Kill That Which Kills You

If you have your Bibles or if you

have your Bible app, I want you

to turn to the book of Numbers

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

chapter 25 for us to consider

this afternoon.

Numbers chapter 25, if you don't

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

have a physical Bible or if you

don't have a Bible, I want you

to turn to the book of Numbers

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

chapter 25.

We're going to be reading a

little bit today and I'm going

to ask for you to bear with me.

We'll be jumping a little bit on

some verses.

So we'll begin with verse one.

Now Israel remained in Necasia

Grove and the people began to

pray.

The people laid down their

hands on the cross, the people

lay and bow down to their gods.

So Israel was joined by all of

pure and the anger of the Lord

was aroused against Israel.

The Lord said to Moses take all

the leaders of the people and

hang the offenders before the

Lord out in the sun that the

Lord had made.

And indeed one of the children

of Israel came and presented to

his brethren a Midianite woman

in the sight of Moses and in

the sight of all the

congregation of the children of

Israel who were weeping at the

door of the tabernacle of

meeting.

And when Phineas the son of

Eleazar, the son of Aaron the

priest saw it, he rose from

the tent and he took the

woman in his hand and he went

after the man of Israel.

Can somebody say Javelin in his

hand?

And he went after the man of

Israel into the tent and thrust

both of them through the man of

Israel and the woman through her

body.

So the plague was stopped among

the children of Israel.

And the name of the Midianite

woman was Zimri the son of

Saulu, a leader of a father's

house among the Semianites.

And the name of the Midianite

woman who was killed was caused

by the daughter of Zer.

He was head of the people of a

father's house in Midian.

I've entitled this stop kill

program to you.

I pray that you raise up your

hands and bow your heads and

let's go before the Lord in

prayer.

Father, we thank you for your

presence.

We thank you for your precious

spirit that's in this place

right now.

I pray, Father, that you would

anoint my lips of clay to speak

your word with all boldness and

with all authority and I pray

for every person that's sitting

here today.

I pray that you raise up your

precious name.

I pray against any spirit of

distraction.

I pray against any spirit that

wants to contend with your

spirit, Jesus, that wants to

rise up against you in the

precious name of Jesus.

Would you clap your hands?

I pray that you raise up your

hands and bow your heads and

let's go before the Lord in

prayer.

I pray that you raise up your

precious name.

I pray that you raise up your

precious name.

I pray that you keep your

precious name and let our

souls steel for the power of

their disbelief and do not

want to get into the promised

land.

It's a meeting the Israelites

shocked me.

They were one of the few people

in history that got to see the

hand of God move as a witness.

They were able to see the mighty

about these people being delivered by their God.

What a sight to see.

And despite everything that they have seen,

we get to this city in Acacia Grove.

And we find that this is the last city.

This is a very important city because it's in this city

that would be the last city where the Israelites would camp

before they would finally cross over to Jericho.

They would cross over the Jordan to conquer Jericho.

If you look at a map, you will see that Jericho is to the west,

then it's the Jordan River,

and then you have Acacia Grove to the east.

And now they were in there last year

before the conquest of the land.

And in this story, it's a very unfortunate story

because we find the Israelites,

while remaining in Acacia Grove,

were committing harlotry with the woman of Moab.

The word of the Lord went forth as we just read,

and Moses and his obedience instructed every one of the leaders

to kill the men who were joined

and hang them up under the sun, visible to everybody,

visible to the Israelites

who possibly were contemplating in their hearts

or contemplating in their minds to join this feast,

to give in to the temptation of all these feasts

that were happening.

And I can only think in the minds of the Israelites

being so close to the end of their 40-year judgment,

being so close to be able to enter in

into the land that God has promised them,

how powerless the Israelites who were weeping

at the door of the tabernacle must have felt.

One brother goes to the feast and eats of the sacrifices,

and maybe a cousin or maybe a father

or maybe a brother goes and falls into temptation

and commits harlotry with the woman of Moab.

And one begins to wonder,

how is it possible that the children of Israel,

hearing and seeing the miracles

that God performed in their former life,

hearing the story of their God judging Egypt

with the 10 plagues and parting the Red Sea open,

how is it possible knowing that they were one day

going to cross over into the Jordan,

why would they now just compromise?

