Address—Manuel Adames
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And how was we gonna start? By singing 174.
Somebody can help me start it please?
Lower for his health.
I got on our Father, we thank you for this opportunity to open our and to learn from it. We now ask for grace as we speak, uh, for the speaker and we just ask for clarity and we ask father that we maybe focus on him, on the Lord Jesus and that he may produce in US.
Uh, a thankful heart, a worshiping heart, and a heart of service in our lives. We ask for help as we do so, Father.
As we open my word and the precious name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Before I start, I just umm, I wanted to talk a little about a little bit about ministry.
This afternoon.
And, umm, things that.
Are of help to me and that I have enjoyed.
And umm, before I do, I'd like to ask you, I like to know which ones of you are in the ministry. So I'd like to see a show of hands please.
How many are in the ministry?
OK.
Yesterday I was talking to brother Josh, uh, Stuart.
And umm, he actually mentioned a verse to me, First Timothy 4/6 and I'll I'd like to start with that verse.
First Timothy, 4/6.
It says, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Now you stop in the words of faith and of good doctrine, where unto thou hast attained?
And I enjoyed what Brother George had to say in terms of bringing in, remembering.
And you mentioned that we do not have to bring something new.
But bring something into the remembrance of the brethren, and that's my intention tonight. My intention is not to bring things that are new, but just to bring to your remembrance and to my remembrance this thing.
And, umm.
I'd like to pass another chapter in Colossians chapter 4 verse 17.
Colossians 417.
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Say to occupy.
Take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the Lord that thou fulfill it.
So occupants must have been a very special brother, right? Because he was, he was given a ministry of the Lord and he had to fulfill it.
What does the word ministry mean? Somebody can help me?
Or the team? Would you like to help me?
Service.
And that's why I started asking you who is in the ministry.
And brother Tim raised his hand and brother Tim Roach raised his hand. And you probably think, well, they are in the ministry because for the same has been in in Malawi, in Africa. So the Tim Roach does the camp, the the work of the camp and so on.
They must be in the ministry, so it's right for them to raise their hand.
The truth is that we have all been given a gift from the Lord.
And if we are have all been given a gift from the Lord, we are all or should all be in the ministry, ministry service like Brother Tim just said, and ministries just exercising the gift that the Lord has given you. And let's just read one verse in first Peter 4, verse 10.
First Peter 4 verse 10 says as every man has received and it should be a gift.
As every man has received a gift, Even so minister. The same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. As every man has received a gift, Even so minister.
So the the book that I have, the chapter rather that I have in mind is in the Old Testament.
And umm, like I said, I'm I'm not going to share anything new, but I'd like to remember the things that we have learned from others.
And Judges chapter 6.
We see some examples of the life of Umm Gideon.
And we see how the Lord prepared him for the ministry.
But first we're we're going to read the first verses and see what the condition was in the times of Gideon.
And we will just read a few portions of Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 and just glean was, umm, certain to ministry here.
Judges 6 and verse one.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of media in seven years.
And the hand of medium prevailed against Israel, and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dance, which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. 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 they encamped against them, and this destroyed increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza.
Unless no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox, nor *** but they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers from multitude, for both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites.
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
So that was the condition of the children of Israel in the in the time of Gideon. It was not a time of, of prosperity. It was a time of, of umm.
It was, it was different, a difficult time in, in, in Israel where there was no food for the people of Israel.
And we live, we live in similar times. We come, we thank the Lord, we have places that we can come like this camp and we can nourish, umm, ourselves spiritually.
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But the world is a dry place.
And that we see that the Israelites were scattered from their their inheritance. They were in the dance and the caves of the earth.
And there were there was a spiritual mount, malnutrition. They did not have food.
And I will jump to the next part, which is the profit of the lower coming.
But the Lord sends the profit, and this is interesting because when the profit comes, the profit doesn't say you will get delivering, he just says.
You have disobeyed the Lord.
