Here We Go Again

Hello everyone. My name is Pastor roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york and my prayer is that you would be blessed, you would be encouraged and strengthened by this word. Hope you enjoy God bless Yeah, bless surrender. That’s what we’ve been talking about. That’s where we’ve been. I’m very excited to dive right back into um, our text, right back into the story of Gideon and right back into what God has for us. Today today we are on, I surrender I surrender series. I surrender part six, part six. Can you believe? It’s been six weeks on this journey of surrender. Um, what a blessing. What a blessing. What a blessing. And this text, this, this series excuse me, is anchored In our text Luke chapter nine versus 23 through 25 where jesus is speaking and he says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, will save it for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits himself or and loses his soul. And so that’s what we’ve been anchored in. That’s what we’ve been focused on. Uh, that has been guiding our just our discussion and our, our talks and sermons for, for these couple weeks. Uh, we looked at just some reviews or were all brought up to speed. Uh, when we first started, we looked at following the leader and what jesus says here, if any man would be my disciple or come after me, he must what uh deny himself pick up his cross and follow me in essence jesus saying if you’re gonna follow me then follow me, but it it takes some work, it takes laying yourself down, it takes denying yourself and picking up your cross and following and so it’s so important, I really want us to to grasp that and understand that the denying self is important and uh following christ is important, so following the leader that was week one week two, we talked about letting go, letting it go, putting things down to follow christ, putting things down to follow christ and so important because we can hold on to certain things and we can uh really be so so stuck on what we have when God is calling us to lay things down, that’s part of the uh denying yourself the denying yourself is letting things go, The denying yourself is approaching christ, approaching God approaching this walk with an open palm instead of a closed fist, so letting it go is so important. Then on part three of this series, we talked about help wanted and this was our introduction into Gideon and realizing that God needs some help and wants us to help him on this journey on this journey of giving him glory with our lives and the beautiful thing about it is there’s help wanted, but we have to choose to say, you know what God I surrender to your will, I surrender to your way. And even though it may not be how I feel, even though uh this this situation may be big, even though what you’re calling me to maybe grand or bigger than I expected, I trust you and I’m gonna walk in the way that you’ve called me to walk in. Help wanted, I will answer the call part four. We talked about Gideon uh and and how uh he had to be the one to tear the gods down. There was idols that were that his family and his loved ones were participating in. There was idolatry in the nation of Israel and God called Gideon to be the one to make change. He called Gideon to be the one to uh to to tear the gods and tear the idols down in the same way in our lives. We must be the ones to tear the gods down in our lives and surrender to the true and living God that has called us into life and life more abundantly and called us to surrender. Uh apart five last week we said teach me how to say goodbye, teach me how to say goodbye where Gideon was ready to go up to war, ready to go into battle and God said no you got too many people cut that. You got too many people cut that, you have this, you have to cut this. Cut those, cut these weapons out, cut all these different things and Gideon was probably saying, how am I gonna win? God says you have me on your side and with me you can have the victory. So there are certain things we have to say goodbye to so that we could say hello to in the kingdom of God, can I get an amen in the chat right there. There are certain things we have to say goodbye to so that we can say hello to other things in the Kingdom of God. And so that was kind of where we’ve been uh, up until this point and since then we skipped over a couple of versus uh, a decent amount of verses I would say within the text, but I just want to bring us up to speed before we read into where we are today. Since the last time we saw Gideon, he has been busy would be an understatement, busy would be an understatement. We saw him last as they were winning the victory over Midian and they were God called them to cut their numbers and they were chasing the media night army away and uh they were running to capture them and Gideon was locked in on this warpath locked in on trying to get these media night kings and median was defeated but the kings were fleeing And so what Gideon was doing was going to other individuals, other uh cities and saying, hey, you guys are with us, You guys are are of Israel. And I need you guys in the city to help me capture this king, help me capture these kings, the kings of Midian. We have to put them to death for what they’ve done. And they say no, no, we’re not gonna do that. We’re not gonna help you now. You know, we’re not going to help you. And and Gideon’s response isn’t one of all right. You know, okay, you know, you don’t have to help us find whatever. I’m gonna do it on my own because God’s got it. His response is, look, we’re gonna come back with them. And when we do, we’re going to give you the business, we’re gonna hurt you. We’re gonna have you feel some pain. And so this is a bit of a shift that we see taking