Still Thirsty Pt. 2 March 13th, 2021 Speaker Edsel Cadet: "It's Not Fine"

[Music] [Music] [Music] good morning morning good morning good morning happy birthday all right happy sabbath it's a blessing to see you all to be with all of you revision church cambridge church welcome to this worship experience hey man good good so good to be on with all of you what we want to extend our welcome to cambridge and to revision as well we hope that you've had a good week yes that's right that's right been a busy week lord jesus lord jesus yes yes well we hope that you're getting uh ready to interact say good morning in the chat um just make sure that you say good morning and where you're coming from uh we want to make sure that we are worshiping with each other not just two congregations but all of the viewers that watch our different churches we want you to say hello let us know where you're watching from this morning so we can welcome you by name we're getting ready to do that and we're so happy to be journeying with you throughout this pandemic that you've been on with us online and that we've been able to produce something that hopefully has been enriching and a blessing to your life so make sure that you're not keeping this blessing to yourself but that you're sharing it with your friends and with your family in fact right now you can go ahead and take that share button and click it and share it on your facebook share it to your whatsapp group share it to your group text message in fact one thing you can really do that will be a blessing to you is go ahead and like and subscribe to revision like and subscribe to cambridge so that you can be kept up to date with everything everything that's taking place that's right that's right all right we got some people saying good morning good morning good morning all right all right so um from whittier california welcome back i remember you from yeah weeks uh in the past good morning mr bernard we've got kimberly on the chat yeah good morning kimberly good morning angel and joel hello to you all right all right all right zambia all right celebration guys mizuba from zambia welcome welcome what time is it over there we want to know yeah exactly good morning hi all right from toronto that's right okay good to see you again leonardo welcome back yes albuquerque yeah yeah that's how you say that's how you say it uh jamaela g happy saturday for massachusetts okay yeah okay [Music] i don't know what that last name is welcome back welcome back okay detroit in the house all right all right all right justin all right thank you for joining us again all right hi we've got june from london happy sabbath to you and welcome yes good afternoon to you that's right and michael good morning down the road down the way thank you for joining us that's right that's right good old revision members latoya oliver again one of our members all right from new orleans yeah all right you're a revisionaire that's right hey bx is in the house smyrna harris good to have you all with us yeah you know yeah yeah yeah the excitement you could just hear it yeah that's right exactly welcome michelle all right michelle edwards all right good stuff edward it's probably family too from barbados all right richard jessica i'm from the saints virgin islands welcome to you welcome welcome warrell gordon antigua bar buddha awesome yeah good welcome welcome all right hey all right justina from ottawa mm-hmm all right good stuff the capital of my province good stuff and that flag going i see here yeah yeah she's representing and good morning mommy and good morning all the way from southern california that's right good to see you good to see you it's early there you logged on you got about that bed or you're in the bed how you say that is it i was gonna say latin but it's no not like blossom okay all right all right okay good morning uh john ellie merrill okay all hey welcome all right and you said it right oh doctor you said it right you said yeah well done wouldn't have been me good good welcome jason welcome to this texas is always in the house we love to see you all too that's right you can log in got electricity we're happy for you what happened yes yes all right what's up manny felicevideo my brother someone else gave a compliment just thank you for the work we're doing together so thank you for that that's right that's right definitely oh cayman islands i love me some taylor island today i love it yes so much diversity that's right yeah all right welcome marcia glad you're with us yes hey hazel roper okay a rover yeah we love the rover that's right dallas texas in fact she fed us uh that that's oh i haven't met this that's right you haven't met this one hello yes yes part of the family feeds us whenever we go to dallas texas that's right okay who's this felicia oh from massachusetts though okay oh yeah yeah from chelsea oh i love diana yes yes yes yes i mean it's just good to see you this morning that's right all right that's right oh we have another we have sharon dixon from sorry welcome sorry i think i knew how to say that i should let you say them first and then [Laughter] i know the island [Laughter] let me tell you this is wonderful we know that revision people are watching thank you kelsea there we go christine and michael and the few that represented you represented all right from l.a this is good this is good well thank you all for checking in and keep talking in the chat and let you know get to know people and uh it's a great time that we're about to have today that's right i know that uh the ladies gonna do something but we from the fellas well from all of us we want to say happy women's history month [Laughter] we receive that don't win the ashes we do receive it so just like last sabbath we had such a good time reading the comments um and just you know vibing with everyone on the chat so we have a little game to play with you just like last sabbath for all those who joined us we will be playing um the game would you rather i'm sure you've played it with family and friends so um i'm gonna ask a question um and then stephanie's gonna ask another question so feel free to put it in the chat your answers we're gonna read them out and see what you guys have to say so my question is would you rather receive sound advice from ruth in the bible or from queen esther from esther so would you rather receive sound advice from ruth or from esther so when you get your answer just put it in the chat i think i already have mine do you want us to answer as well do you want dr knight and i to answer absolutely but let's see oh i didn't know it's really funny i don't know if men could speak everyone can speak please they're just queen esther okay okay okay okay ruth esther of course oh well remind me a little bit about ruth i can't i'm trying to remember that story avis chester ruth okay okay remember we have um ruth whose husband and um husband passed away yes and her brother-in-law as well he passed away so we have naomi who's um left without children um without a husband they decided to um go back home um and instead of letting their mother-in-law go back home all by herself go along with her yeah and we see just people will be my people and you know what i think that's going to answer my question ruth is for me because um rules ruth's story was part of our vows my okay your people my people your people yes that's right very good i like it yeah when you go i'll go that's it yeah okay i love that we saw some great answers come through um i think amber said i'm going with what'd you say i'm going with ruth because esther esther needed some help some yeah some prodding from her cousin june says ruth has experience yes but now god still ended up using esther right yeah moment of time she had the comeback all right you know that's what i think okay for me queen esther was almost killed because of hey man so i'm staying away from i'm going for ruth okay wait wait wait chris oh chris chris said something chris gave us a little essay right oh okay okay he's trying to keep his prayers nigel ruth okay joelle okay ruth had compassion esther had boldness and wisdom that's right that's one of our elders that's right joel that's right good stuff good stuff ruth needed that's true that's true okay we're going to segue to our next question mm-hmm wait wait you have a nonsense steph what do you do okay okay i think that that awakens are we underestimating though the boldness and the components that it took for esther to follow through ruth's life was never in jeopardy really i mean it was in terms of if she didn't have provision right right right but esther faced genocide yeah okay somebody said esther is us all right and the possibility of being killed by going before the king without being summoned so okay come on yeah good to see you brother glad you're with us but yeah why'd you say that when i began to say ruth and you're like well what about esther that's because nobody asked me my oh let's ask questions yes who would you choose i'm going with esther um i think they're they're both it depends on where you are in life right if i'm single i want ruth because ruth got some good counsel from naomi was able to work some things out mary i want to talk to esther because that's her context so i'd go with esther as well okay yeah that's fair that's fair that's cool that's cool okay would you rather meet god in the belly of a well or on the island of patmos would you rather meet god in the belly of a well or on the island of patmos this isn't just a quick answer because you're like of course i don't want to be in the belly of the well but we've all been kind of isolated and important and being on an island by yourself now we know island but we think friends family is somebody cooking that good food right but i don't think i don't think our brother was having that experience while he was no on the island of fabulous no it wasn't vacation that's right would you rather what are y'all thinking over there uh so you're gonna meet god either way but which one yeah [Laughter] noah says pacquiao this is says belly of a whale that's my sister okay all right sis all right belly of a whale i think the belly yep that's what i was thinking as well yeah that's what i was thinking it does definitely not the whale okay okay i mean you get a perspective a perspective that's different from others okay lana i'll of course i love patmos a lot of people don't want to be in uh in them fish guts yeah i think people don't want to get in trouble with peter so don't worry sasha can we stay in the belly on the island sasha that is so funny nice way nice way of putting them together all right the island breathing the fresh air that's right so you are having such a positive context with the island peter okay it's prison all right christopher what's up chris that's it do your time and get out that's it get in meet god real close see chris you you you touched on it that's why i'm going with the belly of a whale because the story is he gets out john died on that island john died on the island okay so lord hello how that's right michelle edwards now the question is can you have seafood for the whole time because you can't cook in the belly of the whale mercy what you're going to eat you're having sustaining you that's sushi that's what fish yeah that's raw fish in there yeah that's right it's raw fish that's it but then on the island you may not have i mean you in there with all the food you need it's right carvalho is saying belly at a well you get vomited out and you get another chance that's right that's it so are we saying patmos is a prison sentence oh yeah that is my mind is doing some theology yeah okay yeah you're having an encounter with god so you're not alone come on all right and it's an item i saw that there you go i'm assuming god put him in a nice little place in that belly you know because he could have got sick you know with all the the happening shoes i don't know people's limbs and all kinds of stuff could be up in there i don't know if that's true don't eat meat do they i don't think they don't