Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Thank you all for being here today. It's good to have you guys back. It's just so good to see everybody. We want to remember to pray for Butch. We haven't got an update, but we'll wait to hear, and we'll send it out via email, but keep praying for Butch. And then could you pray too for my mom? We put her in the hospice program about 10 days ago, just so she could get better care. She lives alone. She has lived alone. She is 96 and she is just suddenly going downhill very, very fast. She is very, very weak. She is so ready to go see Jesus, but it's just a process here to wrap your brain around it day by day. You are shaking your heads because so many of us have been there with our parents. So would you pray for our family and pray for my mom? What a soldier. She has been such a soldier. I couldn't even sing that song, “Goodness of God.” I usually get to start that song. I'm going to have that song at my funeral. Remember that..
Brian: Okay. Why do you think you are going to go before me?
Jacque: Okay, whatever. Anyway, that's the kind of life that my mom has given me as far as the example. She has been about the love of God. I'm just so grateful. We appreciate your prayers.
Brian: I think of the scripture that the apostle Paul said that we don't sorrow as those who have no hope, but he didn't say as Christians we don't have sorrow. When you have lost someone that has been so important in your life, you obviously have sorrow, but there is also an incredible hope that is within us as well. I love Ruby. You know how all the different hospice nurses and different people come over and the first thing out of her mouth is she she'll say to them, "You know, I'm going to heaven. Yeah. I'm going to see Jesus real soon.”
Jacque: And she says this: "God is real."
Brian: God is real. She has got such a great testimony. She has been a praying woman. I remember you tell stories that you would come home from school every day and your mom would be kneeling by the bed. That's where you would find her just praying for her family and praying for the needs of people. It's in seasons like this, when there is a transition that I ask the question, or at least a question comes into my mind, who is going to take their place? I had the same question when John Colthy's his dad passed away many years ago, who is going to take his place? He was such a prayer warrior. Maybe some of you younger people, you need to just ask the Lord. Maybe that's a gift that God wants to give you, to lay on your heart to be someone who will pray regularly, not just over your meals and not just prayer of thankfulness, but real intercession and prayer for your family, for our church, for your friends, for our nation, just whatever God lays on your heart to pray for.
This is such a gift to the world; someone who is willing to take moments out of their day. Sometimes those moments become hours, and you just pray for others and you pray for our world and the needs that are around us and only eternity will ever really show what happened when people were willing in their hard times, even in their alone times where instead of turning on a television program or something that could be used for entertainment or whatever, they took that time to just really pray.
Jacque: I just keep trying to focus on what is I head for her. What is a head? Because she is going to hear that "Well done thou good and faithful servant." I don't know if God speaks in King James Version.
Brian: I think to those who love King James, God will speak to them in King James. He speaks in our language. He speaks to us in the ways that we can understand. That's what's so great about our God; he is that relational person. Well, obviously, going through these kinds of life changes and situations that you face on an ongoing basis, it takes a lot of courage to live in the world today. I would like to do a kind of a sequel to the messages I started last week about Gideon, but this message, I want to really focus on the place where courage is born in our lives, this place where courage is born. I would like to begin by reading a couple of portions of scripture again, from story of Gideon. We find his story, of course, in the book of Judges: Judges chapter 6 verses 12-16. Read those verses really quickly.
Jacque: Okay, out of the Message Bible. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, oh, mighty warrior." Gideon replied—
Brian: Wait a minute. I've got to just set the stage here again. Where was Gideon at this time? Do you remember? He was in hiding. He was in a wine press trying to stamp out enough grain to make one barley loaf. By the way, barley loaves were considered inferior to wheat loafs. That's significant as we move forward in this story. Barley was not considered as high a quality of grain as wheat. He was trying to crush out enough barley grain to make one loaf of barley bread for him and maybe his family or whatever. He is in hiding. The Midianites have been ransacking Israel for seven years. They've been stealing all their crops. They've been stealing all their cattle, their livestock. They've been decimating the land and Gideon is hiding. The people of Israel are in caves and in crevices of the mountains. God shows up and calls him a mighty warrior. Now that's like looking at the 95 pound weakling and saying Mr. Atlas. Maybe some of you young people may not relate to that, but that's kind of the equivalent here where God says mighty warrior. So let's go on. And Gideon replied what?
