This is this is a really good day. This is a really good day. I love what Beth said. I'm sure you caught it because it's pretty profound. I want to live every day living. I heard someone say years ago that God does not make bad things good. He makes dead things alive. That's what he does. And he brings us to life. And that's what we experience every single time we get in his presence. We experience real life. And I hope you have that this morning. I want to talk for just a few seconds about my normal morning experience. Anyone else hate the way your morning tends to go at all? Like you begin every day stressed out of your mind, and the first 20 minutes of your day just get you in this state that you have to come out of, you know? That's how my day begins every single day. It's just super stressful. And it's all my fault. See, I have a mission every single morning. My mission is to wake up, to get ready for work, but also to get my son Liam, our oldest up, to get him all ready for school and to get out the door without waking up Megan or Lily. See, at home, I've talked about this before. We have a code name for Megan and Lily. They're the bears. Because you don't wake the bears. Like you need to let bears wake up on their own. And so we've got to do all this stuff and get out the door without waking the bears. And that means we also can't make enough noise to wake up the baby to wake up Judah, because if Judah wakes up, it's going to wake up the bears. And so we've got a lot to get done in as much silence as possible. And it's hard. It's hard because, see, I don't really wake up until I'm in the shower. If that's TMI, I'm so sorry. But it's about halfway through a shower that I actually like come awake. And so what always happens for some reason is that my showers last way longer than they should because I'm really barely conscious for the first half of it. And I'll get in the shower, and it's like I'm in a time machine. When I get out of the shower, all refreshed and awake, I look at the clock and I'm like, how I've I wasn't out in the shower for 25 minutes. There's no way I was in the shower for that long, but it's true. And so then I'm in this panic, I'm in a rush. Because now I've got to go get Liam up and I've got to make his lunch and pack his backpack and gotta get him dressed, do all this kind of stuff, right? And and do it fast and not wake the bears. And so usually Liam's morning begins with me rushing into his room, whisper yelling at him, going, Liam, Liam, you've got to get up. You've got to wake up now. We're running late. You've got to, we gotta go. And Liam always yells at me in the morning. Always. And he's like, Dad, and I go, shh, shh, shh, shh. It's like this yelling, it's so intense. I feel so bad for him because the first part of his day has got to be like just awful, with his dad going shh, like really loud in his face. And I'm like, you've got a shower. Get in the shower, get in the shower. And so he goes and he gets in the shower, and then I go downstairs and I make his lunch and then I pack his backpack, I try to find his homework and all this other stuff, and I try to lay clothes out for him because you know he's six years old and God love him. If I just say, hey, go get dressed, who knows? Who knows, right? It'll be like a raincoat and shorts and you know, cowboy boots. You never know. So I've got to find clothes that just look like they kind of belong together, and I go bring those upstairs. But see, Liam, he's like me. He doesn't wake up until he's in the shower. And so I'll be downstairs doing all this stuff, and 20 minutes will go by. It's like time for us to walk out the door, and I'll go into the bathroom, and he's still in there, and it's like a sauna. And again, I'm whisper yelling, and I'm like, Liam, you gotta get out of the shower. And he'll yell back at me, and I'll yell shh at him again, and he'll say, Dad, I just give me a second, I just need to shampoo and soap off. And I'm like, That's all you have to do in the shower. That's all of it. That's the whole shower, that's the whole experience. Why haven't you done that yet? And he's like, Dad, just leave me alone. And so I leave and he gets dressed and I comb his hair and we go out the door, and that is how every day of my life begins. Very stressful. And it's all because I lose track of time. I just, I just I lose track of time in the mornings. I don't wake up till I'm in the shower. I have no idea how long it's taken me to do anything, and it makes everything stressful. I share that with you because today is the last day in our series on Gideon, and I just have to admit that I kind of lost track of time. I apologize. I I don't know if it's the weather or what. It hasn't felt like Christmas to me this year, it hasn't felt like December yet. You know, it was so warm for so long that my brain just does not accept the fact that Christmas is a few weeks away. Even Liam, this last week, said, Dad, Friday is my my last day at school, this this upcoming Friday. And I was like, No, son, you've got at least two more weeks. And he's like, uh-uh. And I swore he was wrong, and I looked it up on the calendar, and when I looked at the calendar, I'm like, oh my goodness, it's it's like almost mid-December. And then I looked at the calendar, and when the Gideon series is supposed to end, and then we gotta start talking about Christmas, and I'm like, oh no, I've got to wrap up the whole thing on Sunday, which means we've got a little bit of ground to cover, okay? I'm not gonna whisper yell at you though, I promise. Okay? So it's not gonna be that stressful, but we've we've just got some ground to cover. So, just in case you're you're just now joining us, let me get you caught up really quickly. This series has been called Gideon