bite people so you're pretty good it wasn't the belly of a shark that's different that's a different ballgame it is all together thank you all for joining us that was so much belly with sushi that's right doc okay samuel court junior all right that's right you got sushi in there that's right okay so we're going to transition now to um another part where we are going to celebrate in our own way miasha and i um women history month [Music] so i mean i mean this week we have had the opportunity of um you know seeing history in a different kind of way um i'm sure most of us if not all watched um or at least were curious about um mega marco and her story and i know you're probably thinking you know what does meghan markle have to do with the sabbath right i remember she's god's child as well um loved and cherished just like each and every one of us and when we see um meghan markle we just think you know we can't relate to what she's going through you know we she's just so far um removed from our own experience that it's hard for us to even correlate you know what what her story is with ours because i'm sure you know you don't wake up in buckingham palace or you know you don't have the kind of um you know inheritance that um princess diana left um harry you know we don't have this plethora of uh wealth that we can just go to our bank account or you know and fly wherever we want over the world but they are a lot of similarities that we can definitely relate to for example we've all experienced being mistreated i'm sure you know in some way shape or form we've experienced loneliness she knows she speaks about this kind of loneliness where she wanted to take her life because no one would help her you know you know we're able to relate to her as um steph beautiful black women and experiencing racism from you know childhood all the way up to you know being an adult and this is something i think that um you know god placed on our hearts this week we were just talking about it and seeing how um the royal family for example was so quick to discard her and prince harry but and this is sort of like the model of um royal hood or you know royalty story that we see but we know a different kind of royalty as well yeah you know we know that we are also as and we know our father doesn't discard us when you know we do wrong or because of the color of my skin we have a bob who loves us regardless and who's willing to protect us to the end of the earth and we know that um the bible talks about in 1st peter 2 verse 9 it says but you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation god's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and to this wonderful light now i'm not saying that you know the us is the light but i'm just saying that god has god has called each and every one of you here and out of darkness and into his marvelous light so let us celebrate women let us celebrate when women are able to come out of difficult situations yes yes able to um flee from harm yes flee from hurt and go into safety we need to celebrate these things because you know we look to people like um meghan markle um because she said i'm still standing still she says i am still standing and i don't know who else here is still standing because of what situation god may have rescued you from praise god that you're still here and you are joining us there hey man yes yes that's right that's right and so as you were sharing um about meghan markle a woman that came to my mind that's that's leaving a legacy although she is resting in her grade is rihanna taylor that's right yesterday it was a year since she was murdered and i saw her mom online um still grieving of course still in pain because there has been no resolve there has been no justice for brianna taylor now however i decided to look at it from the perspective of the legacy she's leaving that's right you know she's now because of her death there's legislation um being passed or at least even being talked about yeah regarding no more no knock you know entry and coming into people's home and just uh going in there any kind of way and doing as you will throw in the name of trying to get some um information or trying to get some uh some see where the crime scene is or what's going on mind you they found nothing and her boyfriend uh was acquitted of all charges because he did not have anything he should not have had there but i also look at the fact um nyasha that she was an um er technician you're a nurse i'm a pediatric ot um she was into serving others and trying to help others that's another legacy that she was leaving behind she also had plans to go to school and to further her education so she could even do more for society and that's the legacy that i'm reminiscing about that's the legacy i want to live i'm 20 years older than her and her life was snuffed away at such an incredibly young age but if you and i nash and the rest of us have anything to do with it it will not be in vain we will continue to lift each other up build each other up and um work on our own legacy where we can be greater and have a greater impact for all people that's right thank you for that well said well said by both of you all to all of our women who are here today still with us still fighting still still raising children still going to work still leading still writing and speaking and and just being the women that god destined to you and designed you to be we're grateful uh for you and we celebrate you this month hallelujah amen okay if you just join us for a moment we're going to go into prayer god our father and our mother we love you this morning we thank you for your provision that you have given us we thank you for the strength that you have given us as women it is not an invitation for us to continually be misused or abused however we are grateful that you have given us what we have needed you have equipped us so that we can go on with life loving and living and nurturing the way you've called us to do we asked god that you will be uh with megan and her husband harry we lift them up in the name of jesus and what they've gone through and what they will go through we thank you for the life of archie their son and the unborn baby in her womb you have plans for all of your children we also pause god to lift up the family of brianna taylor the friends the associates those who are still aching and hurting because they do not see the light at the end of the tunnel where there is resistance for change even though change is what we need and deserve god allow your holy spirit to be with them and those of us who've logged on who are going through our own transformation and challenges and trials we we are asking that your holy spirit will draw exceptionally close to us so that we can feel you in a tangible way so that we can cast our cares upon you knowing that you care for us that you will allow us to not only have life but have it more abundantly not only when we get to heaven but while we're here on earth help us to stop just surviving and help us to thrive because we were created in your image and after your likeness and that's your plan for our lives yes lord cleanse us of all unrighteousness evil thoughts ways and deeds we're asking that you create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit and we just want to pause god and thank you thank you thank you for creating women we don't know where the world would be without women we have a purpose you have a plan and lord may when men and women join together so that you can be glorified and that we can meet you in peace one day this is our prayer this is our plea in the mighty and special name of jesus we pray amen amen amen amen we praise god today well pastor cadet maybe we could just remind people real quick why we are doing this together some folks might have joined us for the first time so they're trying to figure out why they're four people on the screen let's let's remind them why we're doing that definitely well one we know we're brothers and sisters in christ we love to fellowship with one another uh nyasha and i have a wonderful relationship with pastor knight and sister stephanie and we just love uh being in your presence and doing ministry along with you uh but also over the course of the past year year and a half we've had the opportunity to co-author a book together still thirsty which is a companion book to thirst written by dr knight that has been such a blessing to me i know to the cambridge church community uh we our singles ministry for almost a year we went through it chapter by chapter and the discussions were just so rich uh so i didn't know then that god would be creating this opportunity for us to partner together uh to create uh a companion book that goes even deeper and and further along in in the the topic and the discussion about godly and and biblical and uh uh enriching sexuality yes right yeah well said well said yeah so that's why we're doing this together we're preaching through some principles from this new work still thirsty uh some of you have been asking since last week we are it's almost ready to be released it'll be released in a couple of weeks we praise god for that but the pre-order process is beginning now so we'll let you know how to do that how to be able to get on that list so you could be the first to receive this book it's going to be an amazing time and uh we're blessed today because pastor edsel uh cambridge i know you love to hear and preach revision we got to him last year it was a real blessing yes he's gonna be preaching today and i'm really looking forward i'm telling you uh you're going to really be not only challenged but comforted by the gospel of jesus christ through this word so you definitely want to stay with us for this message so before we have that we're going to have pastor houston from revision come in revision members he's going to share with you something that's really important that we've been doing in the life of our church and then after that we're going to transition to praise and worship cambridge is going to be leading us in that so we're looking forward to that pastor houston america thank you all so much for leading us into our introduction this morning thank you all right awesome listen revision church family really special announcement for you all listen here at revision we believe in getting involved in ministry that's right we believe that god has called us to be the hands and feet of jesus we believe that god has called us to be contributors and not consumers so we want to encourage you to get involved and you can get involved by simply texting crew to the number right there on the screen that's crew to the number right there on the screen we have a plethora of ministries here at revision that you can tap into whether that's youth ministry whether that's children's ministry maybe it's bereavement ministry maybe it's even prayer ministry we have a long list of ministries that we would like to encourage you to get involved in and so once you select that once you select a crew and you text that number on the screen you'll receive a form and after completing that form you'll receive an email that will ask you to to complete a background check and also a spiritual gift assessment you're probably wondering pastor jordan why do we have to complete a spiritual gifts assessment because we just don't want you to be actively involved in just working but we want you to be utilizing the gifts and the divine talents that god has given you for him that's right we want you to utilize the god-given abilities that he has given you and so after you complete that you'll have somebody from our ministry placement team our ministry placement team is a team here at revision that's going to work with you to make sure that you can best serve our community in the best way possible they'll be following up with you to set up a one-on-one conversation to see how you can best serve the community so revision church family we want you to take advantage of this because not just one of us not just two of us not just three of us but we all make