Down Through One Generation Judges 6:7.24

When the best of me is barely breathing When

I'm not somebody I believe in Hold on to me When

I'm missing light, the night is starting When

I'm slamming all the doors you open He's listening

to your prayers right now. Hold on to me when

it's too dark to see you. When I am sure I have

reached the end. Hold on to me when I forget

I need you. When I let go of me, I could rest

in peace. Because I know nobody loves me better.

Hold on to me. Hold on to me. We are working

through the book of Judges, and we're just going

to kind of give a quick synopsis of where we've

been. So as we look at the story of Gideon, Another

judge, a deliverer, a savior, if you will, for

Israel. He is being called up because the country

is being so heavily persecuted by the Midianites,

formerly an ally, going back far enough, formerly

an ally. But in this day and age, they have been

sweeping in the land with a bunch of Eastern

peoples, Amalekites and others, and they come

in and there's so many of them that they're literally

taking everything. They're taking all the crops

as they're about to be harvested. They're taking

all the money. They're taking all the women,

taking children into slavery. I mean, it's just

a complete... Complete overrun, basically. And

this is happening, we have heard in the scripture,

because God's people have drifted from worshiping

only God, and they have begun to worship the

peoples of the land, some of which are the gods

of the land, some of which are pretty vicious.

They're all wrong, but some of them are pretty

vicious. For example, the god Molech, who had

that rite where if you burn the firstborn child

in the fire alive as a child, then they would

be... you would receive blessings on your house

ongoing. And so they were worshiping the god

Molech and that kind of thing was happening.

It's kind of hard to believe. And then it's kind

of hard to believe that as they are doing that

and they cry out to God for help from the Midianites,

that God is going to give them a deliverer, a

savior in the form of Gideon. But as God begins

to work in Gideon's life, there's a prophet,

there's an angel, there's some miraculous consumption

of his sacrifice, which we saw last week. And

as all that happens, Gideon is having a little

trouble believing the amazing things that God

is doing in his day. And that's kind of where

we pick up the story. And give me a little who

to holler amen as we go to Judges chapter 6.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

This is God's word. And we're just going to read.

Eight verses of it. And so it'll go by moderately

quickly. And then the points are relatively brief.

But the action is significant. So stick with

me and be prepared to adjust. Verse 25. Now the

same night. So this is after he constructed the

altar to God in that place where he'd been having

the interaction with God. It says, Now the same

night it came about that the Lord said to him,

Take your father's bull and a second bull, seven

years old, and pull down the altar of Baal, which

belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah

that is beside it, and build an altar to the

Lord on the top of this stronghold in an orderly

manner. Take a second bull and offer a burnt

offering with the wood of the Asherah, which

you shall cut down. Okay, so that's a big, kind

of like a long run -on explanation of what God

wants him to do. We're going to break it down

for a second. So first of all, remember that

as we're looking at the book of Judges and throughout

this book, even in this chapter, there is some

very old Hebrew language that goes way back.

And so theologians struggle a little bit with

some of the translation. And so the phrase where

it says, take your father's bull and a second

bull, there is a word there which kind of gives

you the and a second part of it. that's challenging

to translate from Hebrew into English. And so

if you go reading on this, you'll see in a variety

of commentaries, whatever, if you would do that,

that they kind of debate whether there was a

second bull or not. Not a problem for the story.

What is important is that a seven -year -old

bull, that part is easily translated, or relatively

everybody translates it the same anyway. A seven

-year -old bull was in the mix. It may have been

one bull, and it was a clarification that bull

needed to be seven years old. This is a mature

bull, strong enough to tear down the altars,

right? So that work was going to be done. And

even with men pushing or whatever, it was going

to be a major job to tear down the altar. And

also at the same time, it's a full, high -quality

piece of livestock. And so they were going to

kill his dads, prized bull as a sacrifice. They

were not only going to kill him, but they were

going to kill him to sacrifice him on the altar.

They were going to sacrifice him on the altar

that they would build in the place of the altar

of Baal and Asherah, which was on his dad's land.

Now understand, if the altar was there, so what

goes on on the altar is people leave their sacrifices.

Okay? Now because Baal is not a real god, those

sacrifices are not consumed. Right? They don't

go up in smoke or nothing happens. Right? And

so the sacrifices that are left, who do you think

gets them then? Well, it would be Gideon's dad.

That's their property. This altar that is on

their property, the Baal and Asherah, is somewhat

their sustenance. They have made a ton of money

and a ton of wealth and animals and whatever.

when animal sacrifice lay there bleeding out

or whatever, that's just meat, but it's still

meat, right? Who wouldn't like to, somebody come

back from hunting and say, hey, you need a deer?

I killed a deer. I'll give you 300 pounds of

hamburger, right? Who wouldn't want that? Most

people, if you're willing to eat it, that's awesome.

That's a huge blessing. So this was going on

on his property all the while he was receiving

resources because they had this altar there.