place in Gideon. Uh so he’s running now after the kings. He captures the kings, he kills the kings and then goes back and does exactly what he said, he would do to the people that did not help him. He goes to two different cities and both say, no, we’re not going to help you. And as a result he goes back and inflicts pain on both of them. Uh and so what we realize is it it brings us now to to where we pick up today. Uh and this is Judges. Chapter eight Judges, Chapter eight, verses 22 through 35 Judges. Chapter eight verses 22 do 35. And the text reads Then the men of Israel said to Gideon rule over us and your son and your grandson also for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. Then Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you. My I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. And Gideon said to them, let me make a request of you, every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil for they had golden earrings because they were is militants. And they answered, we will willingly give them. And they spread a cloak and every man threw it in the ear rings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1700 shekels of gold. Besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian. And besides the collars that were around their necks of their camels and Gideon made an ifad of it and put it in his city or from and all Israel Horde after it there. And it became a snare to Gideon and his family. So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel and they raised their heads no more And the land had rest for 40 years and the days of Gideon and desirable. The son of joe ash, which is Gideon. He went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had 70 sons, his own offspring for he had many wives and his concubine who was in shock. Um also bore him a son and he called his name Abdelmalek and God and and Gideon, the son of joe Ashe died in a good old age and was buried in a tomb of joe as his father at or Fa of the Abaza rights. As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and hoard after the bales and made bell barrett with their God. And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord, their God who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side. And they did not show steadfast love to the family of durable. That is Gideon in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. The title of this message is here we go again. Here we go again. Let us pray. Dear God, we thank you so much for this time. We thank you for this message. We thank you for uh just what you have to communicate to your people today. I thank you God for the ability to surrender the ability to uh let go father and to do what it is that you have called us to do. I pray Lord that as we surrender that you would be glorified that as I speak, Lord, you would be seen heard and felt. We thank you and we praise you. We give you glory for all of these things in jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Hey man, there’s so much here will really take a while for me to do this some justice. But it’s funny how if you think about it, history repeats itself. There’s a phrase that says history repeats it self. And if we’re not careful in our own lives, we can see that cycles and patterns can show up and before we know it we can come to a point where we say, here we go again. Here we go again. Our lives can come to a point where we say, here we go again. What I want us to gain from this message specifically is if we don’t surrender on repeat, it’s easy to sin on repeat. If we don’t surrender on repeat, it’s easy to sin on repeat. Remember we talked about surrendering on repeat that means not just a one time thing, not just uh oh I came to the altar. I got my life right. I came to the altar. I said a prayer I came to, I don’t know like surrendering regularly surrendering on repeat. Making your surrender a current, making your surrender and everyday thing I need the I need thee every hour I need thee right surrendering each and every hour surrendering on a regular, regularly scheduled basis. It’s so important to have our surrender on repeat because if not it’s easy to sin on repeat. It’s necessary to surrender on repeat because if not we’re prone to wander, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. We are prone to doing what we want, doing what’s right in our eyes because the king of Kings isn’t leading our hearts. And so that’s why it’s so important for us to surrender on repeat because otherwise we’ll be able to say here we go again, back in it again. I’m locked in it again. And what we realize is Gideon when we look at this text, Gideon is now at a crossroads is at a crossroads in his life. He’s at a point where he has a decision to make that could affect the trajectory of his life. He was presented with an option as Shakespeare would say to be or not to be All right, that’s where Gideon. That’s where we find him. He says, okay, am I gonna be king or am I not going to be king? What what is it that that is that is being presented to me here and and and and we see in verse 22, Israel is so excited now because Gideon has killed the kings of Midian. He’s gotten uh renowned because of what he has done and Israel, the men of Israel say to Gideon rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. Now listen to Gideon’s response, Gideon says, I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you, but the Lord will rule over you. Now, this sounds noble. This sounds wonderful. This sounds like surrender. This sounds like what we’ve been preaching about. And and hearing about this whole time, this sounds like surrender. It sounds noble and that’s a great thing. But before we dive a little bit deeper and look into Gideon, let’s actually take