Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
We are in Judges 1.
And I want to just go back a little bit and set the stage for what we're talking about tonight.
The blueprint for nation building was in God's economy from the time that he created the earth.
And when Adam and Eve fell, he knew that he had to bring some type of kingdom introduction
into the world because the world was lost. And we hear stories and we read stories about how
the people were so wicked that he had to come, he had to bring the flood, he had to change
circumstances. And so he brings the 12 tribes of Israel together. And we did talk about nation
building almost a year and a half ago, but just quickly and looking at what he did for the hope
of eternity's sake in the tribes that were associated together, what we'll call an amalgamation
of people that knew the Lord that would be different from the rest of the world.
In other words, a shining light. So he wanted, first of all, for Israel as it lived in Egypt,
what he did, he preserved and multiplied Abraham's descendants. How many people went to
Egypt? About 45 or 50, which was really the incipient nucleus. And then out of that,
literally millions of people multiplied and it was such that God took care of them. Think about this,
the fact that they didn't have to war because the Egyptian soldiers warred and took care of the army
and expanded the kingdoms and fought. And all they did is live and at some point in time,
they came into bondage. But God protected them almost like a butterfly in a cocoon
so that they could develop and multiply without being killed off in war because they didn't
participate in it. Yes, they became slaves, but in that, God protected them. So we have that as
the first step. And then we have read in Exodus and looked at the journey that they went through
as a part of their redemption. And again, it was delivering Israel from slavery and establishing
the Lord God himself as their God. So that was another step in the creation of this nation.
The covenant nation was formed at Mount Sinai and there was, again, making a covenant people
realize who they were going to serve. They served an almighty God that no other nation knew
of. And remember the story on the mountain. He was so awesome that people were afraid
of the majesty that he presented when he presented himself on Mount Sinai to Moses.
So that was an experience. So now after forming the covenant, there was a formation of worship.
Again, he gave Moses a teaching upon teaching of what to do, how, where, and when so that they
could approach God. So he was building and drawing these people to himself. And then again,
the wilderness formation, we know what that's about, getting the Egypt out of the people of Israel and
allowing them to understand what God was all about. And there was testing, discipling, again,
teaching, and hopefully that he was successful. And of course he was dealing with the people
that were what, stiff-necked and rebellious. And then we enter a victory side of life where we enter
in to the Promised Land and we have conquest. And the conquest that we'll be talking about tonight
is to annihilate all nations within the Promised Land so that they could live free and be a
testimony to God. And that was giving Israel the land that was promised way back when Abraham
first cut the covenant with God. And then again, the tribal confederation, and that simply means
a united for common good, for the tribes to come together as one nation under God. And then we
have Israel living as 12 tribes under God's rule, but without a human king. And we're now being
there, and all of a sudden now they had to possess the land and they had no king.
So we're now coming up to the area of what we call the judges, or deliverers, if you will.
God repeatedly would, again, remind Israel of their opposition, of their blessings, and allow
God's principles to be introduced from the judge's standpoint. So judges were essentially God-raised
deliverers and leaders of Israel. Not simply what we call courtroom judges like we would know today,
and it wasn't a continuous dynasty on elected government. When God saw that there was what,
need for correction, he came to the Israelites and he brought one of the judges to them.
So that gives us the backdrop of what the book is about.
Now this book is a very interesting book. Ultimately, it's discouraging because, as you
know, having read parts of it or all of it, that it was a slow degradation of this nation that God
wanted to bless and be apart from the rest of the world as a showcase of his victories.
So the judges served as a bridge between the conquest of Canaan under Joshua and the
establishment of the monarchy which started with Saul. So this is about a 300-350 year period.
The 12 judges that we'll be talking about in the weeks to come were more than just a goad
to Israel. They were sent from God to deliver or pull back Israel from their enemies,
lead the people into battle, administrate justice, govern where they needed to govern the nation,
and call the people back to faithfulness. That's what the judges physically did.
There was 12 of them. This book explains how Israel declined from a nation committed to
following the Lord into one that's characterized by spiritual compromise,
moral chaos, and repeated oppression. So we see already what's spelled out before us in these
books, and it's a lesson for us to learn. So as the book progresses, Israel increasingly
relied on their own judgment instead of continuing to seek and to obey the Lord.
How many of us have often been that road where we seek to have our understanding of what's next
and we rely on ourselves rather than on God? I mean, I can say that with two hands in the air,
but I'm holding a mic. Note that it is a sobering account, this book, of what happens when God's
people repeatedly abandon Him after all His love and what He's done in building that nation,
and yet also it displays God's mercy in continually raising up deliverers to speak
into that nation, to remind them why they're together and what the purpose of life is.
