What Holds You?
Notes
Transcript
Does anyone here absolutely love going to the carnival?
Well I love the atmosphere, but one thing I absolutely hate is the rides.
And some of you are thinking well Pastor is a wimp those rides are not that bad.
But here is the thing, the thrill level of the ride is not the thing that is bad.
but for me its the fact of how quickly the ride are put together
and not just that but at least with my experience whenever I am on a ride I always notice their is usually some duck tape holding something in place and that usually bothers me a little.
But whats amazing if you go to an actual theme park there is not duct tape holding any of the rides together.
And the rides are not moved week to week and they do regular maitnince on the rides which is nice
But because of this I feel a lot better going on ride at six flags that might be scarier and more thrilling, then a carnival ride that might only have a small thrill level to it.
But its not because of what the ride is and how fast it spins me, but what makes me feel secure is actually what holds me.
If it has duct tape on it I am worried
But if it looks like a new ride that never has any issues, I feel pretty good.
Its what holds me that matters
But you know as crazy as it sounds for some of us our lives look like look a-little like a thrill ride.
There are points that might be a little calm, but then a lot of times are life gets crazy.
But what allows us to feel secure and safe when things get crazy is what holds us.
And whats amazing if you are a Christian and you have accepted Christ in your life what holds you is God.
Because there is a chance that your finances may fail, theirs a chance friends can leave you, family can hurt you.
But God will not.
And whats amazing is this actually impacts how we live, because when we know who holds us and it is the God that created the universe we are willing to follow that God into the craziest moments.
And today we are in Judges 6:24-35 and whats amazing is Gideon actually realizes who is holding Him and we get to see what is His response to having God hold him.
But before we get to far let me catch us up to speed, because if you were with us last we were talking about how the nation of Israel has been living under the another nation of people called the Midianites.
And the Mideonites have treated them terrible. They have forced them out of their land where they live in Caves, they have taken their food so they are starving, and really they have turned the nation of Israel into this weak nation.
And in this weak nation there is a person God reaches out to named Gideon and Gideon is actually the weakest and probably most cowardly person in the nation.
But whats amazing is God chooses Him to deliver the Israelites from the Mideonites.
But between where we were last week and where we are today Gideon is still unsure about God, so what happens is he puts God to the test.
And Gideon is able to see that God is the true God.
And in verse 23 God tells Gideon “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”
Basically I’ve got you, do not fear because I am holding you.
And so like I said today we are going to look at Gideons response to God holding Him.
So once again we are in Judges 6:24-35 and we will just be starting it verse 24. It says:
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
So the first thing Gideon does as a response to God is it says he actually builds an alter to the Lord.
You see back in Biblical times they would build alters to the things they worshiped.
And this did two things: First it was just an act of worship and really it was a way for Gideon to say God I want to build you up in my life.
I want you to be the thing I worship.
But the second thing it did was it served as a reminder of a point in time where God moved.
Because now when Gideon faces a somthing that seems impossible he is able to look back and say this is where God moved, and I believe He will be faithful in the future.
Can I just so important for us to mark where God has moved in your life. Because there are times where you will feel defeated and you might even question God.
But if you are able to look back at a time where God moved it is so much easier to say God I trust you.
And not only that but in the future when your kids go Dad why is their an alter their you are able to say it is because God moved.
Find ways in your life to build alters that show how God has moved.
The other day I was digging through some old stuff and I found my old swim cap from when I was a swimmer,
And some of you knew this but I was a swimmer for over 15 years, and I was good. Micheal phelps was at my swim meets, I went to nationals in college. I absolutly loved swimming
And their was a point where I quit swimming though because I felt God wanted me to get more involved in different ministries in college.
And that was difficult, at the time it did not make a lot of sense, but I was able to say well God this might not make sense but I trust you.
And this swim cap reminded me of that the other day.
And I am not telling you this so you can go wow our Pastor is so great, but this points to how great God is.
Find ways to build alters to God in your life, wether that is through journaling how God has moved or finding things that remind you of how he has moved.
Well look what happens next in verses 25-27 because it says this:
25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
So God tells Gideon I want you to now tear down the alter to a false god that your father has.
And this was a big deal because this false god that the father worshiped was worshiped by a lot of people in Israel at this time. And by knocking down this alter it was going to show that in a sense that this god is dead and we no longer serve him
but instead the passage says Gideon actually builds another alter for God.
Here what I want you to get because when we accept God and become Christians there are things in our life that often times God will bring to our attention and He will say look this needs to be taken care of in your life.
You say you worship me but their is this thing in your life that clearly is above me.
You say you worship me, but you keep using this drug
You say you worship me but you are still just caught in lust
You say you worship me but you seem to have money as your God.
And God is saying knock down that alter.
But it doesn’t just stop there because God tells Gideon once that alter is destroyed build an alter for God.
When we are able to knock down an idol in our life, we can not just say awesome, but what this implies is that we need to fill the void of that idol with God’s presence.
Its like if you had a mouse problem in your house.
And so you payed for an exterminator and they got rid of all the mice,
But the issue is they did not fix the hole that mice are actually getting into the house from.
So the mice are going to keep getting in unless something is done to fix the root of the problem.
And can I just say this is so true in our walk with God because you can knock down idols that are in your life, but if you do not fill those areas with God then the that idol will return because the root cause of that idol will still be their.
We need to fix the root of the issue which is we need God.
Well look at the next part of this passage in verses 28-32 it says:
28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.
So because Gideon destroyed the alter at night the men of the town he lived in woke up and discovered that someone destroyed the alter and they were not happy.
They ended up actually searching the town to figure out who did this.
And pretty quickly it looks like it becomes known that Gideon was the one who destroyed it. So the men seek him out and they go to Gideons house and want to kill him.
But whats amazing is his father who actually owned the altar to this false god comes out and says look let baal contend for himself.
Basically if he is a real god then he should be able to prove it
And this is such a simple concept because in a way this passage is saying look follow what works.
And he is going clearly Baal is a false god because he is dead.
So why would we follow him?
Its almost like a GPS I used to have. It was awful, it got be lost every-time I would use it
One time it told me to drive into a field
Another time it told me to drive get on the wrong side of the highway.
Guess what? I am not going to use that GPS anymore, because everytime I use it, it almost gets me killed.
But you know thats why this passage says why are you following this God that has led you to a dead end.
And what I want you to understand is their is a lot of truth here. Because we might not worship baal, but we worship our addictions, we worship a car, we worship our pride
And we will chase these things but so often they leave us unfulfilled, hurt and hungry for more.
And we need to look at these idols we chase and go let this idol contend for itself.
Where has this idol led me before?
Because I tried this and it failed
But God, the true God never has.
Well look at the last point because Gideon has built up the alter for God and torn down the alter for baal and there is one last thing that happens.
Look at vereses 33-35. It says:
33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
So all of this has happens and we can guess the Midianites are upset about it, because Gideon destroys an alter to their god and the passage says they start to come together.
And the Israelites are probably in some deep trouble.
And so what happens next is a defining moment for Gideon.
Because Gideon can do what he is good at and hide, or he can take a stand.
And it said Gidion was clothed in the spirit and he actually sounds the trumpet and send messengers.
Gidion is not just playing music, but what Gideon does here when he sounds the trumpet is he is saying it is time to take a stand.
And can I be honest this morning there are some of us where there is just some area in our life that rules us.
and today as we look at this area we recognize that today we face a defining moment in our life.
A moment where we can do what we are good at and hide, or a moment where we can sound the horn and say enough is enough.
I am tired of living for money
I am tired of being stuck in this addiction
I am tired of lusting off of people from a tablet
Today is the day I want to sound the alarm
Today is the day I want to tear down this alter in my life
And today is the day I want to build it up in Christ.
But this takes some guts. and really the only reason Gideon is able to do it is because in verse 34 it said the lord clothed Him.
You know it is amazing what can happen when God clothes you.
This morning I believe their are some of us that need to sound the trumpet, and this is something that takes courage and so I want to end with something that takes courage as we close.
If God is just laying something on your heart right now saying the trumpet needs to be blown here, I think it would be so powerful to bring that before God this morning.
And really I want to challenge you to even come up to the front and kneel before God and say God I want to give this to you this morning.
I want to blow the trumpet.
You know so often we view coming to the alter as a walk of shame, but when I see someone come to the alter I think wow, God is moving in that person.
And so as we close during this last song I just want to invite you to come forward to pray before God.
It is time to sound the trumpet this morning.