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Amen. All right. Well, we're in judges chapter number six and the title of the sermon this evening is how to get stuff done, how to get stuff done. Uh, we're going to take a look at the life of Gideon. And I think if you pay attention and you really get to, you get to learn what I'm saying, I think that's going to really help you out because you know, Gideon did a lot of things, you know, uh, judges six, seven and eight talk a lot about his life. And there's sermons for miles that you could preach about Gideon. But one thing that I really love about Gideon is that he learned how to get stuff done. And so there's some principles that this man followed that I believe God saw in him that when we learn those things, it's going to help us to be able to accomplish the tasks and the things that we have in our life. Because if you're like me, you probably feel bogged down from time to time with the amount of maybe responsibility or tasks or things that are getting, you know, past your grasp to do. You know, I know I can definitely relate to that. I've got so many things to do. It seems to me like I've always just got a pile of things that I have to do, but I just can't get them done or I just don't get them done. And after studying this, I realize, Oh, well that's why because there's some things that I need to get in order first. And you know, we're all, you know, like that from time to time we all get bogged down. We all have a lot of stuff to do. And so the whole point here is to just learn from Gideon the fact that you can accomplish your tasks. You know, we don't have to just sit back and be like, Oh, you know, my life is ruined. I'm in perils because I've got all this stuff to do. There's a system, there's a method and there's a mentality that you have to have in order to get these things done. And so if you will start this thing off here, look at verse number one. It says, and the children of Israel did evil in the side of the Lord and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. You got to kind of think about that seven years of just straight oppression. You know, I don't know if anybody in here has had, you know, been bogged down by their tasks or responsibilities or things that are just plaguing you for seven years. But this is a very, very long time. And in verse two it says that this oppression got so bad that the children of Israel decided to make themselves dens in the mountains. Now think about that. Was this God's will for them? Are they supposed to be in this position right now? And the answer is obviously no. You know, God brought them across the red sea with promises and with blessings. But the problem is they neglected to follow the laws. They neglected to follow the statutes. And so what is the result? Bondage every single time. It's the same thing in the believer's life. When you neglect your responsibilities, when you put God on a shelf, you know, like I said last week, we can't play by the same rules of the world. We wind up going into that same bondage. And instead of, you know, instead of doing something about it, a lot of times we have a tendency to make dens in the mountains. You tend to make dens in the mountains of your tasks that are piling up all around you. And we need to learn how to get out of that. Verse three, it says, and so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them. And that's what it's like. You know, when you have so many things in your life that you have to get done, that you're, that you're just behind on, you're falling out with, you know, it just seems like the world is just taking everything you do. You, you, you think, okay, great, I'm taking two steps forward. Now all of a sudden the world comes and bam, you just crash a whole world. It seems like it's over, right? How do we recover from that? And really you're going to see that in this story here. Now look at verse four, it says, and they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth till thou come into Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass. Verse five, for they came up with their cattle and their tents and they came as grasshoppers for multitude for both they and their camels were without number. And they entered into the land to destroy it. Now let's look at verse six here. It says in Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And you know, the word impoverished there, you know what impoverished means? It means to be made poor, you know, and that's, you know, unfortunately a byproduct of being lazy, not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Basically the end result you can just about bet is going to be impoverishment on some level, whether it's your spiritual life, whether it's your physical life, whether it's the stuff you have going on at work, the stuff you have going on at home with the kids, it, you know, it's all the same. And these principles apply across the board. You know, when you neglect what you're supposed to do, especially as a believer, you put God on the shelf, guess what? The world's going to come after you. You're going to get delivered in the hands of Midian. And then you're going to feel like the only way I have out of here is to make myself dance. Just hide from what you know you have to do. Look, and that is definitely the wrong way to go. Now let's jump down here to verse number 12. It says this, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valor. Some people think that the angel of the Lord here is being sarcastic to Gideon. I've heard that preached in some of the new evangelical churches before, but I don't, I don't believe that. Look at verse 13 says in Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us in where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. So what's going on here is Gideon's kind of questioning. He, even he himself, he knows he's impoverished. He's in bondage. I mean, he's, he's trying to hide food from the Midianites and he's like, why has all of this befallen us? Right? You got to ask yourself, why is he asking that question? Look at verse 14 it says, and the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might, and now shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor and menasy and I am the least in my father's house. So he's got a little bit of Moses syndrome going on here. He's like me, poor little me. What am I going to be able to do? And a lot of times when you're in bondage, when you're just overwhelmed with life, you're going to feel the same way. How can I get out of this? I'm not like this person over here. I'm not like that mighty man over there. I'm not like that mighty woman over there, but you know what? God's not a respecter of persons. You were not born with the genes to just keep you in the dumps. It's all by our own neglecting the things that we need to do, just like the children of Israel here. And if you look at verse 16, it says this, and the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee and thou shall smite the Midianites as one man. So here's the first point that I have for you this evening is this motivate yourself to much to a mature understanding of your tasks and your responsibilities. Let me just say that