Instruments Of Victory

want to give to you. But we are due to show up, and we are going to roll very strong with all of our worship teams and a word from God and an impartation of faith full of the Holy Spirit to the following cities starting April eighteenth through April twenty seventh. We will be God willing and NBA and NHL permitting, we will be in Austin, Texas, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Denver, Colorado, Saint Louis, Missouri, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Y'all got any friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana you can send out to see me. And Toronto, Ontario. It'll be amazing elevation nights dot com mm hmm. But today we bring you greetings e fam all around the world from Charlotte, North Carolina. Oh yeah, We've got a triple annoying all rolled up into one. Today. We've got the worship of Almighty God, We've got the Word of Almighty God, and we've got God's people together. And when you get all that together, anything can happen. Clap those hands if you

believe anything can happen in God's presence. Always awkward to clap holding the mic like that. You hit it too hard. One time I hit it too hard. The whole mic just went out. So now I go tap those fingers, praise the Lord. One more sermon on Gideon, and I promise I'll leave Gideon alone. Y'all got one more Gideon sermon, and then open your Bible to Judges chapter seven, or pretend to open your Bible as you flip through your phone and get that last round of candy crush so

you can pay attention to me. I want your mind free and clear today because this message is just so rich good news. I'm going to read so much scripture is going to make up for all the ones you didn't read.

Don't just talk to Gideon. Just don't leave it back there in the past. Speak to me, Lord, I need to hear you too, the Lord said to Gideon. Now you asked the Lord to speak. Listen what he said to Gideon. The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. That's their enemy, the Midianites. The Lord said, I'm gonna give you the victory, but the people with you are too many for me to do it. Lest Israel boast over me, saying my

own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then twenty two thousand of the people return and ten thousand remains. Yeah, that's backwards going into a battle, But we'll talk about that in a moment. Let's move on. Verse four. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many. Take them down to the water,

and I will test them for you there. And any one of whom I say to you this one shall go with you, shall go with you. And any one of whom I say this one shall not go with you shall not go. Hey it's a good idea to let God decide who belongs in your life in every season, just a little seminar breakout session. That's not my sermon. But let God do that recruiting for you and the removal. He's a good He'll balance it out for you in the end, all right, verse what vers of mile on

Tim five? Tim was the last one answer, And he's the one whose name I call him youth pastors uh five. So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to gid him. Everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue as a dog lapse, you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink. So put them on two different sides. God's sortain things out now, getting getting ready for the battle. He's got

a five. And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouth like dogs, was three hundred men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water, had their face down in it, couldn't even look.

I'll seef anybody's coming. And so you know, he got ninety seven hundred of the ten thousand that are left on one side, three hundred on the other side, and if I'm Giddeon, I'm like so I get the ninety seven hundred right over here, right And no, no, no, the Lord said, with the three hundred men, the number was three hundred men knelt down to drink like a doll.

And the Lord said to Gideon, with the three hundred men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go. Every man to his home. So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was

below him in the valley. A few more verses. That same night, the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. I have given it. Who else but God can speak in the past tense about a battle that hasn't even happened yet, who else? What? God? Let me keep reading, y'all, stop distracting me. Behave. I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant, and you shall

hear what they say. And afterward, your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And then he went down with Purer, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp, and the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley like locusts in abundance. What a contrast. Gideon's got three hundred dogs, and they got so many enemies that it looks like locusts, a lot of them. And their camels were without number, as the

sand that is on the seashore in abundance. It's a lot of them. It's a lot of them. Say it's a lot of them. It's a lot of things I'm dealing with right now. It's a lot of people getting on my nerves right now. It's a lot of bills falling up right now. It's a lot of things I'm

trying to sort out right now. Now, watch this. When Gideon came verse thirteen, Behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade, and he said, behold, I dreamed a dream, And behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered, this is no other than the sword of Gideon,

the son of joe Ash, a man of Israel. God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp. As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped, and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, a rise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. Clap those hands and celebrate God's word. Clap those hands. Today, I want to preach to you about a very specific subject that the Lord told me to mention today. I

