July 25, 2025 • 49 mins
Life hits hard sometimes. Wave after wave crashes in—work pressure that never lets up, family needs that drain you dry, health concerns with no end in sight, financial storms that keep brewing, or temptations that seem to know exactly when you're vulnerable.
What do we do when life feels this relentless? Through Gideon's remarkable journey from hiding in a winepress to leading 300 men against an army of 135,000, we discover something profound about God's heart for the overwhelmed. He doesn't seek out the confident, capable warriors—He creates warriors out of the fearful and inadequate.
The story reveals five typical responses when life overwhelms: working harder, retreating, emotional breakdown, complaining, or depending on God. Only the last option leads to genuine victory. What makes this message so powerful is seeing how God addressed Gideon not as the fearful man he was but as the "mighty warrior" God knew he could become.
Most striking is how God intentionally reduced Gideon's army from 32,000 to just 300 men—creating impossible odds of 450 enemies to every 1 Israelite. Why? Because God wanted to demonstrate unmistakably that victory would come through divine strength, not human capability. Your inadequacy isn't a problem for God—it's His canvas.
The cautionary ending shows Gideon's spiritual decline after success, revealing that we need God just as desperately in our victories as in our struggles—perhaps even more so. Whether facing relentless sin, fear, idols, battles or success, the answer remains consistent: pursue, believe, worship, follow and submit to Jesus with a relentlessness that exceeds whatever challenges you face.
Are you hiding in a winepress of fear today? God sees you as a mighty warrior. Your battles belong to Him, and His love for you is more relentless than anything life throws your way. Join our community as we learn to depend on God completely when life won't quit.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good morning and put your hands together.
If you're excited to be inchurch this morning, or if
you're glad you came to churchthis morning, I'm happy you came
to church.
It is so good to see all ofyour smiling faces.
If you're brand new here, Ijust want you to know that it's
an honor to have you here.
You could be anywhere, but Godbrought you here and we just
honor that in your life.
Also, we want you to know thatwe're just all about Jesus here,
(00:21):
not about ourselves.
We're all about him and we areone church.
Everybody say one church, onechurch in two services in two
locations.
We've got a service in oursanctuary at 930 and down here
in our CLC at 11.
And so it's kind of amulti-service setup.
But we're also not just aboutmulti-services.
We're about multi-generationsgetting together, worshiping
(00:46):
Jesus, multi-ethnicity gettingtogether and worship Jesus, and
we're just so thankful foreverything that Jesus is doing.
Just, we hear this a lot, buteven specifically over the last
week, we heard some first-timeguests say that they came to
First Baptist Church, powderSprings, and they said it was
one of the most welcomingexperiences that they had ever
had in their life before comingto a church.
(01:08):
So, first Baptist, I just wantto thank you for being a loving
church.
I want to thank you for being awelcoming church in all the
ways that God is using you rightto reach this community for
Jesus, and I'm so thankful forall that he is doing.
This morning, I want to talk toyou about when life is
relentless.
(01:28):
When your life is relentless,maybe your life today or maybe
you're in a season to where youfeel like that life just won't
quit, your life just won't stop.
It just keeps coming.
Maybe you feel like things thatare happening in your life are
more than you can handle.
(01:48):
It's like wave on wave on wavethat is constantly coming in
your life.
Some examples of that might bemaybe it's work pressure, maybe
it's work and career to where?
Maybe you just feel like youcan't get caught up.
Maybe it just keeps coming atyou.
Maybe your boss just keepsgiving, putting everything on
your plate that he or she shouldbe doing.
(02:09):
Can I get an amen?
And that just keeps falling toyou.
Maybe it's family needs.
Maybe you just you're theperson in the family that
everybody comes to right andyour family's needy, and so your
phone keeps ringing and youkeep getting text messages.
Can you come over?
Can you fix this?
Can you help with that?
And you're thinking can yougive me a break?
(02:33):
Number three mental andemotional health, or maybe even
physical health.
Maybe there are just some realstruggles.
We go through these seasons inour life and maybe you feel like
that it's just relentless, thatyou feel like you can't get
over the mountain, you can't getover it and these things just
keep happening and you'rewondering is this what I have to
live with for the rest of mylife?
Maybe it's financial strugglesand not because of any decision
(02:54):
you made, but just someunfortunate circumstances that
have happened in your life andyou're just wondering am I ever
going to get out of thisfinancial struggle that's
happening?
Maybe it's spiritual warfareand temptation.
Maybe you just feel like you'reat an area, a time in your life
that Satan just really seems tohave your number and he's just
(03:15):
sought you out, and temptationmaybe just feels more alluring
than ever.
Or maybe you just feel down anddiscouraged and depressed.
I want you to know when lifefeels relentless.
There are typically fivedifferent ways that you can
respond.
One is you can work harder andyou can say I'm just gonna dig
deeper, I'm just gonna pushthrough, I'm just gonna work
(03:35):
harder.
I can handle this myself.
Or number two could be retreat.
I just need a vacation, right,or man?
I need to find a new hobby or Iquit.
I I just need a vacation, right, or man, I need to find a new
hobby or I quit.
I turn my phone off and it's onsilent.
Nobody can bother me.
Or number three is just a goodold-fashioned emotional
breakdown.
Can I get an amen, right, andyou just cry it out.
Number four, another option, isyou can just complain.
(03:58):
You can complain, you can justfind your best friend and you
can just vent and you can get apunching bag and you can just go
off and you can just get outall of your emotion.
Or number five you can dependon God.
And that's what we believe.
We believe the scripture saysthat when life is relentless,
that we are called to live independence Everyone say
(04:21):
dependence, that we are calledto depend on God.
We're in our series here,relentless, through the book of
Judges and it's all about whererebellion meets redemption.
And we get to see these cyclesover and over and over again in
other people's lives.
And it's so healthy to seethese cycles because they happen
in ours.
(04:41):
Let's pray, heavenly Father.
God, I ask in Jesus' name, lord, that you would speak to every
single heart in this room, everysingle life.
God, would you still ourthoughts, god, would you calm
our minds?
And, lord, may we listen towhat you have for us here in
(05:04):
this moment from youreverlasting word.
In Jesus' name and all God'speople said when life is
relentless, we're going to lookat the life of Gideon, his whole
life, judges 6, 7, and 8.
Turn with me to Judges, chapter6, or you will see it on your
screens.
Number one when your sin isrelentless, Everyone your sin.
(05:24):
When your sin is relentless,everyone say sin when your sin
is relentless.
Check this out.
It says in Judges, chapter six,verse one says the people of
Israel did what was evil in thesight of the Lord and the Lord
gave them into the hand ofMidian for seven, for seven
years.
What we see here is in Judges.
(05:44):
It is this book that shows ushow the people of God not people
who didn't know God, people whodid know God how they fell into
sin over and over and overagain.
It is a reminder for us thatsin is relentlessly coming after
us.
The Bible says in 1 Peter,chapter 5, that the devil is
(06:05):
like a roaring, a prowling lionseeking whom he may devour.
In other words, sin is alwaysafter you.
But aren't you thankful thatJesus is more relentless for you
than sin?
Can I get an amen?
Proverbs 24, verse 16.
It won't be on the screen, butwrite this down.
Proverbs 24, 16 says thisthough a righteous person falls
(06:31):
seven times, seven is the numberof completion.
It's a number of continualness.
Though a righteous person fallsseven times, he will get up,
but the wicked will stumble intoruin.
What is the writer of Proverbssaying?
He is saying that thesimilarity, the commonality
(06:53):
between the righteous and thewicked is we all sin.
There are people here todaythat maybe you are doubting your
salvation because of your sin.
Salvation does not mean thatGod has changed you into
perfection.
It means that he has changedyour direction from following
sin to following after him.
So the commonality between therighteous and the unrighteous is
(07:16):
sin.
But what is different?
The difference is the Biblesays the righteous man gets back
up.
The Bible says the differenceis is that the saved person
here's me lives in repentance.
Living in repentance does notmean to live in perfection.
It means that when you're insin, god convicts you, god
(07:36):
speaks to you, people call youout, they hold you accountable
and you turn directions and youlive your life for Jesus again.
And that's what we see herehappening in the story that they
continually fall into sin, likeyou and like I do.
Verse 10, in the hand of Midian,another country, another nation
of another people overpoweredIsrael.
(07:58):
And that's what happens when Isin.
That's what happens when yousin is that sin overpowers us.
Often we think that we can livein sin because we have control
over our sin.
We have power over our sin.
You and I, we do not havecontrol.
We do not have power over sin.
Only Jesus does.
(08:19):
When we live in sin, sin hascontrol and power over us.
It says that the people ofIsrael were so overpowered that
they made for themselves densand mountains and caves and
strongholds to hide from theIsraelites.
Why?
Because that's what sin wantsin your life.
(08:41):
Sin wants to isolate you.
Sin wants to isolate you.
Sin wants you to live in shame.
Sin wants me to live in guilt.
Sin wants us to live inloneliness and a lack of
community.
That's why it's so important tobe in community with other
believers.
That's why it's so important tobe in a group, to be in a Bible
(09:04):
study, to be in a Sunday school, so that we are in community
with one another.
He goes on to say and Israel wasbrought very low.
Why Do you realize it's not onthe screen at this point but
Midian was this country that,when they came and overpowered
Israel, that Midian startedstealing.
(09:25):
Country that, when they cameand overpowered Israel, that
Midian started stealing Israel'sfood, started stealing Israel's
crop.
Because that's what sin lovesto do, hear me.
Sin loves to steal ourspiritual fruitfulness in Jesus
Christ.
We cannot grow in Jesus andlive in sin simultaneously.
Can I get an amen?
We can't do that.
(09:45):
It's impossible to be happeningat the same time.
So when Israel was brought verylow, can I just submit to you
when life puts you on your knees, stay there in prayer.
When life puts you down, stayand pray.