the Story of Gideon. It's based on the story of Gideon in the Bible, and it has no theme, there's no overarching theme that we're exploring. It's not, you know, faith or hope or anything like that. We're just reading the story and asking God to show us stuff. It's that simple. And we're doing that for a very specific reason. Because that's how we can all read the Bible. The Bible is so insanely practical, we do not have to dig deep to find something useful for our lives. It's the opposite. Every single time we we we open it and we read what God has done. And we ask God to open our hearts and our minds and to show us something we can apply to our lives if we go into it with that kind of heart, with those filters and in a translation that we can actually understand. As long as you do that, you're gonna get something. And so we've just been reading the story of Gideon saying, Hey, hey God, show us something. Show us something that we can use for our lives. And he's been faithful and he's done that. He's shown us things that can propel our lives forward. That's exactly what we're gonna do this morning. Now, if you've had if you haven't heard any of the story so far, I can sum it up really, really fast. Gideon's story takes place 3,000 years ago in the nation of Israel. Israel, at this point in history, is actually being oppressed by a foreign power, the Midianites. And they're coming into Israel every year and they're raiding the nation of Israel. They're taking the livestock and the food and all the valuables. Israel's reduced to starvation. They're in a period of serious oppression. It's been happening for seven years, but God has a plan, because God always has a plan. And more often than not, God's plan is a person, and in this particular instance, God's plan is a person named Gideon. The problem, though, is that none of us in the room would ever, in our right mind, choose Gideon to lead anything. Gideon would not choose himself to lead anything, let alone lead Israel. He's not some war hero, he's not a warrior or a general or anything. He's just a guy, and to be honest, he's not this faith-filled guy, he's kind of a coward. When the angel of the Lord shows up to tell Gideon, you're God's pick, Gideon is hiding in a hole in the ground because he's afraid of the Midianites. Bible says he was hiding in a wine press. Wine presses were holes in the ground where they would store wine. Gideon's in there because he's afraid of the Midianites. It's the time of year when they come to Israel again, and he's fearful. This is the guy that God has picked, the guy hiding in the hole, hiding in the wine press. And so Gideon has a hard time believing that he's God's pick. And so there's this little bit of back and forth that goes on between Gideon and the angel, and then between Gideon and God, and finally, finally, Gideon accepts that maybe, just maybe, God's doing something, and so he says, All right, I'll do it, I'll lead the army. And Gideon assembles this army of 32,000 soldiers. Which might seem like a lot, but the Midianites have allied with another nation, the Amalekites and some other people, and they have an army of, at the very least, conservative count, 135,000. So it's 32,000 versus 135,000. I'm not that good at math, but those are not great odds. But God looks at Gideon and he says, hey, there's a big problem with your army. You have too many soldiers. And I don't want you guys going into battle and winning and then patting yourselves on the back and saying, look what we did. And it's not because God is hungry for glory. It's because God knows that the people need to remember that he's done this, that he's rescued them. Because there's going to be other points in their future where they're going to need him. And they're going to feel hopeless just like they feel right now. They need to be reminded that God rescues his people. So he says, I want you to tell as many soldiers as are afraid that they can go home. Give them an out. And 22,000 soldiers say, Yep, scared out of my mind, I'm going home. So Gideon's got 10,000 versus 135,000, but God still looks at him and says, Hey, too big. Army's still too big. And so God weeds it down to 300 men. And with 300 soldiers, if you can call that an army, God says, Yes. Perfect. All right, it's time to go to war. And that's where we're at when we get to the story today. Judges chapter 7, we're going to start in verse 8. The Midianite camp was in the valley just below Gideon. That night the Lord said, Get up, go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them. But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Pura. Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you'll be greatly encouraged, then you'll be eager to attack. So Gideon took Pura and went down to the edge of the enemy camp. The armies of Midian and Amalek and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore, too many to count. Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, and knocked it flat. His companion answered, Your dream can mean only one thing. God has given Gideon, son of Joash, the Israelite, victory over Midian and its allies. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship before the Lord. So Gideon hears this dream, and it's not very flattering to Gideon, by the way. He's a loaf of barley bread in the dream. And just so you understand, barley bread was a very, very coarse, rough bread. It was not a delicacy, it was the bread of the poor. But he hears this dream, and in the dream, the loaf of barley bread knocks down a tent, and this other guy in the middle-night camp's like, dude, we're gonna lose. That's what that dream means. Gideon's gonna win, we're gonna lose. And that's what gives Gideon the faith to fight. That's what gives Gideon that final push where he goes, All right, I believe now. And you have to know that that frustrated God just a little bit, because God has been saying that all along. God said to Gideon, like time and time again, you're gonna win, you're gonna be victorious, I'm gonna be with you. He said, You're gonna defeat them as if you're fighting against one person. And every single time, Gideon's like, I don't know, God. I just don't know, I just need a sign, I need a sign. And now Gideon hears some dude, just some random guy that he's never met before, say what God has been saying all along, and he's like, All right, I believe. Those of us who have who've raised children, or many of us who have been children raised by parents, and we can put ourselves on the other side of this of this analogy, understand what it's like. When you give your kids advice, you tell them something over and over again, and it's just in one ear, out the other, and then some other person, some friend of theirs says the exact same thing you've been saying all along, and they listen to that person and they give that person the credit for the wisdom that you've been giving them the whole time, and you're like, I say the same thing all the time. Ha ha. That's awesome. See, it's good to know that God knows what it's like to be a parent. Let's continue. Verse 15. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and he shouted, Get up, for the Lord has given you victory over the Midianite hordes. He divided the 300 men into three groups, and he gave each man a ram's horn and a clay jar with a torch in it. Now let's pause there for just a second. Okay. They're going to war, they're going to battle, and so Gideon's like, Everybody get up. We're going to fight. This is the moment. Take a clay jar and a horn. Be off. Now here's what's crazy. We learned last week that when Gideon dismissed the final 10,000 soldiers that left him with 300, that he asked that all the provisions, all of the supplies that those 10,000 men had were left behind. So Gideon has the supplies of a 10,000-person army. That means every single one of his 300 men can go into battle like packing serious heat. They can have a sword, a backup sword, a sword on their back, a couple extra shields, like extra suits of armor. They have all the supplies they need, but they take none of that with them. They take jar, jars of clay and and horns into battle. And so just imagine what's going through their minds at this moment in time, as they're being sent off to slaughter. We continue in verse 17. Then he said to them, Keep your eyes on me. When I come to the edge of the camp, do just as I do. And as soon as I and those with me blow the ram's horns, blow your horns too, all around the entire camp, and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. For the Lord and for Gideon. It was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the one hundred men with him reached the edge of the Midianite camp, and suddenly they blew the ram's horns and broke their clay jars. And then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Now, Gideon didn't say to shout a sword. He just said, Shout for the Lord and for Gideon. But you know the soldiers were like, Well, we don't want them to think we don't have swords. That's just preposterous. So they were like yelling out, hey, we're carrying swords. We're not coming to a battle with jars and horns. We promise you that. It says each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. When the 300 Israelites blew their rams' horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their own swords. Those who were not killed fled to places as far away as Bethshetah near Zererah and to the border of Abel Mahola near Tabbath. Okay, so you're Gideon's army, and you're sitting there watching this happen. I mean, just imagine that. Here you are, you break a jar, you pick up a torch, and you blow a horn, and it's just chaos. And these guys are killing each other, and you're just going, what? This is this is a lot easier than I thought it would be. This is it's it's kind of anticlimactic. It's actually funny, as a kid, I remember learning this story. I grew up in church, and so I loved this story. And I always thought of it like an action story, right? Like there's this great battle, but there's not. This is not a great battle. It it's it's I mean, it's it's far from it. It reminds me of, you know, my son started playing basketball. I've shared that. He's in first grade, so he's on his first ever, you know, real basketball team. I'll give you guys updates from time to time. His team is sixes one by one in the Cherokee Youth League. They're two and oh, by the way, and I'm just saying, Liam hit the game-winning shot last week. Not that that's a big deal. But um his team was down by one, he had a shot, they won. I'm just saying. But like half the time that's spent during these games, because these kids are new to basketball, and basketball's not that hard. Even if you don't know the main rules, you understand that there's two goals. You're supposed to make it in one of them. Your team's supposed to make it in the other. It's kind of all sports are pretty much like that. But the kids just lose track of which goal is theirs. And so, every game so far, a kid will get the ball and start going to their own basket to score, and all the parents, even the parents on the other side, they don't want these kids to, you know, to be embarrassed. We're all screaming, no, no, no, the other way, go the other way. And the kids are just all, it's just chaos. The kids are just running around in circles as we all scream and yell. And that's kind of like what Gideon in the army is doing. They're just watching this chaos unfold. And all these, they're all they're all dead. And