Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 Good morning, village, church of Bartlett. It is good to see you this morning. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor at village church east. If I haven't met you yet, there's your introduction. It's good to meet you, Michael. And I will once in a while, a once or twice a year, we'll, uh, swap. So he's over at east today and I'm with you today. I don't know who got the worst end of the stick, but that's how it's going to go. All right. You can judge for yourself and determine, uh, determine how this flies for you, but east is going great for all of you that aren't are maybe not up to speed with what's happening. The Lord has been doing some amazing things at Easter we're growing. Uh, right now our tenants is about a hundred. Uh, we have two churches. We have one church, uh, in house at fountain view community center.
Speaker 0 00:00:48 Here's where we're gathered right now. Uh, this is on the corner of Gary and lies. If you're familiar with Carol stream, uh, we have about a 90 to a hundred people that are regular attendees. And then we've got another church online with just as many people watching us online. And the Lord has been good to us through COVID by giving us an opportunity to establish this presence online that we do every, every week. And we have a team that is devoted. We do set up tear down things. So they are committed more than I am. Uh, even at times I think to myself, but they are amazing people who make this happen every single week. We do community events like you do. Uh, one thing that we did even before, uh, while in the middle of COVID, this is, you can see, I turned 50 last year.
Speaker 0 00:01:30 You'd never guess it. What'd ya. Uh, so this is, we had this out on your lawn out here. Actually, we needed to go to a place because fountain view is shut down. Actually today is their first day where they allow us to take off mass. Can you believe that we literally, I have been under this gun. Uh, we only opened three, three months ago actually, uh, because we haven't been able to be back there. So we've really put a lot of emphasis on our online presence. But last year, this time we were here out on the lawn and we were so you can see they're all happy to be there. Uh, it was nice to be able to be together. And where should we do community outreach as well? One thing that we did before COVID it was, we had a community church service. We invited a whole bunch of people over and we had to move to the gym because there was a, there was so many participants, but, uh, that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 0 00:02:14 So we're trying to partner together with community churches. We're not in this alone, we're in this together. And we have a lot of good relationships with the churches over there in, uh, Carol stream. And then of course we do community events like this one. This is our pray that we did actually two years ago. They canceled on us last year, but here's the parade there it is. And, uh, so we, we were excited about what the Lord is doing over there. We're always doing new things. If you want to visit us and find out what we're doing, it's village village, church, east VCE, east.org, and you can find it. One thing that we are doing now that I'm kind of excited about as a new project, God is bringing together a new people that are new to the faith. They're accepting Christ as their savior.
Speaker 0 00:02:52 They getting baptized. If you've never done baptism in a public pool with people doing laps behind you, it is a very exciting way to do baptism, but we are, uh, constantly seeing people come to know the Lord, which is exciting for us. And one thing that we're doing now is I'm doing a podcast. I literally just started this as called thinking it through. You can check it out online if you'd like to do that, but it deals with cultural issues. Uh, cause a lot of our new folks, new to the faith have no idea how to navigate through cultural, uh, issues that they've been dealing with their whole lives. Uh, they literally don't know what God's word says. So this is a brand new thing that, uh, that's not it, but you can check it out online if you'd like to. Um, so that's a little bit little update. I can tell you so much more, but I'm not going to, if you want to learn more, you can visit us online or just ask me afterwards. I'm excited to be with you. It's been a while since I've been here. Um, a lot of you, I know some of you, I don't know. And so I'm looking forward to getting to know you
Speaker 1 00:03:48 As well.
Speaker 0 00:03:50 Have you ever been in a situation where you've walked in to a scenario where you embarrassed because you didn't know all of the details there, the situation where if you hadn't known more about an event, it wouldn't, you would've come off a little better than walking into a situation where you didn't quite have all the information for me. This happens like when I'm invited to a party, I don't know the ever happened to you. It's like the dress code. I know I'm old enough now to know when somebody invites me to a party or an event, I always say, what is the dress code? Because I have showed up underdressed or overdressed at times, overdressed is easier to fix than underdressed. And you get into a situation where you just feel like, oh, hi, you know, I feel a little like a dork here. I wasn't quite prepared for what I'm walking in and it doesn't have to be at a party, but everyone has a situation where if you hadn't known just a little bit more details, you wouldn't quite as come up, office sets a weirdo.
