I’m Scared and Prepared | Robert Madu | Social Dallas

to share with you. When we launched our almost home campaign, we set out with a bold goal to raise $6 million so that we could break ground on our future church home. - We started our almost home campaign last year with a six letter word, social, and every letter represents $1 million. And because of your generosity and your sacrifice, we've watched God do what only he can do. And today, we're excited to announce that we are officially less than $1 million away from reaching our goal. - Let's go church. That means we are down to one letter, the letter L. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to take the L. And here's why this moment matters so much. On Sunday, November 15, we're believing that we will come together on Vision Sunday and celebrate the groundbreaking of our future home and construction will officially begin. But in order to do that, we have to finish what we started. - Yes, this has never been just about a building. It's about the people who will encounter Jesus inside of it because of you. - We're closer than we've ever been. We believe the best is still ahead. If this ministry has ever impacted your life, we want to invite you to partner with us. - Yes, visit socialdallas.com/give and select almost home in the giving options.

Or you can text the word give to 469-715-3755. - Let's take the L. Let's change the city because God loves Dallas. - Here's today's message. - Hey! - Are you glad to be in God's house? Do you like who you're singing next to? All right, if you don't change your seat, I say it all the time. Hey, I am so glad that your face is in the place today. I really believe that God is going to do something significant in your life today. I don't think you're here by accident. We always say there's a reason you're in the room. God has something in store for you. I want to thank God for our social global family that's watching right now from around the world. Come on, y'all can do better than that social global. We love you. Let us know right now in the chats, where you're watching from. It's going to be a good day in the house of the Lord. Can we thank God for our worship team? I just want to... All y'all are incredible. You know they're good when they make you think you can sing. Let me hear them notes. You'll be like, "Well, I'm good at Texas Trust "that you hear yourself in the car." You're like, "Oh, actually, now that was them."

So thankful for this house. So thankful for the privilege of getting to lead this house. Glad that you're here. Like you have confident trust in the Lord. If you're new to social, we have a word for every year. And our word for this year is trust, not ratchet trust. Confident trust in the Lord. And that comes straight out of the word of God. So every single Sunday of this year, we've declared Hebrews chapter 10, verses 35 to 37. We're going to do it again today with uplifted, caffeinated voices, as I like to say. Come on, y'all ready? It's all right, you don't go till I say it, okay. So, remember, patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has for us for in just a little while. The coming one will come and not delay. Y'all sound good. Y'all sound good, 9 a.m. Remain standing, we're going to jump into our text for today. We have been in a series called Name Tags. Y'all made it to week number six, y'all. Come on, this is week six of this series. And remember I told you when this series started, we really could be in this series all the way into the end of next year. 'Cause in your Bible, there are over 60 names of God.

And we've been declaring that if you've got a need, God has a name. How many of you ready to get another name today? Oh, it's going to be good. Go with me to Judges chapter six today. Judges chapter six, and I want to look at verses 11 through 16. Judges chapter six, starting at verse number 11 and will land at verse 16. When you're ready to read it, say, yeah. If you need some time to find the book of Judges, say, hold up, I heard it, I heard that, hold up, and I'm gonna wait for you. Even though we got fall fifth happening after so. Yeah. Verse 11 of Judges chapter 6 says, "The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak and ophra that belonged to Joash, the abyserite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Pardon me, my Lord," Gideon replied. In other words, what you're talking about? If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Don't act like you have never said that before. God, if you are with me, why am I going through what I am going through? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us

and given us into the hand of Gideon. The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Gideon's hand. Am I not sending you? Pardon me, my Lord," Gideon is so polite. He replied, "How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive." Can you say, "Hey, man, this is good, y'all. This is good. I got more message than I got minutes." But I want to tag a title to this text that might seem contradictory, but give me to the end of the message, and hopefully we'll bring some clarity to it. I want you to look at your neighbor, and I know that annoys some of you, but you need to talk to the person next to you. I want you to look at your neighbor and tell them my title today. Just look at him and say, "Neighbor." Oh, neighbor, I'm scared and prepared. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Find another neighbor, find another neighbor. I need you to say it like you feel that thing. Say, "Other neighbor, I got to be honest. I'm scared and prepared." If you believe God's going to speak to you today,

