Tear It Down | Ps. Keith Pittman

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Today I'm I'm excited to jump into God's word, so I want to do that now.

If you have your Bibles, I would love for you to join me in the book of Judges, chapter number six.

Judges chapter number six.

Let me give you some context to the passage and what's happening geographically so we can kind of feel the tension and the moment that we're walking into.

The book of Judges is really a powerful book because it really was a group of people.

Before kings were identified, they were called judges.

And God would elect these individuals to would ultimately serve as prophets, but also leaders that would help to lead the children of Israel back onto the rightful path.

Because there was a pattern that the Israelites would continuously find themselves in.

And the pattern was really quite simple.

They would sin, they would suffer as a consequence to their sin, they would cry out to God, and then God would raise up a deliverer.

This pattern continuously repeated itself over and over again.

So here's the equation.

And so I think that this principle is super important for us because while God is gracious, while God is merciful, he will not rescue us from our own decisions.

And sometimes we're going to have to experience the consequences of decisions that we make, but it doesn't mean that God still won't respond.

This is exactly what's happening in this text, and what the Bible tells us is that the children of Israel, they had been oppressed as a result of their rebellion from God for seven years.

Seven years they they weren't able to produce crops, seven years they were surrounded by enemies and under constant attack.

Seven years of oppression and feeling as if who they were as individuals were completely limited for seven years because they chose to live a life outside of God's grace.

And so God identifies a deliverer that he's going to raise up to now be the one to lead the children of Israel into freedom, but ultimately back into rightful fellowship with God.

And this man that God has chosen is a young man named Gideon.

Some of us may be familiar with the story of Gideon, some of us may have heard in Bible stories about Gideon and his 300 men and how they were able to accomplish and defeat thousands of men.

But before Gideon ever won a battle on the battlefield, he had to win the battle at home first.

And so today I want to spend some time unpacking a little bit about Gideon's life and his journey that led up to him having these incredible victories.

When we're introduced to Gideon, the Bible tells us that he was threshing wheat in the wine press.

I won't unpack what that means, but Google that or ChatGBT it later, and it will explain to you just how odd it is for him to be in an environment where he's trying to bring in the harvest that God has provided, but he's doing it in the shadows because he's afraid that the enemy is going to steal it.

Let me pause here because maybe for some of us we understand what it feels like, that every time it seems as if we get any traction in the things of God that the enemy is drawn to it.

Maybe there's somebody over here that can identify that as soon as you get a promotion and you get a little bit more income, the car then breaks down.

Let me talk to some people over here.

The moment that you get a little bit of revelation, you got admittance into some things, but the moment that you get that success, there seems to be a stressor that seems to be pulling from it.

This was the life that the Israelites found themselves in.

And so Gideon, even though they just got a harvest, he was afraid because he knew that the enemy was coming to take it.

So God confronts this afraid small man, and when he sees him, he says, Greetings, mighty warrior from God.

I can't imagine a more contradictory statement to say to someone who is literally in hiding than to call them a mighty warrior.

But there are some times where God sees something in us that we don't even see in ourselves.

There are some times that God is calling things out of us that we don't even realize that's on the inside of us.

But it requires us to take action to activate that very thing.

And so as God says, Gideon, I see you and I see this the oppression of your people, I'm going to use you to be a vessel of deliverance, but there's something that I need you to do first.

Starting here at verse number 25 of Judges chapter 6, we see what it is that God wants Gideon to do first in his backyard before he leads them to victory on the battlefield.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

Verse 25 says this to us It says, On that very night the Lord said to him, Take your father's young bull and the second bull of seven years old.

Then tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the asherapole beside it.

Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on top of this mound.

Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the asherapole that you cut down.

So Gideon took ten of his male servants and did as the Lord has told him.

But because he was too afraid of his father's family and the men of the city to do it in the daytime, he did it at night.

Somebody say, At night.

And when the men of the city got up in the morning, they found Baal's altar torn down, the ashera pole beside it cut down, and the second bull offered upon the altar, and they had seen it built.

Then they said to each other, Who did this?

And after they made thorough investigation, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, did it.

Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son.

He must die because he tore down Baal's altar and cut down the ashera pole beside it.

