Teach Me How To Say Goodbye

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 and man, God is on our side of God is on your side at your home wherever you are. Let me just clap. Actually don’t give a clap, just put it in the chat that God is on my side. God is on my side, no matter how things look, no matter how things seem, no matter how things feel. God is on my side and because God is on my side, I am more than a conqueror because God is on my side, I can’t fail because God is on my side. I can’t lose, I’m on the winning side, I’m on the winning team because if God is for me then who can be against me? What a pleasure. What a privilege and an honor it is to stand before you today to declare the word of the true and living God. We are now on part five of our series called I I surrender, I surrender what a blessing. Our series is anchored in the text Luke chapter nine verses 23 through 25, which says, and he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, 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. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits his soul. Uh Part one, our first week we looked at following the leader, denying yourself and following God. You’re not following yourself, You’re not following your feelings, you’re not following your own agenda. You’re following the true and living God. Part two Week two, we talked about what it looks like to let it go to let it go and realize that we can’t hold on to certain things, but we have to let them go and lay them down. In part three, we we looked at at Gideon’s life and we said that God wants help in moving his agenda forward and moving his story forward and he spoke to Gideon and called Gideon out of hiding and called Gideon out of of of of obscurity and made molded him into the person that would help to lead his people and free his people. And so uh, we said that for us, are we willing to surrender what we want so that we can be the help that God once. And then uh, part four last week we talked about giving up our gods, giving up our gods. God called Gideon to tear down the altars of his father to tear down the altars of his people who were worshiping false gods and instead to turn to the true and living God. And today we’re going to look at Part five, which is going to be called, teach me how to say goodbye, teach me how to say goodbye, let us pray dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people, I thank you for who you are and who you’ve chosen us to be in you. I pray Lord that as we go through the text today that you administer to us that you would speak to us, you would give us a fresh word for today and father that you would be seen heard and felt do what only you can do and the lives of people, we won’t fail to give you the praise to give you the honor to give you the glory where we ask all of these things in the mighty name of jesus christ we pray amen, amen and amen. Yeah, so I just want to recap for a little bit before we dive into the text, before we dive into the text, just so you guys have it at home. Our text today is going to be coming from the Book of Judges surprise, we’re still with Gideon in Judges chapter seven versus one through 11, we’re not going to read that just yet, but just turn to it so that when I start we can all be on the same page and be ready. So last week we uh ended off with chapter six and what ended up happening was Gideon tore down the altars of his father, he tore down the gods, he was afraid to do it by day, but he did it at night. We’re in the Book of Judges remember and Israel had turned away from God and practiced idolatry. And as a result of this, they were stuck in the sin cycles where they would uh be close to God and then rebel from God. And and God would send a nation to oppress them and they would have to repent and then they would get close to God again and then rebel again and then God would send another nation to oppress them. They would have to repent all throughout the book of Judges when they repented, God sent them A judge, not a king, but a judge, someone that would raise up rise up and and be the person that Israel needed rise up and be the help that Israel needed, rise up and do what needed to be done and restore Israel and point them back to the true and living God. So Gideon was that person, we see his call in judges. Chapter six. God said, look, I want to use you might early man of valor. I wanna use you uh to to restore Israel back to me. I want to use you to deliver Israel for Midian, he found Gideon in a difficult place in a place that you wouldn’t normally find someone he was hiding, he was doing something different, doing something and buy in conventional means, he was threshing wheat in a wine press and that’s not something you usually would see done. But God said I’m going to choose you anyway even though you’re afraid I’m going to choose you anyway. Even though you feel like you’re the least of these, I’m going to choose you anyway and make you a mighty man of valor. But first you must take care of your father’s idols, you must tear them down. You must give up your gods and you must walk in the way that I have called you to walk in and so what we see here is Gideon does this, he tears these idols down. He’s