Gideon

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- Good morning church.

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It's good to be in the house with you today.

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It's always good to be in the house of the Lord.

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God is good.

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All the time.

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Well, I'm glad we said that together.

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Couple of things before we get started.

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If you are joining us right after this gathering

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for the newcomer lunch,

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it will be right through those doors

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into the fellowship hall.

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We will break bread together

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and then we'll spend a few moments getting to know you

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and telling you about Springhouse.

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If this is your first day with us

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and you'd like to know about a church, come on.

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Well, I'd love to meet you

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and this would be a good day for you to meet the staff

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and the leadership here at the church.

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And then second, I'm not gonna go much into this today.

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This is gonna come down the line,

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but I felt like I was supposed to say this today.

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A group of us have started to go to Celebrate Recovery

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at North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro.

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And if you're familiar with Celebrate Recovery,

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I encourage you to look it up online at some point

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because I'm gonna be talking about it in the future.

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But on Monday nights, I've been going every week.

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There's a group of about 10 to 12 of us going.

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If you are interested in participating in that,

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we'd love to get you connected with us to be a part of that.

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So if that's of interest to you,

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come and see me and I'll get you that information.

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All right, so we are continuing our series,

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The Greatest Stories Ever Told,

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and they truly are the greatest stories ever told

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because they're in God's word and they're true.

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True, yes?

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Greatest stories ever told.

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And today we're probably going to talk about

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one of my most favorite characters in scripture.

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And I'll tell you why that is in just a few moments,

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but would you stand with me this morning?

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We're gonna read from the book of Judges.

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We are not gonna read three chapters together today,

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but we are gonna talk about a man named Gideon,

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and I've got two short scriptures for us to read.

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But would you all read them like you had three shots

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of espresso before you came today?

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Here we go.

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When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon,

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he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

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Without faith, it is impossible to please God

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because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists

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and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

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Father, thank you for your word.

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I thank you that it is true and alive

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and working in our lives today.

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Lord, I'm asking, Lord, that my stuff that comes from me

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would fall down and be forgotten,

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but the things, Lord, that you have for us

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would stick for all eternity, God.

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And I also ask that you would increase the faith

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in this house in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

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All right, you may be seated.

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The greatest stories ever told,

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we're gonna talk about Gideon today.

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I used to be in high school, and, true story.

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And when I was in high school, I rode the bus to school,

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and it was during a season where my parents were gone

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before the bus came to the house.

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So it was very important for me to catch the bus

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'cause if I didn't catch the bus,

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I wouldn't make it to school unless I was gonna walk.

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And so I was real intent on catching the bus.

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And the bus driver at the time was a lady

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by the name of Rena Montgomery,

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and she was just a phenomenal, phenomenal, just everything,

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especially a fellow sister in Christ,

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or a sister in Christ or other.

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And as a bus driver, because she kinda knew me

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and we had developed a relationship,

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she would slow that bus down right by my house

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knowing Kevin's gonna come out any moment.

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And sure enough, I would come out

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and she would stop and let me in.

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Nowadays, I see buses, and if they don't see kids,

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they just fly by, you know?

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It's just like, you better jump on

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when the door's open while it's still rolling.

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But when I was 16, I got my license and I got a car.

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And when I rode the bus,

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I was at school all the time on time,

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but something happened whenever I got a car.

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Something happened, just a few extra moments of sleep,

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and I started to be late to school

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with my newfound freedom of driving my car.

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Well, they had this thing in the county,

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at least whenever I was in high school,

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that when you miss nine days of a particular class

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in a semester, you fail the class

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and you don't get the credit, you don't graduate.

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And so, unfortunately, I had accrued enough absences

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in this first period class of mine where I was up to eight,

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and I needed to fix this problem.

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And so I went into Miss McCullough,

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the guidance counselor at the time,

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and I sat down and I said, "Miss McCullough,

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"I've got a problem and I need you to fix it."

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And she said, "Okay, well, what's your problem?"

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I said, "I'm about to lose the credit

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"in this first period class

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"for all these absences that I have.

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"I need you to switch this class to a different period

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"and give me a fresh period during first period

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"to which I can be late to."

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(congregation laughing)

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And she looked at me like I had 12 eyes,

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and she said to me,

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"Why don't you just show up on time to school?"

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And when she said that to me, it was as if the,

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it was an epiphany.

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I never ever thought that that was even a possibility

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that I would show up on time to school.

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You know, the reason I share that story

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is that sometimes whenever we look at problems

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and situations, we're trying to attack the symptom

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instead of the root issue.

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Sometimes we're trying to attack the symptom

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instead of the root issue.

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Today, we're gonna talk about Gideon.

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And when we talk about Gideon,

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when I talk to my friends about the story of Gideon,

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or we talk, we usually look at Gideon's life

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and we talk about Gideon and his faith,

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or lack of faith, his questions, all of these things,

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and that's appropriate because that's a part of the story.

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But I think it's a very important thing for us to realize

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why this story exists in Scripture to begin with.

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Israel was in a season of their lives

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where they were turning their hearts away from Jehovah God.

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They were turning their hearts away from the one true God,

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the star breather, and not only that,

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they had decided to begin worshiping idol gods.

