I can't seem to get out of this. The more I read in it, the more I find in it. You probably already know about it, but it's been helping me a little bit. So we're going to go back there tonight and just read a little bit more, OK? We have looked at where Israel fell or plunged or jumped, however you want to say it, into idolatry. And in doing so, nobody can blame nobody but them. You know, whenever people from wherever, whether they're from America or South America, Any land. Maybe trying to live for God and all of a sudden something happens and they just take a 180. Ain't nobody they can blame. Ain't nobody they can blame but them. And I'm afraid we've seen a lot of churches take some real serious turns. And I don't know. I'm not going to cast those stones at them. Because I'll tell you why. I ain't pastored them. I don't know what kind of pressure has been applied to those preachers. I know what we say. We say, well, if it was me, I wouldn't put up with this and I wouldn't put up with that. I've heard that out of a lot of parents as they got older. All I've got to do is look back and see how theirs turned out. That's a simple process of elimination. Tell me what you would do. Then tell me how yours turned out. That sometimes just kind of puts the brakes on there right there. That's good, brother. So now Israel's in a place where they're in idolatry. And they've got problems. But God's got a man that he wants to use. And we've come to the place tonight where we're going to look at God using His man. And we're probably only going to get to read just a few verses here. But if you look at these verses, starting in verse 25, there's some real serious instruction that God's giving and that Gideon is heeding that will help us all. It will help us all. Let's look at verse 25 and we'll start reading. And it came to pass the same night. The same night of what? Well, verse 24 said, Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord. So in verse 25, And it came to pass the same night the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young book, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal, that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God. Upon the top of this rock in the ordered place, and take the second bullet, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove, which thou shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord hath said unto him, and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. Now, I don't know if you've ever read this text or not, but I promise you this, these boys had a lot of work to do. Massive amount of work to do in one night. And we're going to read on, but I wrote that point out for this reason. I believe that we are in the night before the morning. And we've got a massive amount of work to do. We can't sit around and talk about it. We can't sit around and talk about how it was in the old days. That don't get nothing done. Nothing. And so let's just look on. Verse 28, When the men of the city arose in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it. And the second bullet was altered upon the altar that was built. They not only tore the altars of Baal down, they have done some pupwooding in the midnight hour. They've cut trees. I don't believe it was a little bit. I believe we're going to find out. We'll look back at some verses. The Bible calls it a grove, and wherever there was a grove, There was a large amount of trees. And there's a reason you say, why would God want you to cut the trees down? Well, you got to see how they look at them. And so let's let's let's just go ahead and pray and then we'll see where God takes us. Father, I pray that you bless this time. Lord, you know, I'm a nobody and I don't know nothing. God, I've read your book here, God, and I'm thankful for what you've shown us. And I pray, Lord, that you'll take what's here and use it for your glory tonight. I pray, God, that you'll bless these people that's come out on a Wednesday night. God, midweek service, Lord, I'm thankful. I look forward to it. I was excited when I got up this morning, Lord, just thinking about church tonight. And I pray, God, that if you would tonight, Lord, that you'd help us, God, to forget just a little while about the world and about the work. And God, everything that's going on out there about tomorrow, God, about the presidential speech, about the Democrats and the Republicans, God, about all the stuff, the stock market and the problems and the heartaches and the sorrows that people are having to face. God, I pray you bless Brother Chris and his family. God, I pray that you'd take care of him. I thank you, God, that he's in church. God, come to get him some help tonight. And I pray, God, you'd do that for him. I pray, God, for Sister Kristen, that you'd just continue to touch her and help her, Lord. And God will thank you for that. Got others out sick tonight. Pray you'll be with Mike up in the hospital in Jessup and Sister Barbara's son. God help him Lord. I just pray Lord, God help us all with your presence, your power, and your peace that passes all understanding. In Christ's name I do pray. Amen. And amen. You can be seated and thank you for standing. The men of Iptiti. Verse 29, they said, one to another, who hath done this? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash. Now let's be reminded, what he has done is torn down altars that were erected for the worship of Baal. Baal worship. Baal worship, what good, you can't say nothing about it good. It stole from God. It took people out of the way that used to be in the way. People that used to love God and serve God and live for God and be faithful to God, now is in Baal worship. And same thing today. There's people who used to be in church. There's people that I know personally, and I know you know them personally, that at one time they were in church and you could look for them every Sunday morning and every Sunday night and probably on visitation, on the bus ministry. Now they don't even go to church. They don't even go to church. So what happened? They're bell worshippers. The devil stole their heart. Got them looking at something else now. Got them looking somewhere else. They're more worried in their 401. They're more worried in their job tomorrow. What I got to do tomorrow? Man, I'm dreading tomorrow. I'm dreading tomorrow. I got to go to work tomorrow. Go thank God for that job. And Brother Farley told me something one time that might help you if you like to complain about your job. Why don't you just quit? They can probably find somebody qualified as you are. You ain't near the expertise that you think you are. Just quit. You quit, you might be able to keep your mind on God a little bit better. Boy, I remember whenever we was building that balcony up there in 2008. But Larry, you wasn't here, so I'm talking to you. It ain't got nothing to do with you. I'm just talking to you, telling you what happened. 2008. Man, I'm telling you, people couldn't hardly find a job. People had jobs getting laid off. The economy was horrible. And we took it on ourselves and said, you know what? We need some more space up here. We just built us a balcony. And we come up here, Brother Darrell, and we worked every day. People that wouldn't hardly go to church on a regular basis was up here because they didn't have a job. Man, they got close to God, and I'm telling you, we'd come up here, Brother Gary and Fellowship, and we'd be singing, and I remember one time, Old Brother Law was over here, and we'd put a CD on, let's sing, and just the music go, Brother Danny. He's over here doing drywall, and man, all of a sudden, he just broke out in a shout. He's a-weeping and a-squalling and trying to smooth out drywall. I guess sometimes it might be that What some folk need is maybe just... I wouldn't pray this on nobody. But I just wonder, Brother Chris, would they not be a whole lot better off spiritually if they were to lose that job again? I mean, those things that you love so much. They put it on the sign. Brother Juwan put it on the sign. Don't let the blessings of God... That would be those things that you love so highly and dearly. Don't let the blessings of God become your idol, because they can't. And so now, as we look at this text right here, and God's told Gideon, I've got something I want you to do, and you need to do it just like I say. I'm impressed tonight with how obedient Gideon was. Wow, did you not pick up on that as I was reading this text right here? The Bible said in verse 25, And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, throw down the altar of Baal that the father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of the rock, this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Verse 27, Then Gideon took ten men of his service, and did as the Lord had said unto him. You know what my both men used to tell me? All I want you to do is what I tell you to. He said, I can see already. See, some of y'all ain't never got here yet where you admit such as this. But Jeff, you've been in the service. Brother Albert, you've been there. And you men, Brother Mike, They probably told you some things that was kind of heartbreaking. Like they don't care what you think. They don't want to know what you know. I didn't go in the military, but the man I was working for was ex-military. And he done a good job. Making us mad. Bossing us around. Well, wasn't it a job? Yeah. And somebody say, what do you think about doing this? He said, no. He said, don't think. He said, just do what I say. How the heck do you stand there in front of your friends? You know what it'll do? It'll make you do this here. You listen, you zip it, and you'll do what he says to do. You ever wonder if it wouldn't help us a whole lot more when God tells us to do something, we just don't what he said and quit negotiating with him? Well, Lord, if you were to give me this and do this for me, I know I could serve you better if you'd give me that brand new... So we see immediately that he did exactly what God told him to do. But I want you to notice a couple of things that took place in verse 25 and in verse number 26. Verse 25, the Bible said it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullet, even the second bullet of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath. I know