Consecration & War

All right, well, many of you guys know that we are a part of

a network of churches and move of God really for that matter,

that began years ago. And one of our guest speakers

that been a part of the movement for since 1991.

So he's like an original 1. All right, so Oh yeah.

Scott, why don't you come up? Yeah, I was going to wait just

for a SEC. I was just going to introduce

you. But a lot of you guys know we

have, I think it's about 150 works around the world.

You've, you've heard me mention that many times.

We're actually going to go help some of our guys in Vancouver

this summer, Miami and, and in Baton Rouge this spring.

And so we've had many guest speakers over the years and

Scott and I just got to go to many different conferences over

the years. And I was looking and you guys

know I have this like this prophetic history, about 80

pages, single space, right? And just writing all these

different words that, you know, people have spoken over the

years. And I went ahead and looked up

one of them. And this is actually pretty cool

and very timely. In 2019, we were in in Hungary.

And one of the things he said was in 2019, you know, he's just

talking about citrus, citrus trees in Florida, which we

that's where we live off of, off of that street and in Oviedo.

And it said that you'll be harvesting citrus plants all

around the world. And it said praying for

protection over the frost of the enemy and also wisdom for us.

Oranges are not lab produced, but doesn't really they don't

really look pretty. If you've ever seen a flora

orange, it's like brown kind of ugly looking like mold all over

it. But they are they don't look

very pretty, but they're actually sweet and they taste

good. They're genuine.

And so and then just a few other words over the years and just so

thankful for fathers and mothers who could come in and and speak

over you. And not just in conferences, but

then to us personally, for Nicole and I for encouragement,

but also to encourage our church as a whole and what we're doing.

So we got to spend about 3 or 4 hours whatever yesterday and

over at the house and just got to hear his heart.

He's like I said, he's been with the network and the movement of

churches since 1991. Even before, you know, I was

officially called Antioch Community Church in Waco, TX,

which many of us, 85 of us are going this week to World

Mandate, which is going to be really exciting to be there.

And but he's, he's served in Africa for 21 years, Debuji,

Somalia and Namibia. He's the area oversight for all

of Africa. And so we're really thankful for

him and he invited us in already.

I was already getting excited. I was like, OK, we need to get

into Africa, as many of you guys have asked already.

So I'm already thinking for like in the future, next couple of

years of where we could go and be a part of that.

And so I'm going to have Nicole pray for him.

And then let's just receive what he has.

And you know, the whole idea of like, just to receive the

prophet's reward, right? We receive the, the word of God,

let it transform our hearts. Amen.

OK, here we go. All right, y'all want to stretch

out your hands as we pray for Scott?

Jesus, I thank you so much for Scott and his wife Jocelyn.

Lord, I thank you that they are a couple who runs to the battle,

that they do not sit in their comfortable lifestyle, but they

say yes to whatever you are saying and they they are willing

to lay down everything to go where you are calling them,

Lord, as you have called them back here.

Lord, I pray just for their hearts as they are grieving

actually living physically in Africa, but Lord, that you would

use them in a mighty and powerful way here in the United

States as they still oversee Africa from afar.

Lord, I thank you for the way that you have used this couple

in our lives just to be mothers and fathers as we have sat

around the table with them different meetings and just

enjoyed their wisdom. When we thank you that you give

wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

When I pray that the wisdom that you have given to him will be

poured up upon us this morning. Jesus, that we will learn and

fall in love with you more because of His words.

Lord, would you fill him up and fill us up and translate

everything that is being spoken to exactly what we we need to

hear this morning? We thank you Lord for your word

that it is active and alive and sharper than A2 edged sword

Lord, that we are going to lean and grow because of this.

In Jesus name, Amen. Amen, Amen.

Well, the rumors are true. It's been spoken far and wide

and for many years that Antioch Orlando does family on mission

better than any other church in the Antioch movement.

I don't say that to puff you up. I say it to encourage you and

actually you do it so well. I'm overwhelmed.

Not a whole lot overwhelms me, but when the Spirit of God is in

a place, I'm undone. So today I am so thankful to be

here. It's actually an honor and a

privilege because the Spirit of God is here and you guys are

setting the standard and setting the bar for family on mission in

such a great way. And so to be here with you today

is a true joy. It's actually such an

interesting thing because little background context is I'm a

Floridian. I would almost say I'm a native,

but that would be a lie. I'm kind of a native.

