Elevation with Steven Furtick - Breaking The Bondage Of Wrong Belief

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

The belief that we need something other than God is what keeps us from going through breakthrough. That’s how we can be in covenant with God but still in captivity. In “Breaking The Bondage Of Wrong Belief,” Pastor Steven Furtick helps us break up with what’s been holding us back. Scripture References:Judges 6, verses 22-29Ephesians 2, verse 13  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I believe somebody shout, I believe, like I came today. Put your hands together. Welcome to me. Of God. This word that God gave me today, he began to speak to me on March 7, 2023, and it has taken me that long to figure out how to share it with you. Today the Lord has released me to share it.

I'm thankful and excited and expected about the implications to your life. In Judges chapter 6, verse 22 through 29, there is an encounter with God between the angel of the Lord and a man named Gideon. And the Bible says in verse 22, when Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, Alas, sovereign Lord, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, peace, do not be afraid. You are not going to die. That's a good thing. always good to know and i'll explain why he said that in a moment but look at what the lord said to him

peace do not be afraid you are not going to die so gideon built an altar to the lord there and called it the lord is peace to this day it stands in ophra of the abies rights now that same night the Lord said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old, tear down your father's altar to bail, and cut down the ashore pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height, using the wood of the ashoreau pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

Now, you call him a wimp. I call him wise. He did it how he had to do it. And sometimes you do, man. Sometimes you have to sneak in those victories at midnight. It's not always going to be some huge triumph and amazing things. Sometimes the victory is going to be that you made it through the night and you woke up the next day. And you've got to learn to praise God because of those two. So look what happened in the morning, verse 28.

When the people of the town got up, there was Bail's altar, demolished. With the ashore pole beside it cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar. Last verse for now, verse 29. They asked each other, who did this? When they carefully investigated, they were told, Gideon, son of Joash, did it. Gideon, son of Joash, did it. Now, I want to speak to you from this subject today. I want to talk to you about breaking the bondage of wrong belief.

Breaking the bondage of wrong belief. And that's not one of those titles you can say to your neighbor. So let me give you a say to your neighbor title. Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor. I know I look a little different. I know I got a little extra pep in my step. Tell them I know I'm smiling more than the last time you saw me. But it's because me and God got back together.

Yeah. Me and God got back together. You may be seated. Me and God got back together. Thank you, Lord, for this word. I know he meant well, but I completely disagreed with his method. The preacher stood before a room full of professing Christians and asked a question. On a scale of 1 to 10, how close would you say you are to God right now?

I gave him 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, benefit of the doubt even to the end of his message. because I just knew that he wasn't going to give the people a scale to determine how close they were to God. Yet he did. I was waiting for the twist where he talked about the grace of God. You know, in the Bible, this one man prayed, and he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this sinner over here praying next to me. And the sinner was beating his breast saying, God, have mercy on me. And Jesus said, the one that beat his breast was the one that went home justified,

because he had faith to believe that he needed God and the one who thought he was so great. He wasn't so great because he was actually not close to the kingdom. But the preacher didn't do that. He continued. I asked Holly if she remembered it, and she remembered it too. So I don't just make this up. To tell the people everything they could do, watch this, to move from a four to a five. There's this big line, this is linear approach to knowing the Lord.

And you can go from four to five if you read the Bible daily. You go from four to six if you make it through the book of Leviticus. Bonus point for certain Bible books. And he goes through everything that you can do to get closer to God. Now, here's why I thought that the exercise was ridiculous, respectfully, to the person doing it, because I've done some ridiculous things. And I'll probably say something ridiculous in here. And then I get up in 10 years and tell you it was ridiculous.

I'll tell them myself. It's ridiculous because it's relative. How close are you to God right now? Compared to what? Compared to Jesus, who always knew the will of his father, who is supposed to be my standard. So if we're going by that, I'm staying zero until I die. and compared to who? I mean, I just don't even think the question is, like, you can rate a restaurant.