Speaker 0 00:04:52 You wouldn't have felt so bad when I was a kid. I like to read comic books. Do you remember reading comic books? Way back when I know I'm dating whites, I'm at least 50. I'm not going to tell you how much more than that, but that was a year ago. So you could do the math. Um, so you had these comic books and you had cut out a corner of the comic book and then these comic books that you could buy stuff, remember, and you put the little thing in the mail. He put all, you had to like 10 little corners or whatever. And then you put like five bucks or 10 bucks in the mail. And the U S mail system would get back to you in six months with your little prize that you bought in, in common. Do you remember this comic book world?
Speaker 0 00:05:27 So this one time I ordered x-ray glasses. I thought x-ray glasses were going to be awesome. I could see through walls. I could see through my hand, you know, see my skeleton. I could, uh, you know, see through tests and see what the real answers were. I didn't think that I could look at the ground and see, you know, dead bodies in my backyard or whatever it was. I was, I was thinking x-ray glasses would be the coolest thing in the world. And so finally I got enough comic book things and I threw my money in the mail and waited my six months and then check the mail all the time. And finally, I got them, I got the box, I ran up to my room. I opened the box and I pulled them out and I thought these are kind of funky looking, but they must be awesome.
Speaker 0 00:06:06 They must work. And I put them on. I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't see a thing. X-ray glasses don't work. Did you know that? I didn't know that. So I go to my friends and I said, cause I had told my friends, I'm getting an x-ray glasses will be here in a week. I can't wait and they're going, okay, Craig. And then I brought them to my friends. I said, look, these are the exits. They ripped me off. You can't even see two of these. And they go, yeah, we knew that you, you didn't know that we do that. I'm going, you could have told me like six months ago ever feel like somebody knows a little more something than you do about a situation. They ever feel like that about gotten when I was deciding where to go to college, I thought to myself, God, if you just tell me where to go to college, I'm okay with it.
Speaker 0 00:06:48 Like just tell me where to go. I don't care to Zimbabwe, whatever. As long as I know you want me to go there, I'm good. So I started praying about it. I started thinking, okay, I started doing my research. You know, I'm looking for clouds in the sky. Should it be this college or that college? Give me a, give me a sign or you know my coffee, if I look for, is there a mother Mary picture in my pizza? I'm looking for every sign I can think of to find out which college I should go to. And I got nothing. I got nothing. All I got is a bunch of different colleges that I was thinking about going to, and I thought, okay, I'll finally decide on one. I, I got to decide on one. So, so I prayed about it and I just went and I went to that college. When I got to college, I met Beth and I don't know how a girl from West Virginia and a boy from Nova Scotia would ever meet any other way than for that boy from Nova Scotia to go, I'll go to that college right there. And I met Beth and better than any college education, I got an amazing life who has given me an amazing
Speaker 1 00:07:53 Life and an amazing family.
Speaker 0 00:07:57 It's amazing how much God knows about my life that he doesn't tell me about. And I have to, I have to walk in faith. I have to trust him. I have to make decisions along the way, but aren't you like me? Wouldn't you just like for God to just tell you what's around the corner. Just tell me, I know you're already there. I trust you. Is it Zimbabwe? I'll go. Just tell me where I'm supposed to be. Wouldn't you love for God to just tell you what's around the corner. These Hebrew people are about to enter into the promised land. Now you didn't know this, Michael and Alex and myself, and sometimes some other pastors from the area we'll get together and we will, we will do these plans on what we're going to be speaking on next. And so we're actually working through the same stuff is that you are, he speaks here Bartlett and I do the same message at east.
Speaker 0 00:08:51 Uh, he does it his way. I do it my way and, but it ends up being like the same message. So we're tracking along with you. So the question that I'm asking you is, as you have walked with the Hebrews, as they've been rescued from Egypt, by Moses, they've made their way to Sinai. They've received the 10 commandments and now Xers 21 to 24, just a whole lot of weird laws that help them develop as a nation. These slaves are going to create a nation. They've never done this before. In fact, no one has ever done this before. And so God intervenes and gives them all of these laws, all of these statutes, all of these commands. And I got to think somebody at some time when I can just handle the 10, let's just stick with the 10. But he goes on after the 10 to give them details of things they are or are not to get involved with.
Speaker 0 00:09:45 That's the time period that we're entering right now together. We're entering into this period of, of time when the Hebrews are about to be entering into the land, flowing with milk and honey. But they're given a whole lot of weird laws. More specifically, they're given a lot of weird prohibitions and they gotta be asking themselves why? What does God? No, that I don't know now, what do they know about the promised land? Well, they know it's a land flowing with milk and honey. I'm not sure what that means. Fat cows and a lot of BS, but whatever it means, there's a lot of stuff in that land. That's going to be prosperous for them. It's going to be a wonderful place for them to be, they only know small details. They know that God has given them laws. They're going to be a new nation.
