August 11, 2024 • 63 mins
The belief that we need something other than God is what keeps us from going through breakthrough. That’s how we can be in covenant with God but still in captivity. In “Breaking The Bondage Of Wrong Belief,” Pastor Steven Furtick helps us break up with what’s been holding us back.
Scripture References:
Judges 6, verses 22-29
Ephesians 2, verse 13
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I thought you were going down, but you're not anymore.
Howa flathose hands and give God praid. He didn't lead
me where I was like I was, and I believe,
(00:48):
somebody shout, I believe that I'm not leaving like I came.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Today, It's time for the Word of God. Put your hands.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Together and welcome Ebath all around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Into the Word of God. This word that God gave
me today. He began to speak to me on March seventh,
twenty twenty three, and it has taken me that long
to figure out how to share it with you. Today,
the Lord has released me to share it. I'm thankful
(01:27):
and excited and expected about the implications to your life.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
In Judges chapter.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Six, verse twenty two through twenty nine, there is an
encounter with God between the Angel of the Lord and
a man named Gideon, and the Bible says in verse
twenty two, when Gideon realized that it was the Angel
of the Lord, he exclaimed, a last sovereign Lord, I
(01:55):
have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.
But the Lord said to him, peace, do not be afraid.
You are not going to die. That's a good thing.
Oh he's good to know. And I'll explain why he
said that in a moment. But look at what the
(02:19):
Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid, you
are not going to die. So Gideon built an altar
to the Lord there and called it the Lord is Peace.
To this day, it stands in Ophrah of the Abiez Rites.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Now, that same night.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The Lord said to him, take the second bull from
your father's herd, the one seven years old.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Tear down your father's alter.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
To bail and cut down the ascheropole beside it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Then build a proper kind.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Of altar to the Lord, your God, on the top
of this height, using the wood of the asheropole that
you cut down, offer the second bull as a burn offering.
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as
the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of
his family and the townspeople. He did it at night
(03:14):
rather than in the daytime. Now you call him a whimp,
I call him wise. He did it how he had
to do it, And sometimes you do man. Sometimes you
have to sneak in those victories at midnight. It's not
always going to be some huge triumph and amazing things.
Sometimes the victory is going to be that you made
it through the night and you woke up the next
(03:34):
day and you got to learn to praise God because
of those two. So look what happened in the morning,
verse twenty eight. When the people of the town got up.
There was Bale's altar demolished, with the Ashero pole beside
it cut down in the second bull sacrificed on the
newly built altar.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Last verse for now, verse twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
They asked each other who did this. When they carefully investigated,
they were told, Gideon, son of Joe Ash did it. Gideon,
son of Joe Ash did it. Now I want to
speak to you from this subject today. I want to
(04:18):
talk to you about breaking the bondage of wrong belief.
Breaking the bondage of wrong belief. And that's not one
of those titles you can say to your neighbor. So
let me give you a say to your neighbor.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Title.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, I know I
look a little different. I know I got a little
extra pep in my style. Tell them I know I'm
smiling more than the last time you saw me. But
it's because me and God got back together. Yeah, me
(05:01):
and God got back together. You may be seated. Me
and God got back together. Thank you Lord for this word.
I know he meant well, but I completely disagreed with
his method. The preacher stood before a room full of
professing Christians and asked a question, on a scale of
(05:25):
one to ten, how close would you say you are
to God right now? I gave him ten minutes, twenty minutes,
thirty minutes benefit of the doubt, even to the end
of his message, because I just knew that he wasn't
going to give the people a scale to determine how
(05:46):
close they were to God.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yet he did.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I was waiting for the twist where he talked about
the grace of God. And you know in the Bible,
this one man prayed and he said, Lord, I thank
you that I'm not like this. Enter over here praying
next to me, and the sinner was beating his breast, saying,
God have mercy on me. And Jesus said, the one
that beat his breast was the one that went home
justified because he had faith to believe that he needed God.
(06:11):
And the one who thought he was so great, he
wasn't so great because he was actually not close to
the kingdom. But the preacher didn't do that, he continued.
I asked Holly if she remembered it, and she remembered
it too. Simon, just make this up to tell the
people everything they could do. Watch this to move from
a four to a five. You know, there's there's this
(06:32):
big line, this linear approach to knowing the Lord. And
you can go from four to five if you read
the Bible daily, you go from four to six if
you make it through the Book of Leviticus bonus point
for certain Bible books. And he goes through everything that
you can do to.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Get closer to God.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now here's why I thought that the exercise was ridiculous
respect to the person doing it, because I've done some
ridiculous things and I'll probably say something ridiculous in here,
and then I get up in ten years and tell
you it was ridiculous. I'll tell on myself. It's ridiculous
because it's relative how close are you to God right
(07:17):
now compared to what compared to Jesus, who always knew
the will of his father, who is supposed to be
my standard. So if we're going by that, I'm staying
zero until I die and compared to who I mean.
(07:38):
I just don't even think the question is like you
can rate a restaurant? Can you relate a rate rather
a relationship with the eternal God who's spoke into nothing
and there was something with the invisible God who exists, immortal,
not seen to humanize, but known by the spirit, not
by the flesh.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I can't rate something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
That's another thing is not only is it relative how
close you are to God compared to what you think
other people might be praying or doing or whatever, because
you don't really know what the other people around you
are like, and you judge yourself off of your delusions
of them.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's kind of dumb. But also also I.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Didn't think it was a very good exercise because of
something called recency bias.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Do you know what recency bias is?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's when the last thing that happens carries the most
weight with you, and you judge an entire thing off
of the most recent thing that happened. So you begin
to kind of act like the way it is right
now is the way that it always is.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And the way that it always was. But it's not true.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And what I'm really trying to say, I guess I'm
using fancy language to say that if you answer that
question at a time i'm close to God, I'm a ten.
It wouldn't really take that much to put you at
a two. I can't figure out what happened to my church,
because my church used to be real and honest.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But I'm looking at a bunch of tens today. Okay, ten.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
There are days where at ten am you are a ten.
But if I caught up with you at two, because
at two you've had to deal with some people, and
it can move you right back down the scale. Some
of you are one text away from going from ten
(09:36):
to two.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Some of you are just.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
A little bit of traffic from a ten to a two, riding.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Down the road.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh my god, you sure big got.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Of my way.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Ten to two, just like that, not ten and two,
ten to two, just some traffic no cross, no persecution,
no martyrdom, just forty five ten to two like that.
So stun question because it's relative. Who am I comparing
myself to? Oh, I'm a two compared to Holly, Ali's amazing,
(10:09):
Allie's perfect, Allie's wonderful, comparing myself to who I mean
comparing her.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
To who's she? Not Mother Teresa, but she's great.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So you see, I didn't really appreciate the guy saying
you can move to a four from a three if
you just make five minutes a day with the Lord.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I thought that was so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But the real reason that I thought it was so
ridiculous is because it was a room full.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Of people who are believers in Jesus. So why are
we pulling out.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
A scale to try to measure something in our own
minds and our own feelings based on our own experience.
It's based on our own moods. How close are you
to God? It depends if I had my coffee, Yet,
it depends did I open a bill or did I
open a check that was made out to me? Why
(11:00):
are we measuring this on a scale that is subject
to situations and self righteousness? Because I can always find
somebody that I think I'm doing better than when I
belong to Jesus, who already taught me that my relationship
with him is not something.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That is achieved but received. It's a gift. Somebody shouted,
it's a gift.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I know y'all are looking at me funny because I'm
trying to get from a seven to eight. I'm trying
to be a better man. I'm trying to be a
better mom. Good try. I'm trying too. But understand that
there is nothing that you will see on your reel
and put into practice in your life. Some advice that
you will scroll past and finally click with God, and
God will say, oh, I've been waiting.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
For them to get to six. They've been stuck at.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Five point nine. This is not the Olympics, and God
is not watch this. God is a scale. God is
not a religion. God is a person. His name is Jesus,
and I got him.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So I don't mind telling you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Ask me the question, pastor, how close are you to God?
One to ten?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
A ten because of him, because of what he did.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It's a ten because my relationship is not based on
what I did what I didn't do. My relationship with
Him is a covenant. A covenant is not like the
relationships that we run around trying to build our lives
on these days. The covenant that I have with God
(12:50):
is not established based on the principles or the precepts
that I find myself willing or able to obey. No,
I am in covenant with God, God on the basis
of the death of his dear son, who loved me
enough to shed his blood for me on a hill
called Calvary.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And it's a ten high five.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Somebody say, it's a ten. You can put your scale away.
It's a ten. He loves me, you can put your
scale away. It's a ten. He wants to hear me pray.
You can put your scale away. It's a ten. God
wants to hear me sing. I'm singing because He likes
to hear me, not because you like to hear me.
(13:32):
But it's a ten when I say because God hands
me a mike and says, keep singing.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
That's my kid, that's my girl, that's my boy. I
want to hear them praise me. Only they can praise
me for what only I could do for them.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It's a ten hot five. Your neighbor both hands, says say,
I'm in It's a ten. I'm in covenant. I'm in covenant.
I'm in covenant, not contract.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Hey, if I break it, he already bought me.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a ten because of him. It's a ten when
I act like it too.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Nevertheless, the Book of Judges demonstrates to us the unfortunate
reality that we can be in covenant with God and
still in captivity. That seems contradictory. How could you be
in covenant with a God who knows no boundaries but
be in captivity. Last year, I preached to you a
(14:38):
series of messages about one of these rulers that God
raised up to deliver his people, the nation of Israel,
from the hands of a an oppressive enemy called the Midianites.
