Now here we come to resolution, that is, number four.

And resolution number four says this, if we're gonna take all these events of our lives and turn them around, the disadvantage, turn it into advantage and use it for the glory of God, if we're gonna take all of those external events and we're not gonna be ruled by them, but instead we're gonna turn all of them into these incredible victories, resolution number four says this, God will usually strip us of everything we depend on other than himself.

Now, resolution three was, God will lead us to do that which brings him the most glory.

It is closely related to resolution four, but not the same.

Resolution four says, God will usually strip us of everything we depend on, other than himself.

Let's go to the text, Judges 7, 16.

Dividing the 300 men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

Watch me, he told them, follow my lead.

When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.

When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp, blow yours and shout for the Lord and for Gideon.

Now, I'm not certain what the third meeting between God and Gideon looked like.

I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall.

We're given information about the first meeting and the second meeting, but what about the third?

We're assuming, based on the text, that God would have said to Gideon as he faces 135,000 well-trained Midianite warriors.

Gideon, you know I told you that 32,000 men is too many.

And then I told you 10,000 is too many, and I realize now you only have 300.

But I only wanted those men who would trust me and who would take the battle seriously.

Let me just pause here.

We're gonna do that a few times.

You only truly know who you are and you only truly know who the people around you are when tension and conflict comes.

It is the great revealer.

It establishes and reveals character.

It rather not establishes, it reveals character, integrity, honesty, courage.

All of those, you can talk a good game, but you'll only know those existing.

in a person in the midst of tension.

The other thing is, coming to the end of yourself does not mean taking yourself out of the battle.

God wanted those who were serious about the battle.

You still gotta fight.

You gotta keep yourself pure.

You gotta fight for righteousness every single day.

You gotta resist the temptations to trust in your own wisdom, power, and strength.

Make no mistake, God wants to know that you're taking this battle seriously and that you're engaged in the disciplines necessary to win the victory.

Which means you're meeting regularly with God, you're obeying the hard words, you're doing all the things we've talked about in the preceding weeks.

God says, Gideon, I've sifted the men, I know who's serious about the battle, I know who is ultimately trusting me, and there's only 300 of them, and with those 300, I'm gonna deliver Midian into your hand.

But Gideon, we're not finished.

I've sifted them in, now I need to sift your military arsenal.

If I were Gideon, I would be coming to God thinking that God has some kind of secret weapon.

Yeah, we only got 300, but we got God.

There's got to be this secret weapon, this technologically advanced spear or sword or bows and arrows and javelins.

Maybe we're going to get something we don't even know exists.

Gideon has the meeting with God.

He's got 300 men, it's a helpless little bunch, against 135,000 Midianite warriors.

And God says, Gideon, here's your arsenal.

And when he gives Gideon the arsenal, there's nothing about swords and bows and arrows or javelins and spears.

Instead, he gives him a weapon.

Assuming the text, they're given trumpets.

Trumpets, now remember, you're a 300 man and they're passing out your arsenal, okay?

You're getting the goods.

You receive a trumpet, a clay jar, a torch to light your way, and your voice.

Basically, you're told those are gonna be the weapons of the arsenal to go up against these Midianites.

Listen to me.

God will usually strip us of everything we depend upon other than himself.

Again, closely related to resolution number three, but not the same because in resolution three we're talking about the glory of God.

He's jealous for you.

He has everything you need for the extraordinary life you're living.

He fills every void meets every need and grants every victory He wants you to glory in him to hold him in the highest regard and come to him for wisdom power and strength That carries into revolution revolution resolution for Resolution for ask this simple question in the heat of battle.

What is your go-to?

What is the first thing you go to when your life starts to fall apart?

When the kids, Delaney and Sion, my kids were little, they'd like to have wrestling matches and I'd get down on the floor of the carpet and we would wrestle.

And Delaney would get down on the floor and he was smart because when I would get him in a bind, he couldn't get out.

He wouldn't fight.

He'd just say, dad, let me go.

But my daughter, I would get her in a bind and I would tie her up and she refused to quit.

She would continue to scratch and pill and fight and make a fist and try to hit me in the head or whatever she could find to get loose.

And I would have to tell her again and again, relax, if you relax, I'll let you go.

I wanna tell you something, our go-to is often demonstrated by my daughter, Sian.

When we hit difficult times, we start kicking and screaming.

Listen, this is so important because most of us want out right now.