Jacque: And God said, "God is with you, oh mighty warrior." And Gideon replied "with me?"
Brian: Like I said last week. Scooby Doo would say it that way.
Jacque: With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us didn't God deliver us from Egypt? The fact is God has nothing to do with us. He has turned us over to Midian.
Brian: So this is his attitude: God, you really haven't had anything to do with us. You've turned us over to Midian. I mean, it felt like that, didn't it?
Jacque: He doesn't even sound like a mighty warrior.
Brian: He doesn't sound like it mighty warrior. He doesn't talk like a mighty warrior. He doesn't look like a mighty warrior. He doesn't act like a mighty warrior, and he has got this perspective of not a mighty warrior. He is even kind of like blaming God: You've turned us over to the Midianites. You've done all this. But I love the response of God. Here is what God did.
Jacque: But God faced directly.
Brian: Basically, this is another way of saying God looked him right in the eyes. God looked him right in the face. He looked right at him and said, "Hey, Gideon, look at me." Look at me.” And this is what God had to say.
Jacque: That's what we would say to our kids when it was really important. Now, look at me.
Brian: Don't look away. Look me in the eyes.
Jacque: But God faced him directly, "Go in this strength that is yours."
Brian: Now, this is interesting. He said go in, basically your strength. Go in this strength that is yours. In other words, do what you can do. Do what you can do. And what was the command for him to do? Go and—
Jacque: Save Israel from Midian.
Brian: Go save Israel for Midian. I can just see the kind of the astonished look coming across Gideon's face. You want me to go save Israel from all the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the other termites that were out there?
Jacque: Haven't I just sent you?
Brian: God says to him, "Haven't I just told you to do it?
Jacque: Oh, we've got to see ourselves the way God sees us.
Brian: Yes. I know it. Haven't I just sent you? Haven't just I told you what to do? And Gideon said to him…
Jacque: Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel?
Brian: So Gideon is looking at the circumstance in whose strength?
Jacque: His strength.
Brian: His strength, his ability, his status, his position in life, in a sense.
Jacque: He says, "Look at me."
Brian: Look at me. Look at me, God. Like, don't you see who you are looking at? Can't you see what you are looking at?
Jacque: Oh, he had such a bad view of himself.
Brian: He did.
Jacque: He said my clan is the weakest in Manasseh.
Brian: My whole family is the weakest in all of Manasseh. He was part of the tribe of Manasseh, but not only was Manasseh the smaller one of the tribes, but it's like, my family is the smallest. It's the weakest in all of this whole clan or this tribe called Manasseh.
Jacque: And then he goes further and says, "And I'm the runt of the litter."
Brian: Yeah, I'm the runt of the whole litter. God, I mean, what's going on? What are you thinking here? And God said to him…
Jacque: I'll be with you.
Brian: I'll be with you.
Jacque: Believe me you'll defeat Midian.
Brian: "I'll be with you," that's all he said. He doesn't tell him how he is going to do it. Hi, sweetie. He doesn't tell him how he is going to do it. He doesn't tell him anything. He just said, "I'm going to be with you." That should be enough. That should be enough.
Jacque: And he told them the outcome: you'll defeat.
Brian: Yes. Now I'm to kind of skip forward in the story, but between what we just read and what we are about to read is where Gideon gathers 30,000 people, and God said it's way too many. The Midianites had 135,000. So frankly, if 30,000 people defeated 135,000, it would seem to be a pretty good victory, but God doesn't like those odds. He thinks man will take too much credit in those kinds of odds, so he is going to pair Gideon's army down. We know the story where he kept paring it down and paring it down, paring it down and finally, it got to 300. We've been at the brook there. It's one of my favorite places to go on Israel. Pastor Jeff was with us there on our last trip.
The brook is right there where God told Gideon to have the people come and drink from the brook, and those who kind of lapped with their hands and looked around, those were the ones who were to be part of the army. At the end of the day, they end up with 300 people against 135,000. Now God says, "I like those kinds of odds." I like those kinds of odds. So now we jumped to the next portion of scripture found in verses 25 to 27. Let's read that.
Jacque: That night, this is what happened: God said to him, take your father's best seven year old bull.