a look at Israel. Look at the heart of Israel and what is going on here at the end of this battle at the end of this war, Israel once again does not want to be led by God, Israel once again, once a king. And now in this text, I want us to know at this point in the Book of Judges. We are hundreds of years away from Saul David Solomon, and the era of the kings. Right. That’s something that we are probably familiar with. If you have read scripture, if you’re familiar with any type of story with David and Goliath or things of that nature. Uh kings that rule, Israel were kind of familiar with that, but we are hundreds of years before that takes place. And yet we see Israel still saying, we want a man to lead us. We want uh someone that we can touch someone that we can see with our eyes to lead us. And they get to this point where they say this, that hasn’t uh the era of the kings hasn’t yet happened yet. And what we realize is even after God gives them the victory, they’re not satisfied with God ruling. They want someone else to rule. They want someone else to be in control. They’d rather someone that they can physically see to help them lead instead of being led by the Lord who delivered them from Egypt instead of being led by the Lord who kept their forefathers while they were in the wilderness instead of being led by the Lord who gave them his laws and his decrees to follow and taught them about his heart in the, in the wilderness instead of being led by the Lord who gave their forefathers victory in the promised land instead of being led by the Lord who gave them this victory. They want to be led by a man led by Gideon. Led by someone that they can touch someone that they can see. They want to be led by an individual, listen to their language, they say rule over us. Now, the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us. Now, this is interesting because when God told Gideon to tear down his idols, the atoms of his father, Gideon was fearful of two things his family and the men of the city. And now we see that Gideon has risen in power and the men of the city that he was once fearful of the men of Israel even bigger than just the matter of the city. The men of Israel, the nation now come to him and say, we want you to rule. What a what a power play! What a power switch. And so now listen to what they say. They say. Rule over us, your son and your grandson for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. If we remember when we talked about, helped teach me how to say goodbye. The reason why God cut the army’s out. Why God said all you have too many people. All you have too many people. All you have too many people make this cut, have them go down to the water to drink and see you know how they drink and based on how they drink we’re gonna cut them off. Why did God do that? He said you have too many people. And if you win with this many people, Israel will say I’ve gotten victory from my own head. The credit will not go to me. The credit will go to them. But now we see that the credit does not go to God. The credit instead is going to Gideon. He says, you they say you have saved us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon’s response says I will not rule over you and my son won’t rule over you, but the Lord will rule over you. He rightly attributes victory and rightly attributes the status to rule back to God. And so Gideon is presented with this idea of kingship and he rejects their proposal. He rejects their proposal. And this sounds great. But the first point is I want us to. The first point that I want us to get grasp in this message is this surrender deep, Surrender deep. Don’t just surrender on the surface, surrender Deep. We see Gideon said that he didn’t want to rule. He said that uh my son will not rule, but the Lord will rule. He said these things. But what we realized is there’s a problem that comes into play And the problem is, is seen in verses 24 through 27. I’m going to just read those again or uh summarize those again. Gideon says, I have a request. I have a request. I’ve I’ve led you all into battle. We’ve won this victory. I just want some goal. I want to be paid for my services. I know that uh we’ve won and it’s a great thing. But I just want some gold and they say, okay, no problem, Gideon, you’ve gotten us this far, You don’t want to be king. You just want gold. That’s fine. They take off their earrings, They get gold from here. Gold from there. And they willingly give Gideon this goal. They spread this cloak and everyone through his earrings in the in the cloak and and the weight of the golden earrings that Gideon requested was 1700 shekels of gold. That’s not a light uh measurement, not a light weight. That’s a very heavy a goal. That’s on this, this this uh this cloak and then all of these other areas of gold, they now come and they put onto this cloak. And the problem here, the problem that we run into is not the fact that Gideon asked for payment money isn’t the problem here, Or wealth that Gideon gained isn’t the problem here. It’s what you do with it. It’s what you do with it. Uh There’s a saying that says money doesn’t change you, it exposes you, right? And and another saying that says absolute power corrupts absolutely. And so what we realize is Gideon’s uh surrender, dwindles down to almost nothing when he gets this gold because it exposes some things. Apparently, Gideon was someone that wanted power. And it’s interesting because even though uh even though the kingship was presented to him, he denied it, he said no, no, no, I don’t want it. I just want money. And I just want this gold. And so what does he end up doing with the gold? He makes an f odd of gold. And when he thought it was a garment that the priests would wear would be on