Overthrowing the Opposition Judge 7;8-15

Music Music Music Happy day. Happy day. got a

little heart. I got a little heart credit. A

little lung credit. Alright. That's alright.

Okay, so we come to that moment in time where

we ask ourselves how has the Lord been working?

What have you seen? What have you heard? What's

in your Bible that maybe God pointed out to you

this week? You've been studying? You read something?

He said something to you in prayer? What is it?

What do you got? Tell me. I wanted to read this

real quick and then talk after. Okay. So it says,

looking back in my life, you can tell that I

needed a change. I was a fire -burning, twisting,

turning hurricane. Know the sermon, never learning.

One foot in the grave, asked for God to save

me, just to go right back and do the same. Too

scared to ask for help, thought it made me look

weak. So the pain that I felt brought me straight

to my knees, took me out of this hell, took me

out of this wonder, because God, I give it to

you, I fully surrender to you. And it says, who

the Son sets free is free indeed. So I get a

lot of inspiration from music, and this is one

of the songs I write. The guy's name is Joe Nestor.

He's got a really great testimony if you want

to go look it up. He's got a really good testimony.

He was an addict and he got saved. And then he

started writing music about the gospel. And he's

got a lot of really good music. But a lot of

it speaks to me because I was in a similar place.

I never wanted to ask for help because I always

thought he looked like a weak man. Because a

real man is supposed to figure it out and do

it himself. or at least that's the way I was

taught and I was born and raised, is if you're

a real man, you have to do it yourself. You have

to figure it out. And so for most of my life,

that's how I lived. I was too scared to ask for

help because it made me feel less of a man if

I asked for help. And that is a lot of my struggle

even today still, is there's a lot of things

that I don't like asking for help for. And one

of those is I don't like... To talk. I don't

like to talk about how I feel. I don't like to

talk about. Things that are. Struggling with

mentally. I do have a lot of. Bad thoughts. And.

I try not to slip back to the old me. And then.

At the very end of that I said. Sunset free is

free. Amen. And that is a constant reminder to

me. That you know. Jesus died for my sin. I don't

have to worry about going back to who I was.

I don't have to worry about the old me creeping

back in because I'm free in Jesus. And I think

that's a reminder for a lot of people that are

struggling and is if you have Jesus in your heart,

you are free. You're not, you don't have to worry

anymore. You don't have to struggle anymore.

You can just give it to God and let him handle

it. And I think looking forward. It's something

that I need to focus more on. I think it's something

I need to focus more on because I need to remember

that God set me free from who I was. And there's

things that I need to be able to talk about,

things that I need to be able to say and get

off my chest without worrying about it making

me look like a weak person. Or less of a man

because, you know, I have feelings and my feelings

get hurt too. Strength is protected in weakness.

It's funny how we become weak and that's when

we realize how strong we can really be. That's

a powerful message. All right, anybody else?

Tim? I just wanted to share, I woke up great

this morning. You know, the last three days,

I just wanted to see if it was a gimmick. And

it was just, you know, another step back or what,

you know. And they changed my medicine around

until they dropped. And they dropped corn out

of my stomach. It's okay. And so I got up this

morning, got up for a nap, and went to work.

And I'm here, and it's just in my feet. It's

like the neuropathy ripped my legs and went back

down to my feet. It's just in my feet. I can

do a little bit more. And I figure every time

I praise him, do whatever he wants me to do,

he pushes it just a little bit more I can do.

A little bit more he gives me. He don't give

me all at once, but he gives me just a little

bit more. And I feel better than I ever have.

You know, I'm not going to do no jumping jacks

or nothing, but I do feel great, and I thank

the good Lord, and I thank everybody. And I want

to thank Carrie. You come in, and you help out

a lot. And you do. Even days that I miss. So

I want to thank you. You're one after one. A

man coming in and helping someone that can't

do it myself or you help. I want to thank you.

So I was in Corinthians last night. It was probably

about 1 o 'clock in the morning so I was a little

bit tired. But I wasn't giving up because I read

the whole chapter. And I'm going to tell you

what. It's just put so much peace in my heart

because over the last week, I have been under

such attack from having to call the cops on my

sister, from dealing with an alcoholic mother,

from just constant attack. And I'm a recovering

addict myself, and I do know it's hard to ask

for help. Because every time I've ever reached

out for help, I've always been beat down a little

more, beat down a little bit more. But that's

how the devil makes it play. When you're coming

out of something and you want to do good and

you want to live by God, it just shows me right

there that it's okay to forgive those. who who

keep trying because it's not them really it's

the spirit in them and sometimes when i'm in

my word the way i'm in my word and when i'm feeling

the way i'm feeling it like and when i feel it

i mean it raises the hair on my arms it raises

it raises my kids out of talk to their feet you

know um and that's really hard because my kids

have said through a lot between me and their

dad being um addicts recovering addicts and you

know their family still being an addict you know

so it's It just shows me that I'm really happy

my heart didn't start cold because over the years,

over the years, I've had so much opportunity

just to shut down and just give up on people,

give up on everybody, give up on myself and just

go with the day -to -day flow. But with the Word

and with everything around me, God's shown me

that it ain't over. And I'm not done yet. Amen.

Keep sharing that message right there because

there's a lot of people that are in that same

place that don't need to hear that. I don't know

where he's gotten going, but I know he's gotten

going somewhere. Amen. All right. Good word.