would you give him some praise? I mean, a for real praise, practice. Like you got the victory. Lord, speak today. Hey, man, you may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I'm scared and prepared. Social fam, Tuesday of last week, I had a meeting that I will remember for the rest of my life. Now, keep in mind, in this season, I am in a lot of meetings. A whole lot of meetings. I am in meetings where they are speaking English and I still need an interpreter. That's the season I'm in right now. I'm in meetings. I'm sitting up there and they're talking about, "Yeah, we're at 60% CC, and we're going to get the MEP next week, and I'm going to check on the RFI and make sure we have by EOD and SWV." And I'm like, "What are y'all talking about right now?" But this meeting was different. This meeting was different. Something happened that I was not expecting. We were meeting with some consultants and we were talking about our future home and we were talking about the building. We're talking about budgets and we're talking about the future. And all of a sudden, without warning, in the middle of the meeting, we hear, "In case my sound effects are not effective, this was last Tuesday, not the 4th of July,

and this was not a nighttime meeting, y'all. This was in the middle of the day, y'all. This was not fireworks. Gunshots were going off. Gunshots were in the earshot of where we were having the meeting. Now, I'm getting too old to lie to y'all. I got to keep it real. I have to keep it 100. I was raised in the suburbs. I went to private school. I wore pleated khaki pants for a majority of my life. Last night was not Halloween to me. It was hallelujah night, OK? I'm saying that to say there is not a gangster bone in my entire body. I am out of custom to him. and about a hundred yards away, I see the person that is firing the shots. Now any psychologist will tell you, your nervous system and voluntarily will do one of three things in a moment like this. Fight, flight, or freeze. My nervous system went with the third option. I just froze, I just froze, and I just panicked y'all. I'm telling you, my heart is populating, and my cortisol is spiking, but I did find out something last Tuesday. I found out something very significant last Tuesday. I found out that Pastor Josh has my back. Pastor Josh has my back. It is a room full of staff, y'all.

Remember, I'm frozen. It's a room full of staff, including the woman I've been married to for 14 years. A room full of staff, I'm frozen. Pastor Josh is the only person that says, "P.R., get down, get down, get down, get down." He had my back. That's the type of people you need in your life, right there. Some people are right or die. Some people are just right. Shout out, P.J., but the moment was real. The moment was real, and as I've been thinking about it this week, I realized that nothing can change the climate of an environment like fear. Hear me today, fear will change an atmosphere. When fear walks into a room, you can forget about what was on your agenda. All of a sudden, everything will shift when fear shows up. Fear will change what matters to you. Think about in that meeting, we were talking about budgets in the future. All of a sudden, when those gunshots went off, everything on the table went out the window and everybody stopped. I was thinking about it because what I experienced this week was just a moment of fear. It was something that interrupted my day. I can even talk about it with a little bit of a levity. But what do you do when fear is not just a moment,

but fear is something that you have had to learn to live with? I found out that fear can become the filter that affects every aspect of your life. Fear can affect the decisions you make, the relationships you enter, the conversations you avoid, the opportunities you pursue. And if you allow fear to control your life, hear me, your world can start getting smaller without a single wall moving. Because fear doesn't just affect how you feel. Fear can affect how you live. There's a difference between experiencing fear in a moment and living with the expectation of fear every single day. Waking up, wondering what might happen. Living your life, trying to protect yourself from the next thing that could go wrong. Making decisions based on what you're afraid might happen. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the climate of our text today in Judges, chapter six. The children of Israel watch this, are living in a climate of fear. And before you judge them and start saying their cowards, please understand what they are walking through. They have been oppressed by the Midianites. The Midianites were a massive army, a massive group of people. They swarm in on the children of Israel like locusts. They would attack them and ravage their homes and assassinate everything that they love. This is what they are coming against.