it was your daddy's. I know it meant a lot to you. But God don't want you having that. Can I tell it? Sister Darlene had me come to church here very long. And it dawned on her. The Bible we is using was different than the Bible she is using. Now, please don't be mad at me, Brother Mike. I didn't jump on it. I didn't jump on it. Matter of fact, I'd walk by just like I'm walking by. And I can look at a Bible that's different than mine, and I can tell it's different than mine. And I can tell it was a world Bible. You know what a world Bible is? It's a Jehovah's Witness Bible. And she'd come out of a Jehovah's Witness church, Brother Joe. And I could have really just got up here and preached every service on Jehovah's Witnesses and how they're going to hell. But the Holy Ghost really will override your stupidness. if you'll listen to Him. Right? But you've got to listen. So I just preached whatever God gave me. He won't give me a message on getting the dirt out of a little cup. I preached on that. Just whatever. And one day she said, how come My Bible's not lining up with your Bible. Well, I knew that was coming. And I was praying that it would. And once she got that situation straightened out, she's on the road to recovery. God let her cross paths with some people like Gail Riplinger. What a great help. What a great help. If you've never heard of Gail Ripplinger, she'll hit you. Very knowledgeable about the Word of God. Amen. About the King James Bible. And so she called me one day and she said, I've got some books that belonged to my father. And I don't know what to do with them. And I'm telling you, Jennifer, she's in tears. She is in tears. I don't know what to do with her. I said, well, I knew what her thoughts were, Sister Pearl. She wanted us to give them back to Kingdom Hall. She asked me, would that be all right? I said, they'll give them to somebody else. I said, you don't want to hear this because that means something to you because that was your father's. I said, but the best place for them books is in the trash can. Now I'm going to say this about Sister Darlene. Many in here could have took that. And I'm thankful. Brother Danny, I'm very thankful. She was willing. You know what she was willing to do? Whatever I said. You know why? Because she was following. And I thank God for everybody here who's following. And I'm glad you're following. And I believe that you're just going to keep on following. Until I do something you don't like. David, she put him outside the road in the trash can. And for some reason, I forget what it was now. But the trash didn't come. They changed the day. So she had to pull the trash can back in. What do you think she was thinking? She called me and told me. I said, leave them in the trash can. You know what God said about these altars? He said they were yours fathers, but tear them down." I promise you, Bud, if there's one thing that I hear more than anything in the world that really bothers me, well, that's the way my daddy was. I can't help it. I'm just like that. Well, Gideon's father was a Baal worshiper. And God said, I don't like it. He said, not only do I want you to tear these owners down, they've got to go. They've got to go. And not only does the owners have to go, but the grows have got to go with them. Now, there's a reason for that. Chapter 3. Look back over in chapter number 3. Judges chapter 3. Be patient with me. My pages still have a hard time Judges chapter 3 and verse number 7, And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served Balaam and the groves. They worshipped out there. Look at these beautiful trees. Hey, I love just riding through the woods. I promise you. I love it. Sister Brenda, I mean, just I'm telling you, I'd almost, if it wasn't so expensive, I'd almost join a hunting club just to get the ride through the woods. Why? There ain't nothing out in the woods. Animals. There ain't no news commentators and there ain't no CNNs. All that stuff that just distracts, all that stuff is a conspiracy. to distract the people of God. Facebook. Ain't no Facebook out there? Thank you, above the door now. All that stuff that just distracts us. God said, cut them. Not only did He want the trees cut down, but God's just going to the extreme. You know what He's going to an extreme on right here? Listen up. Listen up here to me. God's going to an extreme for the people of God to get right. They're literally going to have to destroy everything that was. Now, this is like a, we call this like a Reformation, if you will. Remember when Martin Luther came out of the Catholic Church? They called that the Reformation. And he come out of that and he's building into something else. And the Lutheran church used to be a whole lot different than what it was. Now they believe, they used to believe that you get saved by faith. Thank God, now there's faith in cookies and stuff like that. I want to say stuff like that. Go sit with, back here, go sit with your grandma. Don't play in church. And so now, now, here this, as this reformation is taking place, This Reformation is bigger because it has got some destroying going on in it. Some destruction. But a