Umm.
I released I released you from from your we'll just read a a few verses in verse 8. The Lord sent the prophet and so the children of Israel will said unto them. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the House of *******.
And there's, umm.
Verse 10 And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorite. In his land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. So this prophet was different. He's not telling about anything in the future. He's telling them as from the Lord, that they have not obeyed his voice.
And then we find in verse 11 That an Angel of the Lord sat under an oak, uh, which is an Oprah that pertaining to George ABI the abuse, right, and his son Gideon thrashed wheat by the WI wine press. So hide it from the Midianites.
So we see that Gideon was, it says it should be in the winepress. So he's threshing wheat.
And umm, not being from the countryside, I don't know exactly uh, how we, uh, how to thrash wheat, but I've watched some videos so I have an idea.
Umm, it takes a lot of effort and to do it by hand, you have to hit it with, umm, with a hammer or hit it with something either on the floor, uh, thread something on top of it. And then you have to separate the grain from, from, from the shaft and it takes a lot of effort and energy. And the first thing that Gideon had was that he was, he was put in an effort.
Uh.
To threshing wheat and wheat in the scriptures talks about the Lord Jesus.
It talks about.
His person and his work and, uh, he Washington, he found. Except, uh, a place where he could do so.
What were the others doing? They were hiding in the den that were hiding in The Cave. But Gideon said I will have something to eat for myself and for my family.
And that's what the lawyer looks in us if we want to be in the ministry. And again, the ministry is any, anything that the Lord has called you for. What does the Lord want, wants you to do? The Lord has given you a gift.
And has given every one of us a gift. And it may not be a public gift. It may not be something public. It may be something that you may do from 1:00 to 1:00 or in private. But yeah, it is important to the Lord. The sisters have a gift the same as the brothers have a gift.
And umm, the Lord has.
Placed each member of the body.
And each member of the body has a function.
And I know that the apostle Paul did not talk about the internal organs, but he makes reference to it and says that there are many members. There are many members. And he talks about the ones that we can see, like the hands or the nose or the eyes.
But he makes reference to the ones that we cannot see.
And if I say, well, the hands are very important because I can handle things with my hands, But what about the heart and the kidneys and the lungs? You don't see them working, but yeah, they have a vital function. And without them the body does not work, to say the least. The body cannot, cannot live without them, without the heart or the lungs and so on. And there are.
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Members among us that are private, they're not public, and yet they're vital in their function, in the function that they do. And it is necessary that we all exercise the gift that the Lord has given us.
And uh, in the case of Gideon, he was concerned about getting something from the Lord. So it all starts from the Lord. The gifts is something that the Lord has given us is not my, my natural ability is a gift that the Lord has given me.
And the first thing that we see in Gideon is that he had, umm, he wanted to feed himself with the things of the Lord. If we don't feed ourselves from the Word of God, we cannot help others.
And then if we keep reading and for the sake of time, I'll just touch upon some some verses. Verse 12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And Gideon must have thought, well, all I'm doing is threshing wheat, Oh my almighty man of valor.
Well, he had a couple of things that were to note.
The first thing is that he wanted to feed himself of the Saints of the Lord of Christ in type.
And the second one is that, as we're going to read in the following verse, he cares for the people of God.
It's not so much what He was capable of doing. The Lord wants us to care 1St to feed ourselves from the Lord, and then to care for His people. And the Lord will use us.
Hungarian said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of saying, Did not the Lord bring us off from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
And the Lord looks upon him and said, Go, and this thy might, and thou 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 in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely it will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
So the first thing is that he was caring for the people of God.
Then he also identified himself with the people of God. He says us.
This when? Why then is all this befallen us?
He did not accuse his brethren. He says, well, I am doing all right. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. But look at my brother and they're hiding in dents and caves. They're not, they're not doing what they're supposed to. He doesn't say that. He says befallen us. And if we do not feel, umm, the times that we're in, if we do not feel that the church, umm.
