Judges Study - 2026-10-07

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

So we're going to be in Judges 8 tonight.

Very excited for it. It's, you know, kind of more of a warning chapter than it is like an encouraging

chapter. But, you know, even warnings can be encouraging, especially in the Word of God.

So I'm excited to go through it. The title is Finishing Strong. Finishing Strong.

And while I was sitting there a couple hours ago thinking, I'm like, I need a good example of

either finishing strong or not finishing strong. Like, is there a good example in my life where

I started something, didn't finish it? And as I'm staring down at the ground contemplating if I

have anything, I look at my floor and I started flooring my house. I'm putting new flooring down

two months ago. And in three days, I finished the entire downstairs and I'm like, okay, now all

I have to do is put the cap on the step and put the cord around and baseboards down.

That's the easiest part. I'm like, okay, I'm going to take a little break and I'll come back

to this. I haven't finished it. It's been two months. So every time people come over,

we had a birthday party for Beau, just turned five. And as everyone comes in,

I'm so embarrassed because two months ago, they saw it like this. Two months later,

it's still unfinished. You can see the gaps and all that. So the floor looks good. Just don't look

at the edges. But yeah, so I think, I mean, how many times in life though do we start something

and we don't finish? Like all the New Year's resolutions, all the gym memberships that, you

know, they probably have like 10x the number of people signed up compared to who was coming in,

right? So it's like all these things that we start and we don't finish, you know,

even we might start strong like the flooring and then it just falls apart. I didn't finish it.

But it's okay in things that don't matter. So, you know, not finish strong. But in the things

that do matter, we really, really need to finish strong. So obviously the things of God,

the most important are faith. Let us finish strong. Amen. Can I get an amen here? And

the thing that I think of is that the Bible, like we don't give a ton of, I guess, weight to even

just holding to the faith, right? We don't really view that as, I guess, a success or a victory to

continue to believe. But I just want to share a couple verses. The whole Bible, especially in

the New Testament, talks about faith and how important it is to continue believing, continue

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

And all through the epistles it talks about, just keep believing. Hold fast to the truth.

Don't be corrupted by this world. Don't be pushed to and fro by false teachers. Like,

hold fast to the truth that's been delivered to you by God, the Word of God,

right here. And even all the way into Revelation, chapter 3, 10, Jesus himself says,

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.

So holding fast to the faith is finishing strong. You don't have to be perfect,

but believing to the end and allowing him to change you and sanctify you is a victory. And

that is something we should all hope for in our lives. So can everyone give themselves a round

of applause because you're here and you're still believing. So I just want to see who's been

in the faith and believing in God for more than five years. Yeah. How about more than 10 years?

Yeah. All right. Uh, 15. Wow. Okay, guys. Well, this is the Wednesday night crew. So

20. Do we have 20? Yeah. All right. 30. That's where I cut off right there.

40. I'm not going to give away anyone's age. We'll stop there, but that's a big deal.

So that's amazing. Um, 40. 80. Yeah. All right. 80 years walking with God. So that is a victory

right there. That is a big deal. We're in a world that desperately, and the enemy desperately wants

to take our faith so he can take our crown. So we don't enter into heaven with the Lord.

His, the enemy's goal is not to like, he wants to steal, kill and destroy, but he doesn't only

want to just destroy your life. He can soothe you into disbelief through sin and you can look like

you haven't made. But if you lose your faith, you lost everything. Right? So it is a big deal. Here's

my wife. I don't know what I'm saying next. I'm confused. I'm lost. I'm nervous. So yeah.

So let us, um, before we jump into the, the word here, let's pray. And also I want to just give a

little bit of a recap on Gideon as well. So heavenly father, thank you so much, um, for the

work that you've done in our church and in our lives, Lord, to bring us to this place. God,

I pray that you would speak through your word. We know you will. God, we're confident that your

word always speaks. So we thank you that you're here tonight and you will speak. And I pray that

you would encourage us to continue this race, God, running with endurance, the race set out for us

by you. And we love you so much in Jesus name. Amen. So Gideon, everybody who's been here like

the last two weeks. Yeah. Okay. I won't go too in depth because it might be, you know, too much of

a recap, but Gideon, I mean, he was a nobody and became a somebody like the biggest, you know,

person in Israel at the time. When the angel of the Lord came to him, he's like the angel of the

Lord who is pre-incarnate Jesus says like, Hey, mighty Gideon. He calls him by this amazing title.

