 Hey man, so Judges Chapter 7, we're continuing the story of Gideon, the Judge of Gideon. We started the story of Gideon in Chapter 6, and the story continues in Judges Chapter 7. So to recap, in Judges Chapter 6, we see, you know, the calling of Gideon where the angel came and, you know, the prophet prophesied and then the angel came and talked to Gideon. And you know, he calls Gideon into action. And the first thing that he does is he tells, you know, now the Israelites at this time of Gideon are under oppression again from the Midianites and from all these other nations. But the angel calls Gideon into action, and the first thing he has him do, of course, is tear down the altar of Baal because the children of Israel have turned against the Lord. And he tears down the altar of Baal, by the way, that was his dad's altar to Baal. You know, his dad had, it was in his father's backyard, basically. So he does this, and then basically the Midianites and all these other nations come, they hear about this, it causes a great stir, and they bring this great army to destroy Israel, to destroy what Gideon has done. He's revolted against the nation that is oppressing them, okay? So look at Judges Chapter 7 in verse number 1, and the story continues, and the Bible says in Jerubbabel who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod, and the host of the Midianites, that means the army of the Midianites, were on the north side of them by the hill of Moorah in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people were with thee, are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. West Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, my own hand has saved me. So a couple things here. First of all, you know, just picture the scene. This huge army is in the valley, and where are the Israelites living? You know, they're up in the mountains and the caves and the rocks. They've been, you know, pushed out of their villages, right? If you remember Judges Chapter 6, and this is common for people when they were oppressed, and we saw that in some of the earlier chapters in Judges, that people just, they was not safe to live in the villages. They were under too much oppression, and they went and they fled to the mountains, okay? So now we have this huge army that comes into the valley. You think about the valley we live in. We live in this valley. The mountains are right there. It's a very good picture for us to see. It would be like the army being in Fresno, and everybody else, you know, the children of Israel living up at Shaver Lake, basically, and, you know, that's the difference there, okay? So look at verse number two. The Lord says something here. He says that the people that are with you are too many for me. So this is very interesting here, okay? As we start out this chapter, you know, basically, can you really, when you're going to war, can you really have too many people? Can you say I have too many soldiers right now? I mean, but that's exactly what God is saying here. Is He saying that the Lord is, you know, the Lord says there's too many people with you, Gideon? And He says, why? He says, because I don't want you to say that you saved yourself. I want you to be able to say that I saved you. So it's interesting, because this is the first, now we're seeing that Gideon's faith is being tested in Judges chapter seven. And this is the first time that it's tested. Look at verse number three. Now therefore, so God is saying you have too many people, so I want you to do this. And in verse number three, He says, now therefore, go to proclaim in the ears of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And they return to the people 20 and 2,000, and they remain 10,000. So let's do some math, 22,000 left, and they remain 10,000. So if you add, you know, 10,000 plus 22,000, there was 32,000 people to begin with. And you know, God said, find out who's afraid and just let them go back home. So they take a survey or whatever and ask, hey, whoever's afraid can go back home. And 22,000 of the 32,000 are like, yeah, we'll leave, we'll be out, right? So basically two thirds of the people were fearful and afraid. That was most of the people, okay? Now look, most people are afraid. I mean, that's pretty much the lesson here. And you can see that even with the saved people of God here, that there's a lot of people that were afraid. Okay? Now look, the Bible does say that it's, I mean, it's a sin to be afraid. I mean, Revelation 21a, how many times have you read that out soul-winning, where does it start out with? The fearful and unbelieving. It says, it's the fearful and unbelieving. Being fearful and unbelieving go together, okay? Those two are attached to each other. If a saved person is fearful, it's because of their unbelief. It's lack of faith. It doesn't mean they're not saved. It's just unbelief. It's not, you know, it's not trusting totally in, you know, that God can get you through the situation or whatever. We talked about this on Sunday morning. So look, we just see an example here of, you know, most people being afraid in this situation. Okay? And look, I mean, you can say the same thing about our country today. If you asked me, you know, what's the biggest surprise that you had in 2020, I would tell you that so many people in this country are afraid. I mean, I never would have thought. I never would have thought that there's so many people who are afraid. But it's true. It's unfortunate. Okay? But fearful goes along with being