So that gives us a background or a handle on what we'll be studying.
So let's take a look at chapter 1, brief outline. Let's get some things out on the table here.
We see that Judah continues the conquest. Now this is in the land. They're going to, again,
hopefully get rid of all the inhabitants of the land and declare the land as righteous.
So Israel seeks the Lord for guidance about going to war, and Judah is chosen to lead that
confrontation, and they gain victories, and they defeated and captured one of the big cities,
and Caleb himself, we talked about that, conquers Hebron, and it says in the last
part of this, I think verse 19 or 20, that Judah took possession of the hill country,
but could not drive out all the inhabitants. So right away, in the beginning of chapter 1,
end of verse 19 or 20, we see that they were unsuccessful, and we'll be talking about God's
mandate to these people. Parenthetically, think about this. When God gives you a mandate,
when God speaks to your heart, when God begins to minister to you and give you a sphere of
influence, he wants you to accomplish the goals that he has. Now he may define those as the time
goes on. Remember, God's plan, he doesn't give you A to Z and say, okay, John, go do it. He
gives you A, and you begin to walk in that, and you begin to see God opens up B and so forth,
and he unfolds his plan. So they did not accomplish the goal that was before them.
So now, in verses 21 through 36, another tribe was mentioned, Benjamin, that's number two,
fails to drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem. So now failure is on the scene. Well, that's not
bad. That's two out of 12. But then as it goes on to say, the house of tribes of Ephraim,
west Manasseh, captures Bethel because the Lord prevailed. But they failed to conquer them,
and east Manasseh also failed. If you remember, there was east Manasseh, and there was southern,
and they were divided in location, but not as tribe. So as it goes on, it says then Ephraim,
which, again, we talked about is number three, Zebulon, number five, Asher, number six,
Naphtali, number seven, and Dan, number eight, each failed to completely drive out the inhabitants
of their allotted territories. So failure was on the scene. Think about this. When God gives you
several things to accomplish, and you go to him, and you've not accomplished them, how do you feel?
I feel embarrassed, only because I know that God wants me to do this, this, and this.
All right, Lord, okay, we'll get to that. And then you keep procrastinating and doing.
So little or big here, it's the idea that if he gives you a goal, he wants you to fulfill it,
because he is the one that is in charge of our lives. Now, it says further that many Canaanites
remained in the land. Some became forced labor instead of being removed. Was that sufficient for
God? Not at all, because he wanted to annihilate them and get rid of them and get them out of
land. And okay, well, we'll make them have forced labor. And then at the last, it says,
and the Amorites pushed the tribe of Dan into the hill country because they wanted to stay
there passionately, and Dan could not get rid of them. So that's a treatise of eight of the tribes
not doing the fulfilling of the gospel, or not the gospel, but of the goal that
God set before them. And if you remember, we talked about last time that I was together,
the Urim and the Thumen, and we bring that together again where it says up in those yellow words,
chosen to lead, and that's how they knew who to do and what to do is because in the breastplate
there were two stones. I think they were stones. Nobody really knows. But the answer was yes on
one and no on the other. And you had to ask God a question to the priests, am I going to go to lunch
with Bob today? And then he would go in there and he would pull out one and maybe yes or no.
That's the way they communicated, a very cold relationship at best. But that's what the
modus operandi was. Now, remember, we talked about Phineas, the high priest.
Again, last time he followed God and his laws passionately. So again, it is presumed at this
point in time, as it's just a data point, that Phineas, the high priest, inquired of the Lord
because there was no other hierarchy in place at this point in time. Again, who died? Moses the
leader. Joshua was gone. Now we have all of a sudden these integral people that were, again,
part of the formulation, done away with, gone to heaven, and here we are. Look at this. Look
at these words. Just imagine the idea. Chosen to lead, gained victory, could not drive out,
fails, captures, also failed, each failed. Canaanites remained in the land, pushed the tribe,
the Amorites pushed the tribe of Dan into the hill country. Not what God wanted.
Okay. What God's commands to Israel to do with the nations living in the Promised Land. This
is his original treatise. This is what you are to do. First off, God commanded them to remove
the Canaanite people. In Exodus 23, 31, I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hands,
and you shall drive them out before you. So that was his promise. Is that promise conditional?
Yeah, because why? What was the stipulation? Yeah. So the leading of the Lord was such that
they started to compromise in their own thoughts, and we'll get into that. God wanted them to
destroy all the religious influences. Deuteronomy 12.23. You shall, again, surely destroy all the
places where the nations, serving their Gods, and you shall tear down their altars and burn
their ashram, meaning the wooden cult objects that they worship, with fire. They didn't do all that.
