is about how we will spend an eternity praising the Lord. God has planned a beautiful future for those who love him. No pain and no sorrow. It seems only fitting that we should offer an endless hallelujah to our King. When I stand before your throne Dressed in glory not my own What a joy I'll sing of on that day No more tears or broken dreams Forgotten is the minor key Everything as it was meant to be We will worship, worship Forever in your presence we will sing We will worship, worship you An endless hallelujah to the King I will see you as you are Love you with unsinning heart See how much you paid to bring me home Not till then, Lord, shall I know Not till then, how much I owe Everything I am before your throne And we will worship, worship Forever in your presence we will sing We will worship Worship you, an endless hallelujah to the King No more tears, no more shame No more sin and sorrow ever known again No more fears, no more pain We will see you face to face See you face to face And we will worship, worship Forever in your presence we will sing We will worship, worship you An endless hallelujah to the King And we will worship, worship Forever in your presence We will sing, we will sing We will worship, worship you An endless hallelujah to the King Thank you, ladies. Please take your Bibles tonight. Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter number 6. Now, in the preceding verses that we've already looked at in Judges, Gideon was commissioned by God to a task. And the task was to go and save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Look with me, if you will, at verse number 14. Chapter 6, verse 14 of Judges. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? Now, first, that phrase that we see there, this thy might. God is saying, Gideon, I want you to go in this thy might. Whose might is he talking about? Gideon's might? Because he says thy might, but that word this kind of changes things up. Whose might would Gideon be going in? The power that is supposed to carry Gideon through this task. Where's it coming from? Well, the answer is found in the last part of that verse. Folks, again, here's why context is so important. We can't pull a phrase out of Scripture and interpret it by itself. Look at that last phrase, have not I sent thee. No other circumstances made sense to Gideon. as we've seen already. In fact, all of the circumstances that were present in his life, in the life of Israel at that moment, actually added up to this being a bad idea, God. But God said, go. And God said, because I said go, that's all you need. Go in that might, right there. Because I sent you. That's the might that you're going in. I've already said, I'm with you. Now go in that might. Not yours, Gideon, but go in my might. And folks, that should be all we need, right? But, we offer up excuses, don't we? Look at Gideon's excuses that he offered up. Look at verse 15. And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Verse 16, and the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Now, Gideon protested with some weak excuses. He gave two. He said, I don't have much money, and I'm not important, all right? I'm the low man in the church we might offer up. I'm not a founding member, okay? I am a nobody. Joseph Parker once said we need not be socially great to be spiritually useful In fact, I might add to that to be spiritually useful We need to be socially not great because sometimes that gets in the way folks and The church doesn't need great people or important people in order to have a good Sunday and to experience spiritual blessings. I don't need, as a pastor, to bring in big names to preach in the pulpit in order to have some spiritual awakening take place. I don't need to have the right evangelist to come in. And I say that now that Savinsky's going to be retiring, perhaps, okay? Because all the great ones are done now, right? By the way, It looks like we're losing our favorite evangelist, Todd Savinsky, and Mark Herbster because he's going to Maranatha to be the Dean of Men this fall. And so as of next year, I have nobody scheduled. So I'll be taking applications from any of y'all that want to try it out. We don't need big names. And you know, some people, some churches really advertise when they get a big name coming in. They've got a big name celebrity coming in. And boy, that's all you hear advertised. And it's like, this will do it for us. This will create some kind of spiritual awakening. We don't need great people behind the pulpit, folks. We simply need people of faith. That's it. Because it's not about the guy behind the pulpit and how well-known he is or how great he is. It's about the faith of the person behind the pulpit. It's about the faith of those that are listening and what they're focused on. And what did God do here? When Gideon offered up those excuses, God reassured him that I will be with you. That's all he gave him. He didn't give him any other nuggets to base some faith on. He just said, Gideon, I'm with you. I'm with you. Look at verse 17. And he said unto him, Gideon speaking, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. that we would be remiss before we move forward if we don't notice something here that's taking place in these verses that we've already read. In verse 12, God is with you. We see that there. Verse 13, we talked about this a week or two ago. God said in verse 12, Gideon, I'm with you. Or the angel of the Lord said, God is with you. Gideon said in verse 13, you remember the argument? No, you're not. He actually argued with the angel of the Lord. Oh, yeah? God, if you're with me, where's all the miracles? Why is this all this happening to us? You're not with us. So now verse 14, the angel of the Lord says, go. Verse 15, what does Gideon say now? He says, how can I do this? Oh, there's a little bit of a change