And we're gonna do whatever it takes to get out right now.

In fact, we refuse to stay in the valley long enough for God to complete what he's trying to do in us.

Amen.

I've mentioned numerous times that when I went through my valley of anxiety disorder, after I'd been going through this horrific experience, my buddy Dane Johnson came to me and he said, look, I've been through something like this and I want to tell you something.

This will not leave until you go to God and say, God, don't take this away until I have learned what you want me to learn, until you build in me what you're trying to build in me.

And when he said that, I was looking for a loophole.

And then he paused and he said.

But wait a minute you can say it, but when you say it and mean it the trials will be over He was so right.

I said it very often But it was more of a manipulation and coercion to for God to get me out of this and get me out it now But when I was serious about it when I said God you must be doing I've been in it so long You've got to be doing something Extraordinary so God keep me in it until I've learned the lessons that you want me to learn He did I did and now I've said to you oftentimes Why While it was the worst time of my life, it was also one of the best.

Your trials have a designed purpose.

The battles that God brings or allows into your life.

What's your go-to?

You don't know if God caused it or allowed it.

You just will never know.

But when the trial comes, most of us do not want to wait on God to accomplish what he's trying to accomplish.

And as a result, we take hold of something that we've given to God.

Think about all the things we go to.

Here's how the world deals with it.

If we have any addiction in our life, that addiction is heightened when the battle comes.

We pour ourselves into that, trying to numb the effects and the fear.

when God's trying to do something amazing.

Anything that has taken God's place to bring relief, we go to that thing.

We preoccupy ourselves with sport, with some kind of recreation.

We enter into an unhealthy relationship of codependency, thinking some person is gonna solve our problems rather than going to God.

Sometimes we turn to money.

Some people stress shop.

Some people stress eat.

The point is, We try to engage in something that will help us either numb the effects of what we're going through or get us out of it as soon as possible.

I've seen people that I really respect in the midst of trials become horrific people, gossiping and slandering, somehow thinking that they can slander all the enemies that are causing this battle to happen, that their life will be better.

But what ends up happening is they themselves end up being destroyed with bitterness.

Some people go into pity parties.

They just start feeling sorry for themselves and they go from one person to the next person wanting pity and sorrow when that's not going to help them.

What is your go-to?

What are the weapons of your warfare?

God is trying to make sure with Gideon that his go-tos are completely eradicated and he's gonna go to God.

What on earth are you possibly going to do against 135,000 Midianites with trumpets, clay jars, torches, and your voice?

And this is where passages of scripture are spoken out of context.

Philippians 4 says, "'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'" I had a big poster when I was in college playing university basketball of Chris Mullen, who played with St.

John's.

And it was a Fellowship of Christian Athletes poster.

And at the bottom of the poster, Chris Johns was in the poster taking a jump shot, one of many.

Incredible athlete, incredible scorer in the game of basketball.

And the caption read, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So I put that on the back door of my dorm room.

And every time I was walking out to go to pregame warmup or getting ready for a big game, I would touch that poster.

And here's what was going on in my mind.

I'm going to have a good game tonight.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I'm going to shoot lights out.

I'm going to be the star.

We're going to win.

God's going to give me the victory.

Do you think that's what that passage is about?

What we fail to understand is the context of the verse in verse 13 is verse 12.

I know what it is to be in need.

I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

He's saying, that I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can stay in this battle until God achieves what he's trying to achieve in me because of the power of Christ in me.

I can do the thing that he can do through Christ who strengthens him, is remain with poise and silence in the battle while God completes his work.

I went on to read 2 Corinthians 11.

There's a pastor, if you're a pastor, you're in ministry, I want you to listen to what Paul says.

In 2 Corinthians 11, 23, I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and have been exposed to death again and again.

Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was pelted with stones.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

I have been constantly on the move.

In other words, he's running for his life.

I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers.

I have labored and toil and have often gone without sleep.

I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food.

I have been cold and naked." And it's this last line that got me that I see in a whole different way now.

He says in verse 28, "'Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.'" Wow.

His concern for all the churches would have been enough stress in his life that they weren't being led astray, that gossip and slander among them were not dividing them.

He would have lost sleep just over that, the unity of his church, or church is more than one.

And yet in all of that, he also has to face being flogged, being chased, being pelted with stones, going without sleep, being hungry, being thirsty.

That's why when I complain sometimes, my wife will say to me, I think Jeff, you need to suck it up.

