In Process

Every year we ask God to give us a theme.

Because, you know, we don't just want to say, hey, Christmas.

We don't want it to become this routine thing that we just do because it's a holiday.

We want to ask God what he wants to share.

And this year, God gave us a really clear vision for Christmas Eve.

It's this.

All I want for Christmas is something real.

All I want for Christmas is something real.

You know, sometimes the holidays can be exhausting because you have to fake it.

And I don't want you to raise your hand because you might be in your in-laws or something like that.

Maybe you had to fake it this weekend.

Maybe this weekend was a lot of forced smiles, and maybe maybe the people in your family aren't good cooks, and you had to sit there and go, no, no, this is great, this is awesome.

Like my my grandma, when she's only cooked Thanksgiving for us like once, and it'll never happen again because you can't tell, is this turkey or is this really dry chicken?

I don't know.

You know?

I think it's meat.

That's all you know.

But you have to sit there and be like, no, grandma is so good.

We'll we'll cook turkey next year.

We'll we'll don't, you just don't worry about it.

Um sometimes life gets so exhausting because there's just so much fake.

There's just so much fake.

And unfortunately, sometimes uh your church doesn't have a great reputation for for being the opposite of that, but it should be.

Because the reality is God is real.

And he's not just real in the sense that he exists, but he's real in the sense that he's honest and he's open.

And and when we have him in our lives, we have a freedom to be real and to experience something real that we can never have without him.

And so I believe there's a deep hunger inside of every person to have something real.

I believe we live in a world that's very, very tired of fake.

And sometimes the holidays just bring that out.

They bring it to the forefront.

It's just it's fake, it's trying to sell you something.

That is not God.

With God, we we have someone who is so real, so open, so honest, and even vulnerable.

Just like Matt shared, vulnerable enough to tell us the way he really feels and invite us into his presence and open himself up to rejection if we say no.

We have a God that is real, and this Christmas, we want to give our community something real.

A real encounter with a real God.

I'm really excited about that.

And so we'll talk more about it in the coming weeks, but that's our theme this Christmas.

All I want for Christmas is something real.

I want to, again, encourage you guys to be praying.

Like, literally pray and say, God, who do I know that needs a real encounter with you?

Whoever God puts on your heart, puts on your mind, invite them.

Just invite them and bring them with you so that they get that experience.

All right.

We'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.

But I'm so excited about Christmas Eve.

All I want for Christmas is something real.

It's gonna be good.

If you are here for the first time in a few weeks, we are in a brand new series right now.

Um, it's called Gideon, the story of Gideon.

And it's called that because we're looking at the story of Gideon in the Bible.

So, Gideon, the story of Gideon.

We're just going through the story and asking God to show us what he wants to show us.

Which, by the way, that's just the way we want to we want to read the Bible.

That's the way we want to approach God's word.

The Bible is so insanely practical.

It's not something that we have to dig deep into to find something useful for our lives.

And if you've ever been given that idea, I just want you to understand that it's like the opposite.

The opposite.

It's like you have to you have to almost put the brakes sometimes on how many things there are in just a small section of scripture that you can apply to your life.

There's so much wisdom, there's so much, so much power, there's so much perspective-changing advice.

There's just so much in God's word that we need in our everyday lives.

And so we don't have to dig deep to find something we can actually take hold of and use.

We just have to read it and say, God, open my mind, open my heart, open my eyes, show me what you want me to see, and then trust the Holy Spirit to do that.

That's the way we're approaching the story of Gideon.

We're just going through it and asking God to show us what he wants to show us.

So far, this is where we're at in the story, just to get you caught up.

Gideon's story takes place 3,000 years ago.

At this point in time, the nation of Israel is the people on the earth that God has adopted as his own children.

Just like through Jesus, he's adopted all of us, all of us who want him, into his family.

At this point in history, Jesus hasn't come yet.

So the nation of Israel, they're God's chosen people.

And he's revealing himself to the world through them, but right now they're in a tough situation.

They're being oppressed by another nation.

It's a nation called Midian.

So every year the Midianites are coming in and they're taking everything that the Israelites have.

They're taking the crops and the cattle and the livestock, everything.

They're leaving Israel with nothing, and Israel is struggling.

They're at the point of starvation.

This has been happening for seven years.

But God has a plan.

God has a plan named Gideon.

And so he shows up via this angel.