I was born in Georgia to Floridian parents, my mom from

Jacksonville, my dad from Miami, and when I was about 6 months

old, my parents left Georgia, came back to Florida, and they

moved back to Miami, as my grandfather used to say, because

he's an old Floridian. And if you know old Floridians,

they called it Miami, not Miami. So it's great to be here today.

Obviously, anytime I'm back in the Sunshine State, it's a

homecoming, even if it is a deep freeze Sunday.

The good news for me and maybe for you is that it's so cold in

here that I'm not going to lose you if I start rambling on too

much. You're not going to lose me

because I'm freezing. As John and I've been talking

over the last few weeks, he was sharing with me about the fact

that y'all have been focusing on the word of the Lord that we

have as the Antioch family. I think most of you know that it

might be up on the screen on the next slide.

And the word of the Lord for the next 5 year arc is families of

promise. We've already said Antioch

Orlando does family on mission so well.

So you're sliding in already so greatly.

Obviously the first one, 2026, is strengthen the family to

multiply. It's a beautiful word and I'm so

thankful that you guys are doing that.

And as I look out across the room and I look at the flags of

the nations and I hear about what you're doing to share the

gospel and build God's Kingdom not only here in Florida, but

around the nations of the earth. It's so encouraging to hear

stories about Colombia and every other place that y'all are going

and you've been to Europe and Japan and all these different

places. So a little fun fact though,

about the international application of the word of the

Lord is it's not something just for those of us here in the US.

It's a word for the whole globe because God's made the earth and

it's his his to possess because it's His creation.

So one of my real good friends is Pastor Dennis Acara, and he

lives in Antioch Gulu. He's the son of the movement

who's become a father in the movement.

It was a joy to have Dennis actually at our recent regional

conference for half of the Antioch movement overseas.

John, Nicole, why weren't you at that one?

You were in Thailand, but you didn't come to us next time.

But it was a great time and Dennis was able to join us.

And to have a Ugandan there as a son of our movement who, as I

said, is now a father, was just such a joy.

Now they've taken this word of the Lord and they've owned it in

such a way that earlier in this month, actually today is

February 1st, I think. So let me let me retract that.

In January they had a four day retreat for 45 different leaders

from all over Uganda, South Sudan and the Eastern Democratic

Republic of the Congo. If you look at the next slide,

you'll see this beautiful group and look at that black and white

Antioch A painted right on the building of Antioch Gulu.

It's just so fun and amazing to see that God is about his family

no matter where we are. So today, with that in mind,

John and I had discussed Acts 931.

Great verse. I think all of you know it.

We will read it in just a minute.

But as he and I were talking about it, it really became

apparent to me as as he was sharing what he, what he's been

going through, what the series on spiritual warfare is all

about, that there's some key things there that God wants to

remind us of. There's a lot of this passage,

so let's just start reading it real quickly.

Acts 931 says so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee

and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in

the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

It multiplied. Very apropos for where we are.

A couple of obvious things stand out for for all of us, I'm sure

there was peace. The church was being built up,

they walked in the fear of the Lord, and they were comforted by

and in the Holy Spirit. And because of those things,

they were a setup to multiply. Most of this is pretty

straightforward, but one thing that really piques my interest

is that word and that sense of peace.

Because in actuality, it really wasn't a peaceful time.

It was actually a tumultuous time that they were all going

through when those words were written.

You remember what happened just before this, just after

Pentecost persecution started. It began to culminate when

Stephen in Chapter 7 was stoned, and then in chapter 8 of Acts,

that's when God intervenes and he saves Saul.

Jesus appears to Saul on the Damascus Rd. saves him and

begins a whole new process of intervention and a course

correction which has LED us to the point we are today as the

people of God. So here in Acts 9 God imparts

His peace in the midst of persecution and chaos.

They were the spear tip of the New Testament.

They were leading the way for us, and what they faced was

actually spiritual warfare. So when Luke refers to peace,

he's not just talking about ooey, gooey feeling peace.

He's actually saying in the midst of chaos and trials, God

will give you peace for your souls and he'll give you

protection. And that's what we want to look

at today. This is the kind of peace that

Jesus felt when he was in the boat when The Tempest was raging

and the disciples were freaking out saying save us, save us.

And he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, relax, be calm, have

faith. I'm with you.

See, we're that family of promise, and that's the word

that we want to apprehend for 2026.

