The Illusion of Laish | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen. Praise the Lord, each one of you

tonight. Amen.

Glad to be in the House of the Lord tonight.

Glad to see all your smiling faces.

Amen. I say that by faith, if you're

not smiling, Hallelujah, that you will be before you leave.

Amen. We greet our guest tonight.

Welcome, Amen to the First Apostolic Church.

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In the world that we live in, I get all these apps and some of

them are subscriptions and they always tell me they'll give me a

7 day free trial. So if you're a guest tonight,

I'm giving you a seven week trial.

Try us out for seven weeks. And here's the thing, at the end

of the seven weeks, we still won't charge you if you're still

coming. I'm just telling you, we won't

charge you one thing. Amen.

We're glad to have you tonight in the House of the Lord.

Hey, man, you want to be turned into the book of Judges in the

Old Testament and also going to be turned into the book of

Matthew in the New Testament. So both Testaments here tonight.

Hallelujah. Judges chapter #18 My reading is

a little longer than than I was going to say the normal.

I guess we can still say that. Judges chapter #18 verse #7 The

Bible says Then the five men departed and came to Leish, saw

the people that were there in how they dwelt careless after

the mandor of the Zidonians, quiet and secure, and there was

no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in

anything. And they were far from the

Zidonians, and had no business with any man.

And they came unto their brethren, to Zoar, to Eshtol,

And their brethren said unto them, What say ye?

And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them.

For we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good, and are

are yet still be not slothful to go, and to enter in to possess

the land. When you go, you shall come into

a people secure into a large land, for God have given it into

your hands a place where there is no want of anything that is

in the earth. Let's skip down to verse 27.

They took the things which Micah had made the priest which he

had, and came unto Leish to a people that were at were at

quiet and secure, and they smoked them with the edge of the

sword, and burnt the city with fire.

There was no deliverer, because it was far from Zeidan.

They had no business with any man and it was in the valley

that lieth by Beth Rehob and they built a city and dewelt

therein. They called the name of the city

Dan after the name of Dan, their father who was born into Israel.

I'll be at the name of the city was Leish at the first.

So this is a story of really the Dane Dan Knights going to get

the city of Leish. I just want to make a little

marker here. This is not a city that was

given to them as their inheritance.

They are going after this city instead of their inheritance.

Matthew chapter #7 I want to read a couple verses of

scripture probably familiar to a lot of people.

The Bible says in Matthew 7 these are the words of Jesus.

Verse 13 Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the

gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.

Many there be which go in there at because straight as the gate

and narrows the way which leadeth them to life, and few

there be that find it This go all tied together when it's all

said and done. And sometimes I feel very

burdened whenever I choose a book of the Bible, like Judges

to preach from because I know that maybe the familiarity isn't

like the fish and the coin. All right, Something you were

taught in Sunday school. So I'm going to take the work

over here, OK? And I'm going to try to the best

of my ability. But the essence of everything is

this, that Dan, the tribe of Dan, was choosing the broad over

the straight whenever they sought to choose out Leish.

So a little while tonight, I want to administer this, the

illusion of Leish. It's not always what it seems to

be, folks. It's not always what it seems to

be. Help me pray right now, Father.

I love you, God. I thank you, Lord Jesus, we need

you, Lord, in this place, God, to the ministry of your word,

God, these are the words of life, God.

They're applicable, Lord, to each one of us, God.

They're not archaic, Lord, and ode and not relevant.

They are relevant even for today.

I pray, O Lord, you have to minister, Lord, through your

word. Touch each and every individual,

every hearer, Lord, that is here.

Touch my mind and my lips, God, to be able to make this plain in

the ears, Lord of those that would hear God, and I thank you

and I praise you for it in the lovely name of Jesus Christ that

I pray Hallelujah, Hallelujah in the church, say Amen.

You may be seated tonight in Jesus name.

The story of Judges chapter #18 is really a story about the law

of attraction. What I mean when I say that is

it's really about a place called Leish that draws in a people,

namely the Danites, who share in its principles or the lack

thereof. It explains how the very

features that made it appealing to others also made it

vulnerable to take over and to further decline.

One begins to wonder why, and I I did when I read this, because

Dan is supposed to be a tribe of Israel, a tribe of the children

of the living God. Begin to wonder why an Israelite

tribe would want to fully possess and enjoy the land God

had planned for them. Why wouldn't they want the land

that God was given them? Why?

Why would they send spies out? They sent 5 spies out to seek

out and spy this land of lace. Why would they send out spies to

seek an alternative place or an alternative land?

If God provided them with an inheritance, then wouldn't they

want the inheritance that God was providing them?

Why would they look elsewhere when God was giving something to

them? Could there be anything better

than God's gift to them? Is the questions that go through

my mind. And whenever they refuse that

gift and that inheritance of God, that land, were they

refusing God in that do do do such actions then in their life

mark some type of disharmony that they had with God?

