A covenant is not like the 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:47.080 relationships that we run around trying to build our lives 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.839 on these days. The covenant that I have with God 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.479 is not established based on the principles or the precepts 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.960 that I find myself willing or able to obey. No, 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.400 I am in covenant with God, God on the basis 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.360 of the death of his dear son, who loved me 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.360 enough to shed his blood for me on a hill 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:08.280 called Calvary. 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.680 And it's a ten high five. 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.840 Somebody say, it's a ten. You can put your scale away. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.679 It's a ten. He loves me, you can put your 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.760 scale away. It's a ten. He wants to hear me pray. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.959 You can put your scale away. It's a ten. God 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:29.640 wants to hear me sing. I'm singing because He likes 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.080 to hear me, not because you like to hear me. 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.680 But it's a ten when I say because God hands 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:38.320 me a mike and says, keep singing. 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.240 That's my kid, that's my girl, that's my boy. I 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.360 want to hear them praise me. Only they can praise 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:47.760 me for what only I could do for them. 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.480 It's a ten hot five. Your neighbor both hands, says say, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.160 I'm in It's a ten. I'm in covenant. I'm in covenant. 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.559 I'm in covenant, not contract. 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:02.559 Hey, if I break it, he already bought me. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.800 It's a ten because of him. It's a ten when 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:12.800 I act like it too. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.920 Nevertheless, the Book of Judges demonstrates to us the unfortunate 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.920 reality that we can be in covenant with God and 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:29.600 still in captivity. That seems contradictory. How could you be 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.760 in covenant with a God who knows no boundaries but 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.200 be in captivity. Last year, I preached to you a 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:42.280 series of messages about one of these rulers that God 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.160 raised up to deliver his people, the nation of Israel, 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:50.479 from the hands of a an oppressive enemy called the Midianites. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.680 I don't expect you to remember about the Midianites, but 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.479 I do expect you to be honest today to admit. 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:00.920 That you have your own version of them. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:02.960 No. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:11.200 I love messages when I hear them personally, that first 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:17.960 of all, give me permission to admit my Midianites. If 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.560 I can't admit that I'm fighting the battle, how can 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:26.480 I see clearly enough to take the shot? So I 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.800 have learned that you know for each and every one 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:31.120 of us. And I'm just going to take my time 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.040 today because this message has been building in me for 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.800 over a year. So I'm certainly not going to rush 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:38.680 this revelation because I think it's life changing. The idea 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.400 that I could be in covenant with God and He 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.840 could be completely committed to me, and I could still 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.720 be in captivity. While a seeming contradiction on the surface 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.440 is an experience that we all know too well, it 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.560 is when you know that you are saved by grace 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.960 through faith Ephesians two eight and nine. In fact, let 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.880 me give you that Ephesians that other Ephesians first, I 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:00.400 meant to show you this a moment to go. I 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:01.760 forgot Ephesians to y'all. 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:03.880 It says, but. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.360 Now in Christ, you who were once far away, have 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:14.160 been brought near by the blood of Christ. So to 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.360 be a ten in my relationship with God because of 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.840 Him does not mean that there will not be times 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:29.200 in my relationship that I feel too right. And the 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.920 reason for this will never be because God's commitment to 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.840 me has wavered. What I'm trying to say to you 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:44.640 is you may try to break up with God, but 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:45.520 God won't let you. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:50.280 The Book of Judges proves it. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:52.280 And you know what, some of you don't need the 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.320 Book of Judges or a man named Gideon to prove it. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.400 You have spent your whole life stacking evidence for the 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.960 fact that you can try to break up with God. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:06.200 You can flip your middle finger to your faith, and 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:11.880 your faith will still stay inside of you, flicking you back, 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.600 even if it's just a little flicker of a flame. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.280 Some of you tried to be a really bad kid, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.280 and all that did, all that you trying to be 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.200 a really bad kid did. All that did was make 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.240 your mom pray more. What you didn't know even your 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:36.679 bad behavior was your Oh let me say this was 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.080 your mom's answered prayer because she was praying for more faith. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.560 So she was praying for more faith. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.200 So God gave her your bad behavior to give her 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:47.720 more faith. 