unbelieving. So it does make sense according to the Bible. Okay? So look, the fearful and the fearful people, they leave. Now we're down to 10,000 people. He just lost two-thirds of his army. Look at verse number four. The Bible says, and the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there, and it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shall thou set by himself, likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink, and the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped, will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand, and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So basically God says, let everybody go down and get a, you know, drink of water, and everybody that got down to the water and used their hand to put water in their mouth, he says, those are the people that are going to go with you. And that was only 300 of the 10,000. The other people just, you know, got down on their hands and knees and just drank right out of the water. Okay? So look, he narrows it down to 300 people, okay? Now this is the second test of Gideon's faith. Now look, who was testing who in, in Judges chapter 6? If you remember, I mean, there was two, you could argue, three times that Gideon literally tested the angel. He tested God. He said, you know, show me a sign. He said, and he tested God to see if that's what, you know, if, if he could believe what this angel was telling him. But now we see that God is testing Gideon here, and he tested him again. So now he's down from 32,000 people down to 300 people, okay? Look at Judges chapter 7 and verse number 8. So these 300 people are going forth to conquer the Midianites, which are, you know, a lot more than 300 people. The Bible says, so the people took victuals in their hand. Now look, victuals are not weapons, okay? Victuals are, you know, they're, they're goods, they're food, they're, they're, you know, they're, they're a little knapsack. You ever seen the kid with the, you know, he's, he's going into town or whatever and he's got the little knapsack of his stuff, you know, in the older books? That's victuals. It's your supplies, okay? So they didn't take their, their weapons. I'm not saying they didn't have weapons, but he certainly doesn't mention any weapons here, okay? It took victuals in their hand and their trumpets and he set all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and retained those 300 men, and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass that same night, but the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host, for I've delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Fira thy servant down to the host. And now shall hear what they say, and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then when he went down with Fira, his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were with the host. So first of all, you know, Gideon was a little afraid here, too, because he took Fira with him. You know, the Bible says, you know, hey, if you're afraid, take Fira with you. Don't go by yourself. Take Fira and go down to the host. So he goes down with Fira, but he does go, okay? He does go. He goes down with Fira and he comes down from the mountains and he goes right next to the army. So he has nobody with him except Fira at this point. It's just Gideon and Fira. Look at verse 12. And the Midianites and the Amicalites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. So, I mean, there's a lot of important information in verse number 12. Number one, it wasn't just the Midianites. And that's important, I think, in this story. And you say, why? Well, I'll tell you in a minute. But it's the Midianites, the Amicalites, and all these different nations. It's all these different, you know, nations, the children of the east lay along. And then they're like grasshoppers again, meaning there's so many of them they won't even count. So they counted 32,000. So if it was tens of thousands, you would think we would get a number here. So it's more than tens of thousands of people. It's way more than 300, for sure. Okay? Look at verse 14. Or 13, I'm sorry. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow and said, behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and it came unto a tent and smote it that it fell and overturned it, and that tent lay along. So here Gideon comes back with Fira, and here this guy that's one of these 300 tells this story about how he dreamed that this, basically this loaf of bread rolled down, like, because where are they? They're in the mountains. It rolled down the mountains into the camp in the valley, and it just, it knocked over this tent of the Midianites. Okay? And look, his fellow servant answered and said, this is nothing else, save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host. So right away they identified this loaf of bread as being Gideon. Why? Well, what was Gideon doing when the angel, when the prophet and the angel came to call Gideon? Gideon's a farmer. Okay? This would be the equivalent of, if Gideon was a mechanic, if somebody dreamed a dream where they're like, oh, I dreamed a dream that a wrench came down the mountain and destroyed, you know, the Midianites. So it was very easy for them to identify that this dream, you know, was Gideon. This barley loaf was Gideon. Okay? I mean, just think about, you know, a plumber. If Gideon was a plumber, that a piece of PVC pipe rolled down the hill and destroyed the Midianites. Okay? I mean, it's kind of the same