(10:06):
And Israel was brought very lowbecause of Midian and the people
of Israel.
What did they do when they werebrought low?
They cried out for help to theLord, saying God, we need help.
God, we're overpowered.
God, for us it'd be.
God, I'm in addiction.
God, I can't get out of thismyself.
I just keep getting deeper God.
(10:27):
I can't get myself out of thishole In verse eight.
So what did the Lord do?
The Lord sent a prophet.
This is the only time that thishappened throughout all 12
judges in the book of Judges,that God sent a prophet instead
of a judge at first.
What is God saying?
(10:47):
God is saying he only needs tosend one judge, and that one
judge, who is our true savior,who is our true deliverer, is
Jesus.
And often what happens in mylife when I get into sin and I
just my sinfulness just wants meto get out of sin so that I can
just live in freedom for myselfagain, that is not God's plan
(11:07):
for my life To not live infreedom.
God's plan for my life is tolive in dependence.
And so what we see here Godsends a prophet.
Why?
Because often we don't justneed God to get us out of our
trouble.
We need God to teach us fromhis word how not to get into
trouble.
Often we don't.
We need God to teach us fromhis word how not to get into
(11:28):
trouble.
Often we don't need just God towave a magic wand, we need
God's word in our life.
It is as if God is saying let meshow you how you got there, so
that you don't get into it again.
He says I send a prophet to thepeople of Israel.
And the prophet said to thepeople thus says the Lord, the
(11:49):
God of Israel, I led you up fromEgypt and brought you out of
the house of slavery.
In other words, god is sayinglet me remind you who I am, let
me remind you how much I loveyou.
Let me remind you that Icreated you.
Let me remind you that Icreated you.
Let me remind you that I sentmy son to die for you.
(12:09):
Let me remind you that he rosefrom the dead.
Let me remind you that I'vecalled you to salvation.
Let me remind you that I'veforgiven you, that I've redeemed
you.
Look at who I am and look atall of these things that I have
done for you.
And he's saying every time thatyou fall into sin, you are
choosing sins over me.
And God goes on to say and Isaid to you I am the Lord, your
(12:33):
God, but you have not obeyed myvoice.
Which is exactly why James, thehalf-brother of Jesus, told us
in James, chapter one, that weare not just called to be a
hearer of the word.
Our call in life is not just togo to church.
The height of our spirituallife is not just to come and
(12:57):
listen to a sermon.
The question is are we obeyingthe voice?
Are we obeying the word of God?
Are we applying the word of Godinto our life so that we're not
just a hearer but we're also adoer?
If you've got sin in your lifethat is plaguing you, that is
dominating you, that you feellike is addicting you, the best
(13:20):
thing that you can possibly dois to get into God's word.
Use Google, use AI, whatever itis you need to do and to find
some verses that dealspecifically with your sin and
memorize them for yourself wordfor word.
Psalm 119, 11 says I havehidden God's word in my heart
(13:41):
that I might not sin against him.
Go on YouTube and look upsermons specific to the sin that
you're struggling with.
Go on YouVersion app and lookup Bible studies specific to the
sin that you might bestruggling with.
Find an accountability grouphere in our church, and if you
can't find one, we'll make onefor you.
If we can't make one, then youcan lead it yourself and you can
(14:03):
be a part of a group with otherpeople that might be struggling
with that.
Because what do we do when oursin is relentless?
We pursue Jesus all the morerelentlessly.
When our sin is relentless, wepursue Jesus all the more
relentlessly.
Well, number two, when yourfear is relentless.
Everyone say fear.
(14:24):
We all struggle with fear.
You ever notice how the Bibleis full of people who struggle
with fear?
The Bible is full of people whostruggle with doubt.
Isn't it interesting that theBible doesn't have one person
besides Jesus, who's perfect?
The Bible is full of all ofthese imperfect people, because
(14:46):
the more in touch you are withyour weakness and your fear, the
more you connect with the wordof God, who is full of all of
these people with fear.
It says in verse 11, now theangel of the Lord.
Just by the way, I love to tellyou this whenever this shows up
in the Bible, when the Biblesays an angel of the Lord, it's
(15:07):
just an angel.
When the Bible says the angelof the Lord, it is the
pre-incarnate Jesus Christ,before his virgin birth, coming
onto the scene in the OldTestament, disguised, and they
don't know who he is.
But Jesus is writing himselfinto their story, just like
Jesus is writing himself intoyour story, just like Jesus is
writing himself into your story.
Can I get an amen?
(15:27):
The angel of the Lord came andhe sat.
Jesus came and he sat under theterebinth at Ophrah not Oprah,
but Ophrah which belonged toJoash the Abyssalite, while his
son, gideon, was beating outwheat in the wine press to hide
it from the Midianites.
Now, this is very interestingAgain.
All of Israel's scared, all ofIsrael's in hiding, all of their
(15:52):
food's getting stolen.
So typically you would beat outwheat on the top of a hill so
that the wind can drive thechaff away.
No, he is down in the bottom ofa valley of a winepress in
hiding.
He is a man of great fear, he'sa sissy, he's a pansy, he's a
wimp, he's a wiener schnitzel.
Okay, like Gideon is no warrior, he's no braveheart.
(16:14):
Verse 12,.
And the angel of the Lord,jesus, appeared to him and said
to Gideon the Lord is with you,oh, mighty man of valor.
I just love this.
The Lord is with you, oh mightyman of valor.
It sounds like that either Jesusis giving him a nickname, like
we give people a nickname today.
You ever met somebody who'sreally big?
They're really tall, they liketo eat a lot?
(16:35):
Right, they're just a reallybig guy.
You ask him their name, you'relike oh, people call me Tiny,
right?
That's what happens withnicknames, right?
It's kind of you tell them theopposite, you know, and so is it
that Jesus is just calling hima nickname.
Is Jesus being sarcastic?
Oh, you big, brave boy, you.
Or is Jesus speaking to himabout what Jesus is going to do
(16:59):
in his life?
The angel of the Lord appearedto him and said to him the Lord
is with you.
Oh, mighty man of valor, hedidn't call Gideon for what he
was doing.
He was calling Gideon for whathe was going to use Gideon to do
.
And Gideon said please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why
then has all of this happened tous and why did all of it happen
(17:19):
to Israel?
Why were they in all thattrouble?
Gideon's blaming it on God, butit wasn't God's fault.
God didn't leave Israel.
Israel left God.
Often in our life we go throughtrouble and heartache and
hardship and trial, and it's notbecause God left us.
It's because that we left him.
(17:41):
It's interesting that God callshim almighty man of valor,
because you can often tell thevoice of Satan or the voice of
God in your life.
Satan will start with your sinand he will drive you into
discouragement.
God will start with your sin,but he will lift you up in
encouragement.
When we are feeling guiltybecause of our sin, the lies of
(18:04):
the enemy would label us guilty.
But yet our identity in Christ,god says but you're not guilty,
you're forgiven.
When the enemy says you'reunwanted, our identity in Christ
is not just that you're wanted,but that you're chosen.
When the lie of the enemy saysthat you're trapped in your sin,
your identity in Christ is youare free in order to not sin.
When the lies of the enemy saysthat you're unlovable, it's not
(18:27):
just that you're lovable, butthat you are loved by God.
Our identity in Christ is, andfor people that have struggled
in their life maybe withfatherlessness, then you can
know that you are a child of Godand God himself is your father.
Put your hands together for theidentity in Christ that Jesus
gives you in every believer.
(18:51):
So the Lord turned to Gideon andhe said go in this might of
yours.
God knew that it wasn't anytype of might or power in Gideon
.
It was the might, it was thepower, it was the courage that
God was giving to Gideon.
I heard a pastor say this weekGod doesn't call the brave, he
makes brave the called.
(19:12):
He doesn't call the brave, hemakes the brave called.
Go in this might of yours andsave Israel from the hand of
Midian.
Do I not send you?
That is a big calling, but Ibelieve this is the same thing
that God is telling many of ushere today, and I don't know
what it is for you.
Only you know.
But God's got a calling on yourlife that is bigger than you
(19:36):
and you can't do it and youdon't have the courage, and you
don't have the might, and youdon't have the power, and you
don't have the ability, and youdon't have the might, and you
don't have the power and youdon't have the ability.
But here's what God is saying,here's what I'm calling you to
do, and I am the one sending you, and that's all you need to
know.
So what do we do?
We come up with excuses.
(19:57):
That's exactly what Gideon did.
Gideon said please, lord, howcan I save Israel?
In other words, I don't knowhow to do what you're telling me
to do.
You ever felt like that?
Gideon says behold, my clan isthe weakest in all of Manasseh.
In other words, we tell God,god, do you know the family that
I came from?
Do you realize we put the funin dysfunctional?
Do you realize what kind offamily that we are in our house?
(20:20):
Do you realize just thebrokenness that I come from?
And God, I don't come from astrong, spiritual family.
And Gideon says and God, withall that, I'm the least and all
my fathers, I'm the runt.
God, I've got nothing to offer.
God loves to choose the weak toshow off his strength.
(20:45):
And God said all they needed tosay I will be with you and
that's all you need to hear.
Whatever it is that God'scalling you to do, whoever it is
that God is calling you tominister to, to witness to, to
invite to be a ministry in theirlife, whatever it is that God
(21:06):
is calling you to accomplish inyour life, that God is with you
and that's all that you need,because God's presence in your
life is all that we could everask for.
He says, and you shall strikethe Midianites as one man In
verse 17,.
He goes on to say and he saidto him if I now Gideon says, if
I have found favor in your eyes,then show me a sign that is you
(21:29):
who speak with me.
You remember in the gospels thatJesus loved to say you know, a
perverse, a crooked generation.
They're always seeking a sign,because the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the Zealots theywould always be like Jesus show
us a sign who you really are.