I don't expect you to remember about the Midianites, but
I do expect you to be honest today to admit.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
That you have your own version of them.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
No.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I love messages when I hear them personally, that first
of all, give me permission to admit my Midianites. If
I can't admit that I'm fighting the battle, how can
I see clearly enough to take the shot? So I
(15:26):
have learned that you know for each and every one
of us. And I'm just going to take my time
today because this message has been building in me for
over a year. So I'm certainly not going to rush
this revelation because I think it's life changing. The idea
that I could be in covenant with God and He
could be completely committed to me, and I could still
be in captivity. While a seeming contradiction on the surface
(15:47):
is an experience that we all know too well, it
is when you know that you are saved by grace
through faith Ephesians two eight and nine. In fact, let
me give you that Ephesians that other Ephesians first, I
meant to show you this a moment to go. I
forgot Ephesians to y'all.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It says, but.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Now in Christ, you who were once far away, have
been brought near by the blood of Christ. So to
be a ten in my relationship with God because of
Him does not mean that there will not be times
in my relationship that I feel too right. And the
(16:29):
reason for this will never be because God's commitment to
me has wavered. What I'm trying to say to you
is you may try to break up with God, but
God won't let you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The Book of Judges proves it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And you know what, some of you don't need the
Book of Judges or a man named Gideon to prove it.
You have spent your whole life stacking evidence for the
fact that you can try to break up with God.
You can flip your middle finger to your faith, and
your faith will still stay inside of you, flicking you back,
(17:13):
even if it's just a little flicker of a flame.
Some of you tried to be a really bad kid,
and all that did, all that you trying to be
a really bad kid did. All that did was make
your mom pray more. What you didn't know even your
bad behavior was your Oh let me say this was
(17:36):
your mom's answered prayer because she was praying for more faith.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So she was praying for more faith.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So God gave her your bad behavior to give her
more faith.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
This is how amazing God is. We don't believe God
is sovereign anymore. We think that.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
There is something we could do to push him back,
and He would go, oh, never mind, can't use you.
I'm looking for a ten. I'm looking for a ten, looking.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
For a ten? Do I have an eye? Can I
get anye?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Can I get an eight.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Can I get a seven?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Twenty twenty four of God might might take a six?
The world is really going downhill. The Lord will really
lower his standards.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
No, look at the verse.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
He says that Efesius two thirteen good news, but now
not when I get it together.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Ephesians two thirteen showing guys. But now put him on
the screen.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
But now I'm shouting now and I'm having to wait.
In Christ, Jesus, you were once far away.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I was. I feel far from God, but I'm not
far from God. I was. Somebody say it with all
three notes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I was put it in a chat right now, I was,
But I was. But the nation of Israel was slipping
away from God, serving other gods, prostating themselves to the
gods of the Canaan culture, and completely disregarding the covenant
(19:13):
they had with Yahweh. Well, the Bible says that these
Midianites were the instruments that God used to bring his
people out of captivity, But they were also what God
used to take them captive.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And that is an interesting dynamic too.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Isn't it that the Lord allowed the Midianites to oppress
his people to bring his people back to him. Now
we know that God uses all things. Even though God
doesn't do all things. God doesn't do evil. But we
have a God who, when evil is done, can use
(19:52):
the transformation process that happens through that evil that was
done in order to bring about His purpose in the
earth for which you were born. And although Midian is
oppressing the Israelites, God is using Midian as well. And
it's so cool how Gideon's name rhymes with Midian in English.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Now this wouldn't work if we.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Were reading it in the original Hebrew, but we don't
know Hebrew, so it works really well for us Gideon
and Midian, and it's a total mismatch.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Midian has all these troops. Midian has all this power.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Every year they come in, they raid the Israelites, they
take their crops, they take everything of value, They plunder
the people. But what are we going to do? We
are powerless to do anything about it. So now we've
got people who are identified as God's special possession being
plundered and feeling powerless. We have got people who have
(20:48):
been identified as God's special possession who are being plundered
and feeling powerless. There are some people listening to me
today who are God's special possession because he bought you
with his blood. You're in It's a ten. You are
his possession, but you are being plundered. The enemy keeps
(21:08):
taking your peace, your joy, your focus, your commitment to service,
and others, even your very sanity. Somebody in this room
feels like you've been going crazy today. But you have
the mind of Christ. But you feel like you're going crazy,
and you feel powerless to do anything about it. To
the point that when we meet Gideon, he is threshing
(21:31):
wheat in a wine press when God calls him a
mighty warrior. This juxtaposition has been preached famously, not only
many times from this little pulpit, but everybody who's picked
up a microphone in a Bible has had something to
say about a God who will call you a warrior
while you're acting like a wimp.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
And this discrepancy when.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
God calls you something that you don't feel like you
are right now, when God calls you to do something
that you don't feel like you have the power to
do right now, when God calls you to be something
that you've never even seen before with your eyes, is
at the heart of the Gideon narrative. Gideon is so
unconvinced about it. He starts asking questions that start with why,
(22:19):
Because when you're in a wine press, which is a
dugout place to hide, you will be so stuck in
why it happened that you will forget about who is
able to deliver you from the situation.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And this is the situation I feel. I preachi for Gideon.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Now the Lord doesn't tell him why all the bad
things have happened. But we know because a prophet has
come to the nation of Israel, and the prophet said,
you have forgotten what I did for you. You have forgotten
the God who brought you out of Egypt.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You have served the gods of the people around you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You have adopted the practices of the pagan nations. You
have even started adopting their god gods as your gods,
not only.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Their practices as your practices.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So that if we look at the life of Israel
in this seven year period that they were oppressed by Midianite,
there is nothing to tell them apart from the nations
that surround them. They have come into a land whose
customs have.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Become their captivity. They have come into a land.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That God gave them and the customs of that land
become their captivity. The Lord says Gideon, I want to
use you to lead a revolt and a revolution. I'm
going to enable you and strengthen you and supply you
and give the enemy into your hand, and you will
(23:44):
strike them all down. And Gideon said me, I'm the
least in my family. My plan is the least in
the nation.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Why me?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
God said, why you couse me? God turns twos into
tens instantly. Only God can do that. Nobody's helping me
preach because y'all don't believe it. You must be the
two God sent me to preach to today. Yeah, God sent.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Me to preach to you because you've been feeling like
a two. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
The beauty of this is God doesn't say, Gideon, I'm
gonna put you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Through a preparation process. This is gonna take three years
to get it done.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
He has actually been preparing Gideon while Gideon has been hidden.
Do you know that God has been preparing you while
you have been hidden too?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Do you know that God has been giving.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You tools, resources, lessons, words, confirmations while you have been
in the cave of what you perceive to be your
abandonment and wasted season.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So he tells Gideon to go.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
He gives Gideon a sign, and we pick up where
I started today. The Angel of the Lord said to Gideon, peace,
do not be afraid. You are not going to die.
Sometimes when God shows up in your life, the first
thing you feel is fear. Feeling close to God is
(25:16):
not always. I'm sorry, Eagles a peaceful, easy feeling.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I love the song, but in my experience.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Sometimes the first thing I feel when God is doing
a work in my life is fear.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I feel safe in the cave or the wine press.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I feel scared when I step out to do the
next thing God has called me to do. And it
amazing that the Angel told him you are not going
to die, and Gideon didn't even ask, am I going
to die? Hmmm, something's happening here. He's preparing Gideon for something.
Gideon is so encouraged.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can you feel it?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He's so encouraged. Wow, God sees me. God's got me.
God's with me. God came to me. God spoke to me.
God gave me a sign.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's him. He is so enthralled by this experience.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
In verse twenty four that impulsively he built an altar
to the Lord verse twenty four there and called it
the Lord is Peace. To this day, it stands in
Oprah of the abs Rights. That's as far as I
got when I preached last year, maybe because that's what
(26:28):
people want to hear of how it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That God is going to bring you closer to Him
and fulfill his purpose for your life. But this is an.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Alter that Gideon decided to build, not one that God commanded.
This alter, while not evil in its own way, was
just his idea to commemorate the moment that he had
with the Angel. He lays down that night, probably feeling
nervous and excited. The Lord told me that I'm gonna
(27:02):
strike down the Midian Ice. It's going to be amazing.
I gotta start getting an army. I gotta start learning
jiu jitsu. I gotta start, you know, whatever. He's doing
to get himself excited about this big battle that is
before him. But that same night verse twenty five, the
Lord said to him, Now, the Lord's already been speaking
to Gideon for a while. It just took Gideon a
(27:23):
while to realize it. But that same night, the Lord
said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd,
the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar
to Bail and cut down the ascher a pole beside it.
Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord,
your God on the top of this height, using the
(27:46):
wood of the ascher a pole that you cut down,
offer the second bull as a burn offering. So let's contrast.
Gideon says, Oh, I'm not gonna die. Let me build
you an altar God. I'm gonna call it the Lord
is Peace, Jehovah Shalom. I'm gonna name this altar the
Lord is Peace. Now I'm gonna go to sleep. It's
(28:08):
been a long day. This has been very traumatic. The
Lord wakes him up and says, your altar was nice,
but there's another altar. Touch your neighbors say, there's another altar.
There's another alter that is built not to Yahweh. It's
look at the wording in verse twenty five. Your father's
(28:29):
alter to bail and while get In is busy trying
to build an altar to God, like I see some
people that I preach to, you're trying to build your
life back.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're trying to build your hope back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You're trying to build your business back, You're trying to
build your family back, you're trying to build your sobriety back.
You had eighty one days and now you're back on
day two. But that's okay because as you are trying
to build it back, God wants to show you something
that will make sure that this time you build it,
what you build will stand the test of the battle
(29:02):
that you face.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Because because if.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
All I do is build an altar while Pastor Stephen
is preaching, and if all I do is say, Okay,
I'm gonna stack some new habits and I'm going to
do some new things, and okay, the Lord is peace.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I found out.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Something that you cannot have God's peace and keep it
without having God's priorities. God's peace without God's priorities is
always temporary. The kind of peace that you've been seeking
(29:42):
in your life, craving in your life, crying out for
in your life, that kind of peace, that permanent piece,
that storm speaking peace that lay your head on the
pillow of a lion's main kind of peace that I'm
in a fire, but I see the fourth man kind
of piece, the kind of peace that can know that
(30:03):
greater is he that is in me than he that
is in the world, And there's more with us than
with them, and I don't have to be afraid about
any of it.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That kind of peace only.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Comes from priorities. I don't know how to get you
to shout about priorities.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Breakthrough, Yeah, priorities.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I couldn't figure out how to make it sexy. I
couldn't figure out how to make a sing I figure.
