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This is a famous story, not really the famous part of the story, but most people have heard the Bible story of Gideon, and the part that I want to preach about, and I'm going to go through the whole story a little bit, but the part that I really want to preach about is a part that I've never heard any sermon about, and it's a part that I've never really heard emphasized, and it's, I believe, the quintessential moment in the life of Gideon, I think it was a turning point in his life, and that's in verse 25, when the Bible talks about Gideon throwing down the altar of Baal that his father had in his yard. I think that this is the important step in his life. I think this was the defining moment for Gideon, and I'm going to get to this a little more, but you see, to get you up to speed on the story here, the Midianites were a nation that was near the children of Israel, who was one of their enemies, and the children of Israel, because they had done so evil in the sight of the Lord, and they committed all the sin, and become filthy, and a wicked society and culture, that God sent judgment on them. God punished them by causing this other nation, the Midianites, to invade them, take over the land, and to basically tax these people to where they would go out in the field, and they would reap all the barley and the wheat and the rye, and this other nation would just come in and just skim it all off the top and barely leave them enough to survive, but to take all the surplus, all the profit that they'd made, and to, you know, steal it away from them and tax it out of them. Well Gideon, he's in this situation, he's living in this wicked society, and he's under God's judgment for what their nation has been doing, he's hiding, he's trying to hide and launder a bunch of, you know, grain and everything, because he doesn't want the Midianites to come steal it, so he's hiding it. Well while he's hiding the grain from the Midianites, the angel of the Lord comes and speaks to him, and says, God's going to use you to deliver the children of Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. First thing he says, the Lord God is with thee, that mighty man about, and he says, wait a minute, if God is with us, why is all this performed? If God is with us, why are we in such a bad situation? If God is with us, then why have the Midianites, you know, where are all the miracles, he's saying? Where are all the miracles of God that I've heard about in the past where God parted the Red Sea so that the children of Israel could go across on dry land, and he'd heard about all these miracles, he's saying, I haven't seen it in my lifetime. All I see is us being oppressed and enslaved by the Midianites, and God tells him, no, I'm going to send you to bring deliverance to the children, I'm going to use you to lead in the fight against the Midianites and to free your people. Well he said, but first, before you do that, he said, the first thing you're going to have to do is throw down the altar of Baal that's in your father's house, and cut down the grove that he has by. And he said, what does that mean, the altar of Baal? Well Baal was a false god that they would worship. Baal was a, you know, basically it was like a satanic religion, worshipping the devil. And the altar of Baal there, it represents, in the story here, it was worshipping false religion, it was something wicked that was in his house, think about it that way. It was something ungodly and sinful that he had to get rid of before God could really use him like he wanted to use him. So he's afraid, Gideon didn't really have a lot of boldness at this point, he's scared so he takes ten guys with him, and he says, let's do this in the middle of the night. Because they were afraid to face everybody in the town. So they come in the middle of the night, and they throw down the altar of Baal, they demolish it, destroy it, they cut down the trees of the grove where his father had worshipped this false god, and in the morning, they wake up, and the altar of Baal is destroyed. And so they say, well whoever has done this, they need to be killed. You know, we're going to kill whoever destroyed the altar of Baal, and he said, bring him out here. And Gideon's dad, Joash, steps out and says, wait a minute, you're going to kill whoever broke down Baal's altar, if Baal is really a god, let's see Baal punish this guy. Who's going to plead for Baal? He said, nobody's going to kill him. And so they changed Gideon's name, they decided, okay, we won't kill him. And they changed Gideon's name to Jerubel, which meant him whom Baal has contention with, or he who fights against Baal, that's what they named Gideon. And so, God tells him, okay, you've done that, you've thrown down the altar of Baal, now you're going to defeat the Midianites. And Gideon's still, he's afraid, he doesn't have the boldness, he says, well God, you need to show me some kind of sign that you really want me to do this. And so he said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to lay out all the wood and this sacrifice, and he laid it out, and then God caused fire to come down and conserve it. Well that still wasn't enough for Gideon, okay, he said, I'm not really sure about this. So he said, here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to put out a fleece, like a doormat that's made out of sheepskin. He said, I'm going to put this out on the front door, and he said, I want there to be dew on the fleece, but not on the ground, just only the fleece would be wet with dew and everything