Speaker 0 00:10:31 God's going to be with them. God's going to bless them. These are the details they know, but they don't know anything about the land that they're entering. Other than those things, God is about to help them. Now give them a little bit more information. But along with these laws on how to prosper, he's giving them guidelines for what they need to do in order to be a prosperous nation. God knows things about the land that they don't know, and they're going to have to learn to trust him. And what's the main thing that God knows about this land that they don't know. It's packed full of evil to the brim. They are going to encounter evil. Like they never imagined in their lives.
Speaker 0 00:11:18 So God gives them laws on how to tackle the evil that they're about to encounter. Verse 23. God says, when my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the parasites and the Canaanites, and they hit bites and the Jebusites and all the different nights in the land, I will block them out. You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do. But you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. Why God are you giving this command? And the answer is he knows things. They don't, he knows stuff that is happening in Canaan that they don't know about. They've never experienced. And the main thing was these groups straight up evil, there's sorcery in this land. There's human sacrifice in this land. There's witchcraft, they're burning babies to get rain to fall from the sky.
Speaker 0 00:12:15 There is evil in this land. Like you cannot begin to imagine when you read idol worship in this day, think devil worship that's what's happening. In other words, God knows something that they don't know. And God says, be vigilant. Keep on task, get rid of the inhabitants because they're involved with an evil. You have not imagined. This is why God begins his section. In this passage of scripture. With these verses verse 18, you shall not permit a sorceress to live. Whoever lives with an animal shall be put to death, whoever sacrifices to any God, other than the Lord alone shall be devoted to destruction. Hey, reading that, you're thinking yourself, it's kind of gross. Like some of that stuff is kinda nasty. God's not sitting around thinking to himself. I wonder some things I should tell them that they should be aware of that aren't necessarily going on, but they need to be careful about he's writing this stuff because this is normal. This is regular in the culture of Canaan. So he says to his people, you're about to enter into a land. You're going to see stuff you're not prepared for. Here's a little taste of it. Don't get involved.
Speaker 0 00:13:31 They were about to walk into a level, evil, evil into debauchery. They've never encountered before. And what's going to happen is this stuff is going to shock them. At first, they're going to walk in the land and go, oh my word, oh, gross. You see that's what's going to happen. But over time, that shock that repulse feeling would turn to intrigue and that intrigued would turn into temptation and that temptation would turn into participation. And you think to yourself, Craig, I don't see that coming. I don't see how that would happen. I can't see anyone who would follow the Lord that would get involved in that level of debauchery. Really, whatever intrigues you today will tempt you tomorrow and whatever tempts you tomorrow. If you're not careful, you will become a participate in given enough time.
Speaker 0 00:14:24 You probably think to yourself what crank, how could this stuff tempt anyone? Good question. I remember the first time I saw on a Weegee board, I was intrigued. This was an interesting thing. And I had a youth group at the time when I first, when I saw my first one naked in real person, this is before Amazon, when you can actually order stuff overnight, not six months, but anyway, I digress. So I'm at a, uh, I'm at one of those places where you, you play the, and you, and you get, you know, 30,000 tickets to get a pencil eraser. Do you remember those places? All right. So I'm at this place and I'm, I'm playing with my kids and we're gathering all these tickets together. And I can remember the first time they introduced it. The first time I looked in the case and all of a sudden they had a new prize.
Speaker 0 00:15:07 It was a new Weegee board. They're giving it to the kids for tickets. They get out of bowling. You see, because whatever intrigues you today will become something that tempts you tomorrow and everything about that kind of stuff. Intrigues our nature. It just does. I remember the first time I saw a guy talk to the dead. It used to be on TV. There's fish on TV. And there's a group of people that were gathered around in this one guy in the center. And he would say, is there a girl named Mary here at Marygold my name? There's six hands. Our name is Merritt. Okay. Is this Mary? I have a sister whose name is Charlotte? And Mary would go high versus her name. Charlotte. Yeah. Did she pass last year? Yes. You passed last year. I've got a message to you from Charlotte. And I'm going. That is amazing. How does he know all that stuff? I am intrigued. That's incredible. It's intriguing.