Why would they now just let their guard down?

And it possibly, this is just a theory,

Israel may have possibly let their guard down

because the Moabites were family.

They were descendants of Lot, which was Abraham's nephew.

And I mean, we begin to let our guard down

when we come into the face of temptation, right?

Imagine how the Israelites must have felt.

They're just family, right?

We probably shouldn't be too harsh.

We probably shouldn't be rude guests

because they're after all, they're our just family.

We shouldn't, we're not even in the promised land.

And so I begin to wonder,

why would they let their guard down?

And so we find in the scripture,

a man named Zimri as a leader in his tribe.

And just like a leader in his tribe,

he heard the commandment from Moses.

And like Zimri, we all have a responsibility,

whether or not to obey the word of God, church.

We all have a responsibility.

Whether it's the choices completely up to us.

Every day that was we read the scriptures

or every day that we hear the preacher preach

the word of God, we all have a choice to obey or not to obey.

It's not something that's going to be automatic

like a robot or like on autopilot.

We have a choice, a decision to make every day,

whether to, if I'm going to obey the word of God,

or am I not going to obey the word of God?

Whether you're working at a job

and you must deal with that naggy coworker.

We have a choice whether to sink to their level or not.

It may be a temptation, a gossip about someone

we don't particularly like or not.

The choice is completely up to us as believers,

whether we will take heed to the word of God,

which leads me to my first point,

to take care of your obedience to God.

To take care of your obedience to God.

And so something unfortunate happens.

The Bible doesn't necessarily tell us what happened

when Zimri on his way to bring the offenders,

but the only thing we know was that Zimri

presented to his brethren a Midianite woman.

Zimri fell into temptation

and you were on your way obeying the word of God, Zimri.

You were on your way to do what God has said

through his servant Moses.

So what happened?

And so the Bible declares that he presented

to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses

and in the sight of all the congregation of the children

of Israel.

Partial obedience church is not merely enough.

Partial obedience is not going to cut it.

We must obey the word of God in its totality.

Zimri in direct violation of the word of God

brought back a Midianite woman from the Moabites.

Not only did he violate the direct word of God,

but he brought her in the sight of Moses,

where Moses could see and I can only begin to think

what Moses must have,

what must have run through Moses' mind

because he's like, probably here we go again.

I'm gonna have to now intercede for these people.

I'm gonna have to intercede for all the,

for this plague is coming around and it's killing the people

and I'm gonna have to intercede

so that God would spare the Israelites.

And amid the plague that was going around,

this was a very bold move.

Zimri really had the nerves to stand before the congregation

without shame and present this illegitimate relationship

before the congregation.

If we're not careful with taking care of our obedience

of obeying the word of God in our totality,

we too church can fall into temptation.

We can come to this house with our sin

and never bring it before God.

We can be good at hiding it.

Somebody said we can be Oscar actors,

win Oscar awards because we're so good at acting.

We can be so good at hiding our sins

and what's worse, we can hide it,

but then there's also some people that may know about it,

but there's still be no conviction of the sin.

And so here's a warning.

The moment sin stops bringing shame,

when we come into the presence of God,

immediately that should ring the spiritual alarms

in our spirit because it is a cause to worry.

It can be a habit we picked up as we were walking

and doing the will of God in our daily lives.

Maybe we were trying to teach our kids to pray

and read the word and we end up idolizing TV shows

that are demonic or pervert the mind of the viewer.

Maybe it's a commitment to the Lord,

God, I will read more of your word this week.

Amen.

God, I will pray more.

But then when we look at it, we get our screen report.

At the end of the week, we find that we spent 10 hours

on our screens, on our phones.

So we pass hours and maybe it's living

with the sin of pornography and still living with that,

regardless of people knowing or not.

It's all a choice or maybe it's an issue of pride.

Maybe we want to prove a point to someone else

that we know and we end up compromising the truth

and partaking a sinful act.

And so we must take care of our obedience

to fulfill the word of God when this word goes forth, church.

