GOD IS: PEACE (JEHOVAH SHALOM) - Pastor Susie Gamez | Midtown Church Sacramento

It has been a great week.

Lots of reason to give God praise.

And I I know that on a personal level, some of you, some of you like celebrated birthdays and anniversaries this week or the last couple of weeks.

Anyone just get back from vacation?

I know at least a few of you, yes, over here.

You all just came back from vacation.

You might be a little sad to be back in this 194-degree heat.

Um, but last week, our little girl, our number three, our little firecracker Lucia, uh, she got baptized.

Yeah, she got baptized on her 11th birthday.

So this year, her birthday was extra special.

I think we got a picture.

You might have a picture.

Okay, it's okay if we don't have the picture.

Um, but you know, every time one of our kids has a birthday, memories pop up on our uh photo memories, and you know, it gets me feeling nostalgic.

I look back on old photos and I realize dang, they really do grow up so fast.

It goes by so quickly.

Yeah.

So her older brother and older sister got in the water and helped dunk her, and they just want to dunk her.

Um, but it was symbolic because we want the whole family to be a part of you know our journey, our discipleship together, right?

So it was a beautiful moment.

But, you know, as the kids get older, I realize it really does go by so fast.

But I am starting to understand the idea that no matter how old your kids get, they will always be your baby, right?

Now, don't get me wrong, I do want my kids to grow up.

I want them to mature, and I want them to become responsible, Jesus-loving, kind, and compassionate people who walk in their power and purpose.

And as they grow out of childhood, I want them to leave their childish ways behind them.

But I also want them to be able to maintain a childlike curiosity, a childlike freedom, a childlike faith.

When we baptized Lucia last week, Marcos explained that we named um we named her Lucia after his grandmother, Aguilita Luz, which means light in Spanish.

So we want Lucia to know that she is called to be salt and light in this world.

We want her little light to shine bright.

And uh we describe her as our little firecracker for a reason, because she's little, but she's got a lot of fire in her.

So, you know, some of the pictures that popped up in my memories, they they they capture some of the childlike freedom that that that unbridled zest that this little girl that we saw in her early on.

This is her in her Doc McStuffin's pajamas, and um, then the next picture, she found these red glasses and decided to be a superhero.

So this is her looking like she's about to take flight.

Um, and this next one, you know, nobody told her to pose like this.

I don't know where she got this from, but you know, she did grow up in the LBC, so that but don't worry, I think that's goldfish in the cup, okay?

It's just goldfish.

Uh you know, this next one, I call this if unbothered was a person.

So if you notice, she's wearing rain boots in this picture.

And like I said, we used to live in Long Beach.

And on that day, it was probably about 82 degrees, not a cloud in sight, but she wanted to wear rain boots, so you can tell her she wasn't gonna wear rain boots, you know, and and and she's got that Tootsie Pop in hand too, so you know she felt especially empowered.

But this is her just living life unbothered.

Uh, this next one, before we show it, I want to give you some context to this one.

Now, you know, there's some parents.

I'm not gonna say whether or not we use this tactic or not, but um, there's some parents who use this one little trick, like when your your kids are acting up, like you go somewhere and and and they don't want to go home, but it's time to go home.

So, you know, they're they're like, no, I don't want to go home.

So so I heard that some parents do this thing where where you you act like you're gonna leave without them.

Okay, fine.

You want to stay here, stay here by yourself.

We're going, right?

And and you pretend to leave thinking that your kid's gonna be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm coming, don't leave me behind.

But that never worked with this one because in this next next picture you'll see this is us telling her at Knott's Berry Farm, all right, we're going, you stay here, and this is her telling us, all right, deuces.

I'm staying here.

I like amusement parks.

So, you know, you can again tell this girl nothing.

So um, yeah, she just she had a zest for life.

She likes adventure.

You know, you see her, she likes amusement parks.

She was on the uh Ferris wheel, she got her hands up, and and and life is is an adventure for this one.

But you know, it's funny because as you get older, some of that fearlessness starts to go away.