Of course, the book of Judges is is a a bizarre book.

It records the history of Israel during the time when they were

with disharmony with God. Some chapters focus on just the

whole nation of Israel, but then there's other chapters that

focus on individual tribes like the one in Judges chapter 18.

Judges 18 · chapter mention

The day nights are living. These are the ones that's one in

lace. They are living in a very

volatile time in Israel. The Bible says that every man

did that which was right in his own eyes.

He didn't have anybody telling him what to do, directing him,

or guiding him what to do or how to do.

He did what he thought was best. And to add insult to injury, the

chapter 18 starts out telling us, as other places and Judges

does, that there was no king in Israel in those days that the

tribe of Dan had been given a portion of land in the South in

the book of Joshua. It was a land, an inheritance

that God had given to them. They, they, they, they didn't

have to exchange any money for it or anything like that.

It was given to them on a platter.

But the Bible describes in the book of Joshua that the Danites

basically said that the land inheritance that was given to

them was too straight for them. We're not talking about the

difference between crooked and straight.

We're talking about too narrow. It was too narrow for them, too

restrictive, because the Bible says the Amorites was in the

land and the Amorites had forced them into the hills and we're

not allowing them to come down to the valley.

And all of this is quite ironic for them to say that it was too

straight for them and there was too much difficulty with

fighting with the enemies in the land.

Because Dan is not the smallest of tribes in in terms of numbers

out of all the tribes of Israel, but in terms of strength and in

terms of ability and in terms of spiritual faithfulness, they

often acted like one of the weakest tribes for that matter.

We read in Scripture that man that we know Samson, the

strongest man in the Bible. He was of the tribe of Dan.

And yet here this tribe showcases no fortitude.

No, if you will junction to go forth and claim the and that God

was giving them rather than having any type of fight in

their spirit against the powerful animites.

The Bible tells us that they sought to stretch their border.

They sought something a little wider the Bible.

I'll read it in your hearing. Joshua 19 and verse 47 and the

coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them,

meaning it was too straight. Therefore the children of Dan

went up to fight against Lashim. Lashim is the exact.

It's a different name, but it's the same city that they took

Lash. They are the same.

Lashim and Lash are the same. And took it and smote it with

the edge of the sword, and possessed it and dwelt therein

and called Lashim, which is Lash Dan, after the name of Dan their

father. Another version of the Bible,

easier read as they call it version of the Bible says it

like this. But the people of Dan had

trouble taking their land. They were there were strong

enemies there, and the people of Dan could not easily defeat

them. So the people of Dan went

elsewhere, Bible says, and Judges, just bear with me to lay

a little foreground here, Judges 1 and verse 34 And the Amorites

forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not

suffer them to come down to the valley.

So Dan's problem at this time was the issue that a lot of

tribes was up against during taking their inheritance that

God had given them. God had given it to them.

But these tribes still had some opponents and inhabitants that

needed to be driven out of the land and conquered.

There's still some previous inhabitants that needed to be

pushed out of the land that were there competing for the land.

And so there were many of the tribes that drove out the

inhabitants. There were many tribes that

said, God gave me this land, it's going to be mine.

You have no part in this land anymore, take your exit and so

on, so forth. But there were others that did

not. That's the reason why we read in

the book of Judges phrases like this over and over again.

The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, neither

did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Besheen.

They did not utterly drive them out.

Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites, or Zebulon drive

out the inhabitants, or Asher drive out the inhabitants of a

Co, for they did not drive them out, neither did Neptalite.

It's another tribe did not drive out the inhabitants of

Beshemesh. What are you saying tonight?

The day nights, the Bible says were unable to conquer the

inhabitants in their assigned land.

Or if I can take it more like this, they didn't take the

initiative to do it. They didn't take the initiative

to do it. What Dan was looking for was a

land that was unguarded, an abundant land, a easy land, a

land that he could go in with turnkey and just inherit the

land without a fight, without a struggle, without any

opposition. Just a land that he could have,

didn't have to worry about war, didn't have to worry about

expectations, didn't have to worry about anything.

Just go in the land and take it. And as a result of that, since

things were hard, he looked for a softer target, a easier way.

He failed to trust God for his victory.

Ladies and gentlemen, what I'm saying tonight is this.

I will not deny, even as Jesus said in the New Testament

Scripture, that the gate sometimes is straight and the

way is narrow. But here's the thing that I've

come to understand in my Christian experience and that is

this. Sometimes it becomes more

straight and more narrow when I try to harbor things in my life

that I should long time have dismissed Because all of those

extra unnecessary things, you know what they do?

They occupy space and claim things in my land that should be

mine alone to enjoy someone say Amen.