Speaker 0 00:16:04 No who that guy was talking to, but it wasn't Charlotte. You see whatever intrigues you to the, and by the way, if you got it, if you have issues on this, let me just cap this off by saying, when you exit this life, you go to one of two places. You either go to be with the Lord or the other place. All right. I'd rather be in one than the other, by the way. So you don't stick around to make things, right? That is a, that is a false hood of the devil. And it's a way that he gets you to be intrigued by people who can talk to people who have stuff left over that they need to do on this earth. And it's just, it's compelling. Isn't it? It's kind of like, yeah, maybe it is that why it's intriguing.
Speaker 0 00:16:48 I don't know who that guy was talking to, but it wasn't Charlotte. Haven't you ever been intrigued by the spiritual realm. It's compelling at times. And I want you to know in second Corinthians 11 verse 14, that tells us a little bit about this. The Bible does not speak a lot about this, but it speaks clearly about it. It says Satan and his demons will disguise themselves as anything they want to in order to get our minds off of Christ, you can read it for yourself. Saint as the father of lies, he wants nothing more than to intrigue you at first to pull you down later, God knows this and he's telling the Hebrews, you're going to enter in this land. It's going to be repulsive at first, but then you're going to get a little bit intrigued and then the pool will come. And before you know it, you will become participants.
Speaker 0 00:17:37 In fact, God says, avoid all of it. Did you know that? Look at the verse in verse 32, you shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall, they sh they shall not dwell in your land. Less. They make you sin against me for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. Do you know what a snare is? A scenario is something you don't want to walk into when you're fishing on the, on the banks, right? And the grass is high and you're always, I love fishing. So I'm always thinking to myself, what's in the grass, you know, and you're going to be careful, careful where you walk, because when, when you walk, you, you might, well, I was thinking to myself, maybe there's an old bear trap here, and I'll just put my foot in it. And boom, I'm stuck. That's what a snare is. A snare is not something you see coming. It's something that's hidden. Their gods. Their idol worship would become a snare to people who serve God, does that not scare you to death. You'll walk into it and you won't even know it.
Speaker 0 00:18:36 God knows something about our tendency to pull up all this evil and reasons that would pull our hearts away from God. And to call these powers of darkness up. Those who were dwellers in this land, and these Canaanites would be involved in all kinds of evil rituals. And God is telling his people don't even get involved. Don't speak of it. Don't talk about it. Ever heard of the God Molek Molek was one of the gods and Canaan. Mullock was one of the ones they worship Mullock would always be built. He was a heat, uh, tra uh, he, um, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? He, he conducted heat. So he made them out of metal or something like that. Whatever you got laying around some metal or something, something that would conduct heat. Do you know why you needed him to conduct heat? Because you build a fire at his feet and you'd you'd heat. The living daylights out of him, his hands would be out like this already. You have a hole in the stomach. One of the two, either way. That's where you put your living child.
Speaker 0 00:19:36 You would make sacrifices to molec so that you could get rain or prosperity or whatever it is. Take the kids. You like the least, but this is what is necessary to sacrifice to Tamala. That was one of the evil gods of Canaan. God warned her about these people and their gods consistently Leviticus, 1821 says this. You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Moloch. And so profane the name of the Lord, your God, I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. That's an abomination and you shall not lie with any animal to make yourself unclean with it. Neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it. It is perversion. And you're probably thinking yourself, that is a nasty list. Aha, but were what repulses you today will intrigue you tomorrow. And what intrigues you tomorrow will become a temptation. And what becomes a temptation will become participation.
Speaker 0 00:20:37 The temptation to dabble in this, a cult would bring these people to ruin. So God goes on to say in the videos down in verse 24, he says, don't make yourselves uncleaned by any of these things for, by all these nations, I'm driving them out. All these nations have become unclean and the land became unclean. So I punished its inequity and the land vomited out its inhabitants. Do you understand they're worshiping of these foreign of these nasty idols. These evil, this, this devil worship was polluting. The very ground. They walked on the ground had had enough of these people.
Speaker 0 00:21:13 And you might be tempted to say, Craig only silly people fall for this only, only people that are educated. Like obviously they're slaves. They don't have a lot of education. So God's really trying to be overly cautious with them. Who's the smartest person in the old Testament. You sound just like the first service. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. Solomon, you remember him solid? He's God said, I'll give you anything you want. He said, I just want to be wise. You remember that? Solomon? We all go. Oh, Solomon. So good. Solomon, the wisest guy in the old Testament, right? Why is this guy in, in Israel? And if you read about the, the exploits of his life, he would agree with that. He's an amazing guy, but he had an Achilles heel. What was his Achilles heel? Yeah, I liked the ladies. Right? All right. So first Kings 11 verse one. Now king Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, EDA night, city night, uh, hit women and he liked them all. He's got a thing for the ladies, from these nations concerning which the Lord said to the people of Israel. Now get this, does this sound familiar? You shall not enter into marriage with them. Neither shall they with you for surely, they will turn your heart after their gods. So Solomon cleaned to these in love. He clung to them because he loved them.