Is in a state of of decay if we do not feel that.
We're part of it. We're part of the of, of that, umm, condition that church has. If we feel that we are the ones that are correct, then we're not going to be able to help our brethren.
And the Lord tells him to go in that might. And the Lord never asked us to go in our might. It is his might, it is his strength. And Gideon understood that. He understood that he, he did not have strength in himself. He says my family is the least of the of the tribe of Manasseh. And my, my, my tribe is the least in Manassas, and my family is the least in my tribe.
And, uh, he understood that.
Well, the Lord says that he he makes umm.
He in in weakness his strength is shown.
And then in verse 17.
Verse 16 I'm sorry. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. So it is the Lord that makes the difference, if we feel ourselves with the things of the Lord.
Then something will come out from our heart, and the first thing that should come out of our heart.
Is not service.
Even though what I'm talking to them I'm talking about today is service.
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What should come from our heart is thankfulness for what the Lord has done for us is worship, and that's what comes out of Gideon's heart, as we'll see in this in the following verses.
In verse 18 he says that depart not parents, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. So the Lord puts in his heart something to do.
And that is to deliver the people of God.
And he says, I will be with you, I will be your strength. Just go and there's your mic.
And Gideon understands that it is the Lord that is sending him, and what comes out of his heart is worship.
And Gideon went in and made ready a kid and 11 Kids of an evil flower. The flesh she put in a basket, And he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the Angel of the Lord said unto him, Take the flesh and the 11 cakes, and lay them up on this rock, and pour out the broth.
So we have learned from this from others is that.
Gideon had a, had a hard had a.
Had it hard and could be corrected. He was a a man that when he was corrected he did not get mad. And we all make mistakes and we also we all start umm.
Our path and we make mistakes as we do so.
And if your brother comes and he wants to help us because we perhaps did not lay out something as clear or perhaps we we made made a mistake clearly something that we said or did.
We should be humble enough to say yes brother, that that is so, as you say, and it should not discourage us from going on.
And I did say this to myself and also to my younger brother here.
As you are, as you are and you should be in the ministry.
Umm, that you do not, uh, think that because you make a mistake, uh, you should be discouraged. But we need one another and we need our older brethren to help us in the past.
And the mistake here that Gideon made was that when the Lord, he said, I will bring something to offer to you.
And it says that he brought IFA case of an IFA flyer flower. The flash you put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot. The Lord never gave directions about bringing broth into the sacrifice. It was something that Gideon thought would be a good idea. And sometimes we think some things are a good idea.
And the Angel of the Lord corrected him.
But in a way that Gideon felt that it was umm, the Angel of the Lord and, and umm, he corrected him in a way that he understood that and says, he said, take the flesh and the 11 cakes and laid them upon this rock and pour out the broth. Just throw, throw it away is what you're saying. And he did so.
And the then the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the 11 case.
And there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the 11 cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord departed of his sight. So the Lord takes the things that we bring, and I, I believe that something umm like that was mentioned this morning.
Umm, my brother said that he is the gardener. He he picks the flowers. Sometimes we bring something that is not what the Holy Spirit wants and he chooses what umm.
What he wants. There's a story of umm, of umm, of a mother that fell sick. I'm not sure if I have it all right, but I'll say it the way I know it. And she was at the in the hospital and her boy wanted to bring her flowers. So he brought a bunch of flowers from the field and he, it came with old, old umm, with thorns and everything you can think of in addition to the flowers.
And then, then he gave it to the nurse and said this was for my mom and the nurse took the BU, the, the flower bunch and he took, uh, she took out everything that was not good.
She just left the flower there and she she cut them to A to her thighs that was the right size and all that she put everything together and she brings it to the mother and says your son brought you this.
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And that's what the Lord does with us too. But He does correct us, and He and we should be, umm, learning from Him and also from our brethren as they do.
And then we see that Gideon bills an altar to the Lord.