Okay, so we're going to pray together at this

time, and then we'll do tithes and offerings

and another song, and then we'll move your children

to their class. If you can come, would you lead

us in this prayer, and we'll pray along with

you. Please remember anybody the Lord lays in

your heart that needs help. Another day, you've

given us thanks for this place we've come to.

And as your people, as a body, worshiping you,

hearing from you, Lord, we just invite you here

to be with us and directly lead our service.

Thank you, Lord, for these new faces we have

with us. Thank you for their searching out and

deciding to come and worship with us today. We

just ask you, Lord, to be with us. Lord, there's

many hurting. many people recovering. And Lord,

you are the great physician. You are the protector.

You are the healer. So it's been on you, Lord,

to watch over them and see them through. And

just ask you, Lord, to, I mean, I'm not mentioning

anybody, but we all know of someone who is going

through an ordeal maybe at this time. Just ask

you, Lord, to be with them as you see them in

their mind and in their hearts. And ask you,

Lord, just to... Bless this time. Bless this

offering as we pick it up. And thank you, Lord,

that we can give. And thank you for all the gifts

that you've given us. Because every perfect gift

is from you. And some of them are not so perfect.

But everything we have is because you allow it.

And help us, Lord, to be good stewards of what

you've given. And I ask you, Lord, that you let

us do this in your service. In Jesus' name I

pray. Amen. You're awake now. This should be

a good song. I speak the name of Jesus over you.

In your hurting, in your sorrow, I will ask my

God to move. I speak the name because it's all

that I can do. In desperation, I'll seek help.

Thank you. So this is how this is going to go.

So I'm going to adjudicate the fight. When the

fight begins, I'm going to give this sword to

you. And you're going to fight Jason. And if

by some chance you should defeat Jason, then

Josh, you'll go next. So if she defeats you,

you have to give the sword to Josh. I only brought

two swords. So this is the sword that you're

going to use to defeat Jason. Jason, you're going

to fight fair? You're going to fight fair, right?

Okay. Okay. All right. Well, that's one down.

Okay. Back to Josh. Here you go. Okay, Josh.

All right. So as the fight begins, I'm going

to give you this sword. Okay. And if you manage

to defeat Josh, then you're going to have to

defeat Tommy. You understand how this is? Okay.

You got this figured out? Okay. I'm sorry. It

appears there's no one to resist. Tommy, you're

up, man. Okay. So as the fight begins, I'm going

to give you this sword, and then you're going

to have to fight. I want you to understand, Tommy

has beaten me in sword fighting on many an occasion,

and even left me bruised and battered. So I'm

going to give you this sword, and you're going

to fight Tommy. Okay. Okay. All right? Are you

ready? Okay. Oh, look! The winner! The winner!

Okay, thank you, gentlemen. Thank you so much.

All right? Very good, gentlemen. Thank you. Yes,

indeed. Okay. Bear that in mind then as you go

to the text today. I think you can kind of already

begin to see some of the truth in that little

display for us. We've been working through the

book of Judges. We do tend to give a little who

to holler amen, or if we had Tyson in here, we

could get ourselves quite a hallelujah. But we're

going to go to Judges chapter 7. Amen. That is

Judges 7 · chapter mention

not good enough. I will not go to Judges chapter

Judges 7 · chapter mention

7. So limited excitement. I want you to take

a breath and give me an amen, a hallelujah. Somebody

say Yahtzee. Like a Yahtzee, right? Judges chapter

Judges 7 · chapter mention

7. Okay, I'll settle for that, but we're going

to work on it, okay? So Judges chapter 7 is the

Judges 7 · chapter mention

story of Gideon we had already begun, okay? So

not only have we already looked at Gideon, and

so if you want to get a little bit more about

Gideon, you're going to have to kind of go back

and read. I can't drill down too heavily on him

today because the Lord has really laid on my

heart something out of this text that we do need

to drill down on. So I would encourage you to

be kind of reading along, studying along with

us. Let these words of the Lord sort of sit in

your heart and ruminate and change us, that kind

of thing. But as we read today, it is important

to know that Gideon has been called of the Lord

to be one of the judges, or we've said maybe

more appropriately, Savior might be a better

word, rescuer of the kingdom of Israel in light

of the armies of Midian and the other eastern

tribes that have been coming and just like basically

taking everything they have. And now they are

there again. Gideon is called out. Now God has

reduced his army down to just 300 men. That's

a pretty scary thing with a massive army that

reaches as far as the eye can see with camels

and warriors galore. And yet he is asked by God

to go and fight this massive army. In verse 8

of Judges chapter 7, it begins like this. It

Judges 7 · chapter mention

says, so 300 men took the people's provisions

and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon

sent all the men of Israel, all the other men

of Israel, each to his tent. But retained the

300 men, and the camp of Midian was below him

in the valley. Verse 9 says, Now the same night

it came about that the Lord said to him, Arise,

go down against the camp, for I have given it

into your hands. So God is telling him, you're

going to go now. I've given you the victory.

Verse 10 says, But if you are afraid to go down,

go with Purah, your servant, down to the camp.