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:54.960 This is how amazing God is. We don't believe God 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.800 is sovereign anymore. We think that. 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.840 There is something we could do to push him back, 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.399 and He would go, oh, never mind, can't use you. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.280 I'm looking for a ten. I'm looking for a ten, looking. 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:08.440 For a ten? Do I have an eye? Can I 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:08.840 get anye? 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:09.359 Can I get an eight. 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:10.200 Can I get a seven? 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.040 Twenty twenty four of God might might take a six? 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.840 The world is really going downhill. The Lord will really 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:16.800 lower his standards. 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:18.040 No, look at the verse. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.960 He says that Efesius two thirteen good news, but now 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:23.399 not when I get it together. 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.159 Ephesians two thirteen showing guys. But now put him on 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:27.560 the screen. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.920 But now I'm shouting now and I'm having to wait. 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.919 In Christ, Jesus, you were once far away. 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:44.600 I was. I feel far from God, but I'm not 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:50.080 far from God. I was. Somebody say it with all 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:51.560 three notes. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.600 I was put it in a chat right now, I was, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:04.080 But I was. But the nation of Israel was slipping 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.720 away from God, serving other gods, prostating themselves to the 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.680 gods of the Canaan culture, and completely disregarding the covenant 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.200 they had with Yahweh. Well, the Bible says that these 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.600 Midianites were the instruments that God used to bring his 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:26.640 people out of captivity, But they were also what God 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:27.840 used to take them captive. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:30.480 And that is an interesting dynamic too. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.680 Isn't it that the Lord allowed the Midianites to oppress 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.119 his people to bring his people back to him. Now 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.840 we know that God uses all things. Even though God 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.800 doesn't do all things. God doesn't do evil. But we 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.200 have a God who, when evil is done, can use 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.720 the transformation process that happens through that evil that was 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.040 done in order to bring about His purpose in the 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.480 earth for which you were born. And although Midian is 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:11.119 oppressing the Israelites, God is using Midian as well. And 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:15.200 it's so cool how Gideon's name rhymes with Midian in English. 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:16.639 Now this wouldn't work if we. 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.840 Were reading it in the original Hebrew, but we don't 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.560 know Hebrew, so it works really well for us Gideon 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.080 and Midian, and it's a total mismatch. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.320 Midian has all these troops. Midian has all this power. 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.720 Every year they come in, they raid the Israelites, they 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.880 take their crops, they take everything of value, They plunder 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.080 the people. But what are we going to do? We 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.280 are powerless to do anything about it. So now we've 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:43.520 got people who are identified as God's special possession being 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.240 plundered and feeling powerless. We have got people who have 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:53.320 been identified as God's special possession who are being plundered 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.960 and feeling powerless. There are some people listening to me 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:01.240 today who are God's special possession because he bought you 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:04.560 with his blood. You're in It's a ten. You are 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.760 his possession, but you are being plundered. The enemy keeps 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:14.400 taking your peace, your joy, your focus, your commitment to service, 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.400 and others, even your very sanity. Somebody in this room 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.159 feels like you've been going crazy today. But you have 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.560 the mind of Christ. But you feel like you're going crazy, 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:27.960 and you feel powerless to do anything about it. To 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.800 the point that when we meet Gideon, he is threshing 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.480 wheat in a wine press when God calls him a 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:40.840 mighty warrior. This juxtaposition has been preached famously, not only 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:45.160 many times from this little pulpit, but everybody who's picked 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.879 up a microphone in a Bible has had something to 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.160 say about a God who will call you a warrior 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:52.919 while you're acting like a wimp. 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:55.880 And this discrepancy when. 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.080 God calls you something that you don't feel like you 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.440 are right now, when God calls you to do something 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.280 that you don't feel like you have the power to 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.439 do right now, when God calls you to be something 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.040 that you've never even seen before with your eyes, is 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:14.159 at the heart of the Gideon narrative. Gideon is so 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.639 unconvinced about it. He starts asking questions that start with why, 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.760 Because when you're in a wine press, which is a 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.159 dugout place to hide, you will be so stuck in 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.840 why it happened that you will forget about who is 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.280 able to deliver you from the situation. 