And Gideon's like, I don't know who you're talking about because I am youngest in my tribe or the

weakest tribe. So everything, his stat, his status in society is like bottom of the barrel.

And even Israel at that time was weak. It was oppressed by the Midianites who would come in

and says as vast as the locust was their armies and horses and all. So they would come in during

like the harvest time into their fields, set up shop and eat everything. And there was nothing

left. There wasn't even enough, like for the people, but not even for the animals, they're

dying off. So they're oppressed. So he's an oppressed nation and he's the weakest in that

oppressed nation. And the Lord is speaking truth over him, telling him that he's mighty. I mean,

that's amazing. That's pretty amazing. Aren't you glad that God sees things in you that you don't

see in yourself, that he sees what he can do in you before it's even a reality yet. He can see

what he can turn you into. And that happens when you submit to God and he submitted to God. He did.

He had a little bit of a rough beginning, you know, he didn't start off super strong.

He asked for signs. He was afraid, but God was so kind every step of the way. He provided signs

to encourage him. He did all these things and was patient with him, even when Gideon was afraid.

All the way to the point that he gives him this amazing prophecy through the enemy. Do you

guys remember this? It's the, let's, oh, this is Corinthians. What am I doing here?

In Judges 7, let's read it.

Here we go. In Judges 7, he's still afraid and he's down to the 300 people. Remember this?

And so the Lord says to him

in verse 8, 10,

If you are afraid to go down to the camp, bring Peruah your servant with you, and you shall

hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp,

against the enemy. And then he went down with Peruah his servant to the outposts of the armed

men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites and the Malachites and all the people of the

valley as numerous as locusts and their camels without number as the sand by the seashore is

a multitude. So this is 300 people versus that, nations and nations of armies. And when Gideon

had come down, there was a man, he was just outside the guy's tent, there was a man telling

a dream to his companion, a very random bizarre dream. He said, I had a dream. To my surprise,

a big loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and it came to a tent and struck

it so that it fell and overturned and the tent collapsed. Like if I told Maria that dream,

she'd be like, okay, a barley bread rolled and knocked over your tent. And the Lord spoke

the interpretation of the dream to the enemy right then. And his companion answered and said,

this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his

hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. Gideon isn't known by anybody. Nobody

knows his family. And in that moment, the Lord opens this guy's mouth just to encourage Gideon

that, hey, God is going to bring a victory in this battle. How amazing is that? God still

knew he was afraid and gave him this miracle to make him strong. So he's a nobody, but he

became somebody and he had this magnificent victory. The Lord confused the armies and they

fought each other and killed each other off. And then he rallied all of the Israelites to

go and chase them all the way out of their villages and all the way even further into

their own territory, wiping them out. This is amazing. You would think after this story

of where he came from, from nothing to somebody, you would think, okay, he's the type of person

that will hold fast to his faith. He's the type of guy that will continue and lead the

people of Israel to follow the Lord. Because, I mean, he saw the victory and the power of

God. Why would he go any other way? Unfortunately, chapter eight tells us what happens. He doesn't

do it. He leaves the Lord. And there's some things that happen in this chapter which

give some inclination as to why. So let's start in chapter eight, verse one of Judges.

Now the men of Ephraim said to him, why have you done this to us by not calling us when you

went to fight the Midianites? And they reprimanded him sharply. So just to give a little bit of

backstory, he called some of the tribes, when he came with the 300 to go fight Midian, he just

called some of the tribes, Gideon did. And then Ephraim, which is the strongest tribe and the

most powerful at that time, was offended that he didn't call them at the very beginning. They

wanted to be there at the start of this magnificent battle that was won and delivered by