Maybe if he played organ behind me priorities, maybe that
would trick you into thinking it was really sexier than
it was.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
But any sexy.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Nothing sexy about putting stones on top of stones on
top of stones. And definitely watch this. There is absolutely
nothing convenient or appealing about what God told Gideon to
do next, you know, fighting a battle.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Against an enemy.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well I got testosterone for that, taking an army and
seeing God through the impossible, which Gideon eventually did, by
the way, But before he did that.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
He had to do this.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Take the second bull from your father's heard, the one
seven years old, And this must have been the hardest
thing for Gideon to understand. Tear down your father's altar
to bail Before Gideon can win the battle against Midian.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
He must break the altar to Bail.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You've got a Midian in your life, an external enemy
that you so badly want to see God drive back,
and he can and he will, and he has plans
to do it and to use you in the process,
not just for you, but for everybody that God has
called you to impact.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's all true.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But before you can defeat.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Midian, you must dethrone Bail.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Would it be helpful if I explain to your neighbor
what Bail is? I know you know all about Bail,
but maybe your neighbor doesn't.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
He was the local god.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
It's not even his name, it's his title because Bail
was said to control the fertility and the weather. Without
those two things, you can't eat or recreate. But we
understand Bail isn't real. We understand we have progressed as
(32:59):
a society. We are so advanced, and thank God that
we're alive at this time in the history, because we
no longer trust in stuff that claims to be God.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
But is it?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Wake up, baby, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I didn't start slow because I got nothing to say.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I just want to give you a minute to settle
in for this one. It's not like we have bales
in our culture, right. It's not like we have stuff
that controls.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Us in our culture. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It's not like we're a bunch of zombies in the
zoo of twenty four to seven news cycles telling us
what's gonna happen in.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
The world, when our.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Savior already told us I have overcome the world before
I can feet this army called Midian and have real
peace with God. That's what Gideon said. He said, the
(34:09):
Lord is peace. I'm gonna build an altar, and that's great.
And the Lord is peace. And he does love you,
and he will never leave you nor forsake you. In fact,
he loves you too much to leave you like he
found you. And when God comes into your life, not
only will he break through for you, but the next
(34:31):
thing that happens when God does break through for you
is God will call you to break up with something.
See how much we love to shout about breakthrough, But
what if there's a breakup before the breakthrough? Is that
why you've been feeling restless? Is that why you've been
(34:53):
feeling uncomfortable doing the things you used to do? Is
that why there has been a conviction in your heart that,
you know what, I'm not living like this anymore. You
know what, I'm not talking like this anymore. You know what,
I'm not walking like this anymore. You know what, I'm
not accepting this negativity that comes from my inner critic anymore,
(35:14):
because I need to hear what God says in this
season of my life. Maybe you're in a smashing season
of your own. Maybe there are some things that God
is breaking off of your life in this season.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Maybe there are some bails.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That you have been believing in that have let you down,
and maybe you're going through a breakup with bail. I
was talking to a lady the other day who had
a boyfriend. I said, how's he doing? She said, I
don't know. I quit answering his calls. I said, so,
(36:00):
y'all broke up? She said, I guess. I said, does
he know? And she said he will called ghosting. She's
just gonna ghost ghost the man how goes mad? When
I was a kid, the most cowardly thing you could
(36:21):
do is send somebody else to tell. Not that I
was traumatized by Melissa in fifth grade, but why would
you send Why would you send someone else to tell me.
How do you think it's disrespectful to break up by text?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Raise your hand by text?
Speaker 6 (36:37):
At least? All?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, I think so too, if it's been over two
weeks in the relationship. We'll get into this later, but
here's what I want to say.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Israel has ghosted God.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
When I said earlier you tried to break up with God,
You're like, Nope, nope, didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I did not, you know, like like like what I
meant by that was that you did your a pentagram
on your wall, started listening to Slayer worshiping the devil,
And you know, I think sometimes we just stop answering.
(37:22):
Stay right there, stay right there, and act like I'm
not talking to you.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
All you're doing is proven that you're the one. This
message is for.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Stay right there and act like you're always a ten.
The only reason you're a ten is because he kept
coming to get you. The only reason you're in is
because he kept coming, not because you did like you
always prayed, like you always did it right, like you
(37:49):
always deserved it, like you were always so wonderful, like
you always wrote around.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Singing way maker.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Miracle worker, like you always were kind like you always gave,
like you always forgave. The reason that I didn't break
down is because God wouldn't let me break up with him.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
All Right, I'm gonna tell you a story. I'm gonna
take you a story I canna tell you?
Speaker 7 (38:13):
Ready for it?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Did y'all know Holly tried to break up with me.
She tried to break up with me. Watch this for
the summer, for the summer. This has never been told
from the pulpit. It has only been discussed behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
She looked at me seriously.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
She was really thought this was gonna be something I
was gonna accept as a term of negotiation. She says, well,
you're going to do this this summer, and I'm gonna
do this this summer. What if we just see if
the Lord brings anybody else.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Into our lives? Can you believe I'm telling them this?
Speaker 2 (39:03):
But she's on the front road because I, like God
wouldn't let her.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I always wanted to be God in an illustration. I'm
so far from God in my real life. I just
wanted like for fun, Usually she gets to be the
good one. I'm so happy that I said.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Now you're talking, I know what I gotten I wanted
and I.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Will not.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
God. He didn't leave me like God.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And God feels this way about you, and he loves
you so much that he would let you be in
bondage for a little while rather than let you worship
(40:08):
bail for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Bail is a false God. Bail is a God who
keeps you in bondage.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Bail is a God that you cannot appease even with
human sacrifices. Bail can't make it rain. Ask Jezebel. She
thought Bail could make it happen, but she was wrong.
She had to apologize before she died because she found
out that Bail is not God, and before Gideon could
(40:40):
build an altar to God. Before you can build a
new beginning in your life, before we can get past
this temporary behavior modification that doesn't last ten minutes after
we leave church, there might be something you have to
go home and Drake. If somebody sent you this YouTube link,
(41:01):
they might be breaking up with you, but it might
not be a relationship. Don't go quit your job talking
about I'm smashing my bail onto the I could just
see a kid, you know, Because people like to take
(41:22):
the message and twist it all up. I could see
a kid going home and smack take a baseball bat
to their parents' car. I'm smashing my father's alter to Bail.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I know you're not. You've about to you about to
feel the wrath.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Amazing, he said, Before you can go forward and fight
this battle, I need you to demolish your father's alter
for the purposes of the class that we're having today.
I do not want you to think about your father's
alter as being about what your family taught you Biologically.
That would be too limited, for it was not only
Joe ash that had erected an altar. He was just
(42:03):
the custodian of the cultural corruption. So what God was
really telling Gideon in this passage, what he's really speaking
to us as a New Testament church today, has nothing
to do.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
With the family that you were raised in. It has
to do with the beliefs.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
The belief everybody say, belief, the beliefs that you cherish,
the beliefs that you behave out of the beliefs that
are ingrained in you. The belief the beliefs, that's what
Bail was.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Bail was not just an idol you picture just the object.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
The object was just pointing to the belief behind it,
that we need something other than God to make it rain,
that we need something other than God to give us life,
that we need something other than God to defend us.
How's that working for you? How is your bail doing?
(43:04):
Because you said if you succeeded this much, you would
be happy, and you got success. How did success serve
you when you made it a God? I guarantee you
it left you emptier because more success came with more pressure,
and you found out that there is nothing that can
make you feel full if you are empty without him.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Mm hmmm hm. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
That's what I'm saying smashing Bail's alter. This isn't you
going home and deleting Facebook for a week. It may
include that, but that is not what I'm trying to
achieve by preaching this message. When I say there may
be a breakup with Bail that needs to happen, what
I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going
(43:51):
back to school this week and there are things that
you believed last year. But God has been working on
your heart not only in this message, but in this
season and when you go back to your school in
a few days, or if you've already gone back to school,
when you walk in tomorrow. You walk in, and after
(44:14):
a while people notice that you are not as easily
drawn to and seduced by the things that you were
drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in
a previous season.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
And they begin to say things to.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
You like you've changed, you're different. Maybe they even make
it a little bit meaner. And they start calling you
names because you won't have sex, and they start leaving
you out because you won't go places.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
And you have the audacity, Gideon, to.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Look at them and say, yeah, I know I look
a little different, and I know I act a little different,
And it's not that I'm better than you, but it's
just that something happened to me over the summer that
I don't know if I told you about this, but
I've been through a break up. Me and Bail broke up.
(45:11):
I decided he wasn't doing it for me. I decided
that living to be popular was costing me too much
peace ma I decided that living for pleasure cost me
too much paint. On the other side, I decided that
not having God's priorities. Men, I can't have God's peace.
(45:35):
So y'all be anxious. If you gotta be anxious, y'all
be crazy. If you got to be crazy, y'all be hateful.
If you gotta be hateful, y'all call me what y'all
gotta call me.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
But the one who called me is more important than you. Haddah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
High five of your neighbors say, I'm breaking up with Bail,
so I might not look the same next time you
see me. Use I'm gonna be going through a breakup,
and it might be a painful breakup, and I may
have to relearn some things, and I may have to
be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some
nice but I'm determined to see this through. Why because
(46:16):
after the breakup there will be a breakthrough.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Get happy because I'm gonna cry for a little while.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
But we've been may endure for a night.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
But high five your neighbors say, after the breakup, when the.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Sun came up, When the sun came up, when the
sun came up, there it was the altar of fan demolished,
the pieces broken to pieces, sash the basis, find the
power oh God, hot pot ten. People say I'm a
(47:10):
tam right now, I'm a tin right now.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I'm all Sein right now?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
Who almost said I'm all him?