And now God is calling Gideon to shut that all

down. and in the process to take his father's

prized bull, full -grown, perfect, without blemish,

bull, and sacrifice it on the newly created altar

to God. This is an extreme betrayal. It's as

if you became an adult at 25 years old, and you

went into your dad's work where he worked for

30 years, and you kicked his boss into private,

and you beat him in the face and threw him all

across the desk, and you told him that your dad

told you to do it. And the next day, your dad's

going to be in hot water, probably lose his job,

and now his family loses all of his financial

sustenance. It's like that. It's that kind of

thing. Or you just go up to the police station

where your dad works, he's a cop, and you start

spray painting all the cars. That's the kind

of thing we're talking about. He is damaging

this line of revenue, this wealth. It's going

to be gone. Unless the people will adjust, and

we already know that people kind of don't want

to adjust. We've had plenty of opportunities

to do so. Unless they would adjust and leave

their offerings for God. And the problem is,

a lot of times the offerings for God would be

consumed. And so that would not be adding wealth

to the family, just glorifying God. So he gets

this kind of long, drawn out command to go and

cut down the Asherah pole that's next to the

altar of all, cut them both down, get rid of

them. Tear down the altar, which probably made

of stone, and then cut down the pole and get

rid of it, use a seven -year -old bull to do

so. That's what's important in the story so far.

Notice that he was to construct atop that a stronghold.

Atop that stronghold would be in an orderly manner,

to do it all in an orderly manner, to tear them

down and construct the new altar in an orderly

manner, and that's significant. sacrificed the

bull on the wood of the Asherah pole that he

cut down. 27. Then Gideon took ten men of his

servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him.

And it came about because he was too afraid of

his father's household and the men of the city

to do it by day that he did it by night. So he

goes into the barracks where the men are sleeping

or whatever or they're getting ready to go to

bed and he gathers ten servants. This guy, his

father's pretty wealthy. He gathers ten servants

and he says, come on, we got a job to do. They

go get... The bull, one or two bulls, whatever

it was, and they go out there and they tear it

down and they construct the new altar just the

way that God commanded in an orderly fashion.

A little further. When the men of the city arose

early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal

was torn down and the Asherah, which was beside

it, was cut down. And the second bull was offered

on the altar, which had been built. And again,

there is enough struggle in the Hebrew. was it

a second bull or the bull of priority, the most

important bull, whatever, was offered on the

altar which had been built. And they said to

one another, who did this thing? And when they

searched about and inquired, they said, Gideon,

the son of Joash, did this thing. So they basically

informed a committee, or they made up a committee

to inquire who did it. They had some people investigate

it, right? And they found out it was Gideon,

son of Joash, that did it. Not too hard, because

if you have ten co -conspirators, the secret

usually gets out. So he had ten servants. It

probably wasn't going to be retained. Even in

the middle of the night, people probably saw

what was going on. A lot of noise being made.

Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring

out your son that he may die. For he has torn

down the altar of Baal, and indeed he has cut

down the Asherah which was beside it. But Joash

said to all who stood against him, Will you contend

for Baal? In other words, that word there means

to fight or war on the behalf of. So you're going

to go to war on behalf of Baal, is what he's

asking them. Or will you deliver him? In other

words, are you going to save Baal, the false

god? Do you have the strength, the authority

to save the false god, Baal? Whoever will plead

for him shall be put to death by morning. Now

this is an interesting turn of events for Joash,

who is the one who had the altars on his land.

Right? So he's now saying that if anyone will

plead on behalf of Baal, he'll be put to death

by morning. In the Bible, not to get ahead, in

Deuteronomy 13, Moses leaves instructions with

the Israelites that anyone who pleads with the

people to worship a false god should be put to

death. If it was your mother, your father, your

brother, your son, your grandfather, your co

-worker, Doesn't matter. Anybody that pleads

with you to worship, you report them to the authorities

and that person is put to death if they're pleading

with you to worship a false god. That is a very

stark command. And now Joash was instead himself

leading people to worship. But now here, when

now his son has torn down the altars, he now

says, if you plead for Baal, we'll put that person

to death by morning. He says, if he is a god,

let him contend, and there's that same word there

that means fight on behalf, let him contend for

himself, because someone has torn down his altar.

Therefore, on that day, he named him Jeroboam.

That is to say, let Baal contend against him.