He sends the angel of the Lord, which may or may not be Jesus before Jesus came to the earth, but at the very least, it's this high-ranking angel, a messenger from God.

And the angel goes to Gideon and says, Gideon, great news.

God has chosen you to lead the people of Israel.

It's not such great news to Gideon, though.

Gideon does not feel qualified for the task.

And if you've ever been put in a situation that you don't feel qualified for, you can relate to Gideon.

It's actually kind of ironic because when the angel of the Lord shows up to tell Gideon the good news, Gideon is underneath this giant tree.

And even more specifically, he's not just under the tree, he's in a hole in the ground under the tree.

It was a wine press.

Winepresses were holes in the ground where they would store wine.

Gideon is hiding in a hole in the ground because he's afraid of the Midianites.

And he's the one that God picks to lead Israel.

And so Gideon has some back and forth with the angel.

He's not really sure if this A really is an angel.

How can he know?

And so he asked the angel for a sign.

The angel gives him a sign, this little mini miracle, and that gets Gideon's faith up.

And then God speaks to Gideon, and God says, Gideon, I want you to do something big.

I want you to cross a line that you can't come back from.

See, Gideon's family and his town, they had abandoned worshiping the real God.

And instead they're worshiping a false god named Baal and a false goddess named Asherah.

In their town, they have this altar set up to Baal and Asherah.

He says, Hey, I want you to rip apart the altars to Baal and Asherah, and I want you to build an altar to me in their place.

And then I want you to take your father's most prized possession, this bull that's seven years old, this one bull that has that has survived every raid the Midianites have been on for the last seven years.

I want you to sacrifice that bull to me on the altar that you build.

So Gideon knows that doing this is going to stir some things up, that people aren't going to be happy.

He's ripping apart their altars, he's sacrificing his father's most prized possession, and he's so scared that he does it at night.

He just does it at night, and the next morning everyone wakes up to discover what's happened.

And that's where we pick up in the story today.

Judges chapter 6, verse 28 says, Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down, and that the ashera pole beside it had been cut down.

Judges 6:28

In their place a new altar had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed.

The people said to each other, Who did this?

And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash.

And so I love that little detail because it tells us Gideon is not standing in front of the altar, being like, I did this, it was me.

They have to do a careful search to find out who did it.

Gideon's probably hiding at the outskirts of the camp, just, you know, having breakfast, keeping an eye on things.

But they find out that it's Gideon.

Bring out your son, the men of the town, demanded to Joash, he must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.

But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, Why are you defending Baal?

Will you argue his case?

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

If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar.

From then on, Gideon was called Jerub Baal, which means let Baal defend himself because he broke down Baal's altar.

Okay, so at this point in time, Gideon is experiencing immense relief.

It's very interesting because number one, his father worshipped Baal as well.

And it was his father's bull that was sacrificed, but his father comes to his rescue, comes to his defense.

And basically says, Hey, if Baal's really God, let Baal take care of himself.

And you have to know that at this point in time, Gideon is maybe starting to believe that, hey, this whole God is with you thing, maybe there's something to it.

That's what the angel had promised him.

He said, The Lord will be with you.

And at this point in time, Gideon's had a face-to-face conversation with an angel.

He's seen a little miracle.

He's done something really crazy, something really big, and he's not dead.

Everybody wants him dead, like the villagers, they all have their pitchforks, their torches, they want him gone.

And he's alive and he's rescued.

So at this point in time, you just know that that faith is sort of sort of swelling inside of Gideon.

There's probably a boldness that's beginning to come through as he realizes hey, I think I think God might really be with me.

And so we pick it up from there.

Verse 33 soon afterward, the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel, and they crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel.

Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power.

He blew a ram's horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abusar came to him.

He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded.

So now we're getting some momentum in the story.

Like this is awesome.

As a guy, I just have to say that when you blow a ram's horn and warriors assemble, that's like Chuck Norris' levels of testosterone.

That's something that I can get behind.

I mean, this is starting to play out like this epic battle scene, like this action movie or something that's about to happen.

And I'm reading this, I'm getting excited because Gideon, he's finally starting to look the part.

God has clothed him with power, he's blowing a ram's horn, he's assembling an army to confront the army that the Midianites have assembled every single year.

The Midianites have come into Israel and they've all ducked and they've all ran.

Now they're gonna stand, they're gonna fight.

Like this is this is getting good.