again. Motivate yourself to a mature understanding of your tasks, your responsibilities, basically of your situation. See Gideon here is confronted by the Lord and he says, you're going to save Israel. And what does he do? He questions. He's like, why? Well, first of all, why are we in this position? He doesn't understand, right? And then what does he do? He starts questioning his abilities. Really what he's doing is he's not trying to really pull a card and say, oh, poor me. Woe is me. He doesn't understand. Here's what I'm taught. Here's what I mean. When you can learn to find what's in it for you, you will build that motivation. When you can sit back and say, okay, what's in this for me? And I'm not talking about being envious or being selfish or anything like that, but when you can take a look at a situation, let's say you're bogged down by, I don't know, some big giant tests you have to take at work, right? Or you're bogged down. You're a homeschooling mom and you're like, man, I'm really dreading teaching this trigonometry to my, you know, eight year old child or whatever. I'm just kidding. But you get the point, right? You're, you're intimidated. I mean, you, you have a giant task in front of you and it feels like the Midianites are inside your home. You know, when you can just sit down and really get a mature understanding and really find how, if you were to learn that information, how that's going to benefit you, you will become interested in that. You will become motivated in that and you will be more likely to get the victory and actually beat, you know, beat down those tasks, beat down those Midianites in your life and actually go forth with it. Now keep your place there, but go to first Kings chapter number 10. You know, a lot of times we put these things off, like maybe taxes or studying for a test or studying for something at work or, you know, studying so that we can help our kids to, to grow it and, and you know, get better at school, at home. We put those things off because we don't see any value in it because our priorities aren't right. But when you can look at that thing and actually find, you know, and say, man, if I were to just sit down here and learn this stuff, I'm going to get this raised. I'm going to get this promotion or I'm like, my child's going to have a better understanding. We're going to have a better life. We're going to be able to, if you can actually just find the light at the end of the tunnel, you will become motivated. And that's really what I see Gideon doing here. He's asking this angel this because he doesn't understand. Right. And so you need to take a look at your situation, whatever you have going on and find the benefit in that. And when you do, you're going to get that motivation. A long time ago, I took this class and it was called relearning how to learn. It was basically just trying to teach you how to find motivation for learning the most dry, boring subjects that you have to learn in order to get your so-called degree. Right. Not a proud, I'm not proud of that. You know, I have a college degree, I'm proud of it, but whatever it is, what it is, you know, when you go in the military, they force you to do all sorts of weird stuff. And that was one of them. They got me, but I took this class. And one thing that I, that they taught me in there was they said, you have to just sit down there and you have to find something in that material that's going to benefit you. When I used to work at the shipyard, it was a requirement every other year to take a nuclear exam. Now this nuclear exam is four hours long, no multiple choice, no true, false. It's all handwriting. You have to write that stuff up. And here's the kicker. You cannot take any notes with you. You cannot use any books and you cannot study at home. That information is highly sensitive, highly classified and extremely dry, extremely boring. I mean you open up page one and you're like, I'm just going to get fired. I don't, how am I going to pass this? This is not interesting to me at all. You know, it's like, I would rather be owned by the Midianites than have to go through this. Then I started to think, okay, if I don't do this, I'm going to lose my position. My family is going to see the laziness and you see what I'm saying? And I start reasoning. I started thinking of all these things are going to happen if I don't do this and all the good things that are going to happen if I do this. And I found motivation through that. And of course there was other things as we went along, like learning about the different types of radiation and just how that stuff works and thinking about God's creation and all that. And I said, well, you know what, maybe I'm going to find a little gem inside of this book here that's gonna, you know, kind of connect some things, you know, from the Bible and it'll be a benefit to me. And so I started thinking like that and you know what, it made it a whole lot easier to power through those books while I was at work and to be able to pass that stupid, ridiculous test, you know, and I just hope that helps you out because that's the only way that I made it. And you know, I don't care who you are, what your situation is, you will find yourself in that very same situation. You have got to learn how to find intent. Look, there's nothing wrong in the world with setting goals, right? But if you don't have the intentions to do it, you will never do it. You will never accomplish it. So you need to take a look at that pile of stuff that you have to do and you've got to think and sit and ponder what life would be like if you just did it, if you just got it done and then use that light, use that motivation to go ahead and accomplish those tasks. Did I say turn to 1 Kings? 2 Kings, sorry. We're having a Bible exercise this evening. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 10. I'm surprised I even remember that. Usually I just start reading the verse and you guys are like, oh, I got you. I get what you mean. Yeah. 2 Kings chapter 10. Intent, you know what, you know who comes to my mind when I hear the word intent is Jihu. Obviously he had his problem. So did Gideon. Show me a Bible character that did you. Okay. But this man understood intentions. Okay. Look at this here in verse 19. 