And verse 24.
And that is umm.
Something that the Angel of the Lord suggested to him.
Verse 25.
And it came to pass the same night that the Lord sent unto him, Take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of bail that thy father hath, and cut down the growth that is by it.
So we I believe we all know the story, so I won't read all of it.
But what happens is that the Angel of the Lord tells him to do something before he goes to battle, before he's able to fought to fight the Midianites. He's to start in his own, umm, community, if I could call it that.
He used to point out to the Abias rights, his own plan, something that was wrong. They were they had fallen into idolatry and it takes courage to point certain things out. And the thing that he was going to point out was something in his own family. It was his own dad that had this in his in his house.
And umm, it was the altar of Vail that thy Father had.
Throw down the altar of bail that thy Father hath. That's a hard thing to do.
Because we tend to excuse our family, we tend to, uh, sometimes we're able to say, to say something to those that are a little distance from us.
But our family is a little bit harder to do so, umm, sometimes.
And umm, and he takes the stand, and he was afraid, and he does it by night, and he takes down the altar of Vale that wasn't his father's house.
And the, the Abias, right, Which were his plan, they come and, uh, they ask about.
The person that has done this, but let's notice that he did not only do that, he did caught the the bail down, but the Lord asked him to do something first. It says the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old.
And verse 26 And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in the order place, and take the second Bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Grove, which thou shalt cut down.
So he was going to cut something down, but he was going to point them to the right thing, which is the second bullet, the 2nd man, which is the Lord Jesus. And he was going to point them to what they had had left. They had left the Lord and they had gone to the veil. And whenever we point something that is umm, negative in our brethren, we should point to the Lord Jesus, we should point their hearts to him.
If we just leave the things that umm, that are sinful in our lives and just leave them because they and, and just just put them aside and don't go to the Lord and, and don't fill ourselves with the Lord, we will be empty.
Is displacing those things, even those things that are not seen in themselves, in order to fill ourselves with Christ?
And they misunderstand him when in the morning they say, Who has done this? And they want to kill him. And many times when we try to do something for the Lord, we may not do it, perhaps in the right way, and our brethren may misunderstand it.
And they may say, umm, they may not think that we're trying to do something good for them and for the Lord.
And umm, but something happens, and as we know the story, we know that George, his father, umm, Gideon's father, he recognizes this and he stands by Gideon. And he says if Veil is a God, let him defend himself. And what he did first convince his father. And then at that moment the median eyes come.
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And the spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon.
And he blows the horn, and the same RA, the the same that were against him, they gathered to him. And that's what happens when we go on for the Lord. We may be misunderstood at first, but if we go on for Him, the Lord will change the hearts of our brethren.
And, umm.
The part that I wanted to emphasize now.
It's in Chapter 7.
We have, we have seen the things that Gideon had that were good things for the service of the Lord.
But there are certain things in Chapter 7.
That disqualify those that.
Were following Gideon.
And I'd like to note those.
We know that Gideon blows the trumpet.
And let's read that verse in chapter 6.
Verse 34.
The spirit of the Lord came up in Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiasar was gathered after him, and he sent messengers throughout all. Manasseh, who also was, was gathered after him, and he sent messengers unto usher and unto Zebulun, and unto national eye, and they came up to meet them.
So the call was to all these people.
And each one of us has been called to do something for the lawyers.
And if we feel that the Lord has called us to do something, then we should, Our hearts should be, uh, disposed to do the things that the Lord has, has asked us to do.
But there are certain things that may hinder us from serving the Lord.
And that's what we will see in Chapter 7. We will come back to chapter 6 just for a little bit in verse 36.
It says, Umm Venge 0BA Jerobail, who is Gideon? And all the people that were with him rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the host of the median eyes were on the north side of of them, by the hill of Moore in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands.
Lest Israel bond themselves against me saying my own hand.
Has saved me.
Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from Mount Gilead.