Somewhere along the way, you start to get a little more aware of your surroundings.

I call this picture adulting.

Okay, so this is how many of us feel as we grow older and life's challenges starts to face us, you know, head-on.

And some of us might relate to this feeling that is expressed on her face.

As you get older, life can make it hard to protect your peace.

And maintaining peace can become more and more challenging.

Today we're talking about peace.

In our God is series, we're talking about God, the God of peace.

God is peace.

And in the Bible, the word shalom is often used to describe peace.

Now, what is shalom?

Shalom is not just the absence of war or conflict or turmoil, but biblical peace, shalom, can be defined as wholeness, wholeness in all of life, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, even financially and relationally.

Shalom can also be described as completeness, well-being, health, rest.

Shalom means that nothing is broken, nothing is missing, and it's the active presence of harmony, justice, and flourishing.

Doesn't that sound good?

Don't you want some peace?

I want this kind of peace.

Like when someone asks you how you're doing, wouldn't it be great to be able to, instead of just saying, Oh, I'm good, I'm fine, I'm hanging in there, wouldn't it be able, wouldn't it be great to be able to say, no, I'm flourishing.

I got shalom, I am whole.

There is nothing missing.

I'm flourishing.

But if we go back to this definition of shalom, nothing is broken, nothing is missing.

It's the active presence of harmony, active presence of justice and flourishing.

In the world that we live in right now, is it even possible to say that peace like this can exist?

We all know that saying, no justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

According to this definition of shalom, no justice, no peace rings true.

Because without justice, there is no peace.

And if we're looking for a picture of shalom where there is no injustice, no brokenness, no racism, sexism, classism, no war, no strife, and instead there is harmony and flourishing of all people and all things, well, that version of shalom, it won't come until Jesus returns to make all things new.

I don't say this to discourage you.

I actually want to reassure you that despite the fact that a complete picture of shalom won't be experienced until Jesus returns, peace is a gift that's given and available and in abundance at that to all of us, all the time, even now in the midst of all this.

In John 20, in John 14, 27, before Jesus went to the cross, Jesus gives his disciples some reassurance.

Reassurance that they didn't even know how much they would need.

He says to his disciples, peace I leave you.

My peace I give you.

And he tells them, I do not give as the world gives.

But do not be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus said this before he went to the cross.

And then later in John 20, after Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, and then miraculously rose from the grave, the first time that he appears to the disciples, after he had already appeared to some of the women, that is, the first time he appears to the other disciples, he suddenly appears to them from behind locked doors.

He just appears in their presence.

He comes out of nowhere.

And so the first words that he needs to say to them is this He says, Peace, peace be with you.

The doors were locked because they were afraid.

And then Jesus shockingly appears out of nowhere.

So it makes sense that his first words to them would be, peace, peace be with you.

He says, Peace be with you again, just before he breathes on them and says, Now receive the Holy Spirit.

And then he says, Peace be with you again when all of a sudden he uh it's like the next day or so, he appears amongst them again, again from behind locked doors.

And he says, Peace be with you.

And he says it to Thomas, the disciple Thomas, who asked to put his hands where the nails had been, to put his hands where the sword had pierced his side.

And Jesus invites him, No, come and see.

Come touch me, come be in my presence because I want to give you peace.

Jesus was demonstrating that as the Prince of Peace, as he has described in Isaiah 9.6, that he, the Prince of Peace, is the giver of peace.

He, the Prince of Peace, is peace.

So peace begins with God's presence.

Peace begins with God's presence.

You know, as nice as a getaway to Hawaii can sound, you don't find peace, at least the fullness of peace, in a place.

As good as your vacation may be, you even if you go fly somewhere away from what seems like away from all your problems, you're not gonna find peace just because you went to a nice place.

You know, as much comfort as it might bring you if you had a little or a lot bit more money in your bank account, you you're not really gonna find the fullness of peace because you don't find peace in things.

See, peace isn't found in a place.

Peace isn't found in things.

Peace is in a person, and that person is Jesus.