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:35.400 And this is the situation I feel. I preachi for Gideon. 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:38.520 Now the Lord doesn't tell him why all the bad 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:41.560 things have happened. But we know because a prophet has 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.240 come to the nation of Israel, and the prophet said, 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.040 you have forgotten what I did for you. You have forgotten 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:49.880 the God who brought you out of Egypt. 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.800 You have served the gods of the people around you. 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:57.679 You have adopted the practices of the pagan nations. You 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.160 have even started adopting their god gods as your gods, 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:01.880 not only. 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:03.840 Their practices as your practices. 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.800 So that if we look at the life of Israel 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:10.520 in this seven year period that they were oppressed by Midianite, 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.640 there is nothing to tell them apart from the nations 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.960 that surround them. They have come into a land whose 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:18.200 customs have. 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:23.160 Become their captivity. They have come into a land. 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:27.399 That God gave them and the customs of that land 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:32.560 become their captivity. The Lord says Gideon, I want to 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:36.800 use you to lead a revolt and a revolution. I'm 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:41.240 going to enable you and strengthen you and supply you 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:44.960 and give the enemy into your hand, and you will 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:49.720 strike them all down. And Gideon said me, I'm the 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:53.000 least in my family. My plan is the least in 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:53.440 the nation. 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:54.960 Why me? 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:03.600 God said, why you couse me? God turns twos into 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:09.119 tens instantly. Only God can do that. Nobody's helping me 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.080 preach because y'all don't believe it. You must be the 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:16.360 two God sent me to preach to today. Yeah, God sent. 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:18.119 Me to preach to you because you've been feeling like 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:19.639 a two. Now. 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:22.760 The beauty of this is God doesn't say, Gideon, I'm 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:23.360 gonna put you. 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:27.520 Through a preparation process. This is gonna take three years 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:28.320 to get it done. 0:24:28.880 --> 0:24:32.240 He has actually been preparing Gideon while Gideon has been hidden. 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:36.400 Do you know that God has been preparing you while 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:37.400 you have been hidden too? 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.119 Do you know that God has been giving. 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:48.120 You tools, resources, lessons, words, confirmations while you have been 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:50.639 in the cave of what you perceive to be your 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:52.240 abandonment and wasted season. 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:55.359 So he tells Gideon to go. 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:58.160 He gives Gideon a sign, and we pick up where 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:03.160 I started today. The Angel of the Lord said to Gideon, peace, 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:08.840 do not be afraid. You are not going to die. 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:11.840 Sometimes when God shows up in your life, the first 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:16.679 thing you feel is fear. Feeling close to God is 0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:21.320 not always. I'm sorry, Eagles a peaceful, easy feeling. 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:25.320 I love the song, but in my experience. 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:27.960 Sometimes the first thing I feel when God is doing 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:30.600 a work in my life is fear. 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:33.560 I feel safe in the cave or the wine press. 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:36.520 I feel scared when I step out to do the 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.720 next thing God has called me to do. And it 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:43.119 amazing that the Angel told him you are not going 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:46.400 to die, and Gideon didn't even ask, am I going 0:25:46.480 --> 0:25:51.479 to die? Hmmm, something's happening here. He's preparing Gideon for something. 0:25:52.119 --> 0:25:53.560 Gideon is so encouraged. 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:54.280 Can you feel it? 0:25:54.480 --> 0:25:58.520 He's so encouraged. Wow, God sees me. God's got me. 0:25:58.880 --> 0:26:02.199 God's with me. God came to me. God spoke to me. 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:03.639 God gave me a sign. 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:07.320 It's him. He is so enthralled by this experience. 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:11.719 In verse twenty four that impulsively he built an altar 0:26:11.840 --> 0:26:15.480 to the Lord verse twenty four there and called it 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:20.000 the Lord is Peace. To this day, it stands in 0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:22.960 Oprah of the abs Rights. That's as far as I 0:26:23.000 --> 0:26:28.359 got when I preached last year, maybe because that's what 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:31.800 people want to hear of how it's going to go. 0:26:33.000 --> 0:26:36.560 That God is going to bring you closer to Him 0:26:36.600 --> 0:26:41.720 and fulfill his purpose for your life. But this is an. 0:26:41.280 --> 0:26:44.400 Alter that Gideon decided to build, not one that God commanded. 0:26:46.840 --> 0:26:50.520 This alter, while not evil in its own way, was 0:26:50.640 --> 0:26:53.840 just his idea to commemorate the moment that he had 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:58.679 with the Angel. He lays down that night, probably feeling 0:26:58.920 --> 0:27:01.919 nervous and excited. The Lord told me that I'm gonna 0:27:02.040 --> 0:27:04.560 strike down the Midian Ice. It's going to be amazing. 