them. And it was a priestly garment. And he made it out of gold. And put it smack dab right in the middle of his city. Now do not miss the imagery here the last time something was made purely of gold. We see it was the golden calf and this led Israel away from God. And now we see later in Judges six just how far Israel has fallen again because one of the individuals that they were going to make their leader makes a golden ifad and not only does it lead Gideon’s family away from the true and living God, it leads all of Israel. The text says Israel Horde after it, they went after it, they denied the union that they had with the true and living God and went outside of this covenant they had with him to an idol again and it drove them away from God. And Gideon’s journey has been a crazy one for since we’ve met Gideon in Judges chapter six This journey has taken him from being weak and beating wheat in a wine press to winning in warfare. And then after winning in warfare now he’s being wanted to rule. So he goes from being weak to winning to being wanted. And now imagine this mindset change. Imagine with me for a moment what is taking place in his heart and in his mind if his surrender at this point is now just surface Because he, when we see him in judges chapter six, The Angel of the Lord says all mighty man of valor. I’m with you, all, mighty man of valor. Rise up in the strength of yours and save Midian and Gideon’s responses me, you’ve got the wrong one. His response is one of no, no, no, you you have to hook somewhere else because this is not it. But we see that as as we follow through in his story, his his his his loneliness begins to shift so much so that when he tells them to to go into battle, remember when they go into battle with the pots and the pans and the torches, he says, you say the sword of the Lord and for Gideon, he says, okay you’re going to battle for the Lord, but you know, just throw me in there a little bit, going to the battle for the Lord. But be sure to mention my name in there a little bit. And pride is an interesting thing because it can creep its way throughout the story just as it creeps its way in our lives. He says, you know, save for the sword of the Lord And for Gideon, he comes back and ends up beating up and fighting the people who would not help him even though they were his own people. And he centers this golden ifad not being led of the Lord because the Lord would tell him not. So don’t do this. This is not a move of surrender. This is a move of pride. This is a move of the theme in Judges. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. He puts this ifad in the center of his hometown. A symbol of priesthood now wrapped in gold. The symbol of priesthood that’s meant to serve now is something that is served and people uh presented as an idol and it ends up snaring the people of Israel. And so Gideon we see is fulfilling the text that says Bride comes before a fall because we see that he’s having some pride in his life and pride in his heart. And it’s so important for us to understand that we truly, truly need to not just surrender on the surface but surrender deep surrender. Deep. The second thing I want us to understand or to see is that we are not supposed to resurrect our idols. Do not resurrect your idols do not resurrect your idols. It’s interesting and sad and tragic how Gideon was the man that God used to tear the idols down. Yet near the end of his life, in his own strength and in his own power outside of the will of God. He was the one that pointed Israel back to idolatry. Come on, come on. We’ve got to be, we’ve got to be conscious of the fact that number one, what we’ve been blessed with and what we’ve been given, we can have influence and influence others to do things and lead others astray If we are not careful but be conscious of the fact that we cannot afford to resurrect our idols. Now Bell and Asher Roth were no more Bell and Asher off the idols that Gideon tore down. They were simply that they were torn down. But Gideon in his own heart put up this f odd and it was a snare of the text says a trap. The text says they were unable to move forward in the way that God had called them to because of this and it led them back to the idols that they that they that Gideon destroyed the very end of the texas says okay they were back in bail worship the very end of the texas as they were back doing the very thing that God told Gideon to lay down, lay down your idols. Okay, fine but make sure they stay down, lay down your idols. Yeah, but make sure they do not get resurrected. Do not resurrect your idols and it’s so important for us to do this and to keep this in our minds because if we get away from it we cannot realize how close we are to coming back. If we just living life, a lady that I’m doing this, I’m doing that, I’m doing that. I’m doing this. I’m I’m just doing me right now without surrendering. We don’t realize that we’ve picked up the idol that God told us to place down but we have to surrender. We have to keep our idols down, how do we do this? By denying ourselves by denying ourself by denying ourselves and saying God I surrender to you. God. I walk in your will. God, I walk in your way. This is so important for us that we do not resurrect the things that God called us to lay down, called us to let go of, called us to move on from called us to turn the page from. And oftentimes what we’ll find is letting go. What we’ll find is resurrecting the idols that God called us to let go of means letting go of the things that God told us to hold on to resurrecting the idols that God has told us to let go of means letting go of the things that God told us to hold on to or instead of letting it go, we just do it like Gideon did only on the surface we