But Joash said to all who stood against him, Would you plead Baal's case for him?

Would you save him?

Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by mourning.

If he is a god, let him plead his own case because someone tore down his altar.

That day Gideon was called Jerubbabel, since Joash said, Let Baal contend with him because he tore down his altar.

Before I jump into the passage, there's something that I want to highlight from the text because I won't be able to circle back to it, but I want you guys to recognize what's going on right here.

That that Gideon, he literally tore down the ancestral worship that he was surrounded by.

And the Bible says something very subtle but something very powerful.

That when the men of the city woke up the next morning and they saw the altar torn down and they saw an altar to Yahweh constructed next to it, they said, Who did this?

And the Bible says they did a thorough investigation and it brought them to the conclusion that Gideon was the one who was responsible.

Let's pause here.

That the men were able to do a thorough investigation to recognize who was the one responsible for standing against the culture?

Who's the one responsible of building an altar to Yahweh in the face of all of the idolatry that's going on?

Here's the question that I have to ask myself and that I want to pose to you.

If your neighborhood was to do a thorough investigation on who in our neighborhood is a truly dedicated follower of Jesus, would the investigation lead them to your front door?

If people were to not use your social media posts, if if they weren't going to look at your bumper sticker, but if they were going to look at the evidence in your life, would it bring them to the space that surely this person is a follower of Christ?

The Bible says of Gideon that there was fruit in his life that made it evident that he was the one who tore down the altar.

And I believe the challenge for all of us is to make sure that by our fruit people know us, not by our Facebook posts.

That when people look at us, can they see the love of Christ in our life?

Can they see the conviction of the Holy Spirit that is guiding us?

Can they see our willingness to go against the culture, against the grain, against what's popular in a way that honors God?

Gideon did this even though he was afraid.

I'm getting fired up now and I haven't gotten to the prayer.

So let me do the prayer so we can get into this.

If you're taking notes and I hope that you are, we're going to unpack some of these things in today's thought I have entitled Tear It Down.

Somebody say, Tear it down.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for your people, and I thank you for the opportunities that you give us to gather in your name as a community.

Lord, we we recognize that this is your house, this is your church, and you are welcome here.

And in Holy Spirit, we invite you to speak to us in a transformational way.

We we invite you to challenge us in a way that allows us to get out of our comfort zone.

God, we ask that you confront us in an area of our comfort and allow us to be disturbed by what is your will for our lives and what is your will for our community.

So, Lord, I just pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

As I mentioned earlier, every year, Megan and I, we we take uh a small sabbatical, about four weeks or so.

And every year the goal is always the same.

It's always to rest, uh to recharge, to reflect, and and to kind of like get vision and come back into what God has ultimately called us to do.

And so every year, it's inevitable that that while we're on this sabbatical and while we're trying our best to rest, that that Megan gets motivated by the spirit.

I'm not gonna say which spirit it is, um, but she gets motivated by a spirit that says that we need to declutter the home today.

Now you have to understand, I get it.

It's so easy for things to get accumulated in the house over the time period of a year.

You bring in new stuff, you don't get rid of the old stuff, and then you just move stuff around in an effort to try to make things look neat.

I get all that.

But I'm just curious as to why it takes place during sabbatical.

Where's my wife?

I I don't know why it always takes place at 10.48 p.m.

Like, I'm not sure if anybody can relate to that, but we've already decided that we're on sabbatical.

Sabbatical to me means rest.

So sabbatical to me means rest.

That means just a whole lot of like nothing.

That like that's that's the goal.

But at 10.48, as we're trying to just have a little bit of Netflix and watch a little bit of shows, she's like, hey, I'll be right back.

She'll get up, and next thing I know, I hear closet doors opening.

The next thing I know, I hear the vacuum running.

I hear the dishwash.

I'm like, and now I look like the dude, like, are you gonna get up and help?

I'm like, well, no, I didn't sign up for this.

It's 1050.

Like, that's not what we like.

So now I'm in this weird spot of am I a good husband or am I not?

So, so, so here's and and here's how I know because things, she kind of gets to this place where it's like, why why is this old piece of mail here?

Why why is this here?

I'm like, I don't have any answers for you.

At least not at 1058.