And you will hear what they say. And afterward,

your hands will be strengthened that you may

go down against the camp. So he went with Purah,

his servant, down to the outposts of the army

that was in the camp. Now the Midianites and

the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were

lying in the valley as numerous as locusts. And

their camels were without number. As numerous

as the sand on the seashore. So I submit to you,

what Gideon sees before him is what was probably

already a completely undefeatable enemy. Even

if he had maintained the 22 ,000 soldiers. But

God has reduced him now to 300. And so he sees

before him an army that will surely be the undoing,

not only of his army, but of the entire nation

of Israel. And they will run to the hills and

hide in the caves in their fortified... Fortresses

that they've built in the caves the best they

can up in the mountains. Again, that's what they've

done season after season, time after time, against

forces like this. Now, Gideon and his 300 -man

army, God is saying, will defeat this massive

army of Midianites, Amalekites, and the sons

of the east. When Gideon came, behold, a man

was relating a dream to his friend. And he said,

behold, I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread

was tumbling into the camp of Midian. So a loaf

of barley bread would be this kind of like, almost

like a football, kind of a round thing like this,

oval shape. It's a low -grade bread. It's not

the kind of bread that most people would want

to eat or make French toast out of or anything

like that. Mostly it would be used to feed animals

and stuff. But if it's all you got, obviously

you'd eat it. It's a pretty low -grade bread.

And so it was looked down upon, if you will.

And the dream of the man, he says, was that a

loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp

of Midian. And it, that is the loaf, came to

the tent. Could be a reference to the command

tent, but a tent in his dream in any case. And

struck it so that it fell. So the bread tumbles

into the camp, strikes the tent, and the tent

falls down. And, it says, and turned it upside

down so that the tent lay flat. So this bread

comes down. Not only does it maybe hit a main

post and the thing collapses or breaks some wires

and it falls down, but it hits the tent, it strikes

the tent, and the tent is literally flipped upside

down and lies flat on the ground, completely

destroyed in structure. 14 says, and his friend

answered and said, this is the guy, remember

the guy telling the dream is talking with one

of his friends, and his friend then answers and

said about the dream. This is nothing less than

the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man

of Israel. God has given Midian and all the camp

into his hand. So this is one of the Midianites

interpreting the dream of another one of the

Midianites, and Gideon is listening on. And it

came about when Gideon heard the account of the

dream and its interpretation that he bowed in

worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and

said, Arise, for the Lord has given the camp

of Midian into your hands. May God add blessings

to the reading of his word. There's a few things

I want you to see in this text that really jumped

out at me. The first one resonates with me as

a person. And that is that even in the midst

of God doing amazing things in his past, remember,

there was a fleece. There was a testing of the

army that limited the army from 22 ,000 down

to 300. There was a call to go and burn. The

Asherah pole burned and removed the worship of

Baal in his hometown and his dad stood up for

him and God preserved him. There was all of that

in his past. He's already seen God do amazing

things. And even though he had seen God do amazing

things, Gideon's fear was justifiable. There

is a justifiable fear. It arises sometimes out

of what we know. This is a massive army. And

here we have this little army that God has given

us. Sometimes it arises out of what we don't

know. Like, God said he's going to do this, but

how? How does 300 men, if they kill one man with

every swing of the sword, if one guy goes down,

they're going to be hacking at this army for

hours, maybe a day or more, just to cut them

all down. So how can this be done? Sometimes

our fear arises out of what we know, and sometimes

it arises out of what we don't know. But according

to the Bible, according to the teachings of our

Lord Jesus Christ, faith stands opposite that

fear. The fear is justifiable, but trusting God

defeats that fear, removes that fear, overcomes

that fear. We can't have faith in what we already

know. If God had called up an army of 100 ,000

Israelites and then called Gideon to go against

an army of innumerable Midianites, then he would

have been like, hmm. Maybe we can do it. Surely

we can probably do it, right? Especially with

God's help a little bit here and there, kind

of fix things up a little bit, brush it up a

bit. We can take that army. There's 100 ,000

of them. We might be able to do it. With 22 ,000,

we're told that if they had done it with 22 ,000,

they might have thought, well, we were pretty

victorious. We did some pretty incredible things.

We did really step up, right? But the truth is,

that's not what God wanted. God wanted faith

in that which had not yet been seen. That's what

God has been calling his people to since the

beginning. Do you know, do you realize that the

Midianites are fostered from a man named Midian?

Does anybody know who he was? He was a son of

Abraham. Abraham is the one who had the Genesis

12 promises that says, out of you I will raise

a great nation. And he did. Israel. But also

he did. Midian. And so, Gideon knows his history.

He knows what God has done. He knows that God

has blessed Abraham and Abraham's descendants.

So this is a battle, a warfare, if you will,

between two nations arising out of Abraham. Both

could possibly have received the promises of

Abraham. So it makes a lot of sense for Gideon

to go, I don't know. I'm not so sure. And then

a fleece and a fleece. And I'm still, I... Yes,

God has done miraculous things. Yes, God has

made promises. Yes, God is capable. But will

he do it? It's justifiable fear. Sometimes that

justifiable fear arises out of the things that

we know, and sometimes it arises out of the things

that we don't know. But it's justifiable nonetheless.

Faith is believing in what we haven't yet necessarily

seen. It is the great struggle of mankind. We

got more pouring into our eyes and ears and our

taste buds and our flesh. More thoughts in our

head and more yearning of our body. There's more

of that than there is the simple testimony of

the Lord to be observed. What do you need to

know about Jesus to be saved? That he died on

the cross, he rose again on the third day, that

he has a right to be Lord of your life and you're

believing and receiving what he said? That's

about it. That's pretty fast. I just gave it

to you in your eyes and ears for, you know, it

took like less than 30 seconds. And yet the world

is testifying all the time, the people, the enemies

of God are testifying all the time to an alternative

to that. If you watch TV for four hours, you're

going to get more content in your brain than

I can give you in the next 25 minutes or so.