Can you relate a rate, rather a relationship with the eternal God who's spoken to nothing and there was something? With the invisible God who exists immortal, not seen to humanize, but known by the spirit, not by the flesh. I can't rate something like that. That's another thing is not only is it relative how close you are to God compared to what you think other people might be praying or doing or whatever, because you don't really know what the other people around you are like and you judge yourself off of your delusions of them. So that's kind of dumb. But also, I didn't think it was a very good exercise because of something called recency bias. Do you know what recency bias is? is when the last thing that happens carries the most weight with you, and you judge an entire

thing off of the most recent thing that happened. So you begin to kind of act like the way it is right now is the way that it always is and the way that it always was, but it's not true. And what I'm really trying to say, I guess I'm using fancy language to say, that if you answered that question at a 10, I'm close to God, I'm a 10, it wouldn't really take that much to put you at a 2. I can't figure out what happened to my church, because my church used to be real and honest, but I'm looking at a bunch of tens today. Okay, 10. There are days where at 10 a.m., you are a 10. But if I caught up with you at 2, because at 2, you've had to deal with some

people. And it can move you right back down the scale. Some of you are one text away from going from 10 to 2. Some of you are just a little bit of traffic from a 10 to a 2 riding down the road. Oh my God, you've sure been. Get out of my way. 10 to 2. Just like that. Not 10 and 2. 10 to 2. Just some traffic. No cross. No persecution. No martyrdom. Just 485. 10 to 2. Like that. So it's a dumb question because is relative, who am I comparing myself to? Oh, I'm a two compared to Holly. Holly's amazing. Holly's perfect. Holly's wonderful. Comparing myself to who? I mean, comparing her to who. She's not Mother Teresa. But she's great. So you see, I didn't really appreciate the guy saying, you can move to a four from a three.

If you just make five minutes a day with the Lord, I thought that was so ridiculous. But the real reason that I thought it was so ridiculous. It's because it was a room full of people who are believers in Jesus. So why are we pulling out a scale to try to measure something in our own minds and our own feelings based on our own experiences, based on our own moods, how close are you to God? It depends. Have I had my coffee yet? It depends. Did I open a bill or did I open a check that was made out to me? Why are we measuring this on a scale that is subject to situations and self-righteousness? Because I can always find somebody that I think I'm doing better than when I belong to Jesus, who already taught me that my relationship with him is not something that is achieved, but received. It's a gift.

Somebody shouted it's a gift. I know y'all are looking. have me funny because I'm trying to get from a seven to an eight. I'm trying to be a better man. I'm trying to be a better mom. Good. Try. I'm trying to. But understand that there is nothing that you will see on your reel and put into practice in your life. Some advice that you will scroll past and finally click with God and God will say, oh, I've been waiting for them to get the six. They've been stuck at 5.9. This is not the Olympics and God is not. Watch this. God is not a scale. God is not a religion.

God is a person. His name is Jesus, and I got him. So I don't mind telling you, ask me the question. Pastor, how close are you to God? One to ten. A ten. Because of him. Because of what he did.

It's a ten. Because my relationship is not based on what I did. what I didn't do. My relationship with him is a covenant. A covenant is not like the relationships that we run around trying to build our lives on these days. The covenant that I have with God is not established based on the principles or the precepts that I find myself willing or able to obey. No, I am in covenant with God on the basis of the death of his dear son who loved me enough to shed his blood for me on a hill called Calvary, and it's a 10. High five, somebody say it's a 10. You can put your scale away. It's a 10. He loves me. You can put your scale away. It's a 10. He wants

to hear me pray. You can put your scale away. It's a 10. God wants to hear me sing. I'm singing, because he likes to hear me. Not because you like to hear me, but it's a 10. When I say, because God hands me a mic and says, keep singing. That's my kid. That's my girl. That's my boy. I want to hear them praise me. Only they can praise me for what only I can do for them.

It's a 10. High five your neighbor both hands and say, I'm in. It's a 10. I'm incumbent. I'm in covenant. I'm incovenate. Not contract. If I break it, he already.

It's a 10 because of him. It's a 10 when I act like a two. Nevertheless, the Book of Judges demonstrates to us the unfortunate reality that we can be in covenant with God and still in captivity. That seems contradictory. How could you be in covenant with a God who knows no boundaries but be in captivity? Last year, I preached to you a series of messages about one of these rulers that God raised up to deliver his people, the nation. of Israel from the hands of an oppressive enemy called the Midianites. I don't expect you to remember about the Midianites, but I do expect you to be honest today to admit that you have your own version of them.

