Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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As we come to God's word,
let us ask for his illumination upon it
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tonight. And now, our God, as we have just saying of your
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word and saying about Your Commandments.
And Lord, we we thank you for
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it, and we come again tonight
to your word, to two more and
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Lord, we thank you, God
for this Never Failing Fountain that continues to
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Minister Life to us, Lord,
and we thank you how sweet it is,
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as us, almost as said,
Lord, sweet as the honey.
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And God, indeed, your word
is good to us, and we thank
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you, Lord, that we can
even have more understanding than those older than
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us, because we have your commandment
and your word. And so tonight,
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Lord, as we come to another
part of your word, I pray,
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God, that you would speak to
your people through it, and I pray
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that you would again use the words
I say to help minister to them and
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the condition they find themselves in tonight, Lord, and we pray that your
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word would do its work, as
it always does, because it never returns
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void. And so we pray and
ask it tonight in Christ name, Amen,
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a little shorter passage tonight, as
we come to the book of judges,
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Chapter Seven, we're reading from verse
nineteen to the end of the chapter
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and then the first three verses of
Chapter Eight, reminding you again this is
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God's word. So Gideon and the
hundred men who were with him came to
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the outskirts of the camp at the
beginning of the Middle Watch, when they
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just set the watch, and they
blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that
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were in their hands. Then the
three companies move the trumpets and broke the
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jars they held in their left hands
and torches in the right hands of trumpets
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to blow and they cried out a
sword for the Lord and for Gideon.
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Every man stood in his place around
the camp and all the army ran,
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they cried out and fled when they
blew the three trumpets, the Lord said,
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every man so it against his comrade
and against all the enemy, and
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the army fled as far as best
Shita, towards Zerea, as far as
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the border of Abomehola by Tabas,
and the men of his Ra were called
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out from that Cli and from Asher
and from all Manassa and they pursued.
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After media, Gideon sent messengers throughout
all the he'll country of Ephraim saying come
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down against the Median Knights and captured
the waters against them as far as Beth
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Barra and also the Jordan's. So
all the men of Erem were called out
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and they captured the waters as Beth
Barra and also the Jordan's, and they
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captured the two princes of Midian,
Oreb and Zeb. They killed Orb at
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the rock of ORB and Zeb,
they killed at the wine press of Zeb,
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and they pursued Midian and they brought
the heads of Orbanzi to Gideon,
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across the Jordan's. Then the men
of Ephraim said to him, what is
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this that you have done to us? Not to call us when you went
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to fight with Midian, and they
accused him fiercely, and he said to
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them, what have I done now
in comparison with you? Is not the
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gleaning of the Grapes of Efrom better
than the grape harvest of abaser? God
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has given in your hands the princes
of Midian, ORB and ze? What
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have I been able to do in
comparison with you? Then their anger against
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him subsided when he said this.
Thus sins the reading of God's words,
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and you may be seated. Well, I left you hanging last week.
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You were wondering, I'm sure,
up until this moment. Oh, who's
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gonna win that battle? I gotta
go tonight just to find out who it
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is, and we're gonna find out
tonight. So in Verse Nineteen and twenty,
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were finally arriving at the actual battle, at least what little battle there's
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going to be, and we're told
that this battle begins at the Middle Watch.
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Now, in the New Testament we
know that the Romans divided their evening
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into four watches, because remember the
Lord tubs walking on the sea at the
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Fourth Watch of the night. And
of course, so they're when the four
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watches there could be no middle watch. But here the watches were the divided
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into three watches, and so they
begin, apparently at the beginning of the
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Middle Watch of the evening. Is
when they're going to start their battle and
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their actions. And of course this
would mean that there's a time when somebody's
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coming to be on watch, somebody's
leaving watch to go back and somebody else
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is sleeping because it's not their turn
to either have been or to be on
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watch, and so there might be
some strategy involved in doing that. And
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what takes place here isn't completely clear, but apparently in some fashion the three
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men of getting into army blew their
trumpets and break their lamps, and so
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we have a loud sound of trumpets
and we have the flashing of lights,
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which of course could be alarming,
even with just three hundred men that could
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be doing that. And also this, of course, could negate the camels.