So the people was was in such a state that the Lord did not want them to go, all of them.
And.
If you think about it, there were not that many. There were like 3030 + 1000. We'll we'll see that in in the following verses.
Umm, there were 32,000 I believe.
And umm, the problem was that their heart was not right with the Lord, and the Lord could not use them.
And so the Lord there was a proclamation that says, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him, let him return.
Wasn't Gideon fearful, unafraid before?
Apparently, Gideon stayed right.
So it was more than just having fear. I believe that we're all fearful at some point.
But I believe that this is in reference to something that was commanded by Moses and Deuteronomy chapter 20, if we can go there just for a minute.
And it is a test to the heart.
Deuteronomy chapter 20.
And verse one.
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When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seeth horses and Chariots, and people, more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when year come nigh unto the bottle, that the priest shall re approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them.
Hear O Israel, he approached this day into into battle against your enemies.
Let not your heart faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
So there's a promise there that the Lord will be with you.
So as I was reading this I was thinking but the second part doesn't make sense.
But it is really in, in my understanding, attached to the heart.
Because then the officers say, verse five. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the bottle, and another man dedicated. And what man is he that has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return it into his house.
Lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it, And when man is there, that has been thrown a wife.
Has not taken her. Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the bottle, and another man take her.
And the officers shall speak further into the people, and they shall say, When man is there that is fearful and faint hearted, let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.
Didn't the Lord say in the prior verses that He will save them, that he will be against their enemies and that they should not fear says do not be afraid.
Why is he then giving them liberty to go to the house? I don't think it's liberty. The Lord is testing their hearts. The Lord has given them a promise.
But they are not holding, they're not taking hold of those promises. And that's why he says last they lest he die. Didn't the Lord say that He will be with them if they held those promises? They should not have to worry about their vineyards or the the field that they just purchased or the house that they just built or the wife that they just married.
Those things are necessary, and the Lord knows that they are necessary and umm.
But the Lord tests our hearts and he, he wants us to trust him. It's a matter of trust. It's not looking up on ourselves. The Lord never asked us to do something with our own strength. He first gives us something and he says use that walk according to what you are. He never, he never asked us to gain our salvation. He says you're saved now walk according to what you are, a child of God.
He gives us all the armor of God, He gives us all the strength, He gives us all the power that we need, and he says use it. It's not our own, it's his.
But when we look upon ourselves, and we measure our own strength with the strength of the enemy, than we think.
And umm, in connection with that, we could read in First Corinthians chapter 4.
I'm sorry, it's umm.
Speaking of first grade in Chapter 7.
Verse 29.
But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none. And they that weep as though they weep, weep not. And they that rejoice as though they rejoice not. And they that buy as though they possess not. And they that use this world as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passes away.
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But I would have you without carefulness.
So all these things are necessary and the postal is not saying that we should be careless about our lives or the things that we that the Lord has put in our ha hands. That's not the point, but the point is that if there's something that is an obstacle in our lives because our heart.
Are focusing on those things rather than on the lower than they are a hindrance for our service and the Lord says go back, go back.
So if we go back to our chapter.
Verse Four. And the Lord said unto Gideon.
The people are yet too many. Verse four of Chapter 7.
Bring them down into the water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go, with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go, with thee the same shall not go. So he brought down the people into the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone the lapeth of the water with his tongue as the dog lappeth.
Him shall thou set by himself. Likewise everyone that bought uh boweth down upon his knees to drink.
And the number of them that lab put in their hands or their mouth were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down until their up on their knees to drink water. So if you imagine.
Those, uh, those that remains so that the first ones were 32,000 and it says that 20 and 2000 were fearful and they returned and they remained 10,000.
We're in all cold. Didn't Gideon send to all these places and send send messengers and say come, let's fight the medianites? And they came, but there was something that hindered them.
And there is something that may hinder us in our service for the Lord as well.
And the second thing here is.