No? I love messages when I hear them personally that, first of all, give me permission to admit my Midianites. If I can't admit that I'm fighting the battle, how can I see clearly enough to take the shot? So I have learned that for each and every one of us, and I'm just going to take my time today because this message has been building in me for over a year, so I'm certainly not going to rush this revelation because I think it's life-changing. The idea that I could be in covenant with God and he could be completely committed to me and I could still be in captivity, why? while a seeming contradiction on the surface is an experience that we all know too well.

It is when you know that you are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. In fact, let me give you that Ephesians first. I meant to show you this a moment ago. I forgot. Ephesians too, y'all. It says, but now in Christ, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So, to be a 10 in my relationship with God because of him does not mean that there will not

be times in my relationship that I feel to. And the reason for this will never be because God's commitment to me has wavered. What I'm trying to say to you is, you may try to break up with God, but God won't let you. The book of judges proves it. And you know what? Some of you don't need the book of judges or a man named Gideon to prove it. You have spent your whole life stacking evidence for the fact that you can try to break up with God. You can flip your middle finger to your faith, and your faith will still stay inside of you,

flicking you back, even if it's just a little flicker of a flame. Some of you tried to be a really bad kid. And all that did, all that you trying to be a really bad kid did, all that did was make your mom pray more. What you didn't know, even your bad behavior was your mom's answered prayer because she was praying for more faith. So she was praying for more faith, so God gave her your bad behavior to give her more faith. This is how amazing God is.

We don't believe God is sovereign anymore. We think that there is something we could do to push him back, and he would go, oh, never mind, can't use you. I'm looking for a 10. I'm looking for a 10. Do I have a 9? Can I get a 9? Can I get an 8?

Can I get a 7? 2024, God might take a 6. The world is really going downhill. The Lord will really lower his standards. No, look at the verse. It says in Ephesians 2.13. Good news. But now. Not when I get it together. Ephesians 213. Show them guys. But now. Put them on the screen. But now. I'm shouting now when I'm having to. Wait. In Christ Jesus, you were once far away. I was. I feel far from God. But I'm not far from God. I was. Somebody say it with all three notes. was. Put it in the chat right now. I was, but. I was, but the nation of Israel was slipping away from God, serving other gods, prostrating themselves to the gods of the Canaan culture and completely

disregarding the covenant they had with Yahweh. Well, the Bible says that these Midianites were the instruments that God used to bring his people. out of captivity. But they were also what God used to take them captive. And that is an interesting dynamic too, isn't it? That the Lord allowed the Midianites to oppress his people, to bring his people back to him. Now, we know that God uses all things, even though God doesn't do all things. God doesn't do evil. But we have a God who, when evil is done, can use the transformation process that happens through that evil that was done in order to bring about his purpose in the earth for which you were born.

And although Midian is oppressing the Israelites, God is using Midian as well. And it's so cool how Gideon's name rhymes with Midian in English. Now this wouldn't work if we were reading it in the original Hebrew, but we don't know Hebrew, so it works really well for us. Gideon and Midian, and it's a total mismatch. Midian has all these troops. Midian has all this power. Every year they come in, they raid the Israelites,

they take their crops, they take everything of value, they plunder the people, but what are we going to do? We are powerless to do anything about it. So now we've got people who are identified as God's special possession being plundered and feeling powerless. We have got people who have been identified, as God's special possession who are being plundered and feeling powerless.

There are some people listening to me today who are God's special possession because he bought you with his blood. You're in. It's a tin. You are his possession, but you are being plundered. The enemy keeps taking your peace, your joy, your focus, your commitment to service, and others. Even your very sanity.

Somebody in this room feels like you've been going. crazy today, but you have the mind of Christ, but you feel like you're going crazy, and you feel powerless to do anything about it. To the point that when we meet Gideon, he is threshing wheat in a wine press when God calls him a mighty warrior. This juxtaposition has been preached famously, not only many times from this little pulpit, but everybody who's picked up a microphone in a Bible has had something to say about a God who will call you a warrior while you're acting like a wimp. And this discrepancy, when God calls you something that you don't feel like you are right now, when God calls you to do something that you don't feel like you have the

power to do right now, when God calls you to be something that you've never even seen before with your eyes, is at the heart of the Gideon narrative. Gideon is so unconvinced about it. He starts asking questions that start with why. Because when you're in a wine press, which is a dugout place to hide, you will be so stuck in why it happened that you will forget about who is able to deliver you from the situation. And this is the situation. I feel I preach him for Gideon. Now, the Lord doesn't tell him why all the bad things have happened, but we know because a prophet has come to the nation of Israel. And the prophet said, you have forgotten. what I did for you. You have forgotten the God who brought you out of Egypt. You have served