Speaker 5 (47:21):
How thoughts you are too hollahs. But me and God
got back together?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
How how whoa? That's why I'm president sow whoa? How good?
You are falling apart?
Speaker 5 (47:47):
Hollow?
Speaker 1 (47:50):
But me and God.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
In fact, I'm not even telling Bail myself. That's gonna
send him a message. Why are you breaking up with
me because you're not God? Stop thinking this is a
marriage seminar. I'm not talking about a divorce from your spouse.
(48:16):
I'm talking about a divorce from your belief system that
is keeping you stuck. You might have a better spouse
if you had a different belief system about marriage, and.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
It might not even be a different one.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
So before you take the bat to the marriage, take
the bat to Bail.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
And all of that. I was gonna preach to you
all of.
Speaker 8 (48:44):
That, and then I realized it wasn't about that alter.
It was about what was on it.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Read it with me.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I'm almost done. Don't even sit back down. Put the
pressure on me to be expedient and concise. By standing
on your feet he said, I want you to tear
down your father's altar, the one to bail, the cultural
crap that you keep doing. I want you to clear
(49:22):
your algorithm this week for what you think is a
normal attitude. I want you to I want you to
smash that so that I can do something amazing through you.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
That's what this is about. In your life.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
You think every season of breaking is contrary to the
season of blessing.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
But after the breakup there's always breakthrough. Well, no breakup,
no breakthrough. You will keep.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Going back to bail, and you know what you'll do.
You will blame it on Midian You will keep thinking
the the problem is what is against you that you
can see. But the problem isn't what I can see
that's against me. It's what I keep abandoning that is
within me.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Because greater is He.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I don't know who this is for, but this thing
is burning a hole in me today. It is not
the Midianites to keep defeating you. It is not the
addiction itself. It is the altar to bail that keeps
you believing that you need something other than God.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
And the Lord.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Challenged me to read this scripture again and again, and
I said, okay. God, he got up and he built
a new altar, and he tore down the altar to Bail.
I begin to study about the altar the proper, because.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
In verse twenty six it says, build a proper kind
of altar to the Lord, your God.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
What is the proper altar that you would build?
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well, it was uncut stone so that no human hand
could defile it. It was piled up and made ready
for the sacrifice, because the altar was a place to die.
But then I realized that there was one altar that
was smashed the next morning, and there was one altar
that was standing. But the thing that made the altar
proper was not what it was made of, as.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Much as what was on it.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
The Lord told Gideon, get a bull from your father's
heard a bull was a common sacrifice. So far we
see no real revelation as to what needs to happen next,
but there is significance in this detail. The second bull,
(51:45):
the one seven years old, smash the altar to Bail,
build the altar to God. And after you have taken
the asherah poll which was an idolatry.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And you put the second bull as a burnt offering
wait a minute, The bull is not random in this passage.
The bull.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Represents Bail, not just because they sound alike, but all
of the false gods of the Canaanites had mascots.
Speaker 7 (52:34):
For Astrarah, who was their sex god, the mascot was
a pole, But for Bail, who was the weather in
fertility god, the mascot was a bull. So when the
Lord told Gideon, I want you to take the bull
(52:55):
on the altar that you build to God and smash
the altar that your father built to Bail, what God
was saying is I want you to believe Me more
than you believe Bail.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
And it is very.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Simple to say, but very hard to apply, because the
enemy will lie to you and lie to you, and
lie to you and feed you with beliefs about the
way things are, about what is important, about what really matters.
He will feed you as much bull as you will
listen to. But the Lord said, today is the day
(53:42):
for you to put the bull on the altar.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
You hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You hear what I'm saying online, touch your neighbors, say,
put the bull on the altar. Every lie you've believed,
every stronghold you've exceed every.
Speaker 1 (54:01):
False god you worshiped. Put the bull on the altar.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
As long as we keep building altars to things that
we ought to let die, we will be in covenant
with God, but be in captivity in life.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
You have got to put the bull.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
On the altar. I mean, they're playing slow music behind me,
but I feel like I'm really preaching. Every time the
devil lies to you, put that bull on the altar.
Every time he tells you you're insignificant because you're not famous.
Put that bull on the altar every time he starts
trying to tell you and attict is all you'll ever be.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
Put that bull on the altar. Whom the sun sets
free is free.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Indeed, put that bull on the altar. I heard about
a basketball game where Michael Jordan scored sixty nine points
in the game.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
There was a rookie who was interviewed after the game.
Speaker 7 (55:04):
It was his.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
First game in the NBA. This was nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
They said, what are your comments on your first game
in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
And he said boldly, I'll always.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
Remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I
combined to score seventy points. He said that because when
you're connected to the right one.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
I'm not talking about a bull. Now, I'm not talking
about a bull.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
I'm talking about the spotless, perfect lamb of God. Slay
from the foundation.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Wah.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
So the Lord says to get in. You are not
going to die. But there are some lies that you
have believed that must die so you can live. There
are some lies that you have believed that must die
so you can live.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
There are some lies you have believed that must die
so you can live. What that bull on the altar.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Stop thinking that there's something that will fulfill you or
complete you outside of God.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
There is nothing. It's nobody else's job to complete you.
It's nobody else's job to fulfill you. It's nobody else's
job to make you happy. That's God's job. Let him
do it. Build a proper altar.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
Let God fill those deep places in your life. And
remember this that there is nothing you can do that
would separate Him from you. Every time the devil tells
you you're too far gone. Now, remember you serve a
God who can make a two to ten by his blood,
(57:03):
and me and Michael Jordan can score seventy points together
on a single night, and God can use you to deliver,
and God can use you to be a blessing, and
God can use you to give wisdom, and God can
use you to build it up, and God can use
you to tear it down. But it's going to be
because of Him. And when they investigated in the daylight
(57:25):
to see who had done it in the night, they said,
Gideon did it.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Gideon. Isn't he the one who was hiding in the
wine press? I like to imagine at that moment Gideon says, yeah,
I was.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
But me and God God back together, and we have this.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
Ministry of reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
I know what you've done alone, and I know what
you've done in your own strength, and so do you.
I know that bail has failed you. He fails all
of us. I know how your faults, bail leafs, have
led you to a place of codependency with substance. Mail
always does that. I know how thinking that somebody needs
to approve you before you can be worthy of love
has left you running drinking salt water in an ocean
(58:19):
that you're.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
Already drowning in. That's what bail always does. Break that alter, break.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
That altar, Delete every opinion that tells you what a
young lady is supposed to be like. And ask your
father what a woman of God looks like. And put
your virtue on and where your values proudly. And when
they say you don't post no more, tell him Yeah.
Me and Bail broke up, and me and God got
back together.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
That altar is gone.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I'm ant worship at it another day. I want you
to grab the hand of the person next to you
because they're in a battle right now.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
They're in a breakup right now. Now stand through your feet. Everybody.
I thought y'all were standing.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
I was preaching so hard. Only ten percent was the
front road. Fooled me again. Squeeze their hand right now,
because they're in a battle. Squeeze their hand because they're
in a battle. I want you to squeeze their hand
to let them know you didn't die. That's how you
know that the covenant keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and
(59:25):
Jacob is with you too. Even though it was seven
years of sin. Isn't it weird that the Bible said
Graham it was a seven year old bull, which was
the exact length of time they had been in captivity.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
It was the bull that kept them in bondage.
Speaker 2 (59:43):
You can be free the moment you come into agreement
with God what he says about you. So you can
be free from the moment that you decide there is
no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus
cuts through Christ. Jesus the low spirital life. Set me
free from the lost, sin and death. You don't have
to stay in this another seven years. You can be
free the moment you believe. Put that bull on the altar,
(01:00:09):
by a new bull. Believe you believe in him, you
will be saved. And right now there's somebody in this
room who needs this message as a matter of life
and death.
Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You're not gonna die. You're not gonna die.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
But Thomas said, I would have despaired unless I believe
that I would see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living. You're gonna see it. But
there's some altars you've been running to in the land
that you've been occupying, that have been keeping you from
being the person God sees.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
But you're a warrior in this wine press, always have been.
Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
He knows there's a better you. He loved me like
I was, but he didn't leave me like I was Lord,
I thank you that you loved me like I was.
You didn't see me as a two.
Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
You turn me to a ten.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Woo. I get grateful when I think about your grace.
I don't have to think about my car. I appreciate it,
my house, I love it. I don't have to think
about any of these things, just to say thank you
for your grace.
Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Lord. Why don't you pray that thank you for your grace? Lord?
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
I thank you that all I have to do to
be closer to you is believe that you're already here.
Like that angel was staring at Gideon, and Gideon finally
realized it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Maybe today is today we finally.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Realize that the lies belong on the altar before your presence. God,
I ask you to set your people free today.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Now drop the hand, but keep your head bout in
your eyes closed, no one moving around.
Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
There's somebody in this place who needs to give their
life to Jesus Christ today. When you do, you don't
go from a one to a two and spend the
rest of your life going three, four, five, six.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Seven, eight, nine, ten.
Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
You don't start perform and God will see if you
can really do a triple double Somersault split spiritually the
God we Sir said, I will not only give you
the grace, but I will give you the faith to believe.
So right now, if you know that today is your
day and God is calling you to bring your life
to his altar, I want to lead you in a prayer.
(01:02:20):
This prayer is an expression of faith, believing in what
Jesus has already done for you. And if you're ready
today to repent of your sin and make Jesus the
Lord of your life, I want you to repeat after me.
We're all praying this out loud for the benefit of
those who are coming to God or back to God.
Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation.