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:06.640 I gotta start getting an army. I gotta start learning 0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:08.920 jiu jitsu. I gotta start, you know, whatever. He's doing 0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:12.679 to get himself excited about this big battle that is 0:27:12.720 --> 0:27:17.840 before him. But that same night verse twenty five, the 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:20.560 Lord said to him, Now, the Lord's already been speaking 0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:23.119 to Gideon for a while. It just took Gideon a 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:26.400 while to realize it. But that same night, the Lord 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:29.760 said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd, 0:27:30.280 --> 0:27:33.719 the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar 0:27:34.040 --> 0:27:38.320 to Bail and cut down the ascher a pole beside it. 0:27:39.320 --> 0:27:43.040 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord, 0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:46.439 your God on the top of this height, using the 0:27:46.480 --> 0:27:48.920 wood of the ascher a pole that you cut down, 0:27:49.480 --> 0:27:53.360 offer the second bull as a burn offering. So let's contrast. 0:27:53.800 --> 0:27:57.200 Gideon says, Oh, I'm not gonna die. Let me build 0:27:57.200 --> 0:27:59.840 you an altar God. I'm gonna call it the Lord 0:28:00.520 --> 0:28:05.000 is Peace, Jehovah Shalom. I'm gonna name this altar the 0:28:05.160 --> 0:28:08.320 Lord is Peace. Now I'm gonna go to sleep. It's 0:28:08.320 --> 0:28:10.560 been a long day. This has been very traumatic. The 0:28:10.600 --> 0:28:13.280 Lord wakes him up and says, your altar was nice, 0:28:14.880 --> 0:28:19.040 but there's another altar. Touch your neighbors say, there's another altar. 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:25.720 There's another alter that is built not to Yahweh. It's 0:28:26.320 --> 0:28:29.560 look at the wording in verse twenty five. Your father's 0:28:29.920 --> 0:28:35.119 alter to bail and while get In is busy trying 0:28:35.119 --> 0:28:37.240 to build an altar to God, like I see some 0:28:37.359 --> 0:28:39.719 people that I preach to, you're trying to build your 0:28:39.760 --> 0:28:40.400 life back. 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:42.200 You're trying to build your hope back. 0:28:42.360 --> 0:28:44.840 You're trying to build your business back, You're trying to 0:28:44.840 --> 0:28:48.120 build your family back, you're trying to build your sobriety back. 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:50.320 You had eighty one days and now you're back on 0:28:50.440 --> 0:28:53.280 day two. But that's okay because as you are trying 0:28:53.320 --> 0:28:55.920 to build it back, God wants to show you something 0:28:55.960 --> 0:28:58.280 that will make sure that this time you build it, 0:28:59.240 --> 0:29:02.400 what you build will stand the test of the battle 0:29:02.680 --> 0:29:03.360 that you face. 0:29:05.120 --> 0:29:08.760 Because because if. 0:29:08.600 --> 0:29:12.080 All I do is build an altar while Pastor Stephen 0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:15.080 is preaching, and if all I do is say, Okay, 0:29:15.280 --> 0:29:17.640 I'm gonna stack some new habits and I'm going to 0:29:17.720 --> 0:29:20.560 do some new things, and okay, the Lord is peace. 0:29:20.680 --> 0:29:21.520 I found out. 0:29:21.320 --> 0:29:26.000 Something that you cannot have God's peace and keep it 0:29:26.840 --> 0:29:37.920 without having God's priorities. God's peace without God's priorities is 0:29:38.000 --> 0:29:42.400 always temporary. The kind of peace that you've been seeking 0:29:42.440 --> 0:29:45.160 in your life, craving in your life, crying out for 0:29:45.240 --> 0:29:49.360 in your life, that kind of peace, that permanent piece, 0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:53.600 that storm speaking peace that lay your head on the 0:29:53.640 --> 0:29:57.400 pillow of a lion's main kind of peace that I'm 0:29:57.400 --> 0:29:59.840 in a fire, but I see the fourth man kind 0:29:59.880 --> 0:30:03.440 of piece, the kind of peace that can know that 0:30:03.600 --> 0:30:06.160 greater is he that is in me than he that 0:30:06.280 --> 0:30:08.240 is in the world, And there's more with us than 0:30:08.320 --> 0:30:10.880 with them, and I don't have to be afraid about 0:30:10.920 --> 0:30:11.440 any of it. 0:30:14.440 --> 0:30:17.520 That kind of peace only. 0:30:17.280 --> 0:30:22.400 Comes from priorities. I don't know how to get you 0:30:22.440 --> 0:30:23.640 to shout about priorities. 0:30:25.240 --> 0:30:30.480 Breakthrough, Yeah, priorities. 0:30:34.640 --> 0:30:38.160 I couldn't figure out how to make it sexy. I 0:30:38.160 --> 0:30:41.080 couldn't figure out how to make a sing I figure. 0:30:41.160 --> 0:30:45.520 Maybe if he played organ behind me priorities, maybe that 0:30:45.560 --> 0:30:47.800 would trick you into thinking it was really sexier than 0:30:47.840 --> 0:30:48.120 it was. 0:30:48.200 --> 0:30:49.680 But any sexy. 0:30:50.560 --> 0:30:53.800 Nothing sexy about putting stones on top of stones on 0:30:53.880 --> 0:30:58.760 top of stones. And definitely watch this. There is absolutely 0:30:58.800 --> 0:31:03.239 nothing convenient or appealing about what God told Gideon to 0:31:03.240 --> 0:31:06.000 do next, you know, fighting a battle. 0:31:05.720 --> 0:31:06.560 Against an enemy. 0:31:06.920 --> 0:31:11.400 Well I got testosterone for that, taking an army and 0:31:11.440 --> 0:31:15.000 seeing God through the impossible, which Gideon eventually did, by 0:31:15.040 --> 0:31:19.560 the way, But before he did that. 0:31:19.680 --> 0:31:21.960 He had to do this. 0:31:22.680 --> 0:31:26.920 Take the second bull from your father's heard, the one 0:31:27.480 --> 0:31:33.640 seven years old, And this must have been the hardest 0:31:33.680 --> 0:31:39.520 thing for Gideon to understand. Tear down your father's altar 0:31:40.520 --> 0:31:49.800 to bail Before Gideon can win the battle against Midian. 0:31:51.160 --> 0:31:54.040 He must break the altar to Bail. 0:31:56.560 --> 0:32:00.560 You've got a Midian in your life, an external enemy 0:32:00.600 --> 0:32:03.160 that you so badly want to see God drive back, 0:32:03.200 --> 0:32:05.040 and he can and he will, and he has plans 0:32:05.040 --> 0:32:06.920 to do it and to use you in the process, 0:32:07.280 --> 0:32:09.440 not just for you, but for everybody that God has 0:32:09.480 --> 0:32:10.400 called you to impact. 0:32:10.640 --> 0:32:12.560 That's all true. 0:32:12.760 --> 0:32:16.400 But before you can defeat. 0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:20.920 Midian, you must dethrone Bail. 0:32:25.120 --> 0:32:28.800 Would it be helpful if I explain to your neighbor 0:32:29.240 --> 0:32:32.600 what Bail is? I know you know all about Bail, 0:32:32.600 --> 0:32:34.480 but maybe your neighbor doesn't. 0:32:34.840 --> 0:32:36.080 He was the local god. 0:32:37.280 --> 0:32:41.400 It's not even his name, it's his title because Bail 0:32:41.560 --> 0:32:46.920 was said to control the fertility and the weather. Without 0:32:46.960 --> 0:32:51.800 those two things, you can't eat or recreate. But we 0:32:52.520 --> 0:32:59.080 understand Bail isn't real. We understand we have progressed as 0:32:59.080 --> 0:33:03.280 a society. We are so advanced, and thank God that 0:33:03.320 --> 0:33:06.960 we're alive at this time in the history, because we 0:33:07.160 --> 0:33:09.800 no longer trust in stuff that claims to be God. 0:33:09.800 --> 0:33:10.160 But is it? 0:33:13.240 --> 0:33:15.560 Wake up, baby, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. 0:33:17.040 --> 0:33:19.280 I didn't start slow because I got nothing to say. 0:33:19.320 --> 0:33:21.200 I just want to give you a minute to settle 0:33:21.240 --> 0:33:26.880 in for this one. It's not like we have bales 0:33:26.880 --> 0:33:31.880 in our culture, right. It's not like we have stuff 0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:33.080 that controls. 0:33:32.680 --> 0:33:37.000 Us in our culture. Right. 0:33:37.720 --> 0:33:40.560 It's not like we're a bunch of zombies in the 0:33:40.720 --> 0:33:44.400 zoo of twenty four to seven news cycles telling us 0:33:44.440 --> 0:33:45.520 what's gonna happen in. 0:33:45.480 --> 0:33:46.760 The world, when our. 0:33:46.640 --> 0:33:58.280 Savior already told us I have overcome the world before 0:33:59.480 --> 0:34:05.960 I can feet this army called Midian and have real 0:34:06.040 --> 0:34:09.319 peace with God. That's what Gideon said. He said, the 0:34:09.400 --> 0:34:12.640 Lord is peace. I'm gonna build an altar, and that's great. 0:34:12.760 --> 0:34:14.960 And the Lord is peace. And he does love you, 0:34:15.120 --> 0:34:18.480 and he will never leave you nor forsake you. In fact, 0:34:18.800 --> 0:34:22.400 he loves you too much to leave you like he 0:34:22.520 --> 0:34:27.520 found you. And when God comes into your life, not 0:34:27.719 --> 0:34:31.560 only will he break through for you, but the next 0:34:31.600 --> 0:34:34.680 thing that happens when God does break through for you 0:34:35.400 --> 0:34:39.120 is God will call you to break up with something. 