If you're looking for peace, peace begins in God's presence.

You're not gonna experience the fullness of peace unless you find it in Christ Jesus.

Now we referred to a well-known saying a little earlier where we said, no justice, no peace.

But there's another saying that kind of plays off of this saying that says, No Jesus, no peace.

No Jesus, no peace.

But there's there's there's a flip side of this saying as well.

Um, there's no Jesus, no peace, but but but there's also no Jesus.

K-N-O-W, no Jesus, and you'll know peace.

If you know Jesus, you'll know peace.

Now the closest translation that we have for the word shalom is peace.

But the word shalom is also one of the key words and images for salvation in the Bible.

The Hebrew word for shalom refers most commonly to a person who is uninjured and safe.

You are in a state of shalom.

You are a person who experiences shalom when you are uninjured and safe.

Someone who is whole and sound.

Humanity has not been uninjured and whole since the fall of Genesis 3.

When sin entered into the world, our relationship with God suffered a break.

Sin disrupted shalom.

But in the New Testament, shalom is revealed as the reconciliation of all things to God through the work of Christ.

Colossians 1, 19 and 20 tells us that God was pleased through Christ to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Christ's blood shed on the cross.

This is shalom, reconciliation with God.

The most fundamental meaning of shalom means reconciliation with God.

This is salvation.

Without Jesus, you have no peace.

You have no salvation, you have no wholeness.

But to know Jesus is to know peace.

We're not gonna solve for world peace today.

But if you wonder why the world is such a broken place, we start with the fact that the world is made up of broken people, people without shalom, broken people who have broken relationships, who live under broken systems in a broken world.

But while we're not gonna solve the world's problems today, we can take inventory of ourselves.

We can take a look here, start with the person in the mirror, right?

You can look at the person right here, you can look inwards, and you can ask yourself, do I have places in my life where shalom is lacking?

Can I say like I feel fully whole?

I'm flourishing, there's nothing broken in me?

Or are there places where anxiety and fear and doubt and anger, a mix of some of these things or all of the above have a foothold in my life?

And am I being held back from really experiencing shalom, wholeness, well-being, flourishing because of these things?

Am I really experiencing shalom and its fullness?

Am I walking in my God-given power and purpose?

Am I truly in all parts of my life right before God?

If peace begins with God's presence, but I'm still lacking peace in some places, you gotta ask the question: what's what's going on?

What's what am what might I be doing wrong?

That could be a question, because maybe, maybe it feels like you're doing all that you can to get out of your mess, but it still feels like you're just in the middle of a big old mess.

The good news is peace meets us in the middle of our mess.

Peace meets us in the middle of our mess.

There's so many people who say, Oh, you know, I gotta get myself together so I can be right with God.

It's backwards.

You you come to God, you allow God to meet you in your mess.

You recognize God's, oh, we've been there, God's been waiting for you to open up your eyes and and be broken before Him, recognize your brokenness and say, God, I need your wholeness, I need your peace, I need your presence.

Peace meets us in the middle of our mess.

And I know we've already looked at some different passages in scripture today, but for the rest of our time, I want to take a quick look at the life of a man named Gideon.

Gideon.

What does Gideon have to do with Shalom?

Well, it's in the story of Gideon's life that we get introduced to the name Jehovah Shalom, which means the Lord is peace.

It's said for the very first time here in the story of Gideon.

Like Abraham, who introduces us to the name Jehovah Jirah, God is provider.

And Hagar, who names God as El Roe, the God who sees me, Gideon is the first to name God as Jehovah Shalom, God of peace.

God is peace.

If you don't know the story of Gideon, maybe you've heard or seen what has become known as a Gideon Bible.

Have you ever gone to a hotel?

You open up that little drawer and there's a free Bible in there.

Well, that free Bible was most likely placed there by the Gideons.

There's an organization called the Gideons International, and they've been placing free Bibles in hotel rooms across the world for over a hundred years.

The group took its name from Gideon in the Old Testament in the book of Judges, and they say that Gideon was a man who was willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do.