around would be dry. So he goes in, you know, goes to bed, waits in the morning, boom, it was just like he said. He's like, wait a minute, what if somebody just dumped a little water on this doormat, you know what I mean? Big deal. Okay God, you know, let's try this again, let me, I thought this through a little more, let's have the fleece be dry, and the ground all around it be wet, you know, because the fleece isn't going to absorb water, okay. And so of course God performed that miracle also, so he says, okay, now I feel good about this. So he goes down and he, he blows a trumpet, and he sounds trumpet, and he gets this great big army together, and they're going to go face the Midianites, they had an army of 32,000 people, okay, but the Midianites had an army that was so great, it was like the sand by the seashore. And when the Bible used that kind of terminology and talks about these great big armies, usually we're talking about like a million people, maybe 600,000, you know, when it talks about these giant armies, those are a lot of the numbers that come up, six, 700,000, a million, and he's got 32,000. So they're severely outnumbered. But God comes to Gideon and says, you have too many people with you, 32,000, too many. And he says, I don't want you to think that you won because of your military power, your skill, or your 32,000 soldiers. So he said, you're taking too many people, he said, I want to get the glory for this. So we're going to weed out your army. He said, Gideon, here's what I want you to do. And this is the next chapter that we didn't read, but here's what I want you to do, Gideon. I want you to say to everybody, whoever's afraid, whoever doesn't want to fight this battle, whoever wants to go home, just go home, 22,000 people go home, okay? 10,000 people are left out of the 32,000. So 22,000 people are like, all right, bye, you know, they just take off because they're looking at this multitude of army of like the sand by the sea circle. So then God says to Gideon, Gideon, you have too many, still too many people. You still have too many, 10,000. And so he said, we're going to weed it out further. Tell all the men to go down to the river, get something to drink, and he says, here's what we're going to do. The ones who get down on their knees and scoop the water in their hand and then wrap it like a dog out of their hand, okay, those are the ones that are going to stay with you. And those who put their face all the way in the water, those are the ones that are going to go home, okay? And so he's stirring up and says, all right, guys, you know, go get something to drink, you know, we're taking a break. He gives them relief to go down and drink out of the river. And 9,700 guys stuck their face down in the water, okay? 300 guys put their hand in their mouth and left. You know, he was probably hoping that it was the other way around, but he ends up left with 300 guys. So here he is, he has 300 men. And God tells him now, he says, you know, you don't need to take a sword. Gideon has a sword, but the other guys don't even have a sword with them. He says, here's what you need to have in your hand. He said, I want you to have a pitcher in one hand, like a clay, earth, and pitcher. And in the other hand, I want you to have a trumpet. And he said, I want you to put a lantern inside the pitcher, put the lid on, have it in the pitcher hidden, and they divide up into three groups. Gideon took 100 men, and then two other captains took their 100 men, and they got in all different places around the camp of the Midianites. And they each said, when you hear Gideon, you know, shout and blow the trumpet, then everyone's going to blow the trumpet and shout, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and break the pitcher, blow the trumpet, and so here's what happened. They surround them, they got their pitcher, they got their trumpet, the signal's given, they break the pitcher, all the lights come on, they sound the trumpet, they shout the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and God basically caused this delusion to come upon the Midianites of the valley. They thought they were surrounded by a gigantic army. The lights come on, and the trumpets are blown, but somehow God multiplied that sound to make it seem as if they said they've hired the Hittites, this must be the Egyptians, they thought it was these great superpowers of that day, the Hittites and the Egyptians, that had come to defeat them. They got so scared, they became confused, they start dropping things, I mean they're dead, they're throwing things, they're trying to get dressed, they start killing each other in the confusion. I mean people are just swinging their sword, they don't know what's going on, and they just say, let's get out of here, they just retreat, and it was a very messed up retreat where they're trampling one another. So they're retreating, and these 300 guys are chasing them. They're retreating. Well what happened was, when the rest of the whole Israelites around them, some of the people that had gone home, other people who lived in that area, some of the towns that had not come with Gideon originally, that had not answered the call, they see that the enemies being in a retreating mode, they say, okay now we're going to get involved in this. Then all these other thousands and thousands of soldiers come in and reinforce Gideon and his 300 men, and they chase them and slaughter them and pursue them and defeat them and destroy them. And basically they won the battle, amazingly, against the others. Because of this miracle that God did that