Care Group
Benjamin
Through Jesus’ miracles, it is always a different way. He chooses His way. Not the way we think it is. God blessing is always sure and permanent.
Not what you do, but who you are
What does this mean?
Who are we?
1. We are the righteousness of God in Christ. It is not what i do, it is a gift of God
2. Children of God (no longer a slave)
3. We are in Christ. Not about what we do but what Jesus has
4. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine
We are His beloved. We are loved. Not about what i do, not about my ℓσνє for Him but His ℓσνє for us.
5. Accepted in the Beloved.
6. A new creation
7. Heir of Christ (expect an inheritance, it is a gift) – healing, provision
8. More than a conqueror (head and not the tail, above and not under)
9. Redeemed
10. King priest
It is about who we are. When things don’t happen our way, to the extent we sweat is the extent we do not know who we are.
What does it means for me to be a king priest?
Called to be a king and priest?
Huh? Why is this revelation important?
As the high priest, so are we
As the high priest is blessed, so are we
Is He healthy? So are we
Authority because of Christ
No one in between us. We can come to God directly
We can talk directly to God. This is very important.
Number one gift is to be able to hear God.
We can hear Him
Where the word of the king is there is power (ecc 8:4)
Exodus 14:14
Exodus 14:11
Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?
Exodus 14:12-14
Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Exodus 14:15-17
And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen.
Judges 6:8-11
that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’ ”
Gideon
Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
Go in this might of yours
What might? No strength or might. Gideon was scare.
You come to the end of yourself. No more might. In our weakness, is His strength
Not about what we do anymore
The Lord will choose the weak to confound the mighty
Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?
He heard his father talk about this.
I come to you not with sword or might, i come to you in the name of the Lord
Judges 6:34-39
But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.”
Jesus Christ is the fleece. When He came to the earth, all dry. Is a picture of Christ
Judges 7:12-15
Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.
And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”
Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”
And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”
You are afraid, He will encourage you
Why don’t you try? If you are afraid, do it afraid
300 men divided into 3 companies
They only got 300 against so many of them
1. a trumpet into every men hands
2. A pitcher and a torch
They blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and torch and cried sword of the Lord’s and of Gideon
Who is fighting the battle? The Lord
Gideon was behind the Lord
What battle are you fighting in your life?
The sword of the Lord’s and of (your name)
The pitcher and the torch -> man (earthen vessel)
Jesus came to earth as earthen vessel. He was broken so that the light might shine
Is a picture of Jesus. The pitcher broken and the light shine
Through His death, we come in the sword of the Lord’s
Judges 7:24
Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.” Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.
Judges 8:3
God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.
Judges 8:3-8
God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.
When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit. Then he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.”
And the leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”
So Gideon said, “For this cause, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers!” Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.
The Lord is the One who provides
Judges 8:8-13
Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. So he also spoke to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I come back in peace, I will tear down this tower!”
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East; for one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword had fallen. Then Gideon went up by the road of those who dwell in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah; and he attacked the army while the camp felt secure. When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army.
Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle, from the Ascent of Heres.
15 thousands via 300 (Gideon’s) This is a miracle!
300 has already killed 120 thousands ! The 15 thousands were scared and run!
The one who was threshing wheat, now he got a taste of blood.
There was a battle happened at Tabor
Judges 8:18
And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?”
So they answered, “As you are, so were they; each one resembled the son of a king.”
When the devil sees us, he is afraid
If the Lord said He has delivered certain things to you, He has.
The victory is yours. But don’t get carried away and put other people down
Are you blessed? You can be blessed beyond your wildest imagination.
He has made you a king.
You can blessed above and beyond.
Go in this might of yours (Judges 6:14)
Read Judges 7
God’s standards or world’s standards?
What examples can you think of between God’s standards and the world’s standards?
The world’s standard is through striving than win. God’s standard is through believe than win
World’s way no money for you
God’s way is to give, to sow, to have generous heart
World’s standard is tit for tat
God’s way is to forgive
World’s standard is worry and solve ourselves
God’s way is to be still and know that He is God
Rest in His finished work
People see on the outward but God sees in the inward
God sees our hearts
God’s standard is He sees the hearts, men see the deeds
Men’s way to go to heaven is to do good works
God’s way to go to heaven is one way. Jesus is the only way.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper? ( Jer 12:1)
Jeremiah 12:1
Jeremiah’s Question
Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead with You;
Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?
Jeremiah 12:2-4
You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;
They grow, yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth
But far from their mind.
But You, O Lord, know me;
You have seen me,
And You have tested my heart toward You.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
And prepare them for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn,
And the herbs of every field wither?
The beasts and birds are consumed,
For the wickedness of those who dwell there,
Because they said, “He will not see our final end.”
Jeremiah 12:5
The Lord Answers Jeremiah
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
If you get jealous easily, you lose your faith so easily, than how are you going to run with the horses?
Jeremiah 12:6-9
For even your brothers, the house of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you;
Yes, they have called a multitude after you.
Do not believe them,
Even though they speak smooth words to you.
“I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage;
I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.
My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest;
It cries out against Me;
Therefore I have hated it.
My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture;
The vultures all around are against her.
Come, assemble all the beasts of the field,
Bring them to devour!
Jeremiah 12:15
Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land.
A prophesy of the children of Israel rejected Christ
Continue to be in God’s house
Read Jeremiah 12,13 and 14
we are kings and priests
We have power and strength
The doubts and funny questions we have, the Lord knows. He wants you to be blessed
Don’t cultivate a taste of the world that you find God’s way a plain manna
God’s standard is higher
God wants our thoughts and deeds not to sin inwardly as well
We are in our flesh.
Always trust the Lord to cultivate to such an extent the part of our flesh is cut off.
Focus on the white horse. Look at the white horse, than your purple car is no more.
Focus on Christ. Cultivate a taste of God