Reformation don't take place with destruction alone. Reformation takes place with destruction and construction. So while something's tore down and tore up and tore apart, something else is always being built. It's not all negative. I don't understand what it is with all these Christians. They're negative all the time. Everything's negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. I'm thinking, you're so negative, you're making me positive. Well, is the Christian life not positive? I thank God I'm saved. Amen. I thank God I've got a good church. I thank God that I know some good Christian people. I thank God that I'm not going to hell. I thank God that heaven's my home. I thank God that it's a work to get it. I thank God that the Lord Jesus provided it. I thank God for Calvary. I thank God that He rose again on the third day. I thank God that He wrote my name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Thank God I'm saying it's positive. Ain't no negative. I wonder about all these negative people. What have they got? What have they got? I've got a couple of them I'm looking at real hard. I'm just praying when God will give me the liberty. He may not never, but if He does, I'm going to ask them when they got saved. And I'm going to ask them how they got saved. And then I'm going to ask them why they ain't happy. that they saved. So we see that when you tear something down, he's got to tear down this altar, and he's got to tear down these groves, and he's got to build another altar. I've looked in this text right here, and if you look right here, in chapter 6, there was an angel of God, verse 20. Excuse me, verse 20. Actually, go back, go back, go back, go back. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and said it before thee, and he said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in and made ready a calf, and unleavened cakes, and an ephah of flour, the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out under him, under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. There's a lot of people that teach this, that this altar that he's building now over there, which if you look back down there in verse number 26, and he said, "...and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock." That's not the same rock. That's not the same rock. You said, how do you know? Because God tells him to build an altar. Alright? Now here's what God does when He saves you. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things passed away, behold, all things become new. Do you think where you used to hang out on Saturday night, God wants you to hang out again? Huh? Do you think the way you used to talk, God wants you to talk again? Hey, listen, this is just Brother Edward's conviction right here. I don't even think God wants you to dress like you used to dress. I think He wants you to be different. I think He wants you to look different. And so now He tells Gideon that I want you to build something over here. Now, where He's building that is right there where Baal's altar was. where he poured that other sacrifice out that God accepted it because he called fire down from heaven and he burned it up and accepted it because it was a burnt altar. So now as we look at what's going on here now, God has told Gideon, He said, I want you to build an altar and this altar is going to be in a place where it can be seen. It was on a hill. It was on a fortress, if you will. If you set it out, you'll find out it was in a place where it couldn't be hidden. God don't want nobody serving Him, hiding. What man hath a candle highter than a bushel? Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, I believe it is. He said that if you'll confess me before the brethren, All right. So now we say one thing God don't want you to do is hide stuff. And that other place was up under an oak tree also. So we see here now that God's giving Gideon a job to do and he's giving direct, direct instructions. He's got to do more than tear down an altar. He's got to build one. As we look at this text right here, we see. A good and honor to the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in the ordered place and take the second bullet and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. You know I heard a fellow one time tell me this. He was trying to quit smoking. I asked you to smoke. I'm not, this ain't for you, but unless you just want to quit smoking. I'd recommend it. My father-in-law died of it. I smoked for about six, seven years. I'm telling you. I still have problem breathing. 