Turning Back to God

Okay, let's pray again. Father God. We're grateful that as

we open the Bible we have Jesus in our lives.

We know we have a lot of variables today, but

we have You. So give us the word of God

in Jesus' name. Amen. The Second King seventeen is one

of the saddest chapters in the whole Bible. It tells

the tragic story of how God's people ended up as

the people of the world and no longer the people

of God. One of those smug deceptions that we can

harbor as end time believers is the notion that somehow

God will never reject us no matter what we do.

We've said it. Oh, God won't ever let you go? Oh,

yes he can. This belief in notion is a fatal deception.

Second King seventeen introduces the beginning of the end of

God's people Israel, the Northern Kingdom. You remember, God's people

were split into the North and the South after the

death of Solomon, the Northern king of Israel that was

God's covenant people at one time, eventually followed an evil king.

They left God's will, for they abandoned the truth of God,

and they cease to be the people of God in

many ways. The Northern King of Israel mirrors the lateste

In Church in the Book Revelation of their two churches

in the Book Revelation that represent the Seventh the Avidist

movement at the time of the End. One is the

Church of Philadelphia and the other is the Church of Ladesa.

They run together till the end. Philadelphia represents the early prophetic,

loving experience of a people motivated by prophetic truth that

will herald the coming of the Lord. The Church of

Philadelphia is declared to be the church that will endure

the mark of the beast trial, the test that is

coming upon the whole world. The Ladacean Church comes out

of the milieu of that It represents avident believers who

no longer engage the Bible, who are not soul winning

in their mindset, who are not who don't care two

sins about the mission of God's word therein to their institutions,

themselves and their own accomplishment. The latest see In church

is a self righteous church. Both of these church exists

concurrently to the end, but they are two different religious experiences.

The Philadelphian Church is true to God in every way,

there's nothing wrong said about it. The latte In Church

thinks it has truth, but it isn't true at all,

because Jesus himself is the deeper truth. The Church of

Lateste it needs to be true and saved. And so

if we don't have Jesus, but we have all the

doctrines of the church, and we're not focused on others

but only ourself, we are the worst of all. The

Philadelphian Church is motivated by Christian love, prophetic truth, prophetic mission,

a love for God, the sanctuary message, it's all embedded

in the description there. But the ladaty In Church is

motivated by self love, self deception, the facade of being

religious without an authentic Bible based relationship with Jesus Christ.

It has the trappings in form of religion, but it

is not really right with Christ. Jesus commands the Philadelphian

Church to hold on to what it has. It doesn't

need to alter its experience. It will see Him come.

It is the right experience. The Church of Philadelphia means

the Church of brother the Love, but Christ instructs Yea

even rebukes the lay of to see in church that

He is going to spit it out of his mouth

if it does not repent and turn back to God.

Now that's the contrast. How many of you want to

be a Philadelphian, Yes, not a Late of Sein. I

won't even let you vote on that. Hopefully you don't

say a Philadelphian Seventh day Aventist. So it happened to

the late to see in church the command that I

will spew you out of my mouth is exactly what

God did to the Northern King of Israel and Second

King seventeen. Take your bibles in turn with me to

Second King seventeen, Verses six and eight. In the ninth

year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria and

carried Israel away to Syria and placed them in Hallah

by the Heart, by the Habar, the river of Gozan,

and in the cities of the Medes. For it was

that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord,

their God, who had brought them up out of the

land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, King

of Egypt. And they had feared other gods had walked

in the statutes of the nations, whom the Lord had

cast out from before the childn of Israel and of

the kings of Israel, which they had made. In the

immediate context, the Bible records that Hoshea did evil in

the eyes of the Lord. He came to power by

assassinating the rival king his name, and he remained salvation.

But this rebellious king was no savior for a disserebedient people.