there's a few guys left, and they go running, and Gideon's army's like, I guess we should probably chase them. This is this is nuts. It's crazy what happens. But it's it's also really, really powerful. And it's incredibly symbolic. It's so interesting that the victory that they experience here is initiated by the breaking of these clay jars that have this light inside of them. What's carrying these torches. Paul wrote a thousand years later in 2 Corinthians 4, 5 through 7. You see, we don't go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we ourselves are your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, Let there be light in the darkness, has made this light shine in our hearts so we can know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not ourselves. So just like Gideon's army carries these fragile clay jars, these very unimpressive tools, something that's not fit for war. God says that that's us. That we are fragile clay jars carrying the light of God for the world around us. That's so that's so powerful. At first glance, it seems kind of discouraging. Like God's like, hey, you're a clay jar. Woo-hoo. God, you think so highly of me. Thank you. Like any if you are dating someone right now, just try this. I'd love to see what happens. Hey, you know what you really remind me of? Like a clay jar. Just as you know, so fragile and easily broken. Just see what happens. See what happens. See how Christmas goes. I'd love to know. At first glance, it doesn't seem very flattering, but uh but it's incredibly powerful for every single one of us to think about that, what that really means. Because see, we get so caught up working on the image. Right? And honestly, we live in a time when when you can you can work on your image better than ever before. I mean, literally, you can take you can take a picture of yourself on your own phone, apply a filter to it, right there on the spot, look at it and go, nah. Take another one, apply a different filter, go, oh, that looks pretty good, post that as your profile picture. And we all know this because we've all met people who who we're already maybe friends with on Facebook or something, and we're like, that's not you're not that person. That's not you. You know? And it's funny, you get on on much social media, and it's just we are all incredible experts at image management. And it's funny, we we we start to apply that to our relationship with God, and we start to believe this is what religion teaches us, by the way, that it's the way you look that really matters. That it's the outside. That if you really want to be useful to God, be impressive. Look impressive to the world around you. Be someone that the world looks at and goes, wow, they've got it all together. They're fit, they're wealthy, their kids are well behaved, they've got their house in order, they've got a plan. They have it together, they're like little life experts. They're so, wow, that must be God. That must be God. That's what we we sometimes think. That the way that we show the world who God is is by making sure that our lives look as impressive as possible. And that kind of makes sense. I can see where we would think that. Isn't isn't a gold jar more fitting to carry the light of Jesus than a clay jar? But see, if you if your life is a gold jar, people just stop at the jar. They just they look at the jar, they don't get past anything else. They go, wow, that's that's beautiful, that's amazing, that's incredible. Because the value of a clay jar is not itself, it's what it's holding. And God looks at us and he says, Look, you don't have to have it all together. You don't you don't have to have it all figured out, you don't have to have your entire life in order, you don't have to be some problem-free life expert. You don't have to be some guru, you don't have to be some incredible success story to bring me glory. He says, I just want you to be who you are. Be a clay jar, fragile, maybe even broken in some places. And don't be ashamed of that because, see, if if there's cracks in the jar, guess what happens? The light shines through the cracks. The light that was in Gideon's jar did not show until he broke it. Paul would later write in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, talking about a time when he's praying to God and asking God to take away this issue, this struggle that he's having, and he just can't get past. He says, three different times I beg the Lord to take it away, and each time he said, My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, the hardships, the persecutions, and the troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is God telling us, Look, be a clay jar. Be okay with that. You have cracks, you have you have areas of life that are broken, because it's not hard to break a clay jar. Instead of being so preoccupied with hiding that or covering that up, just allow my light to shine through that because people are gonna look at that and go, wow, that person that they shouldn't be happy, because they're definitely not a life expert. They shouldn't be full of joy because I can tell that they do not have it all together. They shouldn't have peace because it doesn't seem like everything's going well for them, but yet they do, and people are gonna see the light of Jesus shining through the cracks if you'll be willing to be vulnerable and open and honest and throw image management away. God's not asking for anyone to be a gold jar, he just wants clay jars. Think about that individually, but also think about it when it comes to church. It's really important that from time to time we talk about church culture because we're Church. And we want to affect culture. Not the other way around. And see, so often whole churches get obsessed with image