2 Kings chapter 10 verse 19. It says this, now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. Let none be wanting for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jihu did it in subtlety. Now don't miss this. To the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal. Do you see that there? To the intent that he would destroy the worshipers of Baal. What was his motivation? What was his intent? It was for the kingdom of God, right? He did have a seal for God here. He had clear intentions. Obviously he had a goal, right? But he had intent to match those goals. And that's what he did. I mean, this couldn't have been an easy task. You know, we just read these verses and we're like, okay, he, he killed all these people. But think about it. They couldn't just start like a WhatsApp group or a Facebook thing and just rally everybody up. They had to actually put in some hardcore logistics going around and making sure that people heard the word and keeping all the worshipers of the Lord out of this thing so that they didn't get killed. There was a lot that went into this. This is hard work here, but he does it and he pulls it off. And the reason why is because he understands his purpose and he has intent. He learned how to find motivation. He said, look, if we can get these Baal worshipers out of our society, maybe life's going to be a little bit better. Maybe the hand of the Lord isn't going to be so heavy on our lives, right? And you know what? That's the same thing when it comes to us, right? We need to be just like this. Now turn to first Corinthians chapter one, first Corinthians chapter one. And while you're turning that, I'll read for you Psalm 89 13 says thou hast a mighty arm strong as thy hand and high is thy right hand. You see, the Bible says that, you know, there's nothing too hard for the Lord. You see, we have a better opportunity to get things done than the people in the world do because they can't go to God. They can't cry out to him and get the same kind of help because we're the Royal priesthood. We are the Kings and priests. We're the one that God cares about. And you know what? They, they just sit there and say, Oh God help me. But God doesn't hear those kinds of prayers. They're not saved. They're not really trusting in him. So you have to realize, you know, no matter what your tasks are, spiritual, physical, you know, in your family, you have to go to God. You have to be willing and able to rely on him and call out to him for help. Is that not what the children of Israel did? You know, after seven years of impoverishment, after seven years of oppression, then they began to cry out, you know, don't wait. That seven years is the lesson there. Now, first Corinthians chapter one, this is going to kind of deal with, uh, Gideon's attitude initially here, but look at verse 26. It says for ye see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Now does that mean that God just picks and chooses who gets saved? Of course not. That's ridiculous. That's not what you're saying. But you know what? A lot of rich people that I've met in my life will probably never get saved. A lot of so-called wise people in this world will probably never get saved. You know, so God's saying, Hey, I don't always just choose the best looking person, the wisest person, the smartest person, the most eloquent person. He chooses whom he chooses based off of what's in their heart. You know, and I believe that's why he looked down on Gideon because Gideon had these principles. Gideon was capable of using the principles that we're going to see tonight for getting stuff done. I mean, think about it. This guy goes from hiding wheat to basically kicking butt and taking names to put it frankly. All right, look at verse 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Verse 28 and base things of the world and things which are despised have God chosen. Yay. The things which are not to bring not the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. So the reason why I had you read these is because a lot of times when we get bogged down with life, we tend to look like for excuses. We tend to look at it like, well, I'm just not that good at getting something done. I'm just not that good at organization. I'm just not that good at what all those are excuses. All those are things to hold you back. And if you have that mentality, you will never dig yourself out of that hole. Look, Gideon got over that mentality and you can go back to Judges chapter six. He didn't just stay like that and you know what? Neither did Moses. Moses eventually got it. Most eventually, okay, I'm just going to go ahead and go and you're going to be with my mouth, you know? And then later on we read about him that he was eloquent. You know, that's what Stephen said. He said Moses was an eloquent man, but he didn't start off that way, but he trusted and relied on God and he used the principles of hard work. He learned how to find intention and that's exactly what Gideon did. That's what David did. That's what Jehu did. That's what all the apostles did and that's what we do. I mean, think about that. You guys obviously have some level of this right now where you wouldn't be here tonight, right? You obviously want to better yourself. You want to learn, you want to grow. So instead of doing something else, you said, you know what? I'm just going to come to church because I can see a need in that. I'm going to grow. I'm going to do something for the kingdom of God, right? So that's why I said point number one is you need to find the motivation in whatever it is that may seem like you don't want to do, whether it's studying for a test, whether it's studying to help somebody out, whether it's preparing yourself to get a better job, whether it's memorizing verses out of the Bible to get people saved. And by the way, after you've done that, there's always more, right? Because then you gotta be able to battle the J-dubs, the Mormons, the water dogs, you know, these baptism only people, you know, you have to be able to battle these people. So it's a constant, it's always there, right? But when you get that motivation, you find out, okay, what's in it for me? What's in it for the kingdom of God? What's in it for us? Then it's like, oh, of course you're going to get that motivation. The reason why a lot of people step out of here is simply they just don't see a need for any of this stuff. They can't, they miss the boat. They can't find what's in it for them. Or they came here with just misguided expectations. Oh, I just wanted to associate myself with that because someday they might get popular and be on the internet and whatever, right? Look, if that's going to happen to us, let God do that. Let's not make that our focus, right? We worry about what's going on here. We build this up here. We find the motivation here and then let God use it. That's how this thing works, right? We don't need to cut other people down and come up with new doctrines and stupid stuff just to try to get more views and to get more influence out in the world. No, we work on our battlefield. We work with what God has given us and let the chips fall where they may. And so let's move on here. Look at verse 25. It says, jump down to verse 25 says, and it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father has and cut down the Grove that is by it. Verse 26 and build an altar into the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock and the ordered place and take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Grove, which thou shalt cut down. Verse 27 the Gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had said unto him. And so it was because he feared his father's household and the men of the city that he could not do it by day that he did it by night. And so here's the situation. You find that intent, right? You find what's in it for you, what's in it for your family, what's in it for the kingdom, what's in it for my church, what's in it for my, my crew at work, whatever it is, you find that motivation and now the task comes. Now it's time to put your foot in front of the other foot, right? Just, just start marching on. But here's the thing. Here's