thing. That's why they identified so easily with the fact that this was about Gideon. And this kind of gets everybody fired up because you think that, you know, there needs to be a little bit of motivation. I mean, can you about imagine what some of the people in the army were thinking when he just sends everybody home, how'd you like to be one of those 300 that's left over when he sends, you know, 32,000 or 31,000, you know, 31,700. Look at that math right up the top of my head. He sends them home and you're one of the 300 that's left. You're like, you know, was this the smartest decision? Should we be following this guy? He's just a farmer. I'm sure there was somebody thinking that. But now they have a little bit of motivation here. Somebody had a dream. It was clearly interpreted to be of Gideon destroying the Midianites. And here we go. Look at verse 15. And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof that he worshipped and he returned into the host of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord had delivered into your hand the host of Midian and he divided the 300 men into three companies. Now he has a very interesting strategy here, but it makes perfect sense when you think about what they actually did. He divided the 300 men into three companies and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. So they have a trumpet and they have a lamp or a pitcher with a lamp inside it. So they're carrying three things and they put the lamp inside the pitcher because how many hands do you have? You have two, right? So you carry the pitcher and the trumpet and they're heading down to the Midianites and he says unto them, look on me and do likewise and behold when I come out to the outside of the camp it shall be that as I do so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet and all that are with me then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of the camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him, so there's three different groups of 100 men to surround the Midianites, to surround the great army. So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch. That's important too, but they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands. So when did they go down to the army? So there's the beginning of the middle watch. So the middle watch implies that there's three watches. So there's basically three watches in the night. So basically the first watch would be from sunset to like 10 o'clock at night if you think about it that way. And then the middle watch would be from 10 o'clock at night to roughly 2 a.m. in the morning. And then the third watch would be from 2 a.m. in the morning until the sun comes up in the morning. So now it's interesting because they go in the middle watch and it makes the most sense that they would attack in the middle watch because look if you go in the first watch there's going to be people that stay up late still awake. There's going to be people that just normally stay awake later that are still going to be up at that time. If you go in the third watch then you're going to get your early risers that are going to be awake. People that get up at 4 o'clock in the morning. You ever met these people? But people like that, right? Farmers get up early. Many people just get up early. I'm sure soldiers and the leaders of the army were some of the first people that got up early. So they go in the middle watch which means that the only people that would be awake at that time would be the guards themselves. So they're in the middle of the night is when they do this and then what do they do? They had newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets and they break the pitchers that were in their hands. So everybody is in the deepest sleep. No one's awake except the guards and they just start making all this racket all around the camp. And the three companies in verse 20 blew the trumpets and break the pitchers and they held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with all and they cried the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So not only did they have like an audio thing here, so they had taken the lamps out of the pitchers and they broke the pitchers which must have been a great clamoring all around the camp. And I don't know what the pitchers I suppose they were clay or hard material. I'm sure it was just a lot of banging and rattling and clunking around like probably maybe horses or you know chariots or something like that. A lot of a lot of noise happening here and then they blow the trumpets which is you know another sign of an attack of Calvary things like that and then they have all these lanterns so there's a visual aspect as well. So if you would wake up in the middle of the night and you hear all this racket and they're screaming the sword of the Lord. I mean you know you're people are screaming the word sword. There's all this racket trumpets are blowing like a charge like you know a call to battle and then you know you have all these all these lanterns all around all these lights coming from the mountains. And you don't know because if you're looking into the mountains what are the first lights that you see? All you would see was the first light coming out of the trees. The first lantern coming out of the trees. You'd really have no idea how many people were behind the first lantern. So they basically create absolute audio chaos and visual chaos as well and they create great confusion and look at verse 21 is that where