He was not a deliverer, and God was no savior

for him because he would not repent, he would not

turn back to God. He would have no place in

his light for God's salvation. The king of Assyria took

him into exile and imprisoned him, ending his unfortunate career

as a failed leader in Israel. Israel for good that

God had saved them out of Egypt, to make them

a nation under His authority and rule. You see, it's

possible for us to forget that God has led us

in the past, whereby we are unable to be led

into the future. We was to remember what God has

done for us, so that He can lead us forward.

Israel abandoned their allegiance to their God for the favor

of other gods. Israel walked in the way of the

nations all around them following their statutes instead of God's statutes.

Now we have a word for that. What do we

call it? When we follow the influence of others instead

of God's word? Disobedience? What's another word? Compromise? And time

we lose our identity and we cease to be the

people of God. The Church today is no more special

than Israel was in its day. God is not going

to treat us better or different than he treated Israel

in the past. They were the people of God who

turned their back on God. God. They were the chosen

of God who stopped choosing God, and because of that

their outcomes. The king of Assyria besieged them for three years,

and when the siege was over, their capital of Sameria

was taken. Their kingdom came to a prophetic end, and

suddenly they were moved off the scene. God spected them

out of his mouth, just like he promises lay to

sea if it does not repent. The people, who believed

that everything would go well for them no matter what,

finally learned that God is not beholding to a people

that will not obey. They had experienced the ministry of

Elijah and Elisha. Elijah had caught fire down from heaven

stopped reigning for three and a half years. Because of

his command, Elishah had raised the dead. I mean, they

had awesome miracles in that northern kingdom, but they rejected

the legacy and teaching of the spirit of prophecy of

these two prophets of God, Second King seventeen, verse nine.

And also the children of Israels secretly did against the

Lord their God, things that were not right. Isn't that

an amazing verse? They secretly disobeyed and rebelled against the Lord.

They wanted to look good, They wanted the facade of

being good, but in their private time they were secretly

in rebellion against God. They built for themselves high places

in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. God

convicted them of their secret sins, and they held onto

them when they should have surrendered them to God. Is

that a good thing, congregation? Is it? That's an awful thing?

The high places were earth and mounds in which they

built forbidden altars to foreign gods. Paul tells us that

these foreign gods that are worshiped in pagan temples are

really demons. Some people say, well, you know, all religions

lead to God. Do you ever hear that all religions

lead to God? Paul doesn't teach that New Testament. He says,

when you go to a pagan temple and you participate

in the worship of that pagan temple, you are abstal

actually worshiping demons. That's what he says. We know such

thing as all religions lead to God. The Great World

religions were created, according to the Bible, by demonic intervention

after the Tier of Babel. They are not passed to God.

Now there are good people in them. There are people

who love the Lord. Jesus says, I have other sheep

and other folds. I must go and gather them. But

you cannot put a religion that will put a foreign

god on the throne of your heart and call that

a thing of God. The high places were earth and

mounds in which they built forbidden altars to foreign gods.

Psalms one hundred and six says they sacrifice their children

to demons. Friends, it's possible to go to church, to

be active in church, to pay your dues that think

you have the truth, while you follow the devil in

your secret life and sacrifice to demons. Psalms one hundred

and six thirty five. But they mingled with the gentiles

and learn their works. Now we're to mingle with others

to save them, right, But we aren't to mingle with

others to compromise our lives so that we become like

the world we're trying to save. They served their idols,

which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their

sons and their daughters the demons, the amazing indictment. Friend,

It is not easy being a Christian in the world,

is it. I mean, how many of you struggle to

keep the world out of your life? In Christ on

the throne? Raise your both hands, I do. It comes

at us and the culture. The fight for survival is real.

The world's system rotates around pleasures, seeking, drinking and moral

parties and the like. Now, God wants Christians to have fun,

but to maintain those boundaries that preserve our walk with

Christ as we do it. For the Christian to be

a true Christian, he or she has to draw a

line in the sand and say no to the things

that would corrupt the life and the soul. It's not easy.