You see how time keeps getting later and later.

We literally have this one corner that's outside of our kitchen, and and I and I'm so it's it's laughable, but it's embarrassing.

We have like one of those giant mail bins, and there's also like a random coat there that's from like three years ago, and a jump rope.

And you're like, why are all these things there?

But I could tell you exactly how they got there.

Somebody said they were coming over, you're trying to figure out where you can put stuff up, you put it in the corner, you put a coat over top of it, a blanket, and the jump rope is there, and somehow it becomes part of the decor.

And in your mind, you're convinced like no one's ever gonna notice this, and most of the times they don't.

So watch this.

On the surface, everything is in order.

But if you open the wrong door, we all got that closet that you say don't nobody go in that closet.

We all got those drawers that when you open it up, the whole thing just might collapse.

We all got the chaos that's behind the scenes, but on the surface, it looks really, really good.

On the surface, it looks like everything is in order.

But if you go into some of those rooms, you're gonna see a little bit of chaos.

Hold that thought.

The children of Israel on the surface look like the most pious, God-loving people.

On the surface, they found themselves in a season where they were dealing with oppression, they were being attacked by their enemy.

It almost seems as if it was it was a completely unwarranted attack.

So there's a very simple equation that Scripture lays out on what you do when you're a child of God and you face opposition.

You call on the name of the Lord.

So the children of Israel on the surface, there they're being attacked.

They call on God, God shows up to rescue them.

It's a beautiful formula, and we can just copy and paste it.

Really, really simple.

But I believe there's a few other things that are at play here that we can often miss that's not happening right in front of us.

For the children of Israel, that while on the surface it looked as if they were loving God and inviting God into a very tumultuous situation.

After all, they're simply doing what the Bible tells us in Psalm 50, verse 15, where it says, Call on me in the day of your trouble, and I will rescue you and you will honor me.

Psalms 50:15

What a beautiful passage.

Paul even doubles down on it in Romans 10.

Those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

What an encouraging passage of Scripture that we can be reminded of in these moments where we're facing opposition.

But I think there's a little bit something else going on beneath the surface.

For the children of Israel, though they were calling out on the name of God, when God got beneath the surface and he began to open up the closet and do an investigation and do an inventory of what's going on in their lives, when he opened up certain rooms, a room full of idols began to fall out.

On the surface, it looks like I'm worshiping God, but in my heart I'm not honoring him in any way.

So as a result of living a life in direct rebellion of God, the consequences of the rebellion has found them.

But God in his sovereignty and in his goodness still decided to rescue them, but he's not going to rescue us from our own decisions.

So he says, Before I can free you publicly, we need to clean house privately.

He comes to Gideon and he says, I see the oppression of my people, I see the suffering that's going on, I'm going to get involved in it, but we got to deal with these idols that have been happening in your life.

Because those very things are allowing us to recognize that you're not living in true loyalty to me.

So the Bible tells us that that very night, the very same night that God came to Gideon, that very same night that while Gideon was inside of the wine press, and that very same night that while he's trying to hide his blessings, the very same night where God refers to him as being a mighty warrior, that same night God had given him an assignment.

He says, Listen, I'm calling you a mighty warrior, but the courage that you need is not going to be on the battlefield, it's going to require you to do something in your own backyard.

That night.

And the language insinuates that there's a little bit of urgency attached to it.

We have to do this immediately.

You don't have the luxury of delaying, you don't have the convenience of holding off on this because people's freedom is at expense.

Why would a God who recognized the oppression of people for seven years tell him to do it tonight?

Don't don't let any time pass.

I believe because God knows in his infinite wisdom that if left to our own devices, we can talk ourselves out of anything.

That if we're if we're left to our own devices, if we sleep on it or we know the quintessential Christian thing, let me pray about it.

That becomes spiritualized language for just disobedience.

That even though God is compelling us to do something, that the more we hesitate, the fear gets louder.

The more we procrastinate, the conviction grows weaker.

And then our breakthrough is forfeited because we were, we were, we refuse to respond when God was telling us to do it.

How many, I wonder how many breakthroughs, how many miracles have we missed because we didn't pray about it when God told us to.

We all can fall victim to that.