So the term Jeroboam, which is his new kind of

battle name, if you will, or his activist name,

if you will, means... Baal can contend against

him if he wants to, but everybody else is kind

of like out of the mix. Let Baal contend against

him because he had torn down his altar. That

ends our text for the day. There's a few things

in here that I want you to see. They're kind

of obvious, but then the implications are not

as obvious. The first thing is that God wants

us to emphatically remove idol worship from our

courts. Okay, so now we need to break that down

a little bit. So emphatically means purposefully,

forcefully, one direction. Well, one purpose

in mind. We're going to emphasize doing that

over anything else. Okay, and then idol worship

is when you worship something, you declare the

worth of something or someone, and you set that

person or thing up in your life in a way that

they're going to get your attention. Okay, so

for example, when Jesus says a man cannot worship

both God and mammon. Okay, mammon being money

or wealth. And so when you put money in a position

in your life that it's going to kind of get a

little control over you, it's going to get your

focus, it's going to get your emphasis. When

that happens, you have created an idol out of

money. And the system that we live under, capitalism,

kind of does that automatically. If you're not

intentional about it, it kind of just happens

because you need money to pay your bills and

so on. Right? So you're just kind of like, well,

I've got to make a priority of it, so I've got

to go work for the man, and I've got to do that

even if I don't really want to. You get out of

bed and you're not feeling well, you really would

rather do something else, but you still go in

to get paid. But then you get out of bed on a

Sunday morning, for example, and you're not feeling

well, and you don't really want to, and you don't

go to church. So the idols slide up and down,

and pretty soon money is above God. And it could

be anything. It can be any form of entertainment.

It can be health or wealth or relationships or

whatever. And so people make idols out of all

kinds of things. But God wants us to emphatically,

with emphasis, it's an important thing. It is

probably the number one thing that we need to

be focused on as Christians is removing idol

worship from our courts. Now, what do I mean

when I say our courts? So in the Bible, there's

kind of a principle. There's your house, right?

There's your tents. So your tents is your larger

family, your children, maybe cousins that live

under your roof or whatever, your larger family.

And then there's your courts. And your courts

is wherever you have influence. So that would

be on the job, at school, at your boyfriend or

girlfriend's house, wherever you go and you have

influence. If you're in the room and people look

to you, for guidance, direction, opinion, or

whatever, you must emphatically tear down idols.

So people say, well, I'm struggling with money,

and they start to ask you how to budget, how

to plan, how do I get my electric bill paid,

things like that, then your response must include

an intentional removal of money as an idol. So

first thing we need to realize is you don't really

need money. In fact, Money really is nothing.

It's literally only paper. And that's why it's

possible in a capitalistic economy or whatever

for money to lose all of its value. Because once

upon a time, it represented gold or silver. There

was actual value attached to it. But now the

government can just print more anytime they want

because there's nothing actually attached to

it. Not even the labor. Nothing is attached to

it. So it's just paper that we pass around or

getting to the point now where it's not even

that. It's binary code, right? It's your money

moved from account to account. And so it really

is worth nothing. Your labor is worth something

and you're trading your labor for money, which

is worth nothing. But then someone else will

trade their goods also for money, which is worth

nothing. And so you're able to trade your labor

for their goods using the medium of money. And

so the truth is you don't need money. You do

need a house. You do need clothing. You need

food. You want to buy birthday gifts for your

kids when they are growing up. There are things

that you want to have, but you don't need money

to do that. And there are people in the world

who don't have anywhere near as much money as

we have on a regular basis. In fact, all of the

per capita income For households in the world,

United States people on disability make more

than 96 % of people in the world. So all they

get is $1 ,000 a month or whatever for their

disability, and they make more than 96 % of the

people that live in the world. Not the U .S.,

the world. And then people like Elon Musk or

Donald Trump or their billionaires or whatever,

they're in like the 98th percentile. So all the

struggling that Americans are doing are between

the 96th and 98th percentile, essentially. Don't

quote me on those exact numbers, but it's right

in that area. Okay. And so the bottom line is

there are people out there living in squalor

compared to what we are living in. And yet they

still have birthday gifts on birthdays. They

still have food on the table. They still survive.

They're surviving. They may go hungry some days,

but they are surviving. And so what I'm saying

is we think we need the money. We idolize it.

We need to, in our courts, inside our influence,

wherever we can spread our influence, we need

to remove it as an idol. And social media and

TV and jobs and better clothing and better looks

and better entertainment and take all of it out.

See, wherever there is an idol, they'll make

a commercial to strum it, to make it vibrate,

so you'll pay attention to it. So if you think

you need to lose weight, then when a commercial

comes on TV about losing weight, They're trying

to trigger you, trying to get you to pay attention

to their message, and so on. The list goes on.

If you think you need to be entertained, then

when a commercial comes on TV or streaming or

social media or whatever that looks entertaining,

then that strums your idol so that you will go

after that thing. And what God is asking Christians,

in particular in this text, men and their sons,

but it's all Christians to do, is to emphatically

remove idol worship from our courts, from our

area of influence. Listen, it's not... Gideon's

house. It's Joash's house. They're not Gideon's

servants. They're Joash's servants. They're not

Gideon's bull or bulls. They're Joash's bull

or bulls. But Gideon has influence in his house.

And so when God activates him, he moves. We already

know he's a skeptic. It says right in the text

that he was afraid. Right? He was afraid of the

response. And so he did it at night. Jesus, in

the Sermon on the Mount, says, in the same way,

let your light shine before others that they

may see your good deeds and glorify your Father

in heaven. He's talking about in your courts,

let your light shine, in your area of influence,

let it shine so that they will look to God as

the one true God and glorify him. In 1 Peter,

it says, live such good lives among the pagans

that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they

may see your good deeds and glorify God on the

day he visits us. These verses emphasize the

power of a life lived with integrity to influence

non -believers. You can, through whatever means

you have, Fight idol worship in your influence.