got them fleeing, and once they're fleeing, it's a lot easier to defeat them when you chase them and they're trying to retreat, they're not in fortified positions, they don't have trenches, they're not set up, and so that's what happened, that's the story. And then other things happened, we can go on and on about Gideon the rest of his life, but that's the part that I wanted to focus on. So I want to say this, before the story that we're familiar with, that we know the most about, about breaking the pitchers, blowing the trumpets, chasing them out of the battle, before any of that was possible, was the story in chapter 6, where he had to throw down the altar of Baal, was the first thing he had to do, before God could even use him to do that great, mighty battle and miracle, he said, where be the miracles? And God showed him a miracle. He said, where is the Lord God of Israel? And God showed him his power and his might. But look if you would at Zechariah chapter 1, this is the very end, this is a small book, the very end of the Old Testament, so if you find the book of Matthew at the beginning of the New Testament, just go back two books, just go back through Malachi and get to Zechariah, look at chapter 1 verse 4. You see, this represented a break with his family, if you think about it, because if you really think about it, his dad was not a good guy, I mean his dad is worshiping Baal, his dad is not a Christian, his dad did not live for God, his dad was not the one leading the battle and blowing the trumpet or doing anything, his dad was an ungodly man, Joash. And God said, look, you've got to decide which side you're going to be on, Gideon. Are you going to go with tradition, are you going to go with your dad, are you going to go with your family, are you going to go with sin and wicked, or are you going to step out and be different and get the shit out of your life and serve God with your life? Look at Zechariah 1 verse 4, the Bible says, Be ye not as your fathers, under whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings, but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. You see, just because dad didn't serve God, just because dad has an altar of Baal, that doesn't mean that you have to follow in his footsteps. You see, many times, children will follow in the footsteps of the sins of their parents. You ever know people where, you know, mom and dad smoke, they say, you know, don't ever smoke, son, it's too late for me, you know, but don't ever, you don't want to end up like me, don't smoke. But what happens? The kids almost inevitably end up smoking. You know that's right. I mean, there's so many people where I knew a guy, his dad died of lung cancer in his 40s. And his dad was a chain smoker, and he died in his 40s, and I said, What did your dad die from? Here's a guy that smoked. I said, Where did your dad die from? He said, lung cancer and emphysema bow. And I said, Do you think that had something to do with his smoking? No, of course not. You're kind of angrily like, No, no, no, do it. I mean, come on. But yet, you see, the parents smoke, a lot of times the children smoke. You know, they just fall on that footstep, even if the parents say, Don't do it, don't, you know, do as I say, not as I do. But they do it anyway. Think about the Bible. And by the way, in the Bible, you'll notice the sins of the parents, the sins that the parents do in moderation, the children will take to an excess. You notice all throughout the Bible. Here's some examples. Remember Abraham? Oh, she's my sister. Right? Remember, his wife was very beautiful. He was in a he was in a foreign country is a dangerous place. He was afraid they're going to kill him to get to his beautiful wife. So he comes in and says, Oh, she's my sister. What did his son Isaac do? Same thing. Later on, he says, Oh, Rebecca is my sister. You know, the king of the land looks out the window, he sees them fooling around a little bit. He says, That's not your sister. Otherwise, you're a weird family. Okay. He says, This isn't your sister. And he says, Okay, you know, I was lying about it because I was afraid. Think about David. What was David's sin? One of them was polygamy. He had more than one wife, always been wrong. God's will is that a man and a woman will be one flesh till death do us part is the vow. And so David had several wives. He was told not to multiply wives, but he did. What did his son Solomon do? He took it to the next level. He had several hundred wives. Okay. And you see how David had a couple of wives, Solomon's thinking, Well, if dad can have a couple of wives, I'm one of the richest, most powerful kings in the world. I've got all this treasure, all these palaces. I'm gonna have hundreds of wives. I mean, if two is good, four is better, you know, five is good, 500 is better, you know. And that's what he's thinking. You know, he's got his mind, but that's what he thought. Okay. And you see how what David did in moderation, quote unquote, Solomon did in excess. Look at Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli. What was Eli's sin? He was a lazy glutton. That's what the Bible says that he was lazy. He would not work and the Bible says that he was just lusting after food and that he was a glutton. And the Bible says that he was he was a very fat man is what it says when he died. And God even said to him in a vision, he said, you have made yourself fat on the cheapest of my offerings. And so he's a Jew. He was stealing and he was committing gluttony by just gorging his appetite. What happened then? His sons grew up. Guess what? They