They did some of it. Well, Lord, I started your accomplishments. I'm doing what you asked me to
do. Well, how long ago did he speak to you? And are you doing that? Are you actively doing
what his bidding is? God commanded them to not intermarry with the Canaanites, to dilute
the population. In Deuteronomy 7.3, it says, you shall not intermarry with them. In other words,
they were only to marry within the 12 tribes of Israel. God commanded them not to practice
the Canaanite worship and religious rituals. In Leviticus 18.3, do not practice the customs of
Egypt and those of Canaan. So there were certain limitations that he put on them for their own
protection. Now, if anybody was cheated with a lozinger, and once you want to have an extra
one here, okay, you can have it. So my voice will go if I don't get something to soothe it.
All right. God commanded certain Canaanite nations to complete destruction. Deuteronomy 7. You must
destroy them, get rid of them, whatever. And then God commanded them not to make any covenants or
treaties with the Canaanites. In Exodus 23.32.33, you shall make no covenant with them and their
Gods. Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worship
their Gods. So here we have a very damning statement. This is what you need to do. You
need to annihilate them and push them out. That's just like our life. John, this is what you need
to do here. And then you think about it and then you want to, well, you know, I have so many friends
or maybe this and maybe that. And then you start to compromise and think and you want to save face
and you hymn around. You don't do what God wants you to do. That's the same thing here except it
was nations that they were dealing with. It's just like on our own heart. Will we do what God
wants us to do? That's the question before us. Will we exercise our authority in any given
situation that God puts us in and calls us to do? So now let's make this statement. Practical
obedience is still disobedience. Well, I got half of them out. Is that good enough? No, that's not.
All of them to be destroyed and pushed out. Joshua was really the glue, the last remnants
of the 12 tribes holding them together as a nation. After his death, things changed.
And we buried Joshua and now we're into judges. And the judges were there to try to reconcile
and bring the people back to the original intent to be pure before the Lord. Israel's
cycle of sin began to slowly accelerate as they got into the land. Oh, the land's good. Remember,
it was on land with milk and honey. They didn't have to start vineyards. They didn't have to
build houses from start. They moved in and inherited all the people that they
pushed out of the land. So slowly, life became good, as it were. And as we remember earlier,
we remembered that in chapter 23, I think of the last, let's see where we went, into
Joshua, that the land rested. So he wanted them to rest. Okay. So let's talk about them moving in.
Here they are. What is the cycle that began so slowly but then accelerated through this entire
book? First, there's sin. Practicing idolatry. If you remember in one of my teachings,
actually, when they left Egypt, they took a blanket of a God and they took a God, and they
were continually worshipping that even when he did all these miracles. Other people were
doing things. It wasn't a pure sense of them 100% committing. And we did a graph. About
one in eight served the Lord passionately. The rest of the people were just kind of gone
long. And as you know the story, they criticized Moses very quickly when things didn't happen
their way. Okay. Judgment then comes. That's the spiritual compromise that they experienced.
And they fell prey to their enemies. Oh, but dad, this is a beautiful woman. I love her.
But she comes from across the river in another tribe. Bless me. Nothing was said.
The marriage had started. The assimilation slowly but surely of destruction and annihilation of the
Israel that we know. So then deliverance cries for help, rather. They were oppressed. They cried out,
Lord, help us. They cried to God for help. And who came? God showed up. He brought deliverance.
God in his mercy would send a deliverer, a judge, in this case. So this cycle keeps going around.
They repent. They say, okay. And how many of us ever came to God and said, Lord,
I'll never do that again if you get me out of this? That's what I call Agnew plea bargaining.
If you know Vice President Agnew way back when, and I date myself, he plea bargained to maintain
his vice presidency condition that he would do this and this if they only wouldn't remove him.
So sometimes we plea bargain to the fact that, Lord, I will do this. I'll never do this again.
And long behold, sin in our life takes over once again and we find ourselves at the cross saying,
Lord, forgive me. And that is truly a cycle that many people live in. Okay.
Question now. Why do you think Israel remained united during Joshua's leadership?
Now, see, it's broken. He's dead. They buried him. They're into the land. They're rested.
New form of leadership. Judges. No king.
Why is that? Oh, Gail. Good. Go ahead.
Because when Joshua first took over as leader, he said to the people,
I've decided that my family is going to follow after God. You need to make the same decision,
whether you're going to follow God or go your own way. What are you going to do?
And they they decided to side with him and go with the Lord.
But that was as long as he lived. But once he was dead, that leadership was gone.
That's right. That word is then obedience that he did. He did the bidding of God.
And all of a sudden now he's gone. And now we have to fend for ourself. Yes.
I do. I think it is also his obedience, but I think it was Joshua and Caleb believed God.