Now, if you want to spread your influence, fine.

If you want to go somewhere that you've never

been or begin to speak somewhere you never have,

that's all good. Just make sure that your emphasis

is on removing idol worship. In the Ten Commandments,

the first of the Ten Commandments says, you shall

have no other gods before me. And it means that

God, Yahweh, is to be the one true deity worshipped

and acknowledged rather than any other beings

or idols. And as I mentioned before in Deuteronomy

13, he says anyone who would attempt to lead

you, family member, friend, whatever, at that

time would be killed. Because as a people, they

only had God. And they should have all known.

They saw the miraculous interventions of God.

And so while we don't kill anybody, for disagreeing

with us. We don't kill anybody for trying to

lead us astray. We don't do that. We should be

ready to put an emphasis on shutting down idol

worship. So when you're trying to follow God

and somebody else is trying to talk to you about

what else is going on, you say, why are we talking

about football instead of talking about God?

Why are we talking about camping instead of talking

about God? Why are we talking about sports instead

of talking about God? Why is God not the main

focus of our football, camping, and sports instead

of the other way around? God did not give you

freedom so that you could spend your freedom

on an idol that will enslave you. Rather, he

wants you to emphatically remove idol worship

from your courts, not just your tents or your

house, or his house really, but your courts,

wherever you have influence. The second thing

to see there is that fear is a real thing. It's

not going away. It's going to be here for as

long as you have flesh, as long as you have a

heart, blood, veins, brains, right? And it has

a place, especially cut out in the life of an

unbeliever, of a person who has not accepted

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, of a person

who has not begun a personal relationship with

the God of the universe through Jesus. And the

place is this. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Or, as Job said, fear is wisdom. In Job 28, 28,

he says, the fear of the Lord is wisdom. And

to depart from evil is understanding. Proverbs

1 .7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning

of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9 says this, Give instruction to a wise

man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous

man, and he will increase his learning. The fear

of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the

knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For

by me your days will be multiplied and the years

of life will be added to you. If you are wise,

you are wise for yourself. And if you scoff,

you alone will bear it. The bottom line is this.

Fear has a place. You should fear walking away

from God. You should fear offending God. It is

a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a

vengeful God. But Baal is not a vengeful god.

Baal is no god at all. Asherah, not a vengeful

god. Allah is not the god of heaven that we know

and worship. He is nothing. At best, he is a

demon, probably higher up in the ranks. But still,

no god. There are beings in the universe, both

positive and negative, those on our side and

those against us, that if you met them personally,

you would think of them as a god. A demon that

can disappear in one place, appear in another,

inhabit a human being, warp your mind, speak

into your brain. If you met a human being that

could do that, you would begin to wonder, are

they a demon? If you met a human being or a demon,

you'd begin to wonder, are they a superhero?

Superheroes are real? Supervillain? Whatever?

Is it a god? This thing that can speak into my

head? But they are weak. Nothing compared to

the god of the universe. They cannot speak creation

into existence or destroy it as he could. They

cannot renew it, regenerate it, or save a soul.

And ultimately, they will spend eternity locked

away. In fact, in some sense, they're locked

away now, many of them. And so the point is,

there are beings that could be recognized as

quote -unquote gods, but they are not. And we

should have fear, healthy fear, of God if we

are not walking with him and in his strength

and by the Lord. And if we don't do that, we're

missing the point of fear. And so when Gideon

is afraid of the men in the town, and he does

this thing by night, we learn another valuable

lesson. And that is this, that overcoming fear

and acting in obedience starts at home, in the

dark, and with help. The truth is, when I was

becoming a Christian, I was attending East Toledo

Baptist Church, and I was questioning everything

about Christianity. I went through all the different

theories. I read some books, a lot of secular

books, of things of why Christianity wasn't real

and stuff like that. I never read cover to cover,

but I read excerpts and articles and stuff like

that for six months as I was searching it out.

And once God had called upon my heart to accept

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I kind of knew

two things at once. And one of them was that

I would never do it. I knew that I would never

become a Christian in the traditional sense of

the word because I could not walk forward in

the room. I could not stand in front of 125,

150 people, 95 % of which were strangers. I could

not stand in front of them and say that I was

going to live for Jesus. I didn't know for sure

that they were. Many of them, I had heard their

profession. Some of them sang in the choir, sang

songs about Jesus. We all sang worship together.

I had heard a few of them preach. I heard the

pastor preach. I knew some of them were professing

to be Christians. I didn't know who was a Christian

and who wasn't, but I knew for a fact. Number

one, I would never be one. I would never come

forward in a church service. That's not who I

am. I would never stand up and boldly say, I

know who I am and who I'm living for. I knew

I could never do that. And at the same time,

I knew I could not not do it. I knew I could

not continue as I was. I was terrified of the

God of the universe and his, if he would ever

become unwilling, that he would ever become not

for me, but somehow against me. I eventually

discovered Ephesians 2, which is to say that

he was already essentially against me. You were

once objects of wrath means that doesn't mean

he hates you. He still loves you, but he's against

you and he opposes your course of action unless

you have committed yourself to be 100 % for him.