afraid to do it by day. So he does it by night. But he gets the job done. The men of the city come out there saying Gideon, we’re gonna kill you for what you’ve done. Gideon’s father says no, no, no if if bail is God, if this false god is God then he will handle Gideon himself. So they renamed Gideon. They say we’re going to now call you terrible, which means that bail will fight with you bail will contend with you. And then what we see taking place after this immediately after this text is the armies of median. Uh they come together to fight against Israel and the spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon and he blows the trumpet and assembles the people of Israel together to fight, but right after he does this, he says wait a minute God wait one minute, I know I’ve got these armies, I know I’m ready to fight. I know we’re all good to go. But are you sure you’ve called me to do this? Now think about this, he just had an angel of the Lord appeared to him, He just had all these different confirmations and yet he just actually had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him to do mighty things. And that’s a theme that we also see in the Book of Judges, the Spirit of God coming upon the Judge to do things that they would not normally do. And what we see here is he does this and then he questions God uses him and then he says God, is that you God? Are you sure God? Is this okay? And so what we see taking place here is Gideon says I need a confirmation, I need a confirmation what this confirmation is the do and the fleas, many of you may have heard of the story of Gideon’s fleece or the saying put a fleece before the Lord. Now this is the text where it comes from and in the Book of Judges, chapter six and we see Gideon laying a fleece before the Lord and what he says is God if you’ve called me to lead these people. Meanwhile it was already confirmed all the way back in chapter six, but now we see at the end of chapter six he has the same questions. Are you sure God if this is what you called me to do, have the dew on the fleece, excuse me? Have there be dew on the fleece and the ground around the fleece be dry. And then that he wakes up in the morning and there’s dew on the fleece and the ground around the fleece is dry and then he says you know what next day? Okay, God, is that what you said? Okay, great, that’s wonderful. You confirmed it but I want another. I want I want to be sure. Isn’t that how we do? God sometimes God look, I know you said this but I just want to be absolutely sure. So do the opposite. The next morning have the ground be dry and have the fleece be soaking wet from the dew. He wakes up the next morning and sure enough it is the exact opposite. And as a result of this he knows. Okay now God confirmed it. Now God is the one that is leaving me. Now I know this is what God has called me to do. And now we enter into chapter seven, chapter seven versus one through 11. Turn in your bibles or uh focus your attention on the screen as we read the text together. Here begins the reading of God’s word. Then Gerald Ball, that is Gideon and all of the people who were with him rose early and camped beside the spring of Harrod at the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. Then the Lord God said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give media nights into their hand, lest Israel boast over me saying My own hand has saved me now. Therefore proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. And the Lord said to Gideon. The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And anyone of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you shall go with you. And anyone who of whom I say to you, this one shall not go with. You shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord God said to Gideon, Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps you shall set by himself. Likewise the one who everyone who kneels down to drink, And the number of those who lapped putting their hands to their mouth was 300 men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water, And the Lord said to Gideon with 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Media nights into your hand and let all the others go every man to his home? So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent. But he retained the 300 men and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. That same night the Lord said to him, arise and go down against the camp. For I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with pura your servant and you shall hear what they say. And afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And then he went down with poorer, his servant to the outpost of the army, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp, teach me how to say goodbye. So what we see here in the first portion of this text, the first couple verses is number one. The text records Gideon’s name now as jerry ball with Gideon in parentheses, which means the nickname stuck, which means when he tore down that idol, it was truly a turning point in his life. He was identified as Gereb. All the one that they said, Let God let bail contend with him the name stuck and sometimes God will call us to do