Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Gideon

Jacob Gibbs

The Mixed Up Faith of Joash

Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can experience the taste and smell of fresh manna.

Today you'll be listening to Jacob Gibbs, pastor of the Cedar Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cedar Lake, Michigan.

Father, we want to ask that you would help us sense our need today.

Some people have come from a high experience.

Some people have come from tragic news of a loss.

Lord, but we come here and we're sitting here in your house.

We want to humble ourselves because your word is holy and great.

Your word is a book that is designed to help us to speak a word in due season, to speak a convicting word, to help us realize what's going on in our life, what's wrong and what's good.

So Father, help us to follow your word, we pray.

We're going to picture a living room situation.

I really wanted to bring a couch up here, but I thought that might be a burden on the Sabbath.

And so we are having family worship with Joash and Joash's wife, which we don't have a name for, so Lisa, and then Gideon.

And he is telling the story of the Exodus!

It's so exciting and young Gideon is so, wow, the Red Sea splits, and he's talking about going through the Red Sea, and Gideon's eyes are wide open!

And as the story concludes, he shuts the book and he goes to his front yard to complete the sacrifice that the whole area is waiting for them to sacrifice.

That's essentially what Judges 6 talks about.

I didn't see in Judges 6 Uncle Arthur's bedtime stories!

So he decided to thresh wheat in a wine press.

So he's throwing up the wheat and hoping that a little bit of wind can blow it away.

Why doesn't he do it outside where the wheat is growing?

And so Gideon is thinking, well, I need to bring this undercover.

And then it says something interesting in verse 11.

It says, I often read over this and I don't really focus on the idea that the angel sat.

But have you ever thought about the angel sitting next to you this week?

Well, hopefully he didn't sit next to me Wednesday, you're thinking, because that was not a good day.

Or you're, oh man, can the angel of the Lord read thoughts?

The angel of the Lord was next to him, but he didn't know it.

Gideon was thinking about, why is Israel in this situation?

Why do I have to work double hard to do the whole wheat thing?

When back just several years, 8 years ago, the Midianites went around and everything would be fine?

Has that ever entered your mind this last year?

The angel of the Lord just, he's doing work and all of a sudden this angel shows up and you're just, would you be a little frightened?

Would you be scared if like all of a sudden, there he is?

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor?" Verse 13, Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about?

I didn't know that Gideon and his family had the blue Bible story books.

I just always overread this thinking that his family was completely out to lunch with heathens.

But I'm reading this and it's saying that Gideon was told the stories of the Red Sea and the 10 plagues and the deliverance of Israel.

The most ancient form of social media, The campfire.

They would sit around a campfire and tell stories, like most cultures do.

Have you joined the campfire lately and told stories?

God Still Brings People Water

To Jacob Gibbs, pastor of the Cedar Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cedar Lake, Michigan.

It's a good day to celebrate a God who is extremely good to us.

It's a good day to celebrate a Savior who saved us beyond belief.

So we gather here because we need the greatest God in our life.

And so this moment try to tuck any distraction away listen to the greatest medicine that mankind has ever known the Bible and let it soak into your soul And may you rejoice in the presence of Jesus.

Dear Father, really quick, I want to give you my heart, my words, my thoughts.

As we look into the greatest book ever, wipe away my skeptical thoughts.

Did you know that your posture makes a difference?

You know, when I said that, it's amazing.

I knew people were like, oh, all right, okay.

All right, he's not looking, I go, he looks all right, I gotta get back.

Oh, come on, straighten it up over there.

So your head cranes forward, putting pressure on the neck, muscles, and joints when you're in the office.

The neck muscles signal the brain stream to supply blood to the body.

Compressing them may lead to abnormal blood pressure.

The chest, the strength of the diaphragm, the muscles that controls breathing is reduced by 9.3%.

Lung capacity is also significantly reduced.

The persistent pressure on the abdomen may trigger heartburn and slow digestion and contribute to constipation.

The natural curve at the base of the spine is reduced.

Some studies suggest slouching increases the likelihood of experiencing lower back pain and or pain in the back, hip or legs.

So if you want to have a good mood at church, don't slouch.

When slouching, you're more likely to feel down about yourself and to recall negative memories.

All right so when I look up you guys straighten up.

I had an opportunity to play basketball Thursday night with some of the students and whenever I see Patrick on the court, my posture changes.

Oh yeah, he's like, yeah, yeah, I got your number, pastor.

So when I see, you know, whenever, you know, if there's no defender in front of me, my posture isn't so strict.

But when a defender's in front of me, my posture changes.

I can just imagine playing paintball with Drew.

It's not good for a pastor to play paintball, by the way.

So I haven't played in years and years and years.

But I can just imagine if I'm playing with Drew, and I see him, my posture is going to change.

Or if I'm in a lecture hall, my posture makes a difference.