up the body of christ and we want to encourage everyone every single person to get involved so we asked you please text crew to the number right there on the screen to join one of our revision crews as pastor cadet and pastor and i have already shared this entire month we are collectively worshiping with our sister church cambridge sda all the way from massachusetts and so leading us out in worship this morning is none other did the cambridge sda church praise team and immediately following that will have the spoken word from their senior pastor pastor esso cadet so let us all worship collectively together revision and cambridge so [Music] grace [Music] there is [Music] will be [Music] is [Music] no [Music] [Music] is [Music] strength for today for tomorrow [Music] is thy faithfulness [Music] is [Music] [Music] i am [Music] no god of abraham you're the god of covenant and faithful promises and time and time again you have proven you'll do just what you said though those doors [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] your history can prove there's nothing you can't do you're faithful in your journal [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] my hope [Music] my faith in jesus [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] is [Music] good morning and happy sabbath it's good to be on with you and i just want to thank the lord for revision church for cambridge church uh and for the knight family for partnering with us and revision partnering with us over the course of the month of march as we continue to unpack and explore this topic of still being thirsty uh our scripture reading is taken from judges chapter 6 verses 3 to 11 judges chapter 6 verses 3 to 11 you can go ahead and open up your bibles or scroll through your app to judges chapter 6 verses 3 to 11. and the bible says here it says so it was who whenever israel had sown midianites would come up also amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as gaza and leave no sustenance for israel neither sheep nor ox nor donkey for they would come up with their livestocks and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts both they and their camels were without number and they would enter the land to destroy it so israel was greatly impoverished because of the midianites and the children of israel cried out to the lord and it came to pass when the children of israel cried out to the lord because of the midianites 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 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 in whose land you dwell but you have not obeyed my voice this next verse opens up this scene where we first find gideon it says now the angel of the lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in ulfra which belonged to joash the abisorite while his son gideon catch this threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the midianites while his son gideon thrushed wheat in the wine pressed in order to hide it from the midianites for the next few moments we're going to be speaking under the topic it's not fine it's not fine let's pray father we pray that you would be with us speak to our hearts lord help us to see past the fog of the things that we have normalized and to see clearly and hear clearly on this day bless us we pray in jesus name amen one of the things i absolutely love about our people is our ability to adapt if something goes wrong if something is broken if something has an issue we will find a way to fix it we might not get all the right tools we might not call the repairman but we've got some duct tape we've got a hanger we've got some tools and we can find a way to make it work long enough for us to be able to survive and i know that for a lot of us we have experienced this in our homes that if something is broken we will find a way to adjust if the door won't close we'll we'll slam it a little harder if the window won't close we might wrap it in plastic or stuff it with paper come on it's so good that you're not in the pew so you can't tell on yourself but you know what's going on in your home if if the window won't close we wrap it in plastic if the toilet won't flush uh we just say just jiggle the handle if the stove won't light uh you might have to light some matches to get the gas to turn on to to turn on to fire and if the doorbell won't work some of us have people knocking on our windows uh how many of us know what it's like to have a headlight that's out so you use the high beams or the dishwasher may or may not work in your home but it's still used to store dishes and we all might have that key that that door that just won't open up unless you hold the key just the right way and and the problem is is that for a lot of us we have become so accustomed to adapting that we don't deal with the real issue we can become so good at fix so good at adapting and becoming used to the problem that that we don't even recognize it's an issue anymore we don't recognize it's a problem until somebody else comes into our home and they say hey this isn't working and what is our response we say it's fine it's okay it works you just have to and we give them instructions the the danger here is that we can become so accustomed to our adjustments that we stop fixing real problems because of how creative we are we can be dishonest with ourselves and act like things are better than they actually are uh some of our issues have gone have gone unresolved much longer than they should have because sometimes our short-term adjustments turned into long-term struggles but first you were just trying to find a way to make it through but now this has become the way that you do life and you don't recognize that it's broken until somebody who's not used to your dysfunction comes in and sees that there's a problem here see while for many of us it may be good for us to be creative and resourceful and how we adjust to life's issues the danger is when adaptation becomes normalization to the point where we don't want to fix what's wrong if we can be honest and we've experienced it in this past year we have all had had to find ways to cope with the chaos some of us are have found healthy ways and some of us have not and and one of the unhealthy ways we adapt we cope we respond to the chaos in our lives is sometimes we say that things are fine that are not fine we normalize nonsense and act like things that are not okay are actually okay i think it happens when we feel like we are powerless to resolve the situation or we just don't have the time or the resources to fix it the way we would like so we just adjust to the dysfunction and isn't this what we see unfolding in the life of israel and gideon uh the midianites raid them in the time of harvest capture this in your mind so that the israelites are able to sow but the israelites can't reap the israelites can plant but the israelites can't harvest the israelites are able to invest their time their energy their resources but they are cut out of the opportunity to see a return so gideon has adapted he has normalized the nonsense his his adaptation has turned to normalization so we find gideon doing what we find gideon threshing wheat in the wine press i hope you don't miss the significance of this opening scene because the midianites would raid israel in seasons of harvest and because wheat and grapes for wine are not harvested in the same season gideon was has adapted by planting wheat in a place where wheat doesn't grow he has planted wheat in the wine press so that when the wheat is ready to be harvested the midianites are in the wheat fields looking to raid not in the wine press why is this a problem see this is clever it's ingenious it's adaptive but here's the issue gideon has just found a more comfortable way to be oppressed he's not trying to solve the problem he's just trying to survive the problem and i know that for many of us it can be difficult to look through the fog of what we've become accustomed to it's what happens when we become what people call noseblind where something is wrong something stinks something is smelly but how many of us know that if you spend enough time in that environment enough time in that circumstance enough time in that situation you become blind to the issue at hand and it takes somebody else coming into the scenario to alert you to the fact that something is not going well so gideon has normalized this nonsense he has found a way to plant wheat in a wine present so he goes and he is now trying to thresh wheat in a wine press now this is problematic because wheat is not supposed to grow in a wine press if you know anything about threshing wheat you use a pitchfork and you toss the wheat into the air and as the wind blows by it separates the wheat from the chaff which means you need to have space to thrush some wheat and you need to have some wind to thrush some wheat but wine presses are often built in depressions which means that wind does not blow through there very easily and also wine presses are congested and lack a lot of space so what this means is that although getting in solution is ingenious although it's adaptive although it's creative it is not effective in fact guinea is probably working twice as hard for half the results because wine presses are not designed for threshing wheat he's probably struggling he's probably striving he's probably trying to find a way to make this thing work so that he can survive the problem instead of trying to solve the problem and here's the problem with normalizing nonsense here's the issue with becoming accustomed to foolishness when we become accustomed to foolishness we lose sight of the standards that god has for us see when you normalize nonsense you spend time addressing symptoms and not sources when you normalize nonsense you become satisfied with things that are subpar and impressed with things that are just standard this is why some of us can't handle somebody who's polite because we've become so accustomed to the nonsense of people being rude and cantankerous that when somebody is polite we think it means more than it actually means this is why we don't know some of us how to interpret somebody just opening a door or calling to check in or maintaining eye contact eye contact it is because we have normalized nonsense to the point where we are satisfied with the subpar or we are so blown away blown away by what is expected by what is standard and i believe that in today's society we have normalized the nonsense so much that we are surprised when people ask how you're doing and actually stop to listen we are surprised when people actually remember to pray for us when they said that they would pray for us we are surprised when people actually keep their word to us see we live in a society that is so saturated with the wrong kind of sexuality that we have habits we have thought processes we have perspectives that we say are fine but they're really adaptations that have turned into normalizations to the point where we don't even know what's healthy anymore so there's a word of word so there's a word for the people of god today to not let your ability to adopt be the reason you stay in bondage don't let your creativity you don't let your ability to withstand keep you in a place where you should not be so god comes and meets gideon in his normalized nonsense gideon is accustomed to this he now knows they've been uh oppressed for seven years he has worked out his strategy he has ironed out his coping mechanisms he knows when to plant the wheat he knows when to harvest the wheat he knows how to do it quietly but it's not giving him the results that he wants so god in his goodness god in his grace shows up in this normalized nonsense aren't you so glad that we serve a god who's not too bougie to meet us where we are who's not to who's not too high and mighty to come and come down and condense into the foolishness that we have and he shows up to show us the right way what we see in the story of gideon is that god shows up in his normalized nonsense and begins to deliver him out of this foolishness now some