the gods of the people around you. You have adopted the practices of the pagan nations. You have even started adopting their gods as your gods, not only their practices as your practices. So that if we look at the life of Israel in this seven-year period that they were oppressed by Midianite, there is nothing to tell them apart from the nations that surround them. They have come into a land whose customs have become their captivity. They have come into a land that God gave them, and the customs of that land become their captivity. The Lord says, Gideon, I want to use you to lead a revolt and a revolution. I'm going to enable you and strengthen you and supply you and give the enemy into your hand.

And you will strike them all down. And Gideon said, me, I'm the least in my family, my clan is the least in the nation. Why me? God said, why you? Because me. God turns twos into tens instantly. Only God can do that. Nobody's helping me preach because y'all don't believe it.

You must be the two God sent me to preach to today. Yeah. God sent me to preach to you because you've been feeling like a two. Now, the beauty of this is God doesn't say, Gideon, I'm going to put you through a preparation process. This is going to take three years to get it done. He has actually been preparing Gideon while Gideon has been hidden. Do you know that God has been preparing you while you have been hidden too? Do you know that God has been giving you tools, resources, lessons? words, confirmations, while you have been in the cave of what you perceive to be your abandonment

and wasted season. So he tells Gideon to go. He gives Gideon a sign, and we pick up where I started today, where the angel of the Lord said to Gideon, peace, do not be afraid. You are not going to die. Sometimes when God shows up in your life, the first thing you feel is fear. Feeling close to God is not always, I'm sorry, Eagles, a peaceful, easy feeling. I love the song, but in my experience, sometimes the first thing I feel when God is doing a work in my life is fear. I feel safe in the cave or the wine press. I feel scared when I step out to do the next thing God has called me to do. And it amazing that the angel told him, you are not going to die.

and Gideon didn't even ask. Am I going to die? Hmm. Something's happening here. He's preparing Gideon for something. Gideon is so encouraged. Can you feel it? He's so encouraged.

Wow, God sees me. God's got me. God's with me. God came to me. God spoke to me. God gave me a sign. It's him. He is so enthralled by this experience in verse 24

that impulsively he built an altar to the Lord, verse 24, there and called it, the Lord is peace. To this day, it stands in Oprah of the ABS rights. That's as far as I got when I preached last year. Maybe because that's what people want to hear of how it's going to go, that God is going to bring you closer to him and fulfill his purpose for your life. But this is an altar that Gideon decided to build, not one that God commanded. This altar, while not evil in its own way, was just his idea to commemorate the moment that he had with the angel. He lays down that night, probably feeling nervous and excited. The Lord told me that I'm going to strike down the Midianites. It's going to be amazing. I've got to start

getting an army. I've got to start learning Jiu-Jitsu. I've got to start whatever he's doing. to get himself excited about this big battle that is before him. But that same night, verse 25, the Lord said to him, now the Lord's already been speaking to Gideon for a while. It just took Gideon a while to realize it. But that same night, the Lord said to him, take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old, tear down your father's altar to bail and cut down the Asherapole beside it, then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherapole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. So let's contrast. Gideon says, oh, I'm not going to die. Let me build you an altar,

God. I'm going to call it the Lord is peace. Jehovah Shalom. I'm going to name this altar. The Lord is Now I'm going to go to sleep. It's been a long day. This has been very traumatic. The Lord wakes him up and says, your altar was nice, but there's another altar. Touch your neighbors say there's another altar. There's another altar that is built not to Yahweh. It's look at the wording in verse 25, your father's altar to bail. And while Gideon is busy trying to build an altar to God, I see some people that I preach to, you're trying to build your life back. You're trying to build your hope back. You're trying to build your business back.

You're trying to build your family back. You're trying to build your sobriety back. You had 81 days, and now you're back on day two. But that's okay. Because as you are trying to build it back, God wants to show you something that will make sure that this time you build it. What you build will stand the test of the battle that you face. Because, because if all I do is build an altar while Pastor Stephen is preaching, and if all I do is say, okay, I'm going to stack some new habits and I'm going to do some new things, and, okay, the Lord is peace.