things that will change how we’re perceived in the eyes of others. God will call us to do things that will change how we’re perceived in the eyes of others. Are we going to step out in faith? Are we going to be obedient to the things that God has called us to do? Because it could truly change so much about us. And so what we see here is Gideon has a pretty nice sized army, He has a decent amount of people and he’s feeling confident because he’s gathered them together and he’s saying, okay, we’re going to attack media and this is our plan, This is our strategy. And God says, hold up, this is great in all, I’m glad you got some people, I’m glad you got a boosted morale. I’m glad things are great. But there’s too many people Gideon’s like, hold up. What? What would you say? God? I heard what we’re fighting a battle that we’re fighting a war. I think that you need people, there’s strength in numbers, right? God says uh too many people cut them. Get him out of here. And God says, the people with you are too many for me to give the media nights into their hands. Why? Because if I do, Israel will boast over me saying my own hand has saved me the first thing that we need to say goodbye to talking about teaching us how to say goodbye. We need to say goodbye to our ego, Say goodbye to our ego so long, bye bye. Right goodbye to your ego, Farewell. He had about 32,000 men to fight with now with an army of 32,000. Those are pretty good numbers. With an army of 32,000. You’re looking around, you’re saying oh this is great, this is good, I’ve got a squad, I’ve got some people were ready to go. We’re ready to fight. Ready to battle. May be feeling pretty good about yourself. But God knew the heart of Israel, he knew that even though they may win with these numbers they would lose overall even though they may win the battle with these numbers. But they would lose was what God wanted them to actually gain which was a relationship with him. And so in them potentially winning they would lose their relationship with God. They would say oh it was about us. We we got the job done. We we made it happen. We were the people that that defeated them. It was because of our numbers. It was because of our strength. And God said no I don’t want that to happen. So I’m going to put you in a position to have to trust me. I’m gonna put you in a position to have to say this has to be God. This can only be God. There’s no way that flesh could get glory. God does not want our flesh to get the glory. And so many times in so many situations we look and we say yeah I did that. Yeah, I made that happen. Yeah, I put that together. Yeah, I opened that door. Yeah, I made that connection. Yeah, I was the one and we sit back pleased resting on our laurels. But God says, Have you forgotten me? Can you please? Just for 1 2nd, say goodbye to your ego, Goodbye to your ego. So he says that people are too many to give into my hands because to give medium for me to give median into your hands, listen to God’s language, you’re saying, look, this is something I want to give you. I want you to win. I’m gonna give you victory over Midian. But right now you have too many people because if you win, you’re gonna say it’s about me. If you win, you’re gonna say, yeah, I did that. If you’re gonna win, you’re gonna say, oh, there’s no way this could have been done. Unless we put our heads together and made it happen. We need to cut this number. We need to cut this number. Why? Because as it says in proverbs, chapter 16, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. If jesus, the Son of man came to serve, what makes us think it’s all about us? If jesus, the Son of Man says apart from me, you can do nothing. What makes us think that we can get the job done without his strength. We need to say goodbye to our ego because it’s not about us. We need to say goodbye to our ego because our ego will keep us tied to our agenda. We need to say goodbye to our ego. So that christ can shine through our ego will tie us up. Our ego will lock us up. Our ego will have us thinking it’s about us. Even when we get the victory that God gave us, we won’t see that it was God who gave it to us? Our ego will trip us up each and every single time, realize that we must die to self realize that we must crucify this ego. What did jesus say? Not my will. Oh God, but yours be done. No pride here. Oh God, I want you to shy. Let’s crucify our ego. Let’s say goodbye to our egos for that christ can shine. So he said let’s cut this number, Let’s cut this number completely. And so what we see happening is it says 22,000 of the people return they left. They said, look, I’m going home, Gideon’s like yo if anyone’s afraid, look, I get it, we’re going to war. We’re gonna fight some people. If you’re afraid, if you’re upset, then if you’re afraid, if you realize that you say, okay, this is too much for me right now and you don’t think you can do it. If that’s the case, then uh you guys go home and they leave they abandoned post, they go home guilt free free of charges leave, go ahead, they do that. And out of the 32,022,000 of the people leave. Now imagine you’re getting you’re about to fight and you feel like you have overwhelming odds and overwhelming number 22,000 people leave, 10,000 remain. 