It's just not... That's not how it works. There

is much to be seen and heard in this world, much

to be known, and we can be burdened by it. We

can be affected by it. We can even be changed

by it. But God says, your justifiable fear, okay,

it's justifiable, but I'm calling you to faith.

God called Gideon to believe despite the numbers

that he could see. And he called Gideon to believe

despite the numbers that he could see because

it was hard. Not because it was easy, but because

it was hard. He called Gideon to do a hard thing,

to believe despite the numbers. God is calling

us to believe despite what you see in the world.

Despite the very concerted attempts of evil to

redefine even the most simplest concepts of Christianity,

of godliness, of faithfulness, of kingdom, even

the words that you have used your entire life

are being redefined in society right now to mean

something that you don't agree with that they

mean, God nonetheless is calling you to trust

in his promises despite your justifiable fear.

The second thing to see in the text then is that

out of that, out of that between us seeing what

we could rightly be afraid of and us knowing,

believing what we know will be God's intervention

on our behalf comes God's agents emboldened to

see the impossible happen. That's who we are.

It's what we are. The church is God's people

drawn out of the darkness, lifted out of slavery,

raised to be right with God, not in our own righteousness,

but in the righteousness imputed to us by Jesus

Christ. We are the people that God is emboldening

to make the impossible happen. I have lost count

of the number of times that I have personally

stared in the eyes of a person affected by an

evil spirit or a demon and rebuked that evil

spirit or demon to give them the freedom that

they needed to follow Christ if they so chose.

And on many an occasion they did do that. God's

agents emboldened. I told one man he wanted me

to testify and witness with his wife and I'm

sitting there and every time I would start he

would chime in and say, see I told you so, see

I told you so, see I told you so. And finally

the Holy Spirit led me and said, And I said to

him, I said, look, I'm here. I'm talking to your

wife. Just shut up. Don't say another word. You're

not helping. You've been working on this for

months or years, and you're making it worse,

not better. Just sit there and be quiet. And

for 40 minutes, he didn't say another word. I

don't know if he wanted to. He never told me

later that he wanted to. But he never said another

word. And at the end of it, she accepted Jesus

Christ as her Lord and Savior and has lived for

Jesus to my knowledge ever since. People are

receiving plenty of stimuli. Let me be this clear

with you. If it isn't the gospel and it isn't

Bible, people don't need you to say a word to

them in order to receive and believe Jesus Christ.

What they really need you to do is to shut up

and stop saying all that other stuff and let's

get around to talking about the stuff that matters.

We are God's agents, emboldened to see the impossible

happen, souls saved, churches started, the gospel

testified to, giving, serving, going the extra

mile, faithfulness beyond what we even think

we're capable of. But we are fighting a battle

in enemy territory. Now I understand, and we'll

get there in a second, that Jesus Christ has

already conquered the earth. I get that. But

the enemy who was conquered, who had his weapon

death stolen from him, who was defeated by Jesus'

resurrection and the coming, starting of the

church and the arrival of God's Holy Spirit,

the one who was defeated, still exists. He still

resists. He still rebels. He's still there. And

I know, In you, the same as in me. In fact, there's

a great line from a movie, the Lord of the Rings

movie written by Tolkien. The book was written

by Tolkien, made into a movie where the king

now, the new king stands up and he says, I see

in your eyes the very fear that would grip the

heart of me. We have a justifiable fear. You're

wondering what will happen with your family,

your friends. You're wondering what will happen

with your finances, with your health. You're

wondering what will happen if you just make your

whole life about living for Jesus. What will

actually happen? If you really step out, let

it all go behind, just the way the Bible says

happens when you actually got saved. If you really

do that, what will that look like? Will people

desert you? Spoiler, yes. Will the world hate

you? Spoiler alert, yes. Jesus said, if you walk

with me, they will deny you, they will hate you,

just the same as they denied me and hated me.

It's really just a question of, are you going

to be emboldened by the faith versus fear victory

of faith? Are you going to allow God at work

in your life as he has done? He's done things

to bolster your faith to this point. Are you

going to allow that to be sufficient to set you

on fire, to give you passion, to give you strength,

to empower you in your own weakness, to do the

things that God has led you to do that otherwise

you just wouldn't be able to do? You just aren't.

You look at it and go, I know what I can lift.

And you know how many times in the last month

I've lifted more than I can lift? It's just become

a common thing. I know what I can do as far as

my, I'm an inhibited individual in my flesh.

I cannot preach. There is no physical way that

I can do this. Before I got saved, I couldn't

even order my sandwich without mayonnaise. Because

I was afraid of what a minimum wage worker behind

the counter would think of me ordering my sandwich

without mayonnaise. So I would order it just

the way it comes and scrape the mayonnaise off

because I hated mayonnaise. Now I'm standing

up in front of you. And yesterday out in front

of 300 people, perfect strangers, half of them,

preaching the gospel. I can't do this. It is

impossible. And yet, God is the God of the impossible.