the struggle that I see here. So Gideon's like, okay, I asked the question, I got my answer. I understand God said, Hey, I promise to deliver you. Guess what? Now comes the task. Now comes the hard part. And so there's a struggle going on here. Get God saying, Hey, I've got your first assignment. I've got your first mission. And guess what? It's a hard one. You're going to throw down the altar of Baal that your father has. And Gideon's thinking to myself, man, if I do that, everybody in town is going to come after me. They might kill me. Right? But you can see here that he's built that motivation so strong that he's going to find a way to get it done anyways. And so point number two is this. It's a simple phrase that you've heard before where there's a will, there's a way. You see in Gideon's mind, he's like, he's got the will, he's got the motivation, right? But he sees a problem. He does. He's not quite ready yet to face the big dogs here in the daytime. So he's like, okay, well I'll just do this thing at night. And you know what? Because that might be your option. You might find, you know, I got my motivation, I've got my willpower, but if I quite go forward with it, you know, I'm going to get all these people upset. Maybe you're scared, maybe you're afraid or something like that. So you have to find another way around it. But the point here is he gets the job done because where there's a will, there's a way. And when you start taking on the tasks that seem impossible to you, that seem difficult to you, you know what? You're going to have those same roadblocks. You're going to have those same thoughts, those same troubles, those same stumbling blocks come into your mind. I should've told you to keep your place there, but go back to first Corinthians and go to chapter number 16. And so we see here that there's a conflict with Gideon because of fear. And you know, when you decide to start doing these tasks, like I said, look, you might have some fear. What if I fail? What if I don't get it done? The point is you at least try it anyways and you March on despite any failure that you might get. Second Timothy one seven says this for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You see that sound mind and that spirit of love and of power is there for you at your will. You have to be willing to go grab that thing and to keep that thing in a trusted. We walk by faith, not by sight. So imagining the worst possible outcome all the time, all that does is hinder you. And that's what Gideon does here. He says, well, if I cast this thing down in the daytime, all my father's friends are probably going to kill me. That's probably what he's thinking. You know, the whole town's going to hear about it. So I'll just do it at night now. Is that right? No, he should have just done it anyways, but at least he did it right. But you know what? We're going to find ourselves in that same situation throughout life. And you just have to realize that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, you know? So when you sit there and you play that scenario game in your head, Oh, what if I do this? Or what if I do that? Or what if so-and-so hears about it? Oh, if I start going to church three times a week, you know, my mom, my dad, my, my sister, somebody is going to give me a hard time. You know what? You shouldn't be afraid of that. Right. And you know what? When you decide to put that away, that's when you know, you've leveled up as a Christian. You know what? When you do that at work, that's when you know, you've leveled up as an employee. When you do that in your family, that's when you've leveled up as a mom, as a dad, as a teenager or what have you. Now look at first Corinthians 16, look at verse number 13. Look at what Paul tells him. It says, watch ye stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. You know what that means? It means you don't let yourself backslide, get complacent, not do what you know needs to be done simply because of a thought, simply because you think that the people in the town are going to look at you funny or come at you. You know what? Sooner or later they will. But if you already have that mentality right after you found that motivation, guess what? You've already been defeated and you will not be able to get stuff done. Look at verse 14. He says, let all your things be done with charity. Why does he say that? Because when you can find the love in something, you'll do it. Look, I mean, this is kind of a bad example, but think about the people that go sneak around on their spouses. They love that iniquity, right? And they have a will and they find a way. So us as God's people, I mean, we should be above and beyond that. You know what I mean? I mean, if the adulteresses and the fornicators and all these other wicked people out there can have a will and find a way to get their own wicked acts done, why can't God's people do the same thing but towards righteous things? Why do we let ourselves get bogged down because of stuff like that? It's not right. It's not what God wants for us. And that's why Paul says, Hey, let all your things be done with charity, with love. Look, you have to find what needs to be done, man. And you have got to find a love for it. You have to find something in that thing that you love. Otherwise you're never going to do it. I mean, think about that. You have to get your priorities straight. Now let's see here. Go back to judges here. In fact, go to judges chapter number eight, judges chapter number eight. So I said point number two, where there is a will, there's a way. And the, you know, the biggest part of this after getting that motivation is just putting aside those fears. You know what? You're going to fail at something, right? And people are going to see that. You know, I mean, I get up here sometimes and I say some dumb stuff or I realize, Oh, I haven't really studied as much as I thought I should ever, or as much as I intended to. And it's like, well, I'll just do better luck next time. I'll just, I'll just do better with it next time. You know, it's just the way, the way it's gotta be. You know, a lot of times in life, we're just going to find ourselves bogged down. Like right now I got a ton of things to do and I'm sure you do too. Some of you have more stuff to do throughout the day than I do. You know, some of you moms juggling all these kids around, you've got, you've got your hands full and you know what? You need to learn from Gideon. You need to learn to find that motivation so that you don't quit, so that you don't get lazy, so that you don't backslide. And you know what? Where there is a will, there's a way you lose that will and you will lose your way. I promise you it is a fact. And the solution to that is finding what, um, what's going to make you love that. You know, find the love, especially, I mean, you're the reason you look, it's not like I wake up every single soul wanting day and I'm like, yes. Now some days I do, but you know, after you've been doing it for a couple of years, you know, there's a tendency, you know, that old man starts tugging at those strings like, Hey, you know, just a, another hour on a Saturday you can go tomorrow or you can go the next