management. The idea is simple. We got to impress people to Jesus. We need people to come and watch what we do and go, wow, wow, that was amazing. We've got to be like gold jars, and so it's branding and marketing. And everything is so so shiny and slick. It's all awesome. It looks incredible, it looks amazing. Everybody on stage looks like they're about to step into a modeling gig of some kind, and and and the leaders in the church are definitely life experts. You know that because they've written books about how to be a life expert like them, and they have these beautiful smiles, and there's no way that teeth are naturally that white, but whatever, and and you know, and it's just and the outside is so shining and so good. And I get it, it's not for ill intent. The idea is, hey, if we look this good, if we look this together, if if everything's this well produced, the world's gonna look at us and go, wow, that must be God, but that's not what happens. What ends up happening is the world stops at the vessel. And we never want our community to stop at church. We never want our community to stop short of Jesus. Because he's what we need. Church exists to be the vessel that brings the light of Jesus to the world around us. We're not trying to bring people to us, we're trying to bring people to Jesus. And so, as a church, we need to be vulnerable. We need to be open, we need to be honest, we need to be able to say we are we're clay jars. And we don't have it all figured out. We don't know what we're doing. I do not know what I'm doing right now. And I'm I'm just being honest, I don't. And half the days I come into work. I work here, by the way, if you didn't know, and I uh and if if I'm serious, I I'm sitting there every day just going, God, you gotta figure this out. Because I don't know what I'm doing. But that's just the way God tends to do things, if we let Him. And this is meant to encourage you. You don't have to have it all figured out. The world does not need to see a bunch of people that are all shiny and polished. That doesn't that doesn't do anything. In fact, I've just learned this from experience. The harder anyone, any person or any organization, the harder anyone works on on the outside, the less they want you to see what's on the inside. That's just the truth. And so you don't have to be an expert, a success story in the world's eyes. You don't have to have some amazing story, you don't have to have some incredible resume or a lot of money in the bank or an impressive title to be useful to God. Because what he really wants is vulnerability and honesty. Clay jars who are willing to be clay jars and are proud not of the vessel, but of the light that's inside them. And if we would be that as individuals, if we'd be that as the church, then we would see this community change like you couldn't believe. People who are proud to say, I am broken. I'm messed up. I do not have it all together. I don't know what I'm doing. Want to come to church with me? Maybe people will say no. Maybe that's a terrible idea. But I'm willing to see what happens because I don't think that's ever been done before. Alright, let's keep going. Let's keep going. Let's wrap this sucker up. Judges 7, 23. Then Gideon sent for the warriors of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh, who joined in chasing the army of Midian. Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down to attack the Midianites. Cut them off at the shallow crossings of the Jordan River at Beth Barah. So all the men of Ephraim did as they were told. They captured Oreb and Zeb, the two Midianite commanders, killing Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeb at the winepress of Zeb. They should not have named their stuff after them. People knew where to find them. And they continued to chase the Midianites. Afterward, the Israelites brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan River. This is a perfect, perfect end to the story. Not the beheading part. But what happens just before it. Because there's this little detail that you may have caught, maybe not. Do you notice where the last Midianite commander was killed? At a wine press. At his wine press. His own. What do you think he was doing in his wine press? Amen. He's hiding in a hole in the ground, afraid of Gideon. And the story begins with Gideon. I got like chills just now. Gideon hiding in a hole, afraid of Midian. And it ends with a Midianite commander hiding in a hole, afraid of Gideon. See, we we worship a very, very powerful God. We do. That's why it's so important for us. Never to fake it, never to fake excitement and when we worship to act like we're really into it when we're not. You should never feel that pressure. But that's why it's important for us to worship God with passion and joy and wonder. Because we worship a powerful God. We worship a God who brings things full circle. We worship the God who took Gideon, the coward in the wine press, and made him Gideon, the conqueror at the wine press. And God will do the same for every single one of us. That's what God does. He transforms things, he changes us. He makes us capable of more than we could ever do without him, more than we could ever imagine that we're capable of. He's the God who brings all things full circle. The Bible says that he takes our ashes and he turns it into beauty. The Bible says that he makes us more than conquerors. More than a conqueror. And we have to ask ourselves sometimes: do I believe that about myself? Do I believe that about my life? Do I believe that I am mighty, that I am more than a conqueror? When God looked at Gideon hiding in the hole at the beginning of the story and called him mighty hero, Gideon thought God was crazy. I wonder what Gideon thought. When he learned