If you're 99 % for God. then you're 100 % against

him and he's 100 % against you and everything

that you're doing and your finances will suffer

and your health will suffer and your jobs will

suffer and your mouth will suffer and your mind

won't work the way you want it to and so on and

so on and so on. And you may stomach it. You

may survive it for weeks, months, years, decades.

Some people make it a whole life and then lay

on their bed preparing to meet their maker and

scream and cry, oh, what have I done? Some of

the most famous... atheists and agnostics out

there who did not believe in God on their deathbed

said, oh, I go to meet my maker. Now what have

I done? And so you can cope and survive by pushing

fear of God out of your life, but the actual

overcoming of fear and acting in obedience starts

at home, in the dark, without help. Where was

he? He was at home. on his dad's property. He

wasn't called to take down somebody else's false.

There were lots of them, right? It could have

been a neighbor. It could have been in the next

town. He could have been sent somewhere where

he could go out there, do it, and disappear before

anybody ever knew what happened. An investigation

might not have yielded anything. I always wonder,

boy, if you're going to rob a convenience store,

would you ever do it anywhere near home, right?

That would be dumb. But that's what people do.

And God called him to tear down an altar on his

dad's property. So who was he hurting the most?

His dad, his family, it was at his home. And

then, to us, at home is where you live. It's

where you have peace and safety. It's where you're

okay getting away. So you say something harsh

to your wife, to your kids, or to your husband,

right? Or to a guest. But it's your house. You

can do it. It's your house, right? And you feel

safe doing that. But let me ask you, Is your

house a mess? If your house is a mess, your life

is a mess. If your time at home is focused on

entertainment rather than growing in faithfulness

and following the Lord, then you will not be

found faithful when you are out and about. There's

those that can't share the gospel at the grocery

store, at a restaurant, on the job, where they

work, where they go to school. And when you go

home, you find them playing video games, watching

their TV, doing things. Maybe their house is

a mess or they're projecting, cleaning up, fixing

things and whatever. But their house is not about

God. And if your house is not about God, that's

where fear ends. When your house is about God,

that's where fear is overcome. So if everything,

all the language in your house is about God,

then when you go out and you're called to emphatically

remove idol worship from your courts, which is

where you have influence, wherever that may be,

then you have your home behind you. You have

your family behind you. You can always retreat

to a place of safety if it doesn't go well. At

home, we have to make a concerted effort truly

in the face of worldly opposition, of worldly

distraction, to make a concerted effort to place

an emphasis on removing idol worship and focusing

on the Lord. And realize that if you do not make

God the king of your house, you create a hive

of fear. And you'll feel like, well, why can't

I get my kids to do? Why won't my parents do?

Why doesn't it go the way I want? Why don't my

bills? Why don't my money? Why don't my relationship?

And you'll always have nagging in the back of

your mind that idea that you're really not right

with God. God is not first in your house. I want

you to think about your house. Because that's

where overcoming in fear and acting in obedience

starts. It starts at home. Next, it starts in

the dark. It starts when you can get away with

it. When you're not risking being opposed. So

when I was first teaching after we got saved

and Sherry kind of like talked me into teaching

Sunday school even though I thought I would never

do that. I did a lot of nevers when I was a young

Christian. I still do them today as a matter

of fact. And I was teaching Sunday school and

we would teach the Sunday school lesson. We didn't

really prepare it in advance because we didn't

know any better but we would teach the Sunday

school lesson and we would tell people about

Jesus in Sunday school. And if we had visitors

we would share the gospel. If it was part of

the message we would do that. But I never did

it on my job. I never did it on the parking lot.

I remember hanging my head in shame as the pastor

shared the gospel in the parking lot. Not because

I was praying. I wanted everybody to think I

was praying. But I was hanging my head in shame.

Because I had only been able to share the gospel

and fight idol worship in the dark. Where I could

get away with it. Where there was no question

that people were going to oppose my point of

view. So when I first told Sherry that I was

going to get saved, she didn't immediately go,

oh, me too. I love this idea. Let's do this.

She said, well, you do what you got to do and

I'll do what I got to do. And I didn't know exactly

what the matter. I was afraid to ask, but I knew

I was screwing up my marriage. I was a horrible

husband and a pretty bad father. And when I was

first guy, I put it off two weeks to tell her

about my possible decision that what I might

do because I was afraid I might be opposed by

her, my wife. I wasn't afraid. to oppose her

or be opposed by her when I wanted to spend my

Saturday night some certain way, or I wanted

to change the schedule without asking her, or

I wanted to bang the pots and pans in the kitchen

because I was ticked off at her because she said

something, and she's in the living room going,

oh no, now what did I do? I wasn't afraid to

be a complete jerk most of the time, but when

it came to talking about Jesus, I was afraid

to say I wanted to follow Jesus with my whole

heart, my whole life, and I wanted our house

to be like that, and then she didn't give me

any real immediate hope that she was going to

do the same thing. So if we can't live for Jesus

when there is no risk of us being opposed, if

He's not going to be first, and our emphasis

is not going to be wiping out idols, we have

no healthy fear of the Lord when we're safe.

