John K. Jenkins Sr - Moving Forward by Overcoming Fear

I want to share a little story-actually , a couple of stories-from when I was 19 to 20. By the time I turned 20, I was contemplating marriage, as I had throngs of women who wanted me to marry them. Y'all know that's a joke, right? Listen, I wanted to discern whether God wanted me to marry Trina Prather. We had been courting for a bit, and I thought she was the one . I wanted assurance, so I put out what 's called a fleece. Some of you have heard me tell this story, so act like you 've never heard it before. It was a major point in my life when I put out this fleece. Here's what I did: I bought an engagement ring, put it in my glove compartment, locked the glove compartment, and asked God if Trina was the right one. I requested that when the time was right, she would ask me why my glove compartment was locked. I figured it would take God to make that happen, and I thought I had years of safety. That was a Saturday. The next day, Sunday, I had to preach at a church in Washington, D.C. Trina said she wanted to go with me, so I swung around and picked her up. Most of you guys wouldn 't have said that because you 'd have turned over in bed that morning and said, "You're going with me." Y 'all better handle the truth in here! Okay, I picked her up and moved forward. They 're telling me to keep rolling; these jokers over here don't stop. Okay, the preacher 's section right here. Tell them to keep going. She got in the car and said, " I lost my glasses again. Find my glasses." She started looking around my car for her glasses, reached for the glove compartment, tried to open it, and turned to me, saying, "Why is your glove compartment locked?" The next day! So how many of you know that had to be God to have made that happen? I pulled over on the side of New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, in the wonderful comfort of my 1970 Chevrolet Malibu, unlocked the glove compartment, and proposed to the woman I have now been married to for 32 years. That was a dramatic shift in my life. That incident really began a string of opportunities for me to ask God to bring clarity and show me signs. It does not go with our precedence. As a matter of fact, I got the whole idea from a fella named Gideon, who is in Judges chapter 6. I want you to turn to Judges chapter 6, and while you're turning there, let me lay the background of the situation that Gideon is in. I'm not going to preach long; I promised I'd be done before the 12 o'clock service. Gideon and the Israelites found themselves under the control and abuse of the Midianites. Here 's what would happen: when the children of God would plant their seeds, when Israel would plant their crops, the Midianites would come in with their armies and soldiers at harvest time. They would plunder the Israelites, take their stuff, and leave. This was a regular pattern that had occurred to Israel due to the Midianites. In this particular passage of scripture, chapter 6, if you get an opportunity to read it, I want you to read chapter 6 and chapter 7. Here 's the deal: God speaks to Gideon and says to him, " I'm with you, Gideon. I'm yours. I'm going to anoint you to give you victory over the Midianites." As a matter of fact, at the time God speaks to Gideon, he is secretly threshing wheat in the winepress. He is in a secret place squeezing juice out of grapes because he does not want the Midianites to see what he 's doing and take his stuff. So, he finds himself in a troubling situation, but God speaks to him and says, " I'm going to raise you up to give you victory over the children of Israel." Here 's how the story goes: Gideon says to God , "If it 's you telling me to do this, show me a sign." As a matter of fact, if y'all go to verse 11, let's see here... I'm switching up a little bit from how I did it the first time, but give me just 30 seconds. Can y'all give me 30 seconds? Look at verse 11: "Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. While his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.'" Are y'all with me ? Gideon said to him, "O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? ' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?" So he said to him , "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father 's house." And the Lord said to him, "Surely, I will be with you ."