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That's important because I want us to understand

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that the entire reason that God arrives on the scene here

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is because Israel became so plundered, so impoverished,

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so destitute because of the Midianites,

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because of the others in the land,

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they became in such a bad, devastated position

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that they finally called out to the one true God

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and God is going to come and rescue them.

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But I want you to understand that it wasn't God's prerogative

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to take out the enemy, it was God's prerogative

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to put himself back in the proper place

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in the hearts of the Israelites.

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And I want us to understand that today you may have come

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with some symptomatic problems,

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but God is wanting to get to the root issue.

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He's wanting to pull out the root issue

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because the symptoms are only there because of the root.

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I remember the other day I was at the school

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and there's these bushes that we have

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and there's this ugly little thing growing out of this bush,

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this weed and I get out there

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and I am tugging on this thing.

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I mean, it was huge, I'm just pulling so hard because why?

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I don't wanna just rip part of the weed out,

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I wanna get the root out of there so it dies.

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And I'm telling you today, we sang earlier

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about some dead things coming to life,

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there are some things that have life that need to be dead.

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And God can do that today

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if he's in the right place of your heart,

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if he's in the right place of your life.

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So the real issue here is that the Israelites have decided

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that there is a better God than the God of the universe

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and they are worshiping him.

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Can I tell you, we've said this before,

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you cannot defeat your demons

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if you're still enjoying their company.

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You cannot contend and think that your demons

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are going to die and flee if you continue to resuscitate them

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every time you get an itch,

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that you want to hang out with them.

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Death means death.

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And some of the things, the problems in our life,

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God wants to pull out completely.

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For some of you today, your issue is not your bank account,

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it's not your relationships, it's not your job,

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it's that you've chosen to place someone or something

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above the God of the universe

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and you're asking him to share the throne

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and he won't do it, he won't do it.

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I love the story of Gideon.

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And the reason I love the story of Gideon

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is because I believe that it is one of the places

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in scripture where we see a character who is most like us.

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I see a character, for a believing Christian,

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I see a character in Gideon and his responses

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and his dialogue with God that I think lines way up

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with you and I as believers in Christ.

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You know, I would like to say every single time

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I hear the voice of the Lord, I say, yes sir,

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and I do exactly what he tells me to do.

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But if I'm honest with you, that's not the case.

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In fact, there are multiple times

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when God tells me to do something

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and I ignore him like he's not even speaking to me, okay?

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So I mean, let alone always getting it

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and nailing it on the head when God says go and do this.

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And a lot of times the reason why I hesitate

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to do what God has asked me to do

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is because I'm fearful of what might happen

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or I'm fearful that I don't have the strength

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to accomplish it.

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But therein lies the problem.

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He never asked us to do something

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that he's relying on our own,

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asking us to rely on our own strength to do.

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So Midian has totally devastated Israel so much

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that we find Gideon in a place where he is threshing wheat

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in a wine press.

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Well, what does that mean?

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Has anybody been threshing wheat this week?

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Anybody in a wine press this week?

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So I'm gonna give you an analogy.

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Threshing the wheat in a wine press

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is equivalent to me changing my oil

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in the middle of this ministry center.

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Doesn't belong, okay?

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It doesn't belong.

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Threshing wheat means getting the good parts of the wheat

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that you can eat and he's in this wine press

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because Gideon is afraid.

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He is scared for his life, but he has to sustain himself.

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Have you ever been in a place where you were scared,

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where you were afraid of what might happen?

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Listen, just because you're scared, listen,

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if I'm scared that I'm not gonna meet my mortgage,

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I don't just sit there and become paralyzed.

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I gotta continue to work, okay?

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Gideon is continuing to try his best

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to survive under devastating circumstances.

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And so he's hiding himself in this wine press

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to try to get this food and I love,

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my favorite part of the story happens right at the top.

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The angel of the Lord sits down under a tree

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and he sees Gideon and he says,

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"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

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I love that we serve a God who will sit down

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right in the middle of our circumstance,

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look us eyeball to eyeball and say,

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"I am with you, mighty warrior."

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We serve a God who is compassionate,

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who is kind, who cares about you.

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Some would argue that we have a God

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who looks at somebody like Gideon

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who is fearful and distances himself and says,

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"I'm not going to have anything to do

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with that fearful person."

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But that's not the God we serve.

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The God we serve will meet you right where you are.

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And some of you this morning need a God who breathes stars

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to meet you right where you are.

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And I tell you, he's here this morning

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and he wants to meet you.

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He sits down under the tree and says,

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"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

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The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

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Now when I read that in scripture,

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when we read that, we kind of rise up

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because we see the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

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We kind of get worked up and amped up

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about that mighty warrior part.

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But can I tell you the most important part

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of this statement is not mighty warrior,

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it is the Lord is with you.

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Because if you can grapple and understand

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that the Lord is with you,

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then the mighty warrior part comes.

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But so often we just hear the mighty warrior part

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and then we get insecure because we know

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I'm not a mighty warrior,

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but you're forgetting the part that God is with you.

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He is with you because you're not a mighty warrior

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without him.

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You're not a mighty warrior without the Lord.

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And so the most important part of that

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is the Lord is with you.

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So God tells Gideon, he says,

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"Go in your strength and save Israel."