only surrender surface deep. We only surrender out of the words of our mouth instead of it being a heart that’s surrendered A heart that’s laid on the altar of the Lord. A heart that says not my will. Oh God, but yours be done. A heart that says God. I can’t do this on my own. I need you. I need you to help me not resurrect these idols instead of it. Just being deep, Deep in the heart. It’s only surface. And as a result of this, we can easily go back and resurrect our idols. So let us realize, let us realize that Gideon made this mistake. He was able to make an idol that caused Israel to resurrect their idols. And like I said, there’s nothing wrong with money, There’s nothing wrong with uh getting paid. There’s nothing wrong with being paid for the services. This was not strange in these days to uh take payment for your services. But what we see here is what will you do with what you’ve been given? What will you do with what you’ve been given? Gideon had an idea of what he was going to do with this gold. And that is where the problem lies. That is where the problem lies. He said, let me make this image, Let me make this E followed. Let me make this uh this statue, this Golden Ifad. And it became a snare. It became a trap. It became something that prevented Israel from being able to truly move forward and get past the things that God calls them, called them to say to get past. And he made this. And it became not only a snare to Israel Israel horde after it. And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. Watch the things that you elevate in your life because others are watching you. Others are watching you. And the things that you elevate the things that you give power in your life. The things that you exalt or lift up in your life. It says it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. Many of us sometimes we’re like, yeah, I’m willing to pay that price. Yes, me, I’m willing to take that, l I’m willing to do but your family. But those closest to you, there’s the ripple effects or a while ago we’ve talked about the ripple effects of sin that it does not just affect you, but sometimes those closest to you. And it’s so important for us that we keep that in mind and realize that this was not only just a snare to Gideon, but a snare to his family as well. And in this book of judges, we see uh they were they were influenced by other surrounding nations. And Gideon made this effort and put it right in his city. And the man that was called to tear down idols became the man that brought Israel back to idolatry. What a sad state of affairs. What a sad commentary. And that’s what happens when our surrender is only surface and we only surrender on the surface. That’s why we say, here we go again. No, no, no. We need to be surrendered deep in our heart and say Lord, not my will, but yours be done. I mean it with our heart. And so thirdly, I want us to understand that we must honor God with the lives we live and the legacies we leave. It’s been a while. All right. But we need to honor God with the lives we live and the legacies we leave. Let’s read on here. So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel and they raised their heads no more. And the land had arrest for 40 years. In the days of Gideon and Jeroboam, the son of joe Ash went and lived in his own house. So Gideon is doing like a the what comes to mind right now is he’s pulling Latinos. Right? So he just one. This is an Avengers reference for those who haven’t haven’t who haven’t seen it. But he just won this great battle. He’s like, I’m just go home. I’m gonna just take a sigh and think about my victory. I think about my laurel. I’m gonna think about how great things are right now. So he just one, he goes back home and the land had rest. And then the text refers to him once again as Jeremiah, let bail contend with him. Let jeroboam the son of joe Ash, which reminds us all the way back to that very first instance when he tore down those idols. But now he has them in the snare of idolatry. But he goes back home and he went and lived with his house, lived in his own house. And now verse 30 says now Gideon, it gives us a bit of insight into something that we did not know which was his, the his marriages and his sons and his offspring. Now Gideon had 70 sons, his own offspring. For he had many wives and his concubine, so not one of his wives but a concubine. Like a uh someone that he was not committed to in matrimony, but kind of like a side piece, so to speak. His concubine who was in shock um bore him a son and he called his name Obama like Obama lack. Now we’re back. I’m going to read on a B. Malek and Gideon, the son of joe Ashe died in the good old age. He was buried in the tomb of joe as his father at or part of the Ibiza rights as soon as Gideon died, as soon as Gideon died. As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and hoard after the bales and made bell barrett their God. And the people of Israel did not remember the lord their God who had delivered them from the hand of all the enemies on every side. And they did not show steadfast love to the family of terrible. That is Gideon in return for all of the good that he had done to Israel. So Gideon says, you know what, I’m going home, I’m gonna chill, I’m gonna rest. I’m gonna relax. I’m gonna rest on my laurels. I’m gonna take a couple deep breaths and enjoy life now And there’s peace. The good thing is, there’s peace in the land. The text says uh there’s peace in the land of Gideon for 40 years. The land had rest for 40 years. The land had rest for 40 years. There was no strife in the land. There was no fighting in the land. Remember we met Gideon when they were under oppression, We met Gideon when he was starting wheat in a wine press, we met Gideon