we left off and they stood every man in his place about the camp and all the host ran and cried and fled and the 300 blew the trumpets and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow even throughout all the host and the host fled to bear shittah in Zarathath to the border of Albemahoa and unto Tabeth. It's so easy to see how this could happen when you think about the actual situation that they're in. You know this is what Von Klauswitz would call you know the fog of war. You know Von Klauswitz was a famous Prussian general who coined the you know the term the fog of war. You know it's just this idea that in war you know there's just this huge realm of uncertainty and he wrote books on it and things on that and you know some things that you know he quoted on this he says this Von Klauswitz says this Carl Von Klauswitz he says war is the realm of uncertainty three quarters think of this 75% of the factors on which in a war is based are wrapped in a fog of uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for a skilled intelligence to sense out the truth. So what he's saying is in this fog if you don't have you know intelligence and discriminating judgment like great leadership he's like it's just going to be chaos is what he's saying. He's like incomplete dubious and often completely erroneous information and high levels of fear doubt and excitement call for rapid decisions by alert commanders if you don't have those things you have chaos and that is the fog of war now people have tried throughout history military leaders have tried to overcome this throughout history for thousands of years thousands of years Dwight D. Eisenhower president of the United States and in a great military leader in World War II said in preparing for battle i've always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable what he's saying is is that you know you can you can plan and plan and plan and then you make all these specific plans and it's like when you actually get into the battle he's like none of it works out like you thought it was going to because it's the fog of war it's chaos okay sunsup who wrote the art of war very famous book says there are occasions when commands of the sovereign need not be obeyed he's teaching he's teaching in this statement here how to overcome the fog of war he's saying there are occasions when the commands of the sovereign need not be obeyed he's saying there's there's times when you have to think for yourself when it is expedient in operations that the leader need not to be restricted by the commands of the higher authority when you see the correct course act and do not wait for orders so he's saying that to get across the get around the fog of war every individual needs to act according to their individual situation in chaotic situations and not be you know restrained by you know these overarching commands from the higher authority he's saying that's one way to get through the fog of war like look there was no leadership in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping and all this chaos started ensuing it was it was just spontaneous chaos and look turn to turn to back to verse 33 no i'm sorry turn back to judges chapter six and verse 33 so there was no leadership there was spontaneous chaos audibly and visually and they turned on each other you're saying how could 300 men defeat an entire army like this well the army defeated itself i mean the lord defeated the army but this is how he did it they turned on each other you say how did that happen it's because this they didn't know each other they're from all these different nations look at judges 633 where the bible says that all the midianites and the amicalites and the children of the east were gathered together and went over and pitched in the valley of jezreel look it's this huge army from all different nations these weren't the israelites you know they didn't turn around and say oh you know you're an israelite they didn't recognize each other they're from all these different nations cultures and they just they just started fighting each other because they didn't know who was attacking them they didn't know who was who in the middle of the night it's totally easy with you know things that you've read throughout history to see how this happened how the fog of war here took over there was absolutely no leadership and that's where the victory came from look at verse 23 of judges chapter seven and the men of israel gathered themselves together out of naftali and out of asher and out of almanasa and pursued after the midianites so the entire army fights themselves they get into this chaotic situation and then they run away and now you know the midianites are in retreat and now gideon pulls everyone together and says all right let's fight let's finish them off is what happens in verse 23 look at verse number 24 and gideon sent messengers throughout all mount effrium ephrium saying come down against the midianites and take before them the waters unto bethbara and jordan then all the men of effrium gathered themselves together and took the waters unto bethbara and jordan and they took two princes of the midianites orab and zeb and slew orab upon the rock orab you know you know i'm sure the rock orab got its name because orab was slewn there you know slain there right i mean it's not like you know where should we slay orab you're like oh let's go to the rock orab no they they named the rock after where orab was killed okay same thing with zeb they slew