of you might be familiar with the story of gideon and some of you may not so allow me to just give you a recap uh gideon and the israelites have been oppressed for seven years god shows up and calls gideon to defeat the midianites gideon destroys then the altar of baal and asherah in his family's home then gideon says let me call for the army gideon calls an army because he's getting ready to face a massive army in fact the midianite army catch this is numbered 135 000. that's 135 000 enemy combatants and when gideon calls for the israelite army guess how many show up only 32 000 to face 135 000 god's strategy then becomes implemented where he says this is too many you need to send some people home and through a series of events gideon sends home 31 700 soldiers and only 300 remain to face 135 000 enemy combatants and the story is told that that israel and gideon prevail over their enemy in spite of the odds in spite of how overwhelming in spite of how insurmountable it seems god doesn't need great numbers in order to have victory god doesn't need great weapons in order to have victory but god is able to take the little that we offer amen and god is able to use that in order to bless us and to bless others see what we see happening in the story of gideon is that god calls him and then god uses him to deliver his people and although this story is full of unlikely odds and ends with israel being free of midianite oppression this catch this don't miss this because a lot of us we haven't fully understood the story of gideon this story is not just about god liberating israel from midianite oppression this isn't just about god liberating israel from midianite's oppression uh this is about god freeing his people from the bondage of sexual idolatry that made them vulnerable to that oppression i'm a pause right here just just just to let it sink in because you might have a narrative and an understanding of the text that doesn't fully explore every aspect of the text i know growing up i was uh uh so caught up in in in how 300 could defeat such a mighty army uh i recognized that sparta wasn't the first to do it but that it started with gideon and i was just so caught up in the in the in the in my in my imagination of the battle scenes but but there's something else going on in the text see this is not just about god liberating israel from midianite oppression this is also about god freeing his people from the bondage of sexual idolatry that made them vulnerable to that oppression the bible reveals that that the reason why the israelites were under such cruel oppression is because they had chosen to worship the god of baal and asherah so god so the god of heaven gave them over into the oppression into the oppressive power of the midianites god is the reason why they're being oppressed god has given them over into the hands of the midianites so god is the one if he's the one who who has given them over into oppression god doesn't need their help to get them out of oppression this is less about the physical battle and more so about the spiritual battle god isn't so concerned with the midianites god is more concerned with the idolatry that made them vulnerable to the midianites so you might be wondering if worshipping a statue uh got them into trouble why didn't they just stop i'm so glad you asked uh they didn't stop because worshipping bale and asherah was much more than worshipping statues it was much more than bowing down to images see both baal and asherah don't miss this were fertility gods they were worshiped through sexual intercourse with temple priests and priestesses who were actually temple prostitutes so when they went to worship they were doing much more than raising their hands when they went to worship they were actually engaging in sexual intercourse with the temple prostitutes and this is what was happening because sex is designed to bind us to the people that we have it with it was binding them to to this idol and binding them to these temple prostitutes in spite of the fact that the sex came with oppressive factors so although their minds might have been telling them no their bodies were saying something else so their sexual habits and practices made them vulnerable to oppression and destruction how many of us can relate so god isn't just saving them from the midianites he's saving them from the idolatry that threatens to destroy them and this is especially hard because sex is so powerful that for seven years the israelites have chosen sex outside of the will of god in spite of the oppression that comes with it and before uh we as a church uh look down on them from the purchase of our supposed purity uh dr knight and first corinthians 6 made it clear last week that that the church's struggles with sexuality are just as bad if not worse than what we see in the world so understand that in this message we're not talking about them we're talking about us because sexual impropriety is so pervasive in the world even the church has normalized the nonsense of sex outside of the will of god our unhealthy short-term adaptations have become long-term normalizations uh some of us started the fling just to release sexual tension can you relate don't say amen don't tell on yourself but some of us started the fling to release sexual tension adaptation uh but now we've caught feelings in an unsecure situationship normalization uh some of us watched pornography to soothe loneliness adaptation uh but we still watch porn after we're married normalization some of us uh saw people being disciplined because of their sexual habits and and because people were getting pregnant so we turned to pornography adaptation uh and and instead of learning to to to trust in god and and to have him meet our needs we we're stuck in these cycles of sexual sin and trauma-informed uh uh uh a trauma-informed sexuality and what we've got to recognize is because sex permeates every facet of life uh both the body the mind and the spirit all three as god is delivering his people from sexual idolatry he is intentional about showing gideon and therefore israel how to think how to love and how to live again because sex permeates all three facets of our being god is showing them how to think again how to love again and how to live again not only is he delivering them from the hands of the midianites but he's delivering them from the oppression of sexual idolatry see the first way that this happens is in the process uh in this process is that gideon chooses to trust god gideon chooses to trust god's choice over his own choice so the angel of the lord shows up to gideon and while he's threshing wheat in the wine press gideon is told that the lord is with him and he has been called to defeat the midianites gideon is naturally skeptical he's like if the lord is with us then why is all of this happening to us so gideon asks for confirmation of the promise that the lord will be with him gideon asks for confirmation by laying out a fleece of wool and saying god i need you to to show me through this fleece that you indeed will be with me catch what's happening in gideon's heart and in gideon's mind gideon says i don't want to rely on myself anymore because for the past seven years i've been relying on me and it hasn't been working out so god i need you to work through me i need you to lead me because when i lead myself i get into trouble when i do for myself it doesn't work out so god i need you to lead me so he lays out the fleece and he says to god god if it's you and if indeed you will be with me allow the fleece to be wet and the ground around it dry gideon goes to sleep and the next morning he wakes up and the wool is wet and the ground around it is dry but then gideon begins to think uh wool is naturally an absorbent the wool naturally absorbs moisture so it would be natural for the world to be wet but the ground to be dry so gideon says god uh please bear with me one more time i need just one more sign because i don't want to go in my own strength i don't want to go in my own wisdom i don't want to go in my own power i need you to be with me so give me another sign this time give me something i can't control something i can't contrive something i know must be from you because i know that it can't be from me gideon says i'm gonna lay out the wool one more time and this time please make the wool dry and the ground around it wet god in his grace answers gideon's desire gideon wakes up the next morning and gideon sees that the wool is dry but the ground around it but the ground around it is wet and gideon is basically saying here i need to know for sure that it's god and not me so he asks god to give him this sign so that he can know for sure that it's not him gideon displays to us the power of honest self-awareness come on in your home say self-awareness how many of us know people who aren't self-aware who who who don't understand how they impact the environment around them who don't understand the role they play in the mess they got themselves in who aren't aware of of who they are and how they operate who don't understand how they think what we see in gideon is the power of honest self-awareness where gideon says i know my thoughts i know the way i process and i would rationalize away this sign so god i need to know that it's you leading and not me so god do something i could not do say things i would not say so that when i hear your voice i can tell it's you because i know it's not me because if it's me i'ma mess it up if it's me i i i'm gonna fall into foolishness but if it's you i know that i cannot fail how many of us know that that that that we need the leading of the voice of god to navigate this life because i know who i am i know what i like i know that i know what i'm like when my buttons are pushed or my or somebody strokes my ego so so so let this mind be in me which was also in christ jesus or else i'll say the wrong thing i'll do the wrong thing or make the wrong choices so thank god for the moments when the thoughts that i thought weren't my own when thank god for the moments where the words that i spoke weren't my own thank god for the moments where god got a hold of my tongue and he got a hold of my brain and he got a hold of my hand to do for me and to do in me what i could not do in myself because i lack the discipline don't you just love it when when god takes over because we surrender to him i know a lot of us we struggle with this we we we love to be in control we love to experience the illusion of being in control but it's so much better when there's somebody else who sees the field better than you do and who understands what's going on better than you do and gives you instruction to help you navigate successfully it reminds me of quarterbacks who sit on the side of the field sometimes you might see them where uh in the middle of a game they're on the phone and you might be wondering why are they on the phone in the middle of a game uh who are they calling are they calling their friends are they calling their family but i did some research and i found that that quarterbacks in the middle of a game are on the phone with people in the booth because people in the booth have a better vantage point of what's happening on the field see the temptation as we quarterback is to say i'm on the field i feel the hits i see what's happening and to think that nobody has a better perspective of what's going on than i do however what we see from quarterbacks is that when they're on the phone with people in the booth the people in the booth are higher up on the field they have a better vantage point of how the game is being played out they see the defensive schemes and they see the blitzes coming and they're able to communicate to the quarterback and say these are the patterns that we recognize you can't see it because you're so low in your vantage point but because we're a little higher because we have some some perspective we're able to guide you through the difficulties before you if only you would trust in us isn't this what we see in the scriptures when samuel is called to anoint