0:34:40.600 --> 0:34:44.680 See how much we love to shout about breakthrough, But 0:34:44.800 --> 0:34:50.440 what if there's a breakup before the breakthrough? Is that 0:34:50.520 --> 0:34:53.839 why you've been feeling restless? Is that why you've been 0:34:53.880 --> 0:34:57.200 feeling uncomfortable doing the things you used to do? Is 0:34:57.239 --> 0:34:59.719 that why there has been a conviction in your heart that, 0:35:00.120 --> 0:35:02.920 you know what, I'm not living like this anymore. You 0:35:03.000 --> 0:35:06.200 know what, I'm not talking like this anymore. You know what, 0:35:06.520 --> 0:35:09.600 I'm not walking like this anymore. You know what, I'm 0:35:09.640 --> 0:35:14.120 not accepting this negativity that comes from my inner critic anymore, 0:35:14.320 --> 0:35:17.239 because I need to hear what God says in this 0:35:17.360 --> 0:35:26.280 season of my life. Maybe you're in a smashing season 0:35:26.320 --> 0:35:29.640 of your own. Maybe there are some things that God 0:35:29.760 --> 0:35:32.720 is breaking off of your life in this season. 0:35:33.239 --> 0:35:35.960 Maybe there are some bails. 0:35:36.560 --> 0:35:38.799 That you have been believing in that have let you down, 0:35:40.640 --> 0:35:50.719 and maybe you're going through a breakup with bail. I 0:35:50.760 --> 0:35:52.560 was talking to a lady the other day who had 0:35:52.560 --> 0:35:55.320 a boyfriend. I said, how's he doing? She said, I 0:35:55.360 --> 0:36:00.040 don't know. I quit answering his calls. I said, so, 0:36:00.080 --> 0:36:06.919 y'all broke up? She said, I guess. I said, does 0:36:06.960 --> 0:36:15.919 he know? And she said he will called ghosting. She's 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:19.400 just gonna ghost ghost the man how goes mad? When 0:36:19.440 --> 0:36:21.719 I was a kid, the most cowardly thing you could 0:36:21.760 --> 0:36:25.799 do is send somebody else to tell. Not that I 0:36:25.840 --> 0:36:28.600 was traumatized by Melissa in fifth grade, but why would 0:36:28.640 --> 0:36:32.600 you send Why would you send someone else to tell me. 0:36:34.120 --> 0:36:36.000 How do you think it's disrespectful to break up by text? 0:36:36.040 --> 0:36:36.959 Raise your hand by text? 0:36:37.000 --> 0:36:37.480 At least? All? 0:36:37.560 --> 0:36:40.200 Yeah, I think so too, if it's been over two 0:36:40.239 --> 0:36:46.600 weeks in the relationship. We'll get into this later, but 0:36:46.800 --> 0:36:49.239 here's what I want to say. 0:36:49.520 --> 0:36:50.920 Israel has ghosted God. 0:36:55.200 --> 0:36:57.239 When I said earlier you tried to break up with God, 0:36:57.280 --> 0:36:58.600 You're like, Nope, nope, didn't do it. 0:36:59.320 --> 0:36:59.839 Didn't do it. 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:05.840 I did not, you know, like like like what I 0:37:05.920 --> 0:37:08.720 meant by that was that you did your a pentagram 0:37:08.760 --> 0:37:10.880 on your wall, started listening to Slayer worshiping the devil, 0:37:10.920 --> 0:37:19.120 And you know, I think sometimes we just stop answering. 0:37:22.160 --> 0:37:24.560 Stay right there, stay right there, and act like I'm 0:37:24.560 --> 0:37:25.400 not talking to you. 0:37:25.480 --> 0:37:27.160 All you're doing is proven that you're the one. This 0:37:27.239 --> 0:37:27.799 message is for. 0:37:29.000 --> 0:37:30.879 Stay right there and act like you're always a ten. 0:37:32.280 --> 0:37:34.239 The only reason you're a ten is because he kept 0:37:34.239 --> 0:37:40.279 coming to get you. The only reason you're in is 0:37:40.320 --> 0:37:44.960 because he kept coming, not because you did like you 0:37:45.040 --> 0:37:49.160 always prayed, like you always did it right, like you 0:37:49.280 --> 0:37:53.879 always deserved it, like you were always so wonderful, like 0:37:53.920 --> 0:37:55.600 you always wrote around. 0:37:55.280 --> 0:37:56.560 Singing way maker. 0:37:56.320 --> 0:38:01.000 Miracle worker, like you always were kind like you always gave, 0:38:01.320 --> 0:38:05.240 like you always forgave. The reason that I didn't break 0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:11.200 down is because God wouldn't let me break up with him. 0:38:11.239 --> 0:38:12.839 All Right, I'm gonna tell you a story. I'm gonna 0:38:12.840 --> 0:38:13.719 take you a story I canna tell you? 0:38:13.719 --> 0:38:14.160 Ready for it? 0:38:15.080 --> 0:38:17.520 Did y'all know Holly tried to break up with me. 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:22.520 She tried to break up with me. Watch this for 0:38:22.600 --> 0:38:27.200 the summer, for the summer. This has never been told 0:38:27.200 --> 0:38:31.160 from the pulpit. It has only been discussed behind closed doors. 0:38:31.840 --> 0:38:33.719 She looked at me seriously. 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:36.440 She was really thought this was gonna be something I 0:38:36.520 --> 0:38:40.200 was gonna accept as a term of negotiation. She says, well, 0:38:40.239 --> 0:38:42.640 you're going to do this this summer, and I'm gonna 0:38:42.680 --> 0:38:44.839 do this this summer. What if we just see if 0:38:44.880 --> 0:38:46.640 the Lord brings anybody else. 0:38:46.440 --> 0:38:56.560 Into our lives? Can you believe I'm telling them this? 0:39:03.040 --> 0:39:07.640 But she's on the front road because I, like God 0:39:08.120 --> 0:39:08.920 wouldn't let her. 0:39:10.800 --> 0:39:13.719 I always wanted to be God in an illustration. I'm 0:39:13.760 --> 0:39:16.480 so far from God in my real life. I just 0:39:16.520 --> 0:39:19.560 wanted like for fun, Usually she gets to be the 0:39:19.600 --> 0:39:22.400 good one. I'm so happy that I said. 0:39:22.280 --> 0:39:25.640 Now you're talking, I know what I gotten I wanted 0:39:25.920 --> 0:39:26.399 and I. 0:39:26.400 --> 0:39:27.000 Will not. 0:39:32.320 --> 0:39:40.080 God. He didn't leave me like God. 0:39:45.960 --> 0:39:59.080 And God feels this way about you, and he loves 0:39:59.160 --> 0:40:03.120 you so much that he would let you be in 0:40:03.320 --> 0:40:08.160 bondage for a little while rather than let you worship 0:40:08.239 --> 0:40:11.359 bail for the rest of your life. 0:40:12.239 --> 0:40:16.239 Bail is a false God. Bail is a God who 0:40:16.320 --> 0:40:17.600 keeps you in bondage. 0:40:18.560 --> 0:40:21.200 Bail is a God that you cannot appease even with 0:40:21.320 --> 0:40:26.560 human sacrifices. Bail can't make it rain. Ask Jezebel. She 0:40:26.719 --> 0:40:29.760 thought Bail could make it happen, but she was wrong. 0:40:30.200 --> 0:40:33.600 She had to apologize before she died because she found 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:40.919 out that Bail is not God, and before Gideon could 0:40:40.960 --> 0:40:43.920 build an altar to God. Before you can build a 0:40:43.960 --> 0:40:46.839 new beginning in your life, before we can get past 0:40:46.880 --> 0:40:50.800 this temporary behavior modification that doesn't last ten minutes after 0:40:50.840 --> 0:40:55.239 we leave church, there might be something you have to 0:40:55.239 --> 0:41:01.879 go home and Drake. If somebody sent you this YouTube link, 0:41:01.920 --> 0:41:11.120 they might be breaking up with you, but it might 0:41:11.120 --> 0:41:15.960 not be a relationship. Don't go quit your job talking 0:41:15.960 --> 0:41:20.080 about I'm smashing my bail onto the I could just 0:41:20.080 --> 0:41:21.960 see a kid, you know, Because people like to take 0:41:22.000 --> 0:41:24.000 the message and twist it all up. I could see 0:41:24.120 --> 0:41:27.320 a kid going home and smack take a baseball bat 0:41:27.360 --> 0:41:30.680 to their parents' car. I'm smashing my father's alter to Bail. 0:41:30.680 --> 0:41:32.920 I know you're not. You've about to you about to 0:41:39.080 --> 0:41:39.760 feel the wrath. 0:41:43.440 --> 0:41:46.719 Amazing, he said, Before you can go forward and fight 0:41:46.840 --> 0:41:51.080 this battle, I need you to demolish your father's alter 0:41:51.200 --> 0:41:53.040 for the purposes of the class that we're having today. 0:41:53.040 --> 0:41:55.160 I do not want you to think about your father's 0:41:55.160 --> 0:41:58.239 alter as being about what your family taught you Biologically. 