I'm finally starting to see why God maybe chose Gideon.

Here's what happens next.

Judges 6, 36.

Then Gideon said to God, If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, prove it to me in this way.

I'll put a wolf fleece on the threshing floor tonight, and if the fleece is wet with dew in the morning, but the ground is dry, then I will know that you're gonna help me rescue Israel as you promised.

I'm a little less impressed with Gideon.

Right?

I mean, there's part of me that's like, what?

Hold on, this is not this is not the way you're supposed to go from this point on.

Like you have you have talked to an angel, you have seen a miracle, you just you escaped certain death, you blew a ram's horn, and soldiers showed up, and now you're having this moment of doubt.

At this point in time, this is when you march your army against the opposing forces, not when you go, hey God, um would you mind just giving me one more sign?

If I put my blanket on the ground and I leave it there overnight, would you would you please make sure that you know there's due or not do or something like that?

Just something like that.

Can you do that for me?

It's like, come on.

But here's what God does: Verse 38.

And that's just what happened.

When Gideon got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowl full of water.

So God did exactly what Gideon asked.

And I think we can all look at Gideon at this point and give him some grace, right?

Say, hey, he's been asked to do a very big thing.

Things have moved very, very quickly.

It is only understandable that Gideon would have this moment of doubt.

That Gideon would have a hiccup, that he would struggle, that he would need just a little bit more convincing.

I think if we were in his shoes, we would all feel the same.

But now God has done this, now God has shown up, now God has given him what he's needed, so now it's time to go fight.

Now it's time to go do what God has asked you to do.

But the very next verse, verse 39, then Gideon said to God, Please don't be angry with me.

But let me make one more request.

Let me use the fleece for one more test.

This time, let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.

And it's at this point in the story that I'm like, come on, man.

What is wrong with you?

Like what you asked a very, very specific miracle of God.

I mean, it's so specific.

Like, not just God give me a sign, but hey, God, here's exactly what I'd like to happen.

I have this blanket, it's made of fleece, I'd like to leave it outside.

I'd like the ground to be dry, but I'd like the fleece to be wet.

And the next morning, that's what happens.

If God answers that specific of a prayer in such a miraculous way, you should be like, okay, I get it, you're with me, I'm good to go.

And now Gideon's saying, hey, just want to double check that it wasn't some weird phenomenon of nature.

I want I want the ground to be wet, but I want the fleece to be dry.

And if I'm God, this is the point where I move on from Gideon.

This is the point where I say, hey, it's been nice.

You're a great guy.

It's not me, it's you.

I need to find somebody else.

Because I can't keep doing this, right?

I can't keep doing this whole one step forward, two steps back.

We've got to get some things done.

But look at how God responds.

Verse 40.

So that night God did as Gideon asked.

The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.

It's moments like this where I'm really, really glad that I'm not God.

Because if I was God, Gideon would be yesterday's news.

I mean, if I was God, the first time Gideon asked, hey, can you do this whole fleece thing?

After he's seen an angel, after he's been clothed with power, I've rescued his life, he's blown a ram's horn.

Did I mention that he blew a ram's horn?

And soldiers showed up and mean, come on.

And now he's asking for me to do this other miracle with a blanket.

The first time I'd been like, oh my goodness, Gideon, fine.

Whatever.

Just we're do this one thing.

You gotta, you gotta, you gotta man up.

Alright, so I'm gonna do this for you, but I need you to, I need you to step up tomorrow.

And then the next day he's like, oh God, please don't be angry with me.

We can use the same blanket.

We can use the same blanket.

You don't have to get a new blanket.

I'll make it easy for you.

This is the point where I would just be like, no, Gideon, you're gone.

I'm gonna go find somebody else.

But that's not what God does.

See, this part of the story reminds me how insanely patient God is.

God is so patient.

They say that patience is a virtue, but it's not a virtue that comes naturally for us.

Like we're not born patient.

I have three kids, I get to see this every single day.

Children are not patient.

This last week was Thanksgiving break, and so my son Liam, who's six, he's the only one we have that's in school.

He was out of school the whole week, which is so exciting for him.

I mean, he he loves school, but like any normal kid, he doesn't love school.

And he loves being off of school more than he likes going to school.

He gets to stay up later, he gets to play games, he does all kinds of fun things.

And so this one night we wanted to see if a friend of his, one of his best friends, Jackson, could come over to our house.