david where samuel does not rely on his own wisdom but he relies on the leading and the wisdom of god he he is called to anoint the next king of israel and he goes and he sees the sons of jesse and he thinks to himself surely this one has qualities of a king surely this one is tall enough surely this one is handsome enough surely this one is is wise enough and at each point god is giving him wisdom and saying no not this one i know for many of our single people we pray that kind of anointing of discernment over our lives where god will say no not this one no not this one no not this one and the goodness of god is that samuel is obedient to the lord even to the point where it looks like there's nobody left oh i want to talk to my singles for a moment who have been to every camp meeting and who have been to gc and who have seen all that their confidence and all that the church has to offer and they think that there's nothing left for them and you are tempted to tiptoe out the door and to go and find somebody that doesn't believe as you believe see the goodness is that samuel said is there nobody else and although jesse didn't think that david was worthy to bring in to be considered god still had his eye on david and samuel said we will not begin until david is brought in the goodness here is that it won't start until you get there you might think that they won't call your name you might think that you missed your opportunity or that you've missed your blessing but the party won't start until you get in if this is what god has ordained for you and if you are running out of options and if you feel like you're running out of hope i want you to know that god has something in store even if you can't see it even if you don't discern it god still has something in store for you see samuel was obedient to the voice of god he was obedient to the will of god he was not willing to operate on his own thoughts he didn't lean to his own understanding but in all his ways he acknowledged him and god was directing his paths isn't this uh what we see with adam and with eve where where adam is made and adam is going through the garden and he's seeing two of each animals but not one that is appropriate for himself he sees two dogs he sees two monkeys he sees two chickens he sees two pigs and the bible says that he doesn't find a helpmate suitable for himself but the goodness here is that adam does not take the reins adam doesn't say it's not good for me to be alone but god says it adam doesn't say it but god says it adam waits for god to determine that it's not good for him to be alone because the truth of the matter is that for some of us we need to be alone we're not ready to be with somebody else we need some time to work on ourselves so it's always better to wait for god to say not us god to say it's not good for you to be alone because if adam had gone ahead on his own all he would have had to date were some pigs the way some of us have dated some pigs all he would have had to mate with were some dogs the same the same way some of us have been with some dogs all he would have had are some chickens the same way some of us have dated some chicken heads see god it was the one who initiated the the realization that it is not good for adam to be alone and when adam trusted in god he made for him exactly what was perfect for him as god is delivering israel out of the hand of the midianites and delivering them out of the hand of sexual idolatry the first thing he's doing through gideon and modeling to israel is how to think differently how to not lean on your own understanding on your own sensibilities on your own taste and and on your own desires that may have been corrupted by life's experiences and to trust in god and to trust that what he has is better than what you want the second way that we see god removing uh god god delivering gideon and israel from the hands of the midianites and sexual idolatry is that god is showing gideon not how not only to remove but to replace what is not good as god is is leading him uh god first calls gideon to go and defeat and to defeat the midianites and you would think that gideon's first step would be to go all the way over to the midianites and to go and fight them maybe to call an army but gideon's first stop is actually to go to his house where he can experi where he tears down the altar of baal and asherah this means that gideon didn't have to leave home to find sexual idolatry sexual idolatry was present in his home he went home to tear down the altar of baal and ashura and god is saying before we can deal with what's out there we've got to deal with what's in here see god uh don't don't you know that that that we learn to love and be loved from the relationships in our homes that that the one relation that one relationship always informs the next relationship see what we learn from our fathers and what we learn from our mothers inform how we operate in the world because the relationships we choose today are a response to the relationships of the past either we are repeating old patterns or revising old patterns but either way we're responding to them and some of us are forming trauma bonds where where we have learned to associate love with mistreatment we have learned to associate love with abuse so we pick partners that love us in the way that traumatized us in the past uh the reason why they feel familiar is because they remind you of home and homeless dysfunctional you feel like you've always known them because you've seen these patterns before i hope i'm not stepping too hard on your toes but the truth is is trying to set us free see see what have you learned from your family about sex what altars have been erected men were you raised to be strong were you raised to be strong and not cry was the only acceptable emotion you were allowed to emit anger uh were you taught to prove your masculinity your masculinity through aggression and hypersexuality uh were you congratulated when you got her number or got in her bed but chastised when you were vulnerable were you trained to be rough and tumble but not acknowledged your emotions uh was it modeled to you that you could not be vulnerable or us people would tear you down uh we have this uh the this this this tendency to believe that that this is the way that men should be raised and men should be socialized but we are in a vicious cycle of normalized nonsense even normalized abuse because while we socialize men to be rough and tumble and to withhold their emotions and to and to express anger only uh the women are socialized much differently women what were you taught about sex at home uh were you taught to be responsible for the sexual desires of other men uh were you taught to be nice and say yes even when your instincts were saying no were you taught that you don't have control over your body being forced to hug and sit on and and kiss on the cheek people that you don't want to be around were were you shamed for the natural process of puberty uh were you shamed for the curvature that god gave you uh were you praised and valued everywhere but in your home i need us to catch the the dynamic of what's happening here when we raise men to only show anger and to affirm their masculinity through aggression and hypersexuality and we raise our women to be silent and submissive and to be responsible for the sexual desires of other men when we raise men to be aggressive and we raise women to be submissive catch this we are raising men to be predators and women to be prey see see what i need us to catch and understand here especially speaking to our parents is that you don't need to be talking about sex to be teaching your kids about sex some of us have have have believed this false notion that if i don't mention it they won't think of it i need you to recognize right now that if your child has wi-fi if your child has twitter if your child if your child has social media if your child has has access to television they know more about sex at their age than you knew about sex at your age and you don't have to be talking about sex explicitly to be teaching your kids about sex see what you say about their bodies how you teach them to value themselves how you affirm their masculinity or femininity will impact how they understand sexual relations how you love their mother or respect their father will impact how they understand sex how you respond to vulnerability and honesty will impact how they understand sex you don't have to be talking about it to be teaching it and the issue is that not enough of us have been intentional about teaching our kids about sex because we have experienced our own sexual miseducation we just hope that one day somebody will cover it we hand over books that that that don't go in depth into the topic we we we have one conversation instead of the ongoing progressive conversation that is necessary to help our children mature in their understanding of sexual union so how does gideon deal with the sexual with the sexual idolatry in his home i need you to take note and catch this uh gideon does not negotiate gideon does not bargain gideon does not show up trying to convince people who aren't converted he just tears down the altar to baal essentially he's saying i will not participate in this brokenness anymore he doesn't argue to try to convince because the truth is you wouldn't understand that these perspectives about sexuality are so pervasive that as you're getting free people other people are going to think that you're crazy so he doesn't try to convince them he doesn't try to argue with them he doesn't he doesn't try to persuade them he says i'm tearing this thing down and i will no longer participate or perpetuate these false narratives and perspectives around sexuality but catch that he doesn't just remove the altar by the grace of god he replaces the altar uh he replaces it with an altar that is built to honor god with an altar that that is that that has a sacrifice for the past seven years that they have been in oppression uh too many of us focus on removal instead of replacement but when we do that we are focused on the symptoms of sexuality i'm gonna stop doing this i'm gonna stop doing that rather than the source we are trying to meet through our sexuality this is why we fall back into bad habits because we're focused on symptoms and not sources we're removing and not replacing so we're trying to stop behavior instead of trying to surrender the desires of our hearts see removal without replacement is like removing a flat tire without replacing it if you're on the side of the road with a flat tire and you have nothing to replace it with you can't make it to your destination so we end up hitchhiking for love anybody who can take us a little closer to what we want a little closer to our desire as dangerous as it may be as as destructive as it may be we hitchhike our way to our destination because we have removed things without replacing them but the goodness of god is that he shows us the value of not only removing but also replacing because what god removes he always has a better replacement for this is critical because gideon doesn't think that simply what's that simply removing it is the answer they they're gonna have to find uh see see what happens when we don't when we don't replace things we find oh another way to meet those needs when you come to this place uh you imagine the the the israelites now showing up trying to go to uh this place where they usually had their sexual desires fulfilled in a ways that god did not ordain uh when they show up there uh they're not finding what they used to find they're finding an altar uh and gideon is saying come find god and discover something better come and discover that the peace you've been looking for in sex you can find it in god the joy you've been looking for in sex you can find it in god the affirmation you've been looking for in sex you can find it in god the commitment you've been seeking for through sex you can find it in god the security you've been looking for through sex you can find it in god and the love