Brian: Now let me set the stage one more time for you. Manasseh had fallen into pagan worship, bale worship. They had an asherah pole, which was like a structure to the fertility goddess. They had really fallen into pagan worship. God wanted to make sure, like in a sense, things were, were set right before they go into battle. So he tells Gideon, “I want you to do a couple things here for me Gideon, before I do something for you here.” This is what he said, "Take your father's best seven year old bull."
Jacque: The prime on.
Brian: The very prime one.
Jacque: The very best one
Brian: They very best one.
Jacque: Tear down your father's baal alter and chopped down the asherah fertility pole beside it, then build an altar to God, your God. On the top of this Hill, take the prime bull and present it as a whole burnt offering, using firewood from the asherah pole that you cut down.
Brian: So he is going to knocked down the altar; he is going to cut down the pole and take his dad's best prime bull and sacrifice it on this new alter that has been made. Remember, Gideon's nature has not changed yet. He is still afraid; he still walks in fear. And so he kind of goes into, I don't know if we would call it a bartering deal with God, but here is what Gideon's responses to God's request
Jacque: Gideon selected 10 men from his servants and did exactly what God told him, but because of his family and the people in the neighborhood, he was afraid to do it openly, so he did it that night.
Brian: He did it at night. There are a couple of things that I want to help us see here real quickly. The first is this: It doesn't really matter if you are broke, it doesn't really matter if your marriage is on the rocks, it doesn't matter if you've served time in jail or prison. It doesn't matter if you've just lost your job. What matters is the direction you are going right now. That's what matters. It doesn't matter what direction you may have been going for 50 years or 60 years. What matters is the direction you are going at this moment. That's what is important to God. God is saying to us today that he really likes us in spite of what we may bring from our past into the present situation. God is saying to Gideon, let's get serious here now. I've got something serious I want to do on your behalf, but I need you to get serious with me as well. The seriousness is this: I want you to you go to your father's house; he is got that big idol there to bale. I want you to tear down that idle, and I want you to tear down that fertility God Asherah pole.
Go over there and knock down those idols and what the devil has used for evil, you use to bring good out of it. That's really what God was telling Gideon to do. Take these things that have been used for evil, evil worship, evil sacrifice, pagan stuff, things that are contrary to God and take that stuff and use it for good. Just use it for good. Sometimes we have been sinned against by others in our lives tragically, and it has created all sorts of issues for us. Maybe it's our own sins that have created all sorts of problems, our lives. God is saying to us today, I want you to take the sins against you and the sins that you've committed, and I want you to bring good out of it.
I don't want you to just forget about it; I want you to bring good out of it. I want you to redeem that sin, in a sense, for good. Use the material from the God of baal to build an altar. Use the material from the sins against you to build something of a sacrifice to God. Use the wood from this asherah pole to build a fire to sacrifice to me. Use all the things that have been done wrongly in our part and use it to honor and bring glory to God. Make a sacrifice to me on top of that strong hold.
Jacque: We can use what we've been through to help others.
Brian: All the things that we've been through, God wants to use to help others and to bring glory and honor to him. Gideon, of course, was afraid by day, so he did this at night. And you know what, to be frankly honest with you, to be afraid is not a dishonor. To be afraid is not a dishonor. Even the Psalmist says what time I am afraid I will trust in you. To be afraid is not a dishonor, but to be disobedient is a dishonor. That is a dishonor, to be disobedient to the Lord. And Gideon, I guess we could say was shaking in his boots. Wouldn't you say that? But he did it afraid. I love the message that Joyce Meyer preached many years ago about just doing it afraid. She took a bunch of scriptures from the book of Judges and Joshua, especially the book of Joshua about being strong and courageous.
We think of courage as being fearless, but courage isn't being fearless. Courage is doing the right thing, even when you are afraid. That's what real courage is. Gideon was shaking in his boots and he would rather be fishing. He would rather be fishing or hunting or hiding, but he did it. He went at night and he did it. I'm sure that he probably thought to himself, "In the morning, I'm going to get it." I'm sure those thoughts were in his mind. If they weren't in his mind, Satan was going to put him there in his mind. You are going to get it in the morning.
Jacque: So he was afraid of the Midianites plus his own people.