(01:02:46):
I am a sinner in need of a savior.
Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior
of the world.
Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
And today make Jesus the Lord of my life. I
believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose
again to give me life, and I receive this new life.
Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
This is my new beginning. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I thought you were going down, but you're not anymore.
Howa flathose hands and give God praid. He didn't lead
me where I was like I was, and I believe,
(00:48):
somebody shout, I believe that I'm not leaving like I came.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Today, It's time for the Word of God. Put your hands.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Together and welcome Ebath all around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Into the Word of God. This word that God gave
me today. He began to speak to me on March seventh,
twenty twenty three, and it has taken me that long
to figure out how to share it with you. Today,
the Lord has released me to share it. I'm thankful
(01:27):
and excited and expected about the implications to your life.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
In Judges chapter.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Six, verse twenty two through twenty nine, there is an
encounter with God between the Angel of the Lord and
a man named Gideon, and the Bible says in verse
twenty two, when Gideon realized that it was the Angel
of the Lord, he exclaimed, a last sovereign Lord, I
(01:55):
have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.
But the Lord said to him, peace, do not be afraid.
You are not going to die. That's a good thing.
Oh he's good to know. And I'll explain why he
said that in a moment. But look at what the
(02:19):
Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid, you
are not going to die. So Gideon built an altar
to the Lord there and called it the Lord is Peace.
To this day, it stands in Ophrah of the Abiez Rites.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Now, that same night.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The Lord said to him, take the second bull from
your father's herd, the one seven years old.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Tear down your father's alter.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
To bail and cut down the ascheropole beside it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Then build a proper kind.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Of altar to the Lord, your God, on the top
of this height, using the wood of the asheropole that
you cut down, offer the second bull as a burn offering.
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as
the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of
his family and the townspeople. He did it at night
(03:14):
rather than in the daytime. Now you call him a whimp,
I call him wise. He did it how he had
to do it, And sometimes you do man. Sometimes you
have to sneak in those victories at midnight. It's not
always going to be some huge triumph and amazing things.
Sometimes the victory is going to be that you made
it through the night and you woke up the next
(03:34):
day and you got to learn to praise God because
of those two. So look what happened in the morning,
verse twenty eight. When the people of the town got up.
There was Bale's altar demolished, with the Ashero pole beside
it cut down in the second bull sacrificed on the
newly built altar.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Last verse for now, verse twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
They asked each other who did this. When they carefully investigated,
they were told, Gideon, son of Joe Ash did it. Gideon,
son of Joe Ash did it. Now I want to
speak to you from this subject today. I want to
(04:18):
talk to you about breaking the bondage of wrong belief.
Breaking the bondage of wrong belief. And that's not one
of those titles you can say to your neighbor. So
let me give you a say to your neighbor.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Title.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, I know I
look a little different. I know I got a little
extra pep in my style. Tell them I know I'm
smiling more than the last time you saw me. But
it's because me and God got back together. Yeah, me
(05:01):
and God got back together. You may be seated. Me
and God got back together. Thank you Lord for this word.
I know he meant well, but I completely disagreed with
his method. The preacher stood before a room full of
professing Christians and asked a question, on a scale of
(05:25):
one to ten, how close would you say you are
to God right now? I gave him ten minutes, twenty minutes,
thirty minutes benefit of the doubt, even to the end
of his message, because I just knew that he wasn't
going to give the people a scale to determine how
(05:46):
close they were to God.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yet he did.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I was waiting for the twist where he talked about
the grace of God. And you know in the Bible,
this one man prayed and he said, Lord, I thank
you that I'm not like this. Enter over here praying
next to me, and the sinner was beating his breast, saying,
God have mercy on me. And Jesus said, the one
that beat his breast was the one that went home
justified because he had faith to believe that he needed God.
(06:11):
And the one who thought he was so great, he
wasn't so great because he was actually not close to
the kingdom. But the preacher didn't do that, he continued.
I asked Holly if she remembered it, and she remembered
it too. Simon, just make this up to tell the
people everything they could do. Watch this to move from
a four to a five. You know, there's there's this
(06:32):
big line, this linear approach to knowing the Lord. And
you can go from four to five if you read
the Bible daily, you go from four to six if
you make it through the Book of Leviticus bonus point
for certain Bible books. And he goes through everything that
you can do to.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Get closer to God.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now here's why I thought that the exercise was ridiculous
respect to the person doing it, because I've done some
ridiculous things and I'll probably say something ridiculous in here,
and then I get up in ten years and tell
you it was ridiculous. I'll tell on myself. It's ridiculous
because it's relative how close are you to God right
(07:17):
now compared to what compared to Jesus, who always knew
the will of his father, who is supposed to be
my standard. So if we're going by that, I'm staying
zero until I die and compared to who I mean.
(07:38):
I just don't even think the question is like you
can rate a restaurant? Can you relate a rate rather
a relationship with the eternal God who's spoke into nothing
and there was something with the invisible God who exists, immortal,
not seen to humanize, but known by the spirit, not
by the flesh.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I can't rate something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
That's another thing is not only is it relative how
close you are to God compared to what you think
other people might be praying or doing or whatever, because
you don't really know what the other people around you
are like, and you judge yourself off of your delusions
of them.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's kind of dumb. But also also I.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Didn't think it was a very good exercise because of
something called recency bias.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Do you know what recency bias is?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's when the last thing that happens carries the most
weight with you, and you judge an entire thing off
of the most recent thing that happened. So you begin
to kind of act like the way it is right
now is the way that it always is.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And the way that it always was. But it's not true.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And what I'm really trying to say, I guess I'm
using fancy language to say that if you answer that
question at a time i'm close to God, I'm a ten.
It wouldn't really take that much to put you at
a two. I can't figure out what happened to my church,
because my church used to be real and honest.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But I'm looking at a bunch of tens today. Okay, ten.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
There are days where at ten am you are a ten.
But if I caught up with you at two, because
at two you've had to deal with some people, and
it can move you right back down the scale. Some
of you are one text away from going from ten
(09:36):
to two.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Some of you are just.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
A little bit of traffic from a ten to a two, riding.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Down the road.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh my god, you sure big got.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Of my way.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Ten to two, just like that, not ten and two,
ten to two, just some traffic no cross, no persecution,
no martyrdom, just forty five ten to two like that.
So stun question because it's relative. Who am I comparing
myself to? Oh, I'm a two compared to Holly, Ali's amazing,
(10:09):
Allie's perfect, Allie's wonderful, comparing myself to who I mean
comparing her.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
To who's she? Not Mother Teresa, but she's great.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So you see, I didn't really appreciate the guy saying
you can move to a four from a three if
you just make five minutes a day with the Lord.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I thought that was so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But the real reason that I thought it was so
ridiculous is because it was a room full.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Of people who are believers in Jesus. So why are
we pulling out.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
A scale to try to measure something in our own
minds and our own feelings based on our own experience.
It's based on our own moods. How close are you
to God? It depends if I had my coffee, Yet,
it depends did I open a bill or did I
open a check that was made out to me? Why
(11:00):
are we measuring this on a scale that is subject
to situations and self righteousness? Because I can always find
somebody that I think I'm doing better than when I
belong to Jesus, who already taught me that my relationship
with him is not something.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That is achieved but received. It's a gift. Somebody shouted,
it's a gift.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I know y'all are looking at me funny because I'm
trying to get from a seven to eight. I'm trying
to be a better man. I'm trying to be a
better mom. Good try. I'm trying too. But understand that
there is nothing that you will see on your reel
and put into practice in your life. Some advice that
you will scroll past and finally click with God, and
God will say, oh, I've been waiting.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
For them to get to six. They've been stuck at.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Five point nine. This is not the Olympics, and God
is not watch this. God is a scale. God is
not a religion. God is a person. His name is Jesus,
and I got him.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So I don't mind telling you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Ask me the question, pastor, how close are you to God?
One to ten?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
A ten because of him, because of what he did.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It's a ten because my relationship is not based on
what I did what I didn't do. My relationship with
Him is a covenant. A covenant is not like the
relationships that we run around trying to build our lives
on these days. The covenant that I have with God
(12:50):
is not established based on the principles or the precepts
that I find myself willing or able to obey. No,
I am in covenant with God, God on the basis
of the death of his dear son, who loved me
enough to shed his blood for me on a hill
called Calvary.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And it's a ten high five.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Somebody say, it's a ten. You can put your scale away.
It's a ten. He loves me, you can put your
scale away. It's a ten. He wants to hear me pray.
You can put your scale away. It's a ten. God
wants to hear me sing. I'm singing because He likes
to hear me, not because you like to hear me.
(13:32):
But it's a ten when I say because God hands
me a mike and says, keep singing.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
That's my kid, that's my girl, that's my boy. I
want to hear them praise me. Only they can praise
me for what only I could do for them.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It's a ten hot five. Your neighbor both hands, says say,
I'm in It's a ten. I'm in covenant. I'm in covenant.
I'm in covenant, not contract.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Hey, if I break it, he already bought me.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a ten because of him. It's a ten when
I act like it too.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Nevertheless, the Book of Judges demonstrates to us the unfortunate
reality that we can be in covenant with God and
still in captivity. That seems contradictory. How could you be
in covenant with a God who knows no boundaries but
be in captivity. Last year, I preached to you a
(14:38):
series of messages about one of these rulers that God
raised up to deliver his people, the nation of Israel,
from the hands of a an oppressive enemy called the Midianites.