I found out something that you cannot have God's peace and keep it without having God's priorities. God's peace without God's priorities is always temporary. The kind of peace that you've been seeking in your life, craving in your life, crying out for in your life, that kind of peace, that permanent peace, that storm-speaking peace, that lay your head on the pillow of a lion's main kind of peace, that I'm in a fire but I see the fourth man kind of peace, the kind of peace that can know that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world and there's more with us than with them, and I don't have to be afraid about any of it. That kind of peace only comes from priorities.

I don't know how to get you to shout about priorities. I couldn't figure out how to make it sexy. I couldn't figure out how to make it sing. I figured maybe if he played organ behind me, priorities. Maybe that would trick you into thinking it was really sexier than it was, but ain't sexy. Nothing sexy about putting stones on top of stones on top of stones. And definitely, watch this. There is absolutely nothing convenient or appealing about what God told Gideon to do next.

You know, fighting a battle against an enemy, well, I got testosterone for that. taking an army and seeing God do the impossible, which Gideon eventually did, by the way. But before he did that, he had to do this. Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. And this must have been the hardest thing for Gideon to understand. Tear down your father's altar to bail. Before Gideon can win the battle against Midian, he must break the altar to bail. You've got a Midian in your life, an external enemy that you so badly want to see God drive back and he can and he will and he has plans to do it and to use you in the process.

Not just for you, but for everybody that God has called you to impact. That's all true. But before you can defeat Midian, you must dethrone bail. Would it be helpful if I explain to your neighbor what bail is? I know you know all about bail, but maybe your neighbor doesn't. He was the local God. It's not even his name, it's just title. Because Bail was said to control the fertility and the weather.

Without those two things, you can't eat or recreate. We understand Bail isn't real. We have progressed as a society. We are so advanced. And thank God that we're alive at this time in history. Because we no longer trust in stuff that claims to be God but isn't. Wake up, baby. I'm coming. I'm coming. I didn't start slow because I got nothing to say. I just want to give you a minute to settle in for this one. It's not like we have

bales in our culture, right? It's not like we have stuff that controls us in our culture, right? It's not like we're all a bunch of zombies in the zoo of 24-7 news cycles telling us what's going to happen in the the world when our Savior already told us I have overcome the world. Before I can defeat this army called Midian and have real peace with God. That's what Gideon said. He said, the Lord is peace. I'm going to build an altar. And that's great. And the Lord is peace. And he does love you. And he will never leave you nor forsake you. In fact, he loves you too much to leave you like he found you. And when God comes into your life, not only will he break through for you, but the next thing

that happens when God does break through for you is God will call you to break up with something. See how much we love to shout about breakthrough? But what if there's a break up before the breakthrough? Is that why you've been feeling restless? Is that why you've been feeling uncomfortable doing the things you used to do? Is that why there has been a conviction in your heart that, you know what, I'm not living like this anymore. You know what?

I'm not talking like this anymore. You know what? I'm not walking like this anymore. You know what? I'm not accepting this negativity that comes from my inner critic anymore because I need to hear what God says in this season of my life. Maybe you're in a smashing season of your own. Maybe there are some things that God is breaking off of your life in this season. Maybe there are some bales that you have been believing in that have let you down.

And maybe you're going through a breakup with bail. I was talking to a lady the other day who had a boyfriend. I said, how's he doing? She said, I don't know. I quit answering his calls. I said, so y'all broke up? She said, I guess. I said, does he know?

And she said, he will. Called ghosting. She's just going to ghost the man. I thought it was back when I was a kid, the most cowardly thing you could do is send somebody else to tell. Not that I was traumatized by Melissa in fifth grade, but why would you send, why would you send someone else to tell me. How many think it's disrespectful to break up by text? Raise your hand. By text. Yeah, I think so too. If it's been over two weeks in the relationship. We'll get into this later. But here's what I want to say. Israel has ghosted God. When I said earlier, you tried

to break up with God. You're like, nope, nope, didn't do it. Didn't do it. I did not. I did not. What I meant by that was that you drew a pinagram on your wall, started listening to Slayer worshiping the devil. I think sometimes we just stop answering. Stay right there. Stay right there and act like I'm not talking to you. All you're doing is proving that you're the one this message is for. Stay right there and act like you're always a 10.

The only reason you're a 10 is because he kept coming to get you. The only reason you're in is because he kept coming. Not because you did. Like you always prayed. Like you always did it right. Like you always deserved it. Like you were always so wonderful. Like you always wrote around singing Waymaker Miracle Worker.