John chapter 14 verse 24 said,

John 14:24

Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

It doesn't say, Jesus doesn't say,

if you love me, partially obey.

It doesn't say, listen to me 75% of the time,

it's keep my commandments.

So we all have a choice.

So Zimri presents a Midianite woman

and goes into his tent thinking he was going to get away.

However, when we see this man named Phineas

enter the picture, verse seven,

now when Phineas saw it, he rose from among the congregation

and took a javelin in his hand.

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent

and thrust both of them through.

So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.

And those who died in the plague were 24,000.

Phineas was among those in the congregation

who were weeping.

The Israelites had one more year

before they were able to see God's promise

come through and enter into the land

that God has promised them.

The Bible declares that the congregation was weeping.

The congregation was weeping.

And we can only begin to imagine

how much they had in their hearts.

The Israelites saw the plague

consuming the children of Israel.

This probably in the mind of the Israelite

brought back many memories of how God dealt with them

in the past when they murmured.

They probably remembered about the rebellions,

the murmurings of the past or the judgment of God over them.

And so they must have prayed,

God, don't let us wander in this desert

for the sins of the men who are committing harlots

with the Moabites.

God, don't judge me for the sin of my brother.

I don't know if this has been a prayer of somebody,

maybe somebody has been interceding,

but this is what happened in the Israelite camp.

And so this leads me to my next point.

Your zeal for God prompts you to deal with your sin.

Phineas has turned back my wrath

from the children of Israel

because he was zealous with my zeal among them

so that I did not consume the children of Israel

in my zeal.

And it was here at the tabernacle where we found Phineas

and it was here at this prayer meeting

where among his brethren which were weeping

that Phineas arises and takes action

by grabbing the javelin and goes to kill Zimri and Chosbi.

And immediately the plague stops.

Immediately people stop dying,

but not before 24,000 Israelites dying.

We must learn from this posture of Phineas

because church, it's in the prayer room

and it's in the reading of the word of God

where the zeal for God is built.

It's where it's developed.

There's something very important here

that the word zeal here references that of a jealous spouse

like the arduous jealousy of that for a spouse.

So because Israel was joined to Baal of Puyur,

Israel adopted Israel, put them as their God.

And Phineas was not going to let this slide.

Like the 24,000 dead Israelites

when we bring these sins to our lives,

can I tell you that things are going to begin to die?

The reverence for God begins to die.

Our prayer life begins to die.

Our zeal for the Lord begins to die.

The reading of the word and the fervency behind it

begins to die.

The spiritual conversations begin to die.

Reverence for the King of Kings begins to die.

And all these things begins to die.

And maybe you noticed and maybe you haven't,

but there comes a point in our life as a Christian

where we say that enough is enough.

I've neglected the word of God for too long.

I've been disobedient for far too long.

I've entertained that ungodly relationships

or friendships for far too long.

I've been having those ungodly conversations

for far too long.

I've been dealing with this depression for too long.

I've been dealing with this addiction for too long.

I'm done having things die around me that matter to me

all because this sin has entered my mind

and I haven't brought it out and I have not killed it.

It doesn't matter if I'm the busiest person on the planet.

I have to make time to seek the face of God.

We must get to a point where we say enough is enough

and we must grab the javelin and kill Shemri and Cosby

that are dwelling in our tent church.

The name Phineas means mouth of brass.

Brass was a metal.

More than that, it was a symbol of insensibility

of sin and strength and Phineas was jealous

for the obedience of God.

There's power in the things that we name church.

There's power in the things that we name.

Phineas was jealous for the obedience of God.

At some point you get tired and the effects of sin

and seeing things just die around you.

I don't know if somebody's been there

where you start to see these things just die around you.

And it has to get to a point where you say no more

because this zeal can only be found in the presence of God.

This zeal can only be birthed in the presence of God

and when God wanted to expose the sin

for the rest of the Israelites to see

the offenders on the sun, we may think church,

we may think that we are exempt.

We may think that we are exempt

and this doesn't apply to me.

That this doesn't apply to me

and I can say that I'm the most important person in the room

but church we are not exempt.

We're not exempt.