day. Well then before you know it, that attitude carries on to the next day and to the next day to the next time. And before you know it, you haven't gone in several months, you haven't done anything for God. That's how quickly you can lose your way is by giving into the conscience, you know, but Gideon, he didn't do that. He said, no, I'm going to stay the course. I'm going to realize that there's a purpose to this. I'm going to realize that there's light at the end of the tunnel. And he used that to motivate him. I mean, think about this guy was raised probably, you know, in a, in a society of just weak people that are just hitting. I mean, there's, there's no virtually no mighty people around. I mean, these people are carving dens out to hide from the Midianites. Where was all the strength? Where was the uprising? You know, it's kind of like America today. We've got an uprising for all the wrong things. You know, you've got these people breaking windows and burning buildings and all this stuff in the name of justice. And at the end of the day, they want free vegan food. Isn't that right, brother Mike? They want free vegan food. They want their soy. They want their soy milk. It's true. It is true. It's funnier than all get out, but it's really true. You know, what else do they want? They want do away with the police. Brother Mike sent an article today, you know, in what these people want, they want the police gone and they want rent controls and they want, what else do they want? They want vegan food for free. And there was one more thing too, but I forgot healthcare. What else? Yeah. Free college, smaller class sizes. Oh, and they want the criminals released too. What's up with that? What kind of a person do you have to be to where you want to petition the government? You're willing to burn this place to the ground so that they will release sick, psychopathic, disgusting pedophiles on society that you don't even know. Where's the stupidity? I mean, look, the children of Israel here, they haven't even got to that level yet. I mean, that's beyond this here. Right? So what I'm saying today is look, you're at least saved. You at least have the option to put away the spirit of fear because God promised you he would take care of you. He promised you, Hey, read my word and you'll find the will. He will order your steps. The Bible says that he orders the steps of a good man. And then when we commit our works to the Lord, what does the Bible say? That he will direct our thoughts, right? He will establish your thoughts. He will give you that motivation in return. He will put the right things in front of you that you need to do. Open the right doors, give you the right avenues. See, we have it better than the world. So captain hot shot down at your job that's gotten fed by that silver spoon for his whole life. Sooner or later he's going to crash and burn and then he's out. He's stuck on pride. Oh, it's everybody else's fault. Look, we don't have to play like that. We actually have God. He gives us these principles that we can soak up and that we can learn so that we can accomplish things and get stuff done. Because at the end of the day, we don't want to be looked at as a people that doesn't ever get anything done that doesn't ever follow through with what they say they're going to follow through with. Right? That is terrible. And that's exactly what you see here with Gideon. He got stuff done. Now judges chapter eight, look at verse number four. It says, and Gideon came to Jordan and passed over. He and the 300 men that were with him faint yet pursuing them verse five. And he said unto the men of suck off, give, I pray you loves of bread unto the people that follow me for they be faint. And I am pursuing after Ziba and Zalmona Kings of many. So now we've gone on, we've skipped chapter seven. We've come to chapter eight and Gideon is now a warrior. Here's now, he's now pursuing his purpose. He's now, he's got the intent, he's got the will, he's found the way, but he's got a little bit of a problem. You know, the guys that are following, they've been fighting all night, they're hungry, they're ready to eat. And look at the people's response to him when he just asks for a little bit of help here. Look at verse six and the princes of suck off said, are the hands of Ziba and Zalmona now in thine hand that we should give bread unto thine army. That's the way of the world right there. See, the world only wants to help people out that are already successful, right? You see, that's why the world loves to jump on the bandwagon of their favorite sports team. You ever seen somebody change who their favorite player is or their favorite team based on how often they win or how cool they are in the media? You know, I remember growing up and people wearing all this Raider stuff that grew up in Port Orchard, Washington, and I'm like, why are you wearing that? Are you from California? No. Oh, because you saw an Ice T or an Ice Cube Snoop Dogg rap video, you know, and they wore that. Now all of a sudden it's cool and you're a Raiders fan. Look, when I worked at the shipyard, you can't make this stuff up. I used to see these people fight over the Raiders and I, and I would always ask them, where did you grow up? Paul's bow, Washington. It's on the peninsula, Seattle, Mossy Rock, right? And it's like, wait a second. What they've done is they've just, people just like to attach themselves to what's already successful because they get some kind of a high or some kind of a rise out of that. But that's the way of laziness. That's the way of the world. And we don't want to be like that. We want to earn our own way. We're going to find our own motivation. We're going to get our own intentions and we're going to realize that that brings us the will, which is going to open up the way here. But that's what the world does. Look at verse seven and Gideon said, therefore, when the Lord hath delivered Ziba and Zalmun into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. Verse eight, and he went up thence to Penuel and spake unto them likewise. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him. Verse nine, and he's, and he spake also into the men of Penuel saying, when I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. So I mean, just realize this. This guy's just asking for a little bit of provision. He's already been winning. He's already getting ready. He knows he's going to have the victory because God's promised it to him, but the people of the land won't help him out. And you know what? When you find your motivation, when you get your will and you begin to go your way to accomplish what you know you need to get done, guess what? The world isn't going to help you. People are going to come against you. They're going to say, oh, well, oh, you're, you're getting up early now and doing this and doing that. Well, come tell me after you've already got the victory, right? Don't let that discourage you. That's a wicked behavior right there. That's not a friend. That's not somebody that we should be associating ourselves with for that matter. Jump down to verse 13. It says this, and Gideon, the son of Joash returned from the battle before the sun was up. Now that's important, right? So