Brian: His own people, his own family, what his own family is going to think of him now. When my father finds out, that's going to be the end of me. How many of us have had that thought during our youth anyways? But he did it. As I think about this, I was thinking about the alphabet how O comes before P -J K L M N O P, and obedience always precedes provision. Obedience always precedes provision for us. But here is how we want it. We want provision and then we'll obey. But God's formula is obedience always precedes provision. When we obey by faith without the provision, God actually then intersects our route and makes provision for us.
Gideon tears down this altar to baal in the next morning. The people in the town wake up to have their demonized worship and they discover their altars are no longer to be found. It didn't take long in a small town. Remember, my clan, my family, they were the smallest. It didn't take long in a small town to find out that Gideon did this. It didn't take long. I can just hear some of the town folk now, "Wait until his dad finds out about this. Wait until his family finds out about this." I'm sure Gideon was probably saying, “I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming.” He didn't need the word of knowledge to know what was on the horizon there to discern what was coming.
But interestingly enough, the opposite happened. We didn't read it here, but you can see it in this story where the father's response to the folk getting mad about what Gideon did. His father's response was this: “It seems like Baal has a problem with my son." I like that. That's the father's response. It seems like baal has a problem with my son. He said, "As a matter of fact, I'm going to change my son's name from Gideon to Jerubbaal,” which basically means the one whom Baal has a problem. Wouldn't that be something if our names were changed because the devil had such a problem with us; our names are changed to the devil has a problem with them. Wouldn't that be something? Because when we obey the Lord, God will often even cause our families and even our enemies to have a better opinion of ourselves, a better opinion of us than we have of ourselves. Gideon didn't have a high opinion of himself, did he? Let's go back to the interaction between Gideon and God. Me, I'm the runt of the litter here. I'm the runt of the litter.
So often we live in these valleys that are surrounded by mountains: mountains of unbelief, mountains of adversity, mountains of difficulty, mountains of what we perceive to be lack of provision. As we look around these mountains, the mountain has created what I would call alters that have been erected by the lies we believe. There are lies we believe, and in those lies, we've, in a sense, erected alters that we have sacrificed on which we have believed that declare to us all the things that we are not capable of doing, all the things that we can't do, these lies that come to us because of the mountains that at times surround us.
You may have had a father that told you you'd always be like the movie Stuart Saves his Family. I remember that terrible line in that movie where the dad says to him, "You are such a waste of space." But there are parents who have said that to their children and those statements get deposited in their spirits and in their hearts and in the recesses of their minds and they begin to believe that. That's a lie that they live with their whole life, and it influences how they think about themselves. How you think about yourself, determines the choices that you will make in your life. You might have a teacher that said you are never going to amount to anything. You may have had a jealous sibling who mocked your dreams, kind of like Joseph's brothers who were jealous of his dreams. You might've even maybe been married to someone who was not much of an encouragement to you, who ridiculed your aspirations as unattainable.
What we end up doing is we begin, in a sense, to embrace with our hearts, which is another way to say worship, we worship and believe in those alters those lies. We embrace them because with our hearts, heart is really where worship is at, isn't it? When our hearts start to believe in lies, then those lies become an altar of worship to us. It reinforces how we are going to be. This is why God wants us to come to the point where we actually declare with our mouths, what we have at times pondered in our hearts. It's important for us to declare from our mouths what God has put in our hearts has dreams and what God has declared to us and what even our aspirations might be.
Remember, we talked about this last week, but when we would drive by this corner on Conner road 30&116. We never would drive by here before our church was built. And we would say to each other, "Someday, there is going to be a church out in that field." There was a little knob out here. The church was actually built on the highest piece altitude-wise of this land. We would say, "Right out there on that knob is where a church is going to be. Someday, a church is going to be out there." We keep declaring that. God wants us to declare with our mouths, the things that we ponded in our heart, the things that we've declared in a sense from our dreamers. We all have dreamers in us. Don't let your dreamers die. No matter how old you are.