How are we going to do anything out there where

it's not safe? If you can't stand for God in

the dark, you can't stand for God when the chips

are down. And then, lastly, Acting in obedience

starts at home, in the dark, and with help. He

didn't go alone. Now God didn't tell him to take

ten servants to tear down the altar or cut down

the Asherah pole. He didn't tell him to do that.

He told him to take an ox. And probably Gideon

and the ox together could have done all the work

and the ten servants when they needed to be there,

but he didn't go alone. He took the ox and he

took ten servants. He took ten of his dad's servants.

He had a right to do that, being one of the sons

in the house. Now he was the youngest son, so

maybe ten was stretching it for him. Maybe he

only sort of had the authority to do that. But

he did, and they went, and they did it. He didn't

do it alone. If you won't be bold, firm, and

decisive when you have troops, when we're in

here in church, if you are intimidated to sing,

if you are intimidated to share, If you're intimidated

to share, if you're afraid to come forward to

the altar when you know you need to repent of

sin or you need to accept Jesus Christ as your

Lord and Savior or join the church or be baptized

or something like that, if you won't do it here

where everybody in this room is yearning to see

you, each one of us is yearning to see everyone

else that's supposed to be like that in the room

activated for Jesus, if you won't do it when

you have troops with you, in his case servants

of his dad's, then what happens when you have

to go it alone? If you'll only profess Christ

in here, but truly mean it, that would be plenty.

You'll go to heaven when the time comes. But

if you'll only ever profess Christ in here, how

will you ever overcome fear? How will you ever

turn your fear to be the one good thing that

it's supposed to be? You're always going to struggle

with it. Always be tied up in it. Notice that

there's a 3B. That was three. Overcoming fear

and acting in obedience starts at home in the

dark and with help. But there's a 3B. The results

of overcoming fear and acting in obedience stand

in the daylight. If you truly in this room accept

Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, commit yourself

to follow Him, and you really are living for

Jesus, or you go to camp, and at camp you say,

I'm really living for the Lord, then when you

get home from camp or when you get home from

church, the results of what you did, they'll

show. The change will be exhibited. The effect

will be ongoing. They got up in the morning and

God's altar had replaced the altar and the Asherah

pole. The results stand in the daylight when

they are genuine results. And so I'm asking you,

if you have taken a stand in here, then take

a stand out there. Take a stand everywhere. Get

your mouth under control and speak for the Lord

and be bold, but be loving and kind. Be willing

that a lost person might be forgiven even when,

by all accounts, they don't deserve it. Because

we didn't deserve it either. That brings us to

our conclusion. Recapping the three points. Before

we're done with this conclusion, I'm going to

kind of offend the men in the room a little bit.

And I apologize in advance, so please bear with

me. God wants us to emphatically remove idol

worship from our courts. Fear is a real thing

and it has a place in the life of an unbeliever.

But with God, that fear is cast out. And experiencing

his perfect love, it doesn't have a place. And

then overcoming fear and acting in obedience

starts at home in the dark with help. But the

results stand in the daylight if they were genuine.

Brings us to a conclusion. So here's what I think

God is calling us to do. Number one, he's telling

us to take a stand. I want you to take a stand.

If you don't believe in anything enough to take

a stand, then you need to do an internal survey

and figure out what you believe in enough to

take a stand. Maybe you just believe that a person

ought to be paid well for an honest day's wage,

and that is the most significant belief that

you have. Then stand for that. It ain't much.

It's not eternal. It may or may not be world

-changing. It's not going to save a soul for

sure, but it's something. You ought to have something

to take a stand for. And by taking a stand, I

don't mean whip up your cuss words or raise your

voice. I mean speak out in what you believe and

try to convince others to believe similarly.

Not in a hurtful way, but try to convince them

to believe what you believe. And in the process,

be prepared that your own decision might be informed.

but take some kind of a stand. Own the ground

under your own feet. Take a stand. Brace yourself

so that when life gets rough, you can still be

standing. Now in the scripture, we know that

that surrounds the name of Jesus and he that

is in us is greater than he that's in the world.

And you can take a stand in the day of evil and

then you can still be found standing if you will

armor up with God's armor. Take a stand. Secondly,

unleash your family, your children, your spouse,

whoever it is, those closest to you, unleash

them. Tell them. Tell them that it is your intention

that we are going to live for God. That our house,

the center of our house, the highest point, the

attention getter, the thing, the person, the

being that we serve is God. Tell them. That God

is the one. Not you. Not mom. Not dad. Not money.

Not entertainment. Not sweets. Not food. Not

fun. Nothing. Nothing should rise above anything

else. Everything else is kind of even. And God

is on top. Tell them. With your mouth. Say, I

want our house to be first and foremost God's

house. Unleash your family. Tell them. Then support

them. Step up. When the world comes against them

to stop them standing firmly for the Lord as

you have encouraged them to do, you be there.