You know how many times I've I've been sleeping and drifting off to sleep, and God will put something on my heart and be like, hey, I want you to intercede for that.

And I'm like, I'll do that in my quiet time tomorrow.

But what if, what if God needed me to do it in that moment?

This is what it means to break out of our comfort and to do it when God is telling us to do it.

And let's be honest.

If we're really real with ourselves, at the end of the day, it's probably just procrastination.

And we disguise it as wisdom, we want to seek counsel, we want to get advice from people, and believe me, I am a data person.

I am an analyst by heart.

I love to make sure that I can make informed decisions, but I want y'all to hear me.

There's no amount of data we will ever get that will get us to a place that we lose sight of the fact that we walk by faith and not by sight.

At some point, your faith will be required in order for you to move forward in the things that God is calling you to do.

And in fact, I will go as far as to say it this way: that if your decision doesn't require faith, you're walking in comfort, not in your calling.

That if your decision doesn't require faith, you're not building an altar to God, you're just moving old furniture around.

That if your decision doesn't require faith, you're living safe, but you're not living surrendered.

Because I have never seen in my personal life God asked me to do something that didn't require something of me.

It's going to require faith.

So Gideon is now given this responsibility of confronting this family dynamic, but he did it at night.

Sometimes God calls us in our night seasons because if we wait till tomorrow, we'll talk ourselves out of it.

But I want y'all to hear me.

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

That when we talk ourselves out of it and we convince ourselves that we'll do it another time, that is still disobedience.

And disobedient dressed up as prayer is still disobedient because there are people who are depending on our engagement that can help to set them free.

And God calls us often to do these things in the night.

But let's be honest.

The nighttime is when doubt begins to creep in.

The nighttime is when the world feels quiet, but your mind won't stop racing.

The nighttime represents uncertainty.

The nighttime represents loneliness.

It represents the battles that no one else faces.

And the fact that the matter is in a room of this size, and those who are joining us later on podcasts or however you found us, some of us may think of areas of our lives where we're in a nighttime season.

An area where we don't have the clarity, we don't have the full vision, we don't have the full plan already in front of us.

But I want you to understand that in the in the kingdom of God, that night isn't just darkness, but it's often a doorway to destiny.

Because I've seen through scripture God do some incredible things and lead people to significant turning points in the nighttime.

In fact, the Bible tells us about Abraham when he began to question the very validity of God's calling.

It was in the nighttime that God said to him, If you can count the stars, then you'll be able to count your blessings.

So he got a revelation in the night.

The Bible tells us about Samuel as he was a young boy learning to discern the voice of God, that he heard the voice of God for the first time in the nighttime.

The Bible tells us about Jacob, who had been living life on his own terms, that he was confronted by the angel of the Lord and he wrestled with God in the nighttime.

And it produced a revelation of not only who he was, but it significantly changed his walk.

The Bible also tells us about Paul and Silas while they were in prison and they began to worship God in the nighttime, and they've got a breakthrough, and it broke through and gave them a space of freedom.

What I want you to know is don't you dare forsake and ignore that God may be doing something in the nighttime.

In fact, I serve a God who works the night shift.

That he has no problem with showing up when all hell is breaking loose and bringing in light and revelation.

And I believe if you're in a night season that God may be doing a work that wants to shift your story, that maybe the destiny that you're experiencing in the darkness you're walking through, that God is leading you to something more significant.

But it means you have to go through the night.

There's a turning point that we see, but it often requires us to go through that night season.

And what we see for Gideon, he's in a nighttime season.

What we see for the Israelites, they're in a nighttime season of seven years of night.

But God is about to bring light, but it required them to do something in order to be a catalyst for it all.

And I believe these principles can apply for us.

Can we get a good amen to that?

I want to share three thoughts with us, and I'm going to try to get through this as quickly as possible because I want us to go into worship at the end.

But the first thing I believe that God requires us to do to experience that turning point moment that He has for us is first we have to identify your altar.

Let's identify the altars.

So let me let me break this down for a minute.

For Gideon, before he ever fought Midian, he had to face the altar in his own backyard.

The altar of Baal was.

Not just a structure, it was a statement.

The Hebrew word literally means master or lord, something that was not God that was lording over his life.