Like you always were kind. Like you always gave. Like you always forgave. The reason that I didn't break down is because God wouldn't let me break up with him. All right, I'm going to tell you a story. I can tell you ready for it. Did you all know Holly tried to break up with me? She tried to break up with me.

Watch this. For the summer. For the summer. This has never been told from the pulpit. It has only been discussed behind closed doors. She looked at me seriously. She was really thought this was going to be something I was going to accept as a term of negotiation. says, well, you're going to do this this summer, and I'm going to do this summer.

What if we just see if the Lord brings anybody else into our lives? Can you believe I'm telling them this? But she's on the front row because I, like God, would let her. I always wanted to be God in an illustration. I'm so far from God in my real life. I just wanted like for five, usually she gets to be the good one. I'm so happy that I said, no, you do it. I know what I got and I want it and I will not.

God feels this way about you. And He loves you so much that He would let you be in bondage for a little while rather than let you worship Bail for the rest of your life. Bail is a false God. Bail is a God who keeps you in bondage. Bail is a God that you cannot appease even with human sacrifices. Bail can't make it rain. Ask Jezebel.

She thought Bail could make it happen, but she was wrong. She had to apologize before she died because she found out that Bail is not God. And before Gideon could build an altar to God, before you can build an altar to God, before you can build a new beginning in your life before we can get past this temporary behavior modification that doesn't last 10 minutes after we leave church. There might be something you have to go home and break. If somebody sent you this YouTube link, they might be breaking up with you. But it might not be a relationship.

Don't go quit your job talking about, I'm smashing my bell to the... I could just see a kid. You know, because people like to take the message and twist it all of. I could see a kid going home and take a baseball bat to their parents' car. I'm smashing my father's altar to bail. No, you're not. You're about to build a wrath. That's amazing.

He said, before you can go forward and fight this battle, I need you to demolish your father's altar. For the purposes of the class that we're having today, I do not want you to think about your father's altar as being about what your family taught you biologically. That would be too limited, for it was not only Joach's altar. that had erected an altar. He was just the custodian of the cultural corruption. So what God was really telling Gideon in this passage, what he's really speaking to us as a New Testament church today, has nothing to do with the family that you were raised in. It has to do with the beliefs.

The beliefs. Everybody say belief. The beliefs that you cherish. The beliefs that you behave out of. The beliefs that are ingrained in you. The beliefs, the beliefs. That's what Bail was. Bail was not just an idol. You picture just the object. The object was just pointing to the belief behind it that we need something other than God to make it rain. That we need something other than God to give us life. That we need something other than God to defend us. How's that working for you. How is your bail doing? Because you said if you succeeded this much, you would be happy and you got success. How did success serve you when you made it a God? I guarantee you it left you emptier because more success came with more pressure, and you found out that there is

nothing that can make you feel full if you are empty without him. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Smashing Bail's altar. This isn't you going home and deleting Facebook for a week. It may include that, but that is not what I'm trying to achieve by preaching this message. When I say there may be a breakup with bail that needs to happen, what I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going back to school this week. And there are things that you believed last year. But God has been working on your heart not only in this message, but in this season. And when you go back to your school in a few days, or if you've already gone back to school, when you walk in tomorrow, you walk in and after a while, people notice that you are not as

easily drawn to and seduced by the things that you were drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in a previous season. And they begin to say things to you like, you've changed. You're different. Maybe they even make it a little bit meaner. And they start calling you names because you won't have sex. And they start leaving you out because you won't go places. And you have the audacity, Gideon, to look at them and say, yeah, I know I look a little

different and I know I act a little different. And it's not that I'm better than you, but it's just that something happened to me over the summer that I don't know if I told you about this, but I've been through a breakup. Me and bail broke up. I decided he wasn't doing it for me. I decided that living to be popular was costing me too much peace. I decided that living for pleasure cost me too much peace. I decided that living for pleasure cost me. me too much pain on the other side. I decided that not having God's priorities meant I can't have God's peace. So y'all be anxious if you got to be anxious. Y'all be crazy if you got to be crazy. Y'all be hateful if you got to be hateful. Y'all call me what y'all got to call me, but the one who called me is more important than you. Uh-huh. High five your neighbors. Say, I'm breaking up with bail. So I might not look the same next time you see me, because I'm going to be going through a breakup, and it

might be a painful breakup, and I may have to relearn some things, and I may have to be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some nights, but I'm determined to see this through. Why? Because after the breakup, there will be a breakthrough. Oh, yeah. Get happy, because I'm going to cry for a little while. But weeping when the sun cave will say I'm on. In fact, I'm not even telling bail myself. I'm just going to send him a message. Why are you breaking up with me? Because you're not God.