It is the Midianites who keep coming after them. What's wild about this attack that they're going through is it wasn't just the Midianites that were coming after them. The Midianites had connected with the Amalekites and people from the East. You ever notice how people that don't even like each other will connect with each other if they have a common enemy? That they don't even like each other, but they are all in agreement, we don't like you. So we'll get together to come and attack you. This is what the children of Israel are going through. They are getting hit and attacked from every single side from the Midianites. Watch this, notice the attack of the Midianites and the Amalekites on the children of Israel. They are strategic in their attack because they invade them whenever they plant their crops. As soon as they plant their crops and the harvest is about to hit, here come the Midianites getting ready to attack them. Can you imagine, social fam, spending all that time preparing your soil, sowing your seed and then waiting with anticipation for a harvest only to find out every time you have a harvest, here comes an army that's attacking you, taking the very thing that you worked hard to produce. Let's just bring it to the 21st century. Can you imagine working as hard as you worked? And as soon as your check is about to hit your bank account, somebody steals it from you after you worked as hard

as you had to work and watch this. It's been going on for seven years. Seven years of uncertainty. Seven years of wondering whether or not what you planted, whatever becomes something that you can't enjoy. And now they are hiding. Watch this in caves and mountains when they're in the land that God gave them because fear has changed their address. I'm reading this this week and I am empathizing with the children of Israel and I'm feeling their pain. I can't imagine what it's like to go through something like that, y'all. And when I got to verse five, I was about to start a go fund me for the children of Israel. No, I'm serious. I said, this is not right to work that hard and to not be able to reap your harvest, but before I started to go fund me, I felt God tapped me and say, don't forget verse number one. Before you start getting to your feelings about verse number five. Let me just pause right there and just say, before you jump into somebody's verse five, make sure you get familiar with that verse number one. Yeah, 'cause verse number five can feel bad, but get you some context and read verse number one.

'Cause I was about to fight for them. I said, this is not right. Somebody stopped the Midianites and I had to go back to verse number one. Can we look at it real quick? Verse number one, it says the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And for seven years, he gave them into the hand of the Midianites. Oh, wait a minute, hold up. You mean to tell me this is not a random attack? You mean to tell me that this is actually a consequence of a group of people who have turned their back on Yahweh who said, I want to do things my way. I think it's better to do it the way I want to do it. So God says, says, I'm not getting your attention. Maybe I will give you over to your enemies and see if they can get your attention. This was not a random attack. This was a consequence of disobedience. I know I'm not gonna get no amenes on fall fizz 'cause some of y'all just want some cotton candy. But isn't it interesting that many times we cry out to God saying, can you stop this attack when it's really not an attack? It is a consequence of our own disobedience. Oh, I gotta be careful right through here because not everything that is going wrong in your life is connected to something that you did. Hear that today.

We live in a fallen world. We live in a broken world. Sometimes it is just the fact that we are fallen. Sometimes what you're going through is what somebody did to you, but there are other times when what you are going through, hear me, is simply a consequence of disobedience. Have you ever asked God for deliverance from a consequence of your own disobedience? So I've learned in life, we talk about name tags, right? When I go through stuff, I gotta make sure I put the right tag on it. I can't tag something as an attack when it's really a consequence. I've gone through something in my body and the enemy's attacking me and I'm sick. It might be an attack, but there's a difference between that and you now have an STD because you've been intimate with somebody that you're not in covenant with. Yeah, that's not an attack, tag it right. That's a consequence. And it doesn't mean you can't cry out to God and it doesn't mean you're not loved. But if you don't understand the difference between an attack and a consequence, you will find yourself in life going through cycles, repeating things over and over again. By the way, this is the book of judges, ladies and gentlemen. The book of judges is one of the most boring books

in the Bible primarily because it is the same story, essentially, over and over and over again. Let me give it to you just a Wikipedia version. The children of Israel experience a time of peace where everything is good. Then all of a sudden they turn their back on God and start worshiping other gods. When they do that, all of a sudden God hands them over to their enemies. They get handed over to their enemies and then they cry out to God. I was like, "Oh, we ain't know what we're gonna do this again. "Oh, we ain't know what we're gonna do this again. "Oh, we ain't know what we're gonna do this again." And when they cry out to God, then God sends a deliverer. When God sends a deliverer, they did have a season of peace and then they go right back to worshiping other gods again. It's the same story over and over and over again. Seasons of peace followed by seasons of rebellion. After the rebellion comes oppression. After oppression comes repentance. After repentance then comes deliverance. And I'm reading the book of judges, judging them. Tell my God, you could have cut this short in chapter one. Why do you keep giving them chance? After chance, after chance, when they keep messing up. Why do you keep extending grace? If it was me, I wouldn't have done it.