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Remember I said that the camel's Gideons
all the camels and median I's had
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and that would be a huge advantage. Well, this would negate that advantage
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because of the confusion and they shout
out what they're told to shout out a
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little bit different. There's shout out
exactly a sword for the Lord and for
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Gideon. There's been a lot of
battle cries in history and different battles,
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haven't there? One of the most
famous was Admiral Nelson at the battle of
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Der Falgar from his ship when he
sent the signals that he said England expects
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that every man will do his duty, and it rallied the English to the
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cause and of course they had victory
at that battle and this one also for
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the sword. A sword for the
Lord, for Gideon Unites The army together
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and empowers them and then it says
they stood their place, and the result
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is that the media nights all began
to flee. And in Verse Twenty Two,
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a very strange thing happens that you
do not expect to happen in the
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battle. The Lord causes the men
of the media nites and the Amalekites to
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actually begin to fight against each other
as they were leaving, and that that
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it's a pretty good advantage in that
battle. So they are fleeing and as
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they're fleeing they're killing each other.
So that that's what's going on. So
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this is a pretty uh, very
victorious thing that is happening here. And
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in Verse Twenty Three, it appears
that now all of these men who have
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been called out, remember that were
started out with a two thousand and we
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got rid of them and got rid
of them, and now we're down to
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these three hundred. Well, now
Gideon's calling them all back out and telling
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them it's time again to join in
the service, and so it's time for
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reinforcements. Gideon hasn't thrown all military
strategy out the window, even though it
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might appear so, and what he's
doing here, but nonetheless he is doing
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the right thing. The time has
come for report reinforcements to enter the battle,
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and so they do. And in
Verse Twenty Four, another piece of
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strategy which is important has happened before. This is also a repeat strategy,
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where it is important for the armies
to conquer and and and be holding at
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the waters to stop the enemy from
going to the water, because of course
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that's very necessary in battle. And
again, I had did the same strategy
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back in chapter three of judges.
So he said, follow after me,
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for the Lord has given your enemies, the Moabites, in your hand.
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So they went down after him and
seized the fords of the Jordan against the
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MOABITES and did not allow anyone to
pass over. So Gideon's army does that
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same thing. Follow us the same
strategy, and they too are successful.
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And in Verse Twenty Five They capture
a couple of the princes of MIDIAN,
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a couple of men. I don't
know about you, when I read these
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names, I just think these guys
got to be from like a science fiction
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movie, right, uh, you
know, Arab and Z. I mean
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it sounds like two guys that are
coming down to our planet to take it
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over something. But but anyway,
they killed both of them at their own
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properties. But there is something interesting
to note here that you don't just get
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from the text. You have to
look at it. Arab is killed at
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the rock of Arab and Zeb is
killed at the wine press of Zeb.
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Now why is that interesting? Well, you have to go back a little
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bit to the beginning of chapter six
when the Lord Calls Gideon. And where
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does the angel of the Lord First
Appear to Gideon? At the wine press,
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while his son Gideon was beating out
wheat in the wine press to hide
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it from the media nights. And
where did the angel of the Lord Command
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Gideon to place his offering on the
rock? And just just six twenty said
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take the meat and the unliving cake
and put them on this rock and pour
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the broth over them, and he
did. So it's interesting Gideon's life is
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kind of coming back full circle and
and those are kind of just interesting details
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we don't over notice when we read
through attacks, but it's interesting to see
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how that repeats again. So we're
gonna move to chapter eight and versus one
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through three, and here we're gonna
see Gideon doing a wonderful act of diplomacy.
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Is a little problem, but it
has the ability to erupt into a
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really large issue. As Matthew Henry
puts it, an unhappy spark was struck
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which, if Gideon had not,
with a great deal of wisdom and grace,
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extinguished immediately, might have broken out
into a flame of fatal consequence.