you've been looking for in sex you can find it in god see he doesn't just remove the altar of baal he replaces it with what they need now please note that this is not anti-sex but this is good sex because sex was never designed to create love to create security to create commitment to create affirmation joy or peace or security see sex was not designed to create these things sex was designed to celebrate these things good sex is the culmination and celebration of these things it is not simply crying out in ecstasy it is having the security the love the joy the affirmation and the commitment that many of us are looking for in sex or through sex that's why god reserves it for marriage so gideon is now going through this process where he's learning to think differently he's learning to love differently as he not only removes but he replaces and and he's learning also now how to live differently gideon calls an army as they're getting ready to go to war and this is our appeal uh gideon calls for the army he's about to face an army of 135 000 midianites he calls for the israelite armed forces to support him in battle and god begins to use a counter-intuitive battle battle strategy only 32 000 uh israelites show up for battle they are they are outnumbered four to one and god says these are too many ask all who are afraid to go home so 22 000 soldiers who are full of fear go home catch this don't miss this god says these are too many all those who are afraid send them home gideon says anybody who's afraid go home 22 000 out of the 32 000 soldiers say you know what i didn't want to be here anyway good luck gideon i hope god blesses you but i'm going back home 22 000 soldiers leave leaving them with uh with with only 10 000 soldiers to face 135 000 soldiers they are outnumbered 13 to 1. god looks at this paltry army of 10 000 and still says ah this this is too many uh take them by the river to drink and i'm gonna show you who to send home uh god is showing him how to how to pick a partner uh how to live how how to what to associate with and what not to associate with and god says the the these don't belong with you they can't go with you where i'm taking you so i need to uh show you that that this separation is preparation that that i'm preparing you for something better by separating you from from something worse he says take them by the river to drink and i'm going to show you who to send home and the bible shows us that there are two different kinds of soldiers uh ones who drop their guard while drinking they they they get down on all fours and they lay down their weapons and and they just begin to drink up the water and then there are soldiers who maintain their guard while they're drinking uh they stay alert they they stoop down and they scoop the water into their hands and up to their mouths so gideon sends home the soldiers who dropped their guard and only 300 soldiers remained 300 soldiers versus an army of 135 thousand uh at this point they are outnumbered 450 to one it seems insurmountable it seems impassable it seems like there is no way to have victory it seems like overwhelming odds how can they be different how can they have victory in this situation uh but god then reveals the battle strategy god tells them to surround the enemy army in the middle of the night don't miss this there's a reason why god has been separating and how that separation has been preparation god says surround the enemy army in the middle of the night he says don't use your sword don't use your shields i need you to break out a torch and to break out a trumpet and i need you to to blow into the trumpet and to make a loud noise and when the enemy army wakes up they see that they are surrounded by an army in the middle of the night they presume that the army is much larger than it actually is and the bible shows us that the enemy army the midianite army turns on itself and midianites are killing midianites until they have the victory what's the point see the separation was preparation god had a plan in mind for his people but he knew that not everybody could go with them he knew that his strategy would be to attack them in the middle of the night without using their weapons so god had to separate the people who were not prepared for that kind of strategy uh uh uh see see to attack in the middle of the night you have to be prepared at all times so god sends home the unprepared and in order to uh be bold enough to attack and to attack an enemy army without using your sword or your shield you have to be without fear so god sends home those who are afraid see a lot of us we end up mourning what we're missing because we don't recognize that god has something better in store for us that is separation is preparation and the truth is is that for a lot of us we are so accustomed uh to certain thought processes and certain in certain thought patterns and and ways that we have been trained to live in ways that we've been trained to love and ways that we've been trained to think that we could not imagine a life without these things it seems insane for gideon to go into into battle without the rest of his army but god's strategy is not dependent on what gideon what makes gideon comfortable god's strategy is dependent on gideon's obedience and faithfulness the challenge for us today is that many of us have adopted and learned thought patterns and processes and uh we have learned to to to to look at life a certain way to think a certain way to love a certain way to live a certain way that is not serving us for many of us it's the reason why we are in oppression it has made us vulnerable to the oppressive attacks of the enemy so god is is threshing us just as god found gideon in the at the threshing floor he's threshing us he's he he's tossing us up into the air and allowing the wind of the holy spirit to remove the the the the wheat from the chaff he's separating us in order to prepare us for many of us our call and cry has been it's fine it's okay uh this this this is normal i can handle it how many of us say that and god is calling us to say and to recognize today it's not fine it's not okay it's not a part of his plan or his will so god is bringing you through a threshing process this month and for the rest of your life so that you can be separated from that from that from that which does not serve you the lord is calling you even now there's some some phone calls uh that you need not return some text messages you need not respond to some addresses that you need to delete some accounts come on somebody that you need to unfollow some people and thought processes that must be torn down and can no longer be engaged with we've said i'm fine but we're not fine we're not okay devastation and destruction abound in our lives so let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus god is calling you today to let go to walk away from to cut off the patterns the thought processes the habits that are not like him not only to remove them but to replace them and to recognize that you will find in god all that you're truly looking for see if gideon had not been obedient i need you to catch this he would not have been prepared to face the midianites and while some of our sexual habits and proclivities might seem harmless right now the enemy is using them to plant landmines in our lives that will detonate when we get to the destination that we've been dreaming of we say it's fine but it's not fine we say it's okay but it's not okay we've become so comfortable with certain things we don't even pray about it anymore because it's it's an adaptation that has turned into a normalization but i'm praying today that god awakens our conscience once more that that he sensitizes us to the things that are not like him uh the the seemingly meaning menial phrases and and teachings that we think are harmless boys will just be boys and that's just the way girls are that he shows us the unhealthy pro the unhealthy path we're headed down and that he threshes us that he separates us from these things as he prepares us for what is to come let me pray with you father lord your children are are hearing your voice today father we we've become so accustomed to doing things our own way and we have shrouded our sin in secrecy we don't even talk about it to ourselves we block it out and just act like everything is okay but god today we we pray that you would help us to not normalize our nonsense but to turn to you and know that that all that we're really looking for we find in jesus the love we need the security the need we need the peace we need the the affirmation we need we find it in christ lord you know right now and speak to the hearts of your children uh the the accounts that need to be deleted the numbers that need to be deleted uh the accounts that must be unfollowed the social media apps that that that people must fast from in order to find victory and deliverance lord uh the the software that must be installed for for people to find victory over pornography lord uh uh the the the the the taste buds that have that have ventured too far and have been exposed too much and that are having trouble uh just being satisfied with the one that you chose lord we're praying for deliverance we're praying for you not only to remove but god for you to replace lord we're not focused on the symptoms today but god we're focused on the source so lord we lay our hearts bare and open to you for our hearts are exceedingly wicked lord not even we fully understand it but god you know what we're looking for you know what we truly desire so father we pray quench our thirst meet our needs help us to to wait on you for we know that the enemy will always show up with a quick fix but god we pray that you would instill within us the patience the self-control and the faith to say i will not take the microwave solution but i will wait on what god has because it's better lord speak to our hearts fill our hearts we pray this in jesus name amen god bless you amen pastor cadet wow what a powerful and beautiful word word you made it plain for us today praise the lord man praise the lord good to be on with you yeah yeah absolutely man praise god for your ministry listen revision church family um this is our opportunity to give that's right this is our opportunity to give you can give a tithe and an offering we encourage you to do both our tithe goes to support our global missions and our offering goals to support our local missions what we do right here within our local context we encourage you to give both and we want to say thank you so much for your giving this entire year this far you can give by simply going to our website revision church atlanta dot o r g and clicking on the give tab that's right clicking on the give tab once you click on the give tab you will then go to adventist online giving and you can give your offering and you can give your tithe there as well you can also give via our paypal system that's right simply all you have to do is text rev paypal to the number right there on the screen this is another way that you can give is via our paypal system all you have to do is just simply text rev paypal to 833 4060 seven seven five that's right you can also give via a new way which is cash app all you have to do is just simply text the dollar sign revision church atlanta and then just type in your amount and you can send your donation via that way so you have our website you have our um paypal account and you also have cash app that's the dollar sign revision church and that's how you can give revision church family amen amen i just want to encourage people once more to really support the ministry of revision uh church uh the the ministry that they're doing in atlanta is just so innovative and it's reaching a demographic in our church that often is overlooked so make sure that you support also uh you have an opportunity to to partner with the ministry of cambridge sda church we're up in massachusetts and we are working hard in the lord's vineyard up here so you can go ahead and there are three ways to give uh you can either go to