And he's saying look, if you'rejust looking for a sign to see
(21:49):
who I am, then you're not gonnabelieve the sign, because then
if all you saw was a sign, thenthe sign is greater than me and
he says you're looking at me, Iam the sign.
Jesus said let me give you asign.
Jesus said the sign that youneed is the sign of Jonah.
And what was the sign of Jonah?
That Jonah would be in thebelly of a fish for three days
and three nights.
(22:10):
And Jesus said that's what I'mtalking about.
I am going to be in the bellyof the earth, I am going to die,
I'm gonna be crucified, I'mgonna suffer, I'm gonna be
buried for three days and threenights and on the third day I am
going to rise from the dead.
And that's the only sign thatyou need that I am the
resurrected Lord in Jesus Christ.
Put your hands together forJesus.
(22:31):
He is your sign, he's yourSavior.
The sign has already happened,but this is before that.
So Gideon says show me a sign.
And God does it.
There's a meal that Godconsumes that Gideon, like,
throws on the grill.
And then Gideon says well,that's nice, well, anybody could
(22:52):
do that, god.
So how about I put a fleece outat night and in the morning, if
I get up and the fleece is wetand the ground is dry, then God
I'll know that it's you Gets upthe next morning, goes out and
checks the fleece.
The fleece is wet, the groundis dry.
And Gideon says God, that'sreally nice, but anybody could
do that.
I mean, that could happen atany time.
So let's try the opposite.
(23:13):
Third sign God, when I come outtomorrow morning, may the ground
be wet and the fleece be dry.
And sure enough, gideon comesout, the ground is wet, the
fleece is dry.
And Gideon knows that the Godof the universe is calling him.
Just like you know, the God ofthe universe is calling you to
do what he's called you to do.
(23:35):
Because what do we do when ourfear is relentless, when life is
relentless and it causes fearwithin us?
We just believe Jesusrelentlessly.
We get in the word, we remainin the church, we do the
ministry that God's called us todo.
We play worship music allthroughout our week and we
(23:58):
worship God and we listen to Godso that we can believe Jesus,
because fear is an enemy and theonly weapon against fear is
faith, and we need to believeJesus relentlessly.
Can I get an amen?
Number three when your idolsare relentless?
Watch this in Gideon's lifewhen your idols are relentless,
(24:20):
verse 25,.
That night the Lord said to himtake your father's bull and the
second bull, seven years old,and pull down the altar of Baal
that your father has and cutdown the Asherah that is beside
it.
So here's what we see thatGideon's dad has got some idols.
The idol of Baal we talkedabout over the last couple of
(24:41):
weeks is the God small g.
The idol of Baal we talkedabout over the last couple of
weeks is the God small g, theidol of money.
Asherah is the God small g, theidol of sexual immorality.
The reason that Israel servedand worshiped both idols was
because they believed if youwere crazy enough to worship
both, then you would haveeverything you could ever want.
(25:04):
And isn't it interesting thatGod did not say I want you to go
out through all of Israel.
I want, gideon, I want you togo out through all of the world
and I want you to tear downevery idol.
No, he said, I want you to goto your house.
When God wants to do a workthrough you, he must first do a
(25:26):
work in you.
What God loves to do is toexpose the idols in our lives.
Isn't it interesting that hedoesn't just say sin, he says
idols.
Often we think I don't have anyidols.
This little idol worship in theBible has got nothing to do
about me.
Who would fall down and worshipa little statue?
(25:48):
Well, first of all, theseweren't little statues.
Baal was this massive stonemonument in Gideon's dad's yard
which is on this huge platform.
Asherah was probably a 30-footpillar that they would worship
Asherah.
But behind every idol was ademon, just like behind every
(26:08):
sin is the devil.
And what they would do is theywould not just quote commit sin,
they would worship sin.
Because what God is showing usthrough idols in the Old
Testament is that sin is notjust something on the naughty
list.
When I sin against God, I amsaying God, I am choosing not to
worship you in this area of mylife.
(26:30):
I am going to worship myself.
I am going to worship my sin.
And I also think it'sinteresting that he said go to
your father's house, and if Icould just get real and personal
for a second.
One of the greatest strongholdsthat Satan loves to use in our
(26:52):
lives is what happened in ourchildhood the hurt, the pain,
the trauma, whatever it was.
And if we don't deal with that,satan will continue to use it
(27:15):
in your life to hold you down.
And what Jesus is saying to you?
1 Peter, chapter 5,.
Jesus says cast all of yourcares, your anxieties, your
burdens, your pain, your trauma.
(27:35):
Cast it all onto me, because Iam the one who cares for you.
You can give Jesus your past sothat you can enjoy your present
and your future with him.
Can I get an amen?
God is saying deal with what hashappened in your life.
(27:55):
In verse 26, he goes on to sayand build an altar to the Lord.
So in other words, he's notjust saying go and get rid of
your sin and then go livehowever you want to.
That's religion.
Go and deal with your idol andthen you can live however you
want to.
That's morality, that'slegalism.
No, the purpose of tearing downthe idols is to build an altar
(28:18):
is to worship the Lord JesusChrist.
Build an altar in your life.
God is not just calling us todeal with our sin.
God is calling us to deal withour sin, to deepen our devotion
in Jesus and build an altar tothe Lord, your God, on the top
of the stronghold here, with thestones laid in due order.
Then take the second bull,offer it as a burnt offering,
(28:39):
with the wood on the Asherahthat you shall cut down.
So Gideon took 10 men of hisservants.
You don't have to do it alone.
That's why we have groupstogether, that's why we meet
together in Bible studies, sothat we can pray for one another
, we can encourage one another,you can hear how other people
are struggling just like you,and you don't have to feel alone
(29:01):
and isolated anymore.
He took 10 men of his serviceand he did as the Lord told him.
But because he was too afraidof his family and the men of the
town to do it by day, gideon,that scaredy cat, he did it by
night, but he did it, but he didit.
Here's what I want to show you.
I believe that idol worship isstill as true today as it ever
(29:21):
was, even if we have a littlepillar, a little statue, a
little platform or not.
The idol of Asherah in theBible was the way that they
would worship Asherah wasthrough the sin of sexual
immorality.
Molech was that God, that falseGod of the Bible.
The way they would worship thatfalse God was through child
(29:42):
sacrifice.
We might call it abortion today.
Gad, the false God.
Gad, that idol, he was the Godof luck, because when you don't
believe in anything, you justthink things are going to work
out for you in the end.
The God, small Jesus, that idolwas known.
If you wanted to, you wantedmore power in your life over
other people.
Aphrodite was people that wouldworship beauty.
(30:03):
Nebo was the God that wouldcall them to worship him through
education.
In other words, these were allof the things that people were
pursuing instead of God throughidol worship.
So what do we do?
How do we attack our idols?
When your idols are relentless,I encourage you to worship
(30:25):
Jesus all the more relentlessly.
Don't just destroy idols.
We seek Jesus, we pursue Jesusand we worship him relentlessly.
You could never understand thepower that Jesus is doing in
your life when you come tochurch and when you worship him
(30:46):
together, like when you openyour mouth when you raise your
hands, when you pour out yourheart in worship.
In fact, if you're someonewho's expressive in worship, I
want to challenge you, I want tocall you.
If you think that one of yourspiritual gifts is you just love
to be free in worship, I wouldencourage you to come and sit
down on some of these front rowsevery single Sunday morning so
(31:09):
that you can be an encouragementfor other people to feel free
in worship too.
Can I get an amen?
We need to destroy our idolsrelentlessly by worshiping Jesus
relentlessly.
Number four when your battle isrelentless.
Everyone say battle when yourbattle is relentless.
Check this out.
This is the climax of the story.
(31:30):
But the spirit of the Lordclothed Gideon.
Can I remind you today ifyou've given your life to Jesus,
if you believe that he is yourLord, your savior, you believe
that he died on the, your Savior, you believe that he died on
the cross and he rose from thedead.
He has not just forgiven you ofsin, he has clothed you with
(31:50):
his Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit indwells youand so you get to experience the
power of God, not just aroundyou but within you.
The Spirit of the Lord clothedGideon.
He sounded the trumpet and theAbyssalites were called out to
follow him, and he sentmessengers throughout all
(32:10):
Manasseh and they too werecalled to follow him.
In other words, when you aregoing through battles in your
life, battles in your life, godis going to bring more of his
people around you to fight withyou and to fight for you.
But that doesn't mean that youcan just sit on the couch, that
(32:32):
you can just sit at home andjust wait for people to knock on
the door to come in so thatthey can get on their knees
before you and start praying foryou, because that's weird,
that's not gonna happen.
In other words, you need to putyourself in the place where
God's people are.
You need to be honest andtransparent what's happening in
your life and watch what God'speople will do for you.
(32:56):
This is a loving church.
You get a part of a group.
You get in a small group in aBible study and don't dominate
the class, but you can share attimes what is happening in your
life and watch how the peoplewill pray for you and will love
(33:16):
you and will support you andwill check on you and will be
there for you.
And it's so interesting herethe Lord just flips the script.
And the Lord said to Gideon inJudges 7-2,.
He said now the people with youare too many.
It's like well, god, which isit?
You know, lord, have you takenyour meds today Like I didn't
(33:39):
have enough and now I've got toomany?
And God, what is going on?
What are you trying to do?
It's actually two differentthings.
There are times in our lives Iwould say some of the hardest
times in my life, the hardesttimes in your life where God
takes, removes someone from ourlife.
(34:00):
And what God is saying is Godsometimes removes people from us
that we thought we needed forGod to show us that he is all we
truly need.
He says the Lord said to Gideonthe people with you are too
(34:22):
many for me to give theMidianites into their hand, or
Israel is gonna brag over me andsaying man, we did this all on
ourselves and we saved ourselves.
So therefore, proclaim in theears of the people saying
whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry
away from Mount Gilead.
Then 22,000 of the peoplereturned and 10,000 remained.