Comparatively, my life is so easy.

Even with the struggles that I have, it's nothing like the Apostle Paul.

It's nothing like Ajay Law that visited us not too long ago.

The point is, Paul is saying, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

He's saying, I can do all things, I can endure.

The power of the Spirit gives me the ability to stay in the place that I am while God accomplishes his work and remain faithful to him in the process.

The Greek word is eskoua, which means I can do.

Or when I reach the limit of my own resources and strength, even to the point of death, I know that I will be infused with the power and the strength of Jesus Christ, that he will give me supernatural inner strength to endure what I never dreamed I could.

Now, please stay with me.

I know it feels like we're hitting different places, but this is so important for us to grapple with, okay?

What is God doing in all of this?

God began this journey of stripping Gideon of everything he depended on other than himself all the way back in chapter six.

Let me read it.

In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal's altar demolished with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

So God had told Gideon, before I give the Midianites into your hand, you got to tear down those false idols.

You got to go and you got to tear down Baal and you got to tear down the Asherah pole.

So the people got up and noticed it had happened and in verse 29, they ask each other, who did this?

When they carefully investigated, they were told Gideon, son of Joash, did it.

The people of the town demanded Joash, bring out your son, he must die.

So you can see how committed the Israelites are to God, right?

Because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.

But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, are you going to plead Baal's case?

Are you trying to save him?

Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by the morning.

If Baal really.

of God, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.

So because Gideon broke down Bel's altar, they gave him the name Jerubel, that day saying, let Bel contend with him.

The first thing God tells Gideon to do on this journey of his greatest victory, of one of Israel's greatest victories in their history, you've got to go first of all and tear down that altar of Bel, and you've got to destroy the Astropoles.

Now, let's go back to a series we did early in the year called Under the Influence.

Who is Bell and what is the Ashtoreth Poll?

Bell is a man.

is a false God that still is in the Western culture to this day.

Baal is the king of the gods, the leader of the spirits.

He is the God of economic wealth and prosperity.

You worship and pray to him when you want your crops to grow.

He's called the Lord of rain.

He's often portrayed with a lightning bolt in his hand.

He's also referred to as the chief God, the Lord, the master of the gods.

In short, Baal is the God of prosperity.

Even the Israelites were praying to him, worshiping him.

Ashtoreth, she is referred to as the seductress, the enchantress, Ishtar.

And in the Bible, she's called Ashtoreth.

In short, she's the goddess of all sexual immorality and fertility.

So if you want fertility, you pray to her, you worship her, you engage in sexual immorality as a demonstration of your trust and faith in her.

Now because Israel had not kept their covenant with God and had allowed the gods of the Canaanites to infiltrate, to enter their land, the Hebrews now had blended their religion.

with the religions of the Canaanites.

So their go-to now for prosperity was both Baal and Yahweh to see which one would deliver.

Their go-to when they wanted fertility and reproduction was the Ashtoreth and Yahweh.

Now stay with me.

Get a little history lesson.

It'll all come out in the end.

We'll put it all in the funnel.

Okay.

In the Torah, there is something called the principle of Shadnez, which is...

I guess best described as a principle of illicit mixtures.

You're taking two things and you blend them together and ultimately it leads to confusion and destruction.

So Gideon and the Israelites had mixed the worship of Baal and the worship of Yahweh and now they're being destroyed.

And as a result of being destroyed, they also, because they've confused the gods, they don't know and they can't recognize the voice of God.

And worse yet, that kind of syncretism limits one's ability to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of the evil one, because the evil one works through the false gods and can in fact communicate.

When you worship the false gods, when you serve them, that god of the demonic world can communicate and speak things into your life.

And so you've got him speaking into your life, you've got Yahweh speaking in your life, and if you're not totally committed to one or the other, there's confusion and destruction.

Now let me give you an example of what I believe the Torah is trying to express here.

The closer that I draw to my wife, the more I understand her.

The farther I go away from my wife toward other things, the less I understand her.

The relationship at that point has become confused because I don't know what she's thinking and I don't understand her actions.

So there's confusion and disintegration.

I also, because I'm not closely related to her or intimate with her, I also start making assumptions about her that are not true, pure conjecture.

And the assumptions are based on a lack of relationship and intimacy.

So here's, listen, this is important.

Here's what the modern church has done.

We have attempted to serve all the gods.

We want Yahweh, but we want power, money, and sex as well.