gorged their appetite too. But they also gorged another appetite because Eli kept himself morally pure, even though he was overeating. Okay. Even though he was lazy, the Bible says that he would not restrain his sons and he wouldn't lead and do anything. His sons took it to another level because they were hormones. I mean, they were sleeping around with all the women that came to the house of God to bring the offering. So they said, well, we're not just going to indulge our appetite for food. Let's take it to the next level. Let's indulge our appetite for sleeping around and food. And they became even far more wicked than dad. You see, when dad is having one sin or mom has a sin in moderation, the kids will take it to an extreme. The sins of the fathers are passed on many times. You think about drinking. Dad drinks in moderation. The teenagers go out and get themselves drunk and drink themselves into oblivion. And so God said, no, be not as your fathers who would not turn from their evil way. Be not as your fathers who would not listen to the word of God. Look at 1 Peter 1. You see, if your mother and father are a great example, follow it. If they're living for God, follow it. If they're winning souls, follow it. But you know what? Don't be so foolish as to fall into committing the sins of your parents. Well, that's what my dad always did, so I'm going to do it. That's what mom did, so I'm going to do it. Be yourself. You stand before God alone, and it's not going to be an excuse before God to say, I do this because my dad did it. My dad taught me to. My mom taught me to. Hey, not just your mom, not just your dad. You need to do what's right inside of God alone. And Gideon had to realize that. Gideon had to make a choice. I don't care what my dad's church is. I don't care what liberal messed up church he's going to. I'm a Baptist. I'm going to be a Bible believing Christian. I'm going to be a soul winner. I'm going to do what's right. It doesn't matter what mom did. You know, you run into some people, and they say, my dad is a Catholic, my grandpa is a Catholic, and so I'm just going to be a Catholic until I die. Well, you know what? If you want to go out and worship a false religion, you'll be a Catholic when you die, and you'll go to hell when you die because you think that salvation is by confessing your sins to a priest or eating a cracker, drinking a little juice, confessing your sins to a man who's wearing a dress. You ought to go to the confessional booth and say, hey, I've got a sin for you. Put on a pair of pants and dress like a man. You know, he's like, okay, my son, you know, confess your sins to me. Well, why don't you confess that you don't dress like a man? Why don't you confess the sin of being called father when the Bible says call no man your father upon the earth. One is your father who is in heaven. Be not even called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ. God says don't call people master that are a religious leader. Don't call them rabbi. Don't call them father, and yet he's going to take a confession from you. He's going to forgive your sins. Hey, there's none that can forgive sins, but God only, the Bible says. Only God can forgive sins. I can't forgive his sins. Man cannot forgive his sins. And so you say, well, I was born and raised in Catholic. Well, you know what? You need to take. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And so don't just continue with, look at 1 Peter 1-18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. Watch this. From your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. You see, many of the traditions we might have received from Mom and Dad may not be right. Some of them are right. They're great. Continue to. But if it's a tradition that's contrary to God's word, it's time to make a break with that. It's time to destroy that out of your house, the way he's saying. It's like Gideon did when he threw down the altar of Baal. You know, we talked about drinking, you know, smoking. These things that parents do, it's passed on in the children oftentimes. A whole manner of other things. You know, the child finds a dirty magazine in Dad's garage. You know, he's going to pick up that dirty magazine and read it. And then he's going to go out and get more dirty magazines, because now Dad's doing it, it must be okay. And these kind of things will be passed down. Somewhere the cycle has to stop, and somebody's got to stand up and say, no, I'm going to be different. I'm going to serve the Lord with my life. I'm going to throw down the altar of Baal. And, oh man, you can take any sin. I mean, let me give a little advice to newlyweds. I'm picking on them since they got married. You know, here's a great motto for you. It's found in the Bible. It's called, leave father and mother and cleave unto your wife. I think I read that in the Bible somewhere. I think I read it four times. I think I read it in Genesis chapter 2, Matthew, Mark, and Ephesians. So Paul, Moses, Jesus Christ are saying, when you get married, you leave father and mother and cleave unto your wife. I mean, you can't get more of a great cross section of people telling you to do that than Moses, Jesus, and Paul. Leave. Okay, leave father. Go to Maui. Get out of here. But the point is, when you get married, you're making a break with your parents. They're still your friends. I mean, when we were first married, we'd even go and spend the night at my parents' house sometimes on Friday nights. So I'd go over there and get a free meal and spend the night to get a free breakfast, you know, because we're really