Speaker 0 00:22:36 Solomon didn't carry out. God's wishes evil, but surely it didn't have an effect on Solomon. Like God said, it was going to affect these Hebrews that we're entering into last surely by Solomon's time, he was smart enough. He was educated enough. He was worldly enough. They lived out there in the world. He knew these temptations. He wasn't going to participate surely. Right? He's the wisest man in the Bible. Verse six. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord. As David, his father had done and Solomon built a high place for Camacho, the abomination of Moab and for who church and for Malec
Speaker 1 00:23:13 The abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain, east of Jerusalem, he built an altar.
Speaker 0 00:23:19 So babies could be sacrificed
Speaker 1 00:23:21 On the mountain of God. You see whatever is intriguing us today becomes a temptation tomorrow. And before we know it, we are participants. God knew something. Israel did not.
Speaker 0 00:23:40 The pool of evil would take over this drive to worship God alone. And eventually what intrigued the Hebrews today would make them participate in tomorrow. Back to Exodus. God says, pay attention to all I've said to you. Make no mention of the names of their gods, nor let it be heard on your lips. Are you seeing the parent part of God here gone? Don't dabble in it. Don't talk about it. Don't mention it. LA don't don't do it. I see nothing. I hear nothing.
Speaker 2 00:24:13 Why
Speaker 0 00:24:14 Not? Because it doesn't exist because you've got to stay away from it don't even dabble in it and they would need protection. So Noah God did. He gave them protection. Here's a couple of verses here's here's what happened. God would send his presence with them because this is a, this is a spiritually evil problem. And they would need spiritually heavenly armies to fight. So God gives them protection. I love this about God, verse 20 behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. This angel was the presence of God. God said, I will send the spiritual presence of my own before you, and it will strike fear into your enemies. Look at this verse 27. I will send my terror before you and throw them into confusion. All the people against whom you shall come, I will make your enemies turn their backs to you.
Speaker 0 00:25:10 When does their enemy turn your back to you when they're running? Right? So I'm going to, I'm going to come in. I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to protect you. I know this is a dangerous place you're going to walk into, but we've got to rid the land of this evil. And I'm there fighting for you more than that. Verse 28, I will send Hornets before you, which shall drive out to have ice. The Canaanites, the Hittites, before you ever step on a hornet's nest, never stepped on a hornet's nest and go. That is the most intriguing thing I've ever seen. What do you do when you step on a hornet's nest? Get out of Dodge, right? God has said, I'm going to send my presence before he is going to be like, hornless, they're going to run from you. Like they just kicked over a hornet's nest.
Speaker 0 00:25:48 Is that great verse, 30 little by little. I will drive them out before you, until you have increased and possess the land. It's going to be rough. It's going to take time, but keep on task. It will be worth it. You'll get all the milk and honey, you want first 22, but if you carefully obey his voice and do all that, I say, that's the Angel's voice that is fighting for them. The presence of God. Then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. Don't you love that when you love for God to say, listen, I'll be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. I mean, you think at this point, these guys, these, these Hebrews would just say, yes, let's go. Let's take the land. God had destroyed the Egyptian army with a flood and God would use the Israelites to be the flood that would destroy the armies of Canaan. Drive them out. God would do it for them because he knew something they did not.
Speaker 1 00:26:50 And because we read ahead, we know they blew. It
Speaker 0 00:26:56 Was where on this side of the story, we can read back and we can see what happened. And they did read the land of idols and they didn't read the land of the people and they did marry with them and they did adopt their ways. And you did have Kings building altars to peg in evil gods and participating every major follower of God seemed to struggle with idol worship. Did you know that Gideon had to destroy the idle garden in his father's backyard before he served the Lord, Samuel sons were devoted idol, worshipers, David built an idol alter in his own home. Solomon build temples to false gods. Most of Israel's Kings out of worshipers. This was the culture of the land. And we're probably thinking ourselves, oh, I don't have a problem with idols.