He did what God wanted him to do, regardless of his own judgment or his own thoughts about the plans or the results.

Humility, faith, and obedience were Gideon's greatest elements of character.

So this is why they named their organization after Gideon.

And based on this description, even if you don't know who Gideon is or what he did, you're probably thinking to yourself, well, he was an impressive dude.

And he was.

It required great humility, great faith, and obedience to do what he did.

So what did he do exactly?

Well, I'm just gonna cut to the chase and tell you that Gideon is is is probably most well known for the fact that God called Gideon to save Israel.

No big deal, right?

He more specifically, God God called Gideon to deliver Israel and fight against the bigger, stronger, faster, scarier, meaner Midianites who had been oppressively terrorizing his people for seven years.

So Jehovah Shalom, God of peace, calls Gideon to go to war against the Midianites.

If you're like me and you think, you know, you're you're halfway through a movie and you're like, oh, I think I already got the ending figured out.

I think I already know what happens, I think I know what's gonna unfold here.

You might be hearing the synopsis of this story, and you might be thinking to yourself, okay, well, if Gideon is the one who names God as Jehovah Shalom, it must have been that that they went to war with the Midianites, and God grants them victory, and then in celebration of that victory, Gideon praises God and declares, You are Jehovah Shalom.

You have allowed us victory, and now you allow us to experience peace.

And then the Israelites lived happily ever after and experienced many years of peace from that day forward.

But you know, they did experience peace.

After Gideon and his army defeated the Midianites, the Israelites enjoyed 40 years of peace before they rebelled again.

But the rest of Gideon's lifetime was a time of peace.

But if you rewind it back a little bit, you'll discover that Gideon didn't begin to experience peace after the battle was won.

Gideon has an encounter with God prior to going into battle, and that's what causes him to declare God as Jehovah Shalom.

And in fact, ironically, after the moment that God meets Jehovah Shalom, that's when the real battles started.

Gideon, he's now known as a humble, faithful, obedient, and courageous man of God.

But if you go back to the beginning of Gideon's story, where we first meet Gideon in Judges chapter six, I want to read to you how it all started.

So Judges chapter six, starting in verse one, it says this.

Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

And for seven years, God gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

So here the Israelites have been oppressed for seven years.

Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds.

They were so terrorized by the Midianites that they had to go live in the caves, go live in a place where they could hide from their oppressors.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep, nor cattle, nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count the men and their camels.

They invaded the land to ravage it.

They were ruthless.

And Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

They had finally said, Oh, we can't take it anymore.

We have to cry out to God for help.

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet who said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all of your oppressors.

I drove them from before you and Egypt, or I drove them from before you and gave you their land.

And I said to you, I am the Lord your God, do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.

But you have not listened to me.

You have not listened to me.

But God still decides to be merciful.

Because here's what happens next.

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, the Abrazrite.

I don't think I said that right, but Joash, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

So Gideon's here threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

And this is when the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and he says this to him The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

I want to stop here for a second because um Might have some thoughts.

I I know you already you already got the spoiler, and you know that Gideon goes on to become this hero who leads the Israelites into victory over their enemies.

But before you know that, we started here in chapter six, in verse one, where it begins with, Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

You want to know how chapter 4 starts?

It starts with, again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

You back it up a little bit more in chapter 3, it says, Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Again and again and again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Again and again and again, they cry out for mercy, God delivers them, and then they experience a period of peace.

But they were in the habit of habitually doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.

They were habitually forgetting the Lord their God who had rescued them time and time again.

And so they would go through this cycle of sin.

They would go through this cycle of sin, oppression, deliverance, and again and again they had no peace and they were not flourishing because they had sinned against the Lord.

For seven years they suffered and they were being terrorized to the point that Gideon had to thresh wheat in a wine press.

Okay, in case you didn't know, you don't usually thresh wheat in a wine press.

Um, you press grapes in a wine press to make wine.

And you'd usually thresh wheat in a big open space, in a flat surface where the wind can come and help separate the grain from the chaff, the outer shell, right?