And we didn't want to get his hopes up in case it wouldn't work out, so we just kind of we were talking to Jackson's parents and seeing if Jackson came over, but we didn't want to say anything to Liam.

I was out running errands with Liam and Lily, our two-year-old, and Megan called me and said, Justin, Jackson is gonna come over to spend the night with Liam.

So exciting.

And he's gonna be here at 6 o'clock.

So I look down at my clock in the car and it says 5 50.

And I go, hey Liam.

And we're close to the house.

I mean, it wasn't crazy.

We were really close by, so we're gonna be home in five minutes.

I said, Hey Liam, guess what?

He's in the backseat.

He's like, What?

Jackson's coming over to spend the night tonight.

He's like, Oh, this is awesome.

He's celebrating.

Lily's celebrating too because Lily doesn't understand that it's Liam's friend.

It's like her friend too, and so she thinks, and honestly, she hangs out with him a lot and she annoys them and stuff, but that's that's part of being a little sister.

You get to do that.

And I said, and guess what?

He goes, What?

He's gonna be here in 10 minutes.

And Liam just goes nuts.

Oh my gosh, this is all happening.

Like he could have told him he's going to Disney World.

He wouldn't have been any less excited, like any more excited.

He was so excited.

And so we we drive home, we get there, you know, five minutes later, five minutes till Jackson gets there, and I walk inside and I look at the clock that's on our stove in the kitchen.

And it doesn't say 555 like my car did.

It says 455.

Because I still haven't changed my clock in my car from daylight savings time.

I'm 33 years old.

And just so you know, I still haven't changed it.

I just know that eventually Megan will drive my car and it'll be changed.

That's what's gonna happen.

That's how my life has always worked.

And so I have to look at Liam and I say, hey buddy, good news.

Jackson is coming over to spend the night, and he's all excited.

However, he will not be here in five minutes.

He will be here in an hour in five minutes.

Now, based on Liam's reaction, you would have thought that I said to him, Jackson's overnight adventure has been delayed by a year.

It would have, it would have, it would have resulted in the same exact response from Liam because he was devastated.

He's like, What?

An hour?

And he does that, he does that thing that little kids do.

Little kids have a natural sense of justice, right?

He's like, you said 10 minutes.

You said that.

And I'm like, I know, but daddy made a mistake because the clock wasn't right in my car, which is my I'm so sorry, but it's just an hour, it's just one hour.

And he's gonna spend the whole night and he'll probably be here for most of tomorrow.

I mean, come on.

And it did not help.

Liam, Liam made that hour interesting for us.

I mean, every five minutes, every five minutes, Liam's like, is it time?

Is it time?

And he's six years old, he can tell time.

I'm like, Liam, look at the clock.

Is it time?

No.

How much longer?

Well, this is a great chance to practice your math homework, you know, that you you have over the break.

Let's, let's, 60 minutes is an hour, let's let's count the minutes.

I mean, he was beside himself because he's six, and patience is not a virtue that comes naturally to six-year-olds.

But we'd kind of be lying to ourselves if we acted like we get so much better at it as we get older, right?

A few days later, we had some family over, Megan's brother and and her brother's wife and their kids, and their kids are like the same age as our kids, they're all playing together, and they come over in the afternoon and we said, Hey, why don't you guys just stay for dinner?

Let's let's order some some takeout and we'll just hang out a little longer because the kids are having so much fun and we love them.

And so we ordered some Mexican food, and I went with Megan's brother to go pick up the Mexican food from our local Mexican restaurant.

And we get there and it's not ready for us to pick up, which makes sense because we called it in five minutes before, but they'd said, you know, 10, 15 minutes.

I order from this place all the time.

I know how long it usually takes.

So we're in there, and I'm kind of peeking around at the spot where they put the to-go food when it's ready, and it's not there.

No big deal.

We talk.

I peek around again.

This keeps happening every 35 seconds.

I'm just like looking.

After about five or ten minutes, I start mentioning to Louie, her brother, man, is this taking a long time?

It feels like it's taking a long time.

And he's cool, he's just chill.

He's like, no, I'm not I don't have to watch my children right now.

Like, I'm good.

Let's just have it take as long as we need to.

But I'm starting to get like flustered and frustrated.

I mean, there's there's all these people at home waiting to eat, and I'm starting to say things like, This is ridiculous.

This is crazy.

Like, what is got what is going on here?