Speaker 0 00:27:52 You see it begins with dabbling in what's popular in the culture that you know is wrong. Some of it even repulses you, but it's intriguing. And so you dabble the Hebrews were ignorant of the dangers of the dabbling and they dabbled the pool of the Canaanite culture. The temptation to apathy before God was too great for them. So Satan got to the great men of the old Testament and the great women of the old Testament this way through their culture and the fall was incredibly quick. Went incredibly fast. In fact, Joshua, when you get to the book of Joshua, it's a great book. If you've never read the book of Joshua Good rate, get to Joshua. Joshua takes over where Moses left off. Joshua was an incredible man of faith, Joshua and Caleb. They spied out the land. Remember 10 were bad and 10 were bad.
Speaker 0 00:28:44 And two were good. He never sang that song. 12 by went to cocaine at 10 were bad at, okay. Anyway. So they come back. These two Joshua and Caleb, they said, let's go in and we can take the land. They have big grapes there. I don't know what that means again, but it means there's a lot of stuff that they, that would benefit them. 10 other spies came back and they said, we'll never do it. There's giants. They'll kill us. God said, go in and take it. They said, eh, let's wait a little bit. So for 40 years they wandered through the wilderness until all the disbelievers died.
Speaker 0 00:29:25 At the end of the book of Joshua, you get to another book. What's a book that follows Joshua judges. Now I told the first service, don't read judges. I'm not saying don't read judges, but if you want a depressing moment, you can reduct judges. Cause after Joshua and after his faithful service for God, and after he knocked down the walls of Jericho and all the amazing stuff that Joshua did in his life, Joshua, like everybody else died. And Joshua gave to the next generation a command, an encouragement, keep on going, keep take the land to generations to generations is all it took for them to go,
Speaker 1 00:30:06 Ah, this is too much. And then you have the book of judges.
Speaker 0 00:30:12 Judges is about how the children of Israel got lazy. They didn't want to do it anymore. They didn't understand why they were doing it. And so they didn't take the land. They mingled with the people in the land. They didn't finish the job. So they needed a judges every once in a while, because in their apathy, they became weak. And all of these outside forces would try and wipe them off the earth. So they needed judges and they got judges every once in a while. And these would be strong judges Othniel and remember Samson, bonehead, Samson, but strong. Do you know how the book of judges ends last verse of judges? In those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right
Speaker 1 00:30:53 In his own eyes.
Speaker 0 00:30:57 God, his presence was no longer visible. There was no longer anyone in charge, chaos ruled. And the job was too hard. Apathy takes over and Israel does what's right in their own eyes. Why is God being so harsh right off the bat? Why has God being sourced? I'm sure. Some people thought, come on. They're nice people. They're not bad people. What's the big deal. Why can't I like all these laws? Like some of the stuff we didn't talk about, don't boil a goat and it's mother's milk. Like I don't understand that. Why, why shouldn't I talk to a sources? She needs Jesus. Or why can't I have sex with who I want to have? Or apparently whatever I want to have sex with. Right? W who's God to tell me all of this is because church, God knows something about things that we do not know.
Speaker 0 00:31:47 God always knows something. We do not know. Whereas he says before we judge Israel too severely for this, we need to ask how many, how much God's people today are compromising with the gods of this world, such as money, pleasure, and success. See what happens to us too. I look at God and I say, God, I don't really understand all these commands like where you're bored. I just needed to write something on paper for you. Here's a good one for you to follow Craig. You're really you mess up here. So this one is specifically for you. I don't, I don't understand that. Like turn the other cheek. Doesn't that get kind of tiring after a while. Don't you feel like a little bit like a mat. If you turn the other cheek, I mean, how many cheeks are we supposed to turn here? Forgive as God forgives you seriously.
Speaker 0 00:32:22 Who's capable of that. Forgive your enemies. Not even a hint. The Bible says a sexual immorality among your church. Not even a hint of sexual immorality among you. Come on. That's a little stiffed on judging. Pray for those who persecute you. Don't judge lest you be judged. How every fruit of the spirit love joy, peace, patience, and his mug. I don't sometimes I don't want to do that stuff. So why is God telling me to do it? Why does God tell me to persevere? Why does God tell me this at all? Because church, maybe God knows Sunday. I don't know these kinds of things make me stick out in culture. That's the point? My typical responses to God's directives are God's not, that's not convenient for me. God, I'm going to make enemies. If I do that, God, I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb. If I do that, God, I don't want to fill in the blank. God, that doesn't make sense to me. God, why would you prohibit this? God, what's the big deal. I've got lots of stuff I can say to God about all the stuff that he says to me. But you see, when
Speaker 1 00:33:30 I do that, I sound a lot like the Hebrews,
Speaker 0 00:33:34 Maybe God knows something about life in 2021 that I don't know, like a parent talking to her, his or her child, sending them out into the world. Maybe that parent warns that child about some stuff they're about to face. And that child will turn to the parent and say, I've got this. Don't worry about it. And the parent goes, no, you don't. You don't know what's coming. Multiply God. By in that scenario by a thousand, maybe God knows something about my world. I don't appreciate fully. Maybe God is providing me with rules and directives and commands. That will save me
Speaker 1 00:34:18 And help me and protect me.