We want to live in a state of peace irrespective of the

turmoil that surrounds us. So as I was pondering what all

of this meant, the Lord really clearly led me to a passage in

the book of Joshua that I think provides a template for us to

live as the people of God, particularly in the face of

extreme challenges and in the potential to shrink back or give

up entirely from a crippling fear that we often don't see

when we read this passage. This is the extraordinary story

of the conquest of Canaan, of the promised land that God has

given us. And it shows how that plays out

in the book of Joshua. So let's turn to the book of

Joshua. And by the way, I'm going to

stay a little more tethered to my notes today.

The reason for that is I'm typically more of an all over

the show kind of person and more exhortative than expository.

So I'm really thankful that I've got this because I can use both

of my arms. You can see that I'm, I'm not

bashful about that, but I'm going to kind of tighten my Ted,

Ted talk circle today and stay a little bit closer here because

there's some things that I believe the Lord really wants us

to, to hear. And I don't want to get off

track as I'm prone to do. So let's let's turn to the book

of Joshua. And as we do, I want to set the

stage for where we find ourselves.

Israel's encamped on the eastern Bank of the Jordan River Valley.

They're awaiting God's next move.

So picture this for a minute. There are at least 1,000,000,

1/2, maybe 2 million Israelites that are on the eastern side of

the river, the rivers and spate. It's flooding, as it always does

this time of year. They're waiting on God.

The baton has just been handed to Joshua from Moses.

Moses has recently died. And the challenge that they face

is far more sinister. It's not just about going in and

taking over and colonizing a piece of land.

There is a very real sinister and fear provoking challenge

that lies before them. It's not the same thing that we

learned about in Sunday school, and I'll explain why in just a

moment. But as you'll see, they need

deep wells of bravery, of courage, and of peace.

You see, because God's rescue plan had started long before it

began at Babel, when Yahweh, the Most High God our Father called,

separated himself from the nation, scattered the nations.

And then he calls Abraham to be the heir of his blessing and to

be a blessing to the nations of the earth.

While the nations were scattered, scattered, God's

ultimate plan was actually to bring them all back in the

fullness of time. That plan was later threatened

by the gods of Egypt. It was threatened by 4 centuries

of enslavement. And Abraham's descendants, who

in time came to be known as the Israelites, were ultimately

delivered through the story that we all know through the Red Sea.

But then what began was a period of immediate fear and immediate

disobedience that crept in. And for 40 years, the

consequences of that fear and disobedience was a wandering in

the wastelands of the southern deserts of what we know is the

Promised Land. So now here we find ourselves at

the beginning of the book of Joshua with Israel encamped on

these on these riverbanks. And here's what happens next.

Israel stands on the brink of appropriating the land of

promise, and they need courage and bravery to do it.

The task is literally impossible, as you'll soon see.

Why? Diving deeper in the story, we

see a few themes that permeate this entire saga.

So as we read this passage in just a moment, let these things

stand out for you. There's a promise from God.

There's an inheritance that must be appropriated and possessed.

There's extreme fear that could thwart everything that's meant

to happen. There's a call to complete

obedience in holiness and in action.

And there's a need to consecrate ourselves, consecrate ourselves

to the purposes of God if we're going to be able to walk any of

this stuff out. So let's read Joshua 1 verses

one through 9. After the death of Moses, the

servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun,

Moses's assistant. Moses, my servant is dead.

Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this

people, into the land that I'm giving to them, to the people of

Israel. Every place that the sole of

your foot will tread upon, I've given it to you, just as I

promised to Moses. From the wilderness in this

Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all

the land of the Hittites to the great sea, the Mediterranean

toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your

life. And just as I was with Moses, so

I will be with you. I will not leave you, and I will

not forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for

you shall 'cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to

their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very

courageous, being careful to do all the of the law of Moses, My

servant commanded you. Do not turn to the right or to

the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you

shall meditate it on it day and night, so that you may be

careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will

have good success. Have I not commanded you?

Here it is again. Be strong and courageous, Do not

be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God

is with you wherever you go. And then at the very end of of

the chapter in verse 16, which we don't have up on the screen,

they repeat back to Joshua showing that they get it, they

understand. And they said, echoing what

Joshua said, only be strong and courageous.

It's so important that we take heart into what's happening here

because there's a reason why God is saying that.

It's vitally important. God's reminding the Israelites

of his promise to multiply them and prosper them.