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:01.080 That would be too limited, for it was not only 0:42:01.160 --> 0:42:03.840 Joe ash that had erected an altar. He was just 0:42:03.880 --> 0:42:08.840 the custodian of the cultural corruption. So what God was 0:42:08.840 --> 0:42:11.160 really telling Gideon in this passage, what he's really speaking 0:42:11.200 --> 0:42:14.640 to us as a New Testament church today, has nothing 0:42:14.640 --> 0:42:14.920 to do. 0:42:14.880 --> 0:42:18.239 With the family that you were raised in. It has 0:42:18.280 --> 0:42:19.520 to do with the beliefs. 0:42:21.239 --> 0:42:28.120 The belief everybody say, belief, the beliefs that you cherish, 0:42:28.480 --> 0:42:33.759 the beliefs that you behave out of the beliefs that 0:42:33.800 --> 0:42:38.719 are ingrained in you. The belief the beliefs, that's what 0:42:39.280 --> 0:42:39.880 Bail was. 0:42:40.000 --> 0:42:43.720 Bail was not just an idol you picture just the object. 0:42:43.719 --> 0:42:46.120 The object was just pointing to the belief behind it, 0:42:46.239 --> 0:42:48.960 that we need something other than God to make it rain, 0:42:50.480 --> 0:42:53.520 that we need something other than God to give us life, 0:42:54.400 --> 0:42:57.120 that we need something other than God to defend us. 0:42:57.440 --> 0:43:03.120 How's that working for you? How is your bail doing? 0:43:04.600 --> 0:43:07.359 Because you said if you succeeded this much, you would 0:43:07.400 --> 0:43:10.959 be happy, and you got success. How did success serve 0:43:11.040 --> 0:43:14.640 you when you made it a God? I guarantee you 0:43:14.680 --> 0:43:17.840 it left you emptier because more success came with more pressure, 0:43:18.080 --> 0:43:20.200 and you found out that there is nothing that can 0:43:20.239 --> 0:43:23.960 make you feel full if you are empty without him. 0:43:24.040 --> 0:43:28.320 Mm hmmm hm. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. 0:43:29.600 --> 0:43:33.040 That's what I'm saying smashing Bail's alter. This isn't you 0:43:33.160 --> 0:43:36.680 going home and deleting Facebook for a week. It may 0:43:36.760 --> 0:43:39.360 include that, but that is not what I'm trying to 0:43:39.440 --> 0:43:43.319 achieve by preaching this message. When I say there may 0:43:43.360 --> 0:43:47.200 be a breakup with Bail that needs to happen, what 0:43:47.320 --> 0:43:51.360 I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going 0:43:51.400 --> 0:43:55.640 back to school this week and there are things that 0:43:55.719 --> 0:44:01.120 you believed last year. But God has been working on 0:44:01.160 --> 0:44:04.799 your heart not only in this message, but in this 0:44:04.960 --> 0:44:08.200 season and when you go back to your school in 0:44:08.239 --> 0:44:10.920 a few days, or if you've already gone back to school, 0:44:11.080 --> 0:44:14.640 when you walk in tomorrow. You walk in, and after 0:44:14.719 --> 0:44:17.880 a while people notice that you are not as easily 0:44:18.000 --> 0:44:21.480 drawn to and seduced by the things that you were 0:44:21.560 --> 0:44:26.000 drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in 0:44:26.040 --> 0:44:27.000 a previous season. 0:44:28.320 --> 0:44:29.920 And they begin to say things to. 0:44:29.920 --> 0:44:34.480 You like you've changed, you're different. Maybe they even make 0:44:34.520 --> 0:44:37.520 it a little bit meaner. And they start calling you 0:44:37.680 --> 0:44:40.920 names because you won't have sex, and they start leaving 0:44:40.960 --> 0:44:43.319 you out because you won't go places. 0:44:43.280 --> 0:44:46.239 And you have the audacity, Gideon, to. 0:44:46.320 --> 0:44:50.359 Look at them and say, yeah, I know I look 0:44:50.400 --> 0:44:53.600 a little different, and I know I act a little different, 0:44:54.360 --> 0:44:57.200 And it's not that I'm better than you, but it's 0:44:57.280 --> 0:45:00.920 just that something happened to me over the summer that 0:45:01.000 --> 0:45:03.840 I don't know if I told you about this, but 0:45:03.920 --> 0:45:09.960 I've been through a break up. Me and Bail broke up. 0:45:11.680 --> 0:45:15.320 I decided he wasn't doing it for me. I decided 0:45:15.360 --> 0:45:18.359 that living to be popular was costing me too much 0:45:18.400 --> 0:45:25.600 peace ma I decided that living for pleasure cost me 0:45:25.719 --> 0:45:29.560 too much paint. On the other side, I decided that 0:45:29.760 --> 0:45:35.280 not having God's priorities. Men, I can't have God's peace. 0:45:35.520 --> 0:45:38.520 So y'all be anxious. If you gotta be anxious, y'all 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:41.480 be crazy. If you got to be crazy, y'all be hateful. 0:45:41.520 --> 0:45:44.000 If you gotta be hateful, y'all call me what y'all 0:45:44.040 --> 0:45:44.759 gotta call me. 0:45:45.120 --> 0:45:50.800 But the one who called me is more important than you. Haddah. 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:54.880 High five of your neighbors say, I'm breaking up with Bail, 0:45:56.480 --> 0:45:58.799 so I might not look the same next time you 0:45:58.880 --> 0:46:01.840 see me. Use I'm gonna be going through a breakup, 0:46:02.480 --> 0:46:05.319 and it might be a painful breakup, and I may 0:46:05.400 --> 0:46:08.239 have to relearn some things, and I may have to 0:46:08.239 --> 0:46:11.640 be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some 0:46:11.920 --> 0:46:16.120 nice but I'm determined to see this through. Why because 0:46:16.239 --> 0:46:20.239 after the breakup there will be a breakthrough. 0:46:22.040 --> 0:46:26.120 Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. 0:46:26.200 --> 0:46:30.400 Get happy because I'm gonna cry for a little while. 0:46:31.480 --> 0:46:36.239 But we've been may endure for a night. 0:46:37.480 --> 0:46:42.960 But high five your neighbors say, after the breakup, when the. 0:46:43.040 --> 0:46:48.799 Sun came up, When the sun came up, when the 0:46:48.840 --> 0:46:57.440 sun came up, there it was the altar of fan demolished, 0:46:57.520 --> 0:47:02.640 the pieces broken to pieces, sash the basis, find the 0:47:02.840 --> 0:47:10.120 power oh God, hot pot ten. People say I'm a 0:47:10.320 --> 0:47:13.439 tam right now, I'm a tin right now. 0:47:14.360 --> 0:47:15.680 I'm all Sein right now? 0:47:17.280 --> 0:47:21.360 Who almost said I'm all him? 0:47:21.760 --> 0:47:33.000 How thoughts you are too hollahs. But me and God 0:47:33.480 --> 0:47:34.600 got back together? 0:47:34.960 --> 0:47:45.600 How how whoa? That's why I'm president sow whoa? How good? 0:47:45.680 --> 0:47:47.000 You are falling apart? 0:47:47.480 --> 0:47:47.920 Hollow? 0:47:50.120 --> 0:47:51.800 But me and God. 0:47:56.040 --> 0:48:00.480 In fact, I'm not even telling Bail myself. That's gonna 0:48:00.480 --> 0:48:08.200 send him a message. Why are you breaking up with 0:48:08.280 --> 0:48:12.360 me because you're not God? Stop thinking this is a 0:48:12.360 --> 0:48:16.080 marriage seminar. I'm not talking about a divorce from your spouse. 0:48:16.440 --> 0:48:20.440 I'm talking about a divorce from your belief system that 0:48:20.640 --> 0:48:27.000 is keeping you stuck. You might have a better spouse 0:48:27.040 --> 0:48:31.440 if you had a different belief system about marriage, and. 0:48:31.440 --> 0:48:32.919 It might not even be a different one. 0:48:34.080 --> 0:48:37.680 So before you take the bat to the marriage, take 0:48:37.719 --> 0:48:39.080 the bat to Bail. 0:48:40.480 --> 0:48:42.600 And all of that. I was gonna preach to you 0:48:43.880 --> 0:48:44.239 all of. 0:48:44.200 --> 0:48:53.200 That, and then I realized it wasn't about that alter. 0:48:54.840 --> 0:48:56.319 It was about what was on it. 0:48:58.840 --> 0:48:59.480 Read it with me. 0:49:00.160 --> 0:49:03.360 I'm almost done. Don't even sit back down. Put the 0:49:03.400 --> 0:49:06.840 pressure on me to be expedient and concise. By standing 0:49:06.880 --> 0:49:12.200 on your feet he said, I want you to tear 0:49:12.239 --> 0:49:17.359 down your father's altar, the one to bail, the cultural 0:49:17.520 --> 0:49:22.440 crap that you keep doing. I want you to clear 0:49:22.440 --> 0:49:24.440 your algorithm this week for what you think is a 0:49:24.480 --> 0:49:30.799 normal attitude. I want you to I want you to 0:49:30.880 --> 0:49:35.880 smash that so that I can do something amazing through you. 0:49:36.280 --> 0:49:38.120 That's what this is about. In your life. 0:49:38.320 --> 0:49:42.120 You think every season of breaking is contrary to the 0:49:42.160 --> 0:49:43.200 season of blessing. 0:49:44.800 --> 0:49:49.600 But after the breakup there's always breakthrough. Well, no breakup, 0:49:49.680 --> 0:49:52.839 no breakthrough. You will keep. 