Speaker 0 00:34:22 And maybe his reasoning is because he wants me to thrive. So here's some, so watch it begins with trust. Number one, trust that God is preparing you now for a trial, certain yet to come. There's no command that God gives us. That is not for our benefit and his glory. So whatever he's telling you to do, it's for your benefit and his glory, it may not make sense to you. It may make you think that you stick out like a sore thumb. It may not mitigate you into the culture in a, in a loving way that they would accept you. The culture may hate you for it. But whatever God tells us to do is always for our best and his glory. It's in our, it's in our statement. As a church, go grow and over that, you know, right. Go grow and over, go grow. If you didn't know it, that's the motto. We live by. Go grow and overcome. Go into the world, grow in your faith and overcome. You'll never overcome unless you trust that, God knows what he's doing. And you grow
Speaker 1 00:35:32 In your knowledge of him. Go grow
Speaker 0 00:35:36 And you can. Number two. Trust that no glob, God is frivolous. Everyone is intentional. God never spends an afternoon thinking to himself. I've got an extra page here. I need to fill it up with something. Or like we think to ourselves, uh, Craig's gonna really hate this one. All his commands are intentional. They're all purposeful. And they're all for our wellbeing. In fact, there's a verse given to the Hebrews later on by one of their minor profits that I love and it's quoted quite a bit. And I think in this context, it can really be applied to us. You're probably familiar with it. It comes from Jeremiah 29. It says this. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord's plan for welfare and not for evil to give you a don't. You want to say, Jesus want to say it plans to give you a future.
Speaker 1 00:36:30 Great.
Speaker 0 00:36:32 That's not out to make our lives miserable. He just might know something what's coming around the corner. You don't number three, trust that God knows more than we do. And we should listen to him. God's purpose is to build us into the people that we need to be. God's purpose is for us to surrender all of those things in our lives. That would keep us looking more like Jesus Christ. God's purpose is to remake us from who we were into, who we can be. This is the definition by the way of what it means to follow Jesus. You literally follow lead.
Speaker 0 00:37:12 60 years after they left Sinai, we come to the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua 24. It's an amazing chapter. Joshua is about to die. If you don't know anything about Joshua, by the way, by the way, Joshua, your shoe should be a familiar word to you. Do you know who else was called? Joshua Jesus Yeshua. Jesus. Joshua enters in Canaan comes up against Jericho. First thing he comes up against it's a wall. Impenetrable history says that he had chariot races on top of the wall. So there's incredibly thick wall. Bunch of slaves coming over. No weapons, no nothing. Literally wearing the same clothes. They left Egypt with. They come across the Jordan. They come up against this wall and they go, oh boy, what are we going to do now? And Joshua says, God's got this chill, love Joshua. God's got this. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:38:20 Yeah. Well what's he got it with what are we going to do? Okay. Here's the plan. We're going to go to sleep and we're going to wake up and we're going to March on the wall. Then the next day we're going to go to sleep. We're going to March rash around the wall. You're going to do that for seven days on the seventh day, we're going to March off seven times. Isn't that awesome. God, me. Then the walls will collapse and you got to think somebody looks at Joshua goes, are you sure you didn't miss? Like some of the in between directions? There, there seems to be a lot of information missing. Josh says, no, this is what God said. I know it let's do it. So the people said, okay, so I get around my turn on the wall, walls come down. They take the whole city. And now they're thinking themselves Hazara. We can take the whole land now. Right? Because the presence of God was fighting for them.
Speaker 0 00:39:04 So they do it. Joshua was all about taking land. One time, Josh was on the battlefield and, and, and he's not done the job. There's more people to kill. And so he's out there. They're fighting against him and he's fighting against them. And he looks up in the sky and the sun's about to go down and he's gone, oh, come on. I just need a couple more hours. He literally asked God to give him a little bit more time. So you know what God does makes the sun stand. Still sun Stan stuff. Josh goes, exactly. Let's fight. And it's like, that's really like when you love to have a Joshua around, do you know how old Joshua was when he did that battle?