10,000 remain. And now what we realize is Gideon says to the people after this, he says okay Gideon maybe like okay I got 10,000, I still got 10,000, I can do this with it, I can do that with that. I can make this happen. In the verse four of the Lord says to Gideon, Yo man I know you got 10,000 and that’s great and I’m excited for you. But um you still got too many people now. Imagine with me your Gideon, you’re about to go into a war. You’re saying what is happening? Oh my gosh! You’ve gotta be kidding me. Now this has got look at God’s elimination process here God is saying, look you got too many people, I still need you to take some away. Everyone’s thirsty water is needed for life. Let’s go take them down to the stream to make them to have them drink, let’s go down to the water and if they go down to the water and people put their face right to the water like a dog to lap the water up with their tongue. They’re not the ones bro it’s not the ones. But if there are people that scoop the water up and drink from their hands, those are the people that I want you to fight with. Wait a minute. God what? It’s just like a who could drink water the best looking, you know what I mean? Like who could who could drink water? The way that looks you know like better that you don’t look like a dog when you drink your water. Like what is this? God? What kind of selection process is this? But I believe that what God wanted is to uh for Gideon and for Israel to let go of their comfort. And that’s our second goodbye. We have to say goodbye to our comfort, goodbye to our comfort. You see What Gideon could have done. It says yeah I got 10,000. What Israel could have done and says yeah I have 10,000. We’re good to go Still resting on their security of their numbers because while it’s not 32,000, it’s still a decent number two perhaps going to battle with against Midian. And God said there’s still too many. You could still say we pulled it off. We had 10,000. We made it work. And you can still make it about you. And that’s the problem. You can still make it about you. But instead what we see here is God separating them and saying no let’s let’s let’s send these people home, let’s have these people stay. And when they do the account Of how many people ended up staying. It’s 300 men. Imagine that you go from 10,000 to 300. You look at the people drinking the water, you’re like, Oh no, please step drink of the water with your hands. Here they go, drinking a face first in the water. No, I gotta let them go. What? How upset would you be? You had 10,000 people ready to go into battle, ready to march into war. And then you get 300. You’re like, yo I I was stacked, I was good, I was ready. And God says, look, do you trust me enough to let go of your comfort? Do you trust me enough to let go of your security. Gideon is probably like, Oh we have 10,000 at least. That’s something. But can you trust God when he strips you of your comfort? When God strips you of your comfort, When you don’t feel sure anymore, remember your call? Remember your fleece. I believe that Gideon in this moment. Had to remember that this was his call. That God said, I will use you to deliver Israel for median. Follow my instructions. Follow my directions is going to happen. And he had to think back to that time when he was threshing wheat in a wine press. And the angel of the Lord showed up and said, oh, mighty man of valor. I have chosen you. Oh, mighty man of valor. You will be the one that delivers Israel for Midian. Oh mighty man of valor follows suit. And then he had to think back to those times when he put that police on the ground and said, God work, Do your work. Please confirm this. Please let me know that this is the route you have for me. So when you’re confused, when you don’t feel sure, remember your fleece, remember your call? Remember who is doing the talking? Who’s giving you the instructions? It is God the true and living God. And even though you’re uncomfortable, it’s for his glory. Even though you may be uncomfortable, it is for his glory. What this shows us is that He had two shrimp. The people of their comfort. We’re going to the battle with $10 and we can do this. God says hold up. Not so not so let’s let’s let’s dial back a little bit, let’s make some changes and let’s shift gears because what I really want is for me to get the glory and I want to remind you all that I can do a lot with a little that I can do a lot with a little. You see many of us, we are comfortable with a lot. We’re comfortable with numbers. There’s strength in numbers were comfortable with uh a lot of money in the bank. We’re comfortable with a lot of perhaps friends or social groups around us. We’re comfortable having a lot to rest on. But what we tend to forget is God can do a lot with a little. We’re comfortable with our, our grand uh, things that we’ve acquired over life. But that’s why we kind of spurred our, our humble beginnings, but don’t despise humble beginnings. God can do a lot with a little. This is the God who formed men from dust in the ground, dust. Something you would look over something you wouldn’t think twice about God formed man from dust in the ground. This God who used uneducated, unfiltered