poor. And we'd go over there. We'd hang out with mom and dad. We'd go out with mom and dad. Had a great time with mom and dad. But let me tell you something. Mom and dad did not run my life when I got married. You know, I thank God that my wife has a mother-in-law that doesn't interfere, you know, with her and tell her, you need to do this, you do this, you don't do this. You know what? Thank God. Now, my mother-in-law, don't even, let's not even go there, right? I said she had a great mother-in-law, okay? Don't even get me started. But what I'm saying is, but anyway, I could not go there. But anyway, the point is, you gotta make a break with mom and dad. It's time to grow up. It's time to leave father and mother and cleave under your wife. Cleave under your other. You know what cleave means? To stick together is what it means. And so you have to understand that if, you know, you stand up for her against family and she stands up for you against family. I mean, if somebody tries to drive a wedge between me and my wife, guess whose side I'm on? I'm the third. I'm with my wife. Guess what? If I have a decision to make, I'm either going to make her happy or mom and dad happy. Guess who I'm going to make happy? Her. That's what God said. God said, I'm supposed to please my wife and I'm going to please her over pleasing mom and dad. And I figured out in this world that by the time I please God and please my wife and then please the boss at work, I'm done. There's no more life for me. I don't have time to try to please you. I don't have time to try to please you and my friends and parents. Father says, I can't do it. Because by the time, because I got a priority, please God, please my wife, please the boss. Okay. That was 99.9% of my life. Now I got five seconds to please myself. I got something I want to do. I'm just going to consolidate these two cups of water. But this is, this is great advice for newlyweds. It's great advice for the, the, uh, long time with, you know, the people who've been married for a long time. You've got, when there comes a conflict, you side with your spouse against mom and dad. And that goes for you and it goes for you. It goes for you, you, you, you, everybody in this room, you clean to your wife, you leave mom and dad. Look, my mom and dad don't run my life and they ought not run your life. And you know, there are religions out there that teach that after I'm married, I'm supposed to let my parents still continue to run my life. I'm supposed to obey my parents until I die. Hogwash. When I have children, here's the key word, children, obey your parents in the Lord. And you know what you say, well, how am I right? If you're living at home, you're a child. I mean, if you're out there, you say, oh, I'm 19, 20. Okay. You know what? If you don't want to live at home, then go out and get married. Leave father and mother, leave your wife. But if you're living at home, it doesn't matter how old you are, you are under those rules. That's your mom and dad. And by the way, I believe that you should leave father and mother and clean to your wife, not leave father and mother and clean to your roommate. You know, and I mean, even Baptists, Christian circles are preaching, like the best thing that they want their young people to do is to turn 18 and go to Bible college and room up with a bunch of guys, living with a bunch of guys in a bunk bed. That's not what I want my kids to do. I hope my kids are in a bunk bed with a woman and not a bunch of guys. Okay. I want my kids to grow up and leave my house and get married. And I thank God that in my life, I lived with mom and dad, and then I got married. And I moved straight from mom and dad straight to, you know, Mrs. Anderson. And you know what? It was great. Because I didn't go through that whole bunk bed stage, that whole roommate stage, and this whole thing where it's a bunch of guys bunked up. That's not God's money. You know, God invented something called the family for a reason. It's called mom, dad, and kids. It's a family. And you know what? If that's not your situation, you know what? I'm not throwing stones at you if life has put you in a different position. But what I'm saying is that's the perfect world. That's the standard. God's standard is family. Leave father and mother. Does everybody's life turn out that way? No. But that's God's standard. That's what I want for my children. That's what you ought to want for my children. That's what you ought to want for the other children in this church, is to grow up and get married. And to be married for life to one person until one of them dies. That's God's will. And so it's important in a marriage to not bring mom and dad into marriage. Leave them behind. If they're following you in the car, you need to fake left, turn right, step on the gas, ditch mom and dad. I'm serious. Stop laughing. I'm not kidding right now. Stop it. But anyway, I'm saying, look, you must leave father and mother. And a lot of the marriage problems that could come about you as marriages is because mom and dad interfere. Mind your own business. And if your kids get married, stay out of their life and mind your own business. You say, oh, but they're making stupid decisions. Why didn't you raise them? You had them in your house for 18 years. Didn't you teach them anything? Didn't you train them? If they're not ready to be sent out, then it sounds like you failed to teach. You failed to train. It's too late now. You can't go back and try to retrain your 30-year-old son and bend him over your knees, fang him and tell him what to do. Your opportunity for