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:54.960 Going back to bail, and you know what you'll do. 0:49:55.200 --> 0:49:59.720 You will blame it on Midian You will keep thinking 0:49:59.719 --> 0:50:01.759 the the problem is what is against you that you 0:50:01.840 --> 0:50:05.719 can see. But the problem isn't what I can see 0:50:05.760 --> 0:50:09.040 that's against me. It's what I keep abandoning that is 0:50:09.080 --> 0:50:09.520 within me. 0:50:12.040 --> 0:50:13.279 Because greater is He. 0:50:13.719 --> 0:50:15.560 I don't know who this is for, but this thing 0:50:15.640 --> 0:50:18.880 is burning a hole in me today. It is not 0:50:19.000 --> 0:50:21.920 the Midianites to keep defeating you. It is not the 0:50:21.960 --> 0:50:25.920 addiction itself. It is the altar to bail that keeps 0:50:25.960 --> 0:50:30.360 you believing that you need something other than God. 0:50:33.280 --> 0:50:34.120 And the Lord. 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:38.799 Challenged me to read this scripture again and again, and 0:50:38.840 --> 0:50:42.600 I said, okay. God, he got up and he built 0:50:42.640 --> 0:50:45.480 a new altar, and he tore down the altar to Bail. 0:50:45.840 --> 0:50:49.040 I begin to study about the altar the proper, because. 0:50:48.760 --> 0:50:52.280 In verse twenty six it says, build a proper kind 0:50:52.640 --> 0:50:55.360 of altar to the Lord, your God. 0:50:55.400 --> 0:50:58.320 What is the proper altar that you would build? 0:50:58.480 --> 0:51:01.600 Well, it was uncut stone so that no human hand 0:51:01.600 --> 0:51:04.800 could defile it. It was piled up and made ready 0:51:04.840 --> 0:51:08.239 for the sacrifice, because the altar was a place to die. 0:51:08.280 --> 0:51:11.040 But then I realized that there was one altar that 0:51:11.239 --> 0:51:14.280 was smashed the next morning, and there was one altar 0:51:14.520 --> 0:51:17.400 that was standing. But the thing that made the altar 0:51:17.520 --> 0:51:22.360 proper was not what it was made of, as. 0:51:22.280 --> 0:51:23.600 Much as what was on it. 0:51:25.600 --> 0:51:32.120 The Lord told Gideon, get a bull from your father's 0:51:32.760 --> 0:51:37.000 heard a bull was a common sacrifice. So far we 0:51:37.080 --> 0:51:40.720 see no real revelation as to what needs to happen next, 0:51:40.800 --> 0:51:44.240 but there is significance in this detail. The second bull, 0:51:45.719 --> 0:51:51.720 the one seven years old, smash the altar to Bail, 0:51:53.400 --> 0:51:56.800 build the altar to God. And after you have taken 0:51:57.040 --> 0:52:01.800 the asherah poll which was an idolatry. 0:52:01.160 --> 0:52:05.680 And you put the second bull as a burnt offering 0:52:06.200 --> 0:52:15.239 wait a minute, The bull is not random in this passage. 0:52:15.480 --> 0:52:16.279 The bull. 0:52:18.080 --> 0:52:29.000 Represents Bail, not just because they sound alike, but all 0:52:29.040 --> 0:52:33.279 of the false gods of the Canaanites had mascots. 0:52:34.960 --> 0:52:38.480 For Astrarah, who was their sex god, the mascot was 0:52:38.520 --> 0:52:42.440 a pole, But for Bail, who was the weather in 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:50.160 fertility god, the mascot was a bull. So when the 0:52:50.239 --> 0:52:54.680 Lord told Gideon, I want you to take the bull 0:52:55.640 --> 0:52:59.880 on the altar that you build to God and smash 0:53:00.160 --> 0:53:04.359 the altar that your father built to Bail, what God 0:53:04.480 --> 0:53:08.839 was saying is I want you to believe Me more 0:53:08.840 --> 0:53:09.880 than you believe Bail. 0:53:15.160 --> 0:53:16.520 And it is very. 0:53:16.239 --> 0:53:20.680 Simple to say, but very hard to apply, because the 0:53:20.840 --> 0:53:23.719 enemy will lie to you and lie to you, and 0:53:23.880 --> 0:53:27.520 lie to you and feed you with beliefs about the 0:53:27.560 --> 0:53:31.560 way things are, about what is important, about what really matters. 0:53:31.800 --> 0:53:35.640 He will feed you as much bull as you will 0:53:35.640 --> 0:53:41.439 listen to. But the Lord said, today is the day 0:53:42.440 --> 0:53:45.320 for you to put the bull on the altar. 0:53:46.800 --> 0:53:47.880 You hear what I'm saying. 0:53:49.160 --> 0:53:52.799 You hear what I'm saying online, touch your neighbors, say, 0:53:52.840 --> 0:53:57.920 put the bull on the altar. Every lie you've believed, 0:53:58.280 --> 0:54:01.279 every stronghold you've exceed every. 0:54:01.120 --> 0:54:04.760 False god you worshiped. Put the bull on the altar. 0:54:07.960 --> 0:54:12.319 As long as we keep building altars to things that 0:54:12.400 --> 0:54:15.960 we ought to let die, we will be in covenant 0:54:16.000 --> 0:54:21.040 with God, but be in captivity in life. 0:54:21.320 --> 0:54:23.200 You have got to put the bull. 0:54:22.960 --> 0:54:25.279 On the altar. I mean, they're playing slow music behind me, 0:54:25.280 --> 0:54:27.759 but I feel like I'm really preaching. Every time the 0:54:27.760 --> 0:54:30.880 devil lies to you, put that bull on the altar. 0:54:32.680 --> 0:54:36.120 Every time he tells you you're insignificant because you're not famous. 0:54:36.360 --> 0:54:39.680 Put that bull on the altar every time he starts 0:54:39.680 --> 0:54:42.239 trying to tell you and attict is all you'll ever be. 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:45.520 Put that bull on the altar. Whom the sun sets 0:54:45.560 --> 0:54:46.760 free is free. 0:54:46.840 --> 0:54:56.959 Indeed, put that bull on the altar. I heard about 0:54:56.960 --> 0:55:01.120 a basketball game where Michael Jordan scored sixty nine points 0:55:01.120 --> 0:55:01.680 in the game. 0:55:02.440 --> 0:55:04.680 There was a rookie who was interviewed after the game. 0:55:04.719 --> 0:55:05.160 It was his. 0:55:05.160 --> 0:55:07.920 First game in the NBA. This was nineteen ninety. 0:55:08.160 --> 0:55:11.080 They said, what are your comments on your first game 0:55:11.080 --> 0:55:12.160 in the NBA. 0:55:12.160 --> 0:55:14.800 And he said boldly, I'll always. 0:55:14.400 --> 0:55:17.400 Remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I 0:55:17.600 --> 0:55:31.000 combined to score seventy points. He said that because when 0:55:31.000 --> 0:55:33.200 you're connected to the right one. 0:55:34.000 --> 0:55:35.879 I'm not talking about a bull. Now, I'm not talking 0:55:35.880 --> 0:55:36.439 about a bull. 0:55:36.880 --> 0:55:42.480 I'm talking about the spotless, perfect lamb of God. Slay 0:55:42.760 --> 0:55:43.919 from the foundation. 0:55:45.360 --> 0:55:45.680 Wah. 0:55:51.880 --> 0:55:54.799 So the Lord says to get in. You are not 0:55:55.480 --> 0:55:59.239 going to die. But there are some lies that you 0:55:59.280 --> 0:56:03.399 have believed that must die so you can live. There 0:56:03.440 --> 0:56:07.600 are some lies that you have believed that must die 0:56:07.840 --> 0:56:08.759 so you can live. 0:56:08.840 --> 0:56:12.320 There are some lies you have believed that must die 0:56:12.440 --> 0:56:19.280 so you can live. What that bull on the altar. 0:56:20.719 --> 0:56:24.400 Stop thinking that there's something that will fulfill you or 0:56:24.440 --> 0:56:25.680 complete you outside of God. 0:56:25.719 --> 0:56:29.520 There is nothing. It's nobody else's job to complete you. 0:56:30.280 --> 0:56:33.520 It's nobody else's job to fulfill you. It's nobody else's 0:56:33.600 --> 0:56:37.520 job to make you happy. That's God's job. Let him 0:56:37.560 --> 0:56:38.960 do it. Build a proper altar. 0:56:39.920 --> 0:56:43.960 Let God fill those deep places in your life. And 0:56:44.080 --> 0:56:49.960 remember this that there is nothing you can do that 0:56:49.960 --> 0:56:55.279 would separate Him from you. Every time the devil tells 0:56:55.320 --> 0:56:57.560 you you're too far gone. Now, remember you serve a 0:56:57.560 --> 0:57:00.799 God who can make a two to ten by his blood, 0:57:03.480 --> 0:57:06.960 and me and Michael Jordan can score seventy points together 0:57:07.600 --> 0:57:11.320 on a single night, and God can use you to deliver, 0:57:11.400 --> 0:57:13.120 and God can use you to be a blessing, and 0:57:13.160 --> 0:57:15.200 God can use you to give wisdom, and God can 0:57:15.320 --> 0:57:17.120 use you to build it up, and God can use 0:57:17.120 --> 0:57:20.360 you to tear it down. But it's going to be 0:57:20.360 --> 0:57:25.280 because of Him. And when they investigated in the daylight 0:57:25.320 --> 0:57:27.160 to see who had done it in the night, they said, 0:57:27.920 --> 0:57:28.760 Gideon did it. 0:57:30.080 --> 0:57:34.560 Gideon. Isn't he the one who was hiding in the 0:57:34.600 --> 0:57:40.680 wine press? I like to imagine at that moment Gideon says, yeah, 0:57:40.800 --> 0:57:41.439 I was. 0:57:44.280 --> 0:57:53.720 But me and God God back together, and we have this. 0:57:53.720 --> 0:57:55.240 Ministry of reconciliation. 