You do it in an open, large space out in the open.

But but here's Gideon threshing wheat in a wine press.

Remember the Midianites and the Amalekites, they were ruthless.

They were so oppressive that the Israelites had to live in mountain clefts and caves to hide from them.

Their crops, their livestock, anything that could be taken from them was taken from them.

So Gideon is trying to gather whatever grain he could to feed his family, but he had to do it in hiding.

He was just trying to survive, but he had to do it in hiding.

He's not at a threshing floor where he should be.

He's in a winepress, which was usually carved out of a hillside, making it deep and hidden from distant view.

And this is where and when the angel of the Lord meets Gideon and says, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

Some translations say, The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor.

Now, if you stop and think about it, this seems strange.

Some people think that Gideon could have, rightfully so, he could have felt a type of way about the angel of the Lord calling him a mighty warrior, a mighty man of valor.

Because it seems like a good thing, but given the circumstances, it could have felt like, oh, this guy got jokes, huh?

He knows what's going on here.

I shouldn't be threshing wheat in a wine press.

I'm out here hiding from my enemies.

I'm not here flourishing, I'm I'm just trying to survive.

And so then now this guy wants to come up and say, Oh, look at you, mighty man of valor, mighty warrior.

If we look at it that way, though, I think that we might be putting our own modern-day lens on the situation, however.

Because I don't think that the Lord came to mock Gideon.

The Lord didn't come to kick Gideon down while uh kick him while he was down, he didn't come to pour salt in his wounds.

The angel of the Lord appears at a time of Gideon feeling weak and desperate, and he speaks truth and life and encouragement into a situation.

He reminds Gideon, the Lord is with you.

And and even though Gideon probably didn't feel like it, he probably didn't even feel like that was in his near future or his distant future.

What the angel of the Lord does is the Lord calls the warrior out of Gideon, and he gives him a name prophetically.

He acknowledges you probably don't feel like it because of your circumstances, but here's what I see: I see a mighty man of valor, I see a mighty warrior, and you can trust in that because the Lord is with you.

Let's keep reading in verse 13.

Okay, so so he calls him a mighty warrior.

And this is what Gideon has to say to him.

But, sir, Gideon replied, If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has seemingly abandoned us, and he's put us into the hand of Midian.

The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand.

Am I not sending you?

But Lord Gideon asks, How can I save Israel?

My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.

We see this kind of conversation happen between God and the people that he calls so often, don't we?

God calls someone to a purpose that he has put before them, and he says, I will go with you, but but they're stuck on, oh, what are you calling me to do?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Not me.

You got the wrong person.

No, you see my situation.

No, I'm we're our family that we're like the least important ones.

And like in my least important family, I'm the least important one.

Like he's trying to give excuses as to why God's got the wrong guy.

But it but it's like God's like, no, I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you.

Uh I told you what I told you, and I'm telling you, the Lord is with you.

You're a mighty warrior.

Now go, go and do what I told you to do.

And the Lord answers, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.

Gideon replied, Okay, if if now I have found favor in your eyes, well then just give me a sign, okay, God?

Give me some confirmation.

Give me a sign that it really is you talking to me.

So do me a favor, God, just please don't go away.

Don't go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.

The Lord was gracious, kind, patient.

And the Lord said, I will wait until you return.

So then Gideon went, prepared a young goat, and from an epha of flour, he brought bread without yeast.

Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to the Lord under the oak.

And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.

And Gideon did so.

And then this is what happens.

With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread, and fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread.

And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

This is a miraculous happening.

Fire appeared, consumed the breed, the bread and the meat.

And then the angel of the Lord just disappeared.

So when Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, Ah, sovereign Lord, I have seen the angel of the Lord.

God has confirmed this really is him, right?

And he says, I've seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

And he was terrified.

But the Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid.

You're not gonna die.

So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it the Lord is peace.

The Lord is peace, Jehovah Shalom.

See, just like Jesus met his disciples in a moment of fear and declared peace over them, God met Gideon in a moment of fear.