there, isn't there? Verse 16, the angel of the Lord says, God is with you. And now verse 17, Gideon says, okay, show me. Do you see that progression that took place? He went from God, no, you're not with us, to how can I do this, God? To now he's saying, okay, show me something. Now that's important to point out because the longer Gideon talked with God, the more his unbelief began to fade. We can see that in the progression there. God was calling Gideon to be a leader, basically, of the Israelite nation. Now, folks, that can be a scary thing, to be a leader, can't it? Leaders are not always liked. I saw a picture on Facebook today with a little saying on there. It says, if you want to be liked, It might not be best to be a leader, be the ice cream man, you know, because they're always light. In fact, Gideon's faith was growing the more time he spent with God. Can we just think about that for a moment? This is always a result when someone spends time with God, their faith grows. And we see that slight progression there just in those few verses as Gideon is talking with God. Is your faith weak? Spend some time with God. Is it maybe weaker this week because life is really beating you up? Spend some more time with God. The more time we spend, the stronger our faith gets. And so, finally, Gideon decided that he wanted to confirmed the fact that he was indeed talking with God. And so he asked for a sign. Let's talk about this sign for a moment. Contrary to what some would believe, this was not a sign of a lack of faith on his part. After all, this is what most sign asking is for, when we ask for a sign from God. Like God says, when we read in the Bible what God says about tithing and giving faith offerings to Him. And we say, okay, God, I'll do this. You said you'll provide all my needs, so I'll do this if... you do this. It's a lack of faith and that's what we're looking for in our signs. This request was not a show me a sign that what you say is true. He was asking a sign to show that God was indeed talking to him. It was an attempt to make sure that the experience that he was having was real and not just perhaps the result of something he ate the night before. You know what I mean? So notice, he's no longer arguing and protesting with God. He simply wants to confirm the source of what's being given to him. Now, that's an important principle for us to point out as well. And the same principle is given to us by John in 1 John 4, verse 1, where John says, try the spirits, whether they are of God. because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Folks, it is important that we try the Spirit. In other words, when we hear something, we need to try it. We need to put it on trial, basically. Does it line up with God's Word? So many times, Christians all across the country and the world Will not try put on trial what they're hearing because I mean after all he's on tv. He writes books He's on talk shows Everything he says must be true That's not the case folks We need to try the spirits And as a pastor, I am commanded to try the spirits. As a pastor of a church, every pastor has the obligation, the responsibility to be a watchman, to keep false truth out. Now, if you'll even take this next step with me, sometimes I've mentioned names in particular, and the false truth that's being proclaimed by those names that I mentioned. That's important to do. In fact, we have a command to mention names. What does the Bible say? It says, mark them which cause division among you. There's some kind of a public pronouncement for those that cause division. You say, well, pastor, those people don't even go to this church. And they are causing division in Christianity with the false truth that they're teaching. And God says, mark them. We need to be made aware of those that are teaching falseness that is woven in with good sounding stuff. For the health of our faith, we need to verify truth and expose error. Folks, Satan delights in confusing minds. He loves to deceive us into thinking that what we're hearing is from God. Sometimes the message is coming even from those that appear to be ministers of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, Paul writes, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. Verse 15, Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, Satan's, also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. Now, David, or not David, Gideon, is asking for this test. And here's what the angel of the Lord says to Gideon. Look with me in verse 18. Gideon is speaking to the angel of the Lord. and bring forth my present and set it before thee. And he said, the angel of the Lord said, I will tarry until thou come again. Now verse 19, and Gideon went in and listened to what he does. He made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. The flesh he put in a basket. He put the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him under the oak and presented it unto him. Gideon says I'm going to bring you this don't leave until I come back. So the angel of the Lord stays put Gideon prepares this meal. What did he prepare a kid a goat and cakes and broth, and he brings it out to this angel of the Lord where he's sitting under a tree. Now, I want you to notice how this guest received it, okay? Verse 20, the angel of God said unto him, take the flesh, the unleavened cakes, lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth, and he did so. And verse 21, then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock, consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. The guest made the offering to be consumed by fire. Now, an Israelite, this was an important thing to an Israelite. They would have recognized God in such an action. to have that offering be consumed by fire. They knew fire on the altar spoke of God, and that's exactly the result that it had. Look in verse 22. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. He now knew the source of the go to Gideon. Now, let's apply this here for a little bit. Gideon did two things in principle that we all can do which will lead to the confirmation of our own faith when we're doubting, when we're weak in faith. Here's what he did first. He sacrificed to the Lord. Now, what did he do? Well, he just went and he prepared a goat and some unleavened cakes and some broth. Remember the context of this chapter, what we looked at just a couple of weeks ago? Remember the situation that they're in as a nation? Remember where he was? I mean, he was grinding some grain in hiding so the Midianites wouldn't come and steal it from him. The Midianites had came in like hordes of grasshoppers and stripped the land of all the harvest, left them with nothing, and they are in poverty right now. And what does Gideon do? He basically prepared a feast, a whole goat. We're not talking about a squirrel he caught in the tree where you get a few little bites out of it. He's talking about a goat, a kid. That was a faith-building step for Gideon. That was an act of sacrifice. To build his faith, he had to take a step of faith, you might say. He sacrificed to the Lord. Here's the second thing that he did. He submitted to the Lord. Now, when he brought this feast, this guy in poverty, from a nation that's in poverty, a whole goat and unleavened cakes and broth, what did the angel of the Lord have him do? Well, he had him put the food on a rock and then pour the broth over it. His submission is evident by doing exactly what God told him to do. Put the food on the rock, pour the broth over it. Folks, it was wasted. This precious food. The angel of the Lord said, pour it out. Let me just say, sometimes God asks us to do something in his word that is a sacrifice. It may be a sacrifice of our time, and it doesn't make sense. It may be a sacrifice of our money, and it doesn't make financial sense. It may be a sacrifice of acceptance by our friends. If we do what God's word says, I might lose standing with some friends. It might be moms and dads. It might mean a sacrifice of our children's friends to do what God's Word says we're supposed to do as a family. Oh, they might lose some friends. They won't be as popular at school. Sometimes what God's Word asks us to do doesn't make sense, but it's that sacrifice that then results in building our faith. Folks, When it doesn't make sense, that's why it's called faith. If we only did everything that God asked us to do, our faith would never grow if it made sense. It's when we do stuff that God asks us to do that doesn't make sense, that's when our faith grows. How many of you can walk from here to the parking lot? Raise your hand. Okay, every hand went up. That's good. Not every hand. Poor Martha back there. How many of you could walk a mile? Raise your hand. Most hands go up, okay? Now, let's say this. Let's say that your health is fairly reasonable, okay? And you don't have any physical limitations that would prevent you from training, okay? If you only walked a half a mile every day, Is your strength going to increase beyond walking a half a mile? Absolutely not. But if you go beyond what you can do, your strength follows and catches up, and you do more. Now right now, every one of us has a certain level of faith, don't we? Obviously we wouldn't be saved, for by grace are you saved through faith, right? So we have some faith. But sometimes our faith is weak, and we need it to grow. How do we do that? We do what God says sometimes doesn't make sense. And when we go past what we are comfortable doing, Our faith catches up and grows. And we are stronger in faith. And it takes sacrifice and it takes submission to what God says to do. John 7, 17 says, If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. This is what Gideon did. Faith is never increased by stingy, non-sacrificing, disobedient, or unsubmissive people. Faith doesn't increase with them. If doubts arise in our hearts, Concerning God concerning what God's Word says the best way to prove your doubts wrong is to sacrifice and submit to God and You will see When it comes to our finances, what does God say in in the Old Testament in Malachi prove me? Go ahead. Test me prove me wrong. I'll show you I'll open the windows of heaven and Here's what happened next with Gideon. God met Gideon's need. Remember, he had no faith. He argued with God. He progressed a little bit the more time he spent with God. Then there was this test. He proved the source of God. And now he realizes, ah, I'm speaking with the angel of the Lord. I'm a dead man. And here's what God says, peace be unto me, or unto thee. He met Gideon's need by giving him peace. That generally follows when we're having a battle with our faith. When we're stretching ourselves beyond what we're comfortable with, we're taking what sometimes we call the step of faith, stepping out beyond what we're used to, and like, okay, God, I'm just going to trust you on this. And then all of a sudden we have peace. Like when I made that step of faith to go into the ministry. Like when I made that step of faith and left here as a youth pastor to become a senior pastor, and felt like, God, I have no clue what I'm doing, and I don't know if you know what you're doing, okay? But once the decision is made, here's what He did for me every single time. He blessed me with a peace When you exercise faith, God rewards us with peace. God's peace is present when we sacrifice and when we submit to Him. So look at what Gideon does. He builds an altar. Now, folks, Gideon's come a long way since the angel of the Lord first came to him earlier in the chapter. And it showed, it showed us the wisdom of his faith. Gideon's altar, it shows that he knows the source of true peace. Now, many people today have tried a