This wasn't just a religion, it was identity, it was loyalty, it was literal dependency.

Israel just wasn't oppressed on the outside, they were compromised on the inside.

And what the Bible tells us is that the that that Baal worship was all connected to provision.

They believed that if I could worship this false God, that it would produce fertility for us, that it would give us prosperity, it would give us safety.

The very things that only they can get from God, they began to look to man-made things to provide something that only God could do.

I hope that this is beginning to hit home a little bit.

Because I suspect that there's many of us that we look to man-made things in hopes that it can give us something that only God can provide.

Whether it's consumerism, whether it's politics or politicians, whether it's it's it's getting that promotion, one more, one more zero in my paycheck.

If we're looking for those things to produce peace, but Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

And anything that I believe that's not God, that is going to produce something that only God can create, that, my friends, is an idol.

Because I will begin to orient my entire life around trying to get this thing that only God can provide.

We we focus so heavily and build altars to our careers and we call it ambition.

We we become obsessed with approval of others and we call it social media.

We get obsessed with money and we call it provision.

We we idolize our politicians and call them God's chosen.

Instead of us recognizing that something that is man-made can never produce something that only God gives.

We need to begin to evaluate the altars that we've established in our lives, the places that we'll sacrifice our time, the places that we'll give our money to, the things that we'll give our energy to and devotion to.

Anything that we're looking to to give us security apart from God is an idol.

Anything that we're looking to give us peace apart from God is an idol.

And listen to me, friends, whatever we give constant attention to, we eventually give control to.

So Jesus says it this way in Matthew chapter number six.

He says, No man can serve two masters.

You're gonna either love one and despise the other, but but you can't.

You can't have two masters.

In other words, he's saying, you can't have two altars in one heart.

You're gonna have to make a decision on who you will serve.

But as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord.

You have to make a decision and a conviction on what your life is going to look like.

Maybe the reason that we haven't experienced our breakthrough as of yet is because God will not rescue us from our own decisions.

And so maybe there's areas where we're waiting for God to move and God is waiting for us to move.

Areas where he's waiting for us to identify the things that we've elevated above him so that he can begin to move on our behalf.

Some of us want victory on the outside while still having idolatry on the inside.

And God is simply saying, before I can bless you publicly, we need to cleanse some things privately.

Some of us are asking God to bless altars that he never told us to build.

Some of us have got to be experts at bondage and we call it balance.

But I believe that God is saying that if you want to experience this turning point in your life, it starts with identifying the altar.

When God confronted Gideon, he said, There's an altar that is offensive to me, that is literally in your family structure, and I need you to deal with that first before I can bring you to a place of total freedom.

You need to identify that altar.

The second thing that I believe God is confronting Gideon with and challenging us with, even in this very moment, is now we have to now confront our fears.

Because whatever we build, we often put security in.

And if we're honest with ourselves, Gideon was afraid.

He was afraid of the reaction of other people.

He was afraid at how this would impact his family.

But even though he was afraid, I want you to see this, he still obeyed God.

Listen to me.

Your fear doesn't disqualify you from the things of God, disobedience does.

So even though he was afraid, he did it afraid.

Because God has given us fear, not the spirit of fear, but he's given us the emotion of fear to serve as an indicator on how we need to navigate around different situations.

The Bible says that Gideon was almost undone by it.

When you break down the language, it's literally a fear and trembling.

But yet, but yet Gideon still did it.

He still moved forward in spite of having this sphere that was trying to keep him paralyzed.

Because the Bible tells us that even in spite of fear's presence, he gives us a spirit that allows us to feel motivated.

In our brain, we understand that when fear is present, that it activates our fight, flight, or freeze response.

And sadly, for many of us, we can get paralyzed, we freeze up when there's something that happens to us that we don't feel comfortable with.

It's the fear of failure.

Man, I don't want to get it wrong.

So we stand still.

The fear of rejection, I don't know how people are gonna respond to this so we don't do anything.

The fear of the unknown, I don't know what this is going to produce, and so we we end up having analysis, paralysis, and we end up being at a standstill.

But psychology tells us that the way that we rewire our brain from having an overreaction to fear is by small steps of obedience.