Stop thinking this is a marriage seminar. I'm not talking about a divorce from your spouse. I'm talking about a divorce from your belief system that is keeping you stuck. You might have a better spouse if you had a different belief system about marriage. And it might not even be a different one. So before you take the bat to the marriage, take the bat to bail. And all of that I was going to preach to you. All of that, then I realized it wasn't about that altar.

It was about what was on it. Read it with me. I'm almost done. Don't even sit back down. Put the pressure on me to be expedient. and concise by standing on your feet. He said, I want you to tear down your father's altar, the one to bail, the cultural crap that you keep doing.

I want you to clear your algorithm this week for what you think is a normal attitude. I want you to smash that so that I can do something amazing through you. That's what this is about in your life. You think every season of breaking is. contrary to the season of blessing. But after the breakup, there's always breakthrough. Well, no breakup, no breakthrough. You will keep going back to bail. And you know what you'll do? You will blame it on Midian. You will keep thinking the problem is what is against you that you can see. But the problem isn't what I can see that's against me. It's what I keep

abandoning that is within me. Because greater is he. I don't know who this is for, but this thing is burning a hole in me today. It is not the Midianites that keep defeating you. It is not the addiction itself. It is the altar to bail that keeps you believing that you need something other than God. And the Lord challenged me to read this scripture again and again. And I said, okay, God, he got up and he built a new altar and he tore down the altar to I began to study about the altar, the proper, because in verse 26 it says, build a proper

kind of altar to the Lord your God. What is the proper altar that you would build? Well, it was uncut stone so that no human hand could defile it. It was piled up and made ready for the sacrifice because the altar was a place to die, but then I realized that there was one altar that was smashed the next morning, and there was one altar that was standing, but the thing that made the altar proper was not what it was made of as much as what was on it. The Lord told Gideon, get a bull from your father's herd.

A bull was a common sacrifice. So far we see no real revelation as to what needs to happen next, but there is significance in this detail. The second bull, the one seven years old, smashed the altar to bail, build the altar to God, and after you have taken the Asherah pole, which was in idolatry, and you put the second bull as a burnt offering, wait a minute, the bull is not random, In this passage, the bull represents Bail, not just because they sound alike, but all of the false gods of the Canaanites had mascots. For Asherah, who was their sex god, the mascot was a pole. But for Bail, who was the weather and fertility god, the mascot was a bull. So when the Lord told Gideon, I want you to take the bull on the altar that you build to God and smash the altar that your father built to bail, what God was saying is, I want you to believe me more than you believe bail.

And it is very simple to say, but very hard to apply, because the enemy will lie to you and lie to you, and lie to you, and lie to you and feed you with beliefs about the way things are, about what is important, about what really matters. He will feed you as much bull as you will listen to. But the Lord said, today is the day for you to put the bull on the altar. You hear what I'm saying? You hear what I'm saying online? your neighbor say, put the bull on the altar. Every lie you've believed, every stronghold you've accepted, every false God you've

worshiped, put the bull on the altar. As long as we keep building altars to things that we ought to let die, we will be in covenant with God, but be in captivity in life. You have got to put the bull on the altar. I mean, they're playing slow music behind me, but I feel like I'm really preaching. Every time the devil lies to you, put that bull on the altar. Every time he tells you you're insignificant because you're not famous, put that bull on the altar. Every time he starts trying to tell you, an addict is all you'll ever be, put that bull on the altar.

Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. I heard about a basketball game where Michael Jordan scored 69 points in the game. There was a rookie who was interviewed after the game. It was his first game in the NBA. This was 1990. They said, what are your comments on your first game in the NBA? And he said boldly, I'll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points. He said that because when you're connected to the right one, I'm not talking about a bull now.