You who are watching today, maybe you are 90 years old watching this, don't let your dreamers die because the scripture says, he is going to give dreams to what? Old men will dream dreams. It's important that we keep dreaming. It's important that we keep believing. It's important that we keep looking forward, as I mentioned last week. Joseph's brothers resented his dreams and they resented his telling of his dreams as well. But you know what? It was his telling of his dreams that actually worked for him to have his dream come to pass. If he didn't ever told his brothers his dreams, they would have never thrown him in the well, they never sold him into slavery, he would have never ended up in Egypt and all of the things that were in his dreams would never have come to pass.
It's so important for us to tell people our dreams. He said declare your dreams. I'll tell you what, you are going to have a lot of people who want to throw cold water on your dreams. You are going to have a lot of people that won't believe in you and the aspirations that you have and the dreams that you declare and the things that you desire for you and your family and your community. It's really easy to be a dreamer in private, but God wants dreamers who will declare their dreams, our dreams to come in public. In private, there is no risk. There is no risk to have a dream in private. You are not declaring anything. It's just you and your thoughts, maybe between you and God. But I would just ask some questions today, some basic questions. Do you want to be healed? Do you want your marriage restored? Do you want freedom from addiction? Do you want your children who are wayward to be brought home? Do you want that family member to be saved? Do you want that community that you live in to become a more positive change for the kingdom of God? I would simply say to you today, start declaring it. Start declaring these things. We need to declare that I'm going to be a mighty warrior for God. We need to declare these things regardless of my age, regardless of my health. Let's quit making excuses.
Gideon was full of excuses, wasn't he? I'm the runt of the litter. My clan is the smallest. We can't do this. Let's start declaring these things regardless of our status, or even our financial condition. I've often said this when we've had difficulties financially and obviously, COVID and all the things that have contributed, churches are hurting today. Our church is no different. People have asked me, "Well, what are you going to do?" And my response is, “It's just money to God. It's just money to God.” It's a lot easier for God to provide money than it is for him to change a heart. It's just money. So let's not get all anxious about financial things. I'm not saying we don't need to be wise and good stewards and those kinds of things. We need to be prudent and all of that, but there is no reason to be worried because God says, "I know how to take care of what belongs to me."
Let's tear down these altars of unbelief and declared those things that aren't as though they are. Declare those things that aren't as though they are, because if we don't tear down those pagan altars of unbelief, they will become a ceiling over our head for all the things that we want to have happen in our lives. It won't happen. I think of the generational blessings that are part of all of our lives. Sometimes we forget the fact that the blessing was greater on Jacob than it was on Abraham. Jacob had 12 sons; Abraham had two. Some of us are struggling because our kids aren't where we want them to be. They've not met our expectations. I'm just saying bless your kids; just bless them. Bless them, bless them, bless them and see what God does in bringing them in. You can pull the altar of unbelief down, even when you are afraid, even when you are afraid.
Let's get back to Gideon for a second. Well, Gideon is on a roll here. He is tearing down the altar. His dad has changed his name. God says to Gideon, "I tell you what Gideon, I've already delivered the enemy camp into your hands. I've already done that. It's a done deal, but if you are afraid", which is a Gideon trait, right? "If you don't believe me, why don't you just go down to the enemy's camp?" What a dumb idea that is.
Jacque: It seems like.
Brian: yeah, right. We find this part in Judges chapter 7 verses 12 through 14.
Jacque: So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the Valley. During that night, the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant, Pirah.
Brian: Okay, so here's this incredible sense of humor that God has. First of all, he calls a man in hiding mighty. Then he says to this man in hiding, go save the nation, when the man in hiding can't even save himself. And then he says to Gideon, by the way, I have delivered the enemy into your hands, but if you don't believe me, go down to the enemy's camp. The fact of the matter is if you are in hiding and you are afraid, and you think of yourself as the runt of the litter, the last place you want to go is the enemy's camp. It's the last place you want to go. And then here is God's humor again: Well, if you are afraid, take your servant with you then.
Jacque: Just the two of them go.
Brian: Yeah. Just the two of you go. I can just see Gideon now, well, that will add a half a nanosecond onto my life, taking my servant with me. They respond, of course. Gideon takes his friend and he goes into the enemy's camp and listens. That's a thing that we are not very good at as the church. We are not very good at going to people we disagree with and just listening. We just want to go in and fix them and change them and how they think. God said to Gideon, "I want you to go into the enemy's camp and listen, just go in and listen." In the listening, something incredible was confirmed to Gideon that day. We read it in verses 12 through 14.