I don't expect you to remember about the Midianites, but
I do expect you to be honest today to admit.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
That you have your own version of them.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
No.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I love messages when I hear them personally, that first
of all, give me permission to admit my Midianites. If
I can't admit that I'm fighting the battle, how can
I see clearly enough to take the shot? So I
(15:26):
have learned that you know for each and every one
of us. And I'm just going to take my time
today because this message has been building in me for
over a year. So I'm certainly not going to rush
this revelation because I think it's life changing. The idea
that I could be in covenant with God and He
could be completely committed to me, and I could still
be in captivity. While a seeming contradiction on the surface
(15:47):
is an experience that we all know too well, it
is when you know that you are saved by grace
through faith Ephesians two eight and nine. In fact, let
me give you that Ephesians that other Ephesians first, I
meant to show you this a moment to go. I
forgot Ephesians to y'all.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It says, but.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Now in Christ, you who were once far away, have
been brought near by the blood of Christ. So to
be a ten in my relationship with God because of
Him does not mean that there will not be times
in my relationship that I feel too right. And the
(16:29):
reason for this will never be because God's commitment to
me has wavered. What I'm trying to say to you
is you may try to break up with God, but
God won't let you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The Book of Judges proves it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And you know what, some of you don't need the
Book of Judges or a man named Gideon to prove it.
You have spent your whole life stacking evidence for the
fact that you can try to break up with God.
You can flip your middle finger to your faith, and
your faith will still stay inside of you, flicking you back,
(17:13):
even if it's just a little flicker of a flame.
Some of you tried to be a really bad kid,
and all that did, all that you trying to be
a really bad kid did. All that did was make
your mom pray more. What you didn't know even your
bad behavior was your Oh let me say this was
(17:36):
your mom's answered prayer because she was praying for more faith.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So she was praying for more faith.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So God gave her your bad behavior to give her
more faith.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
This is how amazing God is. We don't believe God
is sovereign anymore. We think that.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
There is something we could do to push him back,
and He would go, oh, never mind, can't use you.
I'm looking for a ten. I'm looking for a ten, looking.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
For a ten? Do I have an eye? Can I
get anye?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Can I get an eight.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Can I get a seven?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Twenty twenty four of God might might take a six?
The world is really going downhill. The Lord will really
lower his standards.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
No, look at the verse.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
He says that Efesius two thirteen good news, but now
not when I get it together.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Ephesians two thirteen showing guys. But now put him on
the screen.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
But now I'm shouting now and I'm having to wait.
In Christ, Jesus, you were once far away.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I was. I feel far from God, but I'm not
far from God. I was. Somebody say it with all
three notes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I was put it in a chat right now, I was,
But I was. But the nation of Israel was slipping
away from God, serving other gods, prostating themselves to the
gods of the Canaan culture, and completely disregarding the covenant
(19:13):
they had with Yahweh. Well, the Bible says that these
Midianites were the instruments that God used to bring his
people out of captivity, But they were also what God
used to take them captive.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And that is an interesting dynamic too.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Isn't it that the Lord allowed the Midianites to oppress
his people to bring his people back to him. Now
we know that God uses all things. Even though God
doesn't do all things. God doesn't do evil. But we
have a God who, when evil is done, can use
(19:52):
the transformation process that happens through that evil that was
done in order to bring about His purpose in the
earth for which you were born. And although Midian is
oppressing the Israelites, God is using Midian as well. And
it's so cool how Gideon's name rhymes with Midian in English.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Now this wouldn't work if we.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Were reading it in the original Hebrew, but we don't
know Hebrew, so it works really well for us Gideon
and Midian, and it's a total mismatch.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Midian has all these troops. Midian has all this power.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Every year they come in, they raid the Israelites, they
take their crops, they take everything of value, They plunder
the people. But what are we going to do? We
are powerless to do anything about it. So now we've
got people who are identified as God's special possession being
plundered and feeling powerless. We have got people who have
(20:48):
been identified as God's special possession who are being plundered
and feeling powerless. There are some people listening to me
today who are God's special possession because he bought you
with his blood. You're in It's a ten. You are
his possession, but you are being plundered. The enemy keeps
(21:08):
taking your peace, your joy, your focus, your commitment to service,
and others, even your very sanity. Somebody in this room
feels like you've been going crazy today. But you have
the mind of Christ. But you feel like you're going crazy,
and you feel powerless to do anything about it. To
the point that when we meet Gideon, he is threshing
(21:31):
wheat in a wine press when God calls him a
mighty warrior. This juxtaposition has been preached famously, not only
many times from this little pulpit, but everybody who's picked
up a microphone in a Bible has had something to
say about a God who will call you a warrior
while you're acting like a wimp.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
And this discrepancy when.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
God calls you something that you don't feel like you
are right now, when God calls you to do something
that you don't feel like you have the power to
do right now, when God calls you to be something
that you've never even seen before with your eyes, is
at the heart of the Gideon narrative. Gideon is so
unconvinced about it. He starts asking questions that start with why,
(22:19):
Because when you're in a wine press, which is a
dugout place to hide, you will be so stuck in
why it happened that you will forget about who is
able to deliver you from the situation.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And this is the situation I feel. I preachi for Gideon.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Now the Lord doesn't tell him why all the bad
things have happened. But we know because a prophet has
come to the nation of Israel, and the prophet said,
you have forgotten what I did for you. You have forgotten
the God who brought you out of Egypt.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You have served the gods of the people around you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You have adopted the practices of the pagan nations. You
have even started adopting their god gods as your gods,
not only.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Their practices as your practices.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So that if we look at the life of Israel
in this seven year period that they were oppressed by Midianite,
there is nothing to tell them apart from the nations
that surround them. They have come into a land whose
customs have.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Become their captivity. They have come into a land.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That God gave them and the customs of that land
become their captivity. The Lord says Gideon, I want to
use you to lead a revolt and a revolution. I'm
going to enable you and strengthen you and supply you
and give the enemy into your hand, and you will
(23:44):
strike them all down. And Gideon said me, I'm the
least in my family. My plan is the least in
the nation.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Why me?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
God said, why you couse me? God turns twos into
tens instantly. Only God can do that. Nobody's helping me
preach because y'all don't believe it. You must be the
two God sent me to preach to today. Yeah, God sent.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Me to preach to you because you've been feeling like
a two. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
The beauty of this is God doesn't say, Gideon, I'm
gonna put you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Through a preparation process. This is gonna take three years
to get it done.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
He has actually been preparing Gideon while Gideon has been hidden.
Do you know that God has been preparing you while
you have been hidden too?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Do you know that God has been giving.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You tools, resources, lessons, words, confirmations while you have been
in the cave of what you perceive to be your
abandonment and wasted season.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So he tells Gideon to go.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
He gives Gideon a sign, and we pick up where
I started today. The Angel of the Lord said to Gideon, peace,
do not be afraid. You are not going to die.
Sometimes when God shows up in your life, the first
thing you feel is fear. Feeling close to God is
(25:16):
not always. I'm sorry, Eagles a peaceful, easy feeling.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I love the song, but in my experience.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Sometimes the first thing I feel when God is doing
a work in my life is fear.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I feel safe in the cave or the wine press.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I feel scared when I step out to do the
next thing God has called me to do. And it
amazing that the Angel told him you are not going
to die, and Gideon didn't even ask, am I going
to die? Hmmm, something's happening here. He's preparing Gideon for something.
Gideon is so encouraged.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can you feel it?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He's so encouraged. Wow, God sees me. God's got me.
God's with me. God came to me. God spoke to me.
God gave me a sign.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's him. He is so enthralled by this experience.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
In verse twenty four that impulsively he built an altar
to the Lord verse twenty four there and called it
the Lord is Peace. To this day, it stands in
Oprah of the abs Rights. That's as far as I
got when I preached last year, maybe because that's what
(26:28):
people want to hear of how it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That God is going to bring you closer to Him
and fulfill his purpose for your life. But this is an.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Alter that Gideon decided to build, not one that God commanded.
This alter, while not evil in its own way, was
just his idea to commemorate the moment that he had
with the Angel. He lays down that night, probably feeling
nervous and excited. The Lord told me that I'm gonna
(27:02):
strike down the Midian Ice. It's going to be amazing.
I gotta start getting an army. I gotta start learning
jiu jitsu. I gotta start, you know, whatever. He's doing
to get himself excited about this big battle that is
before him. But that same night verse twenty five, the
Lord said to him, Now, the Lord's already been speaking
to Gideon for a while. It just took Gideon a
(27:23):
while to realize it. But that same night, the Lord
said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd,
the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar
to Bail and cut down the ascher a pole beside it.
Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord,
your God on the top of this height, using the
(27:46):
wood of the ascher a pole that you cut down,
offer the second bull as a burn offering. So let's contrast.
Gideon says, Oh, I'm not gonna die. Let me build
you an altar God. I'm gonna call it the Lord
is Peace, Jehovah Shalom. I'm gonna name this altar the
Lord is Peace. Now I'm gonna go to sleep. It's
(28:08):
been a long day. This has been very traumatic. The
Lord wakes him up and says, your altar was nice,
but there's another altar. Touch your neighbors say, there's another altar.
There's another alter that is built not to Yahweh. It's
look at the wording in verse twenty five. Your father's
(28:29):
alter to bail and while get In is busy trying
to build an altar to God, like I see some
people that I preach to, you're trying to build your
life back.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're trying to build your hope back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You're trying to build your business back, You're trying to
build your family back, you're trying to build your sobriety back.
You had eighty one days and now you're back on
day two. But that's okay because as you are trying
to build it back, God wants to show you something
that will make sure that this time you build it,
what you build will stand the test of the battle
(29:02):
that you face.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Because because if.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
All I do is build an altar while Pastor Stephen
is preaching, and if all I do is say, Okay,
I'm gonna stack some new habits and I'm going to
do some new things, and okay, the Lord is peace.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I found out.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Something that you cannot have God's peace and keep it
without having God's priorities. God's peace without God's priorities is
always temporary. The kind of peace that you've been seeking
(29:42):
in your life, craving in your life, crying out for
in your life, that kind of peace, that permanent piece,
that storm speaking peace that lay your head on the
pillow of a lion's main kind of peace that I'm
in a fire, but I see the fourth man kind
of piece, the kind of peace that can know that
(30:03):
greater is he that is in me than he that
is in the world, And there's more with us than
with them, and I don't have to be afraid about
any of it.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That kind of peace only.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Comes from priorities. I don't know how to get you
to shout about priorities.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Breakthrough, Yeah, priorities.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I couldn't figure out how to make it sexy. I
couldn't figure out how to make a sing I figure.