He says they'll be with them. He demands again complete

obedience. And most interestingly, he says

this, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid, only be very

strong and courageous. He says it four times just in

chapter 1. These Hebrew words he says, the

Lord says and are used only seven times in this way

throughout the entire Old Testament.

So why then is God saying this four times in chapter 1 alone?

I would say it means it's important, and God does this

because, as I said, it's vitally needful, because you'll see what

awaits the Israelites in Canaan, and they knew it.

We don't see it at front isn't this version that we're taught

in Sunday school. But the forces of evil that are

aligned against the purposes and plans of God are waiting for

them on the other side of the river.

They're natural forces and they're supernatural forces.

And I promise we will circle back to what I'm saying here,

but I'm just wetting our appetite.

So this is our little intro into what's to come.

Everything will become clear and it has everything to do with

spiritual warfare. Chapter 2 goes on to tell the

story that we all know about the two spies.

They go into Jericho. Jericho is a massive fortified

city that we know from biblical texts as well as other

historical sources was actually a very sinister place with some

very sinister origins. But we know what happens there.

The spies go in, they're protected by by Rahab, and then

when they come out, we move into this pivotal scene in chapter 3

where Israel consecrates themselves.

So let's look at chapter 3 verses one through 10.

I'm going to read this together. Then Joshua rose early in the

morning and they set out from Shateem and they came to the

Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and they lodged there

before they passed over. At the end of three days the

officers went through the camp and commanded the people.

As soon as you see the ark of the Covenant of the Lord your

God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall

set out from there from your place and follow it.

Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000

cubits in length, that's about 3000 feet.

Do not come near it, in order that you may know that the way

that you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.

They need to rely on their father.

Then Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves for

tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among

you. And Joshua said to the priest,

Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.

So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the

people. Then the Lord said to Joshua,

Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that

they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

And As for you command the priests who bear the ark of the

covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the

Jordan, you shall stand in the in the Jordan River.

And Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to

the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, here is how you

shall know what the living God is doing among you, and that he

will without fail drive out from before you.

This is important. The Canaanites, the Hittites,

the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and

the Jebusites. These people represent something

to be feared, which is why God says be strong and courageous.

So let's let's stop here for just a minute.

God says to Israel, consecrate yourselves.

What does that actually mean? When we consecrate ourselves, it

means we're dedicating ourselves to a sacred purpose.

We're setting ourselves apart. We're devoting ourselves to

something sacred, especially devoting ourselves irrevocably

to the worship of God. It's this.

It's essentially A solemn ceremony.

It's a decision that we make. So consecrate yourselves is a

common phrase that's used as a command throughout Scripture.

We see it a lot, which again means it's very important, and

it always comes as a means to prepare ourselves to follow the

Lord in complete obedience or in preparation for Him to do

something that will glorify His name.

Wonders among us. Consecrate yourselves for

tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among

you. So I can promise you at the

moment, the Israelites knew the importance of consecration

because they knew what we don't know.

They knew what they were facing and how impossible the task it

was. And this is where things get

really interesting in this story.

Most of us don't understand what was actually happening here

because there's layers of truth hidden in plain sight.

But what's happened is since the Middle Ages, really since the

5th century, the Word of God in these stories have been

sanitized in demythology so that we miss something of gravity

that's actually taking place. So I'm going to take a big step

out on a limb right now because in many ways this is a very

complex subject and it's not going to be a long tangent, but

it is an important one. And we only have time to scratch

the surface today. So just please bear with me, but

I have to ask. I'm going to trust you to trust

me and to follow the train of thought here because it gets a

little bit weird. So what stood in the way of the

Israelites and in the land of Canaan included very real, very

literal giants. These aren't the so-called

giants in our lives that are so common in self help books or in

watered down sermons. These are the real thing we're

talking about. Real, voracious, devouring,

rapacious, depraved 8 to 15 foot giants who along with their

little G gods have rebelled against our Father.

And they have corrupted the nations that stand before Israel

and therefore threaten God's plan and purpose for His

families of promise. Now, I'm going to assume that we

all know that there was a remnant in Israel of giants

because we know about David and Goliath.

That story is about a giant who is leftover from a remnant of

earlier giants that we find ourselves looking at here in the

book of Joshua. Just to back this up a little

bit, we see in Second Samuel 21 and the First Chronicles 20,

they talk of several more brothers of Goliath actually

that were left after his demise. Then we see in Numbers 13 it

refers to the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, or the Anakim, a giant

himself. And this is when the 12 spies

went in to the land of Canaan, and only Joshua and Caleb were

men of courage and bravery. The rest were so frightened that

they led Israel in rebellion which had consequences because

it resulted in 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the

wilderness. And all of them of their

generation except for Joshua and Caleb died in that wilderness.