So much so that we think we can use Yahweh to get our false gods and idols.

These are the gods of our time.

These have become our go-to.

Now think about this, our peace, happiness, and significance.

When we lose our peace and our happiness and our joy, we think the more money we have in our bank account, the more happy we'll be, but it never works.

There's a vast number of young people in our culture today who are being sold a bill of goods that can never deliver.

And the bill of goods is this, sex is the ultimate.

That's where you get everything, identity, meaning, significance.

In fact, a local social commentator says this, sex has become a metric of one's self-exploration.

or measure of how liberated they are, it's become an identity marker.

So what we've done is we've combined the gods.

The modern church is so weak in its theology that we are confused and as a result are disintegrating.

We don't know the Bible, and as a result we don't know God, because the purpose of the Bible is to reveal the heart and nature of God.

and doings and workings of God.

So what we've done is we've combined God and secular humanism.

And humanism tells us that life is all about us.

The Bible tells us life is all about God.

So obviously we're confused and we're disintegrating inside the soul every day.

We're told by churches even that God is the genie in the bottle rub the lamp three times He'll give you whatever you want that God is about you The life is egocentric that God would never allow I've heard this that God would never allow you to suffer or experience any pain That God wants you to be rich and be wealthy and God will help you his purpose is to help you get The desires of your heart and we define those desires of our heart as the other gods wealth power sex, whatever it is You Well, false, false, false, and false again.

Stay with me.

There's a lot of debate right now surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

There are many who believe that according to the Bible, the temple will be rebuilt and will stand its original place, and that'll be a sign that the end is near.

The problem is the golden dome of Islam stands there right now.

So it would have to be destroyed in order for the temple to be rebuilt.

So some suggest that, well, there's gonna be an earthquake and the earthquake will knock it down and then we'll be able to rebuild the temple.

However, politically, that an earthquake that destroyed the dome of the rock would not change anything.

The world's demand to keep peace with Islam would always remain.

That's it.

just rebuild the dome.

Some other people, theologians, suggest that the Islamic Dome of the Rock has dominated the Temple Mount for well over a thousand years, but it's just a few meters south of where Herod's temple originally resided.

So it's feasible that if there's a peace cord signed between the two groups, that the two edifices could exist side by side.

But the problem goes back to the Torah, sha'anetz, the principle of illicit mixtures.

What we find in the scripture is the Lord is not willing to share his standing or his land with pagan deities or secular gods.

One has to go, one or the other.

So in Judges 6, stay with me as we build this.

In Judges 6, God speaks to Gideon.

That same night the Lord said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old.

Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.

Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on top of its height.

Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering." Now here's what's interesting about this text.

The Lord tells Gideon to destroy the false gods.

We can't stand by side by side, you gotta get rid of them.

So that your go-to becomes God, Yahweh, and Yahweh alone.

You can't call on Baal and Ashtoreth at the same time.

You need to cleanse yourself and you need to cleanse the nation.

You need to repent.

Now, please stay with me.

God says, here's how you're gonna cleanse yourself and get ready for this victory.

One, he says you're gonna take the second bull.

Here's the problem.

If you read the text, where's the first bull?

Second bull is actually the words the bull of Bullocks It's translated second bull, but if you read the text, there's no first bull.

There's only one bull The Hebrew root means the highest ranking bull Rank is determined by age the older the animal the greater that's worth or value and God specifically asked for a seven year old bull And it's no coincidence that the number of years of oppression from the Midianites has been seven years.

So the purpose of the bull was atonement for each year of Israel's rebellion.

And then he says, I want you to take down that Asherah pole and I want you to chop it down and then I want you to use it as firewood, adding insult to injury.

What's happening?

All right, let's bring it all together, all these pieces of the puzzle.

The same thing is happening in chapter seven that happened back in chapter six.

Not only does God want to lead Israel to do everything that brings him the most glory, He also wants to strip away their go-to's when the odds are stacked against them.

Whatever they think will save them, whatever they think will provide safety and security and salvation, whatever they're banking on for the victory, that thing has to be stripped away.

You cannot serve God and the other idols.

You can't.

God will refuse us to compete with your other go-to's.

So he's gonna strip everything away that you go to, till the only thing left is him and he's the only thing you can go to.

There is no better commentary on this, I believe, concerning the idols of our lives than what Tim Keller explains in his commentary about idolatry.

Here's what he says, and I quote.