cambridges.org and click the give tab there uh or you can download the adventist giving app and type in cambridge and that's a quick and easy way to give and some of you can feel free to just go ahead and mail your donation mail your tithe and your offering to 43 norwood street at everett massachusetts if you go over to cambridgesta.org go ahead and click on that give tab once you click on it it's going to take you to another option for giving and it's going to take you to the adventist giving website where you're going to be able to enter in your information or even save your information for regular systematic giving uh your partnership is so appreciated and it is helpful because you are planting seeds that are impacting lives that you don't see uh so i'm excited for for your partnership and for for your support as we continue to push forth this ministry uh in our part of the vineyard thank you again for partnering with us amen amen again this is so exciting to be able to just collaborate with you pastor cadet in your community and revision church family we ask that you also go and support our sister church our family our friend cambridge sda as well listen revision church atlanta we just have a couple of announcements for you i want to remind each and every single one of you that we believe in the power of prayer here at revision church atlanta and if you would like to sign up for a 10-minute prayer session with one of our prayer warriors we ask that you text jesus to the number right there on the screen jesus to the number right there on the screen so that you can schedule a time to speak and pray with one of our prayer warriors this week if you were even blessed by today's message and you want to know god further let's say you want bible studies or maybe you even want to join the revision community simply just text jesus to the number right there on the screen and you can fill out that form so that we can know and then we'll get back in touch with you but not only that as i share with you earlier we want you to get involved in ministry here at revision we believe that god is calling us to be the hands and feet of jesus we believe that god wants us to be contributors and not just consumers and so we encourage you to get involved in ministry all you simply have to do is text crew to the number right there on the screen to be a part of one of our revision crews that's crew to 833-406-0775 listen this upcoming week starting tomorrow our small groups are beginning i'm so excited so many of you all have already signed up if you have not signed up yet we want to let you know that it is not too late we encourage you to sign up we're going to be diving into the gospels in the word of god together over the next 10 weeks in building community with one another and also building upon our relationship with god the theme is read your story listen if you want to be a part of one of our small groups it doesn't matter where you are across the globe or across the states all you simply have to do is text small groups to the number right there on the screen listen small groups right there to the number on the screen i also want to remind you that this upcoming week we are not having the shift but we will be back the following week if you missed this past week's shift on wednesday at 7 30 we encourage you to go watch it on demand via our youtube and also our facebook page we had an amazing conversation on building relationships during the pandemic and so we encourage you to go back and watch that and if you want to stay connected with us revision church family and even cambridge listen if we want to say if you all want to stay connected with us simply just follow us on our different social media platforms you have facebook social media and also youtube at revision church atlanta and that's where you can stay up of on all the latest news that we're doing here at revision definitely definitely another way you can connect if you'd like to connect with cambridge go ahead and text cambridge to 84576 you sign up for our texting services and that way you can be up to date with everything going on with cambridge and it also gives you an opportunity to connect with some of our bible workers some of our elders for prayer or for bible study or if you would like to make this make a decision for jesus so go ahead and text cambridge to 84576 the word cambridge to 84576 you can also fight you can also find us on social media on facebook on twitter and on instagram uh at cambridge sda uh we do want to remind you that these announcements are not the conclusion of this program uh we are having a post-sermon discussion where you can submit some questions and we can further this discussion on sexuality together i also want to remind you that we are having an afternoon program cambridge new england north area uh we're partnering together with our new england north churches for this afternoon session at 3 30 p.m with dr janssen as we continue to explore growing in our spirituality we encourage you to find us on facebook and youtube for those programs as they have already been a blessing and as they are ramping up to our evangelistic series starting on the first sabbath of april so we're excited we're we're already encouraging you make sure you're inviting your friends and your families uh to these these these programs that are building up to our evangelistic series so that they can already be with us as we get ready to explore to explore the word of god together night after night and learn more about jesus we are uh inviting you to participate not with us not not only in this afternoon's program but next afternoon as well for new england north uh dr knight myself and several others are going to be doing an afternoon program and discussion on relationships and sexuality we're just we're just continuing this whole month through so we'd love for you to be with us 3 30 this afternoon uh on our youtube and facebook channels but also next saturday afternoon at 3 30 as well uh so thank you all again for being with us i don't know if they have the number just yet cambridge to 84576 if not we'll put it up next time awesome awesome man it's so beautiful to see so many things are going on within our communities and i'm so excited for this upcoming discussion that you and pastor knight are going to lead us in thanks man good to see you brother pastor you too yeah man i think you're muted doc i i think you're muted okay all right so pastor knight is going to join us just in a second but if you've never participated in post sermon discussion before uh this is an opportunity to kind of unpack the word maybe even go in another direction a little bit we do want to stay focused on our topic uh so we do invite you to make sure that you're you're posting your questions uh or comments in the comment section so that we can participate with you and further unpack uh ways that we can live out some of what we've learned that's right that's right i'm back pastor cadet thank you so much for the word that the lord put in your mouth today to share with us and i was kind of putting in the chat telling people hey listen don't go anywhere because this kind of word needs to be not only digested but conversation helps us to be able to do that to not just hear it but to apply it and so uh we want you to begin to just ask some specific questions you can put it in the live chat there questions related to if you can you know we know that we're talking about sexuality and spirituality all month but particularly today pastor cadet has shared with us some very specific things some very powerful principles this whole issue of removing and replacing um symptoms versus sources i really love this whole idea that you really helped us to understand that we learn about sexuality in our homes long before uh we ever have the talk right we learn through observation the certain roles that are assigned to women and to men as they are boys and girls and so um i know that there are some questions that you might have some questions of clarification um i hate to say i told you so but i did that this would be an amazing word today um you could probably tell pastor pastor gadet is very humble but you could probably tell he is receiving some extra training um and education definitely in the area of of psychology and therapy and so i just know that that's already impacting his ministry and um it's going to be a blessing to you there cambridge church and to all of us who get to hear and preach so um i'm just allowing you to get some time i think we're going to have a few questions we're not going to take long but we just want to be able to give you some time to ask some questions and this is it's a great opportunity isn't it pastor cadet we don't always get to do this when we're in the building right so uh to be able to do this at this time let's take advantage of that and maybe what i'll do is i'll just uh facilitate the question and and you uh can answer the questions based on what you preached today all right all right so do we have any uh questions we'll try to put them up on the screen as they come into the live chat any specific questions yes i don't know if you have any questions yourself uh that's a possibility yeah oh something yeah with my camera give me one second well we can hear you we just can't see you we'll get that fixed in just a minute but for those of you um we'll just take a few uh minutes here and ask uh answer any specific questions either to myself or to pastor cadet and then we'll close off all right so the first question pastor cadet how do you go about identifying the source it's so easy to see the symptoms but sometimes it can be hard to find the root of the problem great question laura great question that is do you identify the source all right uh good question good question let me switch cameras really quick we see you now i'm up i'm up okay all right i know what happened uh great question how do you go about identifying the source uh dr knight you can help with this but i know for me uh one some introspection some some so i tell myself whenever i fall short do an autopsy on the sin uh go back and figure out what's the cause of death what happened here what led up to it and i think we tend not to do that because we're we are full of shame when we fall short that we just want to like kind of cover our eyes we you know how like when kids play hide and seek uh when they're young they cover their eyes and they think that if i don't see you then you can't see me uh i think we tend to do the very same thing with our sin where we just want to kind of just cover our eyes and act like it doesn't exist and what happens is that we don't learn from those experiences uh so it takes being uh what i call that that honest self-awareness what the gideon had where it's like okay what happened here uh what what was going on with me spiritually and emotionally the weeks leading up to this not only the moments before but the weeks leading up to this where was i with god where was i emotionally right uh they talk about how the uh increase in in pornography watching how it increased over the pandemic uh part of that is is spurned not only by opportunity but loneliness right and people trying to find comfort in in through other resources uh so really being honest about some of some of the emotions that we don't really talk about right how many of us are really talking to people about man i feel lonely um i i feel unworthy i feel undeserving right and really being honest about those needs and how that plays a role in what am i trying to find in this sexual relationship uh that has helped me yeah figure out okay what i really need is is love what i really need is affirmation can god meet that need for me can i can i find it from him and and i the answer definitely is yes yeah so yeah that's good yeah i i agree i do think specifically if you've been brought up in this religious um in a religious setting like growing up in church that one of the things that we are implicitly taught is a reaction when we let me say it this way our implicit reaction