They were the only two that believed him and obeyed and went into the promised land and
and said, yeah, we can we can win this. And they did. They had faith.
And all of them said yes and amen. No, they didn't, right? No. They spent another 40 years
marching around the wilderness, getting the getting the people that denied the power of God
dead and buried in the sand until a new generation came up. Any other thoughts?
Oh, yes. OK, now I can only go back so far here.
I'm just I'm just a little confused. I understand God as a loving, peaceful man.
And it appears to me he pushes death to anybody doesn't believe in him.
Is that am I correct? That was the old that was the old covenant.
Now, couldn't be like a change of heart as far as converting them rather than killing them.
I mean, killing them is a heart is very harsh and it doesn't and it doesn't really appear
to be aligned with our truth. Well, we're speaking from the new covenant,
which is a forgiving God and merciful. He wishes that all would come to him.
And remember, when we come, we have the Holy Spirit to abide within us to become a different
person. Think about the Israelite in the old covenant. All they were when they brought their
sacrifices is reminded of their sin. There was again, there was atonement. But then every year
they had to come about and remind themselves of sin. So the quality of that life was not the
quality of life in the Holy Spirit that you and I have. It was a law that was invoked so that
they would follow. And we know that God said, OK, that doesn't work. We're going to do away
with that. I'm going to send Jesus down and bring forgiveness to the entire world.
So now we live on the side where there is what? There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. There is
love. There is peace. There's meaningful. And he doesn't want anybody to perish. He certainly
doesn't. It says what? In the Bible that none should perish, right? So there's a difference
between the old covenant and the new. All I can say is this, that I am glad and I hope you are
too, that you live in the new covenant and have the blessings and the power and the anointing
in your life to withstand the drawing of these things. Canaanite women, Asherah poles of worship,
Gods of fertility and all that goes along with that. We have the power within us. They did not.
I make a comment on the annihilation of the peoples. I was watching a documentary when Saul,
King Saul, was told to kill the Amalekites, all of them, fox herds, babies. And he didn't.
Well, of course, Esther comes into play with Haman. Well, the documentary showed that
Yasser Arafat was a descendant of all that. And he was a terrorist. It shows you that God,
it makes God look bad, but he knows what he's doing, getting rid of the people.
Well, remember, he is righteous. He cannot live where there's sin. And so he once, through his
power, through Jesus Christ, to bring us to purity so that we can fellowship. Until that happens,
we can't fellowship. But the Old Testament was such that what? They had to bring their
offering yearly. They had to repent. They had to go through all that. So now, December,
I think 13th, was their celebration. They all did that. Okay, from December 14th, on through the
whole year until, I'm going to go about my own way. So that's pretty hard to do
when you think about it, in trying to live the righteous life as was required of them.
Okay. Yes, Debbie?
I was just going to say, I think sometimes, because we're so removed from it,
it's hard to remember that this was really harsh. But it was harsh because God was trying to
establish a nation set apart, a nation that was holy that the rest of the world could look at
and understand who God was. And it sounds contradictory to have him push people out,
and there was so much murder and mayhem back then. And I don't know,
I've been in conversations about, was there a bloodlust in men back then? Whatever it was.
But for us to not take a moment, just realize that this was really harsh,
just makes us more appreciative of who Jesus is. And we can live as that city on the hill now,
even though we still struggle with all the same things.
Think about this. He's merciful now, but what happens when people leave this life?
There is a judgment. There is a decision that we make now. If we don't make it,
we are destined for eternity without God. That's a horrible feeling to think. All of us that know
what salvation is, and as we walk in it, thank you, Lord, that we know where we're going when
we die. If we die a natural death, if we die in a car accident, God forbid,
if we die of extenuating circumstances, we know where we are going. There is no question.
And that is blessing to us on the inside to know that.
Okay.
Because, again, my input, his Godly leadership, beginning with his personal obedience,
was what we were talking about. That's what Gail said. Joshua 11.15 says this of Joshua.
Joshua left nothing, nothing undone of all that God had commanded Moses. So there again,
that's the difference. Well, I almost did. Well, there's some people in the land that
we made a covenant with. That's okay. We got 90% of them. No. What he wanted was annihilation,
freedom in that land to be the example to the world. And Joshua, because of his closeness
following God and his example, people followed in those footsteps. But now he's gone.
So another question. Why is it dangerous for God's people to depend only on a human leader
rather than maintaining a personal relationship with God? Why is that?
What happens to us? What could happen to us? You know, I'm depending upon Chris's faithfulness
to the kingdom of God to get me through. When I ask prayer for him, I know he'll pray for me.
Is that it?