the battle's over, right? Just remember that the battle's over, right? Battle's done. And Gideon, the son of Joash returned from the battle before the sun was up. Verse 14 and caught a young man of, or I'm sorry, and caught a young man of the men of Succoth and inquired of him and described unto him the princes of Succoth and the elders thereof, even threescore and 17 men. Verse 15. And he came into the men of Succoth and said, behold Zebunzalmunah with whom he did upbraid me saying, are the hands of Zebunzalmunah now in thine hand that we should give bread unto the men that are weary? And he took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and briars. And with them, he topped the men of Succoth, verse 17, and beat down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city. So again, thinking back to verse 13, the battle's already done. It's over. Gideon at this point could have just said, I'm going to go take a nap. I'm going to go home. I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to rejoice because he accomplished tasks. He destroyed the kings, the princes of Midian. He beat the Midians. He's delivered the Israelites, but then he goes back and he takes care of the men of Succoth and he drags them through thorns. I wonder what that would have looked like. You know, did he tie them to the back of a chariot and just kind of like drag them around town or drag them through the bushes? I mean, it doesn't say you don't really know, but it sounds pretty painful. And then he goes back and he beats down the tower of Penuel and he kills the men of the city. I mean, if they weren't faint before, they've definitely got to be faint now that they've already won the battle. But he has such motivation, such intent that he realizes this is a wicked behavior and I can't let this go undone. I have to do something about it. So point number three is this purpose over pleasure. If you want to be somebody who gets stuff done, look, you, I know I might sound like some new evangelical, but this is just a true saying. And I got this from reading the text. Purpose over pleasure. We need to be a people that realizes that is a hallmark of a mature person. When you can put your purpose over your pleasures. You see Gideon, he looked at these people and he said, you know what? This is the attitude here that got us impoverished in the first place. I can't let it go unpunished. I have to do something about it. So when you think that your battle's done, but you still have a little bit left, you know what? Muster up the courage, muster up the motivation to do a thorough, complete job. Because if you don't, it will come back to bite you. And look, I see this happens to me all the time. For example, I'll tell you a story. I work on appliances. You guys know that. Well, there's a certain job that I get from time to time. In fact, it bit me today and it's when a refrigerator fails to go into defrost. Okay. So you guys is, y'all have refrigerators. You know what I'm talking about? Well, you may not realize this, but every eight to 10 hours or so that thing stops running and a little heater turns on and it melts all the ice in the evaporator and you never see it goes to the bottom of the fridge and it evaporates overnight. Well, when that stops happening, ice grows on the evaporator and eventually comes out to the back of your freezer wall. One day you open up the freezer and your ice cream soft and your food and your refrigerator is warm. Well, the way to fix that obviously is to fix what's broken, which whichever component is broken inside the refrigerator, but you have to thaw off all of the ice. And this always happens when I have church on Wednesday or Thursdays when it's soul winning time. I, I could just close my eyes right now and I can tell you tomorrow at about four o'clock I'm going to probably have this job. Okay. And there's such a great temptation not to thought off because I could tell you from experience, if I just get most of it, their freezer is going to cool and the refrigerator is going to cool and they're gonna be like, you saved the day. I don't have to get rid of my food and you look like a hero. But two months later, that issue comes right back. Even with everything working because a little bit of that ice leftover will just grow and grow and grow and the heater cannot overcome that. It can't come. So you have to get it all gone. You have to thoroughly do it and it's painful. It takes a long time. You got your boss calling, Hey, is everything okay? Do you know what you're doing? Do you need help? Is everybody going to die? And it's like, no, I've got it. I'm doing X, Y, and Z. And so what I'm telling you is that now I have to really rely on the sermon here, you know, and realize that I have a purpose and that's to do a complete thorough job for this customer because that's why they called the company. You know, and when I do a thorough job, guess what? I don't get that recall. I don't have to go back because when I have to go back to that person's home under three months, I do not get paid for that. That is a painful lesson. Okay. But Gideon, right? He's looking at these men of suck off and these people in penul and he's like, you know what? It's your liberal snot nosed attitude that got us into the position that we were in a little while ago where we're all making dens in the mountains and trying to hide ourselves. And so he says, you know what? I could, I could go rest. I could go take a nap, clean myself off, but I I've got purpose over pleasure. I would rather complete my purpose than have a bunch of temporary pleasure. Now I'm not saying that we can't take vacations and do fun things. You've got to have balance in your life, right? But to mature as a person, you need to make sure that you're putting purpose over pleasure. You know, one of the reasons why I got promoted when I worked at the shipyard to supervisor in the time that I did, I think I was like the second fastest person to ever make it without doing the apprenticeship. It's, I'm like still talked about, uh, even to this day over there, people still, they just don't get it, man. It was like, how in the world did you do that? I tell the story all the time, but if you knew these people, if you really understood the situation, you realize it's a big deal. I mean, to be there for six years and to make over a hundred thousand dollars a year to them is like unheard of. You know, then people are just like, what, what, how did you do that? You know how I did it? Purpose over pleasure. When everybody else was like, I'm going to take time off for the softball game. I'm going to go to the club with a boss. They didn't realize they were hurting themselves because I was there grinding out. I was there working every single day. If there was Saturday work to do, I would do it. Now I'll tell you, you know, the Bible says a false balance is an abomination. I, here's where I went wrong. I took a little too much of that purpose. See, there's a pendulum with this thing, right? You got to make sure you're not sacrificing your family. And unfortunately I did that. I missed a lot of birthdays. I missed a lot of anniversaries, all because I wanted to prove people, uh, prove to people that