disciples to then teach and proclaim his gospel. God who used a boy’s lunch to then feed thousands the same God who made an army out of dry bones. The God who chose a scared and reluctant man to lead an army and deliver his people the same God who chose an immigrant to fall in love with him and his word and come to this country and start at this church. The question is, will we say goodbye to our comfort and let God use us? Well, we trust God in our discomfort. Will we trust God when he tells us to strip and to to let the things go and to, to to say goodbye to the things that made us comfortable and the things that make us comfortable are not always sin. I’m not saying you have to of course I am saying you have to let go of sin or say goodbye to sin. But some of these things are not sinful, having 10,000 people. Having 32,000 people are not. It was not sinful, but it could distract from what God wanted to get across, distract from the message that God wanted to convey. And for us it’s about having faith in what God is saying and faith in who God is. And the thing about faith is it’s uncomfortable. Faith is uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable if you’re comfortable in faith and comfortable in stepping out. I’d like to have a wonderful talk with you and really gain your perspective on it. But faith is often uncomfortable. Why? Because how do you look stepping out in faith? Oftentimes you look crazy. Oftentimes you look completely out of your mind saying something, declaring those things that are not as though they were having the substance of things, hoped for the evidence of things not seen and stepping out on nothing, hoping that it’s something why? Because it’s faith and what we need to do is trust God to take us out of our comfort zone. If we look at people in scripture who had faith, they were often ridiculed. They were often ostracized. They were often the ones that people said, oh, this could never happen. But God still used them in a mighty and miraculous way for his glory. So we need to trust God and say goodbye to our comfort. And then that same night as we read on the Lord God said to Gideon, You’ve got now 300 men From 32,000 all the way down to 300, he says arise and go down to the camp because I’ve given it into your hand. But if you’re afraid to go down, go down to the camp with poorer your servant, you’re going to hear what they’re gonna say in the camp, the camp of Midian, the camp of your enemies sneak down there and eavesdrop on a conversation that I’ve prepared just for you because God knows the heart of Gideon. The third thing that we want us to do. Let me finish reading this real quick he goes down, You shall hear what they say God says. And afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And then he went down with poorer, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. And as soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, uh there was a dream that that was said. And as soon as Gideon heard the telling of this dream and interpretation, he worshiped and then he returned to the camp of Israel instead of rise for the Lord God has given the host of Midian into your hand. The third thing that we need to say goodbye to is say goodbye to your fear. Say goodbye to your fear. We need to give God something to work with. Give God something to work with God says, look, I can work with you. Even if you’re afraid I’m going to say that again, God says I can work with you even if you’re afraid, aren’t you glad that God doesn’t abandon you when you’re afraid that God doesn’t abandon you when you feel fear. He didn’t say all Gideon. If you’re afraid, don’t be afraid, be a man and go by yourself, be a man and go scope out the enemy by yourself. Number one, we realized that when God found Gideon, he was threshing wheat in a wine press, he was doing something, hiding what he was doing out of fear of Midian. So he’s dealing with a fearful individual. When God called Gideon to tear down the idols of his father, what did he do? He didn’t do it in broad daylight. The text says he did it at night because he was afraid of his family and afraid of the men of the town. So God knows who he’s dealing with. He knows he’s dealing with someone that is prone to fear. That is prone to to second guessing. That is prone to having doubts. That is prone to having worry. But instead what we see him saying is not not Gideon come back when you’re a man come back when you’re bold, come back. When you’re stronger, they don’t know. Instead what we see the Lord saying is if you’re afraid it’s okay, Take your servant with you, take poorer with you and go and listen to what this conversation is about. So Gideon in his fear. Feeling afraid, feeling fearful, wanting an extra hand to hold as he’s going goes with his servant and listens to this dream. And this Media night soldier. I was talking to another soldier and they’re saying, yo I had this crazy dream, It was this dream that this huge loaf of bread came rolling down and it just barreled through all of our tents and destroyed us completely. Somehow. The other media night soldier says yo that’s got to be confirmation. We want to get spanked tomorrow by Gideon and his army. The bread represents