Jacque: The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the other Eastern peoples had settled in the Valley thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. Around loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite's night camp.
Brian: Here is this, again, barley loaf, which is not the highest quality bread to eat. It's a lower quality product, shall we say? This dream that one of the Midianites had was this barley loaf came rolling into the Midianite's camp. What did it do?
Jacque: It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.
Brian: God has got such a great way of pictures here. He takes his barley loaf and it rolls into camp, destroys the tent, the tent collapsed, and the conclusion that these Midianite guys are talking about is this:
Jacque: His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands."
Brian: This was what was going on in the Midianite's camp.
Jacque: He happened to get right there and hear that conversation.
Brian: That's my next point. 135,000 people in the meeting I camp, and Gideon just happens to land next to these two guys that are talking about this dream.
Jacque: God just organizes everything.
Brian: Can he take care of us? Can he take care of us?
Jacque: Yes, he can.
Brian Can he take care of us, yes or no. Yes, yes, yes, he can. He can take care of us. He is well able to take care of us. And you know what, sometimes God will make your enemies have a better opinion of you than you have of yourself. That's what happened here. Gideon didn't have this opinion of himself. God has already spoken to the devil. He has already spoken to the devil, and the devil has been shown the lake of fire. And he is been told that the church will prevail against him. That's what the devil has been told by God, and that victory is in store for you and I, and defeat awaits the enemy's camp defeat awaits the devil. The devil knows it. We are the ones that need to know it. The devil knows it. We are the ones that need to know it.
We've been used by the enemy. We've been abused by the enemy. We might've even been brutalized and victimized. We've been the target of demonic schemes, demonic forces. As I talked to you last week about the story of the little boy that was abducted, and he was afraid to call home because his abductor told him his mom and dad hated him now, or was angry with them and didn't want to talk to him, they were mad at him, and so the little boy never called home. In the same respect, I think many of us have been afraid to call home. We've really been afraid to really, really reach out to God in true belief, because we just have not known in our hearts and our knowers that God is really, really, really for us. He is not against us.
We have believed that God really doesn't like us, but God is very, very fond of all of us. He loves us with a never-ending love and he really likes to be with us and he really wants to be around us. Are there some people that you just love being around? Well, you are one of those kinds of people to God. You are one of those kinds of people to God. We can find out that God is saying some incredible things. He is saying that I don't care how you've been in your past. I don't care what you've done.
God says, "I'm coming to pick you up. I'm coming to give you insights and strategies on how to be successful in life. I'm coming to walk beside you to give you victory in what you are going through. I've already written down in my book, the mighty deeds that you will do." That's why he called Gideon a mighty warrior because he had already envisioned, God was already envisioning what God was going to do through Gideon. And that's why he was called a mighty warrior. It wasn't that Gideon was going to become Hercules.
So get out of the cave and let's quit hiding in the crevices of the mountains, and let's quit hiding in the wine press because it's not where you've been that matters. It's where you are going that matters. It's what direction you are heading that matters. This is the command that the Lord has given to us. If Jesus was to send us a text today on our phones, you know what I think he would text us? I think this is what he would say: It's time to go to hell because the gates of hell will not prevail against you. It's time to go to the enemy's camp and listen, because in listening, we will be encouraged and strengthened and given strategies on how to change the enemy's camp.
If you want to hear the real earth-shaking, world-changing voice of God, speaking to you, let's just go to the enemy's camp. Let's go to the enemy's camp. Let's go to those people that we don't agree with that we don't think like. Let's sit down and have coffee with them. Isn't that what Jesus did? Wasn't the greatest accusation against Jesus by the religious leaders was this: he eats with publicans and sinners. He rubbed shoulders with the riff-raff. He rubbed shoulders with all those who aren't worthy to be in our presence as religious leaders. That's who Jesus came to be with.
Can't you see the complete dichotomy between how Jesus was and, and, and representing God and how the religious leaders were at that time. And I fear at times that the church has modeled their conduct after the religious leaders, rather than after Jesus. I'm sure we've all thought at times, wouldn't it be great to see an angel, like a real angel, a big one. But I believe if we go to the enemy's camps, that's where the angels will start showing up. Angels aren't sitting around the campfire, singing kumbaya and roasting marshmallows. They are called the heavenly hosts for a reason. They are there to tear down the strongholds of the enemy.