when he was doing things differently. There was a very different life. By the time we met Gideon in Judges six and now two chapters later in Judges Eight, Gideon has given uh the Lord has given Gideon uh victory over the enemies. And so as a result of this for 40 years, there’s peace. So what we see here is Gideon has physical success, but spiritual failure, That’s not where we want to be saints of God, that’s not where we wanna be. Gideon has physical success. There’s peace for 40 years. There’s peace in the land. Everyone’s doing all right in the land. Things are okay. They’re not being attacked by their enemies, but they’re stuck in idolatry. They’re not being attacked by their enemies, but the same individual that God called to tear the idols down is the one that erecting idols in in in their sight. You have physical success. But moral and spiritual failure, Jesus says Luke chapter 9 23. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake would save it for what does it profit? A man to gain the whole world but lose his soul. See Gideon fulfilling this verse, things are fine. There’s peace in the land. But spiritually he’s bankrupt. He has all of this gold. He’s amassed all of this wealth. But spiritually he has nothing. We have to honor God with the life we live, but also the legacy we leave behind. How is it that we want to be or going to be remembered? We realized that in verse 31 the Sun that Gideon had with with his concubine who was in check. Um he had this son and Gideon called this son named this son Abdelmalek. If we do some research, we can realize that Obama like means my father is king, my father. It’s a king. And this is a crazy statement. A crazy way to name your son. Now. This is way back when, when you can uh when back then when they had multiple wives and multiple uh kids and all these different things that took place and what ended up happening is names had more meaning than they do. Now name’s actually meant something. You were trying to communicate something. two individuals around you when you chose a name have more weight and meaning you have to have weight and meaning now. But take the way we think about it now and magnify it much more. And so we see that he named his son a bin Malek which means my father is king. So you mean to tell me he refused being king? He refused the kingdom. He said no, no, no let God rule. But then in his heart secretly we realized that he named his son Hey, my my father’s king, my dad is king. So even though he said no with his lips in his heart he behaved like a king. He set up an idol in the center of his city and had all of Israel go after it. He a master, a great amount of wealth And ended up turning away from God. He had 70 sons because he had many wives. It’s behaving reckless and doing all of these things and he made many drastic mistakes. We are back where we started again because Israel did not, Israel, they forgot two important things. They forgot God and they forgot Gideon, they forgot God and they forgot Gideon, the text says as soon as Gideon died, rigor mortis probably hadn’t even set in and the people of Israel turned again and hoard after the bales and the bail barry with their God. And the people of Israel, they didn’t remember the Lord, they forgot they forgot they forgot the thing about surrender is it keeps you in a position of remembrance. It keeps you in a position of remembrance remembering who your God is remembering, what he’s done for you remembering where he brought you from remembering how far and how lost you were before he came into the picture and came into your life remembering all the bad you’ve done and the grace that he washed over you that you did not deserve remembering all the times you were lost and stuck in your sin. And the fact that he brought you out of the my re clay surrendering keeps you in a posture of remembrance. But yet we see how quickly they forgot not only the God that delivered them but the instrument he used for their deliverance. Gideon, they forget again and again and again and so we’re back where we started. Here we go again. This is what can happen is if surrender is not present in our everyday lives, we can start to make drastic mistakes when it matters most. Gideon names his son, my father is king of Emelec. And what’s interesting here is this is a book, we’re just focusing on a specific individual within this book of judges. But afterwards it goes on to detail what happens with the Ben Melech. This is why I bet Malek is mentioned because he becomes a leader in Israel. But the fruit that Gideon planted, we now see in Obama lex heart because Gideon could have served God near the first end of his life, but how many of you know how you finished the first part of his life, but how many of you know how you finish is so important, How you finish is so important and Obama like Was not one that served God. He killed and schemed to get to the to get in power and killed family to get in power and did very ruthless things to get and stay in power and displease the heart of God. And this is the son of Gideon who he named my father is king. And so what we realize is that we need, we need we need to be in a posture of surrender. Because if not we can say here we go again. If not we can say here we go again. I don’t want that to be what any of us say. Here we go again. We’re trapped in sin. Here we go again. We’re locked in sin. Here we go again. We’re going back to idolatry. No, no let us surrender. Let us say I surrender, I surrender so that God could get the glory in our lives. We want to learn from this as I close on as the team comes up, it’s so very important that we need to surrender. We need to surrender. Why is this? Because if you don’t surrender on repeat, it’s easy to sin on repeat. I