But that thing that Abraham had cherished for
many, many years, and God had given it
to him, his beloved Isaac, after he had
grown to years where he was just a
fine young man, didn't take him when he
was a day or two old when, you
know, you hadn't got to know his personality.
And I'm not saying that wouldn't be severe,
and I know it can be very severe,
I know that.
But he waits till the young man grows
and he sees his obedience, his love, his
devotion.
And God says, now put Isaac on the
altar.
That which God had given him.
And that through which God promised all nations
would be blessed, God says, put that on
the altar.
But God, you could argue, I must be
hearing wrong, because God, you promised that through
him all nations would be blessed.
But Abraham's faith by that time had become
so strong, his walk with God so definite,
he knew the voice, and he knew that
God had risen from the dead.
He knew that.
So he said to his servant, you stay
here, the lad and I will go up
yonder and worship, and come again to you.
The first mention of worship in the scriptures.
Not the first time men worshipped, but the
first mention of it, as far as I
could figure out from the concordance, was when
Abraham said, I and the lad will go
up in the mountain and worship the Lord.
So that worship is something that God wants
his people to become.
Abraham had become a worshipper.
So that everything you do, it's not an
hour of worship you have here, it's a
24 hour commitment to God.
That everything you do is worship unto God.
Whether it seem good or evil, good or
bad.
Blessing, editor, or devastation.
The funeral for the altar is the wood
of the idol.
Only God can search the hearts to determine
what has become our idol.
Was Isaac becoming somewhat of an idol to
Abraham?
I don't know.
But good things can become an idol.
A ministry can become an idol.
A great gift that God gives can become
an idol.
And does!
And Moses erected a serpent of brass and
hung it up on the pole because God
told him to do it.
And he says, you tell the children of
Israel, if they look on that serpent of
brass, they'll be healed.
They were dying all around, poisoned by the
serpents.
And he erected a serpent of brass and
put it up on the pole.
And the word went through, just look at
the serpent.
Look at the serpent of brass and you'll
be healed.
With any strength that was in them, they
turned their eyes to look at that serpent
and they were healed.
And that serpent of brass became an idol
in Israel for hundreds of years.
Hundreds of years.
They burnt incense to it in Hezekiah.
Had to destroy it because that which God
had given to heal his people became an
object of idolatry.
End of time.
Getting on.
Do you want to go or ten more
minutes?
Shouldn't say that, I guess.
So Gideon, having made the sacrifice, having made
the commitment, having torn down the idol and
having erected the altar of the Lord, using
the idol as fuel for the fire, watching
it burn and burn.
But what God was concerned was not about
that idol as much as the heart of
that man.
And Gideon was able to assemble a host
of about 32,000 people.
Not much compared to the enemy.
But there was at least 135,000 of
the enemy.
But at least God had told him to
go, so he go.
Judges 7, verse 2.
The Lord said unto Gideon, the people that
are with thee are too many for me.
In all of these mighty works of God
in the book of Judges, I believe we
have principles that God is bringing forth for
this day and hour.
One aspect here in this judge.
Another one there in this judge.
Here is one that somehow the Lord has
impressed upon me through the years, through many,
many years.
That God is going to prepare an end
time army.
They're going to be weakened and crippled in
small in number to rout the hosts of
evil in this day and hour.
While missionary organizations and churches are trying to
amass, God comes down and says, you've got
too many.
And I get a missionary magazine and it
says, there's not enough.
Not enough missionaries.
Not enough money.
There's not enough resources.
We've got to have more of all of
these things.
And God says, you've got too much now
for me.
Too much for me.
So he told all the fearful ones to
go home.
22,000 went home.
Still had 10,000.
Do what I can with the 10.
And the Lord says in the beginning, you've
still got too many.
Bring them down to the water and I
will try them there.
I just want a certain small number who
are totally disciplined.
I'll prove them.
I'll test them.
You know how he tested them.
Those who would go down on their face
and drink.
Those who would lift the water with their
hands.
300 who did that.
I know people have theories of what that
meant.
And I never bothered with that.
I'm just saying this.
They did not know they were being tested.
They were just, Gideon says, go and take
a drink.
Told Gideon, you mark the ones.
Mark them.
Either write down their names or maybe he
had a servant.
That man over there that had this red
thing on his sleeve.
I don't know how they marked them.
Go get them.
Get them out by themselves.
They did not know they were being tested.
When they had finished drinking, Gideon had got
the 300 by themselves.
He says, the rest you go home.
The first bunch that went home were a
little fearful.
But these men were not afraid.
They survived that.
They were not afraid.
But they didn't stand the test.
And God is testing you and I every
day of our lives.
Testing you here at school.
You want to come and you understand you're
going to be writing exams.
To see whether or not you're approved.
You might pass your exams.
Because nobody can test you with this kind
of test.
But God is testing you every day.
Your motives.
Your attitudes.
If there's selfishness.
If there's things, you know, in your nature
that is displeasing to God.
Conceited in heart or proud of heart.
Only God can see that.
Only God can search out the heart.
I'm saying this simply.
God loves you, I know.
And I've enjoyed ministering here to see the
openness and the hunger.
But let not him that girdeth on his
armor zealously getting on that armor to fight
the Lord's battle Let not him that girdeth
on his armor boast as he that putteth
it off.
And that if your heart is right, God
will be looking for you.
If your heart isn't changed, I don't care
what ability you got.
What kind of ability do you got to
preach or to teach or to heal the
sick or to prophesy or to raise the
dead.
Oh, don't talk those things.
We don't have that here.
But you could have all of that if
your heart isn't right.
If your heart isn't right, God's not looking
for you.