This is going to require for us to do the hard things

and I can only begin to think how Phineas must have felt

when he thrusted that javelin

and looking into the eyes of Zemri,

a brother who he thought he was going to be able

to cross over the Jordan and conquer the land of Jericho.

I can only begin to think like, why brother,

why did you give it?

Why did you not heed to the word of God?

Why did you not, why did you let your guard down Zemri?

Why did you let your guard down?

Why did we let our guard down church?

Maybe it's a question that we must ask ourselves.

Why do we let our guard down

for the things that may seem friendly

or the things that may seem familiar?

Some things must die in order for us to cross over

into the next level.

And it's very interesting because the Midianite woman

named Cosby, the name Cosby means my falsehood.

It means my lie.

In the zeal of God, we cannot let our lies

live in the face of God.

We have to come with full obedience and with full honesty

before the presence of Jesus church.

We must deal with them and get that same spirit

that Thineos had.

Jesus said in John chapter four, verse 24,

for God is a spirit and those who worship him

must worship him in spirit and in,

worship him in spirit and in truth.

Which leads me to my last point.

Your zeal for God causes you to drive out your temptations.

Your zeal for God begins,

causes you to drive out your temptations.

I'm gonna invite the piano player to come up

as we're getting ready to conclude.

Man, time flies fast.

When Zemri was killed by Thineos,

there's no doubt that this took a lot of courage.

This is not something church that's easy

to kill something within ourselves.

It's not easy.

It takes a lot of humbling.

Thineos and his zeal, the Bible declares,

behold, I will give to him my covenant of peace

and it shall be to him and his descendants after him

a covenant of an everlasting priesthood

because he was zealous for his God

and made atonement for the children of his people.

He was zealous for his God and made atonement

for the children of Israel.

I'm gonna tell you something, church.

Thineos was never guaranteed this

prior to killing Zemri and Cosby.

He was never guaranteed it.

He was never told that he would receive a covenant

of everlasting priesthood.

He was never told that God was going to bless him.

He never received that word.

What Thineos did was purely out of his zeal

and for the love of God.

These things that you're dealing with,

they're going to be the most private battles.

They're not going to be something that we could,

that's going to be public and for all of us to see,

to deal with, to kill Zemri and Cosby

because when Thineos did it, he did it in their tent.

So some of these things are going to be

the most private battles that we have.

Killing Zemri and Cosby is not going to be easy.

It's going to cost us something

and it's our love for God, church.

It's our love for the things of God.

It's our love for his word, church,

that's going to prompt us to say this will die.

This will die.

I'm not going to let this live.

This bad habit must die.

My quick timberness must die.

My bitterness must die.

My love for money must die.

My slothfulness must die.

These things must die.

Clap your hands, church.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying,

harass the Midianites and attack them.

Listen, for they harassed you with their schemes

by which they seduced you in the matter of Pior

and in the matter of Cosby.

Harass the Midianites.

What?

Why would God instruct us to do something like that?

Right?

Isn't our God, isn't our God love?

I'm going to tell you something, church,

that our God is a jealous God

and our God is an all-consuming fire.

And just as he is jealous for his sin,

jealous for his people,

God is jealous for his church.

So when God tells Moses to harass the Midianites,

it's because they caused them, listen,

it's because they caused them to fall

and to sin against the king of kings

in the matter of Baal of Pior.

It is never the intention of God for us

to let the things that cause us to stumble to live.

It is not the intention of God for us to,

for the things that causes us to stumble into temptation

or to fall into temptation for those things to live

in our lives.

They have no business being there in our lives, church.

My brother and my sister, we are called,

but it is the plan of God for us to drive out those things

that causes us to fall into temptation.

We have labored far too long,

especially if we have been a Christian faith

and the Christian faith,

we've been a Christian for most of our lives.

We have labored far too long and made it this far

into this life, into this timetable

for allow these sins to be in the camp.

And we are called to bring out

and drive out those Midianites in our lives

that causes us to stumble.

We're called to drive out and to harass the Midianites

that causes us to severe the relationships

that we have with God.

I don't know if somebody believes that with me.

There's some things that we're gonna have to kill.

There's some things that we're gonna have to let go of.