30, 30, 34 years later. This business about you can quit smoke for 50 or 60 years and quit and in two years your lungs look like a teenager's. Don't believe that nonsense. That ain't no more true, ain't no more true than if I told you I have a heart surgeon. All right? None of you go get a scaffold hand to me and say hit yourself. Listen, I'm telling you, I met a man, he said, I quit, and what I do is I lay them on top of the mantel so that every day when I pass by them, they're there, and I just let them... Are you kidding me? That's just tempting the Lord, is all that is. And you're tempting yourself. Just tempting yourself. Why don't you just get a beard and put it in the refrigerator? Right? Same thing. Same thing. I mean, if you're going to drink it, you're going to drink it cold, put it in the refrigerator. I'm just saying, hey, here's what he said, Brother John. Not only do I want you to build an altar, not only do I want you to take that bullock of seven years and sacrifice it, but I want you to take the wood where they have worshipped, that bunch of trees out there, and cut it up and use that for the sacrificial offering that I'm telling you about. Now, this sounds like a lot of detail, don't it? I mean, what a job. Do you know what all this is for? Every bit. Listen up here now. Listen up. Every bit of this that Gideon is doing has nothing to do with the nation of Israel. Wow. You say, what's it all about? This is about Gideon being right with God. You know what? Whenever I read over there in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9, from a grace you say through faith, that in all you yourself is a gift of God, in all the works of the Son of Man, as it were, I went, whoo-hoo! Yes, grace! Thank you, Lord. I ain't got to build an altar. I don't have to cut down a grove. I don't have to butcher a cow. I don't have to do nothing. All I got to do is trust God by faith. Wow. I mean, how could it be any easier? What a blessing that God has given me and you to make it so easy on us. David, what more could we ask for than for God just to pour it out in our laps? How do you know this is Virginia? That's who he's talking to. This is what I like. Thanks, verse 27. Don't quote me on that. He said, verse 27, this is when he said he went and got ten men. Immediately. Immediately. He went and got ten men. And they were to work. What do you want me to do, Lord? Well, go. I'm going to go. Go. Now. Go now. What a blessing that God would be so gracious to give instruction like that, and then for us to be able to see an example of a man that's willing to say, Yes, sir, Lord. Yes, sir. Lord, I'm not going to argue with you on this. I mean, I don't have to wait until I finish college. I don't have to wait. I told you about whenever I was going to go full-time with the church. Brother Darrell, I had it all figured out. I mean, I made up my mind. First of the year, Brother Curtis, I'm going full-time. But the reason I was waiting on the first of the year is because In December, they gave us a Christmas bonus. That probably wasn't a lot of money to a lot of people. It was a lot of money to me and her. And a ham. I mean, who don't love a hog? Inside and out, hallelujah. I'm not much for chickens, but if I got hungry enough, I promise you, I'd sit down at the table The people of Nascar, they butcher them goats over there. You know when they butcher a goat? When he dies. They don't kill a healthy goat. You know the Bible says not to do that? The book of Leviticus, you're not supposed to eat something that just dies on its own like that. My only issue with that when we was there, Brother Gary, is how did that goat die? We ate some. We ate some. That might what it cost to give me that whatever it was I had when I got home. I don't know. Might be why I lost 10 pounds. God bless you. Amen. Amen. I don't know. I don't know, James. We got it, didn't we, buddy? But we ate it. My mind was made up, my mind was made up that I was going to resign my job after the first year. Christmas bonus, ham, four weeks vacation, paid, and a week of sick leave that I'd got. Five weeks paid and a Christmas bonus. So I was eagerly looking at, back then there was not much money, I know you don't think But I was looking at over $2,000. That was a great help. But the Holy Ghost and me wasn't on the same page right there. They said no. Man. Man. I'm serious. I had a serious prayer about this thing. I'd like Nehemiah. God, you talking to me? This is real, Lord. I mean, this is my family's at stake right here. My wife's liable to pack up young and go back to her mama. I went in two weeks later. I went in, I went in the week after that with Curtis and I, I went looking for Boss Man. And I told, I told one feller, I said, I said, you seen Gerald? He said, no, can't hear you. I said, what about Larry? And he spun, I've worked with that guy since the time I started, 22 years. And when I said that, he spun around in his chair. He said, you're quitting, ain't you? I said, yeah. I never thought I'd see him do something like this. Oh, man. This same guy that I almost hated Because he had the personality of a cross-cut salt. I mean, just horrible. Horrible personality. Horrible. The day, my last day on the job, he walked out there with me to the car. His wife had tears out of her eyes. When God says it's time to go, it's time to go. It's time to go, Bojohn. And I'm thankful that Gideon gives us a good example. Because me and you couldn't do such as that if we didn't have an example before us. Let's look on. I'm trying to hurry right here. The Bible says they took ten men of their service and did as the Lord had said unto him. And so it was, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. Now listen, this verse right here, we'll wind up right here, try to. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it. Listen real close. This is from dark to daylight. This is one night. He said the grove was cut down that was by it. and the second bullet was offered upon the altar that was built. Do you understand what they did? Does anybody in here know what altars looked like that they built back then? That altar could have very well been as wide as this alleyway. And maybe as long in half again. It was always more of a rectangular shape And they're offering to bail. And these people got so mad about it, they're wanting to kill Gideon. They're wanting to kill a man who was the son of a man that worshipped with him. And knowing that his father would have been against what he's doing, you've got to know, Brother Mike, Come on. That was a big battle all night long. They tore that altar down. Ten men, well, we'll say a couple of them tearing the altar down, and eight of them cutting trees down, or we'll say six of them cutting trees down, and two of them butchering the bullock, and getting them ready to lay them up on that new altar. He tore one down. And he built a new one, all in the same night. You know what I'm thinking never did go on that night? Fellowship. I ain't a gambling guy. I mean, it's been a long time, so I've made a good wager. And if you hear about a dumb one, that was a sure thing it wasn't a bet, okay? If they'd have been Baptist, half of them would have had to stop. and go make phone calls. They'd have to go check Facebook, wouldn't they? They'd have to go ahead and see if they had a new tweet or needed to send a new tweet. They worked. Them boys worked. And what they thought was going to be a satisfactory condition to fight the Midianites and the Amalekites, God said, no. No. This ain't going to work. I appreciate you. I appreciate you being faithful. I appreciate you tearing the altar down. I said, That obedience to God, it's not just the life of destruction. Everybody thinks, well, if you become a Christian, you've got to quit everything. Quit everything. Quit everything. Quit everything. That's why boys don't want to become Christians, because they're messing around with them girls, you know. And their flesh, their hormones, their hormones. Are you listening to me? Them hormones. That's what makes me nervous. Them boys pile up on top of them girls. I guarantee anything about Jesus. Y'all ain't thinkin' about Jesus in here. Huh? What you thinkin' about? You thinkin' about rubbin' elbows? Bumpin' kneecaps? That ain't gonna do nothin' for some woman to do all that kind of stuff. And I'm not doin' this manly cause I'm like that neither. Amen. God bless you. Ask my wife anything you wanna know. That's why we never would let our daughter go off with a young man. Never would. Say, why? Didn't trust him? Trust that snake? The only thing, the only kind of credibility that I'm going to give him is a capital S on his name. Capital S for snake. Said, they're not all like that. Yes, they are. Hey, mom and daddy, get your head out of the sand. Wake up. Smell the fin. Look at the look. See what makes them mad. I had a preacher friend of mine. He had a deacon one time. He had a deacon one time. And I said, you want to check that deacon out and see how much he loves God and loves the church? He said, why? I said, set him down. Set him down. See how well he takes it. I said, if he gets mad, He ought not have been there no way. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Amen. That's what we have to check out ourselves once in a while. And God was checking Gideon out. Read the text. He was checking him out to see if he'd do what he told him to do, if he'd be faithful to what he said to do. And thank God, Gideon was, but he had it in his mind that things would go a different way. So he went and picked him out. Three hundred men to fight with him. I said, no, no, that's a little bit too much. God be for us. Who can be against us? Who can be against us? God be forth with you. Who can be against us? Who's going to fight your battles? Who's going to march up there with you in this warfare? We're wrestling against flesh and blood. You're fighting the devil. You listening to me? We're fighting the devil. Hey, you ain't but just a couple of years down the road that some of the biggest battles that you've ever fought. You thought they were physical battles. You give her about two more years. She's a good girl. Right now. How old are you? Fifteen. Yep, about two more years. Woo-hoo! You'll be Zantac and be on Valium and everything else. I promise you. I promise you. My girl fought the only thing I knew, brother Jefferson. No, Daddy, can I go there? The only, as far as I know, one of the only girls that they spent a lot of time with that we didn't worry about was your wife. And she'd just come and stay at our home whenever she wanted to. So she was like it was at home. She's like one of our daughters. And I don't know. I don't know. You know, I don't know everything there was to know about her and him. But you'd think I'd trust him. He's a great guy. You know this guy right here? He's a great guy. He's one of the nicest gentlemen I'm telling you