I'm not talking about a bull. I'm talking about the spotless, perfect. Lamb of God, slain. So the Lord says to Gideon, you are not going to die, but there are some lies that you have believed that must die so you can live. There are some lies that you have believed that must die so you can live. There are some lies you have believed that must die so you can live. Put that bull on. The altar. Stop thinking that there's something that will fulfill you or complete you outside of God.

There is nothing. It's nobody else's job to complete you. It's nobody else's job to fulfill you. It's nobody else's job to make you happy. That's God's job. Let him do it. Build a proper altar. Let God fill those deep places in your life. And remember this, that there is nothing you can do. that would separate him from you. Every time the devil tells you, you're too far gone now, remember, you serve a God who can make a two a ten by his blood, and me and Michael Jordan can score 70 points together on a single night. And God can use you to deliver, and God can use you to be a blessing, and God can use you

to give wisdom, and God can use you to build it up, and God can use you to tear it down. but it's going to be because of him. And when they investigated in the daylight to see who had done it in the night, they said, Gideon did it. Gideon? Isn't he the one who was hiding in the wine press? I like to imagine at that moment Gideon says, yeah, I was. But me and God.

God. And we have this ministry of reconciliation. I know what you've done alone. I know what you've done in your own strength, and so do you. I know that bail has failed you. He fails all of us. I know how your faults, bail leafs have led you to a place of codependency with substance. Bail always does that. I know how thinking that somebody needs to approve you before you can be worthy of love has left you running, drinking salt water in an ocean that you were already drowning in. That's what Bail always does. Break that altar. Delete every opinion that tells you what a young lady is supposed to be like and ask your

father what a woman of God looks like and put your virtue on and wear your values proudly. And when they say, you don't post no more, tell them, yeah, me and bail broke up and me and God got back together. That altar is gone. I won't worship at it another day. I want you to grab the hand of a person next to you because they're in a a battle right now. They're in a breakup right now. Stand to your feet, everybody. I thought y'all were standing. I was preaching so hard. Only 10 percent was. The front row fooled me again.

Squeeze their hand right now because they're in a battle. Squeeze their hand because they're in a battle. I want you to squeeze their hand to let them know you didn't die. That's how you know that the covenant keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is with you too. Even though it was seven years of sin, Isn't it weird that the Bible said, Graham, it was a seven-year-old bull, which was the exact length of time they had been in captivity? It was the bull that kept them in bondage. You can be free the moment you come into agreement with God what he says about you. So you can be free from the moment that you decide there is no more condemnation for those

who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ, the law of spirit of life, set me free from the law of sin and death. You don't have to stay in this another seven years. You can be free the moment you believe. Put that bull on the altar. I'm talking about a new bull. Believe. You believe in him. You will be saved. Right now there's somebody in this room who needs this message as a matter of life and death. You're not going to die. You're not going to die. Osama said, I would have despaired unless I believe that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. You're going to see it. But there's some altars you've been running to in the land that you've been occupying that have been keeping you from being the person God sees.

But you're a warrior in this wine press. Always have been. He knows there's a better you. He loved me like I was. But he didn't leave me like I was. Lord, I thank you that you loved me like I was. You didn't see me as a two. You turned me to a ten.

I get grateful when I think about your grace. I don't have to think about my car. I appreciate it. My house. I love it. I don't have to think about any of these things just to say, thank you for your grace, Lord. Why don't you pray that? Thank you for your grace, Lord.

I thank you that all I have to do to be closer to you is believe. that you're already here. Like that angel was staring at Gideon, and Gideon finally realized it. Maybe today is today we finally realize that the lies belong on the altar. Before your presence, God, I ask you to set your people free today. Now drop the hand, but keep your head bowed and your eyes closed. No one moving around. There's somebody in this place who needs to give their life to Jesus Christ today.

When you do, you don't go from a one to a one to a one. and spend the rest of your life going three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You don't start performing, and God will see if you can really do a triple double somersault split spiritually. The God we serve said, I will not only give you the grace, but I will give you the faith to believe. So right now, if you know that today is your day and God is calling you to bring your life to his altar, I want to lead you in a prayer.

This prayer is an expression of faith. believing in what Jesus has already done for you. And if you're ready today to repent of your sin and make Jesus the Lord of your life, I want you to repeat after me. We're all praying this out loud for the benefit of those who are coming to God or back to God. Repeat after me. Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation. I am a sinner in need of a Savior.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the soul. Son of God and the Savior of the world. And today, I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died, that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. And I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of

of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.