Speaker 1 00:39:37 A hundred years old, 100
Speaker 0 00:39:42 Joshua, 24, he's about to die. And he says, we got to split up GAD. You got to go there for him. You got to go there. Dan, you got to go there. We got to split up and we're going to give the land to your tribes. And you got to keep doing what we've been doing. You know how to do it, just keep going. So I said, okay, we can do that. So Joshua, he calls a big meeting in Joshua 24. And he said, listen, you got to keep, you got to keep going with this. This is, this is our last great meeting. I'm going to die. I don't have much time left. I can't go with you. You don't have me. You want to have Moses you're on your own. Keep on going. Don't fall for the temptations of the culture.
Speaker 0 00:40:32 So the people said, nah, we're good. We're good to go. He said, no, you're not. You're not good to go. You don't understand what I'm saying. And you can read about it in Joshua 24. It's an amazing speech. He literally has a congregation of hundreds and thousands. Like you sitting out before me right now, he plays just as I am. He says, who wants to stand with me? And everybody stands up and they start walking forward and you know what Joshua does. He says, wait a second, stop the music. Everybody go back to your seats. And he sends them all back to their seats and they're gone. Okay. That's kind of come forward. But I guess, I won't know. And he says, you don't understand what God's asking you to do. You're going to stick out like a sore thumb. You've got to keep on task. You are going to be tempted. You're going to question God, why are you telling me to act this way? Why, why, why? And you've got to remain fair. You've got to believe. God knows something. You don't.
Speaker 0 00:41:26 He says, okay, now who wants to come forward? Play the music again. Of course I'm making it up. They didn't have just as I am back then, but they wouldn't even get to the first chorus and people would be coming forward. People came forward and he said, okay, your word is your bond. And at this meeting, he chose some words to use very wisely. And I'd like to leave you with these words today, Joshua 24 14. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, you choose whom you will serve today. Whether the gods, your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell. But as for me and my house, don't you want to say it. You want to say, we will serve the Lord.
Speaker 0 00:42:28 Joshua was an amazing leader. The reason he sent them back to their seats, the first time is because they had idols in their backpacks. He said, I know you're not fooling anybody. You can't come forward and dedicate yourself to the Lord while you're dragging your idols around behind you going to choose you, serve them or you serve God. There's no in between sections. And they serve the Lord for two generations. And then you have the book of judges, which ends with everyone, did what was right in their own eyes. So let me ask you a church who knew what was coming.
Speaker 0 00:43:06 Our mission is the same church. Our mission is to stand out and not conform. Do you ever feel like you're, you're, you're standing out in this culture, do you, do you not feel like that? Do you ever feel like your decisions make you stand out a little bit in this culture? There were feel like an odd ball era. You ever look at culture and say, maybe that is right. Maybe, maybe God should change his mind on this one. Lots of churches you can go to that will tell you that very thing, but you got a leg up. You can always go to God's word and find out what he said. When he wrote it.
Speaker 0 00:43:41 We judge culture through the eyes of God's word. We do not judge God through the eyes of culture. So when God says to live a certain way, that's what we do. And if you feel like an oddball, I have one thing that I'd like to do for you. It didn't light you up to put you under a bushel. God didn't make you salt. So that you'd be salt. Tasteless. God lifts you so that you would be a fire that would stick out in a generation that only growing more and more dark. If you feel like you stick out way to go, don't stick out because you're a moron. I'm not talking about that. <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:44:23 Stand for God and watch what God can do through you. So
Speaker 0 00:44:28 I invite you to the great meeting and I invite you to read her, reiterate these words and commission us today in this culture, in the land, in which we live. If it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day, whom you will serve, whether the gods, your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the land of the Amorites or whatever it is in the land. You now dwell want to say it, say it. This is it. This is your commitment. Say it, but as for me and my house, we will serve, man, let's turn this world upside down. Let's change culture, Lord. I am grateful for our time this morning. I'm grateful for the message that you've given us old as the Hills. I mean, from Sinai and yet so applicable to where we are today. We trust you to know things we don't know.
Speaker 0 00:45:19 We trust you to be around the corner in front of us and to Beckon us through. And we trust you that you only have our best and your glory through whatever you take us through. Help us to trust you in a way that makes us stick out in this culture. May this culture CNS a love for you? Like they've never seen before. May they see in us good neighbors, like they've never had before. May they see in us protection of the vulnerable, like they've never experienced before. All of the things that you have given to us in your words, so that we can live as you would live. I pray that we would do just that. I pray that we would be followers Christ in this generation want to make an impact in a culture that's continually losing its way. So father teach us how to do that. That
Speaker 1 00:46:13 Really well. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