want to talk about instruments of victory. Instruments of victory. And on your way down to your seat, just say, I've got what it takes to win. You may be seated. I've got what it takes to win. High five the person next to you, say, you've got what it takes to win this one. You've got what it takes to win this one. When I say that, do you believe it? I've got what it takes to win. Gideon didn't for a long, long while. It took him a while. It took him a while to reconcile what he had inside

of him with what he saw all around him. It took him a while to reconcile what God said about him with what he saw in himself. It took him a while to realize, if I could say it this way, what kind of instrument he was in God's eyes? What kind of instrument he was in God's eyes? See in the Book of Judges, you have this constant cycle of God's people getting in trouble and then God stepping in

and bringing them out of trouble. And he did it through if I can say it this way, some interesting instruments, like one time you ever heard of Samson, got a haircut, lost his strength, ate his finish. No, that's another guy, all right. Sorry, I get mixed up sometimes, But Samson Samson. One time he took the jawbone of a donkey. And if it was a men's conference, we do the King James the jawbone of an ass in the King James version of the Bible, and beat back a thousand Philistines

with the jawbone of a donkey. And then he did a disc track to the Philistines about it, with the jawbone of a donkey. I have slain a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. I have made donkeys of them. Samson interesting guy, interesting instrument for God to us, you know, because he wasn't very self controlled or anything like that, but he was strong and God used him. One lady in the Book of Judges. I won't go through all of them, it's fresh on my mind because

we were reading through it a few weeks ago. But one woman in the Book of Judges, she wanted to kill an evil king, and he snuck in her tent and she said, oh, poor baby, let me give you some milk. And she gave him some milk and he got sleepy, and then while he was dozing off, she got a tent peg. You ever read the Bible, y'all, don't read the good stuff. I gotta show you where the good stuff is, because you're over there rejoicing the Lord. She took a tent peg because sometimes you fight the devil,

you gotta fight the devil dirty. Sometimes you do, sometimes you do, sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't have time for all of that transcendence and otherness and God the dustness of thine in presence is. Then she grabbed a tent peg. I don't think it was meant for this purpose, but she was multipurposing, and she took the tent peg put it through his skull. Look her up in the Bible J L J A E L. It means uh, the one God chose. That's what at least that's what

the girl told me at the restaurant. I met a girl at a restaurant in Greensboro Friday, and she said, mister Verday. I said yes, She said, I watch your servants. I said great. What's your name? She said Jayl. I said that's a great name. Do you know that story in the Bible? She said, oh yeah. And so she

was a server in the restaurant. So every time she came close to me with like a instrument of any sort, I was a little bit nervous, but she was sweet in Somebody say, interesting instruments that God used to deliver his people? Can we agree? Jobbone of a donkey, tent peg through the skull of a king, after a nice warm glass of milk. It's interesting the things God uses. But stranger than the objects that God uses are the characters that he raises up to us as his instruments.

Look at somebody and say, you are an interesting instrument. Just just just just tell him, tell him, tell him by faith, because you promise you don't know. You don't know the half of what you just said to them. You really have no idea how God put them together. And you've been married to her for eighteen years and you still don't know how to play that instrument just

exactly right and keep it in tune. It takes a little while to figure out the instrument, and and and and and For Gideon it's even more difficult because he is seen as I don't know what the coolest instrument is, maybe drums or something like that, maybe electric guitar. Gideon is the instrument that nobody wants. Gideon is like the recorder in his own mind, in his own mind, and when God comes to him and calls him out of the wine press, he's down there threshing weed in a

wine press. Because the Bible says that the hand of the Midianites was against the Israelites. And so when God comes to Gideon and he says, get up, go in the strength that you have, I'm gonna use you to bring my people out of the hands of the Midianites. Gideon really doesn't get it at first because it takes him a while to figure out what kind of instrument he can be. And here's why he's been in the wrong hands for so long that he doesn't even realize

who he is anymore. The whole nation, not just Gideon, has been in the hands of the Midianites. And let me show you what that looks like from the New Testament and bring it into our lives. From Romans chapter six, verse thirteen. Can we go over and see the apostle

Paul for a moment. Let's go see the Apostle Paul for a moment, because this verse will really bring this message to a practical place for us where we can understand what Jesus has done for us, and where we can understand what the Holy Spirit is inside of us, so that we don't just shout that God has given us the battle, but that we actually get to go back into the battles that we face in our lives with something practical where we can take it and where

we can triumph over the enemy that Jesus has already defeated. Somebody shout, I've got what it takes to win all right. Romans, chapter six, verse thirteen. Listen to this. Paul cautions you do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. That's what he did for you, as those who have been brought from death to life. You are a living instrument. And so since you are

a living instrument, you put your life. Watch this in the hands of a living God. Put your life in the hands Look at the second part of that verse, your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. In other words, take it back. You have been presenting yourself as an instrument to the enemy for long enough.