whole myriad of solutions for peace. which leaves Christ out of the picture. And we know that, don't we? And maybe even we try that sometimes. If Gideon is going to know peace and bring peace to his land, he has to know the source of true peace. The altar says he knows the source of true peace. He knows this and it shows the wisdom behind his faith. It showed also the worship of his faith, this new faith that he has. It's demonstrated through his worship. Folks, an altar is all about worship, isn't it? Do you have faith? Are you a person of faith? Do you believe God? Do you trust God? Well, don't answer too quickly, okay? Answer this question. How's your worship? Worship is a result of faith. We can't miss that. True faith worships God. Let me say it again. True faith worships God. I don't know, because I'm not God, but just on what I see in His word, what I see even in this passage, what I see in other passages about faith and about worship and about if you love me, keep my commandments, I don't know how a person can say, I have true faith, I believe God, I love God, and they never go to church. How can that be? True faith worships God. And worship, by the way, determines who you serve. So we could ask the question backwards. Who do you serve? That's who or what you're worshiping. It's a fact, folks. We will serve whatever it is we worship. If we worship money, that's what we'll serve. And money's not a bad thing, but the Bible says the love of money is the root of evil, not money. If you serve, that's what you're worshiping. If you serve popularity, that's gonna be demonstrated in your worship. You will worship popularity. That will take preeminence. That will take importance. When my wife and I began dating, I worshipped her, okay, in a human sense, and I had pictures of other girls on campus in my room. Now, you're laughing because you know that's ludicrous, right? No, they were just pictures of her. What you worship is what you serve. What you serve is what you worship. So before we're quick to answer those questions about, do you believe God? Do you trust God? Are you a person of faith? Do you worship God? We need to answer that question. What is it or who is it that we serve? What is most important in our lives? People, listen, Those that don't worship God well don't serve well. You can't do it. We could also flip that around. People that don't serve well, it's because they don't worship God well. You serve what you worship. People who don't worship regularly in church should not be put into places of service, as I mentioned this morning, because they won't serve well. if they don't worship well. And they won't serve for the right reasons then either. Gideon's faith was also shown in his witness. Now I don't want us to miss this. The location of his altar says something about his faith as well. His altar was built in the vicinity of his father's altar to Baal. Yes, his father had an altar to Baal. We've already covered that. And Gideon built this altar to God in the same area? Folks, all around us are the ungodly, okay? And if we're going to take a stand for Christ, then it will have to be done in a hostile world. Taking a stand for Christ out there, not just in here. If we limit our witness for Christ to just a sympathetic crowd, you know, other Christians, or other people that talk about God, and we get together in our little groups, and we say, make sure no one's looking first, and we say, praise the Lord, you know? And, oh, isn't that nice? I had a nice religious talk with some friends as we were huddled in a corner so no one else could hear us. If we limit our witness to just a sympathetic crowd, like church people, we will have very little opportunity to stand for Christ. That's why, and I think I mentioned this last Sunday morning, that's why I won't do private baptisms. Why limit it? Let everybody know, right? Now, sometimes, sadly, the stand may have to be taken within the church itself. Sometimes. So let me ask you, how is your faith? Does your faith cause you to worship? Does it cause you to witness? Would, as we look at Gideon here, he was called in verse 12, if you wanna look back at that in your Bibles, he was called, before he even began to argue with God, he was called a mighty man of valor. And now we're beginning to see why, aren't we? Would God call you that? A mighty man or woman of valor? It starts with faith, which is simply this, trusting God. Trusting God's message. That starts with spending time with Him. And it's shown then through our worship and our witness. So let me ask you tonight, would you commit to being that person of valor? It starts with just spending time with Him. And then our faith grows and that's seen in our witness and our worship and our wisdom. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Heavenly Father, God, help us, please. We live in, yes, a hostile world when it comes to you and your mission on this earth. All of the world is against it. The ruler of this world is against it. So God, for us to take a stand, it's a challenge. It can be scary. It is easy when we're taking a stand with everyone that believes the same with us. But God, that's not a stand. That's called a sit-in, a gathering. We need to take a stand. And that requires faith. God, please help us. Our faith is weak at times. Our witness is weak. Sometimes our wisdom is weak when we don't try the spirits. Sometimes our worship But yet God, it would all start if we would choose here tonight to just spend more time with you and let you increase our faith and we submit to your word and we sacrifice and our faith is increased and then our wisdom and our worship is increased as well. God, please help us. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand please with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and let me ask you tonight as the instruments play,