want us to learn from this scripture is so prevalent with letting us know that we need to learn and why scripture exist, scripture speaks about scripture. It’s like you’re talking about yourself and scripture says in second timothy chapter three verses 16 and 17 All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. All scripture isn’t something that man said, okay, I’m just gonna sit down and write this nice story. I don’t know, it’s breathed out by God, It’s ushered out by God and is profitable. It is good for teaching. It is good for reproof, it is good for correction and training in righteousness. The book of Romans chapter 15 says whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction that through endurance, through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope, we might have hope. 1st. Corinthians chapter 10 says these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. What I want us to get what I want us to understand and grasp is this, that this text with Gideon a lot of times we look at the people in scripture and say these are people that we need to follow. We need to be like this, we need to do like this, we need to act like this person, but it’s okay to take the meat and spit out the bones, so to speak. It’s okay to be in a position where I’m learning something from this and this is something that’s recorded because all scripture is breathed out by God. This is something that obviously God wants me to lay eyes on and learn something from. But it does not mean I need to repeat the mistakes of Gideon. This is here to show us yes, what to do, But also what not to do, how to not repeat mistakes. How do not say here we go again, How do not uh not surrender. And there’s times when the text when we’re looking at Gideon and were cheering, we’re saying yes, we’re saying, go ahead, Gideon, that’s a wonderful thing that you did tear down those idols do it even though you’re afraid yes, Gideon lead the men into battle do it even though you don’t understand what’s going on, have faith in God. But there’s other times near the end where we’re looking at, we’re saying, what is this, the same person? We’ve been looking at the same person we’ve been reading about. And this is only Chapter eight of the book of judges. And the book goes on with each judge, things get worse and worse and worse. But it only goes to show what happens when we don’t surrender. What happens when, as the text says, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes and what it shows us what happens when we don’t surrender and we lead the charge, I want us to be able to get to a place Saints of God where we can say I surrender. We can say I surrender. I want us to get to a place Saints of God where we can say, look God have your way in my life and have it be more than just surface, Have it be more than just lip service? Have it be a heart service to the true and living God. So we don’t have to say, here we go again. We can say you know what God I’m with you. You know what God I’m for you. You know what God thank you for these examples in scripture. They may not be perfect, but I’m not perfect either. And I’m leaning on your grace, I’m leaning on your mercy. I’m leaning on your truth. I’m leaning on your righteousness. I’m leaning on the fact that the work that you started in me you are going to complete. I’m leaning on the fact that every day I will commit to picking up my cross and following you. I’m leaning on the fact that every day can move forward and who you’ve called me to be and be who you called me to be and give you glory with my life. I thank you God because even though things are difficult, even though we don’t have perfect examples, you are the example that we’re following, that we’re looking to the author and the finisher of our faith. We thank you and we praise you God. So we need to be able to say I surrender let’s bow our heads and pray Dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people for your sons and your daughters. I thank you for who you have called us to be for how you have called us to live for the victory that we have in you through your son, jesus. I pray Lord that as we learned to surrender as we’ve learned from Gideon’s life from Gideon’s mistakes. I pray Lord that we would rise up and be who you called us to be and not shy away from the surrender that you’ve called us to to have an act out in our lives. I thank you for the victory that is ours through christ jesus for the ability to not repeat the mistakes of the past and to be who you called us to be and to walk out and the way in the ways you’ve called us to walk in, we thank you and praise you in jesus name. Amen and Amen. Now if you’re here are listening, watching you’ve heard this message and you don’t know jesus christ as your Lord and savior. I just want you to repeat after me with this prayer. Dear God, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for saving me for sending jesus to live a sinless life to die and to set me free to rise again. Thank you. I believe in your son and I believe that I can have life through him. We thank you and praise you in jesus name. Amen. Amen. God bless you and thank you is my prayer. God bless you. Hello again. Pastor roderick caesar third Here, thank you so much for watching. My prayer is that you were blessed. You are encouraged and strengthened by that message. If you would like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can text B G T. F. I 277977 again, you can text B g T F I 277977 to sow a seed into the ministry. And we thank you. Thank you so much for your generosity. Or you can visit our website at B g T F. I dot us for more information. Thank you so much. Once again, I hope you are blessed and praying for you. We love you here at Bethel God bless