I think we all know that we all have to depend on the Holy Spirit to guide each one of us
personally. And God is an individual God, and he has a plan for each one of us personally,
and he has a command for each one of us. And we have to follow that not a person who doesn't
know our heart, but God does. If we don't follow God, and we follow man only, we could wind up
like Jim Jones's followers. I mean, we have to study the Word of God and talk to the Lord daily
and follow his lead and not a man's. And when leadership tells us something different than what
we see in the book, who do we follow? The book. Because that is different than what is the
abiding truth that we have. Okay. So we have that. Let's see what else I come up with.
Uh-oh. All right. Human leaders are imperfect. Great disappointment sets in if they fail.
Well, I'll never go back to that church again because they failed me.
Depending upon a leader stunts your growth because you're depending upon him,
not the personal relationship. Because I have a relationship with Chris, but he does not know the
intents of my heart like the Lord does. So he can only go so far in his discipling and his mentoring
of me, but God, he deals with us what? Room after room in our heart, and hopefully if we allow him,
turn that darkness into light. Okay. And personal relationship with God is the only thing
that lasts. Well, let's see. We won't talk about Chris going before me, so we won't do that. Okay.
All right. What were specific failures of the Israelites? Let's take a look at that.
Israel, again, practiced idolatry. They always did. They never gave it up, at least in some parts.
They worship Baal and the Asherah poles and Gods. In Deuteronomy 7.3.4,
for they would turn away your sons from following me and serve other Gods if you began to do that.
Compromise as subtle as it may be. Influencing Israel morally. This is, again, through temptation.
They practiced temple prostitution. Imagine that, prostitution in the temple. They practiced sexual
immorality. They practiced child sacrifice. They practiced occult practices. And they practiced
fertility rights and rituals. All these things they did outside of the worship that was still
in the temple. Spiritual compromise. Again, Israel adopted pagan practices. They continued foreign
presence, continued foreign presence, excuse me, brought constant temptation and conflict.
How many know people that have gotten into situations where one couple,
when they got married, one person knew the Lord and the other didn't? That becomes difficult
because you are pulling one way, wanting to follow God, and the other person may not be
committed to where you want to go. That's that constant challenge. Israel intermarried with
other tribes. They married Canaanites. They adopted their customs. In Judges 3, 5, and 6 says,
they took their daughters to themselves for wives and served other Gods. Taking the daughter
is one thing. And then as it comes, she comes into your tent. She brings her idols. What do you do?
How do you respond? And so forth and so on. They, again, repeated wars and oppression took place
because of this. The tribes regrouped, rebuilt, and attacked Israel again and again and again.
Judges 2, 2, and 3, they shall become thorns in your side and their Gods shall be a snare to you.
That was the prophetic application there of the scripture if they didn't follow him.
Now, another question. In your estimation now, did Israel become indistinguishable from the
surrounding nations? Were they just like them? What do you think about that?
Could you tell them differently? Could you tell them apart, saved, unsaved?
I wouldn't say they're exactly the same because the people knew they were different, you know,
like at least in theory they had another God. Like it might have seemed like they adapted
or adopted a lot of the same culturally cultural and religious, but they were still different.
Like they knew they're different, you know. Well, it is totally agnostic and a foreigner
in your own land. Israel comes along. A hundred is there. Where is Israel in that number? Just
a distance of thought. Yeah, maybe 50, 50 percent, something like that. 50, like half in, half out.
Anybody else have a thought?
All quiet tonight. All right, let me show something to you.
It may be surprising to you what God thought of Israel.
Well, the very nations Israel was commanded to drive out had become a, again, a moral
comparison that God wanted to get rid of, and it described Israel in the light of that.
Ezekiel 5, 7, therefore, thus said the Lord God, because you have multiplied disobedience
more than other nations that are all around you. More. Not even, not as bad.
2nd Colossians 33, 9, Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations around them had done
whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. They were actually worse, why? Because
they knew of a better covenant. They knew God. They knew of him. And now they backslid,
and he said, you're worse than the nations. Now, let's look at a summary table of resistance
fighting that came along because they compromised. The Midianites destroyed Israel's crops time and
again. They'd come in, and they'd raid the land, and they'd destroy them, and they wouldn't have
enough to eat, and they were pestilence. And Judges 6, Israel became so afraid that they
hid in caves. Oh, my gosh, here come the Midianites again. They're going to destroy us.
Let's go hide. They were actually afraid. What happens if they would have destroyed the
Midianites? They wouldn't have had this problem. A constant thorn in the side of Israel.
The Philistines. The Philistines became Israel's greatest enemy during Judges and into the days of
Samuel and David. They were always warring against Israel in some form or fashion.