they were weak and that I could work them under the ground. You know, I'm a little bit of a workplace bully. It's a problem that I have that I have to get over. When I, when I go to a job site, I look around like, like, how can I work people into the ground here? I just want, I want to make you hurt. You know what I mean? And that's the attitude I had in the bosses. They loved it. They were like, man, this guy is always here. He'll do whatever we tell him to do. You could tell me to go sweep the dry dock and I would do it. I wouldn't say anything. I wouldn't be one of these guys. Well, I'm a, I'm a pipe fitter. I should be fitting pipes, man. I don't care. As long as that paycheck is the same, I'll sweep whatever you want. You know what? I didn't say nothing and they realize that. And so then before you know it, you know, I just wound up getting promoted and I would, I would be even higher today. You know what? But don't do that at the expense of your family is what I'm trying to say. But regardless, the principle is still there. It still works. Purpose over pleasure. Find the balance, but make sure that your purpose, meaning your fulfillment of your tasks, of your responsibilities comes before you play. That means you don't just get a bunch of money, you know, for like from a bone, a bonus at work or something. And you're like instantly, man, we're going to Hawaii. We're going to go do this. Just check and think what, what else do I have to do with that money? Is there, is there a purpose? Is there a task? Is there something that I could do with that money to bail me out of the situation that I'm in and then go have your fun, then go buy your jet ski, then go buy your boat, right? That's what I'm talking about. Now look at the results here. Look at verse 28 says, thus was median subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted up their hands no more. And the country was in quietness 40 years in the days of Gideon. So all I'm trying to tell you is when you could become a person that provides this principle in your life and you apply it and you say, you know what, I'm going to be a person of, uh, of purpose over pleasure. You're going to find yourself succeeding a lot more in life. You're going to raise a better family. You're going to be a better employee. You're going to be a better Christian, right? You're all doing this tonight. I know some of you are sitting in here right now and you're thinking of all the stuff that you have to do and wondering how in the world am I going to get all this stuff done? How am I going to dig myself out of this hole? But guess what? You're in church. You could have done anything else you wanted to do tonight. You could have chose pleasure. You could have gone to the park. It's nice out today. I mean, there's a whole host of things you could do. You could have been like, I'm going to go to a restaurant cause they've been closed forever and I finally got a chance. But no, you decided to come to church. Why? Because obviously all of you in here have a purpose. You obviously have already gotten this through your hands and you're like, you know what? I am going to purpose in my heart to make myself a better Christian, to fellowship with the brethren, to put the needs of other people above myself and get fed a little bit so that I can be a better Christian, right? You're already doing it. So you need to take what you're doing right now and realize you could do that in other areas of your life as well with your family, with your children, at your jobs. It's not just with church, right? You take what you're already doing for God and you just realize that works. It's going to work in the world too. The only problem is when you go out to the world, you're going to have the Midian nights come against you. You're going to have the people, Hey, why'd you throw down that altar, right? Why'd you throw down the altar of Wednesday nights? Why'd you throw down the altar of Sunday nights? You used to come out with us and hang out with us and play with us. And now you're, you're going to church, man. It's messed up, blah, blah, blah. They're going to complain about it. But you know what? You're going to get the victory at the end because of that purpose over pleasure works every single time. And the last point I have to you is this. Look at verse 27. It says, so back up to verse 27. Here's where Gideon falls. It says a Gideon made an Ephod thereof and put it in his city, even in Ophrah and all Israel went there. A whoring after it, which then became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. So the last thing I want to leave you with is to avoid self sabotage. You see Gideon, they finally did relax. They finally did rest. They finally did throw that party. The only problem is they got themselves into some more idolatry and it became a snare unto Gideon and to his entire house. So what I'm trying to tell you is you can't ever let go of that purpose over pleasure. When you get done with those tasks and you've got that victory, you need to set your sights immediately on something else to do. So once you dig yourself up out of that hole that you're in, you need to find out how to climb to a high mountain. You need to look at something else. You need to set another goal. That's where the goals come into place. Look, don't be making goals if you don't have intention, if you don't have motivation because all you're doing is just basically lying to yourself and you will get nowhere. Trust me, the mistake that Gideon made at this point is he let down his guard. He got complacent. He should have dedicated the rest of his life to say, you know what, I'm going to make sure that nobody ever develops this attitude. I'm going to go around and preaching teaching, figured something else out to do instead of just saying, well, let's just make a, an efod here and we'll all just kind of look at it. And the thing became a snare to him, right? We don't want to be like that. You have got to keep pushing forward in life. You know, I, I used to be super ignorant. I didn't grow up with a whole lot of education on how to date ladies and stuff like that. I was really ignorant to it. I figured when you got married, that was it. It was a done deal. It's like you got the goal. And so for several years I would slack off. It wasn't until I heard some good biblical preaching and realized, Oh, you actually have to put forth some effort for the rest of your life. Otherwise your marriage isn't going to go south. Right. I didn't realize that it's ridiculous. But you know what, if I would have, you know, studied this passage out, been in a church that wasn't just trying to fill me with hot air and fluff, you know, I probably wouldn't have made that mistake. You know, I realized that look, marriages work from the day you say I do to the day you die. You can never stop putting in that work. You have to do it. And you notice the same thing at your job. Once you get that promotion, you need to set your sights on something else. Now I'm not saying you need to, you know, put your family aside. You know, if, if that's what the next thing is and maybe you need to switch careers or you need to just be the best that you can be at that position and say, I