Gideon. They’re about to come through and just demolish us. And Gideon overhears this and this is all of the the the prep, the motivation, the push that he needs the text. He runs back with joy, runs back with glee and handles his business. But we have to say goodbye to our fear. Goodbye to our fear. When I say goodbye to our fear. I don’t mean we don’t do things afraid. I mean we don’t have our fear. Paralyze us. We see that when Gideon went to listen he took his servant with him. Why? Because he was afraid but he did not let fear. Paralyze him the same way he was afraid to pull down the idols at night. Yeah. He was fearful of pulling down the idols at night. But he that’s why he did it at night, but he still got it done the same thing. We can learn another lesson from Gideon is don’t let fear Paralyze you. I’m so glad that God does not abandon us when we are afraid Gideon. If you’re afraid, take poorer with you moses, are you afraid to go speak to pharaoh because of your speech? It’s okay. Take your brother Aaron with you Esther. Are you afraid to go before the king? It’s okay. Tell the people of Israel to commend to have to have a fast and pray in my name so you can get success. God is not going to leave you in your fear and he does not want us to be paralyzed by it. He doesn’t want us to be paralyzed by it. We can still move forward even though we’re afraid you can still move forward. Even though uh we were feeling fear. Victory has not come yet. For Gideon, Victory hasn’t come yet. But he believes in the confirmation that he has heard, he believes that this is a word from the Lord. He says, look goodbye to fear and he leans on faith. He says goodbye to fear and he leans on faith and in the same way we can say goodbye to being paralyzed by our fear. Goodbye to letting fear make us immobile and not able to make an accurate decision and not able to move forward. We can say goodbye to our fear and lean on our faith. That’s what we need to do. Saints of God. We say goodbye goodbye to Fear. Goodbye to Fear. Just wave goodbye type goodbye in the chat, Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye goodbye to Fear so we can move forward in our faith. So he’s so excited, he runs back and he gets to work, he gets to action, he takes these 300 men and says okay 300 may not be the number that we started with, but God is the one that told us to make cuts and may not be the number we started with, but God is the one that got us to this number. So we’re going to divide them into sections. He divided 300 men into three companies and I listen here, he gives them trumpets into the hands of all of them, empty jars into the hands of all of them with torches inside the jars. And then he says to them, now look at me and do as I do when I come to the outskirts of the camp. Do as I do when I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, blow the trumpets also on every side of the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon now watch this, he says, There’s three companies, he puts trumpets in their hands, empty jars in their hands, torches in their hands. The fourth thing that we are supposed to say goodbye to, We need to say goodbye to our weapons, Say goodbye to your weapons, to your weapons, to your weapons. That’s what we need to say goodbye to say goodbye to your weapons. Israel goes into battle. I want us to understand this. They go into battle. They started over 32,000. They now have 300 and they go into battle not with swords and shields and shields, not with a slingshot, not with a dagger. They go into battle with with with a jar and and a torch and their voices and trumpets and they’re going into battle and they have their strategy this plan but it’s not a conventional weapon. Israel didn’t need swords because I wanted to see what took place. If we were to read on, we would see that when they did this when they surrounded the enemy, when they blow their trumpets and when they crashed their jars to the ground and wave their torches around when they said for the Lord and for Gideon all of the media nights, they were confused by the sound and they ran through and ended up attacking one another. They ended up attacking one another and then fleeing in a frenzy. They attacked one another and then they fleed. So much so that Gideon had to get some other Israelites to go and pursue them to go and attack them to go and and and capture them. And I want us to see the level of victory that they obtained with a small amount of people not even lifting a sword, just being obedient to the direction of God. And using the weapon that God gave them to use, Israel did not need swords. So we need to look at what God can do if we surrender to him. Imagine if he was like, no, we need some swords. This is where I draw the line. God, we need some swords, we need some shields, we need to make this happen. He used an unconventional plan, an unconventional weapon so that God could get the victory so that God could get the glory. And so in the same way we need to say goodbye to our weapons. Those tried and tested and true weapons that we leaned on the swords and the shields that we’ve used our whole lives. Goodbye to the sharp tongue that cuts people down. At the first sign of