that's gone. And so if you're married, leave father and mother. If you're father and mother, your kids are married, let them go. Cut the umbilical cord finally after all these years and let them go. It's good advice. It's straight out of the line. Honest. Look at John 15. So here's what you have to understand. Mom doing something is not a justification for you to do something. Dad doing something that's a sin, that's against God, does not make it okay for you to do it. But there's going to be a natural tendency for you to follow in mom and dad's footsteps. It's just the laws of nature. You will probably follow in your mom and dad's footsteps. You must make a conscious effort and say, I'm not going to fall into that trap. You've got to just decide. I'm not going to be like dad in this area. And the good things about your dad? Emulate them. You don't model after them. The good things about your mom? Follow them. But the bad things, you've got to make a conscious effort and say, I'm not going to fall into the trap of just being a duplicate of my parents. I want to live forgotten. I want to do more forgotten. I want to step up and then be different. But in John 15, and here's where I get into kind of the crux of my sermon. That was all kind of just, I was kind of circling around it. And now I'm going to kind of just jump right into it. But in John 15, one, it says, I am the true vine. And my father is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. You say, how can I bring forth more fruit? You must be purged of the sin in your life. How can I, where be all the miracles? Where is the power of God in my life? Have you thrown down the altar of Baal? See, in order to bring forth more fruit, you must be purged. I mean, if a fruit tree is maybe, maybe I bring forth a little fruit here and there if it's wild. But if it's cultivated, if it's pruned, that's what's different for much fruit. I mean, a wild tree will bring forth a little bit of fruit. But when you go in there and trim it, cut it, prune it, it's going to produce far, far more. Now, step number one is to bring forth fruit. Before you're purged, before you're pruned, you bring forth some fruit. Well, how do you do it? That means winning souls to Christ, multiplying, being fruitful and multiplying, reproducing after your own kind. The apple bears apples, the orange tree bears ornaments, the Christian bears more Christians. Some 30, some 60, some 100, amen. That's faith for a Baptist church and that 100 call. And so, here's the deal. You bring forth some fruit. That means the first thing we do when we get somebody saved is we take them out solely. We don't take them to the barber to get a haircut. They're a man. We don't take them and snip off their, their, you know, pretty ponytail. They're a man. You know, we don't, the first thing we do, oh, man, we got to dress you up like, you know, in church clothes. It's not the first step. No, we make first clean, first that which is in the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also. The first step is to take them out solely. The first step of that new convert that just got saved yesterday, hey, let's get them out solely. That's how they're going to grow. That's, and then God's going to look down and see, wow, here's somebody who's bringing forth fruit. Paul was a soul winner the day that he got saved. Read the stories, right? He didn't get saved on the road to Damascus, by the way. He got saved three days later in Ananias' house when Ananias went into Christ and said, call upon God, washing away thy sins. He called upon God. His sins are washed away. He went out solely that day. Same day. The woman at the well. Great sermon at the nursing home, Alberto. The woman at the well got saved. The same day, the first thing she did, she ran home. She dropped the water pot. She dropped what she was doing. She went solely. You see, that's the first step. Then, after you've already shown God that you want to serve him, that you want to do something for him, that you want to produce something for him. That's what Gideon had done. God already looked down and saw that Gideon was a righteous man. He was already impressed with him. He called him the mighty man of Allah. Then God said, okay, now I'm going to prune you, Gideon. Now we've got to get the sin out of your life. Let's get some of this junk and garbage out of your life so that you can bring forth even more fruit. You want to see the miracles? You must be pruned. You must be purged. And so what's purging? Well, the tree. And, you know, we live in Arizona. We have a lot of citrus trees. And I have a lemon tree. And if you don't prune that thing, it just goes nuts. It just goes in all directions. It's almost like a giant bush because it just goes out, up, down, just these long branches. And the branch will get so long and they'll get heavy and then they'll break under their own weight. They need some care. You know, tell these environmentalists that, you know, man can actually make these grow better. You know, take out some scissors and then you'll improve the thing. Oh, man, don't mess with the harmony of nature. Good night, man. I love Tempe Town Lake. Damn that river. And I'm not cursing now. No, I'm just kidding. Damn the river and make a lake. Put a dam in it, I'm saying. Come on now, damn. Damn the river, make a lake out of it. Because man can sometimes improve upon wild nature. God told Adam to dress it, to keep it, to work with it. And so what I'm saying is that... What am I saying now? What I'm saying is that when you don't prune the trees, they go wild, they don't produce as