And the verses that follow the King of Israels set

up pillars wooden images in every place that they could find,

including the trees. Wherever they could turn their hearts toward immorality,

wherever they could dance to a different tune rather than gods,

wherever they could bow down to a foreign altar, they

corrupted themselves. The Bible says they burned incense on the

high places. They modeled their worship after the example of

the Nations, instead of letting God's word guide them to

the right kind of worship that honors God. Verse eleven

and then verse twelve, they burned incense on the high places,

like the nations, whom the Lord had carried away before them.

And then it says, then they did wicked things to

provoke the Lord to his anger. For they served idols

of which the Lord has said to them, you shall

not do this thing. You don't get clear in that

God says no. They said, yes, friends. When God says no,

you shall not do this thing, we had better not

do it right. We better draw a lie in the

say in our lives and say I'm not going there.

And verses thirteen fourteen. The Bible records that God sent

a prophets to them and they rejected all the prophets. Oh,

we're smarter than the prophet, but so we know more

than them. We don't need the testimony of the prophets

in our lives. They wouldn't hear them or their message,

and they would not obey God. Now we call that stubbornness.

You've ever met a stubborn person, and don't point fingers

here in the church, don't say, well, over there, you know,

maybe that person might be you. The Bible calls it

stiff necked. That's stiff nick. I have a stiff neck,

but I try to crack it every day before I

come to church because I have a little osti arthritis

in my neck. I mean, if you have a stiff

neck every now and there, now, stiff necks a hard

time turning to God. That's the idea. That's the kind

of stiff neck we don't want. In verse fifteen, the

Bible records that they rejected his testimonies. When God sends

testimonies to the church from a true prophet, you had

better follow them. God doesn't waste his testimonies. The spirit

of the testimony of Jesus, the prophetic word given to

the church is to encourage us to rebuke us and

to grow us so we are ready for him in

his kingdom. We've been told that one of the last

deceptions of Satan will be to make of none effect.

The prophetic testimonies have been given to this church friend.

God gave his people the Ten Commandments. They were called

the Tables of the Testimony, and they turned and twisted

them around so they could go their own way instead

of God's way. When we worship God in God's way,

it really doesn't matter what we want or we think,

did Jeremy. When we worship God in God's way, it

really doesn't matter what we want or we think. What

matters is what God wants and what God thinks. The

Northern Kingdom of Israel forgot this important principle as they

built their self made altars to foreign gods, and as

they worship their new Gods in their own way. And

we can do the same thing. If we forget that

God wants his power and his spirit in our lives,

we can go our own way. If we don't listen

to that still small voice. We can do the same

thing if we abandon God's word in the Bible for

the ideas of men the philosophies and teachings of the world.

The description of their sins is in verses fifteen to seventeen.

It's worth reading. Take your bibles, look at Second Kings

seventeen fifteen to seventeen. The Bible says, and they rejected

his statutes and his covenant that he had made with

their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified against them,

and they followed what what's the word there? They followed idols.

In other words, they worshiped things more than God, and

they became idolators. They went after the nations who were

all around them, concerning whom the Lord had in charged

them that you should not do like them. So they

left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made

for themselves molded image and two calves, made a wooden image,

and worshiped all the hosts of heaven. There's a lot

of stars up there. And they served bail, and they

caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire.

They forgot that a light had brought fire down from heaven,

that he had met the bell priests and had defeated

them at Mount Carmel. They didn't care. They'd brought bell

worship back, and they caused their sons and daughters to

pass through the fire and practice witchcraft and soothsaying, and

sold themselves to the devil in the side of the

Lord to provoke him to anger. Boy, we're in your face, God.

They were just in his face with their evil. It

is easy to sell your soul for evil in a

world that doesn't value the worth of a human soul.