It's literally called the replacement theory.

We just begin to replace it with trusting God because we have to confront our fear if we're ever going to strip its power out of our lives.

For me and my family, we've always been a very strong roller coaster family.

Like that's that's who we are, that's what we do.

And I still vividly remember when Caleb got to be old enough to ride on the adult roller coasters for the first time.

I felt like it was a breakthrough moment for us.

I feel like there's certain milestones when you're raising your kids.

The moment that they're potty trained, that's a breakthrough moment.

The moment that they can eat food so I don't have to continue to spend money on formula and a whole bunch of other stuff, that's a breakthrough moment.

Another breakthrough moment is when they're old enough to ride on roller coasters, and then after that, when they get married and moved out.

Those are the milestone moments, at least for me.

Nothing else in between.

Those are the breakthrough moments.

So for us, I'm like, okay, Caleb is finally tall enough to get on this ride.

And I still vividly remember.

I remember like it was yesterday.

We're about to get on the Hulk at Universal Studios.

You remember this there?

We've been talking about it.

Weeks, months.

Caleb is now tall enough.

He knows it.

So we're getting onto the ride.

We're all excited.

We're walking up.

And I started noticing off in my right that Caleb is slowly drifting back.

And I'm like, I'm like, yo, where'd he go?

And he's just like in the back, like just behind the family.

I'm like, bro, get like get up here.

What you doing?

He's like, hey dad, I can't get on this ride.

So like, listen, you have to understand, he didn't say this.

Like, I'm not sure if you guys have been to amusement parks, but they have the wait times up there.

We we've been waiting for like a good hour and some change.

There's no way you're not getting on this ride.

So I look at him and I'm like, bro, I'm like, what, like, why not?

I'm a very rational person.

I'm very I'm like, why don't you want to get on?

And I can see it in his eyes, but I just want him to tell me.

He's like, Dad, like, um, I was looking at YouTube last night.

Which you know that's not gonna end well.

Anytime someone tells you they looked it up on the internet, they're gonna see the worst version of it.

So he had got some crazy algorithm of seeing people literally ejected off of roller coaster rides.

So in his head, he's like, yo, we get on this ride, I'm getting ejected off.

I'm not getting on.

And I'm like, son, and so here's here's a here's a here's a really threshold moment for me.

So here's what I'll tell you.

This may have been a terrible moment as a father, but a great moment as a therapist.

Because in therapy, in therapy, they call it exposure therapy.

Where at some point, once you realize that the fear isn't really a real thing, you have to expose yourself to it in order to strip yourself from the power of it.

I didn't have any of this training, so I probably was just in this bucket of like, nah, son, this is what we do.

So I looked him in the eyes, I'm like, nah, man, we're we're getting on this ride.

And you can just see his eyes well enough.

I'm like, and you're not gonna cry.

Like again, I'm not saying it's I'm not saying it's my favorite moment.

But I stand on it.

Hey man, you're you're you're getting on this ride.

And he's like sitting there, and I could literally hear the family like, is he gonna make him get on?

I'm like, mind your business.

This ain't got nothing to do with you.

Nothing to do with you.

Son, you're getting on this ride.

And this is what I said to him.

I said, because here's what's important to me.

I don't want to give fear the keys to your life.

Because if what can happen, what can happen is that you're gonna have fear of something that you haven't even done.

And he didn't realize, but that will create a spiritual pattern where anything that I am exposed to that I'm afraid of, I will feel justified in avoiding it, and you are gonna live a life where just because you're uncertain about the outcomes, you're never going to do it.

So here's what we're gonna do we're gonna get on this ride.

And and you're and you're gonna sit on this ride next to me, and I got you.

And and when we get off this ride, if you can honestly tell me, hey dad, I just don't like the ride, then I will not force you to get on it.

But we're not gonna let fear drive your life.

We got on this ride and he's screaming the entire time.

But when the ride ends, he's like, yo, can we do it again?

I'm like, no, the line is two hours long, we'll get it the next week.

But what I want you to see is that in order to overcome the fear of it, he had to face it.

And and I know that there are some of us, we recognize that life can sometimes, come on, I'm preaching.

Sometimes life can feel like a roller coaster.