him at the right wine press of zeb and pursued midian and brought the heads of orab and zeb to gideon on the other side of jordan so here the midianites have been defeated there's a great victory that happened but what i want to point out in this chapter is the fact that god in this chapter tested gideon in chapter six gideon tested god by asking for a sign he was testing the lord he was asking god for a sign show me what you mean he's testing god and in chapter number seven it's interesting because god tests gideon and and gideon passes the test and he does what he's supposed to do but he basically tests him twice he says who's ever afraid go home whoever laps you know down to 300 people you know go against the grasshoppers of the multitude the sand of the sea and you know why i mean go back to verse number two why did he do it in verse number two god explains why he did it and he says in the lord said unto gideon the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the midianites into their hands why lest israel vaunt themselves against me so what was the problem with israel israel was under oppression israel was taken over by the the midianites and by these other nations because they had turned their back on god and god is saying here look he's like i don't i don't trust you basically is what he's saying he's like i want it to be clear that when you win this battle that it was me that did it i don't want you to be able to say even one bit that we did this ourselves oh it's because you know i'm such an awesome soldier or we're great fighters or you know 32 000 people you know beat an army of 100 000 or 200 000 you know that's possible and then they could say we're great warriors but no god said i want there to be no question unless you vaunt yourself against me unless you like basically god saying i don't trust you you've turned your back on me once you've turned your back on me which is why i'm here in the first place and i want you to understand that it was completely me period that did it so god's telling gideon you're going to need to completely trust me now gideon was like i don't trust you angel i need to see a sign please make the wool wet make the ground wet you know burn up this this sacrifice he's like god saying now you need to completely trust me you didn't you know you need to trust me now he requires it he requires it so look turn to matthew chapter 16 matthew chapter 16 testing god the first point i want to make is that testing god shows a lack of faith okay testing god shows a lack of faith and that's that's what it showed in judges chapter six it showed that gideon had a lack of faith look at matthew chapter 16 in verse number one the bible says this it says the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven so the Pharisees are asking Jesus hey show us a sign do some miracle and he answered and said to them when in his evening he say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering oh ye hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall be no sign given unto it but the sign of the prophet jonas he's basically predicting his own death here i'm not going to go into that but and then he left them and departed so jesus basically says here that you know it's a wicked and adulterous generation he's like you've got the son of god standing right in front of you and you're asking me for a sign he's like you're a wicked and adulterous generation but the difference is this because did god not show gideon the sign god show gideon a sign the difference is this the difference is who's asking in matthew chapter 16 because these were the Pharisees jesus knew like was jesus doing signs i mean turn to john chapter 4 the difference is that gideon believed when he was shown a sign jesus knew that the Pharisees were never going to believe no matter what he showed them and jesus didn't even want there's there's tons of times in the bible where jesus says i don't even want them to believe that's even a prophecy in the old testament that you know these religious leaders these Pharisees he's like i don't even want them to believe he's like i don't want to show them a sign it just in case there's a there's an off chance that they might believe he's like i'm done with them so he was done with these Pharisees now jesus i mean jesus wasn't against showing signs i mean think about it think about how dumb that would be to say that jesus was just against showing signs i mean what did jesus do while he was on this earth think about it he just didn't want the Pharisees to believe in matthew chapter 16 but look it'll obviously be better if jesus didn't have to show a sign that would be the best thing look at john four and verse 48 i mean jesus actually says in john four 48 he says then jesus said unto him except he sees signs and wonders he will not believe so while god showed gideon a sign he you know he tests this faith in the very next chapter all look all the miracles and everything that jesus did those were signs to show that he was the son of god that's why he did those things you know that's why he showed those signs and the bible tells us that so look the lesson here is this that as your faith grows it will be tested so gideon had weak faith in chapter six and he obviously grew into this role in chapter number seven and you know the signs helped him with that but look you will be given things to do you will be given tasks in your christian life to accomplish and if your faith has not grown you will not be able to accomplish