Deuteronomy 2 and other passages talk about the Raphaim, another

catch all name, kind of like the Nephilim, which was used for

giants. Then there were the wicked kings

Sihan and Aag of Bashan. They're spoken about in Numbers

21 and in Deuteronomy 3IN detail.

And actually they were so important.

If you look through the Psalms and many of the prophets they're

referred to again, which shows that these were important

figures. These were important stories in

the whole history of Israel that needed to be remembered because

the threat had been so grave. Agav Bhashan, just as an

example. We knew about how big he was

because he had a bed that was 15 feet long and seven feet wide.

But somehow the church and all of her modern pomposity has

conveniently sanitized many of the Old Testament scriptures and

turn this story of Goliath as though it was some kind of lone

occurrence into a nice Sunday school story.

Point made on that. So if I haven't lost you

already, you're probably asking where do these guys come from?

We know from the scriptures that they somehow are connected to

the Nephilim of Genesis chapter 6 pre flood giants whose

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

rebellion and depravity was so grave that God flooded the

entire earth to destroy them. Now this hybrid abomination was

was really the primary reason for the for the for the flood

happening to begin with. But somehow they reappeared

again, which is a mystery after the flood, as we see here in

this particular scenario. I've got my own thoughts and

theories on why this happened, but there's tons of theologizing

and speculation about it. We're not going to get in the

weeds too much today, but be that as it may, there were

giants in the land who are hybridizing with or consorting

with these tribes that are named in the book of Joshua.

The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the

Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites collectively,

along with several other names of giant type tribes that are

mentioned elsewhere. These were all the enemy who

stood in the way of God's redemptive plan.

But the point of this isn't really the giants themselves,

it's the fact that we need to understand this so we understand

how amazing and extraordinary this story is, and that when God

said I'll be with you and be strong and courageous, he meant

it when God gave Israel the law through Moses.

The prohibitions that we find in Leviticus 18 and Deuteronomy 12

are deliberate and purposeful. We see in those particular

chapters that God commands the Israelites not to get into the

things that the land of Canaan is so famous for.

They were defiling the land because of their sexual

immorality, homosexuality, bestiality, incest of all sorts.

They were sacrificing their children to their little G gods

and to their they were, they were, according to historians,

even practicing cannibalism. This is actually all in the

Bible. I'm not making this stuff up, I

promise. We've just often been programmed

not to see it. But for me, when I look at this,

it actually makes our God so much bigger.

He's not just this most high God, this Yahweh that we read

about. He is mighty and powerful and he

is meant to be worshipped. And he and his purposes and his

plans have been threatened by a sinister, rebellious plan that

the that the original rebel, who we call Satan, instigated long

ago. The promised land was crying out

because of this defilement and because of all these atrocities.

And God's goal was to cleanse the land from all of it.

So as horrible as it all sounds, I do see some very eerie

similarities with things that are happening in our earth

today, right now, in this world. In the end, there's really

nothing new under the sun, is there?

It's just been recycled and reanimated, and it's still

things that oppose the living God.

So now we're starting to see why consecration was so important.

We need to set ourselves apart. We need to dedicate ourselves to

the sacred purposes of God, which is why he commands

consecration in Joshua 3. And this is absolutely integral

in spiritual warfare, consecration, which leads us to

another problem, and that's the obedience problem.

Because if we're not fully obedient to God, then we can't

align up. We can't align according to his

purposes. So God continued to warn his

people, be holy as I'm holy. He knew that Israel would be

tempted to drift and a whore after the gods of the nations.

Those are his words. And that's exactly the trap that

Israel would actually fall into from time to time, cyclically

over the ensuing centuries. So I'm going to fly through this

part and read a few scriptures so that we see the importance of

complete obedience because God calls the Israelites to go in

and wipe out all of the rebellious, defiling nations.

But over and over again, they delude themselves into partial

obedience and blatant disobedience.

We've seen the Israelites consecrate, consecrate

themselves, then they cross over the Jordan and they muster the

courage to engage in all of these battles before them.

A lot of it happens in these in these next several chapters.