They sold themselves to do evil instead of good. Sister

White in the Book Education, page fifty seven says this

the same mighty truths that were revealed through these men,

she means Daniel and John. God desires to reveal through

the youth and the children today. The history of Joseph

and Daniel is an illustration of what He will do

for those who will yield themselves to him and with

the whole heart seek to accomplish his purpose. And here

is one of the greatest statements for the young people

of our church, found in the spirit of The greatest

want of the world is the want of men. She

means men and women who will not be bought or sold,

men who in their inmost souls are true and honest,

men who do not fear to call sin by its

right name. Men whose conscience is as true to duty

as the needle to the pole, Men who will stand

for the right though the heavens fall. But such a character,

she writes, is not the result of accident. It's not

due to special favors or endowments of providence. A noble

character is the result of self discipline, of the subjection

of the lower to the higher nature, the surrender of

self for the service of love to God and man.

The people who rejected some of God's will eventually rejected

all of God's will in their lives. You see, that's

what happens. You let one little piece come out. He said,

I'm want to disobey here. Sooner or later, you just

disobey it in everything. First fifteen says they rejected his statutes

and his covenant. Bin sixteen says they left all the

commandments of the Lord. James, the brother of Jesus, says,

if we break one, what do we do? We really

break all of them. So don't set aside any commandment

in your life. Don't say I'm gonna pick and jews

which ones I follow. God has ten commandments, because God

is a ten God isn't a nine, he isn't an eight,

He's a ten. How many of you want to worship

a ten god? So I mean the ten God is

what we have. So don't set aside any of them

in your life. A theology you've compromised is a theology

that leads to death. In verse seventeen, they burn their

children to death. Can you believe that they burn their

children to death? We see crazy things in the subways

today that reminds us of this. Little babies fresh from

their mother's womb they burn on the altars of bail

and molick, and we know how they did it. They

did it to the roar of very loud music that

drowned out the cries of the babies. It's just a

fact we know that it was their version of abortion.

Alick in Hebrew means king with the vowels of the

Hebrew word for shame. The latency in church has shame

on her face. According to Jesus, any culture that sacrifices

its children for convenience, religious liberty, personal freedom, and any

other bad excuse like this has built their altars to

demons in our time. Do you realize that over sixty

five million children have been offered to demons, have been

killed in the United States of America this way, And

I know that the devil and his angels dance around

the deaths of every one of those little children, who

could have been Einstein's, could have been great musicians, could

have been some of the great people of the world,

their life snuffed out. I believe that when Jesus comes back,

He's going to remember them somehow and call them into existence.

And who knows. We may have hundreds of kids we

all have to raise in the hereafter, But what a tragedy.

We as Christians should have no part to play in

this modern evil, and we should not excuse it. We

should oppose it. As Christians see, the latency in church

is lukewarm. It's unable to pose evil in our time.

The Christians in the first century would visit the dump

peeps of the Roman world to collect the little babies

and abandoned there and left to die. They raised them

in the church as the children of God. We had

better be doing the same thing in our time. There

are children in our sphere who if we do not

reach out in love to help those children, they will

be lost. We should be in the saving business, not

the dying business. Children matter to God, Every single child matters.

What was God's response to these kind of evils embraced

by the nation of Israel? What did he finally do

to his people who acted this way like the nations

all around them? Second King seventeen twenty and the Lord

rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and

delivered them into the hand of plunderers until he had

cast them from his sight. It's like spitting them out

of his mouth. Jesus warns the latesty in Church in

Revelation that if it doesn't repent, he will spit it

out of his mouth. We are no better than these people,

and God doesn't give us some special ticket that gets

us off the hook if we choose to be wilfully

disobedient in our lives. And I'm not talking about a

person's struggling with sin in their life. If you're struggling

with sin, the Holy Spirit's working your life. You know that.

If you're struggling, he's working in your life. But if

you're saying, oh, it doesn't matter, I'm gonna go my

own way, do whatever I want, that's different. In the

story that we've seen leadership matters. Why no leader is perfect,

but a good leader follows God, and a good leader

encourages the people to follow God. In Verse twenty one,

here is God's response to leaders who teach people to

leave God and go their own way and to live

im moral lives. Tewod King seventeen twenty one. For he

tore Israel from the house of David, and they made

Jerebaiah the son of back King, and that's when the

split occurred between the North and the South. Then Joam

drove Israel from the following the Lord and made them

commit a great sin. You see, a leader led his

people in the disobedience verse twenty two, For the children

of Israel walked in all the sins of Jerebauma, which

he did so as they did so. A leader that

will compromise your life with Christ is a leader you

should not follow. They did not depart from them. They

were meant to separate themselves from that kind of thing

Verse twenty three. Until the Lord removed Israel out of

his sight, as he had set by all his servants

to the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own

land to Assyria as it is to this day. Now,

there's a place for unity in the Church, but there's

no place for unity with evil. Did you hear me.