that you'll ever meet. But you think I'd trust him and my daughter? No. No. No, I wouldn't have trusted Tyler. Amen. I wouldn't have trusted Andrew. Andrew couldn't see Tiffany unless he'd come to church. Am I telling it right? Aren't you glad? Because that's where he got saved at. Thank God. I just asked. We know him! God said, I need you to see some things about yourself. And Gideon was one of those men that was faithful to God. And whatever God said, whatever God put in his path, he said, OK. He said, if I got to inconvenience myself, and work all night long and miss gun smoke and not get to eat some Papa John's pizza. If I've got to inconvenience myself and I can't prop my feet up, you know how we are. We've worked all day. We feel like, you know, you are going to soil my feet tonight, right? Oh, you know, OK, well, never mind. Oh, listen, you know, come on, man. Come on. You ain't fooling me. I know you think you the big, proper little dude. And what Brother Milton Taylor said, you think he's a big talker? Hey, if I talk to some of your wives and they tell me the truth about how bossy and hateful you are around the house, I think that some of them are pegged under the door. You say, you think I'm one? Absolutely. It's in us. God said, I want something else in you, Gideon. Are you listening? I want me in you. John 17. What a chapter. What a story. I remember Brother Curtis sitting back there Sunday night in that office and we both sat there and cried talking about how God has been merciful. Are you listening? how God's been merciful to us! Us! I can't say nothing about you, what God's done for you, but for me? Say something, young ladies. There's a hog pen right down the road for you. Listen up here, girls. Listen, young man. He makes you nervous, don't he? Yeah, he does. Me too. I'd have him move down. I'd have him move down a little ways He might not come back, but he'd know you took a stand. Don't reach out there, son. I think you want me to break that arm. I'll have you in a cast like she is over there. I know karate, son. I can carry pocket knives and guns. Hallelujah. Scared that boy to death. That's why they all on the front row. They're nervous about me. They figure he'll preach in the back. He don't talk that much here. Gideon. He was God's man. I'd say this about Gideon. The greatest attribute that Gideon had was he was submissive. 1 Samuel chapter 15. Verse 22. The Bible says this. It's better to obey than to sacrifice. Do you know why that is? Do you know why it's better to obey than to sacrifice? Because there's never a sacrifice without something dying. And if we obey, we ain't got to go to the funeral. I'm not saying that everybody that has had to go to the funeral homes has not obeyed. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying what the Bible said. It's better to obey than to sacrifice. I don't know about you, but I'd like to be a Gideon. Well, wouldn't he be a good one? Wouldn't he be a good one? I don't know what else we're going to say about Gideon, but if God showed me something else, you know what I'm going to preach on soon? Judges, chapter 6. There's a lot more in there, brother. What a man of God. Hey, ladies, you too. You too can be a Gideon. Say, how do you do it? Obey the Lord. Just go with God. Just go with God. Do you all have a chance to do it? None. None. None of the time. Let me help you, ladies. Don't come up to me at the church asking what I mean about this. If you don't get this here, it's over your head, OK? But most of the time, it's just kind of predominant. It's an attribute. It's in y'all. You've got to say something. I'm talking to ladies. You've got to say something. It's hard not to. I've met some goofy men the very same way. Have you ever said something to Him you wish, oh man, we shouldn't have said that. Look what I caused. Sister Mandy. Sister Tracy. Just, I mean, just my wife. She won't admit it, but I know she has. So I'll just say amen for her. He never gave God His ideas. He never procrastinated. And he never said, well, what about my dad, Joe Ash? If it wasn't for a lot of Christians being able to look and see what a lot of other Christians are doing, they might be able to be a Gideon too. Gideon don't mention nobody else. He just goes, I need 10 men to work all night long and not play. He got them. He knew what working men was. Don't you imagine there was some folk volunteer that said, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. He probably said, I'll take you, take you, take you, take you. I don't need you. I don't need you. I'll take you, you, you, and our two. I'll take you. Sorry it fell on you. He's God's man. I won't be like that. I believe He's very bold. I believe He's very punctual. I believe He's very dependable. I believe He's a faithful follower of the Lord God. He proved it when the angel of the Lord came. He went off and sacrificed. He wanted to be right with God before that. And then whenever this happened here, while those men slept, He's obeying the Lord. Tearing down altars of Baal, he's cutting the groves, and in the midnight hour, he worshipped. What a man. What a man. What a soldier. What a soldier.