That sometimes life is gonna have some twists and turns, some ups and some downs and some things that we just don't know.

And sometimes we're wondering that if I go on this ride with God, is it really gonna hold me in place or am I gonna be ejected and find harm?

But my spiritual lived experience is this that I know that the G force of the Holy Spirit will always keep me in my seat, and I will never be ejected from the place that God has called me to be.

I can be secure and attached to God's word, recognizing that if God has sent me out to do it, I'm going to perform it.

So I'm trying to encourage somebody right now.

Life is gonna throw you some twists and turns.

Life is gonna send you in some upside-down twists, but God has got you.

But if we want to strip the power of fear out of your life, you're gonna have to confront it.

You're gonna have to stare it down and say that fear is not my future.

God is, I'm not gonna allow any of these things to strip away what God is doing in my life.

We have to make sure that we don't allow fear to paralyze us.

And the Bible tells us that when Gideon confronted his fear, the text tells us that he tore down the altar that his fathers had established.

He literally tore it down, he used the elements of worship in a false system, and he literally tore it down and built something that was honoring to God.

One of the bulls was seven years old, the same amount of years that they were in oppression.

And God is so powerful, but also so redemptive.

He's saying the same amount of years you were in oppression is the same amount of years I'm about to give you back.

In other words, the cycle ends today.

I'm not sure who I'm talking to right now because sometimes we can say, I've been struggling with this my whole life.

Sometimes we can say, I've never had a good relationship with my family.

I've been sick and dealing with this my whole life.

We have a long ability to have a resume of our suffering, but I serve a God who not only will take those suffering things and turn it into a platform, but he will redeem every single thing that you had lost.

And I'm not sure what you lost in this season, but I want to let you know that God keeps excellent records and you're going to get it all back.

The Bible tells us it is time to tear some things down.

Whatever idols we've created, it's time to tear it down.

Whatever lies in the whispers of the enemy that have been in your ear, it's time to tear it down.

That generational cycle that has been passed down like a family heirloom, it's time to tear it down.

That addiction that promised comfort but only delivered chains, it's time to tear it down.

That desire for approval from people that really don't even love you, it's time to tear it down.

That altar of unforgiveness that we've created because of the pain that we've experienced in our past, it's time to tear it down.

The false security that money gives us, but only God can provide for us.

It's time to tear it down.

The relationships that we're pursuing after that leads us away from God, it's time to tear it down.

The traditions that we continue to pursue without following the Spirit of God, and it's time to tear it down.

The compromises that we make in the shadows.

God wants to bless us in the private, but he's saying it's time to tear it down.

The things we've been trusting in outside of God, he's saying it's time to tear it down.

Tear down everything in your life that doesn't look like Jesus, everything that distracts away from who God has called you to be.

He's saying it's time to tear it down.

But it doesn't stop there because the Bible says that then Gideon was given a responsibility to not just tear down what was old, but to build something new.

He had to build a new altar that was honoring to God.

Once we identify the altars, we confront our fears and we tear down those things that are not honoring to God, we now need to build the right altar.

Building an altar that honors God.

Romans 12 tells us that we're supposed to be living sacrifices before the Lord, building something that honors God.

It's literally the process of replacing what was lost with the things that God has called us to do.

It's the same way that if we are doing construction on a home, when we're going through the renovation process, we we tear down, we take out all the things that aren't working, but at some point we have to put in new things so that it can be functional in order for it to be working the way that God had called it to function.

God is saying, I don't want you to leave this thing half done, but tear down what's not working for you and build something in its place that honors me.

God is saying it's time for us to rebuild something that brings glory to Him.

What is it that God has told you to tear down?

But what do you need to replace it with?

Because the Bible that I read tells me that if we don't replace it with truth, if we don't replace it with God's love, scripture says that the enemy circles back.

He literally spins the block.

Watch what it says here in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

It says, When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it goes off into dry places and not finding anywhere to rest, it comes back to that home in which it was evicted from.

And finding it clean, swept, and everything in order, it brings back seven more wicked than himself.

Jesus literally is saying, There are some of us that the job is not complete.

We've begun to tear down the altars, we've begun to tear down the idols, but we haven't begun to build something that is honoring to God.