God. Right off the bat, wouldn't they just be happy that the enemy ran away? And then

they called them for the victory. Like, hey, come and fight because we know you're strong. Come

and help us. You got called. You got brought into the battle. Why are you upset? Right here,

this is such an example of pride. They wanted to be there at the beginning so they could claim

some credit for themselves. The strongest tribe ran the Midianites out. All the headlines you

would see in Israel at that time. But if you remember last chapter, God whittled the people

down to 300 for the exact reason that they would not take credit for themselves, that

they would give all glory to the Lord. I think purposefully they were not invited, that God

orchestrated so Ephraim was not invited so they could not claim credit, and they weren't

invited, and now look, they're revealing their cards, they're showing exactly who

they are. They're credit seekers. So he said to them, this is Gideon, what have I done now

in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of

Abbezer, which is his hometown? God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Orib,

and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger toward him subsided

when he said that. So he's not actually talking about grapes here. He's saying,

look at what you did after you joined the battle. So much better than what I did at the start of the

battle. So here Gideon starts off strong. Still, he's still strong. He's an example of a good leader.

We're going to see some good things he does at the beginning of chapter 8, which makes the end

of chapter 8 look so confusing. Because not only is he full of faith, not only is he strong in

the might of the Lord and leading the people, he's even bringing unity. Like in the midst of

a battle, he's getting reprimanded in front of everyone. He doesn't just jump to accusations and

say, OK, stop following the enemy. Let's go after the Ephraimites for calling me out. He doesn't do

that. He brings unity. He's humble. He says, you're doing a better job than I am. Thank you for

coming. Thank you for helping us. He brings unity. And this next verse, you see, even asks for

help from other people. In verse 4, when Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the 300 men

who were with him crossed over exhausted and still in pursuit. Then he said to the men of Sucketh,

which sounds like an awful town to live in, the men of Sucketh, please give loaves of bread to the

people who follow me, for they are exhausted. And I am pursuing Ziba and Zolmuna, the kings of

Midian. And the leaders of Sucketh said, are the hands of Ziba and Zolmuna now in your hand that

we should give you bread to your army? So Gideon said, for this cause, when the Lord

has delivered them into our hands, I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness

and with briars. He's going to whip them with, I don't know how he thought of this punishment.

It might have been something he did back then. But because they didn't help, he asked for help.

He's vulnerable. He's coming to people that weren't even Israelites and saying,

can you just help us? He doesn't have an ounce of pride. But in that moment, it was a very

bad thing to do, to not help the armies of God. So he says there's going to be consequences.

And he continues to the next one. Verse eight, then he went up from there to Penuel

and spoke to them in the same way. And then when the men of Penuel answered him as the men of

Sucketh had answered. So he also spoke to the men of Penuel saying, when I come back in peace,

I will tear down this tower. Again, they're not helping and he's giving consequences.

Now Ziba and Zulmuna were at Karkor and their armies were with them, about 15,000,

all who were left of all the army of the people of the east for 120,000 men who drew the sword

had fallen. So 135,000 people down to 15,000. And that was most of which were most likely wiped

out by each other by the confusion the Lord put upon them. And Gideon went up the road to those

who dwell in the tents of the east. And he attacked the army while the camp felt secure.

And Ziba and Zulmuna fled and he pursued them. And he took two kings of Midian, Ziba Zulmuna,

and routed the whole army. Then Gideon, the son of Joash returned from battle

from the ascent of Harries. And he caught a young man of the men of Sucketh and interrogated

him. And he wrote down for him the leaders of Sucketh and his elders, 77 men. And notice,

he goes after the leadership of the village. He doesn't just go after everyone in the village,

the people responsible. And he came to the men and said, here are Ziba and Zulmuna,

the ones that they said, you didn't beat them yet. Well, he just did. Of whom you ridiculed

me, saying, are you, are the hands of Ziba and Zulmuna now in your hand that we should

give bread to your weary men? And he took the elders of the city and thorns of the

lesson. And he does the same to the tower, to the next village of Penuel with the tower.