If you will allow the friction between your justifiable

fear and the faith that God is calling you to,

to have the effect that it is intended to, you

will become God's agent, emboldened to see the

impossible happen. It's great that we get to

see God already at work. It's wonderful that

we can account miracles. And if you won't believe

in Him because of what He has done for you, then

at least believe in Him because of the miracles.

What does that sound like? Yes, it's great to

look back at God's, the story that He has written

in your life. But the truth is, the faith versus

fear battle that's going on in you is to have

the purpose of making you bold. Beyond the possible.

God does not want you to do what's possible.

You were not born to do what was easy. After

Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, he beat

the ground into submission. And there are 289

,000 people living in the city of Toledo that

could directly attribute, mind you, after thousands

of years, their success in building cars or selling

fast food to Adam. And his hoe growing crops

in dirt that resisted him every single day. He

did the impossible. And people have been doing

the impossible from the beginning. Because that's

what God made us. We were not made to do the

easy thing. We were made to find our identity.

In faith overcoming fear. Ecclesiastes 1, 18

through 20, Solomon talks about how there's a

lot of knowledge in the world. There's a lot

of wisdom to be found. There's a lot of good

things to be found in the world. Then he says,

but the truth is, the more of that you find,

the more vanity it is, the more struggle it is.

You could go right now, you could go right now

and spend five minutes a day for the next five

years reading on any topic or practicing or whatever,

and you could become an expert better than 96

% of the people in that topic. So let's say you

wanted to know about the stars. Spend five minutes

a day for the next five years reading about the

stars. By the time you're done, you will know

more about the stars than 96 % of the people

in the world. You could pick any topic. You can

take a musical instrument and play it for five

minutes a day for the next five years, and by

the time you're done, you'll be proficient. Some

days your fingers will bleed, but you'll be proficient.

I can't do that because I can't bring myself

to do it, and God has not called me to do it.

But I can preach the gospel. I can serve. I can

lift things that I shouldn't be able to lift.

I can do work that I shouldn't be able to do

because I am responding to God in faith. And

he says, do it. and we do it. God's agents emboldened

to see the impossible happen. And notice the

response of Gideon when he realized that he is

being emboldened. It's not that he sees an army

that's too big for his army, and he now suddenly

realizes that he's going to win. Right? He didn't

have to go down and listen to that to know he

was going to win. All he had to do was start

the attack. Right? God said, if you're afraid,

Go down and listen, and what you hear will show

you you have no reason to be afraid, that your

fear, while justifiable, is defeated in the coming

victory. And that's what he did. So he praised

God because he realized God was making him bold.

That God was taking away his fear. That God was

making him able to do the impossible. Not just

that he was going to defeat a huge army with

only 300 men, but that he could even take the

first step. Sometimes it's hard to even take

the first step to do the right thing. Some of

you are here in church today, first time in a

long time, and it took a bit, right? It was something

to get there, to take that first step. So you

should be feeling right now, understanding that

God is making you bold to do more. than what

you ever thought you could do in the kingdom

and at large. And that's a reason to praise.

That's a reason to praise the God of the universe.

To put things behind that you never could have

put behind. To win victories that you never could

have won. And if it stopped there, that would

be awesome. We could live that. That would be

great. But there's another key thing to notice

in this text. And that is that what we are talking

about is nothing short of the total upheaval

of the enemy. The total upheaval of the enemy.

Now, if there's a set of reasons that bring about

justifiable fear, the enemy is one of those.

Let's be realistic, right? The wicked works of

the world, that's part of the enemy. Evil spirits

and demons, that's kind of scary stuff, right?

The devil himself. Now, odds are you and I'll

never face the devil personally, but rather face

his schemes. But facing him personally, one -on

-one in a room, that's kind of a scary thing.

I mean, that's a justifiable fear. He's an ancient

being that knows God's word better than we do.

You'd probably lose in a word battle with him,

most likely. He's not really capable of us physically

killing him. He's an eternal being. He'll spend

eternity in hell burning, proof positive, eternal

being. And so if we ever faced him personally,

that'd be a justifiable fear, wouldn't it? And

if you continue to resist his efforts, probably

his efforts are going to, you know, kind of spiral

up against you. Things are going to get kind

of bad. And so there's a justifiable fear in

thinking about this enemy. But in the text we

see, God is showing Gideon that he's not only

going to give Gideon victory. Because, you know,

there could have been a victory. 300 men go down.

Three men survive. But they kill 30 ,000 Midianites

and the Midianites are routed. That's a victory,

is it not? I mean, would not everybody give God

the glory for 297 men who died, three men survived,

one being Gideon probably, you know, to be a

total victory. And then the rest of the army

is routed and they kill them just like they are

going to do later in the story. Would that still

be a huge victory and an obvious outcry for God?

We say, God did an amazing thing, 297 to 40 ,000.

There were battles in the Civil War, for example,

where 150 died on one side and say 800 died on

the other. They went, huge victory. Right? This

would be like they would kill a thousand or five

thousand men apiece. That would be a huge victory.

But that's not what the dream says. The dream

says that God is providing a total upheaval of

the enemy. Notice it didn't just knock down the

tent. Not just a victory. But it flipped the

tent over and laid it flat. It destroyed the

assembly of the tent. God did not come to open

our eyes to count camels or our ears to hear

the battle cries or for us to win simple victories

over greater numbers. God didn't even come for

us to hear the enemy's death cries. Right? To

think, wow, what an incredible number that is.