much. They're breaking under their own weight. Fruit is going to waste. It won't produce much. But when you go in there and you prune that thing and you trim it and you purge it, it'll produce far more fruit. Now grapevines especially, do you know anything about grapevines? Grapevines will virtually not even produce any fruit without being purged. Did you know that? When it comes to a grapevine, my mom had grapevines at her house and they produced zero fruit. She cut out every branch except just the wooden stem. That's all she left behind. And then boom, grew grapes. I mean, there's a plant that heavily needs to be purged. If you drive through California, wine country, you'll see all these grapevines. They're just a stub of old wine. Because they chop everything off. Every year. That's some pruning. I don't want God to prune me like that. Now think about it. What is pruning? Cutting away that which is unproductive. Cutting away that which is not helping produce. You look at the branches that are producing, that's the ones you want to leave. The branches that look a little dead, a little bit diseased, those are the ones you want to cut off. And trim it out. I took a training class this night. I forgot to tell you we're doing a gardening training class. But you go through and whenever you cut the... Oh, you love gardening. I can't garden. I'm the worst teacher because all my plants are dead and dying. And if you see on my lemon tree, I know from experience what they look like when they don't get pruned right. So that's what I'm explaining right now. But when you cut branches, and by the way, and there's a lot of great illustrations of this. When you prune that tree, you always have to cut it all the way back to the branch. Let's say you leave, let's say you cut it like three inches from the main branch. You know, you've got a main branch right here. It's maybe two and a half inches. And I learned this all from my friend Jason Hempstead is a tree trimmer. And there will be a branch like this and there will be another branch coming off of it. If you cut it and leave three inches, for example, that wound will not heal up. You have to cut it right at what's called the cambium, which is where the branch joins with the major branch. And that little round circle part, it will heal with that joint. But let's say you leave three inches and just chop it like that sloppily, it will begin to die. It will turn black. Have you ever seen it? It looks burnt. I almost thought, who is burnt? Are the kids playing with masks? It's because I saw some of the trees had burnt, but it wasn't burned. It's a disease that, it's rotting and it looks black and burnt, but it's actually just rotten if you look at it close. And what happened is that will rot back to the main branch. Then it can rot the main branch. It could literally kill the tree. If you trim a tree wrong, it could die. Seriously. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? But anyway, the point is, you must completely eradicate that bad branch. So let's apply this to our life. God wants us to bring forth more fruit. He wants us to win more souls, do more for him. Okay, he's going to have to pursue it. Now, does it sound comfortable to have God cutting things out of you and casting them aside? You know, God's going to say, oh, the cigarettes, those need to go. And drinking, let's cut that out. Ouch, you know, you're chopping. I don't think trees have feelings. Maybe they do, I don't know. But what I'm saying is, I'm not a tree hugger or anything, you know. I don't think trees have feelings, but I do. And when God prunes me, it can hurt. I mean, I remember I used to listen to all the, you know, the rock and roll and all that stuff. But it was hard to give that stuff up, because in a way it's almost like an addiction. You know, giving up all the dirty movies and the TV and stuff. You know what, you say, why would you have to give up that stuff? Because I want God to use me. You might not care about giving that stuff up. You know, I gave up watching TV because I didn't believe that God was going to use me to do something great in my life. I didn't believe that God was going to use me to win hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. I didn't believe that God would do that until I threw down the altar of Baal that was in my house, which is called the television. I threw it out the window. Because I didn't want to let the devil get into my mind anymore and just show me what he wants to show me. Show me people sleeping around. Show me girls that are scantily clad. Show me a bunch of sodomites and perverts and faggots. I didn't want to cheat anymore because I want God to use me. And I said, I'm not going to let this stupid television or a bunch of rock and roll or a bunch of worldliness or alcohol or drugs or cigarettes keep me from doing what God wants me to do. And we'd have a lot more Gideons in this world if they would throw down the altar of Baal. But I believe that more people are stuck at that stage than in chapter 7. You say, where are all the Gideons? Where are all the great pastors and leaders and preachers in this world? They're back in chapter 6. They can't get rid of the altar of Baal. They can't get the sin and the garbage out of their life. And so God can't use them. He can use them to break forth a little fruit here and there. Every once in a while, by chance, they'll have a productive branch in their life. But they just haven't been purged. They just haven't been pruned. And so you're not going to see a mighty Gideon or a Moses or a Elijah until we throw down the