They oppressed Israel during Samson's lifetime. The Ammonites and Moabites repeatedly attacked
Israel because they had never been fully subdued. They were not a conquered nation. In some
instances, we read in the book of Judges, going ahead a little bit, that they conquered and
made slaves. Okay, that's one thing. But here, some of them weren't even conquered at the point
of time of being made slaves, so there was always a resistance, always a fight going on.
They, again, caused repeated oppression to Israel. So this is the commonality or the result of what
we now have. So what does this oppression teach us about the long-term consequences
of spiritual compromise? Apply it to your own heart. So we compromise. Well, the Lord still
loves me. He gave himself up for me. I didn't finish all of his plan, but that's okay.
What about that? You're shaking your head no? No, because he's going to discipline you and
bring you back. He's always trying to draw you to him. In one form or another? Yeah, and if he
sees you swaying, he's going to do something to get you back. Yeah, right? We deserve it. Yeah,
all right. Any other thoughts? All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your participation.
And another question. Why is it easy? Now, this gets a little bit testy. Why is it easy to forget
God's faithfulness after a season of blessing? We're just like the Israelites, right? In some form
of fashion. Yes. You're going to have to go that half mile there and get that mic. Thank you.
Just in my opinion. All right. That's okay. Every moment is a blessing.
People tend to forget that. You know, you wake up super excited. We have 75 trillion cells. You
know, each cell has 24,000 life units. They never make a mistake. And their goal is to keep you
happy. That's their only goal in life. So we have relationships that don't work. It doesn't
really matter. Your body loves you so much. We have diseases in this world. It doesn't
really matter. Body's using its forces to protect you. Every moment is a blessing. That's
why it's really hard because people tend to forget our own blessings and what God has given
us as our truth. We come to a custom to what God's done for us. Have we not? Yeah. And then
sometimes we expect it. Roger. We get comfortable. Oh, yes. Life is good. Easy chair. Bills are paid.
Yeah. Don't need the Lord today. All right. Yes. Yes. Thank you for sitting in the front row.
I think sometimes when times are easy, people can think that they can do it without them.
Yeah. All right. I got this, God. Yep. Yep. They think that
they can do it on their own strength and not rely on his.
So the question that we ask ourselves, I ask you, you ask your significant other or whatever,
can you exist the life that you have now without the Lord? Absolutely not. I mean,
it may not change in the first week or month or maybe year, but things will deteriorate as we are
seeing here in the life of the Israelites. It's a story that can be retold and retold
generationally. Okay. Let's do a comparison with Israel and us.
Israel sinned. We know that. We began to drift from God through compromise and neglect,
and we'll talk a little bit about what that is. Israel received oppression from the enemy.
We walk in the consequences of our choices. We have struggles. We have broken relationships.
We begin to lose our joy. Okay. We begin to lose our peace. We begin to lose the presence of God.
And that's a very subtle thing, losing the presence of God in your life. Israel cried out for help.
And so we recognize our need to repent. We confess our sins, and we seek God's forgiveness and help,
just like the Israelites. Deliverance by judges. Remember, judges were people like you and I.
They have feet of clay. But God provides help through Jesus Christ, his word, and others.
They encourage and guide us back to him. You see, the strength of the relationship now
has changed from old covenant to new covenant. Peace returns. All is good. And we walk in
repentance and obedience. God restores fellowship, peace, and spiritual strength.
And then the cycle starts all over again. And then they drift. And then cautiously,
if we become spiritually complacent and neglect our relationship that we have with the Lord,
we fall into our old patterns, unfortunately. Question. Why are we often unaware
that we are drifting spiritually? What's that look like? Can I say today publicly,
oh, I'm drifting from the Lord? I would never say that, because I don't think that.
I think part of it is what you see around you. Like I noticed, like when people go to the
football parties, the Super Bowl parties, you find yourself, you know, you're saying,
I'm only going to watch a game. But you don't know how that'll pull you eventually,
and you get camaraderie in that kind of atmosphere. You know what I mean?
I had a friend, a very close friend, his daughter married a somewhat successful
banker. They bought a farm in South Jersey. She was passionately for the Lord. I married them.
And in a year and a half, because he liked horses, they would go to jockey races with the jockey,
you know, the thing. Well, after a while, they didn't go. And what they did Sunday morning,
Saturday morning is get in their SUV, pull a couple of horses and the buggies and all that,
and they were having one great time. And I just wanted to ask them, does this satisfy what you
started out to be as a Christian family? And I just saw that slide slowly begin to take place,
the influences that we have. Yeah, it really is.
One thing we have to remember, too, is that we're in a spiritual battle.