"'The biblical concept of idolatry "'is an extremely sophisticated idea, "'integrating intellectual, psychological, "'social, cultural, and spiritual categories.

"'There are persons who are not Personal idols, such as romantic love and family, or money, power and achievement, or access to a particular social circle, or other emotional dependence of others on you, or health, fitness, and physical beauty.

Many look to these things for the hope, meaning, and fulfillment that only God can provide.

Idols are not simply gods constructed out of wood and iron.

They are ultimate things that have captured our hearts.

The things we look upon and say, if I have that, then I'll feel as though my life has meaning.

I'll know I have value.

I'll feel significant and secure.

These are things that are given, these are things that are given a controlling position in our hearts.

We spend most of our passion and energy and emotional and financial resources on these things without a second thought.

These are our go-tos for hope, significance, and security, a career, my body, and physical appearance, money, a political or social cause, romantic love, even a creation or recreation.

The point is that God detests idol worship because not because it's bad for him, it's bad for you.

So God must destroy all the things you're gonna trust and he must strip you of everything you're gonna depend on when you enter the battle.

Because life is like this, relationships break up, jobs are lost, relationships experience conflict, health reports come back and they're not always good, careers are often left in shambles, friends betray you, people disappoint you.

And for most people, listen, now when the battle comes of everyday life, God is your last resort.

You would never admit it, but your actions tell a different story.

So we've been praying around our church for revival.

We desperately want revival around this place.

We want to see God the way we've never seen Him.

We want to feel Him the way we've never experienced or felt Him.

And we want to gain the sense of volition we're able to do things we never thought we could do.

The problem is when you pray for revival, two things, or a lot of things, but two things are essential.

Number one, God has to remove all barriers to revival.

And only he knows what they are or who they are, and it's gonna hurt.

Second, God has to refine the one praying for revival.

Robin, my wife, said to me when I told her we were praying for revival, she said, get ready.

God has to remove the barriers, and quite frankly, God has to refine you, Pastor Jeff.

Changes have to be made in you, and both of these are gonna be painful.

And of course, when they start happening, even though it's what we want, my personality says, whoa, it's me, my life is so tough.

I mean, look at me and I complain, I'm frustrated.

I tighten my grip on the things that God is trying to remove.

So when our lives are not turning out the way we hoped they would, rather than turning to God and thinking that God possibly has another road for us to travel, that He's saving us from a road that He knows leads to destruction, that He's shaping and molding us, we start fighting Him the whole way, even though we're the one that's prayed for.

We want to take back the reins because it's uncomfortable.

It was the enraptured Rutherford who wrote the words, "'Praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace.'" Listen, these are words that have been around through generations.

He says, "'The hammer is a useful tool, "'but the nail, if it had feeling and intelligence, "'could present another side of the story.

"'For the nail knows the hammer only as an opponent, "'a brutal, merciless enemy who lives "'through pounding into submission, "'to beat it down out of sight and clench it into place.'" That is the nails view of the hammer and it is accurate except for one thing The nail forgets that both it and the hammer are servants of the same workman Let the nail but remember that the hammer is held by the workman and all resentment toward it will disappear The carpenter decides whose head will be beaten next and what hammer shall be used in the beating that is the sovereign right?

When the nail has surrendered to the will of the workman and has gotten a little glimpse of the plans for his future It will yield to the hammer without complaint The file, he says, is more painful still.

For its business is to bite into the soft metal, scraping and eating away the edges till it has shaped the metal to its will.

Yet the file has, in truth, no real will in the matter, but serves another master, as the metal also does.

It is the master and not the file that decides how much shall be eaten away, what shape the metal shall take, and how long the painful filing shall continue.

Let the metal accept the will of the master and it will not try to dictate when or how it shall be filed.

As for the furnace, it's the worst of all.

Ruthless and savage, it leaps at every combustible thing that enters it and never relaxes its fury till it has reduced it all to shapeless ashes.

All that refuses to burn is the ashes melted to a mass of helpless matter without will or purpose of its own.

When everything is melted that will melt and all is burned that will burn, then and not till then the furnace calms down and rests from its destructive fury." With all of this known to him, how could Rutherford find it in his heart to praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace?

And the answer is simple.

He loved the master of the hammer.

He adored the workman who wielded the file.

He worshiped the Lord who heated the furnace for the everlasting blessing of his children.

Can I ask you something?

What's your go-to?