altar of Baal. You say, well, I want to be a great man of God. I want to be a great lady that breaks forth much fruit. Allow God to purge you. Let God clean up your life. And you say, oh, you guys are a bunch of fanatics. And you're just extreme. And you're radical. And God has had people tell me all the time, that's great for you. I admire you for doing that. But you're just a little over the top. But you know what? By whose standards am I worked up? Probably just based on 2008, if we took a poll of Baptist churches, if we took a poll of independent Baptist churches, if we took a poll of independent fundamental Baptist churches, if we took a poll of independent fundamental Baptist, it's like my grandma's had a big red trunk. We just keep adding something to it. Independent fundamental Baptist solely King James Bible only churches. If we took a poll, who thinks that Steve Anderson is over the top? It'd be like, yes, we do. But you know, are they the standard? No. If we took a poll of Tempe, Arizona, and went door to door, is faith more Baptist church a little bit over the top? You know, some would agree. Strongly agree. Extremely agree. Did I forget to tell you how much I agree when I told you that I do agree? Yeah, but you know, is that what it's at? This is the standard. And based on this standard, I think we're just right on the money. Actually, you know what? I think we need to go a little higher in our standard. Really. I mean, we compare it to God and the Bible and Jesus. You think Jesus Christ can sit down next to you and watch American Idol? You think that the Lord Jesus Christ will walk in your house and say, let's watch America's next top model. Let's watch Queer Eye Goes Straight Guy. Let's watch CSI Miami. You think Jesus Christ is going to get the popcorn going while you watch CSI Miami? You know, Jesus said, be ye holy from heaven. God said, I'll set no wicked thing before my eyes. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And so what I'm saying tonight is that if you want God to use you greatly, you've got to let God purge some of these unproductive areas out of your life, these sinful areas, these what do you think? You must take the step of throwing down the altar of baleness in your house. Maybe Dad's the one that passed it down to you, but it's time for it to go. It's going to hurt. It's going to be painful. Other people are going to get mad. Have you ever noticed how your friends get mad when you get rid of things that are wrong in your life? You're not even telling them to get rid of it. You know, you quit listening to some of your music and your friends are mad. You stop drinking and your friends are mad that you stop drinking. You know, you give up these things and they're angry with you. They're mad. That's what happened to Jerubel or Gideon's life. He experienced the same thing. A break with parents, a break with friends, a break with popularity. And yet, would you like to be a Gideon? How would you like to have led this battle? How would you like to have the shout on the mouth of every single person? The sword of the Lord and of your name. As they routed the enemy and saved the whole nation. But I'm afraid that many times we're back in Genesis chapter 6. We don't throw down the altar of Baal. We never miss him. I strongly believe that if God would have told Gideon to do this, do you think that if Gideon would have said, ah, I can't do that? God would have said, oh, that's all right. Here's, you know, go grab a pitcher and a trumpet. No way. He says, no. He didn't even tell Gideon about that part. He said, no, first, let's go get rid of the altar of Baal and then we'll talk. And I think a lot of people, God says, get rid of the altar of Baal and then we'll talk. And it's like, hello. And they never get rid of it. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let some sin keep me from the blessings that God has for me in my life. You want to be like everybody else? Fine. You want to live the life that everybody else lives? Fine. I don't want to be like everyone. I love what Samson said. I don't want to be like any other. He said, he said, if God takes away my power from me, if God takes away my strength from me, he said, I'll just be like any other man. Right? He said, I'll be like another man. I don't want to be like another man. I don't want to be like everybody else. Hey, I want to be different. I want God to use me greatly. I'm not trying to be used like the guy next door or the guy across town or the guy, I want God to be like Gideon, like all these people in the Bible. And so I'm going to allow God to make the cuts necessary, to make the purgings and pronies necessary to get me to a point where he can use me to the maximum of his plan. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please just bless the sermon to our ears tonight. Whatever it is that's the altar of Baal in our life, through God's sin, it could be drinking, could be laziness, could be smoking, could be television, gambling, liquor, could be fornication, sleeping around, could be fornication, sleeping together before you're not married, could be all these different things that you've told us are wicked and ungodly, dear God. Please help us to realize that we're never going to see the miracles. We're never going to see God's power. We're never going to be used by God. We're never going to be a leader, for sure, until we throw down the altar of Baal. Maybe it was in Dad's house, and Dad's part-younger. But God, help that not to be an excuse. Help us to make the break with the people that are holding us back and press on.