06/29/11 - Winepress or Threshing Floor - Pastor Tony Ashmore

Pastor Tony Ashmore teaches on "Winepress or Threshing Floor" in this Wednesday evening celebration.

Winepress or Threshing Floor
Pastor Tony Ashmore
Wednesday, June 29, 2011

www.mylifegatechurch.com


Sermon Notes:

Judges 6:11-14 “Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”  13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”  14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

2 vital tools to the agricultural community of Israel:

*    Threshing floor: a large flat rock with a thin covering of hard soil situated on top of a hill for exposure to the wind.  Harvested wheat was placed there; a large piece of wood or stone would be dragged over the wheat to thresh out the grain.  Then the mixture of chaff and grain would be tossed into the wind using a winnowing fork and the wind would blow away the chaff leaving behind the treasured grain.

*    Winepress: giant, hallowed out rock, usually in a low-lying area, where the grapes were brought and stamped with the feet to release the juice to make the wine


The Biblical significance of the threshing floor and the winepress:

*    The threshing floor is a place of cleansing and separation. Matthew 3:12 “He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

*    Ruth and Boaz fell in love at the threshing floor. Ruth 3

*    God instructed David to have Solomon build the temple on a threshing floor. 2 Chronicles 3:1

*    The winepress is a place of wrath and judgment. Revelation 14:9 “So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath.”

*    The eyes of those on the threshing floor are focused upward (on the wind and its effects on the grain).

*    The eyes of those in the winepress are focused downward (on the grapes being crushed).

Gideon was hiding.  God wanted him to face the enemy.
Gideon was worried about his stuff being taken; God wanted him “others-focused”.
Gideon was focused on what he couldn’t do.  God wanted him to just do what he could.  “Bring me what you have.”

*    The threshing floor does not depend on man’s strength.  Oxen do the threshing and the wind does the winnowing. The wine press is dependent on man’s strength and endurance.

*    In our low places, our “hide-outs”, we forget who we are.  Gideon was no mighty hero in his eyes, but he was a “sent by God” mighty hero in God’s eyes.

*    Many of our problems, our dire circumstances, our dilemmas, are of our own making.  We are the common denominator.  Hiding just results in judgment.  We judge ourselves, others judge us, evil finds us again and again.  Even in those circumstances such as abuse, betrayal, etc, hiding and denial just keep us in the victim cycle.  When we quit hiding, go to the top of the hill and face the enemy, we confront the character issues within ourselves.  We are able to lift them up to God and allow His Holy Spirit to cleanse us.  So instead of continually ending up in the same hole (winepress), we are able to move forward and we impact the lives of others.