And God said, "Be careful judging the book of judges." 'Cause the same grace I kept extending to them Oh, don't get a twist there. I don't want to be stuck in cycles. I don't want to be stuck in sin, but I'm so thankful that the grace of God still reaches out for me, and that God is patient with other people. But if you ain't praising God for that, something is wrong with you, but somebody ought to just testify in this service and say, "I'm grateful that God gives me chance after chance after chance after chance." God of second chances, yeah, right? I'm on 2033. Look at what God does. He raises up a judge to bring deliverance. Can I take my time today? Oh, he raises up all kinds of judges. He raises up people like Ehood. Ehood. What a judge. It's a dude who is left-handed and pulls up on the King of Moab and says, "Why Marvel doesn't do a movie about this? I don't know." Since God has a message for you, pulls a sword out of his thigh on the side, stabs this dude in the gut and just leaves the whole sword in there and heals him, judges like that Ehood, judges like Deborah, who God raises up. Ladies, I thought you would make more noise than that. Deborah, who God raises a prophetess, and God lets you know that sometimes it takes a woman to win. Judges like Samson, who long hair don't care, who had supernatural strength, supernatural strength, killed a thousand dudes with the jawbone of a donkey, Samson. I get Ehood. I get Deborah. I get Samson. It makes sense to me why God would raise them up to be deliverance. I can look at them outside and go, "Oh, that's amazing. I see the gift. I see the talent. I see why God raised them up." But I don't get Gideon. For real? I know God don't make mistakes. I'm just trying to figure out, what do you see in Gideon to raise this dude up? Y'all, this dude is a farmer. God's picking no offense to any farmers. Do you? You are farmers. Be a farmer. I'm just thinking, if God's going to pick a farmer, pick a ferocious farmer. Pick a farmer that can fight. In my mind, if I'm God, and I'm picking a farmer, I'm sorry. I'm going to pick a farmer that in my mind is going to take one of his little plows and turn it into a sword, and be riding around on the horse, and half of his face is painted blue, and say, "Hear me, sons of Israel. I am Gideon. I know we are facing the Midianites, and they may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom." Is that all you watch is TikTok, or do you watch Braveheart? Have you seen? Never mind. That's what I would pick. I would pick a ferocious farmer. God doesn't pick a ferocious farmer. He picks a scared farmer. Let's be clear. This whole text is painted on the canvas of fear. Gideon is scared. He's not ferocious. He is scared to death. He's so scared. Watch this. He is hiding with the people that he's called to leave. He's hiding with the people that he is called to influence. How are you going to deliver people when you're hiding with them? See, this is what I wish people would be real about today. Everybody's too busy flexing, and posting, and curating this perfect image that nobody wants to be honest enough to say, "I'm scared too." Shout out to Gideon. At least he keeps it real. Homeboy is hiding. He is scared to death. Does anybody know what it's like to be called to lead, and you're just as scared as the people you're called to lead? Does anybody know what it's like to be an influencer and have God call you up and raise you up, and here you are trying to be bold and brave, and the people that you're leading don't know that you don't know what you're doing either, and that there's a part of you as they're looking at you for the plan. You're trying to figure it out, too. I will preach to myself today. Does anybody know what it's like to have the weight of responsibility on you, and you almost feel a little bit like an imposter because people are looking at you like, "Ooh, he got it all together, and you don't want to let them know that you are just flesh and bone. You don't want to let them know that you gave it." work out. Oh, I wish people would be honest and say, yo, I'm scared of the million H2. I'm in a cave too. This is Gideon. He is not a ferocious farmer. He is a scared farmer. And what do you do when you're scared? You hide. That's why he's hiding. Whenever you're afraid, you go and you hide. Can I ask you something? I'm going to ask you anyway. Where do you go when you hide? Where do you go when the pressure is mounting up and it's too