You have been presenting your mind to the enemy long enough. You have been presenting your mouth to the enemy long enough, just saying whatever comes out, just saying what everybody else says, just saying whateverything you happen to think of that moment, not checking it to see it. If he's even true, if it's where you want to end up in your life, and setting the direction by your tongue, and steering your life with the rudder of your tongue and your words

and your speech. You have let the devil have your instruments long enough take it back. You may not understand the value of the instrument that is you yet, And in case you don't, let me set the record straight. The way that you were brought from death to life is that Jesus went from life to death back to life again. Somehow the Savior of the universe thought Alex was an instrument worth dying for. Somehow the creator of

the cosmos thought Charlie was worth bleeding for. Somehow the maker of heaven and Earth thought Heather was worth setting his blood for. You are an interesting instrument. But let me tell you part two. You are an expensive instrument. You can't get this in a pawn shop. This is not a secondhand instrument. This is not a hand me down. This isn't the tuba that your brother never played. This is an expensive instrument, the first guitar that I ever bought that cost a lot of money. You know what

I'm gonna say. Do you know what I'm gonna say? My mom and my best friend from isaacall Are both on the second row. I can't tell any lies about my childhood or exaggerator embellish any facts about my life with these two fact checkers right here. But the first guitar that I ever bought, my mom bought me some and then I wanted this one specific one. It was a Paul Reid Smith. What if I had it in the back right now? Bring it out, Jared, bring out

my Paul Reid Smith. Jared Olson, everybody, Jared, you were shaken when you brought it out. You a little nervous. Excited me too. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited about this. Paul Readsmith. Oh, I was excited about this. I worked all summer to buy this Paul Reid Smith. And if Paul is watching, a sponsorship would be greatly appreciated for elevation worship. A lot of people watch these

sermons Paul Reid Smith. Everybody say, Paul Reid Smith, any guitar players in the house, you sound like you just started six months ago. The way he said, well, you don't sound like you toured with Journey. Let me put it that way. I told him, bring it out. In the case and everything. Just bring it out. How many memories does this bring back? I saved all summer working for pet Rest Cemetery and Cremation service. That was my first job. I say, all summer, every Saturday, me and Fox. Now,

Fox was a bass player. I should tell you this. When Paul says instruments of righteousness, he's talking about weapons. But I never fought in the army. So when I see instruments, I think, I think Paul reads Smith. I think about this, Paul reads Smith guitar that me and Fox. Now remember, me and him had a band together, but we didn't Well, Okay, I shall say it. I should say this, and I'll tell you I've been making up

bands since I was twelve years old. In my mind, I would give a band a name, and then I would tell all my friends they were in my band, even though they didn't play an instrument. I'd be like, Lee, you're my drummer. I don't have drums. It's fine, you're my drummer. We've got a band, and I would name the band, and I would make albums around those bands that didn't have any instruments or musicians. All that, I promise I'm gonna gave it to the Bible in a minute.

It is just to set up. This guitar was about fourteen hundred dollars when I bought it, which in today's money is seven point three million. Google it and look inflation is crazy and watch us. I would go every Saturday with Fox, and Fox was my first friend who actually had an instrument. My friend Michelle said, hey, you should meet Fox. He's got a bass. He's got a bass, he plays bass. I play guitar. We start playing together, We put bands together. His brother started playing drums. Now

I finally had friends with instruments. Y'all run around talking about friends with benefits. What you need is some friends with instruments, huh. Some friends who can help you grow and go where you need to go and have the gift of incur man. You need some friends with instruments. If you can't play, don't play me in this season. Because I'm looking for somebody who's got something, who's going somewhere. I'm not looking for somebody who's gonna turn back when

the battle gets hard. I need some friends. That's what God said to get in. You got too many men who don't have any instruments, and in this season of your life, let me get rid of everything that isn't serving a purpose. You sit down. This is my party. Smith. Every Saturday I went, I looked at it. I drooled over it, I lust it over it. I prayed for it. I did to hell Mary, I've prayed in pentecostal tongues until I finally got it. Until I finally got it.