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Now I'm gonna tell you all throughout this story,

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God asked Gideon to do a lot of things

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that do not make sense.

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He asked Gideon to do some things that do not make sense.

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And the first thing he says is,

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"I want you to go in your own strength.

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"I want you to go in your strength and save Israel."

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That's literally what the scripture says.

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"I want you to go in your strength and save Israel."

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Now I believe God intentionally did that

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because when he approaches us with any type of task,

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he is trying to get us to a place

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where we have to answer with,

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"I am the weakest and I am the least."

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I am the weakest and I am the least.

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Gideon replies and says,

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"Lord, you're gonna try to send me to do this task?

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"My tribe is the weakest and I am the least in my family."

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Can I tell you that God has an uncanny knack

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of using the weakest, the least,

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the unqualified, the ill-equipped.

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He has the uncanny knack of using the one in the room

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that says he could never use me

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because I've done this, this, and this.

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Anybody qualify to be used by God

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based on that definition?

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God has this ability to take the lowest of the low

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and raise them up to make them a valiant warrior for him.

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And we know what God can do with a response like this

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because it says, "My grace is sufficient for you,

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"for my power is made perfect in," what?

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"In your weakness."

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Guys, there's so many times when I'm missing the power of God

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because I'm operating out of my strength.

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I don't wanna operate out of my strength.

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I need to operate out of my weakness

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because then he will come and bless me and use me

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and be glorified through me.

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And so this is where I want to camp today is this.

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It is never about your ability.

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It is always about your faith.

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It is never about your ability.

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It is always about your faith.

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If you guys just knew truly how ill-equipped

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I feel to do the assignments that God has given me,

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if you just knew the inner workings

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and the turmoil of my heart and my mind and my psyche,

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the internal battles I contend with,

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I promise I would not be the first on your list

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to be a dad, a father, to be a husband,

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to be a pastor, to be a leader at a school.

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I promise you I would not make the cut

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if I listed all of the things that I contend with but God.

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And if there's anything that you ever see

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that is good out of me, I can promise you

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it is not Kevin O'Dea, it is God Almighty

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because anything I have is like filthy rags

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and that is not just a cliche statement, it is the truth.

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It is the truth that anything that comes out of me,

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I still question God, why would you ask me to do X, Y, and Z?

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Why would you bless me and use me to do all of these things?

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I still, I think I'm one of God's biggest jokes.

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But I hope that I'm able to give Him the glory

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when He does something really good.

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Gideon is human and so God says

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that He wants him to go and save Israel

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and Gideon says, "I need a sign.

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"Give me a sign about your reality."

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And so he goes off and he gets a sacrifice

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and he brings it and he lays it on the altar

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before the angel of the Lord.

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The angel of the Lord patiently waits for him to go

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and do that, he brings it back and the Word tells us

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that fire consumes this offering.

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It consumes it.

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And surely enough, right before Gideon's eyes,

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he believed this is God.

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This is the God of the universe, even so much so

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that Gideon thought he was gonna die

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because he was in the presence of a holy God.

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The angel disappears and the voice of the Lord continues,

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"Can I tell you that the Lord will nudge you along

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"in your disbelief to the point where you believe?"

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He will nudge you along as you continue to walk

Speaker: 00:17:06

to prove himself who He is, that He is true.

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The starting place of your faith

Speaker: 00:17:15

is acknowledging the existence of God.

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Let me say that again.

Speaker: 00:17:18

The starting place of your faith

Speaker: 00:17:20

is acknowledging the existence of God.

Speaker: 00:17:22

And Gideon responds in a reverent fear of the Lord.

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Reverent fear of the Lord, God,

Speaker: 00:17:29

you must be who you say you are.

Speaker: 00:17:32

So what happens next in the story?

Speaker: 00:17:34

Those of you who are following the Bible reading plan,

Speaker: 00:17:37

hopefully you know what happens next, okay?

Speaker: 00:17:40

The next thing that God does is not go

Speaker: 00:17:44

and rescue the Israelites from Gideon.

Speaker: 00:17:47

Why not?

Speaker: 00:17:49

Because we still have some idols and some gods

Speaker: 00:17:53

that we're contending with.

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See, here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:17:56

We want God to take care of the problem

Speaker: 00:17:59

without getting to the root issue.

Speaker: 00:18:01

But God is all about the root.

Speaker: 00:18:03

And so He says to Gideon, "I want you to go

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"and I want you to knock down that altar

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"that they have built to Baal."

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Gideon's like, "Me?

Speaker: 00:18:12

"You want me to go and do this?"

Speaker: 00:18:13

And so the word tells us that Gideon,

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still grappling with some fear at night,

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goes into the town and knocks that down.

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So much so that the next day, all the people rally,

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all the Israelite people rally around

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and want to kill Gideon.

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Doesn't that tell you how grossly tied in

Speaker: 00:18:33

the Israelites were to a false god?

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That they were willing to kill Gideon

Speaker: 00:18:37

who knocked it down for the one true God?

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But here's the thing.

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I'd like to submit to you this morning

Speaker: 00:18:45

that I think there's some things that we have heart ties to

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that we would be willing to keep,

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metaphorically kill for,

Speaker: 00:18:52

to maintain their structure in our life,

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to maintain their appearance in our life.