We are to join our hearts and bond them together

in love for service for others, but we are never

to compromise to create a false unity. Sometimes we hear

people say God loves you no matter what, He will

never let you go. That is not true. Friends, God

loves you. Jesus died on the cross. As proof of this,

He said, Father, why have you forsaken me? Because he

took our place on the cross. God loves you, sure enough.

But if you reject his love, if you flagrantly set

aside his will in your life, his truth, that is love,

God will not prop you up to be a rebel.

He will not prop you up. That sober thought is Christians,

we are in the repenting business all the time. Did

you hear me? Why? Because we have sinful natures, we

can slip and fall. Romans three. It says those who

fall like this, they're covered by the righteousness of Christ.

We're not talking about that kind of thing. We're not

talking about trying to do better and messing up and

coming to the Lord and say, oh I messed up.

We're talking about the kind of thing that says, I'm

going to change my value system. I'm going to shift

from the Ten Commandments to my own way. I'm going

to get my will, I'm going to go to that

drinking party. I'm gonna go to that horrible film. I'm

going to do this, that, and the like and let

God adapt to me. I'm sorry, friends, God will not

adapt to you. He will not adapt to any of us.

We must be in the repenting business as Christians. Why

because we cannot afford to walk with God and be

arrogant and disobedient at the same time. The self righteous

latency in church in the book Revelation has no time

to walk with God because it is enamored with itself

that this church wasn't put on earth. Our church was

not put on earth to worship the Church. The Church

was put on earth to honor God and to save

people for His glory. For that end, we exist in

no other. After the fall of Samaria, the land and

the cities that used to belong to God's people were

given to other people who didn't know the true God.

So what he did he moved them out of there,

and he brought other people in who didn't have a

clue to fill their houses, their cities, and their places

of worship. The king of Assyria brought foreigners in to

occupy the land, and he took God's people far away,

and they never came back. They were no longer God's people.

So what makes us God's people. It's not our name,

it's not our church as such or its history. It's

not how smart we are, aren't, or think we are.

It's not how rich or poor we are. Friends. We

are God's people only when we choose to honor God,

to value the cross, to bay the truth he has

given us, to the learn of him as our savior,

and to commit our lives to him. That's what makes

us the people of God. Faith is obedience from the

heart that has been forgiven and saved, protected by love,

regenerated by Christ's Holy Spirit. We may be imperfect people

in the rough. How many of you are an imperfect

person in the rough? So raise both my hands again.

We may be, and we are imperfect people in the

rough when we choose to obey God. And we may

stumble into that obedience because it's not easy. When the

Holy Spirit starts working in your life, friends, Paul says

in Romans Ad all who are led by the spirit

of God or the children of God. So we're not perfect.

People were His people, but were committed to write outcomes

this notion that we can do whatever we want to do.

It doesn't matter. It's not God's way, it's not God's word,

it's not the truth, and it won't save you. In

verse twenty three, God exported the people of Israel als,

and in verse twenty four God imported new people from

other cities who were not Israelites in and when these

foreigners got there, they worshiped their paying gods, and the

lions came from nowhere to eat them. I mean, it

was like they were in the wrong place for doing that.

This moral breakdown the safety of the place God so

bad that the king of Siri decided to introduce the

old religion of Israel back into the land with these

newcomers so they wouldn't be eaten by lions. And the

king became the unwitting agent to say, people who never

heard of the true God. So how does a pagan

king get the right religion in the right place? John

the Baptist told us told the religious leaders that God

can raise up children to Abraham from the stones, So

don't think you're so special that God can't reject you

and give others a chance to experience truth in your place.