(34:45):
In other words, there were32,000 men out of nowhere that
came and started followingGideon.
And so God says ah, we gottadwindle this down a little bit,
man, because I don't want themto think they did it.
I need to show everybody thatI'm the one that wins the battle
in their life.
So we see that 22,000 peoplewent home.
(35:07):
It went from 32,000 right thereto about 10,000.
And just because he saidwhoever is scared, whoever's
trembling, y'all can go.
You never wanna go to fightwith somebody who's shaking in
their knees.
You know what I'm saying andthat's what God's doing.
Verse seven the Lord said toGideon with 300, with the 300
men who lapped, I will save youand give Midianites into your
(35:29):
hand and let all the others gouh, every man to his home.
Here's what just happened.
So now, out of the 10,000 menthat were left, god said now
tell all the men to go and get adrink of water out of this
watering hole.
10,000 men go down.
Apparently, half of the men gotdown on their chest, on their
face, face down in the water,and just started drinking the
(35:50):
water, just their mouth in thewater.
But there were other men thatgot on their knee and cupped the
water up with their hand andkept their eyes up and they were
looking around and God issaying I want you to keep the
ones who stay on their knees.
God is saying I want you tokeep the ones who kneel down and
surrender.
God is saying I want you tokeep the ones who are keeping
(36:14):
their eyes open.
And, men, we are called here inthis room to be spiritual
leaders and we're called to bewatchers for our family.
The Bible says that we need towatch as men, and we need to
stand firm.
We don't need to be head downin the sense that we are not
paying attention.
But if we are called to protectour family, if we're called to
shepherd our family, if we'recalled to be the spiritual
(36:35):
leaders in our family, then ourheads need to be on a swivel and
we always need to be aware ofwhat Satan's trying to do in our
family.
Can I get an amen?
God said those are the men thatI want you to keep, those are
the men I want you to go tobattle with.
That same night, the Lord saidto Gideon so I want you to get
up and I want you to go downagainst the camp, for I have
given it into your hand.
(36:57):
And it says and he deliveredthe 300 men, or Gideon, put the
300 men into three differentcompanies.
Now here's what's interesting.
He put trumpets into one handof the men and an empty jar in
the other hand of the men andput a torch inside the empty jar
and he said to them look at meand do likewise.
(37:19):
And do likewise.
You know, in our life we alwaysneed to have somebody that we
are looking at, that arefollowing Jesus and we need to
watch them.
When we say I need to do whatthey're doing because they're
following Jesus, and we need toremember that people are
watching us and that people needto be able to look at us and
see I need to look at them and Ineed to do likewise.
(37:39):
So Gideon and his hundred menof his company who were with him
came to the outskirts of theMidianite camp.
So here they are.
By the way, how many Midianiteswere there?
Stay with me.
135,000 to 300 Israelites.
450 Midianites to every oneIsraelite.
(38:01):
It was impossible odds.
So they came to the outskirts ofthe camp at the beginning of
the middle watch.
When was the middle watch?
This is important 3 am,typically three watches of the
night.
If it's the middle watch, thefirst watch is coming in and
they're going to bed, they'reexhausted.
The second watch, the middlewatch, now they're getting up
(38:21):
out of a sleep, they're groggy,they're coming out to the
battlefield and the third watchis still sleeping in their beds,
which means this is a time wheneverybody is tired, nobody is
watching, nobody is alert,nobody is awake.
And when they had just set thewatch and they blew, if you can
imagine, you got some that aregoing to bed, you got some that
are waking up, you got some thatare going to bed, you got some
(38:48):
that are waking up, you got somethat are going to sleep, and
there are 300 men who aresurrounding this camp and they
all start blowing their trumpets.
Could you imagine someonewaking you up in your room in
the dead of night with a trumpet?
That is who you kick out ofyour house right there.
So it says that they blew thetrumpets, they smashed the jars.
Could you imagine it wouldsound like bombs going off, 300
jars dropping, smashing aroundthe camp.
And then you wake up to seewhat in the world is going on.
(39:09):
You've heard the trumpets, youheard the jars and it looks like
your camp is on fire becauseyou are surrounded by torches.
But notice what Israel does nothave.
They don't have any swords,they have no way to fight, it
says in verse 20,.
Then the three companies blewtheir trumpets, they broke the
jars.
They held in their hands thetorches and in their right hands
(39:32):
the trumpets to blow and theycried out no sword, but they
cried out a sword for the Lordand a sword for Gideon.
Why?
Because it is the word of Godthat is the sword of the spirit
in your life.
What wins the battle in yourlife?
Not your might, not your power,not your wisdom, not your way,
(39:55):
but the word of God wins the warin your life and every man of
Israel.
This is beautiful.
They just stood there around thecamp and all the Midianite
armies ran.
They cried out like middleschool girls who had seen a
mouse and they fled.
And when the Israelites blewthe 300 trumpets, the Lord set
(40:19):
every Midianite man's swordagainst his comrade, the
Midianites.
They wake up, scared out oftheir minds.
They hear the bombs, they hearthe trumpets, they see the fire,
they grab their swords, theystart running around and just
stabbing each other in the pitchblack at night.
You can't make this stuff up.
And the army fled.
In other words, when yourbattle is relentless.
(40:41):
Follow Jesus relentlessly.
What is Jesus telling you today?
You can't win your battle.
You can't choose your victoryover your war.
It's not in you.
You weren't created to havethat type of capability.
(41:01):
But when your success isrelentless, it is actually a
very sad ending of the story.
It's such a raw reminder.
Sad ending of the story.
It's such a raw reminder.
Gideon became a very bitter man.
This is what success happens topeople.
(41:22):
What success does Gideon?
It says that once heexperienced God calling him out
of the wine press, god callingpeople to him, only taking 300
men to battle, defeating theentire army of the Midianites.
You can read Judges, chaptereight for yourself.
(41:46):
Gideon became because of hissuccess.
He experienced prayerlessness,independence.
You could read it for yourself.
Like he didn't need anybodyaround him, he was irritated to
anger.
You could just tell that he wasvery bitter.
He was very angry.
(42:07):
He became very violent.
He became very greedy.
He started asking people forall of their money.
He started to struggle insexuality and he was very
self-centered.
There's something that happensin our life when we experience
success whether it is careersuccess, whether it is fame or
(42:29):
popularity, whether it isfinancial success that we don't
pursue God like we did beforeour success, because we don't
feel like we need him.
There is something about whenwe're in adversity that we
pursue God, unlike we do when weare in prosperity.
There's something about that wepursue God when we are in our
(42:53):
weakness, but we don't when weare in our strength.
There's something about when wepursue God in our suffering but
we don't in our success, and Ineed you to hear me say today
that is not the gospel.
The gospel is that, whatever itis that you are experiencing
(43:14):
life, even if it is success,wherever you're going through,
whatever you're going through,you continue to submit to Jesus
relentlessly.
Whether your life is not goingwell, or maybe it is going well,
what do you do, jesus?
I submit to you.
Jesus' life is not my own.
(43:38):
This battle is not my own.
Jesus, I desperately need you.
Whether I see it or not, jesus,you are all that I have, and
Jesus, you are all that Iultimately need in my life.
So, as a reminder to put it alltogether, you can even take a
picture of this if you need to.
When your sin is relentless, Iwant to encourage you to pursue
Jesus relentlessly.
When your fear is relentless, Iwant to encourage you to
(44:02):
believe Jesus relentlessly whenyour idols are relentless.
I want to encourage you toworship Jesus relentlessly when
your battle is relentless.
I want to encourage you tofollow Jesus relentlessly when
your battle is relentless.
I want to encourage you tofollow Jesus relentlessly when
your success is relentless.
Submit to Jesus relentlessly.
Gideon is a reminder to us thatonly Jesus is the true judge,
(44:31):
deliverer and savior in ourlives.
No one else, not ourselves, ineverything that we do.
When your life is relentless,you live in dependence.
I'm going to ask you all to bowyour heads and close your eyes.
Every head bowed, every eyeclosed.
(44:55):
Maybe you're here this morningand you just need to tell Jesus
right now.
Just have a real conversationwith him, to truly cry out to
him, as the word has told usthis morning, and just say Jesus
, you know, my life isrelentless right now.
I believe you can tell himright now.
(45:17):
I believe that you arerelentless for me and so I
choose to live relentlessly foryou.
And maybe you don't feel likeyou can pray that prayer because
you don't have a relationshipwith him yet.
Maybe today is the day that youneed to give your life to him.
(45:37):
Maybe today is the day that youneed to say I'm going to trust
on the Lord Jesus Christ and Iam going to be saved.
Today's the day that he isgoing to forgive you of all your
sin.
Today's the day that youtransfer your membership the
Bible says from hell and you getto have a home in heaven
forever and ever and ever.
And right now I'm not here tojust pray this and you just
(45:58):
repeat after me.
It's not even a prayer thatsaves you.
The Bible says it is your faiththat saves you.
Your prayer is yourarticulation of your faith.
And you can just communicateyour faith to God right now and
you can just simply, in your ownwords, from your own heart, you
can say God, I believe in youand God, I need you.
(46:20):
Right here, right now, you canpray and say God, I believe that
Jesus died on the cross for mysins and I ask you to forgive me
of all my sin.
And you can tell him God, Ibelieve that Jesus rose from the
dead, he's alive and he's realand I wanna live for Jesus and
(46:42):
not my sin.
And the Bible promises that ifyou confess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead.
You will be saved.
So call on him right now.
Jesus, be my Lord, be my God,be my savior.
(47:03):
And Jesus, we believe that wethank you for that.
We pray that all in Jesus' nameand all God's people said put
your hands together for anybodythat prayed that prayer that put
their faith in Jesus Christ,made him the Lord of their life.
Jesus' name and all God'speople said put your hands
together for anybody that prayedthat prayer that put their
faith in Jesus Christ, made himthe Lord of their life.