It it starts at Jericho. We know the story there, so I'm

not going to go into all those details.

But then they go through decades long battles through the land.

Sometimes it just happens so quickly, Chapters 4 and on that

we don't realize how long this actually took.

The sin of Akan takes place at the battle of AI, and in Chapter

7 he disobeys, he keeps some of the spoils, deliberately

disobeying the commands of Joshua and actually from God.

And there was severe consequences to him and his

family. They end up dying a very brutal

death. The Israelites drive out many of

the wicked Canaanite tribes, but not all of them.

So here's a few examples. Joshua 1122.

There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people

of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath and in

Ashdod did some remain. So some did remain, but the

Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah

could not drive out. So the Jebusites dwell in with

the people of Judah at Israel to this day.

Again, disobedience. Joshua 1610.

However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in in

Gizer. So the Canaanites have lived in

the midst of Ephraim, one of the tribes of Israel to this day,

but have been made to do forced labor.

Yet the people of Manasseh, this is in Joshua 1712 through 13.

Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those

cities, but the Canaanites persisted and dwelling in the

land. Now, when the people of Israel

grew strong, they put the Canaanites to force labor, but

did not utterly drive them out. All of these remnants actually

became a snare to the Israelites for centuries, and they suffered

the consequences of it. They were disobedient.

And if we're not careful, our disobedience leads to the same

kind of consequences hundreds of years later.

This is one example. We see what happens with King

Saul. King Saul is commanded by the

Lord to destroy the Amalekites. And you guessed that the

Amalekites were one more of these remnants that lived on the

borders of Israel that were a bloodthirsty people.

Actually, the name Amalek or Amalekites is blood liquors

because they were purported to be in many of the Hebraic extra

biblical texts and historical texts of that time.

They're purported to be cannibalistic.

Again, these are things we don't see on the surface, but they're

actually right there in front of us.

So Saul is disobedient, He deludes himself, He takes the

spoils. He takes King Agag back to the

royal palace and then Samuel the prophet shows up and is

absolutely livid because of Saul's disobedience.

Samuel could see right through this.

So Samuel actually hacks Agag to pieces and you think, how could

Samuel, a man of God, be so brutal?

Well, again, lest I get into the weeds too much, the king of Agag

was an evil, horrible man committing horrible atrocities.

So I think we can give Samuel a pass for that.

But then he prophesized to Saul. Saul, there are consequences for

your sin and disobedience. You have lost your throne and

you have lost your Kingdom forever.

God intercedes, but there are consequences for Saul and

friends. God doesn't play.

When His Holiness and the fate of His people are at stake, He

doesn't play. Stay with me for just a minute.

I promise we're going to land this plane pretty soon.

One last thing we learned both in Acts 931 and in the Joshua

story is that in the midst of all these trials, God wants us

to know His peace even in the midst of this kind of spiritual

war. And this is good news.

Joshua 1123 says this. So Joshua took the whole land

according to all that the Lord has spoken to Moses, and Joshua

gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal

allotments. And here's the important point.

And the land had rest from war. Think back to Acts 931.

They were in the midst of persecution and yet there was

still peace happening in the same way much more to the story

lay before them. If you read the rest of Joshua,

you see, and I, and I hope you do read this when you go home

some point this week, that the whole land wasn't actually fully

subdued until much later. It wasn't conquered yet.

But somehow, as is the way of God, he brings peace in the

midst of the war. He brings breaks in the midst of

the war between the battles, and He offers that peace and

protection as only His Emmanuel presence can give us.

I want to turn to a familiar Psalm again, the Psalm that we

all probably know but has some hidden gems in it.

Psalm 23 says this, Speaking of peace and protection.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me besides still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of

righteousness for His name's sake.

Listen here, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow

of death, I will fear no evil, for you're with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Like so many familiar passages in the Bible, There's a deeper

meaning here. The valley of the shadow of

death is actually a real place. David knew it when he wrote this

Psalm. But somehow, through the sands

of time, we've lost the meaning. The Valley of the Shadow of

Death is the Jordan River Valley north of the Sea of Galilee,

which it pours into. It runs from the snows of Mount

Hermon in the north, through the old land of Bashan, where King

Ogg of Bashan ruled, held sway, and had defiled the land.

In this dark and sinister valley of the shadow of death, even to

this day and certainly in David's time, there are what's

called dolmens. Dolmans are stone tombs.