What how is this place being managed and run?

And Louie's giving me perspective.

He said, you know, how long would it take us if we made this food, right?

I'm like, yeah, I mean, but come on.

How much longer can it take?

And so I'm just sitting there like getting frustrated and angry at how long it's taking, even though we we ordered food for nine people, and 20 minutes later we had it in hand.

Good food.

Because I'm not very patient.

We live in a very fast world.

We live in a world that teaches us you need to have things now.

You have to have it now.

I want to ask for you to admit something, if you don't mind.

Or you can raise your hand.

You don't have to.

You don't have to.

If you're one of those people that's like, I don't raise my hand in church, fine, totally good.

Have you ever had this experience?

There's a restaurant you really want to eat at.

You're in the mood for the food at that restaurant, it's a Friday night, it's a Saturday night, and you're like, let's go out, let's eat at this restaurant.

You show up at the restaurant you want to eat at, and there's a wait.

And you ask the hostess, how long is the wait?

And they say something like 45 minutes, and you go, Nope.

And you walk out, get back in your car, drive somewhere else that you don't want to eat at as much as the place you were just at, because you're not willing to wait for 45 minutes.

Anyone ever done that?

Right.

Okay, you can put your hands down.

You guys are brave people, some of y'all are liars, but whatever.

The uh, have you ever had, as an extension of this, have you ever had the experience where you've done that, gotten to the restaurant you don't want to eat at as much as the place that you originally went to, and realized that by the time you sat down and got your food, you maybe saved yourself five minutes when it came to getting back in your car driving up.

Anyone ever done that?

Why?

Right?

Because we're impatient.

We want things fast, we want things now.

We don't like it when the world has to buffer.

You know?

We want everything to move at high speed.

We don't we don't like things to be pending.

We don't want to wait, we want things now.

And I often take my impatience and I I apply it to God.

And I I'll be honest, I often get very frustrated with God because I don't think he's moving at the pace he should move.

I feel like that a lot.

And I tell that to God, by the way.

We have great conversations, and I say, God, you're slow.

You you I know you have all the time in the world because you're God.

Things move a little faster down here.

I need you to get on my pace.

I've got goals, God.

Have you seen my list of goals, Lord?

I put deadlines on these goals that you did not tell me to put, but I've put them down, and so you need to like get on my level.

You need to start moving at my speed, and God never does.

Ever.

I guess I've never had one experience where God's been like, oh, I didn't realize I was okay, I'll I'll hurry up.

It's never happened.

It actually feels like the opposite.

It feels like every time I get frustrated that something isn't moving fast enough, God slows it down.

It drives me crazy.

He's patient.

God is insanely patient.

He doesn't often get credited with patience.

In fact, oftentimes God gets a bad rap for being really impatient.

And I understand why that happens.

Sometimes people look at the Bible and they see these stories of God's judgment and they go, Whoa, God's not patient.

Look look at the Bible, look at all the times where he gets fed up and he does something and something intense, and there's this act of judgment.

Some people have a hard time with the idea of God judging.

I happen to think that if God Isn't just, He isn't good.

And I've just learned to accept that God's judgment is right and mine is not, and I'm okay with that.

But I understand if we have holdups to that, but we read the Bible, we see God make judgment calls like good leaders do, and we look at that and go, has that patience?

But it's crazy.

If you actually look at those examples of judgment in the Bible, what you find is that time and time again, these are examples of an incredible patience that we can understand.

Most of the time when God gets fed up with the behaviors of certain people, it's not because they had a bad day or a bad week or a bad year.

It's like they had a bad few generations.

And God finally said, Alright, I gotta do something.

Because this is not this is not changing, this isn't working.

Like we're talking decades and decades and decades and decades before God goes, you know what, y'all, this is gonna change.

One of the classic examples of God's judgment would be the flood, which is a really intense story.

The earth has become so so vile, so so evil, that God looks at it, and even though he's filled with love and compassion and mercy and grace and forgiveness, he looks at it and he says, There, there's just no salvaging this.

We need a total reboot.

We need a total reboot.

And so he takes Noah and he has Noah and his family build an ark, a big boat, and they get on the boat, and then there's all these animals on the boat, so he saves the life of the world, the future of the world through them.

But then there's this flood and it covers the whole earth.

It's really interesting because at this point in history, according to the Bible, and this by the way would be way more ancient than any ancient history we can study on this earth, because the the flood would have wiped out all of that.