We just want to say welcome tothe family and I want you to
know here right now that God is.
I believe he is working in thisroom.
(47:25):
I believe he is working in yourheart and that God is doing
incredible things in our church.
We're so thankful for everysingle story that we hear and I
just I wanna pray for you onemore time.
Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that, as we are about
to stand and we're gonna worshipyou here in just a few minutes,
(47:45):
god, that we would just pour itall out.
But, god, I say a specialprayer over every believer here
in this room, as sin isrelentless for them, jesus, I
pray that you would continuejust to make it so real and
evident that you are relentlessafter them, god, I pray that you
would continue just to put yourspirit on display in them so
(48:07):
that they can live empowered andrelentlessly for you.
God, fill us up.
We pray and we ask these thingsin Jesus' name, amen.
Well, good morning and put your hands together.
If you're excited to be inchurch this morning, or if
you're glad you came to churchthis morning, I'm happy you came
to church.
It is so good to see all ofyour smiling faces.
If you're brand new here, Ijust want you to know that it's
an honor to have you here.
You could be anywhere, but Godbrought you here and we just
honor that in your life.
Also, we want you to know thatwe're just all about Jesus here,
(00:21):
not about ourselves.
We're all about him and we areone church.
Everybody say one church, onechurch in two services in two
locations.
We've got a service in oursanctuary at 930 and down here
in our CLC at 11.
And so it's kind of amulti-service setup.
But we're also not just aboutmulti-services.
We're about multi-generationsgetting together, worshiping
(00:46):
Jesus, multi-ethnicity gettingtogether and worship Jesus, and
we're just so thankful foreverything that Jesus is doing.
Just, we hear this a lot, buteven specifically over the last
week, we heard some first-timeguests say that they came to
First Baptist Church, powderSprings, and they said it was
one of the most welcomingexperiences that they had ever
had in their life before comingto a church.
(01:08):
So, first Baptist, I just wantto thank you for being a loving
church.
I want to thank you for being awelcoming church in all the
ways that God is using you rightto reach this community for
Jesus, and I'm so thankful forall that he is doing.
This morning, I want to talk toyou about when life is
relentless.
(01:28):
When your life is relentless,maybe your life today or maybe
you're in a season to where youfeel like that life just won't
quit, your life just won't stop.
It just keeps coming.
Maybe you feel like things thatare happening in your life are
more than you can handle.
(01:48):
It's like wave on wave on wavethat is constantly coming in
your life.
Some examples of that might bemaybe it's work pressure, maybe
it's work and career to where?
Maybe you just feel like youcan't get caught up.
Maybe it just keeps coming atyou.
Maybe your boss just keepsgiving, putting everything on
your plate that he or she shouldbe doing.
(02:09):
Can I get an amen?
And that just keeps falling toyou.
Maybe it's family needs.
Maybe you just you're theperson in the family that
everybody comes to right andyour family's needy, and so your
phone keeps ringing and youkeep getting text messages.
Can you come over?
Can you fix this?
Can you help with that?
And you're thinking can yougive me a break?
(02:33):
Number three mental andemotional health, or maybe even
physical health.
Maybe there are just some realstruggles.
We go through these seasons inour life and maybe you feel like
that it's just relentless, thatyou feel like you can't get
over the mountain, you can't getover it and these things just
keep happening and you'rewondering is this what I have to
live with for the rest of mylife?
Maybe it's financial strugglesand not because of any decision
(02:54):
you made, but just someunfortunate circumstances that
have happened in your life andyou're just wondering am I ever
going to get out of thisfinancial struggle that's
happening?
Maybe it's spiritual warfareand temptation.
Maybe you just feel like you'reat an area, a time in your life
that Satan just really seems tohave your number and he's just
(03:15):
sought you out, and temptationmaybe just feels more alluring
than ever.
Or maybe you just feel down anddiscouraged and depressed.
I want you to know when lifefeels relentless.
There are typically fivedifferent ways that you can
respond.
One is you can work harder andyou can say I'm just gonna dig
deeper, I'm just gonna pushthrough, I'm just gonna work
(03:35):
harder.
I can handle this myself.
Or number two could be retreat.
I just need a vacation, right,or man?
I need to find a new hobby or Iquit.
I I just need a vacation, right, or man, I need to find a new
hobby or I quit.
I turn my phone off and it's onsilent.
Nobody can bother me.
Or number three is just a goodold-fashioned emotional
breakdown.
Can I get an amen, right, andyou just cry it out.
Number four, another option, isyou can just complain.
(03:58):
You can complain, you can justfind your best friend and you
can just vent and you can get apunching bag and you can just go
off and you can just get outall of your emotion.
Or number five you can dependon God.
And that's what we believe.
We believe the scripture saysthat when life is relentless,
that we are called to live independence Everyone say
(04:21):
dependence, that we are calledto depend on God.
We're in our series here,relentless, through the book of
Judges and it's all about whererebellion meets redemption.
And we get to see these cyclesover and over and over again in
other people's lives.
And it's so healthy to seethese cycles because they happen
in ours.
(04:41):
Let's pray, heavenly Father.
God, I ask in Jesus' name, lord, that you would speak to every
single heart in this room, everysingle life.
God, would you still ourthoughts, god, would you calm
our minds?
And, lord, may we listen towhat you have for us here in
(05:04):
this moment from youreverlasting word.
In Jesus' name and all God'speople said when life is
relentless, we're going to lookat the life of Gideon, his whole
life, judges 6, 7, and 8.
Turn with me to Judges, chapter6, or you will see it on your
screens.
Number one when your sin isrelentless, Everyone your sin.
(05:24):
When your sin is relentless,everyone say sin when your sin
is relentless.
Check this out.
It says in Judges, chapter six,verse one says the people of
Israel did what was evil in thesight of the Lord and the Lord
gave them into the hand ofMidian for seven, for seven
years.
What we see here is in Judges.
(05:44):
It is this book that shows ushow the people of God not people
who didn't know God, people whodid know God how they fell into
sin over and over and overagain.
It is a reminder for us thatsin is relentlessly coming after
us.
The Bible says in 1 Peter,chapter 5, that the devil is
(06:05):
like a roaring, a prowling lionseeking whom he may devour.
In other words, sin is alwaysafter you.
But aren't you thankful thatJesus is more relentless for you
than sin?
Can I get an amen?
Proverbs 24, verse 16.
It won't be on the screen, butwrite this down.
Proverbs 24, 16 says thisthough a righteous person falls
(06:31):
seven times, seven is the numberof completion.
It's a number of continualness.
Though a righteous person fallsseven times, he will get up,
but the wicked will stumble intoruin.
What is the writer of Proverbssaying?
He is saying that thesimilarity, the commonality
(06:53):
between the righteous and thewicked is we all sin.
There are people here todaythat maybe you are doubting your
salvation because of your sin.
Salvation does not mean thatGod has changed you into
perfection.
It means that he has changedyour direction from following
sin to following after him.
So the commonality between therighteous and the unrighteous is
(07:16):
sin.
But what is different?
The difference is the Biblesays the righteous man gets back
up.
The Bible says the differenceis is that the saved person
here's me lives in repentance.
Living in repentance does notmean to live in perfection.
It means that when you're insin, god convicts you, god
(07:36):
speaks to you, people call youout, they hold you accountable
and you turn directions and youlive your life for Jesus again.
And that's what we see herehappening in the story that they
continually fall into sin, likeyou and like I do.
Verse 10, in the hand of Midian,another country, another nation
of another people overpoweredIsrael.
(07:58):
And that's what happens when Isin.
That's what happens when yousin is that sin overpowers us.
Often we think that we can livein sin because we have control
over our sin.
We have power over our sin.
You and I, we do not havecontrol.
We do not have power over sin.
Only Jesus does.
(08:19):
When we live in sin, sin hascontrol and power over us.
It says that the people ofIsrael were so overpowered that
they made for themselves densand mountains and caves and
strongholds to hide from theIsraelites.
Why?
Because that's what sin wantsin your life.
(08:41):
Sin wants to isolate you.
Sin wants to isolate you.
Sin wants you to live in shame.
Sin wants me to live in guilt.
Sin wants us to live inloneliness and a lack of
community.
That's why it's so important tobe in community with other
believers.
That's why it's so important tobe in a group, to be in a Bible
(09:04):
study, to be in a Sunday school, so that we are in community
with one another.
He goes on to say and Israel wasbrought very low.
Why Do you realize it's not onthe screen at this point but
Midian was this country that,when they came and overpowered
Israel, that Midian startedstealing.
(09:25):
Country that, when they cameand overpowered Israel, that
Midian started stealing Israel'sfood, started stealing Israel's
crop.
Because that's what sin lovesto do, hear me.
Sin loves to steal ourspiritual fruitfulness in Jesus
Christ.
We cannot grow in Jesus andlive in sin simultaneously.
Can I get an amen?
We can't do that.
(09:45):
It's impossible to be happeningat the same time.
So when Israel was brought verylow, can I just submit to you
when life puts you on your knees, stay there in prayer.
When life puts you down, stayand pray.
(10:06):
And Israel was brought very lowbecause of Midian and the people
of Israel.
What did they do when they werebrought low?
They cried out for help to theLord, saying God, we need help.
God, we're overpowered.
God, for us it'd be.
God, I'm in addiction.
God, I can't get out of thismyself.
I just keep getting deeper God.
(10:27):
I can't get myself out of thishole In verse eight.
So what did the Lord do?
The Lord sent a prophet.
This is the only time that thishappened throughout all 12
judges in the book of Judges,that God sent a prophet instead
of a judge at first.
What is God saying?
(10:47):
God is saying he only needs tosend one judge, and that one
judge, who is our true savior,who is our true deliverer, is
Jesus.
And often what happens in mylife when I get into sin and I
just my sinfulness just wants meto get out of sin so that I can
just live in freedom for myselfagain, that is not God's plan
(11:07):
for my life To not live infreedom.