These were the these were the tombs of the ancient kings that

were evil and had defiled the land in the days before the

Israelites came. This was a place that was feared

in David's time when he wrote this.

You might be familiar with places that conjure up images of

this if you're a fan of JRR Tolkien.

In The Hobbit, it's a bit like Merkwood Forest.

Or in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it would be like the

minds of Moria or the Dead Marshes or Minas Morgul.

Places that were in their minds haunted, where you wouldn't want

to go because the spirits of evil were so pervasive.

So when David writes this Psalm, he's saying even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil

because you're with me. The peace that only the Spirit

of God can give in the midst of the darkness and spiritual war

is that kind of peace that David refers to.

Friends, the fact is that until the trumpet sounds, we are a

people at war. John's going to be unpacking

this more and more. He's going to give you a lot

more practicalities. But I think setting this stage

and setting this foundation and coming to the reality that we

are not a people of of rest. We are a people who are

privileged to have rest. But as CS Lewis says, he frames

it this way. He says enemy occupied

territory. That is what this world is.

Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed,

you might say, landed in disguise, Jesus, and he's

calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

So for us as believers, this campaign of sabotage is fueled

by a few things. It's fueled by love, It's fueled

by faith. It's fueled by obedience.

It's fueled by courage and by continual consecration.

So let's take a moment to consecrate ourselves today.

As I think about this, and I prayed about this, God has given

us this amazing privilege to consecrate ourselves on a

regular basis through taking the Lord's Supper together.

Communion with Jesus our Lord is the time that we take to set

ourselves apart, to say, Lord, we dedicate ourselves to your

service. You've called us to be holy as

your holy. What does that look like for us?

You've set us free from the bondage of sin and death.

You've indwelled us with the Spirit of the Most High God.

You've invited us to be your friends.

You've invited us to be warriors for your Kingdom, so the ushers

are going to be coming up, and we're going to take a moment

today to consecrate ourselves through Holy Communion.

As I've thought about it, and as I said, I was undone by the

presence of God earlier. I didn't really share much of my

story today, but I'll share this right now.

I'm 55 as of a month ago, and for all of my adult life since I

was 18, to the best of my meager ability and through many

failings, I've said yes to God. I said it as a single young man,

I said it as a husband, I said it as a father, and I say it

today as a grandfather. And maybe let's say today I'll

say it to all of us to invite all of us to this consecration

table today as a father in the House of our Antioch family.

So As for me in my house, we get that from Joshua, don't we?

As for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord as John and

Nicole and the rest of your team walk through the practical

aspects of spiritual warfare before we appropriate and

possess the promises that God has given us.

As a people of God here in Oviedo, in Greater Orlando, in

the state of Florida, and throughout the nations of the

earth, we need to be prepared for the battles that lie before

us. There is so much onslaught in

our world today that will cause us, as the Scripture says, very

graphically to poor after other gods.

That's a horrible thing to consider, Hebrews 1039 says.

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but

of those who have faith to preserve our souls.

So as we take the Lord's Supper today, and I think you guys know

how to do it, as I understand it, you'll go to the sides and

then filter down as you go back to your seats and you think

about these things and what it means for you personally to

dedicate yourself to the holiness of God, to get your

hearts right. Meditate on the blood of Jesus

that washes us from our sins, regenerates our spirit, and

grafts us into the family of God, the family of promise.

He's worth it because we're not of those who shrink back.

So, Lord, I just want to pray as this begins and you guys can be

getting up and starting to take communion.

Lord, I pray over us today as the people of God.

We are a family of promise. We are what Israel has become,

the church. We say, Lord, we love you, we

want to worship you. Lord, even though we've delved

into some maybe graphic strange imagery, I pray today, God, that

we see these things in light of the fact that we're not meant to

be fixated on the enemy. No, no, no.

But we need to know who the enemy is so that we know how

great and wonderful and good and powerful and loving you are.

There is a task at hand. That task starts with being, not

with doing so today we want to be in your presence.

We want to be a people consecrated to the purposes of

the most high. So I pray father from for my

friends here, my family here. Whether you're here with your

own family, whether you're here in a life group, get with

someone, hold hands, put your arm around somebody's shoulder,

and consecrate yourselves in a place of not just individualism,

but in corporateness as the family of God.

Jesus, we are so thankful that you are mighty and strong.

We are so thankful to be your people.

There is none like you. Spirit of God, glorify Jesus

right now as we consecrate ourselves in your name.