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And God wants those things to be knocked down.

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He wants those things to be knocked down.

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Anything that takes the place of the Lord is an idol.

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Anything that takes the place of the Lord,

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listen, I don't believe that God,

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it's not like a two-seater car.

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It's not like the Lord just sits there and says,

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"Okay, we'll let your other God be here

Speaker: 00:19:14

"and we'll just kind of hang out together."

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God says, "It's me or nothing else."

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And so I wonder if sometimes the question

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that we need to ask ourselves in the altar space

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isn't God, would you help me, provide for me,

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do all of these things,

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but God, help me to surrender completely to you.

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Because if your sovereignty is in my life

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and you are completely in my life

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and you are truly my one thing,

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then I have the faith to believe

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that all the rest of this stuff is gonna get taken care of

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because you're in the midst of it all.

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You're in the midst of it all.

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God doesn't want to share the throne.

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So the first thing that God does

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is remove the thing that's taking its place

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and the altar veil is destroyed.

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And so Gideon comes before the Lord,

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the altar's been destroyed,

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and he gets before the Lord and he says,

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"Now listen, God, I hear what you're saying.

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"I know you want to send me to rescue Israel,

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"but I just really wanna make sure it's you.

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"I wanna make sure this is what you're telling me to do.

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"So I'm gonna put this fleece outside my door.

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"And if the fleece is wet and the ground is dry tonight,

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"then I know that this is your will."

Speaker: 00:20:28

He goes to bed and he wakes up the next morning

Speaker: 00:20:32

and guess what happened?

Speaker: 00:20:33

The fleece was wet and the ground was dry.

Speaker: 00:20:37

Now tell me it's not human what happens next.

Speaker: 00:20:42

I just wanna make extra, extra sure, God.

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So I tell you what,

Speaker: 00:20:48

maybe somebody kicked a glass of water over on that fleece.

Speaker: 00:20:52

I don't know.

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I tell you what, God, what if we do this?

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How about tonight, if the fleece is dry

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and the ground's wet, then I will definitely know it's you.

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Anybody?

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Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:05

Guess what happens?

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It's exactly as he said.

Speaker: 00:21:09

The ground was wet, the fleece was dry.

Speaker: 00:21:13

So I get asked as a pastor sometimes,

Speaker: 00:21:15

"Kevin, you think it's okay for people

Speaker: 00:21:17

"to put a fleece out before the Lord?

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"Do you think it's okay for people to, man, what,

Speaker: 00:21:20

"I mean, is that lack of faith,

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"isn't that like disobedience and all the,"

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et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker: 00:21:25

Here's what I want us to understand.

Speaker: 00:21:28

I want us to take away two things

Speaker: 00:21:30

with regard to that question.

Speaker: 00:21:32

Number one, I want you to understand

Speaker: 00:21:33

that at this point in the story

Speaker: 00:21:35

where Gideon puts out the fleece,

Speaker: 00:21:36

he has already acknowledged the sovereignty of God.

Speaker: 00:21:40

He's not asking if God is real.

Speaker: 00:21:44

He's not asking, he's not trying to consider

Speaker: 00:21:46

whether or not this is the voice of the Lord necessarily.

Speaker: 00:21:49

He has already determined this is God.

Speaker: 00:21:52

What he's wanting is clarification,

Speaker: 00:21:54

is this what you want me to do?

Speaker: 00:21:55

Is this your will?

Speaker: 00:21:57

That's the first thing.

Speaker: 00:21:58

The second thing is I believe in a patient God

Speaker: 00:22:03

who will nudge you along in your faith.

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But here's the thing.

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If you put a fleece out before the Lord

Speaker: 00:22:10

and he gives you an answer,

Speaker: 00:22:11

you better do what he says to do.

Speaker: 00:22:13

Because you're talking about the God of the universe,

Speaker: 00:22:18

the God who breathes stars.

Speaker: 00:22:20

He will not be mocked.

Speaker: 00:22:22

The word tells us not to test the Lord,

Speaker: 00:22:24

to bring him into a state of testing.

Speaker: 00:22:26

And I believe with the right heart posture,

Speaker: 00:22:28

I believe I have put fleeces before the Lord.

Speaker: 00:22:30

In fact, I would not be your lead pastor

Speaker: 00:22:31

without putting a fleece in front of the Lord.

Speaker: 00:22:34

Her name is Norah Joy, and she's here.

Speaker: 00:22:37

I'm telling you, God is so faithful and he will make it.

Speaker: 00:22:40

Can I tell you that the God we serve

Speaker: 00:22:43

is not the God of confusion?

Speaker: 00:22:45

He's not trying to trick you.

Speaker: 00:22:47

He's not trying to make it hard on you.

Speaker: 00:22:51

He is very clear.

Speaker: 00:22:52

Sometimes because of our inner turmoil,

Speaker: 00:22:55

we are blind to what everybody else around us sees.

Speaker: 00:22:59

He makes things so evident and clear before people.

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And unfortunately, when we don't get it,

Speaker: 00:23:05

when we don't hear it right,

Speaker: 00:23:06

he makes it abundantly clear around us.

Speaker: 00:23:08

Sometimes you get exposed from other people

Speaker: 00:23:12

because you're not willing to lay down your pride

Speaker: 00:23:14

or your selfishness or the thing that you want,

Speaker: 00:23:17

or you're not willing to destroy that altar to Baal.