Second King seventeen twenty five. And it was so at

the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not

fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them,

which killed some of them. So they spoke to the

King of Assyria, saying, the nations whom you have removed

and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know

the rituals of the God of the land. Therefore he

has sent lions among them. Indeed, they are killing them

because they do not know the rituals of the God

of the land. So what did this evil King of

Assyria do? He sent them a true priest of God

who had been carried away in the anxiety, brought the

preacher back, the one that would teach the truth. He

brought that priest back to evangelize a foreign people had

never heard of God's word Before. God's people were supposed

to teach the truth, they wouldn't. He moved them out.

He brought people in, and he got a foreigner to

give a preacher in place, and in that very land

no longer occupied by his disobedient, obedient people of Israel,

the truth was taught that people had never heard it.

First King seventeen twenty seven. Then the King of as

Siri commanded, saying, send there one of the priests whom

you brought from there. Let him go and dwell there,

and let them teach them the rituals of the God

of the land. Then one of the priests whom they

had carried away from Samria came and dwelt in Bethel

and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Isn't

that a good thing to teach people how they should

obey God. Bethel means house of God in Hebrew. They're

at Bethel. The priest of God taught the foreign peoples

the fear of the Lord in the house of God.

So I asked you the question, what is the fear

of the Lord? Some verses we will put on the

screen Proverbs eight thirteen. The fear of the Lord is

the what what does the Bible say hatred of evil,

pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted

speech I hate Proverbs nine ten. The fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of

the Holy One is insight Proverbs sixteen six. By loyalty

and faithfulness, iniquities atoned for, and by the fear of

the Lord, a man avoids evil. The love God means

to turn away from evil. It's that basic in our lives.

In Deuteronomy ten twelve, Moses said that the fear of

the Lord means to love the Lord and keep his commandments.

There is a fear that overcomes fear in your life.

There is a good fear that will banish the wrong

kind of fear. It is the fear of the Lord.

The right kind of fear draws us to the true

love of God, so we can become like him in character.

Where we respect his value system, where we are obedient,

we surrender our lives to him, and thus He transforms

us through the crist This is not our natural way,

so he works in us. But who wants to go

back to the old ways beyond the river and the

ways of disobedience, the ways in which we're lost. The

fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and

I'm going to tell you right now. When I made

a decision at the age of fifteen to become a Christian.

I was at a river, the New River in Freeze

Virginia of old places, and it feels like it's freezing outside.

My best friend Jeff begged me not to go to

a Christian school and to turn my life around. I

begged him to go with me, and there we parted

company for the rest of our lives. He would have

none of Christ and I had to make a choice

that I would have none of his christlessness. He says,

you're going to become a Christian. I know that you're

gonna have a changed life. I says, yeah, I am

going to become a Christian'm gonna be changed life. He says,

you're gonna ruin your life. I says, no, I'm not

going to ruin my life. He says, yes, you are.

And everything he said I could never become God has

helped me to become. One day, Jeff can hear that

we used to do all kinds of awful things as

young people. I don't even like talking about life before

after I was fifteen, Before I was fifteen, It's a miracle.

I'm alive today, frankly, and I'm telling you young people today,

don't get into the business of selling your soul for

some cheap party with alcohol or dancing or playing games

that mimic casinos. You have no business doing that in

your life. You know you have holy time, you have

holy purpose. Give your life to Jesus and let God

do great things. Don't go to the other side of

the river. Stay on the right side of the river.

You think that things would go good again for these

new people in the land, but they ended up serving

their own gods all over again in place of Israel. Now,

root it out and gone. They learned the truth, but

they mixed it up with everything else they had known before.

They didn't let go of the old practices to embraced

the new with God, so these newcomers were at risk too.