Maybe if he played organ behind me priorities, maybe that
would trick you into thinking it was really sexier than
it was.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
But any sexy.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Nothing sexy about putting stones on top of stones on
top of stones. And definitely watch this. There is absolutely
nothing convenient or appealing about what God told Gideon to
do next, you know, fighting a battle.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Against an enemy.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well I got testosterone for that, taking an army and
seeing God through the impossible, which Gideon eventually did, by
the way, But before he did that.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
He had to do this.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Take the second bull from your father's heard, the one
seven years old, And this must have been the hardest
thing for Gideon to understand. Tear down your father's altar
to bail Before Gideon can win the battle against Midian.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
He must break the altar to Bail.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You've got a Midian in your life, an external enemy
that you so badly want to see God drive back,
and he can and he will, and he has plans
to do it and to use you in the process,
not just for you, but for everybody that God has
called you to impact.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's all true.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But before you can defeat.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Midian, you must dethrone Bail.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Would it be helpful if I explain to your neighbor
what Bail is? I know you know all about Bail,
but maybe your neighbor doesn't.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
He was the local god.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
It's not even his name, it's his title because Bail
was said to control the fertility and the weather. Without
those two things, you can't eat or recreate. But we
understand Bail isn't real. We understand we have progressed as
(32:59):
a society. We are so advanced, and thank God that
we're alive at this time in the history, because we
no longer trust in stuff that claims to be God.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
But is it?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Wake up, baby, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I didn't start slow because I got nothing to say.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I just want to give you a minute to settle
in for this one. It's not like we have bales
in our culture, right. It's not like we have stuff
that controls.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Us in our culture. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It's not like we're a bunch of zombies in the
zoo of twenty four to seven news cycles telling us
what's gonna happen in.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
The world, when our.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Savior already told us I have overcome the world before
I can feet this army called Midian and have real
peace with God. That's what Gideon said. He said, the
(34:09):
Lord is peace. I'm gonna build an altar, and that's great.
And the Lord is peace. And he does love you,
and he will never leave you nor forsake you. In fact,
he loves you too much to leave you like he
found you. And when God comes into your life, not
only will he break through for you, but the next
(34:31):
thing that happens when God does break through for you
is God will call you to break up with something.
See how much we love to shout about breakthrough, But
what if there's a breakup before the breakthrough? Is that
why you've been feeling restless? Is that why you've been
(34:53):
feeling uncomfortable doing the things you used to do? Is
that why there has been a conviction in your heart that,
you know what, I'm not living like this anymore. You
know what, I'm not talking like this anymore. You know what,
I'm not walking like this anymore. You know what, I'm
not accepting this negativity that comes from my inner critic anymore,
(35:14):
because I need to hear what God says in this
season of my life. Maybe you're in a smashing season
of your own. Maybe there are some things that God
is breaking off of your life in this season.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Maybe there are some bails.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That you have been believing in that have let you down,
and maybe you're going through a breakup with bail. I
was talking to a lady the other day who had
a boyfriend. I said, how's he doing? She said, I
don't know. I quit answering his calls. I said, so,
(36:00):
y'all broke up? She said, I guess. I said, does
he know? And she said he will called ghosting. She's
just gonna ghost ghost the man how goes mad? When
I was a kid, the most cowardly thing you could
(36:21):
do is send somebody else to tell. Not that I
was traumatized by Melissa in fifth grade, but why would
you send Why would you send someone else to tell me.
How do you think it's disrespectful to break up by text?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Raise your hand by text?
Speaker 6 (36:37):
At least? All?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, I think so too, if it's been over two
weeks in the relationship. We'll get into this later, but
here's what I want to say.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Israel has ghosted God.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
When I said earlier you tried to break up with God,
You're like, Nope, nope, didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I did not, you know, like like like what I
meant by that was that you did your a pentagram
on your wall, started listening to Slayer worshiping the devil,
And you know, I think sometimes we just stop answering.
(37:22):
Stay right there, stay right there, and act like I'm
not talking to you.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
All you're doing is proven that you're the one. This
message is for.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Stay right there and act like you're always a ten.
The only reason you're a ten is because he kept
coming to get you. The only reason you're in is
because he kept coming, not because you did like you
always prayed, like you always did it right, like you
(37:49):
always deserved it, like you were always so wonderful, like
you always wrote around.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Singing way maker.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Miracle worker, like you always were kind like you always gave,
like you always forgave. The reason that I didn't break
down is because God wouldn't let me break up with him.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
All Right, I'm gonna tell you a story. I'm gonna
take you a story I canna tell you?
Speaker 7 (38:13):
Ready for it?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Did y'all know Holly tried to break up with me.
She tried to break up with me. Watch this for
the summer, for the summer. This has never been told
from the pulpit. It has only been discussed behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
She looked at me seriously.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
She was really thought this was gonna be something I
was gonna accept as a term of negotiation. She says, well,
you're going to do this this summer, and I'm gonna
do this this summer. What if we just see if
the Lord brings anybody else.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Into our lives? Can you believe I'm telling them this?
Speaker 2 (39:03):
But she's on the front road because I, like God
wouldn't let her.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I always wanted to be God in an illustration. I'm
so far from God in my real life. I just
wanted like for fun, Usually she gets to be the
good one. I'm so happy that I said.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Now you're talking, I know what I gotten I wanted
and I.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Will not.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
God. He didn't leave me like God.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And God feels this way about you, and he loves
you so much that he would let you be in
bondage for a little while rather than let you worship
(40:08):
bail for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Bail is a false God. Bail is a God who
keeps you in bondage.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Bail is a God that you cannot appease even with
human sacrifices. Bail can't make it rain. Ask Jezebel. She
thought Bail could make it happen, but she was wrong.
She had to apologize before she died because she found
out that Bail is not God, and before Gideon could
(40:40):
build an altar to God. Before you can build a
new beginning in your life, before we can get past
this temporary behavior modification that doesn't last ten minutes after
we leave church, there might be something you have to
go home and Drake. If somebody sent you this YouTube link,
(41:01):
they might be breaking up with you, but it might
not be a relationship. Don't go quit your job talking
about I'm smashing my bail onto the I could just
see a kid, you know, Because people like to take
(41:22):
the message and twist it all up. I could see
a kid going home and smack take a baseball bat
to their parents' car. I'm smashing my father's alter to Bail.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I know you're not. You've about to you about to
feel the wrath.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Amazing, he said, Before you can go forward and fight
this battle, I need you to demolish your father's alter
for the purposes of the class that we're having today.
I do not want you to think about your father's
alter as being about what your family taught you Biologically.
That would be too limited, for it was not only
Joe ash that had erected an altar. He was just
(42:03):
the custodian of the cultural corruption. So what God was
really telling Gideon in this passage, what he's really speaking
to us as a New Testament church today, has nothing
to do.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
With the family that you were raised in. It has
to do with the beliefs.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
The belief everybody say, belief, the beliefs that you cherish,
the beliefs that you behave out of the beliefs that
are ingrained in you. The belief the beliefs, that's what
Bail was.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Bail was not just an idol you picture just the object.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
The object was just pointing to the belief behind it,
that we need something other than God to make it rain,
that we need something other than God to give us life,
that we need something other than God to defend us.
How's that working for you? How is your bail doing?
(43:04):
Because you said if you succeeded this much, you would
be happy, and you got success. How did success serve
you when you made it a God? I guarantee you
it left you emptier because more success came with more pressure,
and you found out that there is nothing that can
make you feel full if you are empty without him.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Mm hmmm hm. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
That's what I'm saying smashing Bail's alter. This isn't you
going home and deleting Facebook for a week. It may
include that, but that is not what I'm trying to
achieve by preaching this message. When I say there may
be a breakup with Bail that needs to happen, what
I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going
(43:51):
back to school this week and there are things that
you believed last year. But God has been working on
your heart not only in this message, but in this
season and when you go back to your school in
a few days, or if you've already gone back to school,
when you walk in tomorrow. You walk in, and after
(44:14):
a while people notice that you are not as easily
drawn to and seduced by the things that you were
drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in
a previous season.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
And they begin to say things to.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
You like you've changed, you're different. Maybe they even make
it a little bit meaner. And they start calling you
names because you won't have sex, and they start leaving
you out because you won't go places.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
And you have the audacity, Gideon, to.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Look at them and say, yeah, I know I look
a little different, and I know I act a little different,
And it's not that I'm better than you, but it's
just that something happened to me over the summer that
I don't know if I told you about this, but
I've been through a break up. Me and Bail broke up.
(45:11):
I decided he wasn't doing it for me. I decided
that living to be popular was costing me too much
peace ma I decided that living for pleasure cost me
too much paint. On the other side, I decided that
not having God's priorities. Men, I can't have God's peace.
(45:35):
So y'all be anxious. If you gotta be anxious, y'all
be crazy. If you got to be crazy, y'all be hateful.
If you gotta be hateful, y'all call me what y'all
gotta call me.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
But the one who called me is more important than you. Haddah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
High five of your neighbors say, I'm breaking up with Bail,
so I might not look the same next time you
see me. Use I'm gonna be going through a breakup,
and it might be a painful breakup, and I may
have to relearn some things, and I may have to
be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some
nice but I'm determined to see this through. Why because
(46:16):
after the breakup there will be a breakthrough.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Get happy because I'm gonna cry for a little while.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
But we've been may endure for a night.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
But high five your neighbors say, after the breakup, when the.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Sun came up, When the sun came up, when the
sun came up, there it was the altar of fan demolished,
the pieces broken to pieces, sash the basis, find the
power oh God, hot pot ten. People say I'm a
(47:10):
tam right now, I'm a tin right now.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I'm all Sein right now?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
Who almost said I'm all him?