those things it's very simple look at verse nine of judges chapter seven i mean this is where you know god actually calls gideon to go up to get up and and do something great now do something that's seriously dangerous i mean he's already thrown down the altar in the middle of the night but now he's asking them you know what you're going to risk your life now look at judges seven nine and it came to pass the same night that the lord said unto him arise get thee down unto the host for i've delivered it into thine hand but if thou fear to go down go thou with furah thy servant down to the host look gideon didn't ask for another sign here he just went this time okay he didn't say show me a sign again he you know gideon's on board at this point and he goes he had grown his faith had grown to the point where god could start testing him okay basically taking away his entire army and giving him 300 men but here's another thing and i want to apply this to to you this evening as well look at verse number 10 again but if thou fear to go down go thou with furah thy servant down to the host one thing you need to remember in your christian life is that you are not expected to go anything alone in luke chapter two or luke chapter 10 i'm sorry you know the bible says jesus sent them out what sent them out two by two he sent them out together he sent them out in pairs look at hebrus chapter 10 turn to hebrus chapter 10 you are not expected to go anything alone in this christian life you know the bible says you know i mean if i mean even god gave that option to gideon he said look if you're afraid take furah you know go two by two down there go the two of you down there look at hebrus 10 in verse 24 the bible says and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to what unto good works so we're there to strengthen and build each other up not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together you know once again not being alone as the manner of some is but exhorting one another that means building one another encouraging one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching and so much the more as it gets worse and worse and worse so you're not expected to go anything alone you're supposed to gather together because you're going to need to encourage each other because you're going to need each other do you remember the first time you went soul winning do you remember the first time you went soul winning do you remember the first time that you had this idea that you would actually walk down a street in public with the Bible. Do you remember that feeling on how like I'm actually going to walk down the street with a Bible and I'm going to knock on strangers doors with a Bible like well I mean didn't we all have that feeling wasn't it? I mean look soul winning and don't forget this especially when new people come to church new people get saved new people want to get into this Christian life don't forget how terrifying the idea of soul winning was at the beginning it's normal you all went through it you all went through it but guess what that's why that's why when you see these people you know maybe a conference or something and they're like yeah we don't go to church we just watch YouTube but we're gonna start a soul winning ministry in our town it's like no you're not you're not gonna start a soul winning ministry by yourself or when you're the only one in your church that goes soul winning you that's gonna last like a month if you're lucky you know why because soul winning could be discouraging at times it could be terrifying at the beginning and you know what you need you need people around you to exhort you need people around you to build you up look when you have brothers and sisters and Christ and you know you're all going together and it's something that you're doing you know as a team as Christians together two by two look a bad day soul winning is just a good day of fellowship that's what it turns out to be you know I mean in the you know of course the fear of it goes away as you realize you know just the benefit of it but look this is the power of relationships in a church is what ten you know Hebrews 1024 and 1025 is talking about it's talking about this this power of all of us to to build each other up and look that's that's why it's important that these relationships in this church are good I mean you say I talk about culture of the church a lot and that we're inclusive and that you know we're always you know building each other up and and there shouldn't be strife in the church and all this preaching about all this kind of stuff you know the Bible stuff about relationships but look that's super important here because if there's strife in the church or there's gossip in the church or there's sin in the church or whatever I mean that's gonna that's gonna it's gonna lessen the effect of us being together and being assembled and being this force to exhort each other it's gonna it's gonna break that it's like a bearing with a bad bearing you know it's gonna it's gonna grind as the the shaft or maybe it's a bad analogy that only you know the guys get but the point is is that you know the machine needs to be working in harmony that's why the Bible has so much to say about relationships in a church relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ look so we need to make sure that our relationships with each other are good and that we're working to do things for each other and keep those friendships and these this fellowship