When Joash said, anybody that comes after him

to contend for Baal will die in the morning.

That's a pretty bold statement. And I submit

to you, he was going to back it up. Where are

you in the lives of your children? Where are

you in the lives of your teenage? Where are you

in the lives of your close friends or family

members or those that you act as an uncle to

or an aunt to? Where are you? Have you taken

a stand and then unleashed them by telling them

and supporting them so that if they do indeed

run that race and it starts to get ugly that

you will be there? Provide the resources for

the race by God's grace. Bring in the word. Financial,

if necessary. That was Joash's seven -year -old

bull. That was Joash's livelihood. That was Joash's

servants. And when they came against Gideon to

kill him, the would -be, eventually, savior of

the nation, Joash said, I know I've worshipped

Baal and Asherah. profited very much by this

altar that's been on my land. But would you contend

for Baal? Would you protect Baal? If Baal's a

god, then let God protect himself. Let him come

against Gideon. But if any of you come against

my son, I'll kill you dead by dawn. Where is

that? That's the kind of people that we are called

to be. And provide the resources by God's grace

as he provides them to us so that they may partake

in the warfare. That they can be then influencing

their courts. That they can go out and do what

it is they need to do. Take a stand and support

their family and provide the resources by God's

grace to continue generation after generation.

This faith must be populated by men and where

men will not step up by women and where men and

women step up together, that's when it works

the best. I understand, but if there's only one,

then that person, whoever's the leader of that

household, has to be the one. to tell them, to

support them, to provide the resources by God's

grace, to counsel with them with regard to fear

and say, look, you really have nothing to fear.

If, God forbid, somebody takes your life because

you're doing what it is that God has called you

to, you'll go straight to heaven. Let's talk

about what that looks like for a minute. You

don't have to fear that. But if you will walk

away from the Lord, if you're only half in, man,

the worst thing you could possibly do is being

half in because you'll be ripped in half. And

possibly not be saved when the time comes. Devote

yourself to God. Let me tell you what it feels

like to be afraid of the living God. Because

we know the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

There is a place for fear. And we ought to stand

firm in the day of evil. And if you won't, then

be prepared that they may. Did you hear me? If

you won't stand up for God, if you won't tell

them, support them, and provide the resources

by God's grace, and stand firm in the day of

evil, if you won't do that, then be prepared

that your children may do it without you, and

it will cost you. Maybe everything. Maybe them.

Maybe your very own soul. Because when your child

steps up to follow God the way you never did

or would, when they truly become a Christian,

the way God called us to be, if you have not

done so, one day you will die and go to hell

and they will die and go to heaven. And you'll

go, wow, their faith is so, they love the Lord

so much. They're doing everything that they think

God wants them to do. And it's crazy how committed

they are. And you'll be like in the wings, like,

oh, it's so exciting, so exciting, whatever.

Never thinking about the fact that you never

really did that. They need to step up. God deserves

their allegiance. Even if he doesn't fully have

yours, God deserved Gideon's allegiance even

though he did not have Joash's allegiance. The

story's not about Joash. But Joash knew the Bible.

Gideon knew the Bible. And when Gideon stood

up and did what God wanted him to do, Joash backed

his play. How about you? Would you make this

commitment? I'm going to start with this. This

is obviously Joash and Gideon. These are men.

The men in this room. Would you make this commitment

that as far as is under your control, as far

as God allows you to do, would you say, as for

me and my house, we will serve the Lord? That

God will be first? As much as is under my control,

we will live for God? Even when we are afraid,

we still choose God and serve Him and worship

Him more than anyone or anything else in this

world. Would you make that commitment? For your

house? For the single men in this room? Can you

make that commitment for what goes on inside

the four walls of your office? Will you make

that commitment that if you're on the job and

the opportunity arises, you will tear down idols

as God has called us to do? Will you make that

commitment? When you say, we will locate and

tear down anything that stands in our way to

honor God. That's the beauty of the freedom of

religion in the United States, is that if anyone

does anything to stop you from fully honoring

God, that's against the law. They can't do that.

And yet, in a country where no one is allowed

to do that, we do not see people stepping up

to do that. Even people who claim the name of

Jesus sometimes. Will you say to your children,

to those that you have influence over, will you

say to them, I want you to learn to listen to

God and do what He says even if you don't think

I will support you or if you think the world

will come against you? Are you ready for that?

Chris, are you ready for your girls to come to

you one day and say, yeah, Dad, I hear what you're

saying, but I've got to do what God wants me

to do? Aaron? Are you ready for Caitlin to come

to you one day and say, I hear what you're saying?

But I really got to do what God wants me to do?

RJ? Are you ready for that? Kenny? You ready

for that? She's young, but it could be coming.

This is what I'm talking about. This is what

we're called to. Nothing less. We have to be

able to say to them that they have to be able

to overcome their fear. They have to want to

learn and to listen to God and do what He says,

even if they don't think that you will support

them. Or even if they think that the world will

come against them. Today, this morning, Charlie

Kirk is better off than millions of people who

woke up and moved one step closer to being a

billionaire. Because he's with God. By his profession.