God's plan for my life is tolive in dependence.
And so what we see here Godsends a prophet.
Why?
Because often we don't justneed God to get us out of our
trouble.
We need God to teach us fromhis word how not to get into
trouble.
Often we don't.
We need God to teach us fromhis word how not to get into
(11:28):
trouble.
Often we don't need just God towave a magic wand, we need
God's word in our life.
It is as if God is saying let meshow you how you got there, so
that you don't get into it again.
He says I send a prophet to thepeople of Israel.
And the prophet said to thepeople thus says the Lord, the
(11:49):
God of Israel, I led you up fromEgypt and brought you out of
the house of slavery.
In other words, god is sayinglet me remind you who I am, let
me remind you how much I loveyou.
Let me remind you that Icreated you.
Let me remind you that Icreated you.
Let me remind you that I sentmy son to die for you.
(12:09):
Let me remind you that he rosefrom the dead.
Let me remind you that I'vecalled you to salvation.
Let me remind you that I'veforgiven you, that I've redeemed
you.
Look at who I am and look atall of these things that I have
done for you.
And he's saying every time thatyou fall into sin, you are
choosing sins over me.
And God goes on to say and Isaid to you I am the Lord, your
(12:33):
God, but you have not obeyed myvoice.
Which is exactly why James, thehalf-brother of Jesus, told us
in James, chapter one, that weare not just called to be a
hearer of the word.
Our call in life is not just togo to church.
The height of our spirituallife is not just to come and
(12:57):
listen to a sermon.
The question is are we obeyingthe voice?
Are we obeying the word of God?
Are we applying the word of Godinto our life so that we're not
just a hearer but we're also adoer?
If you've got sin in your lifethat is plaguing you, that is
dominating you, that you feellike is addicting you, the best
(13:20):
thing that you can possibly dois to get into God's word.
Use Google, use AI, whatever itis you need to do and to find
some verses that dealspecifically with your sin and
memorize them for yourself wordfor word.
Psalm 119, 11 says I havehidden God's word in my heart
(13:41):
that I might not sin against him.
Go on YouTube and look upsermons specific to the sin that
you're struggling with.
Go on YouVersion app and lookup Bible studies specific to the
sin that you might bestruggling with.
Find an accountability grouphere in our church, and if you
can't find one, we'll make onefor you.
If we can't make one, then youcan lead it yourself and you can
(14:03):
be a part of a group with otherpeople that might be struggling
with that.
Because what do we do when oursin is relentless?
We pursue Jesus all the morerelentlessly.
When our sin is relentless, wepursue Jesus all the more
relentlessly.
Well, number two, when yourfear is relentless.
Everyone say fear.
(14:24):
We all struggle with fear.
You ever notice how the Bibleis full of people who struggle
with fear?
The Bible is full of people whostruggle with doubt.
Isn't it interesting that theBible doesn't have one person
besides Jesus, who's perfect?
The Bible is full of all ofthese imperfect people, because
(14:46):
the more in touch you are withyour weakness and your fear, the
more you connect with the wordof God, who is full of all of
these people with fear.
It says in verse 11, now theangel of the Lord.
Just by the way, I love to tellyou this whenever this shows up
in the Bible, when the Biblesays an angel of the Lord, it's
(15:07):
just an angel.
When the Bible says the angelof the Lord, it is the
pre-incarnate Jesus Christ,before his virgin birth, coming
onto the scene in the OldTestament, disguised, and they
don't know who he is.
But Jesus is writing himselfinto their story, just like
Jesus is writing himself intoyour story, just like Jesus is
writing himself into your story.
Can I get an amen?
(15:27):
The angel of the Lord came andhe sat.
Jesus came and he sat under theterebinth at Ophrah not Oprah,
but Ophrah which belonged toJoash the Abyssalite, while his
son, gideon, was beating outwheat in the wine press to hide
it from the Midianites.
Now, this is very interestingAgain.
All of Israel's scared, all ofIsrael's in hiding, all of their
(15:52):
food's getting stolen.
So typically you would beat outwheat on the top of a hill so
that the wind can drive thechaff away.
No, he is down in the bottom ofa valley of a winepress in
hiding.
He is a man of great fear, he'sa sissy, he's a pansy, he's a
wimp, he's a wiener schnitzel.
Okay, like Gideon is no warrior, he's no braveheart.
(16:14):
Verse 12,.
And the angel of the Lord,jesus, appeared to him and said
to Gideon the Lord is with you,oh, mighty man of valor.
I just love this.
The Lord is with you, oh mightyman of valor.
It sounds like that either Jesusis giving him a nickname, like
we give people a nickname today.
You ever met somebody who'sreally big?
They're really tall, they liketo eat a lot?
(16:35):
Right, they're just a reallybig guy.
You ask him their name, you'relike oh, people call me Tiny,
right?
That's what happens withnicknames, right?
It's kind of you tell them theopposite, you know, and so is it
that Jesus is just calling hima nickname.
Is Jesus being sarcastic?
Oh, you big, brave boy, you.
Or is Jesus speaking to himabout what Jesus is going to do
(16:59):
in his life?
The angel of the Lord appearedto him and said to him the Lord
is with you.
Oh, mighty man of valor, hedidn't call Gideon for what he
was doing.
He was calling Gideon for whathe was going to use Gideon to do
.
And Gideon said please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why
then has all of this happened tous and why did all of it happen
(17:19):
to Israel?
Why were they in all thattrouble?
Gideon's blaming it on God, butit wasn't God's fault.
God didn't leave Israel.
Israel left God.
Often in our life we go throughtrouble and heartache and
hardship and trial, and it's notbecause God left us.
It's because that we left him.
(17:41):
It's interesting that God callshim almighty man of valor,
because you can often tell thevoice of Satan or the voice of
God in your life.
Satan will start with your sinand he will drive you into
discouragement.
God will start with your sin,but he will lift you up in
encouragement.
When we are feeling guiltybecause of our sin, the lies of
(18:04):
the enemy would label us guilty.
But yet our identity in Christ,god says but you're not guilty,
you're forgiven.
When the enemy says you'reunwanted, our identity in Christ
is not just that you're wanted,but that you're chosen.
When the lie of the enemy saysthat you're trapped in your sin,
your identity in Christ is youare free in order to not sin.
When the lies of the enemy saysthat you're unlovable, it's not
(18:27):
just that you're lovable, butthat you are loved by God.
Our identity in Christ is, andfor people that have struggled
in their life maybe withfatherlessness, then you can
know that you are a child of Godand God himself is your father.
Put your hands together for theidentity in Christ that Jesus
gives you in every believer.
(18:51):
So the Lord turned to Gideon andhe said go in this might of
yours.
God knew that it wasn't anytype of might or power in Gideon
.
It was the might, it was thepower, it was the courage that
God was giving to Gideon.
I heard a pastor say this weekGod doesn't call the brave, he
makes brave the called.
(19:12):
He doesn't call the brave, hemakes the brave called.
Go in this might of yours andsave Israel from the hand of
Midian.
Do I not send you?
That is a big calling, but Ibelieve this is the same thing
that God is telling many of ushere today, and I don't know
what it is for you.
Only you know.
But God's got a calling on yourlife that is bigger than you
(19:36):
and you can't do it and youdon't have the courage, and you
don't have the might, and youdon't have the power, and you
don't have the ability, and youdon't have the might, and you
don't have the power and youdon't have the ability.
But here's what God is saying,here's what I'm calling you to
do, and I am the one sending you, and that's all you need to
know.
So what do we do?
We come up with excuses.
(19:57):
That's exactly what Gideon did.
Gideon said please, lord, howcan I save Israel?
In other words, I don't knowhow to do what you're telling me
to do.
You ever felt like that?
Gideon says behold, my clan isthe weakest in all of Manasseh.
In other words, we tell God,god, do you know the family that
I came from?
Do you realize we put the funin dysfunctional?
Do you realize what kind offamily that we are in our house?
(20:20):
Do you realize just thebrokenness that I come from?
And God, I don't come from astrong, spiritual family.
And Gideon says and God, withall that, I'm the least and all
my fathers, I'm the runt.
God, I've got nothing to offer.
God loves to choose the weak toshow off his strength.
(20:45):
And God said all they needed tosay I will be with you and
that's all you need to hear.
Whatever it is that God'scalling you to do, whoever it is
that God is calling you tominister to, to witness to, to
invite to be a ministry in theirlife, whatever it is that God
(21:06):
is calling you to accomplish inyour life, that God is with you
and that's all that you need,because God's presence in your
life is all that we could everask for.
He says, and you shall strikethe Midianites as one man In
verse 17,.
He goes on to say and he saidto him if I now Gideon says, if
I have found favor in your eyes,then show me a sign that is you
(21:29):
who speak with me.
You remember in the gospels thatJesus loved to say you know, a
perverse, a crooked generation.
They're always seeking a sign,because the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the Zealots theywould always be like Jesus show
us a sign who you really are.
And he's saying look, if you'rejust looking for a sign to see
(21:49):
who I am, then you're not gonnabelieve the sign, because then
if all you saw was a sign, thenthe sign is greater than me and
he says you're looking at me, Iam the sign.
Jesus said let me give you asign.
Jesus said the sign that youneed is the sign of Jonah.
And what was the sign of Jonah?
That Jonah would be in thebelly of a fish for three days
and three nights.
(22:10):
And Jesus said that's what I'mtalking about.
I am going to be in the bellyof the earth, I am going to die,
I'm gonna be crucified, I'mgonna suffer, I'm gonna be
buried for three days and threenights and on the third day I am
going to rise from the dead.
And that's the only sign thatyou need that I am the
resurrected Lord in Jesus Christ.
Put your hands together forJesus.
(22:31):
He is your sign, he's yourSavior.
The sign has already happened,but this is before that.