We're being tested every day in all that
we do as God would try the reins
in the heart searching for that one whose
heart is right toward Him who will be
so totally disciplined of the Lord that they
will do nothing less and nothing more than
what our Gideon says.
So he sent the rest of Israel to
their tents.
Gideon was afraid.
Bad enough with 32,000, but now 300.
I guess 135,000.
God says, Gideon, I know you're a little
afraid.
Walk down the hill, you and your servants,
and listen to a conversation that's going on
down there.
Goes down the hill, the enemy like grasshoppers
for a multitude.
The man wakes up.
He had a terrifying dream, nightmare.
What happened?
What's wrong with you?
I saw a cake of barley roll down
the hill and tumble the tent.
Knocked the tent and flattened it out.
A barley bun.
He said, I got the interpretation.
He said, that's the hosts of Gideon.
He said, they're going to wipe out the
Midianites.
He got the interpretation from the Lord.
This ungodly Midianites.
That was enough for Gideon.
He went up, and he didn't put a
sword in any of their hands.
But somehow, I wonder if...
Well, I guess God must have told him
about this ahead of time.
He gives everybody an empty pitcher and a
trumpet and a lamp.
Where's my sword?
Forget that.
Trumpet, an empty pitcher, and a lamp.
And his word to them was this.
Look on me and do likewise.
All I can say is, if God had
to send those 9,700 home, God saw
their hearts, that they would not be a
people who would look on Gideon and do
what they were told.
But here he had a people so disciplined
of the Lord and would know his voice
so well that they would look always unto
Jesus and just do simply what he said
and when God wanted them to do it.
I've been emphasizing that.
Timing is just as important as the thing
that you're going to do.
Just as important.
Look on me and do as I do.
I'll blow the trumpet, and the ones that
are with me, he would be there with
a hundred of them.
There'd be another hundred here, another hundred there.
I'll blow the trumpet, and I'll break the
pitcher, and I'll hold the lamp, and I'll
shout aloud the sword of the Lord and
of Gideon, and you do as I do,
and when I do it, not before and
not after.
I've got to get down there and do
a little bit anyway.
I know I'm not sure, but I've got
to do something for God.
None of that.
You do as I do.
And they stood, every man in his place,
round about the camp.
They blew the trumpets, they broke the pitcher,
they lifted the lamp.
And those are the weapons that God has
given us.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that
the excellency of the power may not be
of ourselves, but of Christ that dwelleth within.
It's in the light.
It's in the lamp.
It's in a broken pitcher, not a beautiful
one, but one that's shattered.
Earthen vessels to be broken that the light
might shine, blasting with the trumpet the sword
of the Lord and of Gideon.
Not two swords.
God's sword and my sword.
The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
For here was a people walking in union
with their Gideon.
God is going to have an army like
that walking in union with him so that
they shall smite the Midianites as one man.
And they stood there and watched the enemy
totally routed while they stood and watched the
battle.
Because when we move in God, in God's
will and in God's anointing, and are in
God's place at God's time, and hear God's
voice, God puts fear on the inhabitants of
evil.
The host of evil.
God puts his fear on them and makes
them to hear things from the spiritual world,
not just what they're hearing from the voice
of man.
God puts the fear upon them.
And they said, they fired all our enemies
that are coming against us and they fled.
But not only that.
God put confusion into their midst that they
flew one another right and left.
They were slaying themselves while Gideon 300 stood
there blowing the trumpets and shouting the sword
of the Lord and Gideon.
And God was doing the work.
That's God's way to reach nations.
God's way.
People, no matter how small or insignificant, but
of people moving in the Spirit of God,
looking unto him, listening for his voice, just
doing what he said, no more and no
less.
May the Lord bless this word.
Hallelujah.
Some of those things that our brothers shared
with us this morning are kind of like
birds.
They just won't let you alone.
They kind of stick in there and let's
prepare our hearts.
God found fault with that generation because they
did not prepare their hearts.
Hallelujah.
I'm going to make this morning a time
of fresh consecration.
Hallelujah.
If there's something that you need to put
on the altar, you may need to put
yourself on the altar.
You may want the Lord to show you
how to prepare your heart.
I would hate to come to the end
of my life and be overthrown.
I had not let the Lord get at
it.
Let's let the Lord work on us.
Praise the Lord.
I just want to open up the front
for those who feel to make a fresh
commitment to the Lord.
Sense the Spirit of God just working with
our hearts here and challenging us.
Hallelujah.
Let's trust God for grace that we will
not fail the tests that come our way
day by day.
Praise God.
Let's look to Jesus.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
Just do as you see fit.
Let's look to the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Praise God.
Hallelujah.
Lord, we thank you for this time together,
O Lord.
Lord, thank you, O God, for working in,
Lord, just working in our insides, O God.
Lord, touching us, O God, where no one
else can, O Lord.
O Lord Jesus, we trust you, O God,
to continue to lead us, O God.
Hallelujah.
Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness, O
God, to set us free from ourselves, O
Lord.
Lead us closer to you, O Lord.
Make us truly, O God, bearers of good
news.
Hallelujah.
Lord, help us truly to realize that you've
called us to an eternal priesthood, O God,
and that we shall ever be blessing you,
O God.
Lord, when the last soul is saved, O
God, when our ministry is over and done,
Lord, our ministry to you will continue.
Lord, we shall ever be praising you.
Be a priest unto you, Lord Jesus.
Lord, help us, O God, to, Lord, enter
into that more now, O God, and to,
hallelujah.
O Lord, prepare our hearts for your sake,
O God.
We thank you.
We thank you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
It's about 10 after 11?
Is that about right?
10-15?
No, excuse me, 11-15?
Okay.
Let's have first and third periods.
First and third.
Amen.
God bless you.