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

You've heard me ask you numerous times, what is it about us that thinks we know better than God how our life should be going?

If we are his children, he's gonna dig those trenches through the course of our lives to do whatever it takes to get us on the path for which we were called, for which we were made, because only on that path do we experience shalom, peace, and the extraordinary life.

Again, the most concise work written on this topic comes from Tim Keller in a book called Counterfeit Gods, where he says most people spend their life.

trying to make their hearts fondest dreams come true.

Isn't that what life is about?

The pursuit of happiness.

We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them.

We never imagined that getting our hearts deepest desire might be the worst thing that could ever happen to us.

It all comes down to what you believe about origins, what you believe about God, being created in the image of God and being used as an instrument of God for the purposes of God.

There's a grand weaver.

He must strip everything away from you that you're go to so that your go to becomes him, so that you can gain endurance to stay in difficult situations until he completes his work in you.

If you keep going to those other things, you'll never get to God.

And God's not gonna compete with your idols.

You can't go to those things and go to him as well.

It doesn't work like that.

One's got to go, one or the other.

So God will often strip you of everything you depend upon other than himself so that you will go.

Go to him first, gain enduring power, hupamone the Bible calls endurance, staying power, so that God can complete his work in you.

What you don't realize when you kick and scream and try to get out of the battle, by manipulating the events and people around you to your own purpose and causes, what you're actually doing is you're fighting against God himself.

Everything is facing a fierce battle.

He knows the odds are heavily stacked against him.

His men have been sifted down to 300.

He's banking on a great military arsenal.

I have to believe that.

And now God has to take that away too.

Isaiah 31, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord.

I know the last two messages have been difficult because the implication is that there are times when you're going to kick and scream and God's not going to get you out of this.

That he's the grand weaver and he's weaving this beautiful design, this tapestry.

You got to stay in it.

I could give you numerous illustrations.

I'll give you one.

So I've got a friend.

that loves mountain biking.

And he's got some pretty expensive mountain bikes.

And he came home one evening to realize all of his mountain bikes, not just one, all of them had been stolen.

It's a lot of money.

And he was really up in arms.

It was an uproar, oh my goodness, I can't believe these bikes are gone.

These are my favorite bikes.

I've spent so much money and time making sure the bikes were built exactly to my shape, my frame, my weight, my height, everything.

The time and the energy and the money, it's gonna cost, this is terrible.

This is a lot.

Unfortunate event What just so happened that my friend's father knew the local police and he went and talked to them said look man Can you find these bicycles, please?

Can you do what because usually a theft like that, you know, there's bigger fish to fry But my friend went to the chief of police and said look, can you help us with this?

Can you find these bikes?

So they went on a massive search Took a while.

They actually found the bikes But you know what else they found They found two little children who were being abused and starved hungry And because of the stolen bikes, the police were able to rescue and save the lives of these two little kids.

My friend said, you know what, I have to believe that while we lost these bicycles, as a result, two lives were saved.

See, this is the point I've been making in this whole series.

You have no idea of all the dots that are connected with the unfortunate events of your life.

God wants you to start to look at everything, even when somebody steals your bicycle, everything.

As something that was allowed into your life, but there's a bigger plan and a bigger purpose, and sometimes you will never see it.

My friend was privileged that he got to see the outcome, but there's always an outcome, and God is trying to get you to the point where you believe and trust and have faith in him to complete his work, not only in you, but to do extraordinary things.

all around you because of your faith.

Father, thank you for another awesome part of this text.

The glory of the Lord and God becoming our go-to, we know those are important things, things of priority in our life of faith and trust as we walk with you.

Help us to become the people that you want us to become so that we can change the world around us, so that we can be your tools and instruments, shaped by the hammer, the file, and the furnace, refined into perfection, so that like Christ, being conformed to his image, we would say, God, do whatever you have to do in me to accomplish your purposes, even if it means my death.

In Christ's name, amen.

Thank you for watching our sermon on our One and All YouTube channel.

If you haven't subscribed, I wanna encourage you to do so and click the notifications because we're gonna have a lot more content as we move forward, especially in this series.

If you haven't found it yet, but we have Unpossible Conversations where we sit down with Jeff after he records this message just to go a little more in depth and get a little bit more of a feel for it.

to talk about what he wasn't able to during his messages.

So I wanna encourage you, find those videos, watch them throughout the week, so that way we can help you along your faith journey.