Speaker: 00:23:21

And so God has to illuminate it to other people

Speaker: 00:23:26

and bring it out.

Speaker: 00:23:27

I am so glad that the Lord will correct me

Speaker: 00:23:30

in the privacy of my own home sometimes, anybody?

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I am so glad that he does that with me and he corrects me.

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But let me tell you, if he's not my one thing,

Speaker: 00:23:40

he sure enough will use you all to make sure I know.

Speaker: 00:23:43

God is so, he is so faithful.

Speaker: 00:23:47

And God sees things from an eternal perspective.

Speaker: 00:23:51

He sees things from an eternal perspective.

Speaker: 00:23:53

So Gideon puts this fleece out and God answers him.

Speaker: 00:23:58

And so he rallies 32,000 men.

Speaker: 00:24:02

Now I want you to understand something, okay?

Speaker: 00:24:04

All of these men, these 32,000 men,

Speaker: 00:24:07

they are in the same position as Gideon.

Speaker: 00:24:10

They've been in the same,

Speaker: 00:24:12

their food has been taken, their stuff has been taken.

Speaker: 00:24:14

They are scared out of their mind, just like Gideon.

Speaker: 00:24:16

But Gideon has rallied 32,000 men.

Speaker: 00:24:20

And he says, all right guys, we're gonna go in

Speaker: 00:24:22

and we're gonna conquer Midian.

Speaker: 00:24:23

We're gonna do this.

Speaker: 00:24:25

And God says, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, Gideon.

Speaker: 00:24:28

There's a few too many guys here.

Speaker: 00:24:31

We're gonna need to reduce the army size

Speaker: 00:24:36

because here's the thing,

Speaker: 00:24:37

if I let you 32,000 men go out and do this,

Speaker: 00:24:40

you're gonna take the credit that I deserve, says the Lord.

Speaker: 00:24:44

And so the Lord says, here's what we'll do.

Speaker: 00:24:47

Go to the people and ask them a question.

Speaker: 00:24:51

Are you scared?

Speaker: 00:24:54

And if you're scared, you can go home.

Speaker: 00:24:57

I'm sorry, I think it's funny.

Speaker: 00:25:01

22,000 said, got that right.

Speaker: 00:25:03

Who is, no.

Speaker: 00:25:06

Boo boo the fool.

Speaker: 00:25:13

They walked out, they left.

Speaker: 00:25:16

10,000 remaining.

Speaker: 00:25:17

And Gideon's like, okay, whoo, 22,000 are gone.

Speaker: 00:25:22

10,000, let's take a deep breath, everybody.

Speaker: 00:25:25

It's gonna be okay.

Speaker: 00:25:27

God has given me a sign through this fleece.

Speaker: 00:25:30

I'm good, we'll figure this out.

Speaker: 00:25:32

10,000, at least I know that you all aren't scared.

Speaker: 00:25:35

We're gonna be good.

Speaker: 00:25:36

And God says, ah, Gideon, Gideon, Gideon.

Speaker: 00:25:39

I still think there's too many people here.

Speaker: 00:25:43

And my patience is wearing thin,

Speaker: 00:25:45

so we're gonna fast track this, okay?

Speaker: 00:25:49

So here's what I want you to do.

Speaker: 00:25:50

Let's take them down to get a drink.

Speaker: 00:25:52

And those who lap the water like a dog,

Speaker: 00:25:57

we're gonna keep those.

Speaker: 00:25:58

And those who bow down with their knee

Speaker: 00:26:00

and get water another way, they get to go home.

Speaker: 00:26:03

Now, I'm sure Gideon is walking around going,

Speaker: 00:26:07

come on, stick that tongue out.

Speaker: 00:26:08

Come on, he's trying to figure out, come on.

Speaker: 00:26:11

Come on, come on, guys.

Speaker: 00:26:13

300 remain.

Speaker: 00:26:15

32,000 to 300 people.

Speaker: 00:26:19

And God says, all right, I think I can do it with that.

Speaker: 00:26:22

My goodness.

Speaker: 00:26:24

What Gideon must have felt in that moment,

Speaker: 00:26:27

going from 32,000, God, I have some security in 32,000 men.

Speaker: 00:26:32

I don't know about 300.

Speaker: 00:26:33

God says, don't put your security in the men at all.

Speaker: 00:26:35

Because you plus God will always equal the majority.

Speaker: 00:26:42

You plus God will always equal the majority.

Speaker: 00:26:47

And so what I want us to understand is this.

Speaker: 00:26:50

God's way will require very little of you

Speaker: 00:26:52

and a whole lot of Him.

Speaker: 00:26:54

Very little of you and a whole lot of Him.

Speaker: 00:26:57

Why is it that God's ways seem not to make sense?

Speaker: 00:27:02

Why is it that when He tells us to do something,

Speaker: 00:27:04

it's kinda like, I don't know.

Speaker: 00:27:06

This doesn't seem to add up or compute.

Speaker: 00:27:07

Here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:27:08

My thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord.

Speaker: 00:27:10

Either my ways, your ways.