much and you're afraid? I want to know where do you go to hide because hiding looks different for everybody. Sometimes it's not even just where you go to hide, it's what you go to to hide. Some of us go to our screens to hide. You don't scroll it because I read the hide, the scroll it and actually pause and deal with what I'm facing. Some people hide in their work. That's why you faithful on your job because you're so good in the boardroom, not good in the living room. And so since I'm in a house, well, I have a family and they're not your employees. You know what to do in the job. I need this report by six o'clock and do this, but I have it on my desk. Yes, because I said it, but in your home around the table, you hide. Where do you go? Some people go to a bottle. Some people go to pornography. I want to know where do you go when you hide? Where do you go when you're afraid to face the thing that is not going away, that is out there seeking to destroy you? Thank God that the Bible tells us where Gideon went to hide. Gideon, hear me. The Bible says that he is threshing wheat in a winepress. Threshing wheat in a winepress. That doesn't sound weird to you because you're not a farmer. You're not a farmer. Any farmer in here knows you don't thresh wheat in a winepress. A winepress is where they would crush grapes. It's a place that is low for that purpose of crushing the grapes. Whenever you were threshing wheat or winnowing, as they would call it, what you needed to do was remove the wheat from the stalk and you needed to get to a high elevated place and you would go to a threshing floor, a place that was open, a place that had space. Why? Because as you were doing the work of threshing, part of your job as you're working, watch this, is to throw the wheat up in the air hoping you would catch the wind because the wind would blow away the chaff and the things that were unnecessary and the wheat would fall to the bottom. Watch this. You had to do the work if you were threshing wheat, but while you're working, you're also waiting on the win because there was work you had to do and there was something that only the wind could do. So as you're in a high open place, you're doing your part working, but the wind has got to do its part too. Oh, let me pause right there. That's why I need the Holy Spirit in my life because I can be working all I want. I can be grinding, but if I don't have any wind of the Holy Spirit blowing in my life, blowing in this church, blowing on the message, I have no hope. Oh, somebody needs to know it is not your gift. It is not your grind. You better know you need the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow away the stuff that's not necessary, the stuff you don't need. Somebody say I need some wind. I need some wind. I can't be working with no wind.

If I work and I got no wind, this is a TED talk. If I work and I got no wind, that's just a cute little message. But if the wind blows, all of a sudden the stuff that is unnecessary will go away and the stuff that I need will come to the ground. But how do you do this when you're in a wine press? There is no wind in a wine press, so he is doing the work, but there's no wind. He's not flourishing. He's just surviving. And I think that somebody's life in here today that you are going through the motions and you're doing it. You would think that God would go, I'm not coming down there. Gideon, you better come up here if you want a word from me. You would think that God would say, Gideon, when you stop being scared and you get some courage, then I'll come down to where you are, but read it in the text. How many of you know Gideon did not go to God? God came down to Gideon. I want to thank God that even when I'm in a low and a dark place and there is no wind, I serve a God who says even when you can't come up because you're afraid, I will come down and step into a winepress and give you the word that you need. Who am I preaching to today? God can show up and give you a word in a winepress. God will give you a word in a winepress. God can get a word to you in the winepress. Somebody came all the way to social Dallas to get that word right there. You can take a screenshot and go to the crib because you've been in a dark place. You've been in a place where there's been no joy. You have not been thriving. You've just been surviving and I came to tell you there is no place that is too low that God cannot step in that place and bring you a word. Somebody watching this on panda right now needs to know that God will give you a word when you're in the winepress. You can't keep him out of prison. He'll come in wherever he wants. Oh, y'all making me work hard. Y'all know we got false hands. God can go low. God can get you a word anywhere. Oh, should I tell the story? I'm going to tell it. We get so many stories of what God is doing. But this is a story I'll never forget. There was a young lady who worked at a strip club where we meet at Gillies and came to social Dallas. Started coming to social Dallas and called social Dallas to church. Went back into the strip club and was telling the other ladies that worked there, said, "Hey, y'all need to come to my church." And they're like, "Now we can't go to the church. We know how they ought to go and judge us." They said, "Now this church is different. They meet at Gillies. You should come." And the young lady was like, "If you don't know about my church, let me show you who my pastor is." And she started showing the video of a sermon. I was preaching in the strip club. All of a sudden these ladies come around and they're watching the sermon in the strip club. Before you know it, the bouncer comes over and says, "What y'all listening to?" They said, "We're just watching social Dallas." All of a sudden the bouncer came over and all of them are in the lobby of a strip club watching a sermon. How does that happen? Because God can get a word in a wine press. It don't matter how dark. It don't matter how low. Be careful who you write off. Be careful who you don't think God is speaking to. When God wants to get a word to somebody, he'll show up in a wine. He'll get you a word wherever. Whatever he needs to get it, he will get you a word. What is the word? What's the word the Gideon gets? Here it is. Here's the word. And Angel shows up and says to Gideon, "Who? The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." It's a scared farmer hiding with everybody else. God shows up in a wine press, the place where he's hiding and says, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Here's what you have to understand about the Bible. You don't get vocal intonation in the Bible. We don't know how this angel of the Lord said it. So there's really only two ways he said it. He could have said it with sarcasm. Come on, the dude is hiding. So he could have showed up and said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." That's one option, sarcasm. The other option is sovereignty. Yeah, because sovereignty comes up to him and could have said it like this, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Because he only sees where he is now.