And he brings a harsher judgment, the death penalty on some of them. And we don't know the

full story of why he was more harsh with them. But maybe they, some believe maybe they joined

the battle to help the Midianites. So one, he asks for help. So he brings unity. He asks for

help. But he also follows through with what he says. When people come against the army of God,

he tells them there's a consequence. I'm giving you an out. If you want to help us now with bread,

okay, then, you know, this punishment, well, we won't do it. But if you don't give us the bread,

then there's going to be a punishment. It's not going to be on everyone. It's going to be just

and fair. It's going to be on the people who made this decision. So he follows through in

what he says. And let's jump down to verse 19. So these are the, with the kings of Midian that he

captured. He says, 18. He said to them, What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?

So they answered, As you are, so were they. Each one resembled the son of a king. And he said,

They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had let them live,

I would not kill you. And he said to Jethor his firstborn, rise and kill them.

But the youth would not draw a sword before he was afraid because he was still a youth.

And the king said, Rise yourself and kill us. For as a man is, so is his strength.

So Gideon arose and killed them and took the crescent ornaments that were on the camel's

necks. So prior chapter with Deborah, when they came against this town, these kings killed his

brothers. He brought justice for his family. So he brings unity within the people of God.

He asked for help. He's not prideful. He asked for help. He follows through in what he says,

and he brings justice where justices do. That sounds like a good leader to me, right?

Everything is in his favor. And even in verse 22, the people said, rule over us. The Israelites

were saying rule over us, both you and your son and your grandson also, for you have delivered us

from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule

over you. The Lord shall rule over you. They wanted a king. He said, I'm not your king. He's

your king. This guy's the best, right? He's awesome. Like everything he's doing is just like

seems inspired by God and seems fair and seems just and he seems strong.

Everything is lining up for him to have a successful judgeship here in Israel.

But that sentence continued. We said, no, the Lord is your king. He says,

but, you know, I would like to make a request of you. This is where it all changes. I would like

to make a request of you that each of you would just give me the earrings from his plunder,

for they had gold earrings because they're Ishmaelites. So they all wore earrings. So if

you think about hundreds of thousands of people and every single one is wearing gold earrings,

this could amount to a lot of gold. So they answered, we will gladly give them to you.

And they spread out a garment and each man threw into it the earrings from the plunder.

Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold

besides the crescent ornaments and all the other amazing stuff.

So I did the math. So that many shekels of gold, depending on the time period,

could have been up to 75 pounds of gold. That sounds like a lot, right? I mean,

it's worthy more than I expected. So I'll look this up like, okay,

one troy ounce of gold is $4,000, $4.1,000. So that means it's $60,000, $60,260 per pound.

We're looking at 75 pounds. This is about four and a half million dollars.

It's not just a small request. This is the riches, like probably a majority, I would expect,

of the gold because people weren't walking around with golden swords and golden shields.

It was small pieces of gold. So it was probably a majority of the gold.

Four and a half million dollars. One small request. Give me all the wealth, right?

This is where everything falls apart. We know the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil

right off the bat. This doesn't sound bad, but it really falls apart.

So, Gideon made it, verse 27, into an ephod and set it up in the city of Ophrah,

and all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon into his house.

Thus, Midian was subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted their heads no more,

and the country was quiet for 40 years in the days of Gideon.

This super wealthy man created something, which might not have been totally bad in itself.

An ephod, if you don't know, is like this kind of like vest thing, and it was worn by the priests.

So why would he be making this garment that only priests should wear?

There's some speculation here. It might not have been worn. 75 pounds is a lot of weight.

It might have been set up maybe at good intentions. Maybe he was like,

I want to commemorate this battle. I want to set something up that can remind the people of

the holiness of God and how great he was when he won this victory for us. We don't know.

We really don't know what it is, but there's a lot of speculation that possibly this was a

rivalry with Ephraim, that same tribe that came to him and said, oh, you didn't call us out.

Why didn't you call us? And he responded good then, but maybe it kept him up late at night.

Maybe he started thinking on it more and more as he came to power and had all his money,

and he got angry with them. And the reason they think that is because in Ephraim was Shiloh.

This is where the tabernacle was. This is where everybody went to worship to the big time,

like city, where both the most powerful tribe was and the place of worship was.

So maybe he thought, maybe I'll set up something that looks like a place of worship too.

Because they made me look bad, and who's to say they should be the place to worship?

Let me set up my own thing. So there's a good chance. It was rivalry. It was envy.