Speaker 5 (47:21):
How thoughts you are too hollahs. But me and God
got back together?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
How how whoa? That's why I'm president sow whoa? How good?
You are falling apart?
Speaker 5 (47:47):
Hollow?
Speaker 1 (47:50):
But me and God.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
In fact, I'm not even telling Bail myself. That's gonna
send him a message. Why are you breaking up with
me because you're not God? Stop thinking this is a
marriage seminar. I'm not talking about a divorce from your spouse.
(48:16):
I'm talking about a divorce from your belief system that
is keeping you stuck. You might have a better spouse
if you had a different belief system about marriage, and.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
It might not even be a different one.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
So before you take the bat to the marriage, take
the bat to Bail.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
And all of that. I was gonna preach to you
all of.
Speaker 8 (48:44):
That, and then I realized it wasn't about that alter.
It was about what was on it.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Read it with me.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I'm almost done. Don't even sit back down. Put the
pressure on me to be expedient and concise. By standing
on your feet he said, I want you to tear
down your father's altar, the one to bail, the cultural
crap that you keep doing. I want you to clear
(49:22):
your algorithm this week for what you think is a
normal attitude. I want you to I want you to
smash that so that I can do something amazing through you.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
That's what this is about. In your life.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
You think every season of breaking is contrary to the
season of blessing.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
But after the breakup there's always breakthrough. Well, no breakup,
no breakthrough. You will keep.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Going back to bail, and you know what you'll do.
You will blame it on Midian You will keep thinking
the the problem is what is against you that you
can see. But the problem isn't what I can see
that's against me. It's what I keep abandoning that is
within me.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Because greater is He.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I don't know who this is for, but this thing
is burning a hole in me today. It is not
the Midianites to keep defeating you. It is not the
addiction itself. It is the altar to bail that keeps
you believing that you need something other than God.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
And the Lord.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Challenged me to read this scripture again and again, and
I said, okay. God, he got up and he built
a new altar, and he tore down the altar to Bail.
I begin to study about the altar the proper, because.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
In verse twenty six it says, build a proper kind
of altar to the Lord, your God.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
What is the proper altar that you would build?
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well, it was uncut stone so that no human hand
could defile it. It was piled up and made ready
for the sacrifice, because the altar was a place to die.
But then I realized that there was one altar that
was smashed the next morning, and there was one altar
that was standing. But the thing that made the altar
proper was not what it was made of, as.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Much as what was on it.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
The Lord told Gideon, get a bull from your father's
heard a bull was a common sacrifice. So far we
see no real revelation as to what needs to happen next,
but there is significance in this detail. The second bull,
(51:45):
the one seven years old, smash the altar to Bail,
build the altar to God. And after you have taken
the asherah poll which was an idolatry.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And you put the second bull as a burnt offering
wait a minute, The bull is not random in this passage.
The bull.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Represents Bail, not just because they sound alike, but all
of the false gods of the Canaanites had mascots.
Speaker 7 (52:34):
For Astrarah, who was their sex god, the mascot was
a pole, But for Bail, who was the weather in
fertility god, the mascot was a bull. So when the
Lord told Gideon, I want you to take the bull
(52:55):
on the altar that you build to God and smash
the altar that your father built to Bail, what God
was saying is I want you to believe Me more
than you believe Bail.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
And it is very.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Simple to say, but very hard to apply, because the
enemy will lie to you and lie to you, and
lie to you and feed you with beliefs about the
way things are, about what is important, about what really matters.
He will feed you as much bull as you will
listen to. But the Lord said, today is the day
(53:42):
for you to put the bull on the altar.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
You hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You hear what I'm saying online, touch your neighbors, say,
put the bull on the altar. Every lie you've believed,
every stronghold you've exceed every.
Speaker 1 (54:01):
False god you worshiped. Put the bull on the altar.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
As long as we keep building altars to things that
we ought to let die, we will be in covenant
with God, but be in captivity in life.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
You have got to put the bull.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
On the altar. I mean, they're playing slow music behind me,
but I feel like I'm really preaching. Every time the
devil lies to you, put that bull on the altar.
Every time he tells you you're insignificant because you're not famous.
Put that bull on the altar every time he starts
trying to tell you and attict is all you'll ever be.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
Put that bull on the altar. Whom the sun sets
free is free.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Indeed, put that bull on the altar. I heard about
a basketball game where Michael Jordan scored sixty nine points
in the game.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
There was a rookie who was interviewed after the game.
Speaker 7 (55:04):
It was his.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
First game in the NBA. This was nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
They said, what are your comments on your first game
in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
And he said boldly, I'll always.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
Remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I
combined to score seventy points. He said that because when
you're connected to the right one.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
I'm not talking about a bull. Now, I'm not talking
about a bull.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
I'm talking about the spotless, perfect lamb of God. Slay
from the foundation.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Wah.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
So the Lord says to get in. You are not
going to die. But there are some lies that you
have believed that must die so you can live. There
are some lies that you have believed that must die
so you can live.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
There are some lies you have believed that must die
so you can live. What that bull on the altar.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Stop thinking that there's something that will fulfill you or
complete you outside of God.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
There is nothing. It's nobody else's job to complete you.
It's nobody else's job to fulfill you. It's nobody else's
job to make you happy. That's God's job. Let him
do it. Build a proper altar.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
Let God fill those deep places in your life. And
remember this that there is nothing you can do that
would separate Him from you. Every time the devil tells
you you're too far gone. Now, remember you serve a
God who can make a two to ten by his blood,
(57:03):
and me and Michael Jordan can score seventy points together
on a single night, and God can use you to deliver,
and God can use you to be a blessing, and
God can use you to give wisdom, and God can
use you to build it up, and God can use
you to tear it down. But it's going to be
because of Him. And when they investigated in the daylight
(57:25):
to see who had done it in the night, they said,
Gideon did it.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Gideon. Isn't he the one who was hiding in the
wine press? I like to imagine at that moment Gideon says, yeah,
I was.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
But me and God God back together, and we have this.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
Ministry of reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
I know what you've done alone, and I know what
you've done in your own strength, and so do you.
I know that bail has failed you. He fails all
of us. I know how your faults, bail leafs, have
led you to a place of codependency with substance. Mail
always does that. I know how thinking that somebody needs
to approve you before you can be worthy of love
has left you running drinking salt water in an ocean
(58:19):
that you're.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
Already drowning in. That's what bail always does. Break that alter, break.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
That altar, Delete every opinion that tells you what a
young lady is supposed to be like. And ask your
father what a woman of God looks like. And put
your virtue on and where your values proudly. And when
they say you don't post no more, tell him Yeah.
Me and Bail broke up, and me and God got
back together.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
That altar is gone.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I'm ant worship at it another day. I want you
to grab the hand of the person next to you
because they're in a battle right now.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
They're in a breakup right now. Now stand through your feet. Everybody.
I thought y'all were standing.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
I was preaching so hard. Only ten percent was the
front road. Fooled me again. Squeeze their hand right now,
because they're in a battle. Squeeze their hand because they're
in a battle. I want you to squeeze their hand
to let them know you didn't die. That's how you
know that the covenant keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and
(59:25):
Jacob is with you too. Even though it was seven
years of sin. Isn't it weird that the Bible said
Graham it was a seven year old bull, which was
the exact length of time they had been in captivity.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
It was the bull that kept them in bondage.
Speaker 2 (59:43):
You can be free the moment you come into agreement
with God what he says about you. So you can
be free from the moment that you decide there is
no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus
cuts through Christ. Jesus the low spirital life. Set me
free from the lost, sin and death. You don't have
to stay in this another seven years. You can be
free the moment you believe. Put that bull on the altar,
(01:00:09):
by a new bull. Believe you believe in him, you
will be saved. And right now there's somebody in this
room who needs this message as a matter of life
and death.
Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You're not gonna die. You're not gonna die.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
But Thomas said, I would have despaired unless I believe
that I would see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living. You're gonna see it. But
there's some altars you've been running to in the land
that you've been occupying, that have been keeping you from
being the person God sees.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
But you're a warrior in this wine press, always have been.
Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
He knows there's a better you. He loved me like
I was, but he didn't leave me like I was Lord,
I thank you that you loved me like I was.
You didn't see me as a two.
Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
You turn me to a ten.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Woo. I get grateful when I think about your grace.
I don't have to think about my car. I appreciate it,
my house, I love it. I don't have to think
about any of these things, just to say thank you
for your grace.
Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Lord. Why don't you pray that thank you for your grace? Lord?
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
I thank you that all I have to do to
be closer to you is believe that you're already here.
Like that angel was staring at Gideon, and Gideon finally
realized it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Maybe today is today we finally.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Realize that the lies belong on the altar before your presence. God,
I ask you to set your people free today.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Now drop the hand, but keep your head bout in
your eyes closed, no one moving around.
Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
There's somebody in this place who needs to give their
life to Jesus Christ today. When you do, you don't
go from a one to a two and spend the
rest of your life going three, four, five, six.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Seven, eight, nine, ten.
Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
You don't start perform and God will see if you
can really do a triple double Somersault split spiritually the
God we Sir said, I will not only give you
the grace, but I will give you the faith to believe.
So right now, if you know that today is your
day and God is calling you to bring your life
to his altar, I want to lead you in a prayer.
(01:02:20):
This prayer is an expression of faith, believing in what
Jesus has already done for you. And if you're ready
today to repent of your sin and make Jesus the
Lord of your life, I want you to repeat after me.
We're all praying this out loud for the benefit of
those who are coming to God or back to God.
Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation.
(01:02:46):
I am a sinner in need of a savior.
Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior
of the world.
Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
And today make Jesus the Lord of my life. I
believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose
again to give me life, and I receive this new life.
Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
This is my new beginning. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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