He doesn't see where he's going to be. I'm talking to somebody that only sees where you are now. But you don't see where you're going to be. And because God is sovereign, whenever he speaks to you, he does not speak to you just off of what he sees. He speaks to you off of the purpose that he already knows you're going to accomplish. This is why the Bible says in Isaiah that he makes known the end from the beginning. So Gideon really should have taken the opportunity to do a praise break right there. Because if God is saying, "I am a mighty warrior and he's with me," that means you have already seen a battle that I'm about to step into. And you've already seen that I've won the battle before I ever stepped into the battle. That's why you can't wait till you get in the battle or after battle, start praising God. You've got to praise him before you get in it and before it's over because he sees what you don't see. All Gideon sees. He's a scared farmer. God says, "I see a mighty warrior because you're in chapter 6 Gideon and you want to give up in chapter 6. But you're about to fight in chapter 7. And because I already know what I'm going to do in chapter 7, well how would I wait to chapter 7 to call you what you already are? You are a mighty warrior, even if you don't see it. Oh, go back, can you put it back on the screen? Somebody didn't get it. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. That order matters. The only reason you get to mighty warrior is because the Lord is with you. This is why when Gideon starts giving his resume of his inadequacies, God doesn't even

waste time talking to him about what he doesn't have because it doesn't matter what your fighting skills are. I already told you what you have. You got me. And if I am with you, you got every single thing that you need. That's why nobody can ever boast before the Lord. You're only a mighty warrior because of the one that is with you. And I wish I had at least 100 people at Texas Trust Theater that knows the only reason I'm mighty is because the Lord is with me. The Lord is with you. What's on your resume? The Lord is with you. You have any references? The Lord is with me. What's your credits going on? The Lord is with me, he's with me. We know you ain't mighty. We know you don't know how to figure it out. All you God is that the Lord is with you. Gideon is wasting pages on the Bible, talking about, "Well, I'm the least in my family, and I'm over the tribe of Manasseh, and I'm not." God doesn't even waste time answering any of that. He tells them, "I will be with you. So in the strength that you have." What is Gideon's response? His response is your response. Somebody's response today, "Well, if the Lord is with us, why is all this happening to us?" "Excuse me, sir, if the Lord is with me, why am I filing for bankruptcy? If the Lord is with me, why did my husband leave me?

If the Lord is with me, why am I losing my job?" He's asking a question that all of us ask, "If the Lord is with me, why has all this happened to us?" Here's what's interesting about the question that he's asking. The very presence he's questioning is the presence he's experiencing. You're talking about, "If the Lord is with me, why is this happening to me?" Because you're looking at the Midianites. You're not looking at the fact that God has just showed up in your winepress. Could it be possible that God is with you, but you don't even recognize it? Could it be possible that God is with you and the God you are questioning? You are actually experiencing. Read your Bible and see how many people had encounters, I'm talking about divine encounters. And then realized afterwards, oh, that was the Lord. (congregation laughs) What if he's with you in the pain, in the hurting? And while you're questioning it, you are experiencing it, but you just don't recognize it. Gideon gets that verse in verse 16. He says, guess what? I will be with you. The Lord answered, I will be with you. This is a pattern in the Bible. Where often people from Jeremiah to Moses will tell God all the reasons he shouldn't pick them. And God always give the same answer. I'll be with you because my presence with you is enough. Enough. Watch what Gideon does, don't miss this.