No. God came for us to see that He has already

provided A complete upheaval of the enemy. That's

the message to Gideon, is it not? I've already

done this. See, even the Midianite knew that

God had already provided a complete upheaval

of the enemy. He had knocked them down flat and

flipped them over so that it wasn't 297 to die

versus 40 ,000. It was zero. He was going to

give them a complete and utter victory. That

brings us then to our conclusion already. And

it is beginning with this thought. The devil

knows the word, and so he knows the time will

come. There's a great moment where Jesus is casting

out demons in the New Testament, and the demon

says, basically calls him by name, recognizes

him as Jesus, and he says, have you come to torment

us before the day? And Jesus says, no, but, and

he casts him out. The devil, the demons, the

evil spirits, all of those that have enough intelligence

to understand what's going on, know that they

will eventually face the ultimate eternal judgment

and spend the rest of their existence in a fiery

hell. The enemy's death throes have no eternal

significance to us. The fact that he's trying

to redefine words, the fact that he's trying

to tempt souls away, the fact that there is a

doctrine of demons by which they warp the truth

about Jesus, and in the end, many will walk away

from faith in Jesus and follow a Jesus of their

own design, essentially, or a Jesus of demons'

design, if you will. Even though that is true,

The death throes of the enemy have no eternal

significance. They can't actually take anyone

that doesn't want to be taken because there is

that lifeline that is Jesus always available.

But what they actually do is they offer an alternative.

And God is asking you to choose a side. Now I'm

going to give you a point here in this next point

in the conclusion. And I'm going to ask you to

commit right now to not leave the room under

any circumstances before I finish this thought.

It will only take me about two or three minutes.

But I want you to hear the whole thing. So if

you've got to go to the bathroom right now, don't

go. Hold it. Here we go. You cannot defeat the

enemy. Now that is the opposite of what a lot

of Christian pastors, teachers, preachers will

tell you out there. I understand that. And I'm

going to explain why this is true. You cannot

defeat the enemy because... The sides are thus.

The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God

the Holy Spirit. The faithful, those who are

following the Lord as they actually have professed

to be Christians, actually are following God.

New Heights, our church. Angels, the servants

of the Lord who did not rebel against him. And

kingdom values. And you might add a little more

to that list, but the bottom line is those who

respond in faithfulness to the God of heaven,

that's one side. And God is asking you to choose

that side. At the same time, there is the devil,

demons, evil spirits, sinful desires, the world

system, wicked men. Facing that by yourself,

if you would face an evil spirit without Christ,

you would be defeated. If you would face your

own sin, most of us have, right? Faced our own

sinful desires without relying on Jesus and already

been defeated. Most of us have already done that,

right? So we know that to be true. If you would

face the world system and go out in the world

and try to make your way in the world system,

you would be... You just did the exact opposite

of what I said. You're going to hear the rest

of this point later, son. Okay. You would be

easily defeated, but as part of God's plan. You

understand? If we stand without God, we face

the wrath of God, part of which is those very

things that I just named. Submission to, defeat

by, devil, demons, evil spirits, sinful desires,

the world system. We can't overcome. It's impossible

without the intervention of the Lord. But if

we will walk in God's kingdom, if we walk as

part of the church, we'll walk in the family,

you will win. Ultimately, you will win. And the

upheaval of the enemy will be complete. But it

will not be because you defeated the enemy. You

cannot defeat the enemy, here it is, because

God has already defeated him. There is no more

defeat to be delivered. There is no more victory

to be won. You need only join the winning side.

The time has already run out on the clock. The

score is already decided. The victimization of

the enemy is complete. The barley bread has already

rolled. upside down. We are victorious in Christ,

not because we do better, not because we are

better, not because we overcome or resist the

temptation of the devil, but you cannot defeat

the devil because it has already been done. God

already did it. And people get out of bed in

the morning and say, I'm going to win over the

devil today. And they decide to do it, and your

decision is worthless! Unless your decision is

actually to join the winning side. Jesus going

to the cross, begging God, if there is another

way, let this cup of wrath move away from me.

Let me not have to go through with this. But

he knew that the crucifixion was the way that

God had planned. He's praying that for that very

reason, right? But in the end, He doesn't stay

and beg until he just dies or until they come

to arrest him. In the end, he says, your will,

not my will, be done. Mary says, such as you

would, do unto your maidservant. And you can

find them all over the Bible as people say, okay,

God, whatever you say, God, I'm with you, God.

I'm on your side, God. And that's what it takes

to win the victory. And if you get out of bed

tomorrow morning and you fight the devil with

the Bible without God in you and on your side,

you will lose. In fact, you'll think you're fighting

him when in reality you'll be fighting for him.

You cannot defeat the enemy because it's already

been done. A couple of illustrations. The first

one is about trappings. Years ago, I used to

run a role -playing game called Warhammer. I

still run role -playing games. Now it's part

of the Christian Games Team Ministry of the Church.

But we haven't played that game in a long time.

And in that game, you would move from profession

to profession, job to job. And as you move from

job to job, you would get the trappings of that

job. So like if you were a furrier trapper guy,

then you would have furs and traps and things

to make snares and whatever. people in that job

need, right? And you would have the trappings.