Just like Israel, they burned their children into the fire

to worship demons. Just like Israel, they started worshiping the

high places on those forbidden altars, dancing to the music

of the world instead of gods. And just like Israel,

they rejected the council the true priest for their own priests,

who let them go their own ways. So they eventually

substituted this good one. Paradoxically, they served God and other

gods at the same time. Thus they had divided lives

ecumenical mindsets. They became ecumenical in this way, and they

were proud of it. All religions they believed have something

to offer, and so they brought them all in. And

so they offered their children to the gods of these

other religions. Second King, seventeen thirty two. So they feared

the Lord, and from every class they appointed for themselves

priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in

the shrines of the places. But then verse thirty three,

they fear the Lord, yet serve their own gods. Can

you believe that fearing God but serving your own gods?

According to the rituals of the nations, from among whom

they were carried away, what is amazing here is that

God is giving these people who don't know the truth,

they chance to become Israel if they'll follow the truth

like Israel. They mixed it all up, and they lost

their way, just like Israel did. They rejected the golden

opportunity to change Tewod King seventeen forty. However, they did

not obey, but they followed their former rituals. So these

nations fear the Lord yet serve their carved images. Also

their children, the children's general children have continued doing as

their fathers did, even to stay. So when you bring

compromise in your life, what happens is your children catch

on to it, and he goes from one generation to

the next, until a godly generation stands in the gap

and says, it goes no further. We will stand for

the Lord, and then it stops and renewal occurs. So

that's what they did. They compromised. They left an awful legacy,

and that is their story in Israel's story. Dear heart,

our story has not yet been written. Did you hear me?

Our story has not yet been written. What kind of

people will we choose to be? Will we serve the

Lord and other gods? Also? Will we surrender the truth

to get along with all the nations all around us

and the culture all around us? Or we will we

stand for Jesus who died for us? Will we hold

God's word precious to our heart? Will we live the truth,

imperfect though we be, and strive for Holy Spirit power

to give glory to God and to save other human beings.

That decision is before us, and we must choose our

future and fate. Joshua when he entered the Promised Land

Moses had died at Mountain Nebo. He entered the Promised Land,

and that the name Joshua was the Hebrew word for Jesus.

He was a foretaste of Jesus who takes us to

the Promised Land. When he got in there, he tore

down those pagan altars. He erected monuments to God that

will remind them of God's power. And at the end

of his life he gave the people of Israel a challenge.

It is our challenge today this new year, Joshua twenty four,

fourteen and fifteen. Now, therefore, fear the Lord, serve him

in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which

your fathers served on the other side of the river

in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil

to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this

day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your

fathers served that were on the other side of the

river are the gods of the Amorites. The word Emorites

means talkers, the gods of the Amorites, the talkers in

whose land you do wat And here it is. But

as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

I challenge you today to live on the side of

the river where God is at, not the other side.

Never go back to those other gods in your life

on the other side of the river. I would ask

you today if you would give a public commitment by standing,

and we'll come forward for our closing song here whoever's

up here, Probably that's a clue. If you want to

stand with the Lord in your life, not by your

own power, but by the Cross of Christ and make

a commitment, you can stand stand with me right now

and say, Lord, I am going to stand for you

and for Jesus, not because I can do it, because

you are a wonderful God in my life. Dear Father,

we all have one thing in common. We're sinners. We're

sinners with a sinful nature. That's nothing new, that's the

fact of our lives. And yet this awesome truth comes

in that you love us, you died for those sins,

that you can give us a new life. And it's

not by might nor by power that this happens. It's

simply by walking with you. By walking with you, and Lord,

help us to walk with you, not to walk our

own ways. Help us in our home, help us in

our church, help us in our talk, our service to

be christ Like people. And Lord, thank you that you

do forgive us of our failings. But you will not

forgive us of a rebellion unless we confess it to you.

So Father, may we live free of that rebellion factor

and grow up. Bless every dear heart that needs to

know they're accepted. They are in Jesus. But help us

not to go our way, but your way. And thank

you for being the way, the truth, and the Life.

In Jesus' name. Amen,