When Mike on the store, we picked this up and play it. This sounded so good when I got it home. It didn't sound like Mike when Mike played it. Mike was a great guitar player. I think he's still there running that shop. Am I telling the truth? All summer? I saved up for this instrument. It's expensive. Come here, Eric, this is my friend I was talking about. Aren't you glad? He ironed that shirt today before he came to church.

I didn't plan it this, y'all. Mask you come on the stage, all the way on the stage, all the way on the stage. I texted him five minutes ago. I said you're here today, right? He said, fron center. I said good, But I didn't tell him this play something. Come on now, this is a Paul Reed Smith it should be beautiful. Yees see, we all knew this was gonna happen. He's trying to play plush by Stone Temple Pilots, but he can't. He didn't know it. Now I'm gonna

show you something. I'm gonna show you something. This will be so some stop playing. That's distracting. My best friend from high school, he would. He would drive me down there a lot of saturdays to look at the guitar, because he had his license before I did. We go down there to yell music and look at the thing. All right, watch this, watch this. That guitar is expensive, but in the wrong hands. Sorry, its potential is limited. E take that over to E. Come here, y'all give

it up for this. E. Come on, it's E Edwards. Everybody you know him from albums such as This is the Gospel. E. See what you can do with the instrument that that he had. Come here, come here, get in the shop. Do you think in his hands it will be the same as it was in your hands? Yeah? No, go sit down. All I needed him for was to put it in the right hands. I'm done with you. You can go sit down, you can sleep, you can take notes, you can shout, you can pray, you can

practice plush on the air guitar. I don't care what you do. E show him what that instrument is.

like doing. The lust of the eyes, just basing everything off of your senses in life, the pride of life, thinking it's all about just what I can accumulate and never what I can distribute. And you play with things, and eventually the things that you play with start playing you, and before long you might find yourself like Gideon or the Israelites in a season where you are a stringed instrument in the hands of a skilled enemy. That's what

the Midianites represent him. They were a skillful enemy. They knew how to play the Israelites, so that the Israelites were pressed in and hard pressed and pressed down and depressed and anxious and fearful and shrinking and small, so that by the time God finally said to Gideon, mighty warrior, Gideon didn't even believe when the Angel said, I see you as mighty, I see you as strong, I see you as capable. I made you for purpose. I put an assignment on your life. And Gideon says, who me,

Are you talking to me? Yeah, Gideon, you are an interesting instrument. You are an expensive instrument. You have been invested with the kind of divine resources that are very necessary for this exact assignment. Gideon, I feel God coming into somebody's wine press today. I feel God coming into somebody's weakness today. I feel God coming into somebody's dysfunction today, saying you are an expensive instrument. But you've been played

by the devil. But today we came to take back from the enemy what never should have been.

Everybody in here who is really good at worrying could be really good at prayer if you get it in the right hands, if you get your instrument back, come on, if you stay in this zestful of lust and say, oh, it's nothing but the dog and me. A man's gotta have what a man's gotta have. Then you are going to entrust your mind and your heart to an enemy

that does not have a good intention for you. But if you get that instrument back, it can become true intimacy, so that the God, who knows what he put inside of you, can release everything that was meant to be sent into the world that he called you to if you get your life in the right hands. So the first thing that God had to do for get in was he had to get him to let go of some things. In gideon specific case, I guess it was kind of like a post twenty twenty world where they

had the Great resignation. Everybody I know who owns a business right now is saying, man, it's hard for me to find. They don't say good people. They say people. I got used to the thing that's good. Help is hard to find. Now they're like, horrible help is hard to find. I'll take some horrible help, Lord, because hell, now, listen, I'm not praying that God would downsize anybody's life. I'm not praying that, but I am saying, it's not always

the devil. When your life is downsized, there will be moments that God, to get you ready for the space he's taking you into, will need to thin out some things that you were depending on that kept you from depending on him. This is Giddy, This is Gideon that the Lord said. And I noticed how the Lord gave him an instruction. He said, everyone who's trembling, send them home.