to when we make a mistake is shame right and and we talk about this in the book in the new book coming out still thirsty that that that is a reaction to the reality of something that we've done wrong the problem with shame is that it actually does not allow me to see the source of the problem right now all my focus on is on how bad i am uh how i messed up i'll never get over this and then that leads to what we you know that self-condemnation right so how do we identify the source i think part of it is not only what pastor cadet said in being self-aware and doing that introspection but also rejecting shame right and that's a big that's a big thing for people who who at least been in this religious setting regardless of denomination if you grew up in a religious setting oftentimes shame unfortunately becomes part of that and biblically that's not what it is jesus says listen i'm not coming to condemn i'm not coming to shame i'm coming to let you be aware that there is a better way right so it's not just the self-introspection but it's also rejecting shame and that's half the battle right yeah good good great question another question time for a couple more all right so you brought to mind how girls can almost be groomed to accept unwanted affection for males how can parents be taught to pay attention when young girls don't want to give uncle oh thank you this is great uncle a hug or a kiss right good great question first so great question i one i believe that god gives us an instinct i i really truly believe babies know they know the deal they they run into people and they're just like something something's not right over here and i think what ends up happening a lot of times is that as we are teaching our children to be polite as we are teaching them manners sometimes we are also teaching them to stifle this god-given instinct that god has given them come on and what happens is we teach them be nice and we equate being nice with being good right so if you're nice that means you're saying yes to everything and what happens is that especially living in our day and age the world has always been dangerous but it's i just feel like it's a little bit more dangerous today uh our young women our children need practice in saying no and saying no without feeling guilty how many of us as adults we still struggle with feeling guilty about saying no and i've heard too many accounts of people who have experienced sexual abuse who have experienced sexual assault and who felt like man i just couldn't say no now that's not their fault but that no has been suppressed by these by these false notions of what it means to be good you can say no and still be good they can get upset and you're still good jesus told peter no when peter was like no don't go to the cross jesus said no and jesus even called him satan and jesus was still good right saying no does not make you a bad person so my encouragement i i think that this requires a much broader discussion but my encouragement is make sure your children know that they have autonomy over their own bodies that if they say no i'm not comfortable with this you respect that so that they could they can begin to learn that's okay i don't have to be available to everybody i don't have to be accessible to everybody i don't have to be nice to every i can respect i can be good i can be uh but i can be good by being respectful but i don't need to be available to everyone so that's where i would start my answer that's good that's really good yeah i agree um there there needs to be i think as parents we have to be we have to realize that although our children uh you know their children they're immature they're growing they do they are given as pastor cadet was saying an ability to sense oftentimes they have they they can sense things they might not have the vocabulary for it but i think we need to respect the fact that and you've seen this at times before where kids will sometimes pull away right sometimes that you know uh there has to be discernment there on behalf of the parent to say 100 you know right if they're being you know shy or if they're and then there are other factors right are they hungry are they all those other things right but if they're perfectly fine they're fed they're not wet you know they they're they're being loved then when they pull away take that as a sign right that perhaps they don't have language for something that they are sensing and i think we have to start that early we can teach them to be both polite and yet to be to respect themselves and their body because this is why the the breeding ground uh church is such a breeding ground for predators right because we teach this idea of nice i said this the other day um i think you and i were talking backstage in the interview we were doing uh with message magazine shout out to message for that great interview but um what is nice what is nice but nice is not really i mean it's a word but what does it mean right and i think that we've tried to apply that to our lives when nobody can really define what nice is right um and so i think that we need to christians need to get over trying to be nice and and actually be respectful yeah of both the people that you're interacting with and yourself right and we got to teach that to our kids 100 because the definition of nice it's kind of defined in kindergarten and it's just left there it's not really matured as we grow up so now we're left with this adolescent not even adolescent with this uh this infantile definition of of of of nice that just doesn't work in the real life and in real life and predators sense that yeah take advantage of it yeah yeah and i mean we could have a whole discussion we probably need to to talk about but we do have this in the book where we talk about sexual predators and abuse we have a whole chapter in fact two chapters in the book to talk about this right because the church does owe an apology to so many children um and to so many women so it happens to some boys too we we recognize that but disproportionately to girls and young women um and so we need to definitely talk about how we can change that moving forward hey man yeah all right another question i think we have time for one or two okay ansel robinson says how does one move from adjusting to the nonsense which seems to be commonplace and move to being abnormal in a world that normalizes nonsense especially if one wants to identify with a community all right loaded questions load the questions ah such a good question so first and this is not a plug uh get the book and i say this because pastor knight and i wrote it intentionally with discussion questions so that you can go through it with community uh one of the things we recognized is people were reading it and getting free but they were in spaces that were not free so they needed some support and they needed people who were going on the journey with them so this is really it's designed for you to go through it by yourself but if you go through it with your community you pull your friends together it can be such a transformative and a blessing uh to your entire circle uh but how does one go from uh how does one move how does one move from adjusting to the nonsense um i think the process that gideon went through is critical just the awareness for some people is just it's groundbreaking um even for myself growing up i was raised you know rough and tumble don't don't be vulnerable don't you know express too much emotion and i thought it's fine this is normal this is what i see modeled to me from everyone else but then we look at the scriptures and we see no we see a range of emotions from from jesus we see a range of emotions from david um so i think taking a hard look at how we have been socialized and not assuming that just because people who loved us raised us this way it doesn't mean it's the healthiest way for us to be um sometimes your own personal healing is what's going to liberate your parents or liberate your siblings or liberate the people around you who who were doing the best they could with what they had um so i'm praying messages like this the book will help sensitize us to the things that we thought this is fine we recognize this is not fine and i need to be bold about the fact that this is not okay yeah that's good that's good and i know that they're they're people are waiting they're like okay you guys say we need to get the books how we can how can we get the book right right um so what we'll do is we'll just give you our our websites i believe yours is is is ready to go um but if not we can at least give the email address right so you can be on the sign up list and then next week we will give the actual pre-order process and ways to eat the link and all that so you can go and get that but um wesleynite.org my name wesley knight.org that website you can go there and be able to uh get information on that also uh pastor cadet any information from from you because we will both have the book right right by tomorrow you can go to edselbe cadet.org or edselbeecadet.com and you'll find it there if you really want to just get on the list right now go ahead and email me at edsel.cadet gmail.com and we'll we'll take that and start processing it for you uh but if you wait by tomorrow by tomorrow xlbcadet.org will be up and running uh and you'll be able to start the process there that's right that's right well i think we'll just do maybe one more if we do yep that's right sobcadet.org that's the website for pastor cadet uh very good um the we'll take one more and then we'll probably close with that if we have another one by the way we give a shout out to the media teams doing a great job today and for revision and for cambridge you have no idea the running pro that happens to make all of this happen that's right cambridge is an amazing time amazing job all right about the book will it be available on audible oh well we'll have to work on that no we will have to work on that i think that's something that we need to do yeah and for those of you who haven't got the first book thirst which is kind of like the precursor to still thirsty um you can get that on wesleyanite.org as well it will really help the whole experience if you're able to get thirst first and then still thirsty um and so you can be able to order that today wesleynight.org you can get that and eventually we'll get it on your website as well pastor cadets so they can have that all right all right well um i think that's it for today questions we are going to do this again next week we are going to um have a time right after the message where we can be able to answer some questions we're going to go through this uh series together just wanting to make sure that we're not just receiving information but it leads to spiritual transformation so thank you once again pastor cadet for this word any closing words for your congregation there at cambridge um cambridge always good to be with you i look forward to seeing you this afternoon for our new england north program uh and more announcements are going to be coming out by the text message so just stay tuned and also by via email um i see a question from uh abelia wright we are shipping internationally so don't worry about that uh go ahead and place your order and we'll uh we'll get we'll get back to you but uh revision thanks for having me uh pastor knight thanks again for for the partnership absolutely it's a blessing to us well let's pray together before we release you today father we're grateful for these two congregations and pastor cadet and i are indeed blessed uh to be able to partner with you to follow you as we shepherd these congregations bless all of our viewers we pray god that you'll bless them wherever they are in the world may this word become real in their lives we thank you we love you we can't wait to see you in jesus name amen take care god bless you cambridge bless your vision you

Channel: Revision Church Atlanta

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Length: 128min 12sec (7692 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021