Speaker: 00:27:13

God has a picture of eternity and a story

Speaker: 00:27:15

that far supersedes anything you can think of

Speaker: 00:27:19

and anything you can do on your strength.

Speaker: 00:27:20

And He wants to do it His way.

Speaker: 00:27:23

Here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:27:24

Faith requires you to go against your natural instincts.

Speaker: 00:27:27

There's natural instincts, which are my strength,

Speaker: 00:27:29

and there are supernatural instincts,

Speaker: 00:27:31

which He has to get involved with.

Speaker: 00:27:33

So here's what this looks like.

Speaker: 00:27:35

Hey, here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:27:36

I know that you guys think I'm real buff

Speaker: 00:27:38

and I can lift weights and stuff,

Speaker: 00:27:39

but I really can't, okay?

Speaker: 00:27:41

And so I got these little,

Speaker: 00:27:43

not barbells, dumbbells here.

Speaker: 00:27:48

And I can lift these.

Speaker: 00:27:52

I can lift these.

Speaker: 00:27:53

This is pretty easy.

Speaker: 00:27:54

I can lift these.

Speaker: 00:27:56

And you know what?

Speaker: 00:27:57

Most of the time, this is what we look like as Christians.

Speaker: 00:28:01

We say, I got this going on.

Speaker: 00:28:04

I can handle the strength and the weight.

Speaker: 00:28:06

I can handle this myself.

Speaker: 00:28:08

God, I don't see a need for you to get involved, right?

Speaker: 00:28:13

Why would I need a God if I can lift the weight myself?

Speaker: 00:28:17

Right?

Speaker: 00:28:18

In fact, God, you're actually gonna mess things up

Speaker: 00:28:19

if you get over here.

Speaker: 00:28:20

So just go take your place and...

Speaker: 00:28:23

But wait a second.

Speaker: 00:28:25

Here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:28:26

I can't come in here with these

Speaker: 00:28:28

because if I come in here with these,

Speaker: 00:28:29

you guys are gonna make fun of me.

Speaker: 00:28:31

And when I'm carrying a lightweight Christianity,

Speaker: 00:28:34

you guys might talk bad about me.

Speaker: 00:28:36

So let me go get something just a little bit bigger.

Speaker: 00:28:38

Yeah, these are a little bit bigger.

Speaker: 00:28:43

And behind the scenes, I might have to set these down,

Speaker: 00:28:45

but in front of you,

Speaker: 00:28:46

I still can do this, right?

Speaker: 00:28:50

Okay.

Speaker: 00:28:51

He must be a great Christian.

Speaker: 00:28:54

He must be, man, he must be, he must, man,

Speaker: 00:28:56

he's doing a lot for ministry.

Speaker: 00:28:58

He's doing a lot with the Lord.

Speaker: 00:29:00

He's got super faith.

Speaker: 00:29:02

And I'm just walking around

Speaker: 00:29:03

doing everything on my own strength.

Speaker: 00:29:05

Just piling on because you know a mark of a good Christian

Speaker: 00:29:07

is piling your plate as high as you can

Speaker: 00:29:09

with Christian stuff to do.

Speaker: 00:29:10

Right?

Speaker: 00:29:12

God, there's no room on my plate for you.

Speaker: 00:29:15

There's no room for you, but I got this, God.

Speaker: 00:29:18

I got this.

Speaker: 00:29:18

And guess what?

Speaker: 00:29:19

The church loves me for it.

Speaker: 00:29:21

I can't wait till they see me.

Speaker: 00:29:22

You know what?

Speaker: 00:29:23

If we had an award show,

Speaker: 00:29:24

I would definitely get the best award for that ministry

Speaker: 00:29:27

'cause I'm carrying it so well.

Speaker: 00:29:29

How do you balance all that, Kev?

Speaker: 00:29:31

Yeah, it's so good, right?

Speaker: 00:29:33

And then I go behind the scenes and I go, ugh, right?

Speaker: 00:29:37

But here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:29:38

This is what it is.

Speaker: 00:29:39

We look over here and we see this thing.

Speaker: 00:29:43

And we go, now I don't know if I can lift that.

Speaker: 00:29:48

And if I try to lift it,

Speaker: 00:29:49

I certainly don't want y'all looking at me trying to lift it

Speaker: 00:29:52

'cause y'all gonna make fun of me, okay?

Speaker: 00:29:53

So, yeah.

Speaker: 00:29:56

Yeah, okay.

Speaker: 00:30:03

Okay?

Speaker: 00:30:03

But here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:30:05

God hasn't called me to this.

Speaker: 00:30:07

He didn't call me to that.

Speaker: 00:30:10

Guess what he called me to?

Speaker: 00:30:12

He called me to the thing that I can't pick up.

Speaker: 00:30:15

He called me to the thing that I'm gonna have to rely

Speaker: 00:30:17

on his strength for.

Speaker: 00:30:20

And see, here's the thing.

Speaker: 00:30:20

The word tells us that we do not fight

Speaker: 00:30:22

against flesh and blood,

Speaker: 00:30:24

but against the spiritual forces of this world.

Speaker: 00:30:26

And so, aren't you glad

Speaker: 00:30:27

that you're not contending with swords?

Speaker: 00:30:29

Like, I don't think any of you are contending right now

Speaker: 00:30:31

with having to pull your sword out

Speaker: 00:30:31

and chop somebody's head off.