The Bible says because of that which was in the land that

should have been disbanded from the land, that now here is the

tribe of Dan just living in a certain sector of the land

because what they should have put out of the land is living in

the other sector of their land. So not only did they get

something that was narrow and straight to begin with, but it's

even more narrow and more straight because they've not

driven out the adversary of the land.

Sometimes it felt a little bit more restrictive than it should

have because they're trying to fit more in a narrow space than

what should actually be there. And so Dan takes the position.

I'm not willing to fight for it. I'm not willing to go to battle

for it. No, I'm just going to find a

land that's more broad, that has more space, that's an easier

path that doesn't present a struggle or a challenge.

Hey, man, you know, there's something amazing.

We were just talking this morning about the, the, the

necessity of baptism. And you know, everyone of the

Day of Pentecost was admonished to repent and be baptized in the

name of the Lord Jesus Christ and received the gift of the

Holy Ghost. And the Bible declares

emphatically that that was for everyone, that the promise of

the Father was for them. We even have the recorded words

of Peter's message. Amen to the people concerning

this. However, the Bible also tells us

in that same chapter that there were also many other words that

we don't have record of. There were many other things

that we don't have written in the book of Acts chapter #2 but

we do understand their intent for the multitude.

The Bible says in Acts 2 and verse #40 and with many other

words did he Peter testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves

from this untoward generation. I am here telling us today that

yes, salvation is of the Lord and salvation is for everyone,

and salvation is my entrance into the straight date and into

the narrow West. But there are some things and

some inhabitants and some other words that even Peter shared

whose intent of the instructions was this.

We got to be aware that there are some things that we got to

save ourselves from. There are.

There are some battles that even after you come to know the Lord

that you still need to fight. There are some temptations

you're still going to have to ignore.

There are someone say, man, there are some areas of this

promise space that we still need to contend for.

Did not Jude right in his day and say, I was going to write to

you about the common salvation? But rather than write to you

about that, I need to pivot and tell you to earnestly contend

for the faith because there's ungodliness and ungodly people

that's creeping in and you got to fight what you saying to we

can't allow ourselves to be driven or forced off the land

that God has given us. But Dan, rather than fighting,

he conceded and during this time with the judges.

This is Leish situated at the northernmost part of Israel.

It's setting at the headwaters of the Jordan River and the

foothills of the Mount of Hermon is lace at the headwaters of the

Jordan. It has all this fertile ground.

It's good for agriculture. It's good if you will, for

settlement. It it is known for its green

fields and it's fertile soil. It has abundance of waters, the

headwaters of Jordan, the dew that would come down from from

Herman and the says that I read to you in verse 7 that the

people dwelt careless after the manner of the Zeidodians, quiet

and secure. Now careless doesn't mean the

way that we would interpret it reckless or or or or or sloppy.

Amen. But it's more of a old English

definition that they they were careless in the way they lived

without care. They didn't have a worry in the

world. They were unsuspecting and they

patterned themselves after the Zeidonians.

That was their heritage and they were people that were quiet and

secure. They were people of wealth and

prosperity. They were people that had

fertile lands. They lived a sophisticated city

life of culture. They experienced everything

there was to experience, and they didn't have any walls.

As a matter of fact, the contemporary English version of

the Bible even tells us concerning lace that this town

had no walls. We get this from other places of

Scripture and Ezekiel 38 and verse 11.

The Bible says, And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of

the unwalled villages. I will go to them that are at

rest, that dwell safely, all of them which dwelling without

walls, having neither bars nor gates.

In other words, Ezekiel was saying those that say that they

are secure and dwelling, if you will in safety and at rest are

those that have no walls. But in the near East like

Jericho and AI, usually cities had defenses, fortified walls

but not not Leish. They don't have any walls.

Can I, can I put it in terms like this?

Lace don't have any walls. It has no city boundaries

because they're not worrying. No, that they have an unwary

confidence. They don't have any walls.

They don't have any gates because cities that had walls

and gates, they're going to be, they're going to be vigilant,

right? They're going to have people on

the walls called Watchmen looking for danger.

And there's people going to be guarding the gates and, and

there's all these things. They'll have weapons ready for

attack, but not Leish. The Bible says concerning this

city of Leish that they were far from the Zidonians and they had

no business with any man. Leish lived in isolation.

They're far from Cydonian, a place that could have had wars.

But they didn't have to worry because they were far from that.

There's no alarms ringing at Leish, no wars to fight at

Leish, no defenses to man at Leish.

They were far from any trouble, and so they felt safe from any

trouble. They didn't need any walls, the

Bible says. The spy says the land was very

good. Verse 10 tells us it lacked

nothing. Now that why wouldn't Dan want a

place like that? Fertile, rich, no worries, no

competition, no struggle, no challenge.

I mean, anyone would want to visit that and live there.

Lush streams, lush, lush harvest, every available perk in

the world. Anything that the world could

offer would be found at Lace. Amen.