If we want angels to be with us, let's get in a fight with the enemy. If we want angels to be with us, let's start really trying to walk in a way that represents Jesus how he is. So I encourage you today, go back to your dreams; call home. At the end of the day, it's really not what you think that matters. It's what God thinks about you that really matters. We sang that song earlier today, Each Grain of Sand.
Jacque: I love the second verse: brothers and sisters, all of creation, I see your beauty when I understand. The less that I fear you, the more I learn from you, and find God's great mystery in each grain of sand, each person, each person.
Brian: The less that I fear you—
Jacque: The more I learned from you.
Brian The more I learned from you. Courage is born when we are too weak and too small to accomplish what God has called us to do. When we are too weak and too small to do what God has told us to do, and yet we'll do it afraid: that's where courage is born, my friend. Courage is only needed when you are facing an enemy. Whether we like it or not, we've been born into this struggle. We don't have a choice. We've been born into a world where there is a conflict. There is good and evil in our world. There is a prince and power of the air and there is a God who's come to redeem it. We are born into this battle.
It kind of reminds me of the Terminator movies where the people were just born into this conflict where the machines and humans were fighting each other. The humans didn't say, "Well, I'm not going to enter into that." They just couldn't pretend it wasn't there because it was there. We've been born into this conflict. We are in the middle of this huge conflict with a foe who has evil intentions towards us. This is where courage begins when we enter into that willingness to take on that evil foe be like Jesus, trust his word to us, not look at the mountains around us that have created all the lies and the altars that have been built, but looking to the one who made the universe. Look to him, the author and finisher of our faith.
Gideon, we know one a great battle with the 300 men. The 135,000 Midianites Amalekites and all the others that were there actually turned on each other. Gideon’s men, they just carried torches and blue trumpets Wow. They were shining the light of God and blowing praises with their trumpets and victory was won.
Today, I encourage you that just do it afraid. That's courage. Whatever God has put in your heart as a dream, just declare it. Start declaring it. Even though it's not right now, declare it as though it is. See your children worshiping around the throne of God. See your children as serving Christ. See yourself as becoming what in your heart you desire to be. That might be a missionary. It might be a businessman. It might be whatever God has put in your heart, but start declaring these things and let the words of your mouth reflect the words of God to you: that you are a mighty warrior, that you are well able to do what God has called.
Jacque: Even if we are facing difficult things, just stopping to see God's perspective on it. I've been inspired, Brian, to be courageous, to help my mom end her race. I'm kind of emotional and I think I'll just give into it, but I'm going to be courageous and strong. The power of God is helping me to be strong to help my mom. I've been very inspired today. So whatever we are facing, I think of that verse, “In him, we live and move and have our being.” We can't live in our own strength or our weaknesses.
Brian: Some things are major things that you face and other things are just weekly things that you will face. I want to pray with everybody, so Jacque, just stand with me today. I would just want to pray over all of you. So father, I just thank you for this wonderful example in your word where you declared something that wasn't as though it was. You declared over Gideon that he was a mighty warrior. You declared him a victor even though everything around him was showing defeat. He had been defeated by the Midianites for seven years. He was in hiding. He was timid. He was afraid. And yet the one thing that he was willing to do was obey you.
So father, I thank you today. So put it in our hearts to be willing, to obey no matter what you ask us to do that we will obey you, Lord because obedience always precedes provision. And that as we obey you, you will provide, you will provide. And in our obedience, these false altars that had been created by the lies that we believed, lies about you, lies about ourselves, Lord, you will destroy those altars and replace it with a righteous altar of truth and that truth will bring encouragement and strength to us.
So I bless all the people that are here today. I bless all those who are watching by live stream. I just pray a complete sense of courage to come to each and every one of us, courage to take that next step forward. Even if we are afraid, we'll be courageous to do what you've called us to do. We pray this, Jesus, in your name and for your sake. Amen. Amen. Let all of us raise our hands together. Let me bless you in Jesus' name.
Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be filled with courage today to walk into the dreams and declare the dreams that God has put in your heart. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Take care. Good to see you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 3-14-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.