It was known among the people that if you saw God face to face, you would die.

God was so holy that if you were in God's presence like that, then you'd be consumed.

You wouldn't be able to survive it.

And now there's some mystery around the angel of the Lord because while the angel of the Lord is not necessarily God Himself, the angel of the Lord had authority to speak on God's behalf.

And some actually believe that this angel of the Lord was actually a special appearance of Jesus prior to the New Testament.

Now we can't be sure, but in either case, Gideon knew that this was a holy encounter.

And because of it, he feared that he was gonna die.

So the angel of the Lord quickly assures him, no peace.

Shalom, you won't die, you will be saved.

And then Gideon builds an altar to worship and commemorate that place as a holy place where he met with God.

Jehovah Shalom.

In the Old Testament, when someone builds an altar after an encounter with the Lord, it usually represents a person's desire to consecrate themselves fully to the Lord.

Like a holy, monumentous encounter with the Lord had happened.

So they wanted to memorialize it.

They wanted to remember this moment.

Like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, they also had powerful encounters with the Lord.

And they also had moments where they would build an altar before God because they wanted to remember this special and holy moment.

Building the altar was a physical reminder of a life-changing moment.

And it was also, it was also sort of a public declaration, a commitment unto God moving forward.

I'm gonna commit to God fully and I'm not turning back.

And I built this altar as a sign of my commitment.

That's why some of us, when we open up the altar at the end of service, you know, if the spirit is moving and you want to remember, this is not just some ordinary moment.

This is like the Holy Spirit is doing something in me, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be moved to move.

I'm actually gonna go up to the altar.

I want to remember this moment right now.

I'm gonna pray at the altar because God is moving and God is doing something right now.

That's why some of us are compelled to make that moment holy because the Holy Spirit is speaking and you want to respond.

Building the altar was a reminder.

I'm making a commitment and I'm not turning back.

Gideon knew in this moment that God was doing something new and significant in him and through him.

So Gideon built the altar and he called it the Lord is peace.

And this was important because Gideon would need to hold on to the promise of peace in order to carry out all of the things that God was about to call him into.

Things that didn't feel so peaceful.

The Lord called him into his purpose and his identity.

He called him a mighty warrior, and he had not even yet gone into battle.

Gideon called the Lord Jehovah Shalom, and he had not yet experienced victory yet.

But by building that altar and worshipping the God of peace, what it did was it prepared Gideon for what was next.

It prepared him.

So here's my final point.

Peace prepares us for tomorrow.

You need peace.

You need the presence of God's peace.

You need the presence of God in your life to be prepared for the battles that tomorrow is gonna bring.

Peace prepares us for tomorrow.

We don't know what tomorrow holds, but you can face whatever battles tomorrow brings if the Prince of Peace reigns over your life.

Peace prepares us for tomorrow.

So right after Gideon built an altar to the Lord that same night.

So he builds the altar.

He says, There's no turning back, and that same night the Lord told him, Now go and tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the sheriff hole next to it.

There was an altar that his father had built on their property.

His father had built an altar to Baal and an asherah hole next to it.

And God wanted Gideon to get rid of all the false idols in their household.

He wanted his household to be fully devoted to him.

And he told him, in the place of that false altar, build a proper altar to the Lord and offer one of your father's bulls as a burnt offering as well.

Even if you're not super familiar with this culture and this time, I don't think it's much of a stretch of imagination to understand how um how scandalous this would have been.

Right?

Like it would have been seen as deeply disrespectful with the utmost boldness towards his father.

Because without telling him, let alone asking his father, God tells Gideon to go and tear down the altar that his father had built, tear it down, cut it down, destroy it, and build in its place a proper altar to the real God.

And then go and get one of your father's bulls and burn it up as an offering.

If I had time, I would try to give you a good analogy, a modern-day analogy, but I think you already get it.

After doing what God had told him to do, Gideon, son of Joash, was probably about to get Joashed.

This was probably not good news for Gideon.