If my posture is like this, posture makes a difference.

Or if I'm like this, posture makes a difference.

Posture determines if you're ready for the situation.

I could be like this in church or in history class.

No, it doesn't mean that, but it can be an indicator.

Are you in a posture inside where you're ready to listen to Jesus?

Judges chapter 7 verse 1, Jerubabbel, Who's Jerubabbel?

His name was changed because he destroyed the altar of Baal.

And all the people who were with him rose early and camped beside the well of Herod." And that means the well of trembling.

So that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Morah in the valley.

The text tells us two-thirds of them, two-thirds of them are fearful.

So, the text suggests that the Israelites during the water test verses 1 through 7 can see the enemy.

We talked about when you're in front of Patrick playing basketball, your posture changes.

Not suggesting that he's the enemy, But when I play basketball, he's not as friendly as he should be.

And so would you be kind of like nonchalant, no big deal, you can see your enemies from there.

And of course, you see your enemies come, you see them drastically be reduced, and you're a little bit of like, ah, we got this.

But you're not kind of like, you're not just slacking because you want to really hit them up.

And so 1 of the problems with this story is it doesn't tell us why.

Why, God, did you have him come to the water?

It's almost like he has this arbitrary reason.

He's like, hey, hey, you guys are still too many.

I mean, we just had a two-thirds reduction of our warrior staff and you're saying we're too many?

And as he goes to the water, they're still within the sight of the enemy.

A Fleece Woven in Fear

You know, it's marvelous to see, I mentioned it before, you know, the first time you go into the room at night, you know, those moments of like, Mommy's here or Daddy's here.

Let's have that with Jesus and the Father.

Let's be joyful in His presence and by faith He is here.

I'm gonna bow and pray for an extra blessing to be on the preacher.

Father, we wanna ask that you would be upon the preacher.

We pray, Father, that the word would speak and do what it's called to do.

Heal hearts, encourage hearts, convict hearts, move hearts to go forward we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Last few messages have been on pretty much Judges and Gideon.

2 messages ago we talked about the cycle of Judges.

Last week we talked about Joash's mixed up faith, that would be Gideon's dad.

Today we're looking at the title, A Fleece Woven in Fear.

Has the fleece been misunderstood all these centuries?

And if you're familiar with the story you understand what it means well God I'm throwing out a fleece.

We typically use Gideon's story as evidence for throwing the fleece out, but as we look into the story of Gideon, maybe he's not the best example to follow.

Especially when we're trying to bargain with God to know His will.

Now, we tend to use Gideon's Fleece, not typically how Gideon uses it.

So if we're perplexed between 2 schools, Both schools are good.

Or we're wondering between 2 different calls for jobs.

There's nothing wrong with using a fleece that way, but that's not how Gideon used the fleece.

So let's go over what Gideon did with the fleece.

He had a question and he wasn't sure of the answer.

Judges is in the beginning part of the Bible.

So Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, then he says I'll put a fleece out, and then he determined the test with God.

Did he know the answer already before the fleece was thrown out?

Then the Lord, you know, he was there and he was doing the whole like wheat thing and the wine thing and he was preparing food for his household and then God shows up and it was like, whoa this is crazy!

And God speaks to him through the angel and he's kind of startled for a moment.

Then the Lord turned to him, go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

So he said to him, oh my Lord, how can I save Israel?

Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my father's house." Verse 15 and verse 16, and the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as 1 man.

So like God repeated the answer again, But he still wondered if this messenger was truly connected with the Lord, so he asked for a sign.

And he says, I'm going to get a sacrifice.

Will you give me a sign through this sacrifice?" And then the angel of the Lord says, yes, go get the sacrifice.

The angel had a staff and at the end, he reaches his staff out and just touches this animal, this dead carcass and up in flames.

Then he gets a sign that yes, this is truly a message from God.

In verse 22, Now Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord.

So God says it twice in a sense and then he ignites the sacrifice.

For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

For Gideon, it was a clear message from God.

I can Imagine Eve standing around that tree and she sees the fruit and she says, God, give me a sign that I shouldn't eat this.

Or give me a sign that I should eat this.

Sometimes we know and we still try to cast out a fleece.

But we're always trying to work towards our salvation.

But sometimes when we see it, we're like, Lord, Lord, should I go to church today?

These are just a few clear things in Scripture.

Sometimes, Lord, when there's been nothing wrong in the family, Lord, should I get a divorce?

The Lord's will is, he never wants us to have divorce.

We gotta be very careful with how we use this fleece idea.

Many people are amazed when they read through the Gideon story.

It's pretty, it climbs and climbs and climbs.

And then God tells him, hey, I want you to, and we learned this last week, I want you to go to your father's house and destroy the altar of Baal.

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Series

Gideon

God Still Brings People Water

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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