don't want to go any farther. You get what I'm saying? The, the idea here is that you don't throw up your hands and say, I got the victory. I climbed out of the hole. I don't need the den anymore. Now it's time to party forever, right? Pull some kind of a hazardous, you know, six month, you know, ball or something. Where did that get him? It got the cost of his wife, cost him a lot of pain. It cost him trouble. That principle you could be, you could find that principle throughout the entire Bible. And if you think in your life, you know what? You just know it from experience. When we get complacent, we lose that way because we no longer have that will, right? You got to find that motivation which builds intent. That's going to provide you your will. And if you've got the will, you will find the way. And when you're trying to find your way, guess what? You're going to put purpose over pleasure every single time. It's just the way it works. It's exactly what Gideon did here. I'm gonna leave you with a couple of verses here. Ecclesiastes 10, 18 says this by much slothfulness, the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands, the house, drop it through. I go to people's houses. Sometimes I can tell they've never done any maintenance whatsoever. I, one time I took the cover off of a dishwasher and the floor literally fell through and I could see down to the crawl space and they're like, oh, you did that. Yeah, I did because this thing's been leaking for years and I can prove it. Rust doesn't just happen when I show up. So I start snapping pictures. You're not going to blame this on me. How's taking two screws out of a kick plate, you know, responsible for a giant hole in your floor? I went to another idiot's house one time and look this guy, man, we almost, we almost went to blows on this one. This got bad. So I walk into the other dishwasher is leaking. You got to figure it out. I went, well, that's why I'm here. So right off the bat where we have, we haven't started off good, right? So I'm trying to take the kick plate off. You guys all have a dishwasher. You know what I'm talking about? It won't come off. You know why? Because there's a giant mountain in front of it. All of this hardwood had buckled and made like a little hill and I'm like, I can't get the kick plate off. You're going to have to call somebody to cut this floor out before we can even check. He's like, it just started leaking last night. Look dude, no, it doesn't work like that. I had to go outside and call my boss. I said, Hey, here's what's going on. This guy, I took the picture to send him. He's like, just get out of there. Collect the money and just go, just get out of there. The guy tried to blame me for that, but no, it's because you neglected the leak. You can't tell me you didn't see water running out that thing for months on end. Look, I mean, you're talking about Oak hardwood. This dude had like a four car garage with brother Jeff's favorite RV garage at the very end over in Meridian. And he's got a literal mountain in front of his dishwasher and all. And it's my fault. I can't get the kick plate off and show him what's wrong. So he wants me to get the part off so he can send it to his insurance company. But I think he realizes insurance probably wasn't going to pay for it when they realize, um, that's neglect. That's you being idle. You obviously put pleasure over purpose. You know, when I see water coming out of the dishwasher, what do I do guys? I jump right on it. You know, the other was this last, Oh, this was last year. Now I came home. This was stupid, but I did it anyways. I come home and everybody's like hiding from the Midianites. Basically what happened to some bees got into the window, right? You guys used to have church in my house. Most of you understand what I'm talking about. You know, the, the giant window there. So somehow some bees got in. So I was like, I got this. I go into the sink and grab the fire extinguisher and I power bomb them. I'm like, problem solved. To this very day, I can still find that white powder in the house. That was dumb, but I did put purpose over pleasure. I wanted to sit down and relax, but everybody was hiding from the Midianite bees in my house. Again, I'm telling you this cause you got a house of balance too, right? And that's the sermon for another day. You know, getting that right balance. Don't be dumb. Don't be too hasty like I was. But one more verse Proverbs 23 two, I put a knife to thy throat without be a man given to appetite. So if you have an appetite for idleness, you have an appetite for just hiding from your responsibilities. You know what you need to put a knife to your throat. You need to get some discipline. You need to get some pain. You need to learn how to attract the right people around you and repel some people. You know why these new evangelical churches have a lot of the problems that they do with constant turnover and change is because they're not trying to attract the right people and repel the right people. They're trying to say the same thing to every single person. They have an appetite for money. They don't have an appetite for truth. They don't have an appetite to actually get work done for the kingdom. But you know what? This church we do and that's obvious. You know, I decided a long time ago, I'm just gonna put my knife, I'm gonna put a knife to my throat when somebody comes in here and says, you know what? Maybe we should change this and change this. Here's a check for 10,000 bucks. I could prove it. I've had people give me, you know, very expensive gift cards and, and, and presence and stuff here and they're gone. I still preached them out of here. Look, you gave me, I've just determined a long time ago. You can give me a thousand bucks today, do some stupid tomorrow and I'll preach a sermon against you. I'll rip your face off because I'm not going to be, I'm not going to allow myself to give in to that appetite of unrighteousness because if I do that, I'm not going to get anything done for the kingdom of God and my life will be in shambles and I'll be the one making a dent. I don't want that for me. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for any one of us here. So look, just think about these things. It boils down to intent, will, because where there's a will, there's a way. It's a true thing. I know it's kind of kind of a simple thing, but it really is true. You know, and oftentimes it's those simple things that we stick with us and we remember and you know, if you have that, you will always put purpose over pleasure and if you're always putting purpose over pleasure, guess what else? You're going to avoid self sabotage because you're always going to have a purpose. Gideon lost his purpose when he got the victory. That's where you messed up. That's where he made the mistake and we don't want to go down that road. So let's have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord. Again, that we can just come to your word, Lord, and pull such great truth out of the Bible. I just pray you bless the service coming this weekend, Lord, and the soul winning to come and just keep us safe as we go throughout the week. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.