Yes, it's gonna hurt, but we must kill him

because God instructed Moses to harass the Midianites.

That's the attitude that God had.

These things can't be, Moses.

These things can't, these people can't dwell here.

These people that were offending,

that were committing harlotry with the woman of Moab,

these men can't be here.

And so it comes a point where, you know,

where we have to get to a point where it says,

again, I'm done letting these things kill the things

that should matter to me the most.

I'm done letting sin kill my time with my family.

Amen, church.

I'm done letting sin rob me of my peace.

Amen, church.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm done letting sin hold me back

from fulfilling God's purpose in my life.

And look, it may look like deleting Instagram, if we must.

It may look like we may have to delete Snapchat.

It may look like we have to probably

cut that business relationship.

It may look like we have to say no to TV.

It may look attractive.

I'm gonna tell you something.

The worship of Baal of Pur looked attractive

to the Israelites.

It wasn't something that looked ugly.

It wasn't something, it was something that was mechanical.

It was something that looked beautiful.

The worship of Baal of Pur,

that was something that looked appealing to the eyes.

It looked appealing.

And just like those things looked appealing,

I'm gonna tell you that the kingdom of darkness,

the kingdom of Satan is not going to present sin

as unappealing.

He's going to present things as appealing to the eye.

He's going to present things that are gonna look like,

oh man, I wanna do that.

Has anybody been there?

I wanna do that.

I wanna say that.

I wanna hear that.

I wanna watch that.

It's not gonna look ugly.

It's gonna look attractive.

Harass and kill the Midianites, Moses.

Don't let them in your house.

Make the hard decision.

We must grab the spirit that Phineas had and kill Zimri

and Cosby in the tents.

Make the hard decision.

Break that relationship if it causes you

to compromise your salvation.

If it causes you to compromise your relationship with God.

Mark chapter nine, verse 47 says this, Jesus says this,

and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.

For it is better for you to enter

into the kingdom of God with one eye

rather than having two eyes and be cast into hell fire.

Man, don't you just love that the scriptures

just make it plain?

It's going to cost something.

It's going to cost something, church.

It is better to enter into the kingdom of heaven

maned with one arm missing

than to have both arms and to be cast into hell fire.

I'm going to invite you to stand

as we begin to conclude this message.

Just like Phineas who did not know what was gonna happen,

how many of you want the blessing of God over your life?

How many of you want the approval?

Imagine to be told that this man named Phineas had my zeal

to be able to kill Zimri and Cosby

because he made an atonement for the children of Israel.

And that day 24,000 people died and more could have died.

Too many things, church, has already died.

Too many things have already died probably in the past.

We gotta expose the lie, we gotta expose Cosby.

Don't live with the hidden or a blatant sin.

We are called to be holy because God is holy

and nobody is exempt from this call.

Nobody is exempt from this call.

Listen, you may be at your point of receiving your miracle.

You may be at the point of receiving your breakthrough

just like the Israelites had one more year

to cross over into Jericho.

You may be at the point of crossing over your Jordan River

to conquer the land, but there's sin lingering around.

This is the sin that introduced itself into your heart.

It's called Zimri and Cosby

and it takes the Phineas to kill him.

It takes the Phineas to drive him out.

God will deal with those who cause you to stumble.

You wanna know what happened to Phineas?

In six chapters later in the book of Numbers,

we find that Moses sends Phineas with the army

to smite the Midianites for what they did.

And we also find that Balaam, that prophet

that was hired to curse Israel,

that he couldn't curse Israel, he had to bless Israel.

But we find out six chapters later

that he counseled Balaam, he counseled Balak, excuse me.

He counseled Balak to seduce the Israelites,

to seduce the Israelites into the worship of Baal of Peor.

And so we gotta be careful because the saying,

the kingdom of Satan is not holding back, church.

It's not holding back, church.

It's not holding back.

They're not gonna hold back.

So why should we let our guard down?

Why should we have a passive spirit?

Why should we have a passive spirit?

Those things that cause you to fall into sin,

kill those things, do what you must,

do what you have to, take the extreme measures

to kill those things that are causing you

to cut your relationship with God.