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In verse one, the men of
EF him are very upset with Gideon,
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and the reason seems to be that
Gideon didn't call them out at the beginning
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to join in the battle, at
the beginning of it. Now, if
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we look back to Gideon's call in
chapter six to the tribes, it is
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clear he did not include Effel,
he says, and he sent messengers through
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Manassa and they too were called out
to follow him. And he sent messengers
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to Asher Zebulon NAFTALA and they went
up to meet them. But Efraim isn't
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mentioned. Now why? Well,
we don't know. The Bible never tells
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us. We can make some guesses, we don't know if any of them
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are right. Some commentators think it
was simply an oversight on Gideon's part.
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He just forgot to call them.
Others thinks that he was deliberately snubbing the
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affirmights. Now again you have to
remember something. He'll come back to the
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affirmtes and tribe of Manassa. Remember, those were the two children of Joseph
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that Jacob remembered did that little trick
where he crossed his arms when he was
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blessing them, and so there's always
been this kind of jealousy between these two
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tried. So that's playing into this
as well. And so others think that
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perhaps all he was doing was holding
the affirmtes back for when they were going
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to be needed his reinforcements in the
battle, and perhaps that's what he did.
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I don't know, but I do
favor that last one actually myself,
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but I can't prove it. But
anyway, it seems that this late call
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of efforts to the battle has made
them a little ticked. A little.
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Let's set with Gideon for what he's
done. They don't just accuse him.
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The tech says they had use him
fiercely. So they're upset. Robert Hawker
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and his poor man's commentary says what
cause so good or what conducts so unexceptionable?
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But we'll meet with envy and the
bailful effects of our corrupt passions.
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Shouldn't they have been joyful thankful.
They just want a great battle is seven
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years. Oppression is over. The
Media Knights and the AMALEKITES are done.
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They're conquered. This is good times. These are exciting times. But there's
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always people that kind of always can
see the bad side, no matter how
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good something seems to be, and
it can be hard for us to handle
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the success of others if we didn't
have a part of it. Sometimes,
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I don't know, this would never
happen to your pastor, but for me
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I can get jealous when the church
across town is double the size of what
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the church I'm pastoring is, and
then I kind of get a little jealous
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and all of that. But that's
me, because that's a sign that I'm
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prone to. But but again,
UM, why? Why did they do
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this? And something suspicious? There's
a couple of things suspicious in their behavior,
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all right, and so I don't
know, but at least it makes
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us wonder. Here, and and
this is Um number one, is why
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they wait till after the battle,
right, you know, why didn't they
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say when getting caused rest, Hey, what about us? We want to
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fight? To Um, we don't. We don't see them doing that.
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They wait until the fighting is all
over and then they go, Oh,
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you should have called us. I
don't know, I'm a little UH.
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I'm not sure I'm going to forgive
them on this, but the sermon Bible
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says the effort. Mights may have
been either high spirit and vexed that they
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had not been invited to help and
overflow overthrowing the media nights, or they
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may have only wished that they had
a share in the glory and tried to
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make it appear they would gladly have
joined Gideon. Now the reason I say
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I'm suspicious, and I told you
the first reason. There's another reason too,
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because they pull this same thing later. They do it again later in
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judges you might remember Jeff the and
in judges twelve we read the men of
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Efraim were called to arms and they
crossed to Zephon and said to jeff the,
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why did you cross over to fight
against the AMMONITES and did not call
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us to go with you? We
will burn your house with fire, a
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little worse than Gideon had to do
and do. And Jeffa said to them
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I and my people had a great
dispute with the ammonites and when I called
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you, you did not save me
from their hand, and when I saw
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that you would not save me,
I took my life in my hand and
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crossed over against the ammonite, and
the Lord gave them into my hand.
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Why, then, have you come
up to me this day to fight against
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me? Then Jeff gathered all the
men of Gilead and fought with Efraim,
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and the men of Gilead struck Efraim
because they said you are fugitives of Efron,
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you Gileadites, Gilead. Well,
never mind, in the midst of
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Efraim, in Manassa, so you
said, they pulled us again. So
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I'm I'm kind of a little suspicious
when someone does it again again. But
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Gideon handles this with superb diplomacy.
He says, what have I done in
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comparison with you? Isn't the gleaning
of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of
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Abiezer? In other words, why
are you complaining? Isn't what you were
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able to do by killing the princess, and perhaps even much more that you
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did? I don't know what they
did all in the end, because the
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text doesn't tell us, but you
did much more than I did. The
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word grapes that is found in the
King James and the S V is not
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there in the original, but it
easily can be implied. But the point
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is that Gideon says you came in
late, but you got more glory than
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anybody even by coming in La you
should have nothing to really complain about.
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And and it brought to mind as
I as I was reading this, what
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happened earlier, and I know I
didn't preach judges as early here in this
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church, but it reminded me of
when barracks said to Deborah. He said,
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Um, I'll go up to battle
if you go with me, and
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Debora said art to go with you, but I would tell you now you're
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not going to get the glory for
this battle. Somebody else is going to
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get the glory. And it was
a one that got the glory. Remember
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jail, who called sister of the
great general uh into her tent and drove
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the tent peg into his head.
And so jail got the glory that Deborah
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prophesied instead of barrick getting the glory. And it appears that Ephraim not only
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killed the two princes, by the
way, but it seems like they had
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a great slaughter of the Media Knights
and now I said, well, I
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don't see that in the text.
Nor do I. But Isaiah, Chapter
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Ten, verse Twenty Six says and
the Lord of hosts will wheeled against them
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a whip has when he struck Midian
at the rock of Areb, and his
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staff will be over the sea and
he will lift it as he did in
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Egypt. So that seems to indicate
that God is saying there was a eight
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battle that happened there. And again
remember that jealousy, that that is always
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there. Even though EFROM was the
firstborn, they're always concerning that they get
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that rightful glory that was theirs as
as they received that blessing, and so
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there's always that tension. Isaiah refers
to it. Chap manason devours EFROM and
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EFROM devours MANASA, together there against
Judah. For All this, his anger
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is not turned away and his hand
is not stretched out. Still, proverb
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eight nine reminds us a brother offended
is more unyielding than a strong city,
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and quarreling is like the bars of
a castle, and I'm going to come
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back to that in the application.
So really in humility, getting in and
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saying hey, look, you got
a better glory. You got the blessing
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of the firstborn, you took the
princess. You you had a great slaughter.
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We I went in and had a
little bit, but you're getting the
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glory of the battle and and so
you should be grateful. And so they
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from mites actually are calmed by this, and actually they're anger subsides because of
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what Gideon says in verse three.
He says you're the ones, and he
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said what have I been able to
do in comparison with you? This takes
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a lot of humility on Gideon's part. He's the one to whom the angel
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had appeared, and I would have
I would have I would have done that
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much differently. I just said Hey, what are you complaining? Do you
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know who I am? I'm Gideon. I don't know when the angel called
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the mighty man of Valor. I'm
the one that that God spoke to.
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I'm the one that did the strategy
here. I'm the one that they got
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the army down to three hundred.
You shouldn't be saying anything against me,
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but Gideon was much more humble than
I am and he remembered Paul's instructions,
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even though he hadn't read them yet, but he remembered Philippians two three.
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Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility a count others more
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significant than yourselves. And he also
brings God's providence when he says God has
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given into your hand. In other
words, don't fight against the Providence of
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God, don't go against God has
delivered them to you. And by complaining
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you're actually complaining against God, which
really is the case with almost any complaining
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that we do right, it's almost
always complaining against God. Well, I
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don't want to give some applications this
evening. The reformers, especially during the
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time of Luther and others that were
following him. They looked at this battle
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of Gideon versus the media, Knights
and Amalekites, has the type of the
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proclamation of the Gospel. In the
view of some, the trumpets representative proclaiming
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of the Gospel, the pictures represented
the weak vessels that are called to do
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this, and the way Gideon attacked
spoke of the foolishness of the gospel.
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That's how Martin Borhaus, who is
a compatriot of Lutheran's wingly I, saw
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it, and Luther himself saw it
very, very similarly, and there are
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certainly scriptures in the new estimate that
could lead us to such an understanding.
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And First Corinthians four, Paul makes
the comparison to the trumpet sounding the noise
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of of the clear proclamation of the
Gospel and showing the superiority of the proclamation
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of the Gospel over speaking in tongues. And Second Corinthians four seven, Paul
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Speaks of the Gospel Messengers. But
we have this treasure in jars of clay,
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and so the pictures of clay that
Gideon's army had and boorhouse actually saw
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a correlation between the lamps that were
left after the pictures are broken and the
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tongues of fire that lighted on the
apostles at Pentecost. Martin Luther also saw
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the trumpets as referring to the preachers
of the Gospel. But in the broken
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jars luther saw particularly the martyrs,
and he said the bodies of the martyrs
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and saints, broken by various sufferings
of the cross, educated the world by
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their example of love and truth and
put the flight the godless along with their
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godlessness. So with the thoughts of
the Ref Farmers and the theology of the
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reformers in mind that I have just
given you, let me make a few
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applications concerning the proclaiming of the Gospel
to the world. One thing I'd have
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you notice is that every member of
gineon's army blew the trumpets they all put
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and I say that because, and
this is something I guess I'll say,
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I believe and I don't want to
go against others that might believe differently,
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but I have heard of those in
the reform camp and I've run into them
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who say that no lay people should
ever proclaim the Gospel, that they should
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never be sharing the gospel because they're
not ordained and they shouldn't be doing that.
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I don't agree with that personally.
I don't think that's right. I
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believe and Act Fort says those who
were scattered went about preaching the word.
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I think all Christians went about at
that time scattered through the persecution, and
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we're preaching the word and as a
result of that the church was greatly increased
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and every soldier broke his picture.
So the lamp was shown. Every Christian
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is to let their light shine before
the world. We as believers, we
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know our Lord said we are the
light of the world. He is the
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light, but so are we,
as he calls us, and perhaps our
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Lord was making an illusion in our
Texas evening to the sermon and amount he
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said, you are the light of
the world. A city, said on
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a hill cannot be hidden. Nor
do people light a lamp and put it
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under a basket, but on a
stand and it gives light to all the
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house. In the same way,
let your light shine before others so that
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they may see your good works and
give glory to your father who is in
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heaven. I'm guessing. I don't
know, it could be wrong here,
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but I'm guessing a lot of the
kids that are here probably know that little
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song, this little light of mine, and hide it under a Bushel.
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No, I'm gonna let it shine. And I don't know, I think
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kids do sing that song. Maybe
I'm wrong, but but if you're singing
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a kids you know what I'm talking
about. But again, we're all gospel
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light bearers doing that. And they
cried out the sword of the Lord,
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because every believer has the sort of
the Lord. We are all equipped with
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the word. The church for years
trying to stop the lay people from reading
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the Bible and tell them that that
they weren't smart enough to understand the Bible
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and they hid the Bible from them. But then came the glorious unfolding of
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the Gospel and the word of God, and all of a sudden every Christian
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has has the word of God in
their home and and we can use that
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in our proclamation. I want to
make a side note about this. That
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luther, when Luther wrote about the
arguments for free will in his book the
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bondage of the will, he makes
reference as battle, and this is really
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kind of a side note, is
not? So how does this relate?
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What? Probably doesn't, but just
humor me for a moment. He says
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reason is so captivated by her inferences
and the words of her own wisdom that
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she does not know what she is
saying or what she's talking about, though
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it is most fitting that free choice
should be defended by such arguments. Has
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Mutually Devour and make an an to
each other, just as the media nights
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destroyed themselves by mutual slaughter when they
fought against Gideon and the people of God.
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At least found that an interesting illusion
to the gospel of free choice that
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Luther says it ends up devouring itself
with all the arguments that they use.
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But let me also make up perhaps
a better and more applicable application from the
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story concerning how we share the Gospel. When is the church we want to
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preach the Gospel, should we have
a definite, planned, reasonable strategy,
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or should we just try to do
the ridiculous, as it seems like God
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instructs Gideon To do here? Now, no one can argue that when we
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do something ridiculous that turns out really
good, that it's easy for God to
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get the glory. That's true,
but the Lord does remind us, as
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he sends the disciples out to be
wisest serpents and harmless as doves. There
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are times, yeah, when a
ridiculous to our surprise, actually works.
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I was out in the streets night
and handing out tracks and talking to people
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and it came upon a guy and
I was going to hand him a track
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and he said, I'm an old
drunk, it's too late for anything for
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me. Just go give you a
track to someone else. Now, normally
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I would have said no, no, it's not too late. Today is
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the day of salvation, this is
a good day, this is your day
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of opportunity. It's never too late. As long as you have life,
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it's it's not too late. That's
why I normally would have said but for
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whatever ridiculous reason I looked at him
and said, you know, I think
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you're right. It's way too late
for you and turned around to walk away
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and as I did he goes,
Hey, hey, wait a minute and
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he said call me back. He
said, what do you mean? It's
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too late for me, and we
ended up talking that night for two hours
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and being able to share to him. Now I I would never really do
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that. I did another time I
was working at GE when I was starting
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getting a trend to the church plant
going. I was working for them and
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as time went on, I never, I'd ever tried to be foolish about
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sharing the Gospel and things like that. A lady uh who husbands sold O
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cult books and definitely did did not
have Um, the same kind of ideas
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as me, and she said she
she called me into the office one day
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and she said, you know what
she said. I want to tell you
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I respect you. And she said, I don't respect a lot of Christians,
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but she said I do. I
respect you, and I understood what
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she didn't respect a lot of Christians
because I was managing some of them and
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I could get what she wouldn't.
Uh. But she said, would you
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tell me what you believe? And
I did something I've never done when somebody
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else to share the gospel. I
started giving her like two that's not my
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normal way of sharing the gospel with
somebody, but I started doing it and
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I said this is gonna sound crazy
to you and I'm gonna say but I
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don't believe God has chosen. I
started toning to these things and I get
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done, I look at her she
goes, you know what, that makes
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a lot of sense now. She
didn't. I wish I could tell she
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came to the Lord, but she
didn't. But sometimes we just do something
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that's kind of strange. But sometimes
that doesn't work. When we were starting
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the church in Claire Wisconsin, I
um came up with this brilliant idea of
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putting brilliant and quotes there. Um
I said we're gonna send out a letter.
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I got a mailing list from world
magazine and they sold their mailing lists
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and so we got got their mailing
list and we sent out a letter to
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everybody on that mailing list. And
this is what we did. We said
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in the letter if you're looking for
a church, and then we had bullet
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points. If you're looking for a
church that has a dynamic children's ministry,
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Nope, sorry, we like to
have our families worshiped together. Or if
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you are looking for a church with
a dynamic praise band, no, sorry,
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we like seeing the old hymns of
the church. Anyway, I went
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on point by point and all of
the things that the other church has said
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and then I'd say that I thought
this is going to be great and we
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set it out. You know,
never got one person that ever responded that
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letter, except for one guy and
he was ticked and uh, he called
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me up and he said where did
you get my address, and I said,
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well, we got it from World
magazine. He said, I didn't
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know they sold that. I'm calling
them and canceling my subscription right now and
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don't you ever contact me again.
So that was my brilliant response. That
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turned out to be not very good
at all. So so I again I
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think the normal course of evangelism for
a church just to have a good strategy.
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I think the fellowship groups, as
churches doing their great opportunity for people
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to invite neighbors and people to invite
friends and and to have them come.
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I think that's wonderful. I think
that's a great way of getting the Gospel
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out as well. And so so
we do that and and we thank God
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for again, normally the wise way, but once in a while, who
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knows us? Um, and if
you ever do something ridiculous, hopefully it
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works out for you. But Um, two more quick applications. Whatever we
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think about emulating Gideon Strategy in the
battle, we can certainly emulate Gideon's behavior
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in his humility. In Chapter Eight. It is by not giving into his
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pride the Gideon wins the day.
Like I said, I would have said
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a lot of stuff. I would
have said, you know, I'm Gideon,
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I'm the man of Bellor I'm Dad, Blah Blah. Gideon didn't say
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any of that. He humbled himself
and because of that the effor Mites were
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soothed. I've almost had fifty years
of pastoral ministry, at least full time
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ministry, in my life and I
have observed in that time many conflicts that
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have happened in families and churches.
That all it would have taken was for
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one person in the conflict to humble
themselves and say I'm sorry, I was
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I did wrong here. Forgive me, please forgive me. But I have
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seen those conflicts lead to church splits, splits and families. I have seen
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families split because of that because people
do not are not willing to take wrong.
404
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Remember Paul said to the Corinthians,
why are you doing these lawsuits?
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Why don't you just take wrong yourself? That's hard to do. I know
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it's very difficult. ECCLESIAST these four
forces. A brother offended is more unyielding
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than a strong city. So I
mentioned earlier proverbs third team ten. By
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insolence comes nothing but strife. But
those who take advice is wisdom. Sometimes
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I just think we need to take
the high road and say I'm sorry,
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forgive me, and whether or not
the other person says Oh, I've expected
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that maybe up to have you ever
done that? Summer and you go and
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you ask him me say I'm so
sorry, which Les Forgive Me, and
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you think in your mind you played
it all out and they're gonna say uh,
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yeah, I'm really sorry too.
But then it never happens that way.
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None. But still it's better.
It's better that way. And finally,
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let me just say whatever we see
of this battle, the reformers also
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sought as a picture of Christ,
the pictures being broken. They saw as
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Christ broken upon the Cross and the
light that came forth with the light of
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the Glorious resurrection. That's what the
Gospel is. It's a glorious resurrection of
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Christ. The Gospel is the resurrection. They are synonymous terms. I found
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that years ago as I was going
through acts. This beginning in verse Cho
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beginning from the Baptism and John on
to the same day he was taken up
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from us. Must one be or
day to be a witness with us of
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his resurrection. Act Four two.
Being grieved, he taught the people and
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preached through Jesus the Resurrection from the
dead. X Four three, and with
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great power gave the apostles witness of
the direction of the resurrection of the Lord
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Jesus, and Great Grace was upon
them all. At seventeen eighteen and certain
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philosophers of the epicureans and of the
stoics encountered him and some said, what
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would this babblers say? Are there's
some. He seems to be a center
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forth of strange gods, because he
preached, unto them, Jesus and the
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resurrection. That's our message. That's
a message that we have. We have,
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we have there's been one person in
the history of the world who has
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been resurrected from the dead, one
person. That's our message. We have
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it. He is ours, he
is our God, he is the one
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that has been resurrected. Nobody else
has that, no other religion has that.
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We're the only ones that have it. And the Gospel is simple,
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as Paul tells, the prints and
first printinents fifteen is very simple. We
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preach Christ for our sins, according
to the scripture, was buried on the
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third day. He rose again.
That's it. It's that simple and that's
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what we have. And if you
can believe in that and trust in that,
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that's where salvation is. It lies
right in those things. Turned to
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the one who died for your sins
and your life will be changed forever.
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Let's pray, Lord, we thank
you for your word and we thank you
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God for types and shadows and Lord, I pray that tonight you would take
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some of these things, which are
perhaps strange applications in some ways, but
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Lord, use them to speak to
your hearts, of your people. I
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pray, and I asked God that
none of us would be offended by the
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foolishness of the Gospel, but Lord, that we would trust it and not
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be afraid to share it with others, that our Lord Jesus Christ has risen
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from the day and he is triumphant
over everything. And help us to know,
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God, what you can do with
foolishness. But we asked this in
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Christ name. Amen. MM HM