Speaker: 00:30:32

I don't think that's probably the battle.

Speaker: 00:30:34

But let me tell you what the battle is.

Speaker: 00:30:36

I don't have enough money in my bank account,

Speaker: 00:30:38

and God says, "But I still want you to give."

Speaker: 00:30:41

Come on out here.

Speaker: 00:30:42

This is what this looks like.

Speaker: 00:30:44

Jesus arrives on the scene.

Speaker: 00:30:46

Buff with tattoos.

Speaker: 00:30:51

Here's what he does.

Speaker: 00:30:56

He says, "Get your eye off the weight

Speaker: 00:30:59

"and put your eyes on Jesus."

Speaker: 00:31:02

God, my bank account's empty,

Speaker: 00:31:04

so I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

Speaker: 00:31:05

And you're telling me to give?

Speaker: 00:31:06

He says, "I got it."

Speaker: 00:31:08

Man, that person hurt me.

Speaker: 00:31:13

That person devastated me.

Speaker: 00:31:14

And you want me to love them still?

Speaker: 00:31:16

He says, "I got it."

Speaker: 00:31:18

We miscarried that baby.

Speaker: 00:31:22

And you still want me to have hope,

Speaker: 00:31:24

that you have hope for me and my future?

Speaker: 00:31:26

He says, "I got it."

Speaker: 00:31:30

That relationship is that marriage seems,

Speaker: 00:31:33

my marriage seems to be on the rocks and destroyed,

Speaker: 00:31:35

and I don't know, you still want me

Speaker: 00:31:36

to have the faith to believe?

Speaker: 00:31:37

He says, "I got it, keep your eyes on me."

Speaker: 00:31:39

God, I don't know if I can do it anymore.

Speaker: 00:31:45

I'm worn out.

Speaker: 00:31:46

I can't even lift anything anymore.

Speaker: 00:31:49

And he's still got it.

Speaker: 00:31:51

He's still got it.

Speaker: 00:31:55

Even when you don't have the strength to even participate,

Speaker: 00:31:58

he's still got it.

Speaker: 00:32:00

Amen?

Speaker: 00:32:00

Thank you, brother.

Speaker: 00:32:02

See, he wants you to pick up the thing

Speaker: 00:32:05

that you can't pick up on your own,

Speaker: 00:32:07

because if he can pick it up for you,

Speaker: 00:32:09

then he will get the glory he deserves.

Speaker: 00:32:12

And guess what?

Speaker: 00:32:13

That means he becomes your one thing,

Speaker: 00:32:15

and you're not stuck worshiping the gods of this world,

Speaker: 00:32:18

the gods of envy and greed and all of these things,

Speaker: 00:32:20

but he becomes your focus because he's a powerful God.

Speaker: 00:32:23

And guess what?

Speaker: 00:32:24

He still allows you to be elevated in the process.

Speaker: 00:32:26

He still blesses you in the process.

Speaker: 00:32:29

Guys, we have to stop contending with the smaller things

Speaker: 00:32:32

that rely on our own strength,

Speaker: 00:32:34

and we have to trust this great, glorious,

Speaker: 00:32:36

big, star-breathing God with the things of faith,

Speaker: 00:32:39

the things that are waiting for us,

Speaker: 00:32:41

and answer the call.

Speaker: 00:32:42

Some of us have not said yes to a ministry or an assignment,

Speaker: 00:32:45

have not laid down things,

Speaker: 00:32:46

because you don't trust the Lord.

Speaker: 00:32:48

You wanna keep doing it in your strength,

Speaker: 00:32:49

and he says, "Lay it down.

Speaker: 00:32:51

"I've got you.

Speaker: 00:32:52

"I've got you.

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"Here's the thing.

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"Your enemy might be big, but guess what?

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"Your God is bigger.

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"Your God is bigger."

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And let me tell you, this is why I believe

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that the Lord chose Gideon.

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It's for the end of the story in chapter eight.

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This is the reason I think he chose Gideon.

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The Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us,

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"you, your son, and your grandson,

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"because you have saved us from the hand of Midian."

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Isn't it so easy to go in to battle and defeat and win

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and be successful and then take all the glory?

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But this is what Gideon's reply was.

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He said, "I will not rule over you,

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"nor will my son rule over you.

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"The Lord will rule over you."

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And when you have a heart posture

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that allows the Lord to be elevated,

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he can use you to do supernatural things.

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You usually do supernatural things.

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Worship team, would you come out here?

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I also want to say, if God is for us,

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who can be against us?

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Who can be against us?

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If you're contending with things, who can be against you?

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I wanna tell you a testimony right now,

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and then we're gonna pray.

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Few weeks ago, we took a group of seniors on a senior trip.

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And prior to that, I had gone to the business collective,

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and I listened to Josh McLeod share,

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and he had challenged us to identify a place

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where we need a miracle, a place where we need courage,

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and something that we need to know.

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And I tell you, to identify those things, it takes faith.

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We're only a miracle, we're only courage,

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and what do I need to know?

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So on this trip with these seniors,

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we were doing devotionals with them each day,

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and the kids did a great job sharing

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from their heart, devotionals.

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First one was about idol worship.