So Gideon's like, everybody who's trembling came and two thirds took him up on it, and probably he's like, well, I mean you could tremble a little bit, little trembles, all right, all right, if you're trembling. Oh God, did I do it wrong? Ah, you did it right. The only problem is you didn't do it enough. So now I remember when we met Gideon in a couple of weeks ago, he was threshing in a wine press, and now God is threshing sifting. Not sifting for the purpose

of subtraction, sifting for the purpose of strategy. Is that word for somebody here? Quit giving the devil credit for it. Quit giving the devil credit for it. Oh, the devil took this, and the devil took that and the devil took the other, and the devil did he? Or is God getting room ready for your life? I know I'm ministering to one person right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now.

There will always be someone who will take this message out of a context that I mean it in and just use this as an excuse to be horrible to people in relationships and say that you weren't one of my three hundred. But those of us who are mature enough to know understand that this is not permission for us to be that at relationships and blame it on faith. What it is for me is a promise from God that what I've got in my hand in this season is what He meant to give me for where I'm going,

And I've got what it takes to win. I've got what I want, not necessarily. I would really like to have thirty two thousand more if you ask me, But God didn't ask you. He's doing the math. You got to put this in his hands now, and I say, God, I am going to let go put up Verse seven,

Judges seven. You'll hardly believe how clear it is he said, let all the others go, you see that ninety seven hundred on one side, three hundred on the other, and the three hundred are dogs, And God says, you're gonna do You're gonna do this with those three hundred dogs. I got that doll. I got that doll. I got that dog. The ones that were drinking like this, hand them out, I got that dog. And God says, that's

what you want. Now you want? You want the stuff in this season that you can actually depend on, not the stuff you've been pretending with. Can I go a little further with this message? I'm gonna have to put this the part two on YouTube this week because there's too much. I've been putting these extra teachings on my YouTube channel from the Basin, and you know what I'm gonna do while I'm on tour. I'm gonna put the

Basin from the bus. I'm gonna go on the bus and I'm gonna put some sermons on there and I will finish this. But I can't not tell you this next part because it's really what led me to the message. Somebody say, I've got what it takes to win. God leads him to the three hundred they have already sent home over thirty thousand and so the Lord says, let all the others go, every man to his home verse eight. So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets.

That's an instrument. Unplug it real quick. I'll bring you back, I promise now, a trumpet. I never played a trumpet, so I used the guitar because I thought it was more appropriate. But the trumpet is not like an electric guitar because it doesn't have to be plugged in. A trumpet is a different kind of instrument. A trumpet. How many of you played trumpet in the band at one point for six months because your mom made you or something like that, or you love it and you're great

at it, okay great? A trumpet is a what kind of instrument? A wind instrument. A trumpet is a wind instrument. So a trumpet needs two things. Somebody who knows where to put their hands. These musicians are getting excited because they know something about instruments. Somebody who knows where to put their hands, and someone with breath control. So Gideon has been let me get this back to you real quick.

Gideon has been in the wrong hands for years, like some of you, just like in his mind, go to this place of misery, predictable misery, enslavement, entanglement, entrapment, and everything that comes along with the strategy of the enemy. That might be for you a state of addiction. That might be for you a state of low self worth where you have forgotten who you are some of you. If you talk to somebody else the way that you talk to yourself, they would punch you in the nose.

And you use your self talk to beat the crap out of yourself. And I came today with a message from Almighty God to let you know that you are a very expensive instrument. And watch this. He paid too much for you to stay in a dead place. So that when Paul gets ready to say it, he says, you have been brought from death to life. Well, what does it take to go from death to life? Breath? So what does God do when he gets ready to raise some body up to do something significant for a

purpose that they didn't even see themselves? For? God said, I brought you to church today. You didn't just go to church today. I brought you to church so that I could blow into you the wind of the Holy Spirit for this second season of your life, because the best is still ahead.

Then after he sent all of them home and took their trumpets from him, he said, you go leave your trumpet. You go, leave your trumpet. You go, but leave your trumpet. You go, but leave your trumpet. And all the three hundred are going, what are we gonna do with these trumpets? Can you get them to leave their sword? Because we need a sword. Get in. I know you're new to this Mighty Warrior thing, but you might have wanted to read the Mighty Warrior Handbook before you start rounding up supplies.