Gideon says, hey, real quick, Angel, can you stay right here? I want to go give an offering. And he goes and he gets some meat and some broth and some unleavened bread, don't miss it. And he places it before the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord touches the meat with the tip of his staff and fire consumes it. As soon as the fire consumes it, Gideon freezes just like I did in that meeting on Tuesday. 'Cause he realizes, hold up. I thought that was an angel of the Lord. It wasn't an angel of the Lord. It was the Lord, look at it, it's in the text. He said, when Gideon realized there was D, somebody said D, angel of the Lord, here's the name. Alas, I have seen the angel of the Lord's face to face. In other words, this ain't no regular angel. This is God, this is a Christophany. This is a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ himself. And what does Gideon do? He gets terrified because he knows nobody can see God and live. So he starts having a panic attack. What am I gonna do? I just saw the living God. I'm gonna die, and what does God say right back to Gideon? Please put it on the screen. He says to him, peace, don't be afraid. You are not gonna die.

Peace, don't be afraid. You are not gonna die. Oh, I like that right there. After seven years of oppression, after seven years of heartache, after seven years of people taping your harvest, comes God showing up in a winepress, saying peace. Don't be afraid. You are not gonna die. I feel like I'm preaching to somebody in here that feels like giving up, that feels like that last battle is about to take you out. I'm gonna prophesy over your life. You will live, and you will not die. Peace over your life. Peace in the midst of the panic. Peace in the midst of the storm. Peace in the midst of the chaos. He says, peace, peace Gideon. He receives peace. Watch this. And the Midianites are still there. Midianite's still there, and he gets a word of peace. After he gets the word of peace, what does he do? Let's read it. It says, he built an altar to the Lord there, and called it the Lord is peace. I thought I was gonna die. I thought I wasn't gonna make it.

And God gave me a word, peace. And that peace was so good in the midst of the panic. In the midst of the pain, the peace was so real that Gideon goes, I gotta build an altar 'cause I don't wanna ever forget this moment. I don't wanna forget the moment when I was in a wine press, and I felt like the walls were caving in, and I was stuck in my fear. I don't wanna ever forget the moment that God stepped in, and he showed me that watch this, he is peace. I may as well reveal the name. I'm at the end of the sermon. When he said, the Lord is peace, guess what that is? Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. And I came to tell somebody, you better call on that name. If you got a need for some peace, call on Jehovah Shalom. He is peace. He's peace. Oh, this is still good. Get in. You mean you don't wanna wait 'til you fight the battle, and the battle is over to build an altar to the god of peace? No. You mean to tell me, you got peace, and the enemy is still out there? This is the type of peace that surpasses all understanding. Anybody can feel peace when the Midianites are dead. Can you build an altar and say the Lord is peace when the Midianites are still out there

ready to kill you? He says to the Lord, watch this, put it back on the screen, yeah, the Lord Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, yet the Lord, He is peace. We just think God gives peace and He does, but He said He is peace. He is peace. Hear me, God has the ability to give you peace, oh He can give you peace, but I think many of us are waiting for the conflict or the pain to end and they will say, "Oh God, He'll give me peace." Without getting the revelation of this name, He is peace. You can't take my peace because you can't take Him from me, He is peace. Well, that's just an Old Testament passage, do you have anything in the New Testament to substantiate the fact that He is peace, Ephesians? All says, for He Himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh, the dividing wall of hostility, He is peace. He can give it, but He is it. I wonder if you're panicking and you don't even realize peace is with you. I wish I had time, you remember the disciples, Mark chapter 4, the storm is raging, winds and waves are blowing. Jesus is on the boat asleep, no, excuse me, peace is on the boat asleep. Don't tell me you can't be in a storm and have peace. This is the only time you see Jesus sleeping in the gospels because peace is on the boat asleep in the middle of a storm. And they panic and don't you care, we got the guy, they go wake up peace. And what does peace say when they wake up peace, peace says peace, peace steal and when he says peace, peace steal, then the winds and the waves call and then the nervous system gets regulated like, oh, thank God. That wind was peace on the boat, the whole time. Peace was on the boat while they were panicking. Peace didn't show up when he said peace, peace steal, it was already there, and afterwards they go, who is this man, that even the winds and the waves over him, they could have said