It was jealousy. It was pride. He created this thing to set it up, maybe to make a name for

himself. Look at that, 75 pounds of gold, four and a half million dollars. Gideon's the best

in his own hometown, and all of Israel played the harlot there. That means that they worshiped it.

And I don't know if Gideon meant to worship it at first, but it says it was a snare.

The people of Israel had such a hard time with an invisible God, and they wanted to

attribute everything that he did and who he was to an image. So they felt like it was tangible.

That's why when they came out of Egypt and they were in the wilderness,

Moses was up on the top of the mountain for way too long, and they thought he was dead.

So they said, let's make a golden calf. And then they declared, this is the God who brought you

out of Egypt. The power and everything that was done for you was actually this image now.

And I think that's probably what happened here. Because they weren't communicating with God.

They weren't close to God. Their hearts didn't belong to him. So they wanted something tangible

they could cling to and worship. And that brings me to the next point, that had they

knew the Word of God, had they held on to it, they would know that it was a really bad thing

to make a graven image. They would know that it was a really bad thing to take something only

meant for the priest and take it somewhere else, the ephod. It was meant to be on the

holy priest who was leading the worship service towards God. Now the object became the thing

they worshiped. And when we separate ourselves from the truth of the Word, everything bad happens.

Spurgeon says, he did not set up an idol, speaking of Gideon, but he made an ephod,

an imitation of that wonderful vestment worn by the high priest. Perhaps he made it of solid

gold, not to be worn, but to be looked at, simply to remind the people of the worship of

God and not to be worshiped itself. But dear friends, you see here that if we go an inch

beyond God's word, we always get into mischief. We just barely go past it or erase a little bit.

All kinds of evil breaks out. And we see that today, right? Deconstructionism.

What's at the heart of that? People want to believe what they want to believe

so they go beyond or behind the Word of God and they erase parts of it. They immediately

say they're Christians, but they don't believe what our word says, the Word of God that was

delivered to us. And you'll start to hear things like, I'm a red-letter Christian. Has

anyone heard that before? What a good-sounding thing, right? Red letters. That's Jesus.

Of course we love the red letters of the Gospels. But people will say, I'm a

red-letter Christian so they can ignore all the black letters. And there's a lot more

black letters and things spoken to than read. And Jesus spoke a lot in parables

for a reason that those who didn't have ears to hear wouldn't hear, and if they didn't desire

to see, they wouldn't see. So they can twist the red letters and talk about all the things

it doesn't say so they can do what they want to do. And I had, just a few months ago, I was on a

work trip, a guy I like from work. We were talking at dinner and he was talking really

vaguely about a lot of things. And I was like, it almost sounds like he's kind of like a Christian.

And he shared things and then he asked me a question. I was like, yeah, I had a rough

time in life at one point and, you know, I believe in Jesus Christ and he set me free of it.

And I shared. I was just blatant. And he was like, oh, now we have a lot to talk about.

He's like, so am I. I'm a Christian too. And then he started to go into all the things he

doesn't believe that it directly says right here. And he immediately, the word of God

isn't inerrant. It's not fully true. There's a lot of man's influence. Oh, you can't believe

Paul, like Paul wasn't sent from God. He says so many hateful things. And immediately

Paul's teaching is pleading with people to be set free by following the one true God and

rejecting their old lives of sin becomes like this mean thing that he's just trying to control

people. And it wasn't God because this guy's a red letter Christian. Well, that's why I love

and acts when Jesus appeared. It says he opened the word to them and we don't get to see all the

things he taught. And then he had 40 days where he taught the apostles who then wrote these

epistles and delivered it to us. Could you imagine a 40 day advanced Bible college with Jesus Christ

himself? And these are the people who wrote the epistles that they're saying is not inspired.

They got it directly from God. And Paul too, he saw Jesus face to face in a vision and he went

away. And how long was it dad? Did you remember how long he was away? Three years and was taught

directly by the Spirit of God, directly by God himself. I would trust that guy.

So we depart from the word of God, idol worship and every kind of evil thing happens.