And so in this in this space of limbo, the enemy comes back and makes it even worse than it was when we first started.

But God is saying it's time to rebuild something that is glorifying to me.

Build an altar of prayer in your temple, build an altar of trust in your resources, build an altar of faith in your marriage.

Don't leave empty spaces where idols once stood, but fill them with the presence of God.

Gideon's story concludes with him leading the army to victory.

What happened with the 300 was literally motivated by what he did with 51.

Being obedient when no one is looking, you'd be amazed what God does when everyone is.

Procrastination is fear in disguise.

Delayed obedience is still disobedience.

But I believe the same God who said to Gideon, tonight, I need you to do this, is with us today.

And I suspect that there's some of us in here that may have some fears that are paralyzed.

I suspect there's some of us in here today that if we're honest with ourselves and we really begin to think about identifying the altars in our life, the things that we've elevated above God, things that we think are really gonna produce God like things, God's saying it's time for you to put it in its rightful place.

Being successful, all those surface level things, there's nothing wrong with that.

But it's gotta be built on the foundation of Christ and Christ alone.

Anything outside of that, we've given something place that God is supposed to occupy.

So with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to pose a question to us as we prepare to go into just a moment of worship.

Maybe there's fear in this room.

And sometimes that fear is fear of the unknown, fear of not seeing our dreams actualized, but it's just fear.

And God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, and He He wants us to confront that fear.

Maybe for some of us it's just these, I just need the help to tear down some things in my life.

But wherever you are, if you just know that man, this is a message that that's for me.

There's some things I need to tear down, there's some some fears I need to confront.

There's some things I need to build up, but if if if any of that resonates with you, just only count on three.

I just want you to lift a hand up so we can we can pray and worship together.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Hands up everywhere.

God bless you.

Amen.

I want to ask you to go ahead and put those hands down and you can you can stand up at this time.

We're gonna go into a time of worship.

And I think it's very fitting that this entire message is centered around the altar.

In the simplest term, the altar is the meeting place with God.

That when we when we have the proper posture, the altar is just simply the place where it's like I'm stepping out, God's gonna meet me there.

Draw near to God, and he draws nearer to me.

And so, as we go into this time of reflection and worship, I want to invite you to come down to this altar.

Now, I'm gonna be honest with you, there's some Sundays where I do a lot of compelling, but also just a lot of convincing because we've gotten used to being comfortable Christians.

So we have to like try to dance around it and find ways to try to like, hey, nobody's looking at you, just do it and and and and God's gonna meet you there.

Listen, I I don't have the deliverance to give you, only God does.

But what I will tell you is that something happens very powerfully when we step out of our comfort zone and we're willing to meet God where he calls us to meet him at.

So if that's you, this is not me convincing, this is not me shaming, it's not me compelling, but I want you to recognize everyone's looking.

But that's okay because we've got to tear down this comfortable Christianity out of our lives.

We've got to start getting into this space of boldness and saying, yes, I need, I need to have that torn down in my life.

Yes, I want to get rid of that fear, and I'm willing to take a step of faith right now and meet God at the altar.

So if that's you, I would love for you to come down to this altar.

I want to pray for us.

We're gonna go into a time of worship and then we're gonna wrap up and send you out.

Um, but let's just create a space for God to begin to fill.

Lord, we thank you so much for your faithfulness.

We thank you for your truth, God, and we thank you for these moments where we can come together as a family and we can invite you to embolden us, to inspire us, but ultimately to help us to tear down some things that are not honoring to you.

So, Lord, as we go into this time of reflection and worship, I pray that whatever any of our next steps are, that we have the confidence and boldness to do it.

If it's coming down to this altar to meet with you, we're gonna pray with you, we're gonna touch and agree.

But Father, we know that this is meant to be an encounter with you, that Lord, you meet us where we are.

For those of us who are interceding and those of us who are who are who are in a place where we feel like we're we have a good stride, I pray that we can be sensitive, be mindful, intercede, and pray for those of us who are believing God for our breakthrough.

But I truly believe in the name of Jesus that the fear you came in here with doesn't have to leave with you if we're willing to leave it at the altar.

So, Father, meet us where we are in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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