offense. Goodbye to these hands that you let anyone catch When you feel offended. Goodbye to the gossip and the spreading and the fake smiles goodbye to running away at the first sign of offense or putting up walls at the first sign of offense. Why? Because we’re fighting with the wrong weapons? Because the battle is not mine. It’s the Lord is not ours. It’s the Lord’s it’s not yours. It’s the Lord’s and many times we try but we cannot fight God’s battle our way. We cannot fight God’s battle our way. And that’s what we try to do while we’re scheming, while we’re undercutting, while we’re conniving and tricking and trying to get ahead, when we must realize that this is God’s battle in the first place and victory belongs to jesus and God’s gonna win it the way he sees fit, we’re trying to help God and win it our way and use our weapons and we leave destruction in our wake. But God wants the glory of our lives, the glory in our lives. And are we willing to say goodbye to the things he’s calling us to let go of? We need to be willing to say goodbye to our weapons. And it’s difficult because our weapons have gotten us so far, our weapons have gotten us to where we are. They’ve been battle tested. I know how to use my wit, Oh, I know how to cut this person down and I know how to use these hands to defend. I know how to spread gossip here and there too, climb my way up. But God says you’re now in a new kingdom, you’ve sworn allegiance to a new king and there is a certain way that we do things in this kingdom that maybe countercultural to the way you’ve progressed your whole life. And so what we need to do is learn these new strategies and and put down our weapons, say goodbye to our weapons and fight God’s way. Now fighting God’s way. I’m gonna let you know right off the bat. It looks crazy. It looks crazy. What would you do if you’re talking to Gideon? He says, yeah, I’m about to go into battle With 300 men, some pots and pans and some torches and we’re about to just you know about to try and win this thing. All right man, good luck bruh. You know like what do you what do you what do you say to that? It looks crazy. But Gideon wasn’t using his weapons. He was using God’s weapons. And if you’re fighting God’s battles with God’s weapons, there is no way that you can lose. There is no way that you can lose. And so what we need to do is say goodbye to our weapons and it takes some time. It takes some patience. It takes us being submitted to the will of God and surrendering right? But we need to let go of our weapons so that we can walk in the way that God’s called us to let go of. So how do we do this? How do we let go of the things that God has called us to let go of? How do we uh continue to let go of our ego, let go of our comfort, let go of our fear. Let go of our weapons. How do we do this? Well, the first thing that we need to do as we need to get out of our own way typed. Get out of the way. Get out of the way? Get out of the way. Get out of the way. You get out of your way. You get out of your way if his church was full right now and say turn to your neighbor and say you get out of your way. But now since you’re home you talk to yourself, say you get out of me, get out of my way, get out of my way. If you think for one minute Gideon was excited about this assignment. Think again. Think again. Think again. Think again. Think again. If you think for one minute he was excited about this assignment. Think again. Do you think he was anticipating chomping at the bit to tear down these idols? No. Didion At first response, when the angel of the Lord said, oh mighty man of valor, I’ve chosen you, Gideon said Yo you’ve got the wrong one man, you might want to look again. Have you seen my track record? My family’s track record. It’s not it’s not looking good. He was not excited about the prospect of being the person through which God used to save Israel. But he was obedient. He was obedient if you think for one moment that he was excited to let the majority of his army go nah, no, I don’t know any military strategist that would say this is a good idea? Let’s do this. You know the majority of his army go, do you think that he was excited about not using conventional weapons? Yes. Mhm. I don’t think so. But you have to get out of your own way because if Gideon had his way, he would still be threshing wheat in the wine press, He would still be operating in dysfunction instead of leading his people to operating in a functional way by serving the true and living God. The only time we see Gideon excited is when he realized that God was with him, when he realized that he got confirmation when he realized that thus saith the Lord and God actually said it. So okay, it must be so now I step out in faith now I’m good to go and I’m ready to rock and I’m ready to move forward. That’s when we see getting excited when his questions were answered and when his doubts were dismayed and dispelled and what this shows us is our feelings are not final, our feelings are not final. Many times we learn our feelings have the final say, I’m angry because they did X, Y and Z. So I want to operate in anger. Oh I’m lustful because I see X, Y and Z. So I’m gonna walk out in lust. Oh I’m I’m sad and depressed because of