Now another interesting thing here is that, and I guess we'll read 29 because that's where

it jumps in at. Verse 29, then Jerabell, who is Gideon, if you guys remember, that's what they

called him because he destroyed the image of Baal and the place of worship. So they named him

Jerabell to say, let Baal plead against him. If Baal is real, then Baal can go after Gideon.

So that's what they called him. So Gideon had 70 sons who were his own offspring for he had

many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son whose name they called Abimelech.

And Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash's father

and Ophrah of the Abiserites. So it was as soon as Gideon was dead that the children of Israel

again played the harlot with the Bails and made Baal beareth their God. Thus the children of

Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their

enemies. Nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerabell, Gideon, in accordance with the good

he had done for Israel. He said he didn't want to be a king, but then his action spoke otherwise.

Four and a half million dollars of gold, many many wives, his son Abimelech, guess what that means?

My dad's a king. I don't want to be a king, but my son's name is my dad's a king.

He finished pretty poorly. And you'll see in the next chapter the fruit of all that.

After he dies, you know, Israel goes back to the evil they did. And Abimelech, my dad is a king,

that guy, wants to be king. And he kills the 70 sons, his 70 brothers, so none of them would

challenge him. All but one, Jotham, lives because he was in hiding. And God brings justice

against Abimelech. But when you depart from God and you start worshiping yourself and the things you

made, everything falls apart. First John 2, I believe, sums up exactly what happened with Gideon.

First John 2 says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,

the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,

the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

And the world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life,

these things, so the lust of the flesh is basically your cravings, what you want,

just what you desperately want. So that becomes all types of addictions with substances and food

and sex and all that stuff. Any fleshly impulse. The lust of the eyes is just covetousness.

I just want this. I want luxury and riches. I want what that person has, never satisfied.

And the pride of life is the ambition, the thirst and desire for honor and applause.

That's why I see Gideon. He started so meek and humble, always needing God's re-encouragement,

and then when he rose to power, there was no more enemy. There was no reason for him to

need to trust God anymore. And what happened? He gave into the lust of the eyes, the lust of

he says, pick up your cross and follow me. To pick up your cross is to die to yourself,

die to your old ways. It is literally to put to death these three things.

Everything that you crave and want that is not good is just feeding the natural,

instinct, impulse of sin. This desire to always have more and you're never satisfied

and want to be something, be recognized and get the applause. All the stuff that makes us

fall away from the faith. Jesus has a simple antidote and that is one, to believe in him,

trust in him, be crucified with Christ, and then it is the active thing of picking up your cross

and following him. It is to put to death these things and to be like him. We could pick up our

cross because he picked up his cross. Amen. We can't do that apart from him. Anyone try to do

things in your own strength to like give up something or stop doing something or start

doing something. It is completely impossible without the Holy Spirit enabling you to do it.

And that comes from just surrendering to him, surrendering it to him. We need to be like him.

So Gideon didn't want to be a king but then he truly did and then we see the exact opposite,

the true king, Jesus. And you know what's crazy? Jesus who came and lived the exact

opposite life of Gideon is the same, like I said, it is believed by most theologians and

scholars to be the angel of the Lord, the same one who appeared to Gideon. And he lived the

exact opposite life. He came not for fame and recognition and wealth and all these things that

you would think a king would do. He came seeking to do the will of the Father and that meant

coming into creation, becoming flesh, born of Mary, and he lived in a nowhere town that was

not a good part of town of Nazareth and he worked a simple little job as a carpenter.

And this is the king of the universe. He didn't come to take, he came to give,

to give his life as a sacrifice for sin. This is an example for us and I love as we see in the

garden when he is at the end, when he's going to lay his life down, what does he say?

Not my will, but yours be done. He says to the Father, not my will but yours be done.

That is the example for us. That is picking up your cross and following him. Not my will,

but yours be done. I heard a pastor on YouTube, anybody know Nicholas V Ministries? I think that's

what his name is. He's a guy who was born without arms and legs. Anyone see him? Yeah. And he's

amazing. They said all these things he would never be able to do and he said they said I'd

never be able to walk. This guy has no arms or legs and he's walking across the stage talking

and he's married and he has kids and he has a thriving ministry and he swims with no arms

or legs. And I saw the way I found him, I actually heard him before, I forgot who it was,

but the way I found him was I saw him laying on the ground, this guy with no arms or legs,

and he turns around and puts his head on his Bible and stands up straight and he says,

this is how I begin my every day, every morning or something. I'm like, that's amazing. What?