you know healthy in this church because we're here because look if there's strife in the church you say well there's strife I have strife with this one person but I get along with everybody else and that person and me and that person if there's strife like that that means that there's at least one person who's not who's gonna feel like they don't have a furia to go with them and that means one person will be isolated and everybody should have a furia to go with them everybody should have somebody that can strengthen them that they can they can come here on a on a middle of a weak service and be strengthened by their brothers and sisters in Christ nobody should feel isolated and then that is what Hebrews 10 24 and 25 is talking about that's why it's so important the relationships in the church okay so that's the first thing you're not expected to go anything alone the second thing is this if you're not growing like Gideon from chapter 6 to chapter 7 you're destined for failure at some point please don't misunderstand this if you're not growing in this Christian life that you are destined for failure it's just a matter of time talked about this a little bit on Sunday morning as well because the challenges to that faith and the things that God will put in front of you they lie ahead remember Sunday morning sermon there's trouble that lies ahead there's trouble that lies ahead number one and then there's battles that lie ahead so you say well I can get through the troubles but look you need to be able to get to the battles to need to be able to get through those battles there's there's there's no and look I hate to break it to you but there's no treading water in the Christian life there's no I'm just gonna I'm just gonna stay about right here it doesn't work there's either moving backwards turn to Luke chapter 9 or moving forward in the Christian life that's it because as you get stronger more challenges and more responsibilities will be given unto you in the Christian life look at Luke chapter 9 and verse number 62 that's why Jesus talks so much about pushing forward all the time look at verse 62 of Luke chapter 9 and Jesus said to him no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God he's saying look once you start once you start you say I'm gonna do this if your faith isn't growing he's like you're gonna fall out you're gonna fall out of the Christian life I mean it's either backwards or forward here that's that's pretty much it now look this is either this news that I'm telling you right now is either really good or really bad that you know it's either backwards or forwards you're like okay well you know depending on which one you choose I mean look it's good it's good if you're growing and you're doing great things you're building strong friendships all along the way you're gonna do some great things but here's what's bad okay here's what's bad the Christian who's going through the motions who's like you know what I'm gonna just like I'm good right here I'm gonna park it right here you know I'm coming to church you know most of the time and that makes me feel pretty good and that's about right but here's the problem here's the problem that but their heart remains in the world here's a problem with that it's not gonna end well for that Christian because guess what the world will take over we've seen many times that the bad influences the good and not the other way around and then you have that whole like you saved person as you know you're you're coming to church but you're not really your heart's not really into it you know the Bible says that you know look you have that whole chastisement of God thing to deal with don't forget about that I mean a saved person still in the world makes literally no sense at all it makes no sense it's a stupid position to be in because if I'm a saved person and I'm hanging around with a bunch of worldly people think about this these people are not operating under the same rules that I am because I have the chastisement of God on me and they do not I mean what am I doing to myself I mean it's dumb why would you ever do that and here's the thing they'll get they're not playing by the same rules as you they're not going to be punished like you by their Heavenly Father and you'll endure all the punishment but that's why that's why the Bible teaches separation that's why the buy it's for your own good folks it's for your own good I mean we've talked so much about separating from family you know you need to maybe separate from old friends too I mean talk about dropping old friends look if you're trying to change your life you're probably going to need to drop all of your old connections to the world that means your old friends it might mean some are all of your family I mean these are hard words you think about but look you have to do it look if you're getting it right look if you're getting yourself right here look I got some experience here let's talk about old friends if you're getting right your old friends aren't going to want to be around you anyway your old friends aren't going to want to have anything to do with you because you know what I mean think about this think about drinking as an example nobody who's drinking wants somebody around them who doesn't drink nobody because you know what friendship to the world is you know what friendship to the world is it's it's validation of sin that's what it is friends in the world and let me tell you something you'll find out who your friends are in