Where the majority of people, the majority of us, I think are at fault, there were 10,000 people in the water. And then the, the Gideon said, drink water and the water in this case talks about the refreshment and the temporary, uh, provisions that the Lord had for them before they went to battle.
And.
We see that.
The majority of them.
9700 people, they bowed down and they drank water right from the river and they put their head down.
And what happens even the animals, so there's some, some are lifting their head up and some are drinking down because they cannot bring the water up to their to their mouth.
Umm, so we see the majority of people here of 9700 people drinking water and putting their face, their head down in the water. What would happen if the enemy comes? They would be surprised by the enemy.
And 300.
Were taking the water and bringing the water to their mouth.
And that talks about?
The things that the Lord has left us, UMM has provided for us here for a refreshment. The things that He has given us as a provision are that they are emergency from the Lord. But if there are our complete focus, we lose the main point that is to serve the Lord.
And this 300 we're willing to do that. And they serve the Lord and they were willing to serve the Lord in a way that was not they were not even seen when they were serving the Lord, because when when Gideon said do what I do, he had they had a trumpet in one hand and they had a lamp on the other hand. And.
They were in darkness, they were not seen and.
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When when the Lord gave the median eyes in their hands, the credit went to the Ephraimites. They, they, they, they got more credit in in their in their eyes and.
They were not in the in the spotlight, if you want to call it that.
But the Lord wants to use us if we are willing to do that. We don't need to be in the spotlight as long as we're doing what the Lord wants us to do.
And, umm.
I want to go back a little bit on that note to chapter 6.
And verse 36.
And Gideon said unto God, If thou will save Israel by my hand, as thou has said, behold, I put a fleece of wool in the floor, And if the dew be on the fleas only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou will save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
And it was so for the for he rose up early in the mar on the Morrow and thrust the fleas together, and ranked the dew out of the fleas, a bowl full of water.
So.
What we have learned from this is that.
We should be ready, umm, even even when other, even when everything else is dry around us. In the case of of Gideon, he said if if thou will save Israel by mine hand. So that please, I understand it to be Gideon himself.
Even though everything else was dry around didn't want it to bring blessings for the people of the Lord.
Even if, if everything is dried around us, we could still be a blessing for the people of the Lord. And that's what the dew speaks of, a blessing. And it was, it says it was wrong. And a cup full of water was brought up and that was refreshment for the people of the Lord.
And, umm.
Sometimes it takes the ringing it it the apostle Paul was consumed by the service of the Lord and it was because he loved the Lord and but it takes it, it takes effort.
And umm, it takes willingness, but it's not your own strength. It's not my own strength.
And then the second attempt, the 2nd test that he does with the fleas is also interesting. And in this case he doesn't say.
If thou will save Israel by my hand, this is the opposite of that.
It says in Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hard against me, and I will speak unto but this one let me prove, I pray thee, but this one's with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleas, and upon all the ground. Let there be dew, And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleas only, and there was dew on all the ground.
So the fleece was dry.
On the ground.
Was when?
That talks about even if the Lord was not going to save Israel by Gideon's hand, even if there, if, even if the duo did not come through Gideon, even if the dew does not come through us, we should be happy that the ground has due. We should be ground that there is blessing for our brethren, even if it's not through us.
It comes from another way. Then we should be happy. That's part of the service of the Lord. If we're serving the Lord, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be that we think that it needs to be through us. If the Lord wants to use another brother, we should be happy with that.
And justice to conclude, you know, we have only a few minutes.
I was thinking of the way that the Lord works with us.
And.
I know that a few of you noticed this morning that there was a bald eagle and, uh, on the yard and, uh, that remind me of something in of a scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 32 in connection with what we have here that the Lord does work with us to prepare us for his service.
Your roommate 32.
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To find the verse.
Verse 11.
Your army 3211 Says as an eagle stirred up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth, brought her wings, taketh them, burst them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. He made him he. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, and he made him to saw Connie out of the rock.