But in the morning, here's what happened.

When the people of the town saw what had happened, they were up in arms about it.

They saw, oh, at Joash's house, something happened.

Somebody tore up his altar, tore it down, and they built another altar.

And one of his bulls got burnt up.

They were angry and hostile, and they were like, who did this?

And then come to find out it was Gideon, his son.

And they were like, Oh my, go get Gideon.

Gideon's gonna have to answer for this.

Oh, Gideon's gonna get it.

And so Gideon gets brought out before the people, including his father.

But instead of joining in on the outrage, here's what Joash does.

Joash began to stand up to the crowd.

Here's what he says: he says, listen, if Baal really is a God, well then he can defend himself, can't he?

If Baal really is a God, when someone breaks down his altar, let Baal deal with Gideon if he really is a God.

So he's basically saying, leave my son alone.

Maybe it was for the sake of trying to save his son from the people's outrage that his father did this, but I think it's possible that Gideon's courage and Gideon's faith inspired courage and faith in his father.

Yeah, I think that Gideon's example to his father inspired courage and faith in his father.

And he was like, Look at how bold my son was.

I'm inspired by that.

That's producing faith in me.

Wow, my son did that.

I'm gonna be bold too.

I think his father responded to the testimony, the witness of his son.

Do you know that children often inspire faith in their children or in their parents?

Children often inspire faith in their parents.

Now, this might sound like a strange pivot here, but um, I'm gonna take this quick opportunity to make a plug for children's ministry.

Pastor Krista told us at the top of service that we need more people to serve in children's ministry.

Do you know that there are times where we have to shut down classes in children's ministry because we don't have enough people serving?

Now we're not saying, we're not saying that every parent that has a child has to volunteer once a month, that would be nice.

But even if just 25% of the parents volunteered once a month to serve the children, we'd be good.

You don't have to be a parent either.

If you're good with kids, you know, if you've got patience, if God has gifted you in that way, then please serve because there's a need there.

And there's a lot that we can learn from our children.

Our children disciple us as much as we aim to disciple them.

And did you know that many parents come to faith in Jesus because of their children?

Many adults come to faith or come back to faith because of the witness of their children.

You know, just last week one of our Sunday school teachers told us that a parent came to them and said, You know why we come every Sunday?

Because this one, well, the ones in the Sunday school class, this woman won't let us miss a Sunday.

She loves it so much.

Every Sunday, she's the one who's like, Come on, mommy, come on, daddy, we're going to church.

So let's serve our children.

Let's build up our children as they build us up as well.

But back to Gideon.

Um, oh, by the way, live scan is on site today.

So right after service, take this as your sign to go sign up to serve.

So you can go get live scanned right after service today.

But but back to Gideon.

Because if you continue with the story of Gideon, he is also famous for asking God for a sign.

That's not what we're gonna hone in on today, though.

Um as the story continues, what Gideon is most famously known for is his courage, his faith, and his obedience.

Not not just because he tore down his father's altar, and not because he famously asked God for a sign on more than one occasion, but because he had he had great faith.

He had this kind of faith.

He had the faith to take on a Midianite army that was at least 135,000 men strong.

You know how many men Gideon had?

He he started out with 32,000.

This is still a pretty big army, but compared to 135,000, they were already outnumbered.

But they started out with 32,000, and then God said, you know what, that number's too big.

I I don't need 32,000 people.

You know what?

Gideon, go and tell people, give them a second chance.

Say, hey, if any of you are scared, if any of you are scared to go into this battle, we'll go home.

He said, give them a chance to go home.

And 22,000 of them went home.

So he's left with 10,000 people against 135,000 Midianites.

But even then it seemed like too much.

God said, no, no, no, no, we don't need 10,000 people.

And God purposely reduced the number because God wanted it to be known that the victory in this battle was not because of the might of the people.

It was not because they had so many people, it's not because they were mighty men of valor, mighty warriors in and of themselves.

It was because the Lord was with them.

The Lord granted them victory, the Lord went before them.