this took place in my life. So I’m going to operate in this, but your feelings are not final. So you may feel a certain way. I want to walk out in a certain way or act out in a certain way. But you cannot let your feelings behind the wheel, you cannot let your feelings have the final say. And so many times we are led by our feelings instead of our faith and instead of surrendering our feelings to the true and living God and laying them at his feet, we just walk out in them. We walk out in the, imagine if Gideon had walked out in his feelings all mighty man of valor, I’ve chosen you to to deliver Midian to deliver Excuse me, Israel from the hand of Midian. Oh, you know, I’m the weakest man. I’m I’m I’m just here the threshing wheat in this wine press. You don’t know what I’ve been through. Look at my family, look at our our sin patterns, look at what from generation to generation for seven years we’ve been oppressed by median. You know, my my my my my grandfather, he told us stories about Israel and how God you were with us when you let our forefathers through the red sea. But I don’t see that anymore. So I’m good man. I’m I’m just gonna thrust wheat in this wine present. You know, high from Midian. Imagine if Gideon was led by his feelings, Israel, perhaps it wouldn’t have been delivered or you know, God is God. So if he doesn’t use giddy and he could use another and get him would have missed out on that opportunity because he was led by his feelings instead of his faith. But instead he had the wisdom to lay a fleece before the Lord of wisdom to say, okay, I’m gonna cook this meal and prepare it before the Lord of wisdom to say, you know what? Even though I’m afraid I’m gonna get some confirmation. So I could walk out in boldness, I’m gonna get some confirmation. So I can walk out in obedience. But we have to say goodbye to those things first. We have to say goodbye to the things that are not good for me, The sin things that are not good for me. We have to say goodbye to the things that are good for me, but not God’s best for me. And that sometimes is difficult because like I said, 32,000 people and not isn’t a bad thing. It’s a wonderful, wonderful strategy when you’re going to war, have as much people as possible. What is that? God’s best is that God’s best that may be good for you. But in the end it’s not God, it’s not good for you because it’s not God’s best for you. So it may seem good. So we have to say goodbye to the things that are good, but not God’s best for me. We have to say goodbye to the old me, to the old ways to the old comforts to the old fears, We say goodbye to one thing so we could say hello to another as I close. And as the team comes up, it’s so important for us to know that we have to say goodbye to one thing. So we could say hello to another. Gideon was able to embrace victory and say hello to God’s way by saying goodbye to our goodbye to our way. We say hello to God’s way by saying goodbye to our way. We say hello to God’s way and in the same way, just as Gideon said goodbye to his way, just as Gideon said goodbye to what he wanted to do, he was able then to say hello to God’s way. And in the same way we are called to embrace God’s change to embrace God’s victory in our lives. And it all starts with us saying to the Lord. Lord teach me how to say goodbye. Let’s pray. Dear God, I thank you so much for your people. I thank you for this word that has gone forth. I pray Lord that as it’s gone forth that you would be glorified father. I thank you Lord for your goodness. I thank you Lord for your mercy. I thank you, father for the fact that we’ve been through some things and now we’re still going through some things. The COVID-19 is not done yet and we’re going through some difficult things in this life. Perhaps we’ve we’ve suffered great losses and Lord, there are some things that we’ve had to say goodbye to some people. We’ve had to say goodbye to some situations and things that we’ve had to adjust to. And Lord, I thank you for the strength that you’ve given us. I pray Lord, you see what’s in our mind. You see what’s on our hearts and I pray father that as we move forward and what you’ve called us to do that you would give us the strength and teach us to say goodbye. I thank you Father for the victory that you’ve called us to have through your son, jesus christ. I thank you, Father for the love that you’ve given us as your people. And I pray Lord that we would walk in the new life that you’ve called us to have. We thank you and praise you in jesus name. Amen. Now, if there’s anyone here who does not know Jesus as your Lord and savior, you don’t have a relationship with him And you want one. I’m going to ask you just to repeat after me, repeat this prayer. Dear God, I thank you for who you are and who you called me to be. I pray Lord that you would strengthen me. I thank you for sending your son jesus to save me and set me free. I believe that he died and rose again so that I can have life and life more abundantly thank you for this new life for having you in jesus name. We pray amen and then God bless you as my prayer. Thank you so much. 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. I’m praying for you. We love you here at Bethel God bless