And that the devil wants us to get us far away from God. He wants us to fail in our relationship
with him. He wants us to just not even consider him and put ourselves first. That's our worst
temptation is our pride of ourselves. And so it's easy to slip into that and the Satan will
just take advantage of that and put temptation in front of us that we're going to find that
it's something we really want to do, and we're not even thinking about it.
So true. So true. Any other thoughts? Yes, Debbie.
There's a song that some people might remember. This was back in the 90s from Casting Crowns.
It was called A Slow Fade. And the words were, if I remember right,
it's a slow fade when you give yourself away. It's a slow fade when black and white turn to gray.
And then it was just like, thoughts invade, choices are made, and it's a slow fade.
And that's what I believe that's how that demonic realm tries to get us distracted.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. We all have friends that have been passionate for the Lord,
and we can look back on their lives and see them begin to slide.
There's one thing that you have to remember as your sphere of influence increases in God.
When God opens doors of service to you, and you do things, and you have an awareness,
and people are aware of your ministries of whatever that may be, all the more Satan wants
to come in and grab that and pull that away from you because then that, well,
look at John Kratz. He used to be blah, blah, blah. Whereas if you're neutral at best,
there's no occasion for Satan to really come and annihilate your wellbeing,
because you're not doing plus or minus. You're in neutral position.
You know, I was also, you know, saying that, I'm thinking, I should say that
some time ago, my husband and I canceled our cable, because I saw something by Billy Graham
that said that Satan will flash across your mind media, TV, magazines, and books.
He says he'll try as hard as, especially if you're trying to follow the Lord,
he's going to be more aggressive. And I found that tearing off the TV and isolating myself
and being with Jim and beating the Lord every day, the stronger you get,
the more the armor gets thicker. Do I make sense? You know what I mean?
But I find that because of the way the world is and where you work,
it's hard to have camaraderie. Yes, it is.
Very hard. We have to know that when we walk in the room of a series of unsafe people,
that we are the one with the authority. It's how we use it. It's interesting to understand
today what goes on in the world. And I said to my kids when they were young,
you know, there will be some day that we will have to turn this TV off,
instead of just governing you and all this. Well, long behold,
I think there is two programs a week, two hours a week that we watch our TV, you know.
And I saw something in poster that said,
the greatest moment that I could see is people are weirdos.
Yeah. Yeah. Just don't take...
Yeah, right. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And I will confess,
yes. My one hour of TV is, everybody loves Raymond. I just love that show.
Yes. Yeah.
I think personally, this is some personal. I really am more aware when I spiritually drift away,
when I just don't really obey the conviction. Yeah.
Because this is the Holy Spirit that keeps me on track.
I don't try to keep on track. I know He keeps me on track.
I really know that when I intentionally do that, I'm in trouble.
Well, you have said a lot. You know when God's dealing with you. Now,
what happens with that awareness as it drops off? You don't know after a while.
And consequently, the only real thing that keeps us tight is to be yielded
passionately enough to have a relationship, an abiding peace, and an awareness of Him working
in your life hourly so that you walk that walk and He can whisper in your ear.
Because how many realize that very few times that God comes down and shouts to us,
no, the inner small voice speaks to us. And if we're so busy doing all those important things,
the less we are apt to hear that. Yes, sir.
Uh, just reading the Bible. Yes.
I feel closest to Him when I'm reading it every single day. And if I take even one day off,
I can even, I feel it. And I just, it just starts a terrible cycle. So I just feel like
reading the Bible every single day, making sure that you make that a habit is, it really is.
See what happens when we read, we then assimilate the word, we hear it, we read it.
Then the Holy Spirit takes that word, the essence of the word, and speaks into our conscience.
Our conscience begins to be reformatted and speaks to our flesh. And our flesh then begins to yield
so that God is in control. So where did it start? The word, the prayer, the meditation,
the waiting, all those things fortify things that the Spirit can use to come in and abide in your
life and control your life. We already know that the Spirit should be on top and the salt's underneath.
And when that flips, that's a war and a battle. How do we keep that from happening? You said the
presence in our life cripples our ability to hear God. Why no presence? What happened?
Because we allow the sounds of life to draw down and out the still small voice within us. Think
about this. Debbie and I are talking in a tone like this and there's a radio playing. And as we
meander through life and as we are not aware, and things may get louder in our communication,
not indifference, but just in the passion of life and the communication, and we don't hear it and
the volume keeps going down and down and down. After all, you don't even hear it. God wants to
speak to us, but the still small voice doesn't get louder. There's only one time in my life that
God audibly gave me a word. And I can remember it as this freshest yesterday. The single word
was move. And that's when my wife started to get difficulty with MS. We had a very large vault
house, wonderful five bedrooms, three beds, the whole bit. And it basically was a two income house.