The Bible says people lived a lot longer than we live now, like hundreds and hundreds of years longer.

If that's hard for you to grasp, if you're kind of like, hold on, how's that even possible?

I don't have time to get into it all of it now.

I'll just say this.

I'm really passionate about how science and the Bible mesh together, because they mesh way more than they clash.

And if you're one of those people that's like, I don't know how I can believe that, check our Facebook page tomorrow.

We'll post some stuff that'll at least be interesting to think about, okay?

But just let's let's go with it and assume that, hey, yeah, people lived hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

Like, a long, long time.

So here's what's really cool about this: um, Noah's grandfather was a man named Methuselah.

Methuselah's name literally translates in the Hebrew to, it will happen when he's gone.

You could actually translate it to say, it won't happen until he's gone, and it would be just as accurate.

That's what Methuselah's name means.

The flood happened the exact year that Methuselah died.

God had given Methuselah's father, a man named Enoch, this prophecy, this understanding of the coming flood.

I mean, this was known for generations and generations and generations.

Noah warned people for generations, but they wouldn't listen.

And God decided to create Methuselah, and he said, Hey, I want Methuselah's name to be, this will not happen.

I won't let this happen until he's gone.

And Methuselah lived longer than any other person in history, according to the Bible.

969 years.

Because God's patient.

Because God had this judgment that he felt was necessary, but he didn't want to have to do that.

He would have loved it if the people would have turned around, and so God created Methuselah and said, Look, as long as he's alive, I will withhold my judgment.

You'll have 969 years to get this working.

That's patience.

You look at the the descriptions in the Bible of the final judgment, that there is a time when God's gonna judge this thing.

And what's amazing about that is we know that his judgment is just and it's good and it's merciful.

Jesus talked about God's return, his return, 2,000 years ago.

And it hasn't happened yet.

Unless we missed it somehow.

But I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened yet.

And you might be wondering, wow, 2,000 years, what's taking him so long?

Here's what the Bible says about this.

In 2 Peter, actually, if you guys could just put that up on the screen, I don't have it.

2 Peter 3, 9 says, the Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think.

No, he's being patient for your sake.

He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

So why is why is God taking so long to come through on his promise?

Because he's patient.

And he wants every single human being, every single culture, every single nation.

There's still parts of the world that haven't heard about him yet.

He wants every single nation, person, people to have a chance to know him and to experience his love.

He's patient.

See, there's there's a couple different levels of patience.

There's one level of patience that just waits longer.

That's not God's patience.

There's another level of patience where someone understands and accepts that things are in process.

A level of patience where someone can look at other people, can look at the world and say, hey, it's not finished yet.

And I'm not gonna judge it like it is finished, I'm gonna give it time.

I'm gonna let it be in process.

I'm gonna cut some slack.

I'm gonna give some grace.

Because I recognize the fact that things are still happening, things are still working, and I believe that things are gonna get better.

That's kind of patience that God has.

God has so much patience that not only does He does He delay any type of judgment that we might consider harsh out of love, but He believes in us.

And he believes that we're still in process.

And this world is still in process, and we live in a world that's very, very quick to say it's over.

It's over, we're doomed.

How many movies come out every year that it's about the end of the world, right?

How many cultures have predicted the end of the world and that time has already passed?

Because humanity is not nearly as patient as God.

Humanity's view on itself is never as high as its view, as the view that God has.

God believes in us.

God is willing to let us be in process.

He has the patience to allow us to grow.

And it's very important to be in process.

One of my favorite Proverbs is Proverbs 20, 21, which says, an inheritance obtained early in life is not a blessing in the end.

It kind of literally translates to say, a hastily earned inheritance is not a real blessing in the end.

Because if you if you get your inheritance fast, if you get rich quick, you don't learn how to be wise with it.

You don't learn how to appreciate it, how to understand what it takes to have that, how blessed you are, and so you tend to waste it.

That's why over 90% of people who win the lottery go bankrupt within two years.

Because the process matters.

A few years ago, I got to go fishing with my father-in-law, uh, my sister-in-law, and her husband.

It was just this real quick kind of thing, hey, we're just going to a pond, you want to come with us, and I went.

And I love to fish.

Anyone else love to fish?

No one loves to fish.

Okay.

Sometimes I ask questions and I don't plan on it.