But something in Gideon said, we're gonna need some weird weapons for this battle. If we go about it in a worldly way, we will be weakened. If we go about it in a worldly way, we will be defeated. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God. For the pulling down a strongholds, I feel strong holds coming down.

He's about to breathe in you so so so so so so. The Bible said that same night, the Lord verse nine. I'm in verse nine. The Lord said, arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. He removes them. But watch this, if you are afraid to go down, first in, if you are afraid to go down, go down. Lord. I think we need a translator, because you are ways are not my ways, and your thoughts and not my thoughts. And apparently we speak differ languages. They have an army of locusts.

I have an army of dogs. You told me to send them away because I had too many. Really, they have too many. This is you making all the reasons up in your brain why you can't do what God called you to do. This is you. I just want you to see that God is speaking to you. Greg not just get in This is you. So you get in your head. You get in your head and things die there because you give the instrument of your mind to the enemy. The Lord says, if you are afraid,

wait a minute. He just sent all the men away who were trembling. But he's trembling too, and God knows it. So God says, you can tremble, but you can't turn back. It's so okay for you to feel afraid. It's so okay for you to feel those feelings of unworthiness, but you must not surrender to them. Before. We have a great high priest who can sympathize with us that he was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. It's okay to be tempted, don't give into it. It's

okay to slip up, get up. It's okay that you go off, apologize and taper it next time. For God's sake. You can tremble, that's the feeling, but you can't turn back. That's the commitment. If you want to see the victory, you will see it whin wh eton when you have felt the fear, when you have felt the discouragement, and you press through it, and you breathe through it, and you loved through it, and you forgave through it, and He brought you through it. Because it's his hand that

gives the victory. It's his hand. Say it's his hand. You think he's running out of mercy, it's his hand. You think he gave you somebody else's gift on accident, or didn't give you. You got everything that, every little thing I'm telling you, I believe in God, sovereign God, a wonderful, masterful God who handbuilt this instrument. Made me weird where he made me weird. I'm about to get weirder. Warning to all of the people who live with me. I'm about to get weirder. I did something the other day.

I did something Holly never saw me do. I backed into a parking space. She said, a back in kind of guy. All of a sudden, huh, I said, yeah, you don't even know me yet, you have it even met me. Yeah, I'll back in, I'll back out. I'll do this thing now. Watch watch, watch, watch watch. Can you truly say that you have put your life in God's hands? Or are you holding on to things that you think you need to know and trying to control things that are the sole dominion of the King of

kings and Lord of lords? Because I saw it in the message. I saw God said, if you're afraid to go down to the camp, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant. Verse eleven is so annoying, and you shall hear what they say. Remember, God's been talking to Gideon for an entire chapter. You're a mighty warrior. Go in the strength you have. I will use you. I will be with you. Okay, I'll light a rock on fire. I'll make the goat that you brought out catch on fire. I'll help you build an altar. I'll

help you smash altars. Gideon says, can I lay out a fleece and you make the fleece wet and the ground ground around it dry? This is all in Judges chapter six, And God's like, yeah, sure, I'll make the fleece wet and the drowned ground around it dry to show you that if everything around you dries up, I'll still give you a spirit inside of you that'll make you ready for what I've called you to do. And then he does it. And then Gideon is like, okay, how about the other way. Can you make the fleece

dry and everything around it wet? And God say yeah, because when you feel dry, I'm gonna put enough encouragement around you in seasons of your life where you can get by on somebody else, this his faith. And after God does all that, Gideones is still trembling until the Lord says, okay, Verse eleven, go there, face what you fear. Say it out loud, face what you fear, and you'll hear what they say, and afterward the hands your hands shall be strengthened after you hear not what God says,

after you hear what the enemy says. I'm gonna tell you something you've never had a preacher tell you before. Sometimes you need to listen to your enemy. They're gonna come take our Baptist papers away after this sermon. For sure, Pastor, I've heard you preach a lot of sermons, but you're always telling me not to do that. No, no, no, he said, go down and hear what the enemy is

saying about you. And when you hear what the enemy says, if you don't believe what God says about you, maybe you'll believe what the enemy says about you, Which raises a question. If you're worthless, why is the devil fighting you so hard? Think about that. The enemy is not infinite. Only God is infinite. He only has so much artillery.