So Gideon says show me a sign.
And God does it.
There's a meal that Godconsumes that Gideon, like,
throws on the grill.
And then Gideon says well,that's nice, well, anybody could
(22:52):
do that, god.
So how about I put a fleece outat night and in the morning, if
I get up and the fleece is wetand the ground is dry, then God
I'll know that it's you Gets upthe next morning, goes out and
checks the fleece.
The fleece is wet, the groundis dry.
And Gideon says God, that'sreally nice, but anybody could
do that.
I mean, that could happen atany time.
So let's try the opposite.
(23:13):
Third sign God, when I come outtomorrow morning, may the ground
be wet and the fleece be dry.
And sure enough, gideon comesout, the ground is wet, the
fleece is dry.
And Gideon knows that the Godof the universe is calling him.
Just like you know, the God ofthe universe is calling you to
do what he's called you to do.
(23:35):
Because what do we do when ourfear is relentless, when life is
relentless and it causes fearwithin us?
We just believe Jesusrelentlessly.
We get in the word, we remainin the church, we do the
ministry that God's called us todo.
We play worship music allthroughout our week and we
(23:58):
worship God and we listen to Godso that we can believe Jesus,
because fear is an enemy and theonly weapon against fear is
faith, and we need to believeJesus relentlessly.
Can I get an amen?
Number three when your idolsare relentless?
Watch this in Gideon's lifewhen your idols are relentless,
(24:20):
verse 25,.
That night the Lord said to himtake your father's bull and the
second bull, seven years old,and pull down the altar of Baal
that your father has and cutdown the Asherah that is beside
it.
So here's what we see thatGideon's dad has got some idols.
The idol of Baal we talkedabout over the last couple of
(24:41):
weeks is the God small g.
The idol of Baal we talkedabout over the last couple of
weeks is the God small g, theidol of money.
Asherah is the God small g, theidol of sexual immorality.
The reason that Israel servedand worshiped both idols was
because they believed if youwere crazy enough to worship
both, then you would haveeverything you could ever want.
(25:04):
And isn't it interesting thatGod did not say I want you to go
out through all of Israel.
I want, gideon, I want you togo out through all of the world
and I want you to tear downevery idol.
No, he said, I want you to goto your house.
When God wants to do a workthrough you, he must first do a
(25:26):
work in you.
What God loves to do is toexpose the idols in our lives.
Isn't it interesting that hedoesn't just say sin, he says
idols.
Often we think I don't have anyidols.
This little idol worship in theBible has got nothing to do
about me.
Who would fall down and worshipa little statue?
(25:48):
Well, first of all, theseweren't little statues.
Baal was this massive stonemonument in Gideon's dad's yard
which is on this huge platform.
Asherah was probably a 30-footpillar that they would worship
Asherah.
But behind every idol was ademon, just like behind every
(26:08):
sin is the devil.
And what they would do is theywould not just quote commit sin,
they would worship sin.
Because what God is showing usthrough idols in the Old
Testament is that sin is notjust something on the naughty
list.
When I sin against God, I amsaying God, I am choosing not to
worship you in this area of mylife.
(26:30):
I am going to worship myself.
I am going to worship my sin.
And I also think it'sinteresting that he said go to
your father's house, and if Icould just get real and personal
for a second.
One of the greatest strongholdsthat Satan loves to use in our
(26:52):
lives is what happened in ourchildhood the hurt, the pain,
the trauma, whatever it was.
And if we don't deal with that,satan will continue to use it
(27:15):
in your life to hold you down.
And what Jesus is saying to you?
1 Peter, chapter 5,.
Jesus says cast all of yourcares, your anxieties, your
burdens, your pain, your trauma.
(27:35):
Cast it all onto me, because Iam the one who cares for you.
You can give Jesus your past sothat you can enjoy your present
and your future with him.
Can I get an amen?
God is saying deal with what hashappened in your life.
(27:55):
In verse 26, he goes on to sayand build an altar to the Lord.
So in other words, he's notjust saying go and get rid of
your sin and then go livehowever you want to.
That's religion.
Go and deal with your idol andthen you can live however you
want to.
That's morality, that'slegalism.
No, the purpose of tearing downthe idols is to build an altar
(28:18):
is to worship the Lord JesusChrist.
Build an altar in your life.
God is not just calling us todeal with our sin.
God is calling us to deal withour sin, to deepen our devotion
in Jesus and build an altar tothe Lord, your God, on the top
of the stronghold here, with thestones laid in due order.
Then take the second bull,offer it as a burnt offering,
(28:39):
with the wood on the Asherahthat you shall cut down.
So Gideon took 10 men of hisservants.
You don't have to do it alone.
That's why we have groupstogether, that's why we meet
together in Bible studies, sothat we can pray for one another
, we can encourage one another,you can hear how other people
are struggling just like you,and you don't have to feel alone
(29:01):
and isolated anymore.
He took 10 men of his serviceand he did as the Lord told him.
But because he was too afraidof his family and the men of the
town to do it by day, gideon,that scaredy cat, he did it by
night, but he did it, but he didit.
Here's what I want to show you.
I believe that idol worship isstill as true today as it ever
(29:21):
was, even if we have a littlepillar, a little statue, a
little platform or not.
The idol of Asherah in theBible was the way that they
would worship Asherah wasthrough the sin of sexual
immorality.
Molech was that God, that falseGod of the Bible.
The way they would worship thatfalse God was through child
(29:42):
sacrifice.
We might call it abortion today.
Gad, the false God.
Gad, that idol, he was the Godof luck, because when you don't
believe in anything, you justthink things are going to work
out for you in the end.
The God, small Jesus, that idolwas known.
If you wanted to, you wantedmore power in your life over
other people.
Aphrodite was people that wouldworship beauty.
(30:03):
Nebo was the God that wouldcall them to worship him through
education.
In other words, these were allof the things that people were
pursuing instead of God throughidol worship.
So what do we do?
How do we attack our idols?
When your idols are relentless,I encourage you to worship
(30:25):
Jesus all the more relentlessly.
Don't just destroy idols.
We seek Jesus, we pursue Jesusand we worship him relentlessly.
You could never understand thepower that Jesus is doing in
your life when you come tochurch and when you worship him
(30:46):
together, like when you openyour mouth when you raise your
hands, when you pour out yourheart in worship.
In fact, if you're someonewho's expressive in worship, I
want to challenge you, I want tocall you.
If you think that one of yourspiritual gifts is you just love
to be free in worship, I wouldencourage you to come and sit
down on some of these front rowsevery single Sunday morning so
(31:09):
that you can be an encouragementfor other people to feel free
in worship too.
Can I get an amen?
We need to destroy our idolsrelentlessly by worshiping Jesus
relentlessly.
Number four when your battle isrelentless.
Everyone say battle when yourbattle is relentless.
Check this out.
This is the climax of the story.
(31:30):
But the spirit of the Lordclothed Gideon.
Can I remind you today ifyou've given your life to Jesus,
if you believe that he is yourLord, your savior, you believe
that he died on the, your Savior, you believe that he died on
the cross and he rose from thedead.
He has not just forgiven you ofsin, he has clothed you with
(31:50):
his Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit indwells youand so you get to experience the
power of God, not just aroundyou but within you.
The Spirit of the Lord clothedGideon.
He sounded the trumpet and theAbyssalites were called out to
follow him, and he sentmessengers throughout all
(32:10):
Manasseh and they too werecalled to follow him.
In other words, when you aregoing through battles in your
life, battles in your life, godis going to bring more of his
people around you to fight withyou and to fight for you.
But that doesn't mean that youcan just sit on the couch, that
(32:32):
you can just sit at home andjust wait for people to knock on
the door to come in so thatthey can get on their knees
before you and start praying foryou, because that's weird,
that's not gonna happen.
In other words, you need to putyourself in the place where
God's people are.
You need to be honest andtransparent what's happening in
your life and watch what God'speople will do for you.
(32:56):
This is a loving church.
You get a part of a group.
You get in a small group in aBible study and don't dominate
the class, but you can share attimes what is happening in your
life and watch how the peoplewill pray for you and will love
(33:16):
you and will support you andwill check on you and will be
there for you.
And it's so interesting herethe Lord just flips the script.
And the Lord said to Gideon inJudges 7-2,.
He said now the people with youare too many.
It's like well, god, which isit?
You know, lord, have you takenyour meds today Like I didn't
(33:39):
have enough and now I've got toomany?
And God, what is going on?
What are you trying to do?
It's actually two differentthings.
There are times in our lives Iwould say some of the hardest
times in my life, the hardesttimes in your life where God
takes, removes someone from ourlife.
(34:00):
And what God is saying is Godsometimes removes people from us
that we thought we needed forGod to show us that he is all we
truly need.
He says the Lord said to Gideonthe people with you are too
(34:22):
many for me to give theMidianites into their hand, or
Israel is gonna brag over me andsaying man, we did this all on
ourselves and we saved ourselves.
So therefore, proclaim in theears of the people saying
whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry
away from Mount Gilead.
Then 22,000 of the peoplereturned and 10,000 remained.
(34:45):
In other words, there were32,000 men out of nowhere that
came and started followingGideon.
And so God says ah, we gottadwindle this down a little bit,
man, because I don't want themto think they did it.
I need to show everybody thatI'm the one that wins the battle
in their life.
So we see that 22,000 peoplewent home.
(35:07):
It went from 32,000 right thereto about 10,000.
And just because he saidwhoever is scared, whoever's
trembling, y'all can go.
You never wanna go to fightwith somebody who's shaking in
their knees.
You know what I'm saying andthat's what God's doing.
Verse seven the Lord said toGideon with 300, with the 300
men who lapped, I will save youand give Midianites into your
(35:29):
hand and let all the others gouh, every man to his home.
Here's what just happened.
So now, out of the 10,000 menthat were left, god said now
tell all the men to go and get adrink of water out of this
watering hole.