I wasn't planning on asking that question, but it is funny from my perspective because when you raise your hand really slow, it's like you're ashamed.

It's like you're like, yes.

Kill poor defenseless fish, whatever.

Um, I throw them back.

I don't know about you, I throw them back because I love I love God's creation.

But I enjoy fishing.

And I don't get to fish very often.

When I was a kid, I fished all the time.

In fact, for about two years, we lived on a lake and I fished about every single day.

Like every day that I could, I was out there fishing, and I love fishing.

But whenever I was asked to fish with my father-in-law and some other family members, I hadn't been fishing in years.

And so we get to the pond, and and I've got my my rod, I've got my line, there's this tackle box to pick out the tackle.

It took me a little longer to tie it to the line because I hadn't done this in years, and I'm sitting there going, wait, you do this, and then it's oh yeah, that want to tie it real tight.

They're already fishing, they've already been fishing for 10, 15 minutes.

By the time I finally get it all done, I go to the edge of the pond and I throw my line.

Two seconds later, I get a snag.

And at first I thought it was like a log or something.

But then it starts moving, I'm like, oh my gosh, I caught a fish.

And so I reel it in and it's it's fun, it feels pretty big, and I pull up this large catfish.

Like a large catfish on my very first cast.

Now, if that had been my first time fishing, that would have ruined fishing for me forever.

Because I would have felt like, oh, that's what happens.

Like you go fishing, cool, you throw your line in, get a fish.

This is awesome, this is fun.

Let's keep doing this.

But I have fished long enough to understand that that is not the normal experience in fishing.

In fact, I've had so many times where I've gone fishing for hours with nothing, not a nibble, you just get a sunburn.

That's all you get.

And so I understand that that's that's the pace of fishing.

It's a slow burn.

If that had been the very first time that I'd gone fishing and I got to fish the very first cast, it would have ruined me forever when it comes to fishing.

But I was able to appreciate that that's not the normal speed because, see, there's a process involved with fishing, it takes time.

There's a process involved with life.

And so often we want things to happen much faster because we don't appreciate the process.

But God does.

Because he knows it's it's in the process that you grow and you mature and you learn and you develop.

And God cares deeply about your development and about your growth.

God sees you not only as who you are, but who you could be and who you will be.

And he desperately wants you to become that person.

And that means you're gonna have to go through a process.

But see, that's okay because God is patient.

What I want you to understand this morning as we think about Gideon's story, as we wrap up, is that God isn't done with Gideon because God isn't done with Gideon.

God doesn't look at Gideon and say, Gideon, what's taken you so long?

How much more do I have to do before you'll finally get it?

What's wrong with you?

Why are you still stuck on the same holdup?

He doesn't, he doesn't see himself as finished with Gideon because God knows he's not finished with Gideon.

God knows who Gideon's going to be.

In fact, if you read Hebrews chapter 11, it's this long list of the heroes of our faith, these people that were just filled with faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Sometimes Hebrews 11 is called the hall of faith, and Gideon's name is on it.

But if you read the story up to this point, you're not putting Gideon on any hall of faith.

You're putting him on the hall of whiners, right?

On the hall of doubters, maybe.

But not the hall of faith.

But see, God, God knew when he was working with that Gideon that Gideon would become the Gideon that we look back on now.

And when you see the end of the story, you'll understand the Gideon that we look on and go, wow, look at that man's faith.

Look what he did.

God understood that Gideon was in process and he feels the same about you.

He understands that you are in process.

And so maybe you're here this morning and you feel like God must be about done with you.

I hope you don't feel that way, but I feel that way sometimes about myself because I have holdups.

I have these things in my life that I just I keep telling myself, this is gonna get better.

I'm gonna fix this, I'm gonna get out of this funk, I'm gonna do this better, I'm gonna do this better, and I keep messing up in the same area over and over again.

And there's times where I pray and I'm like, God, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I feel like I'm just not moving forward at all, I'm so sorry, you've you've got to be like so frustrated with me.

But I've I've learned that he's not as frustrated as I feel.

Because he's not done.

I'm in process.

There's still work to do, and God's still doing it, and God does not judge me as a finished product when he's not finished with me.

It's the same with you.

You're not finished.

It doesn't matter if you're young by the world standards or old by the world standards, God's not done with you yet.

He still has work to do.