Who is this crazy guy? So sure enough, I heard him say, he says to his wife every day,

what do you want me to stop doing? What do you want me to start doing? And what do you want

me to keep doing? We do this in the business world too. It's called start, stop, continue.

It's really powerful. So like you can ask someone you love or anybody,

what am I doing right now that you want me to stop doing? And you're going to get some

answers that will probably offend you. What do you want me to start doing that I'm not doing?

Probably get offended again. I think my wife would say, I want you to take out the trash

and not forget to bring the cans back down. I leave the cans up there for an extra day or two

and people start throwing dog poop in it. So that, I'm getting better at it because it makes

me so angry that I have dog poop in the bottom of my can. So, but then, and then

what am I currently doing that you want me to keep doing? And he said he asks his wife that,

you know, every morning, but he says he also started asking God that.

What am I not doing that you want me to start doing? What am I doing that you want me to stop

doing? And what do you want me to continue to do? Could you imagine if we started every single

day like that? I think that is a very, very powerful and practical way to implement picking

up your cross and following him. To really, truly desire his will and what that looks like

in my life and in my heart. And that is just a look of just, that is a heart of being abandoned

and just totally open to him. Everything is open to him. Stop doing that. Got it. Start

doing this. Okay, I'm doing a good job here, Lord. Continue to strengthen me in it. It's your,

it's for your glory and it's your Holy Spirit that is empowering me to do this.

That is how we can finish strong. I want to start doing that. That's what I'll start doing.

Anybody want to start doing that with me? So Hebrews 12. Therefore we also, since we are

surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so

easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto who?

Unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured

the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let us lay it all aside. Everything that is trying to make us fall before we get to the

end of the race. Let us lay it aside and look to Jesus. And the thing that I love so much

about this chapter in Romans is right before it, there's an amazing example of someone who

didn't start good but finished strong. Anybody remember Rahab? She lived in the town of Jericho

and she was a prostitute who was a Gentile who was part of the people that were going to be

wiped out. It's a rough beginning. But through faith she saw that the God of Israel was real

and somehow the Holy Spirit illuminated her eyes to the truth and knew that she could find mercy

in his eyes. So she helped Israel. She helped the spies. And in that chapter of 11 it talks

exactly about it. By faith Rahab got the spies out of there and she was counted among the righteous.

And not only that is she in the hall of faith, but she's also in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

That's finishing strong. Bad beginning, great ending. So I want to encourage you guys,

if you haven't started strong or maybe you started strong and now you're just in a rough spot,

we all have ups and downs. Just remember he is the author and the finisher of our faith.

Finish strong. Today, every day is a new day. Forgetting what is behind, clinging to,

and looking to what is ahead. Most importantly, looking to a person and his name is Jesus.

You look to him because if he's authored your story, he knows your days and your future,

and he knows how to bring about the successful life that he has called you to live in him.

Amen. So carrying your cross, it's not an easy thing. It's a thrilling, invigorating,

awesome thing that does the best thing he can possibly do in you. So let's keep our eyes on him.

So Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for

your blessings in our lives, God. I thank you for this church, and I just want to praise you and

thank you for all these people here, Lord, that are in the race with you, God, that are running

with endurance what you've called them to. And I pray for encouragement. I pray for joy. I pray

for peace, Lord. I pray for confidence to make the tough decisions, to lay aside any weight or

any sin that is holding them back, Lord, and just run with full abandonment and confidence in

you, Lord, that they would fix, that we all, Lord, would fix our eyes on you because you know

what to do. You know how to sanctify us. You know the good works that you've planned for us.

So we thank you for your work and our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.

So, hey, I brought up those three questions. Those are good three questions I think we could do

in discussion time. What if we got a little vulnerable and said, what are some things we

want to start doing, we want to stop doing, and we want to continue doing? Yeah? Cool? All right.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word. Don't forget to

join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day!