1. Not A B C’s Created by Debbie Chaney

2.  Cut down your Father’s altar to Baal  Cut down the Asherah pole  Build an altar to the Lord - on the hilltop - lay the stones carefully - sacrifice a bull - use the pole for fuel

3.  Gideon took 10 helpers and did it - Cut down Baal’s altar - Cut down the Asherah pole - built an altar to the Lord  At night tho’, cuz he was afraid …

4.  Baal was a Canaanite god of weather, war and fertile land

5.  Asherah was represented as a nude woman  Her power was over reproduction  Therefore, her statues (poles) were often made to represent large reproductive organs  Often made of tree trunks, or cones of stone  Her poles were considered sacred poles …

7.  Baal worship involved all kinds of perverted, sexual practices and orgies  Baal worship involved ritual prostitution of men and women, with both men and women  Baal worship encouraged adultery, shameful practices, brutality, filth, and immoral indulgence

8.  On a hill, surrounded by a 150 x 200 foot wall, with open sky above  Within the walls were 10 stone pillars, 5-11 ft. high Where Baal worship took place

9. The High Place (for Baal worship)

10.  Found in the ruins of several high places were large quantities of grossly exaggerated sex organs  These were designed to excite people by archeologists

11.  Baal worship involved child sacrifice  Found under the debris of a “high place” were jars of remains of children who’d been sacrificed to Baal  Killed in worship to Baal

13.  This part of Baal worship involved –  When a house was built, a child was sacrificed and it’s body was built into a wall or door frame to bring good luck

14.  God wanted His people, Israel to be free of these gross sexual practices  God wanted his people to be free from child sacrifices  God wanted His people to be free from idolatry

15.  What God asked him to do was go against the flow of the entire culture!  Sexual excitement  Immoral practices  Child sacrifices  False gods  Cut them out!  Build an altar to the Lord (seek God’s ways)

16.  Gideon took 10 helpers and did it - Cut down Baal’s altar - Cut down the Asherah pole - built an altar to the Lord  At night tho’, cuz he was afraid … Remember this slide? Now you understand what Gideon actually did

17.  God wants you to go against the flow of the entire culture!  The sexual excitement  The immoral practices  The child sacrifices (sacrificing time & energies on perverted things)  The false gods we serve  Cut them out!  Build an altar to the Lord (seek God’s ways)

18.  CUT SIN out of your life  BUILD a personal relationship with Jesus through daily prayer, study & accountability  C – Cut out sin  B – Build  A – an Altar to the Lord