There are things that God wants to do in your life, there's there's things he wants to do through you, in you, there's a journey, a process he wants to take you on, and he's okay with it taking whatever amount of time it needs to take.

Because he loves you.

And he's infinitely patient with you.

And so if you're here this morning and you feel like you're stuck, you feel like God must look at you and go, come on, what's wrong with you?

That's not God.

That's not your father.

He's okay with you being in process.

The question is, are you okay with you being in process?

Do you have the ability to cut yourself some slack?

And just be okay with the fact that you're not done yet?

To not judge yourself as a finished product when God isn't finished with you.

Are you okay with that?

It's it's hard to do.

It's hard to look at myself and say, it's alright, Justin, you're gonna get there one day.

I don't feel like that very often.

But I have to have God's perspective when it comes to me and everyone around me.

You want to see your life be filled with more joy than you can imagine?

Just become a person who's really, really good at cutting yourself and the people around you slack.

To recognize that God's not done working on that person yet.

And you're not gonna judge someone as a finished product when God's not finished with them.

You're not gonna judge a generation as a finished product when God's not done with it.

Yet, a few years ago I was talking to a young guy, younger than me, and he was talking about my generation.

And he said, you know, your generation has really failed when it comes to what God wants to do.

And I'm like, Well, I'm glad you're not God.

Because I don't think God's done with my generation yet.

And your generation, you're a bunch of babies to me anyway, so whatever.

I didn't say that.

He was way younger.

He was bold, I'll give him that.

But I was like, God's not done with my generation yet.

He's not done with your generation.

We become so quick as people to label things, you know, failures, before God's done.

So we dismiss and we count people out.

And God would look at us and say, You have no idea what I want to do through that person.

If you could see what I'd see, you would never count that person out.

You would never count yourself out.

Because God's not finished.

You want to see your marriage transform, just cut your spouse slack.

I'm not saying there aren't moments where you have to have confrontation, where you have to you have to, you know, bring some things to the forefront and say, hey, let's talk about this.

That happens in my marriage all the time.

But there are so many days where I have have gone to bed frustrated and realized that that all I need to do to fix it is just cut my wife some slack.

Just say, hey, she's it's hard to be a mom of three kids and work and be married to me.

The man who can't figure out how to set his own clock back in his car.

That's tough.

Right?

That's not easy.

Poor girl.

And just say, hey, you're allowed to be in process.

I give you permission to be in process.

Please do the same with me.

If you can do that in your marriage, you will see your marriage transform.

If you can do that at work with your boss or your employees or your coworkers, and you say, hey, I give you permission to be in process.

God, please make this one a priority.

You can pray that.

But to say it, you are allowed to be in process.

To look at our country and our world and say, hey, world, you're allowed to be in process.

I believe that God isn't done with you yet.

I'm an optimist because I believe that God is still working.

And I believe that when he's finished, it's gonna blow all of us away.

But I have to be patient enough to let the people around me to be in process.

And I have to trust that God is patient enough to let me be in process.

Can you do that?

Can you say, God, this is hard.

You say, God, take whatever time you need.

And I'm gonna give I'm gonna give you and everyone around me and myself the grace to be in process.

If you can do that, if that can be the attitude of your heart, you will see frustration melt away.

You will see hardness soften.

You will see anger turn to empathy and compassion.

And when you find yourself looking at a world and trying to judge it, you'll all of a sudden start seeing it for what it could be, not for what it is, because that's the way God sees it.

That's how he saw Gideon and God was right.

That's how he sees you, and he's right.

He's not done yet.

So be patient.

Worship team just coughed to tell me to get off the stage.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for uh for your love.

Thank you so much for being so infinitely patient with us.

It is very easy for us, Lord, to forget how patient you are.

It's very easy for us to believe that you must be frustrated with us because we're not growing fast enough, maturing fast enough, developing fast enough.

Sometimes we look at ourselves, Lord, and the people around us and we get so fixated on the holdups that we forget to give ourselves and the people around us permission to be in process.

But help us with that, Lord.

Help us experience the peace that comes from patience.

You say in your word that patience is a fruit of the Spirit, that as we grow in you, that patience will be something that just naturally grows in us.

And we need that this morning, Lord.

We're asking for the patience to let things grow, to let things be.

And in the meantime, Lord, we ask that you would fill us with expectation for what you're gonna do when you're finally finished.

We love you, Lord.

We praise you.

It's just an honor to be in your presence.

Amen.