And then when you get done with that job, you

move on to another job and get the trappings

of the next job and whatever you picked up along

the way. So you get the new trappings and whatever

you picked up along the way. Well, this is the

way life is. There are trappings of life. Whatever

you're doing currently is giving you the trappings

of whatever you're doing currently. So for example,

if you're watching about four hours a day of

TV, you're picking up a whole bunch of fiction

stories and things and interaction. may or may

not be realistic. You might think that right

around the corner is a guy, you know, waiting

to mass murder you and your family. You might

be walking down the street thinking that you

literally can't walk anywhere safe in America,

which is not true. You know, you have all these

ideas that are being pressed on you, right? You

have redefinition of marriage, relationship,

teachings about political things, and it's all

done very subtly, but you're getting it. That's

a trapping of the choice that you're making,

okay? Life is not about trappings, because when

you're done, All of that is gone. You're going

to die one day and then face God for the judgment.

It says it is appointed once for the man to die

and then the judgment, right? So once we'll stand

in front of God and God is going to judge you.

And he's not going to judge you based on how

many trappings you had. Hear me now. Let me say

this very simply. He's not even going to judge

you on how much you knew. If you could quote

the whole Bible from Genesis 1 to the end of

Revelation and you memorized the whole thing

and could quote it all and you show up in front

of God, And you say, God, I memorized the whole

Bible. And God says, yeah, but did you accept

Jesus Christ your Lord? Were you living for Jesus?

Was your life about Jesus? I know it was not.

I'm only asking you to show that if you memorized

the whole Bible, you clearly did not understand

the intent of the Bible because the whole Bible

is about living for Jesus. So you memorized the

whole thing. So if anything, I can judge you

all the more harshly because you knew what was

there. You gained all that knowledge and no relationship

with the one who could actually save you. You

chose to join the wrong side. You joined the

side that knows the Bible well and does not know

my son. Which side is that again, by the way?

That would be the side that the devil's on. That

would be the side that evil spirits are on. That

would be the side that the demon's on, the wicked

of this world, the selfish desires of this world,

and so on. You chose to join that side, the side

that knows but still does what they want to do.

Trappings. You're gaining trappings of this life,

and so here's what I suggest you do. Whatever

trappings you get, you submit them into the use

of the Lord. If you got something, and it isn't

God's to use the way God sees fit, you may have

a problem. You might be on the wrong side. Second

illustration, we live in a day of updates, downloads,

and refinements. Today, your cell phone will

get updated in its software, and tomorrow, You

may go to push a button and that button may not

be there anymore. You have no control over that.

They just update your phone via Wi -Fi or on

the cell. So just walking down the road. One

day I was doing that. I'm like, look at my phone.

Like, I don't even know how to do it. Last two,

two, three weeks ago, I went to Meyers to buy

groceries. And there's that little button that

you push with the Mperks button. And you put

in the number, the phone number that you use

for Mperks. And then you put in your pin over

on the little side pad. Well, they moved that

number up at the top on the banner. And I'm standing

there for like a whole two minutes. I'm looking

at this thing. I'm going like. How do I put in

my Mperks number? I can't figure it out because

they moved it. It just looks like a banner now,

and it says, you know, enter, or it says alternative

ID, right? Because they, believe it or not, some

people have cards. They got an Mperks card. I

didn't even know that was a thing. So you push

the button, and you put your Mperks number in

or whatever. Whatever it says. The point is,

they moved it. I couldn't find it. For two minutes,

I couldn't ring up my groceries because I wanted

to make sure I get my points. You know what I'm

saying? The whole world is updating. The whole

world is refining. The whole world is receiving

downloads and all knowing better. When I was

a young kid, for example, there was two nurses

from the doctor's office that came to my fourth

grade class. I had never in my life done a good

job of brushing my teeth until fourth grade.

And they showed us how to brush our teeth. Circles.

So that the brushes go just gently across your

gums and pull out whatever is there. Circles.

And they said, you should brush your teeth after

you eat because you don't have that food on there.

Some people, and I said, well, could you brush

your teeth three times a day? After breakfast,

after lunch, after dinner? And she's like, well,

I mean, you could, but it's kind of overkill.

It might not be good for your teeth to brush

that much. Just brush them in the morning after

breakfast. Brush them at night before you go

to bed. Especially at night before you go to

bed because you're not going to eat anything

overnight. So it would be a perfectly good time

to have nothing on your teeth and they can kind

of recover and blah, blah, blah. Did you know

that current science says that one of the worst

things that you can do for your teeth is to brush

after you eat? So from fourth grade to twelfth

grade, I brushed after I ate my breakfast every

single morning. And then I got a bunch of cavities,

and the dentist told me it was because I drank

a lot of juice, and juice sits between your teeth,

and I wasn't flossing. But also, I know now,

it was also because I brushed my teeth after

I ate every time. You're supposed to brush before

you eat, not after. Because if you eat after,

then it messes with the enamel on your teeth.

The brush will actually take off some of the

enamel on your teeth. Science is changing all

the time. What's healthy is changing all the

time. I went to the doctor's office. When I turned

50, she said, I want you to take a tiny baby

aspirin every day. Be good for your heart. I

never could do it. I mean, like, to remember

to take a tiny baby aspirin every day, I probably

took about 50 a year, you know. And then I went

in when I was at this last appointment at 55

years old. She said, are you taking that baby

aspirin every day like I told you? And I said,

well, the truth is... No, I never really could

do that. She said, okay, good, don't. The what?