And we moved into 1200 square feet. It was a pink house. It was ugly. My wife cried. She said,
is this all we got after all these wonderful things? Yeah, well, that's what it is. But out
of that, we reformatted the whole house. We loved it. But it was a one income house. She
didn't have to work. So it took the pressure off her. And that one word before we moved,
one winter day, I heard move. Oh, okay. All that we did, yeah, move. So then, okay.
So we moved in November. Joni was a lover of roses. We had about 21 custom rose unique things
that were in our garden. And in November, when we made settlement, I dug the roses up,
went over to Home Depot and got two bags of soil, went over to a hardware store and got one
and got enough that I replanted the roses in November just because the Lord told us to move.
And so we were obedient. And then life changed for us because then she did not have to work.
And that's the one word that I heard that God spoke to me. One word, move. Okay.
So what starts the process of spiritual decline? When generations, now we have it,
generations are without knowledge of God. And the example is not there any longer. Remember,
Moses is gone. Joshua was gone. And his commands, they fall into a downward spiral of sin,
defeat, judgment, and despair. Like Israel, we may begin to lean toward comfort. You,
I think you said it, Roger, comfort. We all love that instead of sacrifice. Entertainment,
we covered that, TV, instead of worship. Success. Well, I'm out of that ballpark.
All right. Never got there. Never will. Retired. Okay. Instead of obedience.
Material possessions. And when we moved from that beautiful house, my wife cried. And it wasn't
that she held onto these things, but it was her home. I mean, I could live in a shack.
You know, guys don't need a lot. Just, you know, a meal full of food, you know, on a shirt
or whatever. But women, that's important to them. And God bless her for that.
Self-reliance instead of dependence upon God. Approval of people. Oh my gosh. How many have
been there? You know, need to make things right. Look good. Here I am. Instead of approval of God.
Business that crowds out prayer. Reading God's word. Thank you.
These other things and the leanings and the desires choke off our devotion to God.
Now, this is where we take a look at what it means. What Israel tolerated around them eventually
took root within them. Well, I'm strong in the Lord and it won't affect me.
Okay. That's fine. We'll see. What we allow to compete with God today can then eventually
take God's place in our hearts, unfortunately. What is the difference between judges and the
enemies? Jesus delivers us from the power and the penalty of sin.
The judges eventually died because they were flesh. They came and they went. They were sent
by God. There were 12 of them. Jesus lives forever. Hebrews 724, but Jesus will never die.
And so he will be a priest forever. The judges brought temporary peace.
Jesus gives lasting peace. John 1427, I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give.
It isn't like the peace that the world has to give. Just like you said, you know, all these
wonderful things, they're about that deep, aren't they? So don't be worried or afraid.
Final slide. Our goal then is different than those people outside that door.
It's not to repeat the cycle that we see in Israel's life. Our highest purpose is simply to
glorify God. That's what he wants, to glorify him. 1 Corinthians 10.31, whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God. And to glorify God simply means to honor him by our thoughts,
our words, our actions and attitudes so that his character can be seen in and through our lives.
And rightfully so, some of the people in the world have said, well, if that's Christianity,
I don't want it. Because we as Christians have failed many different times from a corporate
standpoint of what we represent Christ to be. All right. Any questions and any thoughts before we
close? Yes. One thing that, you know, like when Charlie Kirk was doing a lot of his speaking
and people who, some of them got up there and said they were raised with God. And I said,
when I sat there and listened, it all came down to people quarreling. They're not reading God's
word. If they read his word, they wouldn't be quarreling, would they? No, I think you think,
right? But no, yes, right. That's for sure. But if they knew their Bible, there wouldn't
be a thing with many questions. Yeah. The mentality of the word is shallow in the
American experience. You think of some of the stories you may have read, I remember one
longer time ago. There was this one person in North Korea that had one page of the Bible.
She reread and reread and reread and reread that one page, and she was a warrior for the Lord,
just from one page of the Bible. It's amazing. Lord, we thank you for your word to us tonight.
We thank you that we can reflect on a covenant that was lacking,
but the covenant that you have given us, Father, is a wonderful, wonderful masterpiece that you
created. And the thing that is most important, Lord, that we thank you so much for is the giving
of your life that we can be free from disease and sin. We thank you for that, for each person
in here. Thank you for giving us that hope above all hope, that when we leave this flesh,
we are present with you. And we ask that as we go our way, Lord, that you'll be with us.
These words will help us. The book of Judges will point us in the direction that we understand
you to be, and that is a merciful God. So we give these teachings to you in the name of Jesus.
Amen. God bless you. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word. Don't forget to
join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day!