0:57:58.800 --> 0:58:00.400 I know what you've done alone, and I know what 0:58:00.440 --> 0:58:02.200 you've done in your own strength, and so do you. 0:58:02.600 --> 0:58:04.560 I know that bail has failed you. He fails all 0:58:04.600 --> 0:58:08.040 of us. I know how your faults, bail leafs, have 0:58:08.160 --> 0:58:11.760 led you to a place of codependency with substance. Mail 0:58:11.840 --> 0:58:15.439 always does that. I know how thinking that somebody needs 0:58:15.480 --> 0:58:17.480 to approve you before you can be worthy of love 0:58:17.600 --> 0:58:19.800 has left you running drinking salt water in an ocean 0:58:19.800 --> 0:58:20.280 that you're. 0:58:20.080 --> 0:58:27.440 Already drowning in. That's what bail always does. Break that alter, break. 0:58:27.160 --> 0:58:30.720 That altar, Delete every opinion that tells you what a 0:58:30.760 --> 0:58:33.120 young lady is supposed to be like. And ask your 0:58:33.160 --> 0:58:35.560 father what a woman of God looks like. And put 0:58:35.600 --> 0:58:40.240 your virtue on and where your values proudly. And when 0:58:40.240 --> 0:58:42.240 they say you don't post no more, tell him Yeah. 0:58:42.720 --> 0:58:46.080 Me and Bail broke up, and me and God got 0:58:46.120 --> 0:58:46.880 back together. 0:58:47.360 --> 0:58:48.600 That altar is gone. 0:58:48.840 --> 0:58:54.800 I'm ant worship at it another day. I want you 0:58:54.840 --> 0:58:56.560 to grab the hand of the person next to you 0:58:56.640 --> 0:58:58.919 because they're in a battle right now. 0:58:58.920 --> 0:59:03.480 They're in a breakup right now. Now stand through your feet. Everybody. 0:59:03.480 --> 0:59:04.440 I thought y'all were standing. 0:59:04.480 --> 0:59:07.440 I was preaching so hard. Only ten percent was the 0:59:07.440 --> 0:59:11.520 front road. Fooled me again. Squeeze their hand right now, 0:59:11.560 --> 0:59:15.160 because they're in a battle. Squeeze their hand because they're 0:59:15.200 --> 0:59:18.040 in a battle. I want you to squeeze their hand 0:59:18.040 --> 0:59:22.600 to let them know you didn't die. That's how you 0:59:22.640 --> 0:59:25.320 know that the covenant keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and 0:59:25.400 --> 0:59:28.000 Jacob is with you too. Even though it was seven 0:59:28.080 --> 0:59:31.560 years of sin. Isn't it weird that the Bible said 0:59:31.600 --> 0:59:35.000 Graham it was a seven year old bull, which was 0:59:35.040 --> 0:59:37.560 the exact length of time they had been in captivity. 0:59:39.120 --> 0:59:42.280 It was the bull that kept them in bondage. 0:59:43.520 --> 0:59:46.840 You can be free the moment you come into agreement 0:59:46.920 --> 0:59:50.560 with God what he says about you. So you can 0:59:50.600 --> 0:59:53.520 be free from the moment that you decide there is 0:59:53.560 --> 0:59:55.800 no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus 0:59:55.800 --> 0:59:57.600 cuts through Christ. Jesus the low spirital life. Set me 0:59:57.600 --> 0:59:59.520 free from the lost, sin and death. You don't have 0:59:59.560 --> 1:00:03.200 to stay in this another seven years. You can be 1:00:03.320 --> 1:00:08.760 free the moment you believe. Put that bull on the altar, 1:00:09.080 --> 1:00:12.800 by a new bull. Believe you believe in him, you 1:00:12.880 --> 1:00:16.320 will be saved. And right now there's somebody in this 1:00:16.440 --> 1:00:18.480 room who needs this message as a matter of life 1:00:18.560 --> 1:00:18.960 and death. 1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:22.720 You're not gonna die. You're not gonna die. 1:00:23.880 --> 1:00:26.440 But Thomas said, I would have despaired unless I believe 1:00:26.480 --> 1:00:28.200 that I would see the goodness of the Lord in 1:00:28.240 --> 1:00:30.200 the land of the living. You're gonna see it. But 1:00:30.280 --> 1:00:32.480 there's some altars you've been running to in the land 1:00:32.520 --> 1:00:35.040 that you've been occupying, that have been keeping you from 1:00:35.120 --> 1:00:37.200 being the person God sees. 1:00:37.280 --> 1:00:41.400 But you're a warrior in this wine press, always have been. 1:00:43.280 --> 1:00:47.800 He knows there's a better you. He loved me like 1:00:47.880 --> 1:00:54.200 I was, but he didn't leave me like I was Lord, 1:00:54.240 --> 1:00:56.080 I thank you that you loved me like I was. 1:00:58.040 --> 1:00:59.320 You didn't see me as a two. 1:00:59.400 --> 1:01:00.440 You turn me to a ten. 1:01:01.800 --> 1:01:05.840 Woo. I get grateful when I think about your grace. 1:01:07.120 --> 1:01:09.680 I don't have to think about my car. I appreciate it, 1:01:09.880 --> 1:01:12.160 my house, I love it. I don't have to think 1:01:12.160 --> 1:01:14.680 about any of these things, just to say thank you 1:01:14.720 --> 1:01:15.400 for your grace. 1:01:15.480 --> 1:01:18.840 Lord. Why don't you pray that thank you for your grace? Lord? 1:01:21.400 --> 1:01:22.880 I thank you that all I have to do to 1:01:22.920 --> 1:01:26.160 be closer to you is believe that you're already here. 1:01:27.320 --> 1:01:30.120 Like that angel was staring at Gideon, and Gideon finally 1:01:30.160 --> 1:01:30.720 realized it. 1:01:31.120 --> 1:01:33.240 Maybe today is today we finally. 1:01:32.920 --> 1:01:39.800 Realize that the lies belong on the altar before your presence. God, 1:01:40.480 --> 1:01:43.440 I ask you to set your people free today. 1:01:45.040 --> 1:01:46.680 Now drop the hand, but keep your head bout in 1:01:46.720 --> 1:01:48.160 your eyes closed, no one moving around. 1:01:48.160 --> 1:01:49.920 There's somebody in this place who needs to give their 1:01:49.960 --> 1:01:53.439 life to Jesus Christ today. When you do, you don't 1:01:53.480 --> 1:01:55.120 go from a one to a two and spend the 1:01:55.160 --> 1:01:57.160 rest of your life going three, four, five, six. 1:01:57.120 --> 1:01:58.120 Seven, eight, nine, ten. 1:01:59.160 --> 1:02:01.200 You don't start perform and God will see if you 1:02:01.240 --> 1:02:06.000 can really do a triple double Somersault split spiritually the 1:02:06.040 --> 1:02:08.080 God we Sir said, I will not only give you 1:02:08.400 --> 1:02:10.960 the grace, but I will give you the faith to believe. 1:02:12.240 --> 1:02:14.360 So right now, if you know that today is your 1:02:14.440 --> 1:02:16.320 day and God is calling you to bring your life 1:02:16.920 --> 1:02:19.800 to his altar, I want to lead you in a prayer. 1:02:20.960 --> 1:02:25.240 This prayer is an expression of faith, believing in what 1:02:25.400 --> 1:02:28.479 Jesus has already done for you. And if you're ready 1:02:28.520 --> 1:02:31.440 today to repent of your sin and make Jesus the 1:02:31.480 --> 1:02:34.200 Lord of your life, I want you to repeat after me. 1:02:34.400 --> 1:02:36.440 We're all praying this out loud for the benefit of 1:02:36.440 --> 1:02:39.040 those who are coming to God or back to God. 1:02:39.120 --> 1:02:45.440 Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation. 1:02:46.600 --> 1:02:49.480 I am a sinner in need of a savior. 1:02:50.520 --> 1:02:52.160 I believe that. 1:02:52.240 --> 1:02:56.720 Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior 1:02:56.760 --> 1:02:57.320 of the world. 1:02:58.320 --> 1:03:03.840 And today make Jesus the Lord of my life. I 1:03:03.920 --> 1:03:08.440 believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose 1:03:08.480 --> 1:03:14.920 again to give me life, and I receive this new life. 1:03:15.160 --> 1:03:20.040 This is my new beginning. Thank you for joining us. 1:03:20.360 --> 1:03:22.800 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 1:03:22.880 --> 1:03:26.360 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 1:03:26.840 --> 1:03:29.000 You can click the link in the description to give 1:03:29.120 --> 1:03:33.240 now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more 1:03:33.280 --> 1:03:37.080 information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 1:03:37.360 --> 1:03:38.680 You can share it with your friends. 1:03:38.960 --> 1:03:41.240 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 1:03:41.320 --> 1:03:43.400 share it on your social stories and tag us at 1:03:43.440 --> 1:03:44.280 Elevation Church. 1:03:44.360 --> 1:03:51.000 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.