that Zeb, good old Zeb, had perished hiding in a wine press. I wonder what went through his mind. Because just a few days earlier that was him. I want you to understand something this morning and believe it. Not because I'm telling you to believe it, but because God wants you to believe it. You are a conqueror. You were created by God to conquer, to reign over life. And if it feels like life is reigning over you, because it often does, right? It often feels like life is happening to me. I'm not happening to life. You need to have faith this morning that our God is the same God. That changed Gideon from a coward and made him into a conqueror. We have the same God. He'll do the same thing for you. I want you to believe this morning that what you're afraid of today, you will conquer tomorrow. Through faith in Jesus Christ. That there is there is nothing. There is nothing that can stand against you. Nothing. And see, the reality is that very few people actually believe that. Very few Christians actually believe that they're as powerful as they are. Not because of their own strength, right? We're clay jars, but because of the light that's inside of us. If we really believe that, we wouldn't fret about who the next president would be. We wouldn't fret about the economy. We wouldn't worry about all the things that we worry about, because we would understand that there is nothing, nothing, nothing that can stand against us if our God is for us. And God goes so far out of his way in Gideon's story and every story in the Bible to assure us that our God, our Father, He is for us. And He is with us. And He's the God who brings everything full circle. He's the God that will take you today. And whatever it is you're struggling with, whatever it is that you're afraid of, that you're anxious about, one day you will point back at that as a conqueror and say that God brought me through it. That's why people who who have had addictions now lead people out of addiction. That's why marriages that are broken, and people who are broken by broken marriages end up becoming an inspiration for the people around them, and people look at them and say, I want to have a family like that. And it's not because they've never been broken. They're clay jars, it's because God has allowed his light to shine through the broken parts. Are we willing to be people who are vulnerable and honest and open? Are we willing to admit that we're just broken clay jars? I mean, who wants to go on Facebook today later and post that if you're a Facebook person? Like, I'm a clay jar. People be like, what? What is that? That's weird. Stop it. Try that. I would love to see, by the way. Just try it. I don't know if it'll work for you. I just want to see. I don't ever post on Facebook, really, so I'm not gonna do it. Do you believe that the same God who changed Gideon into a conqueror will do the same for you? Do you believe that whatever's holding you back today will be something that you defeat in the near future? All it takes is faith. All it takes is faith. And worship team, if you guys want to come out, we're gonna pray and we're gonna worship. And when I say we're gonna worship, like, again, worship how you want to, but I'm gonna worship. I'm gonna worship because my God took down Zeb and Oreb. And I don't know anything about those guys other than the fact that they lost their heads. That's all I know. They had really bad days. Okay? But but I know that in my life there are oppressors. And there are things, there are experiences, there are circumstances that have been oppressing me for seven years or more. There are insecurities, there are fears, there are anxieties, there are struggles, there is sin. There is so much in my life that has oppressed me. And I need to believe this morning that I worship the God who defeats oppressors. I need to believe this morning for my own life that I worship the God who takes the heads off whatever stands against his children. I know that's really intense, and I apologize for that. I believe we all need to believe that. Because it's true. God loves you. And he's already conquered everything, and now he wants you to share in his victory. He wants to make you a conqueror, he wants to take you from fear and bring you into might. And all he asks for is faith. And so as we worship him this morning, as we wrap up the series, I just encourage you, worship the mighty God that you have. Be in awe of the fact that he would look at you, a clay jar with cracks and breaks, and he would say, I want to put my light in that. I want to put my power in them. I'm gonna give them my grace and my peace and my love. I'm gonna put it there. I want to make my home their hearts. Not because they've got it all figured out, not because they're impressive on the outside, but because people are going to be impressed by what I'm doing on the inside. That's you, that's him, and he wants that to be your experience this morning. So let's pray together and let's worship him with that knowledge. Jesus, we love you so much. You are so good to us, you are so real. And Lord, we do not look at ourselves often and call ourselves mighty. It's not a stretch for us to think about ourselves as clay jars. And while the outside may not be all that impressive, Lord, we need you to remind us that what you've put in us is you have put your light, your power, your grace. You've put yourself in our hearts. And you haven't asked us to figure it all out, you haven't asked us to polish the outside, you've just asked us to be honest and open and to believe with faith that you turn cowards into conquerors. And we need that this morning. We believe that this morning, Lord, and we ask all this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's worship God this morning.