She said, don't. The new science is now indicated

for men over 50 to only take that baby ice cream

every day if you have an ongoing heart condition.

Otherwise, you should not. They've determined

it's bad for you. Shall I go on? The world is

being updated constantly. The truth is being

updated constantly in the world. But here is

the reality. If we delve into his word to know

him better, we have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians

2. She was saying, she was just reading that

last night. Yep. And we are victorious if for

no other reason than that, Jesus is with us.

It's not a set of rules, guidelines, changing,

updating. People come in and say, oh, you say

that about the gospel, but let me tell you a

little better how to know. A little better. And

the Bible says, we no longer really need that.

If you know Christ in person, he'll take care

of you. So what we are doing here, allowing the

word to infect our thoughts, to alter, redirect

our efforts. We are doing that, knowing Him better,

allowing Him more to use faith to overcome fear.

There is no more refinement of the truth. There

is no more knowledge that saves. Rather, there

is a steady, progressive reveal of our victory

and the losses of the enemy as declared by the

living God, and there is no refinement of the

original, but a simple testimony and an exposing

of the truth. You can't defeat the enemy. It's

already done. If you are here today and you have

been trying to defeat the enemy, now this includes

your sin and temptation. Right? That's part of

the enemy. On the enemy's side is your sin and

temptation. If you are here today and you are

trying to defeat the enemy, beating yourself

up all the time about what you're doing wrong,

you can't defeat the enemy. It's already done.

What you have to do is believe it, to receive

it, to claim it, to walk it, to live it, and

to let everything else fall away. That's what

we're called to as Christians. One last illustration.

Sometimes we think the gospel is like this, a

really long spoon that can stir the very bottom

of the pot where everything has settled. They

make Kool -Aid or soup and all the stuff sitting

on the bottom. You're like, where's that long

spoon? I don't put my hand in the boiling hot

or I don't put my hand in the Kool -Aid. I need

that long spoon so I can stir the bottom. And

we think the gospel is like that. We come to

church or we talk about it in our homes or we

read our Bible thinking the gospel is like that,

a really long spoon that stirs the bottom. No,

the gospel is what made. The top and the bottom

and the middle and the spoon, all possible. You

can't defeat the enemy. He is already defeated.

I'm asking you today to realize that as you have

partaked in your sin, you have adjusted to justifiable

fear. You thought, well, I can't step out. For

God, I can't really truly just be on fire for

the Lord, just do what God wants me to do. I

can't go to church every Sunday, can't worship

God in a world where they say, well, you really

don't have to do that anymore. I can't give or

serve or go the extra mile in a world where they

say, you're just being abused, you don't have

to do that. I'm just waiting for people to do

what God says. But I'm not just waiting. I'm

a people that wants to do what God says. And

so I'm asking you to join my side. I think it's

my side. And if ever I'm on the wrong side, then

don't join my side. Join Jesus' side. Join the

church. Join the servants. Join the victors.

And let God show you that there are barley bread

rolling downhill and that kingdom of the enemy

that's already flipped over. Everything that

you think is the enemy winning some kind of victory

today, that's just him parking the camp. It's

just him stacking up an army. You know that in

the Bible revelation at the very end, it says

that after a thousand year reign of Jesus, that

God will let the enemy out again. And he'll come

out again and he'll raise a great army, a ton

of people will go away and walk and follow him.

And they'll believe in what he says rather than

what God says. I submit to you, God allows that

for one reason and one reason alone. Because

God wants you to know that your justifiable fear

and the faith that you're called to has one purpose.

And it is to embolden you as his people to do

the impossible. And the upheaval of the enemy

is already complete. If you're here today and

you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord

and Savior, you come in this room today and say,

I'm thinking about God. I might believe, I think

I might believe that what Jesus did was real.

I think I might need to follow him because of

what he did. But I'm saying to you, you head

better. Because you can't defeat the enemy. He's

already defeated you. You had better. Because

your fear is justifiable, and it isn't going

away. It's not going to end. You're a human.

Outside Christ, you will live in fear. Some days,

some parts of days, some very long periods of

time. Sometimes. Or, you can trust God. I let

him do the work that he already promised. The

sword of the Spirit belongs first to the Lord.

And with it, he did slay the enemy. And now he

has given it to you. So that by the time you

enter the fight, you already have the victory.

I ask the priest to come forward at this time

and lead us in our final hymn. And if the Lord

is somehow touching your heart to make a decision

today, then you do that. You can come to me at

the front and say, I'm choosing Jesus. I know

He has already chosen me. We don't really choose

Him. He chooses us. But I'm choosing Him back.

I want to follow Him. I want everything that's

in my life submitted to Him. And you do that

today. It might be you getting saved for the

first time. Or it might be you committing your

life to the Lord in earnest for the first time.

Or it might be you coming back to the Lord. It

might be you saying, I know just one thing that

God wants me to do. Start a ministry. Be baptized.

Join the church. Find a church, it's not this

one, but find the one that God is calling you

to. I hope it's this one, but where it might

be. If you know one thing that God wants you

to do, and you're committing to do that today,

then open your mouth and tell us what that is.

We'll pray for you, we'll support you, and we'll

claim the victory of the Lord as He has already

defeated the enemy. Would you stand with me and

sing this song? But if the Lord's moving in your

heart, and for you to move, then you just don't

sing, you just come. It's just us now. Some guy

like me.