10,000 men go down.
Apparently, half of the men gotdown on their chest, on their
face, face down in the water,and just started drinking the
(35:50):
water, just their mouth in thewater.
But there were other men thatgot on their knee and cupped the
water up with their hand andkept their eyes up and they were
looking around and God issaying I want you to keep the
ones who stay on their knees.
God is saying I want you tokeep the ones who kneel down and
surrender.
God is saying I want you tokeep the ones who are keeping
(36:14):
their eyes open.
And, men, we are called here inthis room to be spiritual
leaders and we're called to bewatchers for our family.
The Bible says that we need towatch as men, and we need to
stand firm.
We don't need to be head downin the sense that we are not
paying attention.
But if we are called to protectour family, if we're called to
shepherd our family, if we'recalled to be the spiritual
(36:35):
leaders in our family, then ourheads need to be on a swivel and
we always need to be aware ofwhat Satan's trying to do in our
family.
Can I get an amen?
God said those are the men thatI want you to keep, those are
the men I want you to go tobattle with.
That same night, the Lord saidto Gideon so I want you to get
up and I want you to go downagainst the camp, for I have
given it into your hand.
(36:57):
And it says and he deliveredthe 300 men, or Gideon, put the
300 men into three differentcompanies.
Now here's what's interesting.
He put trumpets into one handof the men and an empty jar in
the other hand of the men andput a torch inside the empty jar
and he said to them look at meand do likewise.
(37:19):
And do likewise.
You know, in our life we alwaysneed to have somebody that we
are looking at, that arefollowing Jesus and we need to
watch them.
When we say I need to do whatthey're doing because they're
following Jesus, and we need toremember that people are
watching us and that people needto be able to look at us and
see I need to look at them and Ineed to do likewise.
(37:39):
So Gideon and his hundred menof his company who were with him
came to the outskirts of theMidianite camp.
So here they are.
By the way, how many Midianiteswere there?
Stay with me.
135,000 to 300 Israelites.
450 Midianites to every oneIsraelite.
(38:01):
It was impossible odds.
So they came to the outskirts ofthe camp at the beginning of
the middle watch.
When was the middle watch?
This is important 3 am,typically three watches of the
night.
If it's the middle watch, thefirst watch is coming in and
they're going to bed, they'reexhausted.
The second watch, the middlewatch, now they're getting up
(38:21):
out of a sleep, they're groggy,they're coming out to the
battlefield and the third watchis still sleeping in their beds,
which means this is a time wheneverybody is tired, nobody is
watching, nobody is alert,nobody is awake.
And when they had just set thewatch and they blew, if you can
imagine, you got some that aregoing to bed, you got some that
are waking up, you got some thatare going to bed, you got some
(38:48):
that are waking up, you got somethat are going to sleep, and
there are 300 men who aresurrounding this camp and they
all start blowing their trumpets.
Could you imagine someonewaking you up in your room in
the dead of night with a trumpet?
That is who you kick out ofyour house right there.
So it says that they blew thetrumpets, they smashed the jars.
Could you imagine it wouldsound like bombs going off, 300
jars dropping, smashing aroundthe camp.
And then you wake up to seewhat in the world is going on.
(39:09):
You've heard the trumpets, youheard the jars and it looks like
your camp is on fire becauseyou are surrounded by torches.
But notice what Israel does nothave.
They don't have any swords,they have no way to fight, it
says in verse 20,.
Then the three companies blewtheir trumpets, they broke the
jars.
They held in their hands thetorches and in their right hands
(39:32):
the trumpets to blow and theycried out no sword, but they
cried out a sword for the Lordand a sword for Gideon.
Why?
Because it is the word of Godthat is the sword of the spirit
in your life.
What wins the battle in yourlife?
Not your might, not your power,not your wisdom, not your way,
(39:55):
but the word of God wins the warin your life and every man of
Israel.
This is beautiful.
They just stood there around thecamp and all the Midianite
armies ran.
They cried out like middleschool girls who had seen a
mouse and they fled.
And when the Israelites blewthe 300 trumpets, the Lord set
(40:19):
every Midianite man's swordagainst his comrade, the
Midianites.
They wake up, scared out oftheir minds.
They hear the bombs, they hearthe trumpets, they see the fire,
they grab their swords, theystart running around and just
stabbing each other in the pitchblack at night.
You can't make this stuff up.
And the army fled.
In other words, when yourbattle is relentless.
(40:41):
Follow Jesus relentlessly.
What is Jesus telling you today?
You can't win your battle.
You can't choose your victoryover your war.
It's not in you.
You weren't created to havethat type of capability.
(41:01):
But when your success isrelentless, it is actually a
very sad ending of the story.
It's such a raw reminder.
Sad ending of the story.
It's such a raw reminder.
Gideon became a very bitter man.
This is what success happens topeople.
(41:22):
What success does Gideon?
It says that once heexperienced God calling him out
of the wine press, god callingpeople to him, only taking 300
men to battle, defeating theentire army of the Midianites.
You can read Judges, chaptereight for yourself.
(41:46):
Gideon became because of hissuccess.
He experienced prayerlessness,independence.
You could read it for yourself.
Like he didn't need anybodyaround him, he was irritated to
anger.
You could just tell that he wasvery bitter.
He was very angry.
(42:07):
He became very violent.
He became very greedy.
He started asking people forall of their money.
He started to struggle insexuality and he was very
self-centered.
There's something that happensin our life when we experience
success whether it is careersuccess, whether it is fame or
(42:29):
popularity, whether it isfinancial success that we don't
pursue God like we did beforeour success, because we don't
feel like we need him.
There is something about whenwe're in adversity that we
pursue God, unlike we do when weare in prosperity.
There's something about that wepursue God when we are in our
(42:53):
weakness, but we don't when weare in our strength.
There's something about when wepursue God in our suffering but
we don't in our success, and Ineed you to hear me say today
that is not the gospel.
The gospel is that, whatever itis that you are experiencing
(43:14):
life, even if it is success,wherever you're going through,
whatever you're going through,you continue to submit to Jesus
relentlessly.
Whether your life is not goingwell, or maybe it is going well,
what do you do, jesus?
I submit to you.
Jesus' life is not my own.
(43:38):
This battle is not my own.
Jesus, I desperately need you.
Whether I see it or not, jesus,you are all that I have, and
Jesus, you are all that Iultimately need in my life.
So, as a reminder to put it alltogether, you can even take a
picture of this if you need to.
When your sin is relentless, Iwant to encourage you to pursue
Jesus relentlessly.
When your fear is relentless, Iwant to encourage you to
(44:02):
believe Jesus relentlessly whenyour idols are relentless.
I want to encourage you toworship Jesus relentlessly when
your battle is relentless.
I want to encourage you tofollow Jesus relentlessly when
your battle is relentless.
I want to encourage you tofollow Jesus relentlessly when
your success is relentless.
Submit to Jesus relentlessly.
Gideon is a reminder to us thatonly Jesus is the true judge,
(44:31):
deliverer and savior in ourlives.
No one else, not ourselves, ineverything that we do.
When your life is relentless,you live in dependence.
I'm going to ask you all to bowyour heads and close your eyes.
Every head bowed, every eyeclosed.
(44:55):
Maybe you're here this morningand you just need to tell Jesus
right now.
Just have a real conversationwith him, to truly cry out to
him, as the word has told usthis morning, and just say Jesus
, you know, my life isrelentless right now.
I believe you can tell himright now.
(45:17):
I believe that you arerelentless for me and so I
choose to live relentlessly foryou.
And maybe you don't feel likeyou can pray that prayer because
you don't have a relationshipwith him yet.
Maybe today is the day that youneed to give your life to him.
(45:37):
Maybe today is the day that youneed to say I'm going to trust
on the Lord Jesus Christ and Iam going to be saved.
Today's the day that he isgoing to forgive you of all your
sin.
Today's the day that youtransfer your membership the
Bible says from hell and you getto have a home in heaven
forever and ever and ever.
And right now I'm not here tojust pray this and you just
(45:58):
repeat after me.
It's not even a prayer thatsaves you.
The Bible says it is your faiththat saves you.
Your prayer is yourarticulation of your faith.
And you can just communicateyour faith to God right now and
you can just simply, in your ownwords, from your own heart, you
can say God, I believe in youand God, I need you.
(46:20):
Right here, right now, you canpray and say God, I believe that
Jesus died on the cross for mysins and I ask you to forgive me
of all my sin.
And you can tell him God, Ibelieve that Jesus rose from the
dead, he's alive and he's realand I wanna live for Jesus and
(46:42):
not my sin.
And the Bible promises that ifyou confess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead.
You will be saved.
So call on him right now.
Jesus, be my Lord, be my God,be my savior.
(47:03):
And Jesus, we believe that wethank you for that.
We pray that all in Jesus' nameand all God's people said put
your hands together for anybodythat prayed that prayer that put
their faith in Jesus Christ,made him the Lord of their life.
Jesus' name and all God'speople said put your hands
together for anybody that prayedthat prayer that put their
faith in Jesus Christ, made himthe Lord of their life.
We just want to say welcome tothe family and I want you to
know here right now that God is.
I believe he is working in thisroom.
(47:25):
I believe he is working in yourheart and that God is doing
incredible things in our church.
We're so thankful for everysingle story that we hear and I
just I wanna pray for you onemore time.
Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that, as we are about
to stand and we're gonna worshipyou here in just a few minutes,
(47:45):
god, that we would just pour itall out.
But, god, I say a specialprayer over every believer here
in this room, as sin isrelentless for them, jesus, I
pray that you would continuejust to make it so real and
evident that you are relentlessafter them, god, I pray that you
would continue just to put yourspirit on display in them so
(48:07):
that they can live empowered andrelentlessly for you.
God, fill us up.
We pray and we ask these thingsin Jesus' name, amen.
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