So if it's been coming against your mind lately, and it's been coming against your marriage lately, and it's been coming against your bloodline lately, and it's been coming against your heart lately, what does your enemy believe about you that you don't believe about you. He must believe that you are a very valuable instrument. That's why you've been having shortness of breath, panic attacks, barely get through the day, because the devil knows if you keep breathing much longer,

there is a breakthrough with your name on it. You are so close and just about the time. Look at God, Look how sovereign he is, Look how he puts you here at this time for this message. Look how he gave you this word for when you needed it, for got what it takes to win. How did Gideon know because the moment he got to the camp, give me Verse twelve. This is so good, we'll stop it. Verse I promise. I'm closing. Somebody shout I've got, I've got,

I've got what it takes to win. Now watch this, And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley. They're in abundance. The enemy is in abundance, and Gideon's strengths are few. And I know you feel that way, but listen to the enemy. Verse thirteen, he says, dude, I had a dream last night. It was kind of weird. It was a you're not gonna believe me, but behold I dreamed

the dream. And behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the campa media and it came to the tent and it struck it, so it fell and turned it upside down, and the tent lay flat? Is that the whole dream? You know when people try to tell you they d and you're like, I'm sure this was interesting when you were asleep, but this is really can you speed this along, and then I was wearing glasses, but they weren't glasses, they were headphones. But then they were

air pods. And then the left one died, what do you think that means? Bro saw some bread rolled through the camp and it smashed everything. Give me verse fourteen. Look what his friend says back, this is the weird part. Yeah, I ain't heard the weird part. Yeat And the comrade answered, this is none other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joe asher Men of Israel. God has given into his Anmdian all the camp. You got all that from a loaf of bread, barley bread, No doubt, that's

the cheap bread. That's the moldy bread. And something snapped in Gideon when he heard that. Look at verse fifteen. As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. What do you do when you worship? You throw your hands up? What did God say he had given Gideon the victory? Where did he tell me put it in his hands? So he put those instruments of victory up in there and realized that the hand of Midian is strong, but the hand of

God is greater. And he returned to the camp. Who is this word? For? This thing has been burning a hole in me. I can't even move right now. I'm glued to the floor till I finished this. And Gideon went back down, not from what he heard from God, what he heard from his enemies. He realized, if they are that intimidated by me, then God must if they're dreaming about me, if the devil is waking me up in the middle of the night, it must be a sword. And he said to his men, arise, for the Lord

has given the host of Midian into your hand. And I want to ask you something. If a barley bred loaf can be a weapon to destroy an army that's as abundant as a swarm of locusts, how fast does the barley have to be moving to knock down a whole camp. So now you get it. It wasn't about the weapon. It was about the wind. That's why, a child of God, you can hold your head high when you leave this church today, because you can know, Oh, I'm a weapon. He's the wind. When the angel said

mighty warrior, Gideon said me. When the enemy said moldy bread, Gideon's like, oh, that's me. Sometimes what you need to believe is in how much you know. You don't need more information, you need more belief in God. It was an amazing thing for the enemy to see something as common as you rolling at him picking up momentum now, and Gideon said, all right, now that I've let go of my excuses, let's go. Let go, So let's go. That looks like bread coming. Oh no, I just saw

whose hands were behind it. Oh God, I know what happens when you put it in the master's hands. Ask the five thousand, what happens when you get the bread in the right hands. Yeah, but it was broken. You know what you didn't know? I didn't show you.

torch in the left hand. Lift your hands. You've got what it takes to win, because the wind is behind you, the Holy Spirit, who is with you. How could something so broken produce something so beautiful? Everyone who has a broken praise lift your voice to the Lord right now. Tell him, thank you for the bread, Thank you for the bread, Thank you for the bread, Thank you for a new beginning. Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord. Come on, open your mouth, that's your trumpet. Use your words, use

your breath. Tell him. I give you this situation. I give you this lawsuit, I give you this custody battle. I give you this bill, I give you this diagnosis. Come on, I need a worship team. Let's let the wind of God sweep through this place. We've eaten the bread, we perceived the word. But here comes the wind. Here comes the wind. Beautiful sounds from broken instruments, a beautiful song from a broken vessel. Lift your hands, lift your hands, lift your.

of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you