And oil out of the Plenty Rock.
So I was thinking of what this means from the scripture. As many of you know, the the eagle makes an S and it has branches and thorns and sometimes small rocks. And then she covers that with the feathers and makes it very comfortable. And then she lays her eggs and then her young are are born there and her Youngs are very comfortable with all that feather.
But after a while, they need to fly.
And they don't want to.
And, umm.
Because they are very comfortable.
And what the eagle does, as it says here, it stirs off her nest, it takes the feathers away and it flaughters her nest. And all that fluffy stuff leaves the nest and they now feel uncom uncomfortable.
Before they were afraid, you know, they look down, they're even afraid of the heights because they're not ready to fly.
But when they feel uncomfortable then they they actually jump out and they don't fly.
What happens is that they try and then the eagle goes under them and catches them and brings them back again and they have to try again. And that's why it says the spread is her. It spreaders have brought her wings tickets then burst them on her wings. So the Lord does not leave us, but He wants to train us. He wants to train us for his service and overall He wants us to be more like His son.
The goal of the Father is that we are.
More like his son.
Even even from down here, we will see him as he is when we, when we are in heaven, when we meet him in, in, in the clouds, But umm, he wants us to be like him even from now. And he works, uh, with us, uh, for that purpose. If we look at an eagle doing that, clocking all the feathers out and making their, their, their young ones uncomfortable, we don't think, oh, that's a bad eagle. Look, what is what he's doing to.
These young ones, we don't think about that. We say, well, there's there's a purpose.
But when the Lord does that to us, we complain and we don't think there's a purpose. They say, well, look what's happening to me.
Or, umm, look what's happening to that brother. The Lord has a purpose for each one of us, and He does things to teach us. And as he did with Gideon, he corrected him, but he also showed him that he works, umm.
Weakness is what he uses. When we feel ourselves weak, then he can use us and he's able to use us in in in such a manner that we're honor, honorable to him. If we're not umm, if we're thinking that we're something, then we cannot serve him.
I was speaking to brother Dave Umm also about his trips to India.
And he was mentioning about CAA and he said that we're well a CAS when they throw a paper on the on the ground and they expect the lower caste to pick it up because they feel so important.
But he was saying the Christians you see a a leading brother, he's serving water to the other one.
Umm, how different that is from where they come from.
Is totally different. Christianity is totally different. And the Lord came to serve us and he made himself so that he will serve us, umm, for all eternity. He is serving us now. He came to serve us when he came on, when he came to die on the cross. He's serving us now, interceding for us, and he will serve us then. It is a a wonderful thing to think of, but very sovereign too.
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How is it that our Lord is going to serve us and that should it should flow from our hearts first worship and they're in service for Him.
That we should be, that we should umm, dedicate our lives to Him and that we should put umm, we should do whatever He has given us to do. Because if we are a member of the body of Christ, we have a gift that is from the Lord.
And, umm.
To conclude, recruiting #46 in the back.
But before we do that, I'd like to ask the same question I asked before. How many of you are in the ministry? Like to see some hands?
Thank you, we could see 46 if somebody can help me.
01:00:10
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy word.
Which speaks to us and which teaches us.
We are Father that our eyes and our hearts may be may be on Him that save ourselves, Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may be focused on Him, that He may be the object umm of our affections, and that our occupation with Him may produce a life of worship and our service.
We may be waiting for His coming, and while we wait for His coming, we may serve Him.
That thou may work in our hearts, that we may do so.
Thou has given each one of us.
Something to do, Father. We ask that each one of us may do so.
Help us, uh, we cannot do it on our own strength.
But we umm, help us to focus on these so that we may umm.
Get hold, get a hold of the provisions that Thou has given us and be able to serve Thee. We ask for the remaining part of the day, and we ask for the remaining stay that we have here at camp. And we ask for continuous blessing and fellowship. And that we may ha have the things of that that light things in our hearts and in our minds, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.