something earlier, when peace was asleep, they should have said, who is this man that can sleep in the middle of a storm, if this storm ain't bothering him, I ain't going to let it bother me, I'm just going to copy peace, good over if you're going to sleep. I know the winds and the waves are blowing, Jehovah Shalom, he is our peace, the fullness of that word is so much richer than our English word of peace. It means nothing broken, complete, wholeness. Are you waiting for your circumstance to change to have peace? If my circumstance has to shift for me to get peace, then my circumstance is in control. But if I have a name, Jehovah Shalom, I can be going through hell, the midian nights can be surrounding me, and I can be scared, but I'm prepared. How you prepared, because I got him with me, don't get it twisted, I'm not prepared because I started fighting, I'm a scared farmer, I'm prepared because he is with me. Would you stand to your feet all over the street? I'm not out of sermon. You would think after Gideon made that altar that the Lord has pieced that he would never be afraid again, read it when you get to the crib. He keeps getting afraid. As a matter of fact, the next thing God tells him to do, don't miss it. He says, you got to go tear down the idols that your father built to bail. Tear down the idols because in your bloodline, they've been worshiping Yahweh and other things. And it's not enough for you to make an altar and just say I'm the God that is peace. If you're not willing to go tear down the idols that you have been worshiping while you've been worshiping me, I'm not going to have to put him on the screen

but you should see what Gideon did. Homeboy was so afraid he didn't want to go tear down the idol and the day time he said, let me sneak at night. He went at night, but at least he tore it down. He tore it down. And somebody in here today, you might be shaking your fist at the Lord, going, how can you be with me if I'm going through this? But yet you are still entertaining and idle as you're worshiping him. Don't get a twist in. All throughout Israel's history, they weren't necessarily worshiping God's in replacement of Yahweh. They always worship God's in addition to Yahweh. And God says, my name is too big for that. I refuse to have you worship me and worship other God's. I refuse for you to worship me and keep your idols. I don't know how you need to apply this but I think in a real practical sense, somebody's got to pull a Gideon, by the way, whose name means to cut down. And you need to cut down some idols that have been in your heart. How you worshiping and God crystals. (congregation laughing) Cut it down. You worship in and God's sage. Cut it down.

You worship in God and your career. Cut it down. You can be scared while you're doing it. Huh, maybe that's the message in a sentence. That fear doesn't have to disappear for me to have the God who is peace. I can be scared and tearing down the idol. I can be scared and giving. I can be scared and leading as long as he's with me. I'm prepared. I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and arms be closed today. If you're in here today, (congregation laughing) and you be honest, you've been panicking. Your world has been spiraling. And for somebody, it's really the consequence of your disobedience. And Jehovah Shalom is here today to reveal that he is peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the awareness that Jehovah Shalom is with me. He's with you. And if Gideon could have peace with him and not know it and the disciples could have peace in their proximity and not know it, could it be possible? That peace is in your proximity and you don't even know it 'cause you're looking at the Midianites and the winds and the waves. But I'm praying today

that Jehovah Shalom shows himself to you today. He is peace. Father, I thank you that you are bigger than panic attacks. You are bigger than anxiety attacks. You are Jehovah Shalom. That's you today and you need Jehovah Shalom. Would you just lift up your hand as a sign to say I need to take hold of that peace. Thank you God, thank you God. Thank you Lord. He got peace before the battle. Don't tell me peace can't come to you while you're in it, while you're at the hospital, while you're in the pain. (soft music) Thank you, God. You could put it right down, head step out, and I'll still close if you're here today. And you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. Sin is what separates us, but Jesus made peace by presenting himself as a living sacrifice, dying on the cross and getting up from the grave. What heads about and I'll close if you're here today and say, "Pierre, I've never surrendered my life to Jesus, but today, I gotta give him my life." I don't care if it's one person, you're worth it, Gideon was a one person that changed the trajectory of his generation. That she would just lift up your hand, saying, "I need to give him my life today."

Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. He is Jehovah Shalom. Anybody else, thank you, God. I want us to pray this prayer as one big family just before Pastor Josh comes and gives us direction, but can we all say this? But especially those of you who responded, would you say to say, "Jesus, I need you." Oh, thank you, that for every need you have an aim. You are Jehovah Shalom. You are my peace. So, Lord, today, I receive that peace. Forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new from this moment forward. I'm walking with you. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. You live the life that I was supposed to live. And you died the death that I was supposed to die. You took my place so I can have peace before the battle, in the battle, and after the battle, because you are my peace. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen. Come on, if you meant what you prayed, give God praise today. Come on, you can do better than that. Let's give Jesus some praise today. (upbeat music)