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Go figure how we need to rid ourselves of idols.

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And we started to walk down the path with them

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in these devotionals, just watching the hand

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of a sovereign God weave through all of these devotionals

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and time together in the Lord.

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So I posed this question to them.

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I said, what is the place that you need a miracle?

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Where do you need courage, and what do you need to know?

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Well, we had gone through and talked through

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about places where we need courage,

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and two of the kids had admitted out loud to Miss Coble,

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we need the courage to actually believe that Jesus is real.

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And man, that hit.

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And the reason it hit was because their eternity

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is in the balance.

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Their life is in the balance.

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And so we were like, Lord, Holy Spirit, would you move?

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And so we're going through these devotionals

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and we're talking to the students.

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If we're gonna go to church on Sunday,

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to this church that nobody's been to,

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we don't know what the message is or anything like that,

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and I told them that day we are going to,

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on Saturday, I said, on Sunday night,

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I want you to be ready to answer where you need a miracle.

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And so we're driving into the church

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and we get into the church and they have five services.

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We're at the fourth service, we're up in the balcony.

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And the pastor gets up and he says,

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guys, I'm gonna do something that I haven't done

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in a very long time.

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He says, I'm gonna preach a brief sermon

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on the pool of the sestah, and at the end of this service,

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for the last 15 minutes, we're gonna ask the Lord

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to meet you where you need a miracle.

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And I just turned around and looked at the kids

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and they looked at me because we had just talked about this.

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And I just started in my spirit saying,

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okay, Lord, I sent your presence,

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I see what you're doing, would you just move?

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Well, it gets to the last 15 minutes of the service,

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and I'm up there and they're playing a worship song

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and I'm looking at the kids and nobody's moving.

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And I'm saying, Lord, what do you want me to do?

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Do you want me to like grab their hands

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and bring them down?

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Because I mean, they all have miracles in their spirits.

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I mean, what do you want me to do?

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And he always said, he said, Kevin, I want you to go.

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So I want me to go.

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Okay, so I make my way down or whatnot,

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I'm thinking, well, God, where do I need a miracle?

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Okay, Lord, I need $7 million.

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We have a school and I would love to pay everything off.

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I would love to pay teachers more than anybody else

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in the state, and I would like to have my dream vision

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come true at the school, $7 million.

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Don't you think that would be a miracle

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to receive $7 million?

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And so I go down there and I'm waiting in line,

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I'm singing this song, I'm in worship,

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and I get up to this guy who's gonna pray with us.

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And he begins to pray with me,

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or he begins to pray with the person in front of me.

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And as we're worshiping, I turn around

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and I look up in the balcony at the students.

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And I look and I see Sydney and I see Bryce,

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the two who said, we need courage

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to know that Jesus Christ is real.

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And can I tell you, when I turned around, I began to weep.

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And I said, God, $7 million is a drop in the bucket for you.

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The real miracle today would be

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that those two give their life to you.

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And so I just wept there with that man as we prayed.

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And he said, would you bring those two down?

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And I went up, I didn't think they were gonna come down,

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but I went up and got grabbed them and Miss Coble.

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And we went down and he prayed with them.

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And they didn't give their life, he was so gracious.

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They didn't give their life at that moment to the Lord,

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but he really sowed in some prayers.

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Well, can I tell you at the end of that trip,

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we were in a circle and we were praying for one another

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and we prayed for the person on your right.

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And we get around that circle

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and Sydney's sitting next to me.

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And she's the one who doesn't believe in the Lord.

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And she prays this outrageous prayer for me.

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And so at the end of the prayer,

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I look at her and I say, Sydney,

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thank you for praying such an incredible prayer

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to a God you don't believe in.

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And she looked at me and said, Mr. O'Dea,

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I believe every single word I just prayed.

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And my heart just went, yes, Lord, thank you, Jesus.

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So we fly home and we get home.

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And the very first thing I like to do after a trip

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is go check the mailbox.

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And I go into the mailbox and I look in the mailbox

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and a check from IRS is in there for $95,000.

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To date, I have received $700,000 from the IRS,

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10% of what my ask was.

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And the Lord said, it's not the 7 million,

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but it's a nudge for you to know

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that you can trust me by faith.

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I want you to understand, I want you to understand,

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I opened this message by saying,

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sometimes we are praying for the symptom,

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but we are supposed to be addressing the root.

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I want you to know the whole reason I even have the school

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is because I want kids to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

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That's more important.

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And so when you're focusing on the root,

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when he's the one thing, all of the rest of it

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will be taken care of by the glorious, star-breathing God

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who does miracles, amen?

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Stand with me this morning, we're gonna worship.

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If you need a miracle, if you need God to do something,

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if you're contending, if you need to put a fleece out

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before the Lord, if you're questioning, if you're doubting,

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I want you to come this morning

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because God has an answer for you.

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The Holy Spirit of God is real, he is here, he is voting.

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Guys, come on down if you're gonna pray with people.

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He is real and he is alive and he's here today.

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Don't leave here, don't leave here

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the same way that you came.

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Without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord.

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And so I ask you, I beseech you

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to come before this glorious God.

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And hey, and to ask him, Lord,

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would you be the one thing in my life I surrender?

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Let's worship.

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(gentle music)

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you