And with just 300 men against the Midianite army of 135,000, Gideon was able to lead them into victory without ever even having to draw a sword against them.

All Gideon and his men had to do was blow some trumpets and break some jars.

They shouted, hallelujah, they said, The Lord is with us, and they declared victory.

And it was confusing, because this is not how war usually happens.

And so what happened was the Midianite army fell into panic and confusion, and they ended up turning on themselves.

Go back and read number seven if you want the full story, it's a really good one.

But Jehovah Shalom had a plan and a purpose.

He had a plan and a purpose when he called Gideon into battle.

God assured Gideon of his presence, and because of his presence, Gideon had peace.

Even when he walked into a situation and another situation and another situation where it looked like the odds were stacked against him, Jehovah Shalom assured Gideon that he had everything he needed.

Nothing was missing.

His presence was enough.

And God shrank Gideon's army on purpose.

He said, I don't want anyone else to get the glory.

I want the people to know that I am God.

I am Jehovah Shalom.

I am Jehovah Jirah.

I am El Shaddai, God Almighty.

And so, yes, God called Gideon to live into his identity as a mighty warrior, a mighty man of valor.

But it started with the assurance that the Lord was with him.

The presence of God's peace prepared Gideon for his tomorrow.

Remember, Gideon was in the wine press threshing wheat.

He very well could have felt under-resourced and ill-equipped.

Anyone ever feel like they're under-resourced and ill-equipped?

But what the Lord did was the Lord resourced him with his presence and equipped him with his power.

He called them into battle against an army that outnumbered them 450 to one.

They were told to fight with trumpets and jars while the Midianites fought with swords.

So they could have felt under-resourced and ill-equipped.

But God resourced them with a purpose and equipped them with a plan, and his presence never left them.

They won with unconventional power because Jehovah Shalom gave them an unconventional source of peace.

There's no way they should have won that battle.

There's no way they should have had peace, but they declared with their mouth that God is Jehovah Shalom.

I like to make that declaration often.

You know, we as Christians, we have a superpower available to us.

We have the presence of God, and with the presence of God is peace.

There's a peace that surpasses understanding.

There's a peace that we can lay a hold of.

There's a peace that we can lean into when it doesn't make sense to have peace.

This is why it tells us in the scriptures: do not be anxious for anything, but in all things, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving in your heart, because you know that you already have the victory in Christ.

Present your request to God.

And the peace that surpasses understanding will what?

It'll guard your heart and your mind, your life, your whole being in Christ Jesus.

You can operate from a place of victory when you know that Jehovah is Jehovah Shalom.

He is with you.

And even when you don't feel like it, even when your circumstances or when the enemy tries to whisper to you, you're no mighty warrior, you're no mighty man of valor, you're no mighty woman of valor.

Even when the enemy tries to whisper those lies to you, the Lord will come and remind you: No, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.

Jesus said, I've put a deposit in you and I will be with you to the very end of the age.

So I wonder right now, how many of us need to get up out of that wine press?

Get up out of that wine press and go.

Stop just trying to survive and start thriving, start flourishing, start leaning into the God of Shalom.

Because remember, the Lord is with you, and you are a mighty warrior.

You are a mighty woman of valor.

You are a mighty man of valor.

You are a warrior.

Declare that with your mouth because you know that Jehovah Shalom is with you.

Can we all stand in response to that?

We're gonna stand on the promise of who God is, and we're gonna walk into our identity as mighty women, mighty men of valor, mighty warriors.

God, we thank you that you are Jehovah Shalom.

God, we thank you that you do not change.

We thank you, Lord, that we can have a peace that surpasses understanding no matter what battles are going on around us, and we can operate from a place of victory because victory is in Christ Jesus.

So, God, we say it in faith: you are our peace.

You are my salvation, you're my rock, my refuge, my strong tower.

And because you are with me, who can be against me?

I am a mighty warrior.

So send me, Lord.

Here I am.

I want to be used for your glory, Lord.

We say this as a church together.

In the name of Jesus.