a hurry you'll find out what real friends are in a hurry because people who are in sin you know what they want they want you to be in sin with them so they could validate themselves they could care less about you that's how it works so I mean why in the world would you ever want to be in that type of friendship it's not friendship it's sin validation is what it is you say but you say oh but it's uncomfortable I've known these people for years what you think you think attacking an entire army of hundreds of thousands of people was comfortable with 300 men and a trumpet and a pitcher you think that was comfortable think about the tests that that people on the Bible went through and then you think about how silly some of these are things that we can't do are I mean look you think you will ever do anything great with your life if you can't do something that's slightly uncomfortable I mean think about that just do this I've is a term I learned a year ago or so especially lately with the cancel culture just ghost them you ever heard about this you just ghost them you're like what's that it's like you have like a friend and you just like you you just stop talking to them you don't say goodbye you just stop you just you just cut your accounts you just get away just stop you just ghost them it's like you just poof you're just gone you ghost them look you couldn't ghost somebody in in Turtle Lake North Dakota right because there's like four people that live there but you can ghost people here you could stop talking to somebody you could move across town or whatever you've never seen again in these cities like this change your phone number move whatever unless your friends are in the mafia your worldly friends it'd be pretty easy to get away from worldly friends where we live right here all right start a new life make your friends here that's what it takes because guess what you will have real friends here head down head down to the valley and win some battles that that's what it takes and you're like I can't because it's slightly uncomfortable you're gonna have to do some things that are more than then slightly uncomfortable if you want to win some battles in your Christian life and then just trust me when I say I promise you if you can do these types of things and you can separate the way the Bible says you're supposed to and you can have these uncomfortable conversations or you could become the ghost or whatever I promise you you will have moments where you'll be like I can't believe God used me to do that I have I mean I have moments like I'm sure all of you have moments like that all the time I can't believe God used me to do that because you know what you're like I can't I'm not smart I'm not well-spoken I don't know guess who else wasn't well-spoken Moses you know what God uses people who who don't have ability so you can see that it's him not you God uses the weak to do the greatest things you're like man I don't think I have any ability I just don't think I'm smart what God's gonna use you to do great things if you do what the Bible says you're supposed to do period I mean it's very simple these are huge lessons that we can learn from a farmer named Gideon who destroyed an entire army with 300 people and he went down first to that army with one guy that's I mean look that's really the story of Gideon is God using somebody that was low to do something great he was a small group to win this great battle so it doesn't matter how big you are it doesn't matter how talented you are it doesn't matter how weak you think you are if you can do what the Bible says if you can separate if you can get into this Christian life and start putting your heart here God will use you to do great things I mean raise your hand if you want to be a loser nobody nobody wants to be a loser everybody wants to do raise your hand if you want to do great things for the Lord in your life raise your hand if you want to do we're not gonna have an altar call don't worry but my point is this my point is this my point is that everybody wants to do these things everybody in their mind I always ask the question you want to waste your life after somebody gets saved nobody ever says yes but the thing is you have to be able to make some actual moves in your life you actually have to do something different you actually have when your faith is tested you got to pass the test like Gideon did Gideon went he was afraid you don't have to like it hey when you're making that phone call and say hey you know I'm just I'm done with this I can't do this I can't go to that anymore I can't go to this thing anymore because this this and this and whatever sorry all this you know you're not sorry but I mean if you do have to make uncomfortable situations like that happen that's that's going down to the army those are tests you have to pass if you want to do those great things and you want to be used by God you just do it the Bible says and if you can change your life look here's the big thing no one will do it when it comes to actually making a move in their life the vast I don't want to say no one but the vast majority of people will not do it but if you can change your life you will change other people's lives and that is the whole point of the Christian life is God using you to change other people's lives but you have to change your life in order to do that just do what the Bible says have faith God's correct don't worry about it he's correct let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer