Brian Guerin preaches on the story of Gideon, emphasizing the importance of radical purity and obedience to God's voice. He illustrates how Gideon, initially fearful and hesitant, ultimately obeyed God's command to tear down the altars of Baal, leading to Israel's victory over the Midianites. Guerin highlights that true obedience often requires a personal sacrifice and a willingness to confront the idols in our lives. He encourages the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with God, which empowers them to fulfill their divine purpose. The sermon culminates in a call for prayer and a commitment to radical obedience.

Welcome everybody, glory nights. I don't know what number this is, yeah, come on Jesus. I think we're a slam out of seats, so if anybody, I heard they're packing in the cafe or something. So, we have some seats up here, if you could maybe let them, they'll come take my seat. Zoe, you maybe want to move to the end, babe, and they can, my lovely daughter Zoe. It was funny, yeah, you can take, we got seats up here. Man, if you want to bring the chairs from the cafe in, stack up in the altar, really. Just there in ministry time, we'll maybe move them, but everybody get a seat anywhere you like. Welcome, welcome, yeah, it was funny, I was at a, I don't know, a conference some time ago, and you all know Ben Fitzgerald, he's from, yeah, he's from Australia, but he's over in Germany and rocking it, and he had not met my daughter yet, it was a couple of years ago, and we're in a green room or something. I was like, babe, thanks babe, she brought me something. He was like, babe, who's she? I said, that's my daughter, man. Come on, now you know. So, it's funny, because she's, you know, she's 20 now. It's like unreal, and we'll be in grocery stores, and sometimes people don't know, it's encouraging to me, man, they think I'm dating her. I'm like, thank you Lord, because I mean, I got grays popping in, and so, I'm like, we'll take that as long as we can get it, you know, but no, that's my daughter. But anyway, so, so yeah, man, I feel the Holy Ghost. It's just really rich in here. So, let's see how far we get, what we end up doing. So, so good. So, yeah, yeah, bring that cafe seats. Y'all got the fancy ones, the VIP seats up front, and then during ministry time, we'll just finagle it and figure out how it works. So, yeah, super excited. Pastor Blake, give me a hug, bro. Been a minute, dude. What's happening? I love you, dude. This is Pastor Blake from over, a lot of you all know him, yeah. Flat out legend, his entire team. Hey, how are you? How you been? But I love him dearly. The Well, Gaston, Alabama. Look, what, a couple hours, not too far. They are rocking it super tight with David Hogan, their whole crew, and look, they are the real deal. Holyfield, preached there many times, and you got to check them out. Just love Blake, appreciate you making it. Hang with us, man. Maybe we get in the glory later and lay hands on some folks. He's wild. Better put on your seat belts or whatever. I love it when I go to their house because it's Alabama. I love to see where the crowd's at, you know. I'll be like, all right, who's Roll Tide? Who's War Eagle? Auburn's, you know, split the house right down the middle. Little early division, then you unite them at the end. I'm teasing, but they're mostly War Eagles, huh? Auburn, yeah. Except Redneck Prophet, how's he doing, man? He's good. They got this guy in the house. He goes by Redneck Prophet, and he's for real. He's Roll Tide. He's always the one like, Roll Tide, you know. But he's for real. He loves the Lord, so it's awesome. How are you all doing? Sorry you had to be in the cafe. Now you got the VIP seats. Yes, sir. Thank you, Lord. That's awesome. Yeah, what is it? What is it? The last shall be first. Yeah, come on now, help me. I don't know where it's at, but it's in there. It is in there. Baby's loving the glory, all of it. Go take it. Anyway, so excited to have you all with us. Gonna be good. I got a short just from my heart. Trunky but dense. I want to share the word with you. How many love the Bible? Man. I love that, that Jacob opened. I said, come on now. I just hope we're straight up with the word. We need some just, what is it, Colossians 3.16 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And we need to be a people just infatuated with the word, all of it, cover to cover. Deep dive into Leviticus if you have to, and just figure it out. I just love the Bible. So we'll go into the word a little bit, but a couple of announcements, and then, yeah, we'll be back tomorrow morning up in here, so this will be awesome. So I'm trying to think. Oh, yeah, I was going to take up an offering if that's okay. Tonight, specifically towards our event center, we'll do that first maybe over here. Many of you may not have seen it, but so this is an 11,000 square foot building with office space and all that. It's such a blessing. Gary, what's up, dude? How are you, man? You doing good? My dear friend, he runs with Kalenda and all them boys, Crusades, and they're slinging nets. Amazing man of God. But back here, there's a big building that's way more suited for like these conferences. We can fit three times as many people there, and so it'd be awesome. Yeah, probably just towards that. If you feel led, it won't really keep you too long, but we probably need about right under now, about a half a million, right under to finish it out. And so now these glory nights, and then we plan to host big events with some of my dear friends and things over there, and it's awesome. And then we can just, oh, because on these, I don't know if you knew this, but we've been having to, I think all of them now, we have to shut off a couple weeks in advance. It's kind of a bummer, you know, the people are like, what? You know, whatever. But it's awesome. I love the intimate type feel, but over there, we can fit them. And so if you feel led, it'd be a great, great blessing. And hopefully we'll be underway there. I think that was it. Yeah, so if you have an offering slip, Brent, do you mind bringing the baskets up? We typically just walk up front. Now I've got a couple of announcements, we'll jump in. Yep, ways to give. You can do the text to give. We've got the triple ones up in here, super prophetic. And then AscendChurchATL.com. Checks, who writes checks still? Mary. That's awesome. Man, checks to me are problematic, you know, especially when you're like in a grocery line behind people. May those payable to AscendChurch. And we'll pray and bless the offering. And that'll be good. Yeah. So, yeah, we're excited, you know, just with what all the Lord's doing while you guys are, just writing out checks or however you feel led. But hopefully here pretty quick, I'm hoping by this fall we'll be able to utilize that facility. Then all the glory now, if we won't have to cut off the registration. I don't know if you, if any of you all were with us on the very first grand opening of Pentecost, we just kind of let it rip tater chip and open them both. And boy, it was glorious, but we were having to go back from building to building bodies flying. And it was a lot of fun. And then, you know, but we'll get a parking lot in this big field and be able to host both ways. So that's part of the big chunk of change too. And then the full build out over here. So right on about a half a million in that big land, you all have heard me say, I envision a bass pond there with Lord. We're going to have a parking lot. You got to do kingdom first and then we'll be able to fit, you know, both sides. So Blake, that'd be nice though. It'd be nice. All right. Let's pray Jesus. We love you. Thank you so much for you. Thank you for your presence, your voice, Lord, your everything. I said, be glorified tonight. I pray a blessing upon your people, the generosity that had increased back on them. 10 fold a hundred fold. Let there be miracles. God, for your glory in and through your people and Jesus name. Amen. Awesome. If you want to come to the front, we got, um, yep. These two great baskets. You can just mob the, the, uh, altar. That'll be good. And we'll continue on. Thank you, Lord. So what are we in February end of February? You guys having a good year so far going amazing. One person clapping. That's awesome. Everybody else is in a wilderness. Yeah, man. It just feels really good in here. I think it's going to get a little bit. So, another announcement, two more, I think, and then we'll jump straight into the Word together. Another one is our... We have a two-year school of ministry. It's now going under the name Ascend Academy, recent ordeal, you know, with the name and all. So, a two-year school of ministry, we'd love to invite you to join us if you feel led. We're currently around, I don't know, it's like 350-something students or something from 22 nations, countries around the world, and listen, there's some radical Jesus-loving folks. Give them a shout in here. I know there's a bunch locally, yeah. And so, two-year school, the model's beautiful, both online and in person, and look, heaven's touching the end-time bride. And we have a fun photo I want to put up in here in a second. So we do these... Oh, do y'all care? Is that okay? I didn't get your approval yet, but you repent later. But we do them like once a month. Thank you so much, man. We call them Fellowship Fridays, last Friday of every month, which is just an excuse to get together again, big kingdom, community love, blowout, bring food, and it's full-out book of acts. You know, everybody's their own, they're fighting over buffets, and it's just fun. In the cafe, they throw up Mario Kart on this LED wall, it's so much fun. I mean, you know, it's good to keep things light as well and just have fun and do life together. And we're really going deep, it's amazing. And so that's fun. And so we do a picture, typically, a silly one, look, I don't know if Jenna's in here, but it took the cake this time. And so if we could put that up, it's super fun, yeah, yeah, look at it. I'll get out of the way. But look, what you've got to focus on is Jenna took T's ponytail and made a mustache out of it. That's awesome. That's way too epic. Oh, yeah, you follow, yeah, they took both ponytails and made mustaches. That is way too epic. Look, man, Daniel's like mighty man of the Lord, going for it. Ryan's all swole. Anyway, I thought that would be fun. That was just last night. We're up in here, cake and food, and then we hurry up, clean up, get ready for these. So anyway, love to welcome you guys, any of you feel led online or in person to your school of ministry, full graduation, ordination, and then we'll have a third year program as well. I'd love to have you. A lot of dear friends, colleagues that we teach as instructors, myself, Patricia King. She's an absolute general. Michael Koulianos, one of my best friends in all of the world. Look, I always mess with him. He looks just like his logo. He looks just like the Lord. I'm like, bro, you look like Jesus, Jesus image, I mean, and so I want to just tell you from the prophetic slant, if you ever have him in a dream, it's the Lord, the Lord represents the Lord. That's just what I tell people. Yeah, it's Jesus. So anyway, Michael Miller, upper room legend, Ben Fitzgerald, Daniel Kolenda, you know, just heroes. Legend, Stacey, Sidney Jacobs, kind of drawing a blank, Eric Gilmore, David Papavese, just some generals. They really love the Lord. We go deep together. So love to have you. We love a fullness in the school, you know, to just best express the fullness of God. So then, drum roll, we, my next announcement is we have church starting up in here. Oh, yeah. So March 20th, if you're around or anyway, we'd love to have you. We're going to be going for every Sunday, just again, going deep in the word, the presence of the Lord, community together and super excited about that. It was funny. I, um, so I'm 43 now, I'll turn 44 on the 22nd. So me and Jasmine, some of our staff, we were locking down the date and I was like, yeah, that's going to be perfect. We were ready the weekend before, but it was daylight savings time and you know, that's not really wisdom. Launched the church. Monique, is that you? What is up? Right next to Dina, the one and only, miss you. Um, anyway, you don't want to do the, you know, daylight savings time. Everybody's like, oh, I didn't set my clocks and whatever. And uh, so we bumped it back and it's March 20th. So like, that's perfect. Let's go for it then. And then, um, Jasmine emails back, she's like, that's exciting. Double celebration. Your birthday right at her. I totally forgot. Your birthday is right. You know, it's two days after. So y'all get me right before I turned 44 when we launched. So that's awesome. But I totally forgot it. We're excited to bring families, our children, raise them up in the Lord, you know, in this last hour, just go for it. So we're super excited about that. And I think that was it. Yeah. So we'll jump in. If I, if I forget, maybe I'll touch on anything in the morning. So, um, I'm going to pray quick, jump in the word. We'll keep you long and then we'll just see what the Holy Spirit would do. That's okay with you all. Jesus, I pray that you'd be glorified. Holy Spirit come and glorify Jesus. I pray transform us and we may know you more and, uh, reflect you more fully in the earth. In Jesus name. Amen. Awesome. So, um, out of, you don't really need to turn there. I'm going to be going over a lot of word. I'll try and condense it, but then paraphrasing a lot and just hitting a couple of main points before we pray at the end. Um, Oh, before I forget, I saw this in a dream today. Power naps are from the Lord. Yes, Jesus, but a little 20 minute. And, uh, but I saw crystal clear. There's a pastor and his wife, I think here in your either. You're just starting out or you're about to do something in like the pastoral role, or you're just started or about to start a pastor and his wife, maybe more of you, several couples. I don't know, but I really want to pray for you or connect. Does that resonate with anybody in here? You raise your hand. It's, um, you're about to, uh, you two in the back. Okay. Have you started already or about to, he goes, yes, thumbs up. Okay. Love to pray for you guys. It was real clear. And, um, one thing that is stuck out on one of the details, but it, it really seemed like you guys have the spirit of truth on you. And that's so paramount in this hour. I just want to encourage you with that a spirit of truth. And there was some connection. Um, I think, you know, we're supposed to have, we'd love to pray for you all, but, um, pastors. So okay. Judges six, um, I'm going to be hopping around through the story of Gideon and pulling out some nuggets. So hopefully bless you guys. Really. It's been rocking me. I've been in it for a minute and, uh, and let's see what the Lord would do. I'm going to start in verse one. And first I got to tell you this story. Is this cool? I, uh, I was in, this is many years ago, uh, out of Bible college, but I'd say it might have been, Oh, uh, six or seven or something like that. And, uh, I went to this conference, Patricia King and Stacey Campbell and others were there. You all know the real strong prophetic slants and all this. And, and, uh, I, I, uh, went up to the front, got prayer, one of my friend, a mutual friend knew, knew them sort of whatever. So it's, it's at the end of the meeting and it's just glory. I'm sure she's like, ah, it's like a thousand people, massive conference and it's just raw and instruments and all this. So Stacey Campbell comes up and prophesies over me. Never forget it, man. Have you ever seen her when she's shooting her hair is flying and it's like, what is happening? And she's super powerful, real accurate. But I'm like, Whoa, she's like shooting her hair is flying and Patricia's like, ah, pacing the stage. I'm like, what's going on? You know? And, uh, so I didn't, I actually didn't hear a word actually. I wish it was like super, yeah, like glorious. And I couldn't hear. And my friend, but apparently she was going to prophesy and then she, she starts going, Clark Kent, uh, Clark, Kenner, all this. And I'm going, I can't hear. I'm like, what? And my friend's like, yeah. My friend's loving the word, you know, and I'm like, I can't, you know, and, uh, but apparently the word was all this stuff like Clark Kent, Clark Kent, meaning you all know what Superman Clark Kent in the natural looks very, you know, humble, like simple, all this, but then the spirit, uh, you know, it was this whole prophetic thing. And so my friend tells me like, Oh, that's awesome. Wow. I wish it was like, I didn't hear her, but anyway, cool. So I go sit down, a thousand people conference. I mean, people everywhere, just after this word, sit in my spot, ready for the conference. All of a sudden this little boy in a full Superman PJ suit come and sits right in front of me. We're in a thousand. See, I'm going, what is going on right now? And I'm new to the prophetic. This is many years ago. I'm kind of like, what's happening right now? You know, this lady's like Clark Kent, and then all of a sudden this boy in a pajamas comes to this, right? Well, I kid you not after the, that prophetic word, I'm not kidding. The most wildest kind of rendition of the Superman things were just tracking me down. I'd be flying in a dream. I woke up. I kid you not. This happened one time. I don't know if it was an angel or what, but I went to this dream. I'm like flying like Superman. So awesome. Come out of it. Go to get ready for the morning in my hair, the front row for an angel or in the nights like tweaking it or something. But it, it, it had a curl on my forehead, like Clark, like Superman, the curl. I was like, what's going on? This is strange. So, um, uh, but all that being said, and it went into this really powerful one up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho that landed it, but it actually tied back into Gideon in this whole sending thing on him. And he's very similar, actually. He's kind of a Clark Kent in the natural, but when the spirit of the Lord comes on him, you know, he, he serves everything to, you know, they were in fear at first. And the media nights and, um, so it meant a lot to me and, uh, but I want to pull some nuggets out. Hopefully that'll bless you all. So watch this. Uh, judges chapter six, verse one says, then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of median for seven years. Uh, please remember the seven years, super key. We'll touch back on it in a little bit, but basically you back up the chapter before they were in rest and peace for 40 years. Everything was good. But as soon as they did evil in the sign of the Lord, uh, God's hand lifted off of them and the media nights begin to take them over. You all remember the story and it says, uh, because of the media nights, the children of Israel made themselves dens, caves, things like this in the mountain strongholds. And they'd basically hang on to what they had because the media nights would ransack. They would come through, just plumage the area, take all of their crops, their livestock, left them with nothing all because they did evil in the sight of the Lord. And we're going to see in a second what that really is and how I would say would apply to us from a new covenant lens. But it says, um, then verse four, then they would encamp against them, destroy the produce, the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance dot, dot, dot, dot. Verse six. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the media nights and the children of Israel then cried out to the Lord. So they went from success, rest for 40 years, but then they did evil in the sign of the Lord. Hand of the Lord lifts, favor lifts, and they quickly go from the head, not the tail to the tail, not the head, impoverished, poor, just hanging onto what they've, they've got. And so they cry out. I'm going to paraphrase a lot of this and be hopping around so you don't really need to follow with me unless you want, but they cry out. So seven years they've been in this, you know, they cry out. And so the Lord, because they cried out, sends a prophet and the prophet says this. He says, thus says the Lord, I, the Lord, your God brought you up out of Egypt. I let you plunder your enemy's land. I, you know, set you up, took you out of bondage, set you free. And there was under one condition. I told you, I told you all this. Once you get out and get into the land of freedom, do not yield to the idols of this land. And if you read in here, it says, but you did not obey my voice. And I love this. Um, it's it based. So basically how, what you can connect here where it says they did evil in the sign of the Lord was what it was. They didn't obey his voice. And I want to touch on that. There's several nuggets I want to hit on, but because I know I'm talking to believers mostly at part in here. And so typically with us, it's not some big idol worship or things like this, but it does come down to obeying his voice. And as soon as we step out in any area of our life from not fully obeying the voice of God, that is the minute you start putting yourself in a position to be the tail and not the head, the hand of the Lord cannot rest fully on you without full obedience. And in this hour, we need a people that are so radical with obedience, no matter what the cost, whatever it is, I've been preaching this stuff lately. I'm loving the harder things. You know, the narrow path. Jesus even said, if you want to be a disciple, meaning just begin to start to learn for me. If you want to even come to my class 101 and start to learn to even get through that doorway and have a seat, you must deny yourself. Number one. Number two, take up your cross. Then follow me. Other than that, you don't even get through the door. You understand what I'm saying? And so I'm just loving this and I think there's a grace on it in the love of God, not condemning it all, but he's loving kindness is, I believe, supporting a higher grace to go higher with him in this hour and it just matters more. And so here they are. They didn't obey the voice of God. Sure enough. He's like, all right, never, never in my storyline for you. Never was. But seven years, Midianites just ransacked them. Exactly. Exactly. That's what I thought. Precisely what I thought. Verse 11. Now watch it. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was in Ophirah. Basically it was Joash Gideon's father's tree. And actually just to not get bogged down too much here, but this is the capital A angel of the capital L Lord. You know, King James and new King James basically depict this like it could be. I'm not trying to get into some theological thing with you all, but even scholars, it's, it's a debate whether this is the angel of the Lord, like the Lord himself in angelic messenger form or an angel. So high up in rank, he's like the next man in line from the Lord himself. There's a debate on it. So I'm not trying to go there, but I'm, I'm trying to emphasize though, this is not your ordinary. Every time this angel of the Lord shows up, it's only about 65 times in scripture. He talks in first person as the Lord himself. Every other time it's an angel. They just, just a normal angel, which it's all awesome. It's just the heavenly protocol. They talk in third person humbly and refer for a kind of like a prophet does says the Lord, the Lord would tell you and things like this, this angel, capital a of the Lord. He talks like he's the Lord. And so he posts up under a terrible tree, which was owned by Gideon's father in this. I got to stop right here. This is real key. If you start to study scripture, the terrible tree is not the tree you want to plant in your backyard and you'll see why. Every time the Lord shows up in around or has anything to do with the terrible tree, he's coming to clean house is crystal clear in scripture. He's coming and he's coming to either usurp leadership and shake things and flip it around. Clean house, set things in order, and it's actually beautiful. It's the love of the Lord. Y'all like, man, I wish I would've just waited to come in the morning, you know what I'm saying? Anyway, y'all's VIP seats aren't that amazing. But it's going to be good. We'll pray at the end. But I really feel the Lord's doing this honestly, you know, corporately, individually with the body of Christ at large, but I think he's really shifting things. And as his new order is put in place, you'll see here in a second, he's cleaning house and he's going after a clean slate, a pure bride, man, I don't even know. It's okay when you're a baby, you know, make mistakes and knock over your sippy cup and we're good. You grow a little older and you keep knocking sippy cups over. First off, why are you still using a sippy cup? I'm teasing. But you know, you're making a mess and, you know, the accountability heightens the deeper you get into this thing. You guys track on me? Well, the problem is now we're in the last of the last days and now the father is looking for a perfect spotless bride for his son without spot or wrinkle. Thank God we're perfect in him. So please don't take this condemning. And you all know, um, but he, the, the standards, the accountability is heightening. And so he, he's coming under terrible trees and just starting to set things straight. So it basically, when I'm in Genesis 18, when the Lord comes with two angels, three of them in Genesis 18 to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, I guess where they post up by terrible tree. Um, David took out Goliath in the valley of the terrible or Ella, the terrible, um, Jacob Genesis 35, he commanded his whole family to get rid of your idols by the terrible trees. It has to do with a getting rid of idols and think there's lesser lovers that have our heart. Those things that are there and they're keeping us the tail and not the head. We can't fully obey when there's these other things in place that have our heart. Um, there's so many places in scripture where the terrible tree, uh, is there Hosea chapter four talks about the idols and in connection to the terrible tree. So basically the angel of Lord is not there like, Oh, this would be a great shady spot. You know, let me hang out until Gideon gets my attention. No, very calculated. And Gideon's father's tree posts up. We all know the story. Gideon's in the wine press, uh, threshing out some wheat, which I think is very prophetic. I'll find the secret place in anything, man. It's funny. We got this new drum enclosure recently and I was like, bro, I got in there. So quiet just to hear it. I'm like, this is a weight on the Lord. Glory spot, man. It's just like, this is so quiet. This is awesome. But, um, he's threshing out wheat grain for bread in the place of the, of the, the wine press. I just even think of the bread and wine of the communion with the Lord and what that figuratively looks like. We all know in the natural, he's just trying to hang on to what he's got, hiding it from the Midianites and things like this. But I think figuratively speaking, the Lord saw something in him that was not, not what was in everybody else. Okay. And he picks him as a leader, as they cry out. And so you see here, uh, in verse 12, it says in the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you. You mighty man of valor. Okay. And what's awesome about this, I'll use this as an example, but it says the whole time he's talking, it's first person. But if you do a word study on that, basically it means Yahweh with is with you or Yahweh with you. Still kind of first person, meaning like my man, Tommy here, if, if I roll up on Tommy and then I, it's like, I just get up close to him and then I go, Brian with you. Like I'm with you. It's basically like the Lord said, I'm with you now. And he says, you mighty man of valor, Gideon, listen to this. There's just so much here. I don't know how we may have to land it all in the morning if we don't get too far. But, uh, he says, you're always with you. I'm with you. You mighty man of valor. Seven years has completed bondage from disobedience. Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, Gideon missed it, missed the whole thing is if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? You'll notice the Lord says, you, you mighty man of Val. He's just focusing on Gideon because he knows he's the breaker to get the whole people free. He's not talking about us and corporate. And you'll hear the Lord flat out, ignore Gideon here in a second. You'll start to learn. How do you know this? When you start trying to share your narrative with God, he's not interested. He will often ignore you and keep sharing his, he loves you. But have you ever done that? You're praying and God, you're like, God's not answering me. You'll pray about something. He talks about something else. You know, um, a big one is in regards to finances. Oh my gosh. Like, which is good, but he talks to you. Have you, have you ever had the Lord talk to you like you're a millionaire? You're like, Lord, check the bank account. And it doesn't, you know, I give you my, my password, you know, to my bank account. And I think you might want to check it out. But, um, but he, he doesn't, your reality is not his and he's not coming to it. He's talking to you from, I own the cattle on a thousand Hills. Uh, the silver and gold are mine. That guy too. He's talking to you from his world. So the sooner we can ascend Ephesians two, six and seat in heavenly places, then the conversation will go a lot smoother and his will will be fulfilled a lot quicker. So Yahweh with you, you with you singular, you mighty man, not men. He's not even talking about Israel. He said mighty man of valor. I'm coming to you. This is beautiful too, because all it takes is one person, one person that can truly encounter God. Let him come and clean house, purify what he needs to, and then radical obedience. And you can, you can flip a city, a state, a nation upside down. So Gideon goes, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us. You understand the Lord's Lord's like, no, no, I'm not. I've never said anything about it. Y'all, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where all his miracles, which our fathers told us about saying, did not the Lord bring us up from out of Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us. He's just talking about us, us, us, us. And, and you know, what's super funny here to study it. When you have time, the Lord full out disrespects him. It totally didn't look at him. He's ignoring him the whole time. Right before that, you know where it says the Lord appeared to him, said you mighty man of valor. You know, I'm with you. If he keeps talking, getting goes into his nerve and then watch the very next verse. It says, then the Lord turned to him and said, meaning the Lord was like, okay, there he goes. He's just kind of like not even listening. It's pretty, it's pretty bad. Like he's like, Stacy, I'm with you. Mighty woman of valor. And then she starts going, what about us? He's like, oh, here we go. It's like, wait until she's done. Then she's done. It's like, okay. Anyway, he turns back. That's what he did. Totally ignored getting him. He's just looking at butterflies and just getting distracted. I just love that, man. I think it's all the Lord's not like he loves you, but he's not, he's not going to listen to your, your narrative. He doesn't care. You see it in, uh, you see it in, um, Zachariah four, same thing. Um, Zachariah would always refer to this angel who talked with me and the angel who talked with me said this, then the angel would talk with me, said this. And in chapter four, he goes, who are the two olive trees? This sat in the other and the angel looked true. This was an angel. This is the angel of the Lord, a little different, but angels also too. They bid to do his will. They're messengers for him. They don't care a lot about what you, unless you want to talk about what he's talking about. So who are the two olive trees? And angels like, this is the word of the Lord, not by might or power. Like just totally didn't answer his question at all. He asked like two or three times. He finally answers them at the end, but that's, what's happening here. And so the Lord just totally like, you know, ignoring him. Then he turns to him, goes back to heaven's narrative. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours. He's not even look, he says all this about us and we delivered in the miracles. What about our fathers? He didn't answer one question, totally ignored him. Never answered one question. He goes right back to what I'm telling you. He goes, go in this might of yours. I'm just talking to you. I just need you to hear and obey. Don't worry about all. And you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you past tense? Often this is powerful. There's just so much gold here. Often the Lord has already sent you. It's just a matter of you aligning with what's already done. You see it with, um, you see it with, uh, Elijah and the Ravens. When he says, go to the brook, he says, I've already sent the Ravens there to feed you. You don't go though. You don't obey. You don't get fed. So there's a, there's a lot of times a past tense thing that's already called out over your life that you just have to step into. And then it'll happen. So if you're like, uh, yeah, come on. Look, if, if you're like, um, me often, I'm kind of wanting to see it first. Are you that way? I'm like one of the, hold on. Wait, let me feel the water, you know? And, uh, it's just not how it works. You, you gotta obey. So, um, so then Gideon is finally landing. Gideon's finally starting to pick up what the Lord's putting down. And then you'll notice he finally enters into dialogue. But as long as you want to pray and your reality's more real, you'll stay stuck. I'm telling you in the media notes, we'll keep clearing you out. You keep threshing a little wheat for a sandwich that day, a little bit of bread. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So then Gideon says, he says, uh, oh my Lord. He's finally listening a little bit more Lord. He says, how can I save Israel? Indeed. So he's finally least talking. I, he's not going to us anymore. How can I save Israel? The Lord's on the sandwich thing. Indeed. My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my father's house. Yeah. We're not gonna get far. We'll pick up in the morning, but I'm gonna get as far as I can. So anyway, yeah. So basically Gideon's finally like talking singular with him. But he says, he's basically, I love man. I don't know if you knew this, but my, like our basketball team's the worst in the entire league. We've never won a game. You know, he says, we're the weakest clan. And he says, on top of that, like I'm the water boy. You see what I'm saying? Like you picked the wrong guy. So I think I'm hearing you, but let's, let's go back to, we're the worst. We've never won a game and I'm not, I don't even have any, I never get play time. I'm that guy, which is encouraging. Yeah. The Lord said to him, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. Hopefully get to this one main part. Yeah. And basically all you need is him. He said, look, remember the very first thing I told you when I met you, I said, yeah, I'll wait with you. And he lands up there too. He says, but I, I am with you. We'll defeat him as one man. Meaning all, all we need is you and I, all you need is the Lord. Those that are with him. Anybody you ever find a scripture that says the Lord was with them. They're unstoppable. Joseph lock him in prison. But it says the Lord was with him. Favor grew, grew. You just need to be with him. Just be with him, man. I love acts four 13. It says, you know, Peter and John are preaching with such boldness and power. And they, you know, scholars of the day, they're like, man, who are these untrained common ordinary men, but there's power on them. They're preaching with authority and power is some different about these guys. And you keep reading. It says, oh, they've been with Jesus. She got to be with him, man. He said, yeah, I'll wait with you. He said, I'll be with you, you know? And, uh, so just that right there, then watch where it goes. He said, uh, he said, so Gideon says, wow, like, man, okay. He's he's finally took about three dialogues to sort of renew his mind. The first one, he ignored him. Secondly, he drew him in third one. He was like, wow, this might be real. Gideon said, if now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talks with me. Gideon always had this thing in me just had to, he needed a sign. And I'm not, I don't hate that. That's okay. Probably not optimal in certain settings, but, but he just want to be sure. How many of you know, sometimes that's okay. God's okay with that. If you have that pharisaical deal on you, you're like, man, I'm not going to believe until you show me a sign. You'll never see anything. But if you do believe you just want to sign to obey, right? That's different. And the Lord was okay with that. He says, do not depart from here. I pray until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you under the territory. So we're talking, this whole thing's looking like we're going to take out the median. I see you don't, you're not the tail anymore. You're the head. That's what it seems like. And it is, but you'll see there's one major step he's got to go through to get there. Super key. So Gideon went prepared a young goat, some unleavened bread, an ephah flower, put his meat in a basket, made some broth, brought a meal out to the angel of the Lord. We all know the story verse 21. It says the angel of the Lord took his staff. He basically told Gideon, he said, all right, put the meat and the bread on a rock, pour the broth on it. Gideon obeyed. He took his staff. First off, I'm like, why does an angel, especially the angel of the Lord need a staff? There's so much there. It's the only time I think in scripture where an angel actually had one. So, but he, nevertheless, he touches the bread, the meat fire comes out of the rock, consumes it, consumes it, and he disappears. He departs. I was reminded. And then right after that, again, I'm just going quickly, but it says then when that happened, when the fire consumed it and he disappeared, it says, Gideon says, oh my gosh, I was really talking with the angel of the Lord. He knew at that point. Sometimes it just takes one encounter that will change everything. And, uh, I was reminded of, uh, all some, um, if you guys have ever heard of a man of God, a generation ago, really powerful Roland Buck. He wrote a book angels on assignment. If you, um, ever get a chance to get it, I would, but he, a humble man, they still have a couple of old YouTube videos of him. I can hear humility on his voice, dripping with humility. I love that. And, uh, but he had this crazy window. He was just a normal pastor where the Lord took him into these crazy encounters with the angelic realm. Even Gabriel, many angels came to him and during the season gave him all these prophecies. He foreknew versus got branded in his head. It was undeniable. Um, but one thing that was wild, he says, I could never wrap my mind around when these angels would come. He said, they were so real. It pet his dog. His dog loved them. I mean, tangible. He's talking to him face-to-face by name. And they, and they were telling him how some of them from back in biblical times and all this, he says, but I could never, I believe this is what happened with Gideon right here. Cause it says touch the fire, come out of the rock. And all of a sudden he just, he departed. He disappeared, just gone. He says, when they would go to leave, I think it was Gabriel or one of them. He says he gave him the message and he had to go off to a different assignment and he went to touch his door. And then he just disappeared. He was just gone. Didn't go, didn't open the door like humans. Nothing was just, it was gone. He's like, I could not understand how I physically just saw him. I was, I heard him. I was talking to him and just, he's not there anymore. I believe that's what happened with Gideon. But right then the light bulb went off. He says, oh my gosh, I was talking to the angel of the Lord. And, uh, so it says here that very night, so this encounter happens, Terebinth tree, all this, and I'll maybe get one point and we'll see if we want to be pick up in the morning. And, uh, it says, then the Lord said, um, peace, be still to set the other. But now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him. So this encounter happened powerful enough of a wonder and experience to hook him. Basically he knew he's like, oh my gosh. But that same night, listen to this. I thought this whole experience was about, we're getting free from the media nights, right? Well watch where the Lord always goes with you and I first, he's coming to clean house and it's in his love. It's so good. So free, not a bad thing. It's just his beauty. So perfect and true, such a grace in this hour on it. So he says, um, now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, take your father's young bull, the second bowl of seven years. Remember how long they've been under the media nights? Seven years. He goes, yeah, take, no, take that seven year old one. He's been this in this whole thing. He represents the entire time y'all disobeyed me. I've been in this sin. Take him. We're burning him up as a sacrifice. We're, we're clear in house. We're going to reset this thing. And sometimes that's all it takes is a deep reset with the Lord. He's waiting on us. You know, uh, I hear often these stories of like all this delay and, you know, people were in the wilderness for 40 years because of them, not the Lord. I get promises sometimes, but sometimes if we're honest, it's, it's on us. And it goes back to doing evil in the sight of the Lord. Why didn't obey his voice? So whatever's past is past. Great. We're not trying to hang out there and do condemnation, but now maybe we'd be a people that are so radically obedient, never found on the chapter of the storyline of not obeying his voice. Cause that's where things start to turn and you can't get out of it. If you, if you try. Bible says, submit to God, resist the devil and he'll flee. A lot of times, 80% of our life is submitted to God. Other 20% not we're resisting the devil and he's not fleeing. That full submission, that obedience has to be there first. So take him seven years old, tear down the altar of bail that your father has. Remember whose tree he was under. He's clear in house, the territory of his father, but he knew he saw something giddy. And I think the depiction of the secret place, the bread, the wine, there's something in him, the world wasn't in him. I can, I can use him. I just need him to believe. And, uh, he says in building an altar to the Lord, your God on top of this rock and the proper arrangement, take the second bowl, offer a burnt offering with the wood of the image, which you shall cut down. Basically there's an altar of bail. And then if you study in scripture, it's in a share of pole that basically take trees and carve them into these, these idol worship poles. A share was a goddess, a goddess of a share, a lot of sexual, just impurity, which represents the sins that so easily entangle you. As soon as the bail of worship is set up in your life. Any other lover than him? I started like, I need Gideon. I need just you and me. Just, just me. I've got to be the only thing in your life. I love it. Like I touched on some time ago where it was just the lamb enthroned. He lifted up just him and him alone in this last hour. No other. And again, in our day and age, we typically disconnect sort of from this bail worship. And I was, Oh yeah. Although it's funny. I got to tell you a story. We were in, um, other day were some on some different part of town. So we'd never been to this place before, but Judah needed a haircut. My son, I said, Oh, there's a spot. Let's go in there real quick. Before lunch, we go in there and, uh, they, we sat down and they were, uh, playing Christian music. So Zoe, it was awesome. Just where she was sitting. She couldn't tell, but I'm seeing this big Buddha thing on the front. And I'm like, that's not God. They better give good faith because so, but it was awesome. Zoe's just, you were always trying to see the positive and stuff. She goes, Oh, they're playing Christian music. It's awesome. Me and Judah go, we pointed at the Buddha. We're like, like, no, I don't care what you're hearing, but look at that. That's mixture in the house, man. I'm teasing. So we couldn't figure it out. Maybe we'll go again and witness to them. But if, if one was Christian, well, if they were, we didn't know, but normally we disconnect from this type of stuff. And, but I would say current hour, especially in the West for you and I, an idol is simply whatever takes up more of your, your time, your attention, and your heart than God. And you can tell, man, all you got to do is talk to people for a little bit. And it's the thing that they light up about and talk the most about. And then you talk about the Lord and it goes flat. It could be family. That's what it could be. So many things that don't look like some wicked bail worship, but it's, it's the idol in their heart. Does that make sense? And then you talk about the Lord and it's like, they're kind of, yeah, and it kind of goes flat or they put on some fake thing to fool you, but there's not that tender grip of the Lord in their heart anymore. They burn about other things. Their thoughts are consumed by other things. It's what they, you can, you can just feel it. You hit that subject and then, oh yeah. And they can talk for hours on it. That's idols. And when those come in, it's inevitable, a share a pole set up sin. It's inevitable wherever the Lord is, does not reign fully and sit in throne. Sin will be knocking at the door. And so these two things, God's, you know, he sends the angel to hook Gideon into the assignment. And then he's like, okay, yeah, no, I didn't tell you this. We're still going to deliver everybody from Midianites, but these have to go first. Judgment hits the house of God first. It's from within. It's God's people. He says, if these aren't cleared out, we don't even go to step two. I love, um, I think it's Joshua three, five. God tells them they're, they're not even in the promised land yet. They're about to cross. And he says, uh, he says, tell them to purify themselves for tomorrow. I'll do great wonders amongst them or consecrate yourselves before you get into the promised land. So, so many of us want to walk in the land of milk and honey, but have mixture and other idols and things. And, and it just doesn't work that way. And we're just constantly fighting against ourselves and wonder why we're always the tail and not the head. And listen, we serve a jealous God. He's an all consuming fire. We have no other before him. And that's why too, especially leading unto a bridegroom King in Jesus Christ. He wants a bride with a single life, nothing else set up. So the Lord's like, look, tear down the entire bail altar to bail this sinful worship. Do you need a seat in the back? Come on up. We'll find you. What you sure you got a heavy purse? It looks like, oh, there's one right here. Yeah. Yeah. Up front. Sorry. You have to stand back there. Welcome. How are you? What's your name? Trini's beautiful name. I love your shirt as well. He probably, yeah, probably hook around this way. No, you're great. You've been doing good. Um, but look, he's like the altar to bail. This is the whole problem right here because of it. Now there's all these sins that so easily entangle you. It's all gotta go. And I'll tell you what to boot. Let's get the seven year old bull that represents the entire season. Y'all been in it. Just burn it all. Just tear it all down and then we'll talk. God will hook you with encounter. But that next step, man, if we don't obey that, you can just keep hanging on your little sandwich bread for the day. Seriously, I think a lot of people don't even pass this first deal because like, but no, that's my and you'll see in a second. That's why the Lord wouldn't talk about us. And y'all, they all get upset about it. The very thing that was keeping them in bondage, they wanted to hang on to. And what's beautiful about Gideon, that stuff didn't have him. He was glad to tear it down. Oh, yeah, I never cared about that. Anyway, that's weird. I don't know why my father, I don't know. So he tells me, he says, look, tear it all down. The Bible says Gideon was scared of his father's household and the men of the city. So he did it at night. Still obeyed, though. Look, however, you got to get done. It may not be pretty. Just get it done. So he gets 10 of his servants. They all tear it down, burn it. Next morning, men of the city are hostile. They're like, kill whoever this is to find out who it is. They start to inquire. And some, I think it's one of them 10 men ratted out Gideon. Man, traitor. So I write it up. So they found out it was Gideon. Oh, sorry about that. And keep you on your toes. Yeah. So so they find out it's Gideon. They're like, man, kill him. They go to his dad, Joash, who said they had the whole thing set up anyway. They're like, we've got to kill Gideon. His father's like, man, who are we to defend Baal? If he's a God, let him defend himself. And so he put his own son out there, too, because they're really thinking this God's going to who knows what will happen to Gideon now. Let Gideon go. And if you and nothing happens, I think the people are starting to go, OK, something's on Gideon. Man, he tore down like our main thing. And we'll just see after this. Watch what happens. Let me find it. I've been paraphrasing so long. But it says, you know, the men in the city arose. Joash said this, that and the other. Watch this. It says, then all the Midianites, Amalekites, the people of these gathered together to cross over. They're coming back to ambush God's people. But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Spirit of the Lord never came on him pre-altars coming down. All of us want the Holy Ghost, shakalaka, but doesn't want to live pure. Holy Spirit will only fully land on that which he is holy. Well, you're talking. Sorry, I'm not trying to hit whatever, but I feel it, man. I'm not talking legalism, self. No, we can't do anything outside of the Lord. But also, I love 2 Timothy 2. Paul writes to Timothy, says, listen, man, I'm telling you, Timothy, I'm telling you, if you keep yourself pure, you'll be used as a special utensil for the mighty hand of God. If you want to be a utensil for everyday use, cool, there's come a dime a dozen. But if you want to be a special one, keep yourself pure. Revelation 19, man, the bride prepares herself, makes herself ready all over scripture. But basically, you see that he purifies, then he's like, okay, we passed test one. That's awesome. Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon. He blows the trumpet. And he rounds everybody up because the the Midianites are coming. But is it is this getting too late? I'm trying to wonder how long. Okay, good. I'll I'll try to learn a little bit. How are you, sweetie? What's your name? Serena? Selena. Okay, you sure are beautiful. How old are you? Eight. Okay, new beginnings number. Did you know that? That's awesomeness. So spirit Lord comes upon me, blows the trumpet, rounds up a posse man, Gideon. He's he's thinking in his logic, which again, he kind of missed God on this one. But he just says he sends messengers out from all over and just gets a massive squad about 32,000. Because he's like, man, God told me I tore down bail and we're good. All right, blew the trumpet spirit of the Lord came upon him. But not to get the big crowd. That's that was, you know, his knowledge, his understanding history. The Lord's okay with it is like, okay, God's so gracious and merciful. Sometimes it lets you do your little Martha ideas until like it comes down to playtime. And then he's like, okay, let me tell you, we got to deal with that. So then we all know Gideon next next part in the passage says, let me put out a fleece. This is kind of getting real. Like, let me check on my signs guy. I need to see it. You know, I love the rock and all on the staff and angel of the Lord. But can we get a little bit more here? Gets the fleece. We all know what he puts it on the threshold floor, the threshing floor. Sorry. Asked for it to be wet. It was then he asked for the ground to be dry. It was. He says, okay, we're in this thing. I was hoping it wasn't, you know, he's hoping the sign didn't happen. But they move forward and watch this next step. So basically what I'm where I'm getting to tonight and I'll land it here quickly. There's radical purity and we'll pray corporately. I'm not trying to, you know, God's so loving and kind of slow to anger. And look, we make mistakes. It's okay. So hopefully you hear me. This is not a condemning thing, but conviction is beautiful. True repentance is so beautiful. Sometimes it's the slightest better yielding unto him. And man, then comes the whole, the spirit of the Lord comes on you. You start stepping in ways, the highway of holiness. This is a narrow path that leads to life. Broad one leads to destruction. And so he says, um, they get there. Oh, and so they post up basically Gideon and his guys. He blows the trumpet, gets a big squad, about 32,000 comes up on a hill right next to the Midianites down in the Valley. So they're up high. Midianites are down in the Valley. Midianites know it. And then the Lord goes, okay, good. I got you. I got you deep into this thing. Almost to the point of no return. Now, Gideon, I got one thing to tell you. You got way too many guys, way too many. Y'all are going to try and take credit, steal the glory. I can't have you doing that. Gideon's like, he's too deep in. He blew the trumpet. It's kind of pride going on now. Everybody thinks he's the man and he's like, you can't retreat now. So he goes, and again, I told you guys I would paraphrase. So we tell, the Lord says, ask all of them who's scared or afraid. And whoever says they are, tell them to go home. You got 32,000 people. He asked, he's probably thinking, please let it be like two people. Please. I need some, I need some fighters here. Please two people. 22,000 said, we're scared. They're like, knees are knocking. The Midianites, he's like, great. Okay. Y'all got to go home. We've got 10,000 now. We're looking a little bit soft. Midianites, if you read further later on, I'm going quick now. But the, it says their, their squad was like the sand of the seashore. Countless camels. I mean, they just, they were endless down there in the valley. He's down to 10,000. I go, okay, I think we're good. Let's go for this. He obeys that. How many of you know, sometimes the Lord, I don't know why he does this, but he'll give you one step at a time. I don't like that. Is that just me? I thought it was just me, but man, he never gives you the full, full deal. But it's his goodness with, he knows you won't go through with it. He knows. So it's just wisdom. You kind of got to have it his way. So tell you like anybody, good obedience. First purity. Wow. Good job, Gideon. I got you. Obedience that hurt. I just lost 22,000 guys. And then he passed and he's like, okay, now this next one, this is big. Again, radical purity. And then followed by radical obedience, which we know is sustained through incredible intimacy. Pursuit secret place. That's why I see that wine press, like the Matthew six, go into your closet, shut the door, get that bread, that weed and that wine. The communion of his flesh and his blood and intimacy. It sets the whole thing up. You can never come off of there, but radical purity, radical obedience. He's like, okay, good. 10,000, you know, we'll go. And then the Lord says, Hey, he gets him further into it. Last step. You still have too many. But the problem is, remember back when, when Gideon rounded up all, sent all the messengers and got all the squad. God knew he's like, let me let him do that. Cause he won't even come up to this point. Sometimes he'll just be gracious with you. He should have stopped back with just his, his clan. And he probably been good, but he comes up there. Step two. The Lord says, look, you still got way too many people. Take them down to the water. A lot of you all remember the story. And, and I, and look, what you're going to do is whoever I tell you stays with you. Those get to stay with you. The ones I tell you to depart from, they can't go with you. He goes, have them just go drink water and watch them. He says, the ones he said, no, I'm telling you, read it on your time. The Lord is brilliant. Obviously he goes, there's going to be two kinds, one group that gets down and like, let's imagine this is the water and cups it with their hands. Just licks it like a dog. Super dainty, super soft. Like just don't get muddy. You know what I mean? They kind of get near, just worry about germs, lick it up. Then I'm serious. You can read it. It's how it is. They just don't want to get, you know, then there's this other group. They come down burly beards. I mean, just rough. They just dunk their head in the river and just drink it in his fish or hit them in the head. Like they don't care. No germs. They just go all in. Bam. Beards are dripping. I'm not kidding. That's the group. So that's all the Lord said. He's going to be those two groups. Let them do it. And then we'll see what happens. So I guarantee you, Gideon's back there going, Oh yeah, the Lord's genius. I'm going to the burly. Yeah, the tough ones. All right. I got to see what he's doing here. The dainty, uh, gotcha. They, they do what they do. And out of 10,000, 10,000, only 300 are the dainty, uh, you know, they're watching out germs and all this stuff. So I guarantee you, Gideon's going, Oh, thank the Lord. It didn't split down the middle. At least I got about 9,700. The, you know, I want to fight with these guys. The Lord goes, perfect. You and the dainty boys. 300. That's your squad. I'm not kidding. So Gideon's like, what is happening right now? You know what I mean? Like these guys, I want to fight with these guys. So we've got 301 guys, Gideon with the guys that are cupping and just, you know, and so the Lord's like, Oh, perfect. Perfect. We're good. Cause I'm with you. And, uh, so they get there and, uh, Oh, and this is beautiful. And then we'll, we'll land it and pray. And again, the main points are radical purity. When the Lord says it, man, just tear it down. Don't ask questions. It could be a seven-year-old ram for seven years of, of being the tail and not the head because of simply being disobedient. We didn't obey. Or if there's areas of our life, we're not obeying. Just obey. Who cares what people think? It's just, it's past that time. We're too late in this thing. Just obey. But my family, who cares? Obey. I mean, Jesus will hit it right where it hurts. You know, sometimes he said, look, my love, it's a dead bear, their own death. What are you talking about right now? If you're, uh, I don't know if I'm touching on something, but he even said, he says, look, they came to him, said your mothers and brothers are outside. He says, my mothers and brothers are those who do the kingdom of God. They obey. And I love, man, thank God. When it's both, you want both, but I'm just saying sometimes he'll hit the hard stuff. He says that those that love your mother and brother more than me, they're not worthy of the kingdom. He'll hit the hard stuff. You know, a rich man came, Jesus went straight to his heart. He says, give all you've got to the poor and follow me. You want to follow me? Yeah. He went straight to what mattered to him. Bible says the rich man went away sorrowfully. Jesus didn't go chase him down. We need obedient people. And that's what the Lord's watching. He's like, he could see it in Gideon. Obviously he had already sent him radical purity followed by radical obedience. So they get up there on the side, same night, the Lord says, arise and go after him. I've given them to you. So basically right at that point of God spoke it, you can take it to the bank. Gideon could have went right on that word. But once again, Gideon wanting a sign or needing something, the Lord knew that with him. It was very gracious with him. And so the Lord said, he said, um, I'll actually read it. So don't mess it up. It said it happened in that same night that the Lord said to him, I'm in chapter seven, verse nine, uh, arise, go down against the camp where I've delivered it into your hand. See, so purity unlocked now the ability to obey into victory. But a lot of times we don't want to deal on a quality level with the purity. You're not even going to get to step two, three or four. And then again, go back to the wine press and just beat out a few grains of wheat for the day. That's not what that's not what we're trying to do. And I just want to encourage you guys. If this past season for quite some time, it's felt like that. Go back to the drawing board. You may not be here because how many know we are professionals at making our will. We coded in what God's telling us. I'm telling you. And then, well, then why are you still in the wine press and the tail and not the head? Because that's not real biblical. I mean, I get the cross and persecution, but I'm just saying if we're living constantly in this wilderness season, often we've put we've put a filter on God's voice. And we're hearing this, but we're really disobeying. We're not obeying clearly, you know. And so anyway, so he says, it's a rise, go down against the campfire delivered it. Sorry into your hand. But he knew Gideon. If you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant. And you shall hear what they say. And afterward, your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. How many know encouragement can really strengthen your hands into the things of God? So side note, but I want to encourage you guys that we'd be encourage you to be encouraging. The Lord knew he needed encouragement and it would strengthen him to go through with it. And there's just so much here. Pura was like his right hand man. Pura means bow, like the strongest branch on a tree. The ones you hang swings on. It was like his guy, ride or die. And that's awesome, too, because you see these in scripture. You want to cherish those. If you find a Pura, they'll go. They don't ask questions. It's the Jonathan to David, Elisha to Elijah, Timothy to Paul, John to Jesus. These Puras, they're from the Lord. And he goes, take Pura. He'll go with you. His life's on the line. He'll roll with you, though. These guys and what's amazing is I forgot to mention this whole thing is around trees and taking out trees represent leadership quite often. But Gideon's name even means a feller or hewer, means one who cuts down trees. Pura means a branch, the main branch off the tree. The angel of the Lord comes under the terebinth tree. He says, cut down the Asherah pole, the tree, the card and the idol. The whole thing's about this usurping of that which is not God to plant that which is God. And start fresh, man, with victory. And it's just awesome. I feel like he's going to do it in our life. He may be even speaking things as the night goes on that we recalibrate and let him be glorified. So take Pura, go down, listen to the camp. You'll be encouraged by what they say. So they post up near the valley, him and Pura. And one of the people, the media actually said, man, I had this crazy dream. You all remember it. Gideon's like eavesdropping. And he says, I had this crazy dream that a roll of barley, you know, wheat, basically a barley bread, which that is the cheapest grain there is. I mean, Gideon and I, we're impoverished, poor people. It's funny how the world interpreted this dream so accurately. It's just awesome. But you see in Revelation that three liters of barley for a day's wages, one liter of wheat. Wheat was the finer grain. Barley is just cheap, like Wonder Bread, you know. So it tastes good, though. But but so anyway, sees it rolling down the hill. And in just hitting the Midianite tent and flattening it completely, his friend goes, this is none other than the camp of Gideon, the sword of Gideon. They're coming. They're going to take us out. A poor piece of bread. Yeah, that's them, the impoverished ones that we've been taking out. But they knew they were. Oh, and remember, they're on a hill. They're in the valley. What the dream was, the barley came down the hill. It took them out. And so Gideon, the Bible says, was super stoked. He heard the dream. He's like, yes, Lord. Him and poor go back, tell their guys and say, look, man, God's given us the the the land. So they grab these jars, their torches in their jars and horns. And I forgot to mention earlier when he sent the 9700 gone and had the three dainty ones, it just says they got there. All they did was get their trumpets and their food supply. Like they grab some snicker bars, trumpets, and they're going. I'm like, this is not a scary squad. A few protein bars and some trumpets. I mean, then there's 301 of them. You know, they're like, all right, guys, here we go. So that's what you're dealing with here. So they get they get some clay jars, just some torch and fire in their trumpets. They got their protein bars in their back pocket. You don't hear anything about weapons or nothing like this. And Gideon says, look, we'll separate in groups of 300, you know, three groups of 100. We're going to go up first. I'm going to blow my trumpet. When my squad does, you all hit them. We're going to surround them, break the clay jars and then just torches in the left hand, trumpets in the right blowing and say for the by the sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon. I'm thinking you are liars. You have swords probably. But anyway, intimidation tactics. So 301, they blow them. And it was probably a delay. You can imagine just the first 100 and they start surrounding around the camp, crash the jars. Oh, oh, but this is it. If you read closely in there and I'll hurry up later, it says at midnight is when they came at the change of the guard. It was the middle watch. That's midnight. So many things happen at midnight in Scripture, the bridegroom, the crime after 25 midnight, midnight came and there came the cry of the bridegroom. It's the it's the changing of a new day, a new hour. And it says they had the media just changed guards. The guard changed the watch. And that's when it triggered and happened. And they usurped the media night. So they crashed the clay, have their torches blowing, trumpets yelling. And you can imagine it's pitch black and all they see is fire around them. And when the fire you can't really see. And they're hearing trumpets and hearing clay jars. I thought they had thousands of them. But plus the supernatural presence of power of God throw them into confusion, kill each other, take off and run. They usurp the media nights. He went and they beheaded the two main kings. Their name, there's so much there. I'll just I'll stop. But they took over the media nights and grew from there. Right. Gideon did. But the point is, again, you kick this whole thing off with radical purity, radical obedience. And then you can start to step back into the things of God, you know. And so, Gideon, you know, there's this whole thing. It keeps going with his story, some hiccups at the end. But I pray most of all, though, that this again, this radical purity, this obedience that the Lord is looking for in a changing of the guard happened a new day, a shift in our lives. And I really feel like it's happening in the body of Christ. I'm telling you, I was in second Samuel three verse one recently. And it says, you know, I was talking to a dear pastor friend who's been in this thing for a minute ministry, seen just camps and circles and streams and models and all of it. And he told me just the other day, look, I'm telling you, things are changing. He says, what used to work is not even working. Some of the biggest movements that's not even working anymore. This is different. We better get to the things of the Lord. I'm excited about that because I'm not comfortable with anything other than than him. I don't like. And you see, second Samuel three one, I was in it recently, so it's a random verse. But it says the houses of Saul and the house of David, house of Saul and house of David were at war for a long time. They both represent two different leadership styles over God's people. Since they were at war for a long time in the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker and weaker. House of David grew stronger and stronger and stronger. And Saul represents doing it in your own strength. I want to bring my thirty two thousand squad, you know, your own method. Zechariah four, though, says not by your own might or strength or strength, but by the power of the spirit. Lean not upon your own understanding, but trust God in all your ways. House of David is a heart after God's heart. You inquire of God in everything. You don't care. You don't want to touch the blueprint. Just what is it? Help me obey. Gideon was similar. He had some trust issues, but look, that sounds amazing. I'll do it. Just please give me a sign. I just want to make sure I'm right. That's all. OK, we're right. OK, we'll do it. I'll tear out my dad's very own idol worship and trees and everything. He went straight at family first. It's kind of like I thought we were going for the midnight. No, no, but we're going to address this first within the house. And that unlocks the ability to obey into freedom. So if you guys want to stand. Yeah, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Yeah, Jacob and team, if you guys don't mind helping me. So appreciate it. Doing good, babe. You're hanging in there. Thank you, Lord. Yes, we'll pray corporately. And I love to lay hands on you guys and see where the spirit spirit moves. Maybe get them the house lights a little bit, if you don't mind. Thank you, Lord. Yeah, first off, just everybody focusing on the Lord. I would love to just invite anyone, you know, that first point of purity. I don't even have to be anything blatant, but just a lack of full obeying the voice of God. I would love for you to just come join me up front. I'd love to pray with you guys. And we're going to come through and lay hands on anything that moves or breathes. But if you say, you know, man, that really hit me. There's these areas that love worship, so to speak, are these things that take my heart and have for quite some time more than the fullness of God and only God, you know, or you say, man, I used to burn more. And when I talked about the Lord, I could hear that. Since that tender side to him and him alone, you know, would love for you to come. We pray. We're all family here. We get it. And let the Lord touch you powerfully. Just join me up front as we pray. A fresh recalibration of purity and hardened. And thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And then we're going to pray for a grace of radical obedience in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. These amazing men and women of God. Thank you, Lord. You know, let's just pray this corporately together. Everyone say, say this after me. Say, Jesus, wash me in your blood. Make me new. Holy Spirit come tear down the idols in my life. Those a share of poles. Tear them down, Lord. The seven years of missing your voice. Reset my life this night and in your precious name. I give you my life. Give you my mind, my focus, my heart. In Jesus name. Amen.