You can be courageous and overcome your fear

and do what's right. Through God and His Son,

Jesus Christ. Are you willing to deliver that

message to your house? We're not going to have

a traditional invitation today. But we've got

a little bit of business we're going to conduct

first. And then we're going to have an activity

to fill in the gap. And then we'll call the children

in. Are you with me, Ricky? Here we go. First

of all, if you're in this room and this version

of Christianity that I'm talking about today

is foreign to you. If you cannot say that before

today you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord,

that means he tells you what to do when you do

it. And that could include sacrificing your life

if necessary. And it definitely includes turning

your house over to the Lord and tearing down

idols and idol worship. If this version of Christianity

is foreign to you, then I'm asking you right

now to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. Oh, in the

world, there's a whole bunch of people who take

Jesus Christ as Savior and never take him as

Lord. But the Bible doesn't say that you get

saved by taking Jesus Christ as Savior alone.

It says you get saved by calling him Lord. Jesus

is Lord and recognizing that God raised him from

the dead. Romans 10, which he did do. If you

have not accepted Jesus that way, then do it

right now. It's an instantaneous thing. He is

literally waiting. The God of the universe is

waiting on the edge of your willingness. All

you have to do is say, yes, that's me right now.

Just say, yes, that's me to yourself, in yourself,

in the dark, right where you are. Say, okay,

I'm going to do it for real right now. Go ahead,

God, do what you want to do. Is that you? And

now we're not going to have a song of invitation.

We're not going to. Ask anybody to walk forward.

So this is as easy as it's ever going to get

for you. If you have said today, I realize I

have never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and

Savior that way. I've never let him be in charge

of my life and whatever sacrifice is necessary

and stepped out of my box and said, I'm living

for Jesus. If that's you, but you're starting

to do that today, then I want you to raise your

hand right where you're at. Anybody else? It

doesn't matter who you are or where you're at.

Right now. Going once. Father in heaven, bless

us as we stand firm together. That Jesus would

be Lord of our house, of our tents, of our courts,

and anywhere we put our feet, that we would take

a firm stand and stand up for what is right.

That we would not fear and realize that fear

only has one place in us. And that one place

is when we cross you. And that We commit ourselves

to never do. In Jesus' name, amen. Now maybe

you're here today and you've been listening to

the message and you say you're a Christian. Now

there could be those in the room, I understand,

you're in the room and you're not a Christian.

And you just had your opportunity to change that.

You still can do it while I'm talking, but there's

not going to be another invitation. But you can

still do it. God's always asking. But if you're

in the room and you're a man and you're a leader

of the house that you lead, Then I'm asking you

to commit to do this, to set this standard for

your house and say, we will live for God. Even

when we are afraid, we will choose him and serve

him and worship him more than anyone or anything

else. Locate and tear down anything that stands

in our way of honoring him. And then you say

to, if you have a child, Or someone who is under

your wife, for example, you say, I want you to

learn to listen to God and do what he says, even

if you don't think I'll support you or if you

think the world will come against you. You can

be courageous and overcome your fear and do what's

right through God and Jesus. That is the commitment

that I am asking leaders of household. You may

be a woman in the room and you might be the leader

of your household. If you're a man in the room

and you're willing to say that to your family

before we call the kids in, we're going to do

that now. If you're here and you know that you're

responsible for that, then you go get that group

together if you're willing to do that and have

that conversation right now. I told you I was

going to offend you. So that means, RJ, if you're

making that commitment today, You're going to

get together with Jason, Caleb, and Zayden. Get

Zayden out of class right now and have that conversation.

Ken, if you're making that commitment today,

then you get together with your daughter and

you'd have that conversation. Ricky, you get

Kyler and Carson right now and have that conversation.

Aaron, you talk with Caitlin right now. This

is interactive. Chris, you get together with

your girls and your wife right now. And I understand

some of us don't. So if you're here and you have

a son or a daughter that's not currently here,

You're going to have this, if you want to, right

now, you can call them on the phone. Curtis,

obviously, you would go with your dad. So Alicia's

going to play some music. We've got like five

to eight minutes, however long it takes. You

blow this off if you want. You can not do it

if you want. That's entirely up to you. But I'm

going to do it. I'm going to go get Ariana. And

get to a sherry and we're going to have this

conversation. For the rest of you, you have this

five to eight minutes to do whatever you feel

God would want you to do. But I would ask you

to search your soul and prepare yourself because

someday you're going to be responsible. And if

you're a single man, you're already responsible

for your own house. If you're a single woman,

you're already responsible for your own house

now. So the music's going to play for the next

five to eight minutes. I'm going to pray briefly

that we'll be bold, and then I'm going to go

get my crew together. Father in heaven, we praise

you and thank you for this recognition that we

must live for you, that as leaders of our households,

we must decide to live for you, and that even

when we are afraid, we must still choose you

and serve you and worship you more than anything

or anyone else in the world. God, I pray that

we will stand up.