No accountability, no war, no worries, no restrictive

guidelines. No one is responsible for

anybody else. Live and let live.

Lace looks like the ideal life, but Luke's can be deceptive.

Everything is not as it seems at Leish.

It's about doing OK. Then I'd sent out five spies.

They came to Leish and found everything they were looking

for. See, they're in the compromise

spot themselves because their way was too straight.

But when they come to Leish, they find a city without

boundaries. Bible says a city without a

magistrate. There's no governance that Leish

and a city that's isolated from friend or foe.

They're only responsible for themselves.

But the very things Brother Fred that attracted the Dan Knights,

these undisciplined people that attracted them, are the very

things that made Leish the most vulnerable as well.

All of those those supposed perks that the denied saw were

also the vulnerabilities of Lace because Lace is wide open.

Lace is without limits and boundaries.

And I'm sure think about it, that gives a pretty good feeling

of freedom when you have no boundaries, no limits, Great

feeling of freedom that you have for sure.

That feels better than the pressure of an adversary in the

land of your inheritance when there's some places you can't go

to and you're cramped all up in your promise allotment.

Hey, man, you're not being regulated to some mountain at

this moment. You're not being kept from a

valley at this moment. I'm sure lay still carefree, but

it was really care less because they had a false sense of

security at lace. Can I tell you tonight straight

or narrow, straight or broad. Some gravitate toward a boundary

less life. Don't give me a life with

boundaries. Don't give me a life with, with,

with limits or guidance. Don't, don't just give me the

life that that keeps every appetite I have unchecked.

It's alright. Every appetite that I have

unchecked that just allow me some compromise.

Allow me some areas that are Gray.

Allow me spots where moral lines can be blurred.

No, no, it's not freedom. It may feel like freedom, but

it's not freedom. It's vulnerability.

Because only with boundaries and limits and things of like that,

do you have protection, Do you have safety, real safety?

Do you have safeguards? And then we want the rivers or

We love the Wabash River. But if you take that river and

you remove the limits of its banks, you remove the boundary

of its banks. Here's a river that will bring

life and water to various areas. Hey, man.

But if you remove its banks, you'll flood the same land

that's supposed to help. We all like the warmth of a fire

in a fireplace or a hearth. But if you remove the limits and

the boundaries of the earth and the fireplace, that same fire

can consume. Yes, we need walls and yes, we

need borders and limits. There's protection found in

that. So there's no king at that time

in Israel. And evidently that lack of

governance trickled on down into this framework of society here

because the Bible says they had in verse 7 no magistrate.

There was no governor. The people were self governing.

Again, everybody was doing what was right in their eyes.

They had no magistrate. Look what the Scripture says in

verse 7. They had no magistrate in the

land that might put them to shame in anything.

You know what that means? They can get away with anything.

There's nothing there that's going to check them or make them

feel bad or improper. There's no ruler in the land, so

there's no one to restrain them, or might we say correct them.

There's no one to govern or enforce laws, and that sounds

appealing. Choose your speed.

Stop at the sign if you want to or not go through it on yellow.

All of that sounds very appealing until you're like, for

instance, a Old Testament character by the name of Saul

that the Bible records Sister Cox on the night before a battle

where he would be battling on the mount, the Bible says,

called Gilboa. He's afraid, Scripture says, and

his heart is greatly trembling. Scripture says, and the Bible

says that he sought the Lord but got no answer, not even by

dreams, not by prophets, not by the ordinary ways that they

would get it. And he begins to remember, and

we remember things about Saul, how the only altar that Saul

ever built, he never finished. Oh, he never.

And we began to read how in all the days of Saul, they never

inquired of God at the ark of the Covenant, but now on the

brink of a battle. Here is a man that is afraid and

trembling, and now he's willing to break his own law.

He had said there should be no, no soothsayers and no witches

and people, familiar spirits in the Lamb.

But now he's willing to break that own law and go visit a

witch. The Bible says of endure because

he wants to conjure up a spirit of an old prophet, an old judge,

an old magistrate, if you will, called Samuel.

And at that moment you know what Saul was wanting in his life.

He was. He's wanting somebody to tell

him what to do. He's wanting somebody to tell

him what to do. I'm afraid I'm unsure.

I don't know what folks. It's not wise not to have a

magistrate. We need direction.

We need guidance. Saul was in a place.

I wish I had somebody that would give, but it's too late.

Hey man, Samuel told him from the depths of a grave.

Amen. That tomorrow you're going to

die. The day that you needed a

magistrate wasn't the day before the battle.

You needed one when you did all these other things you should

have been doing. You needed somebody that had a

voice. Sound trade them without it

unless you need it. Hey man, he needed governance.

We need governance. We need the law, we need all

these things. The Bible says in Galatians that

the law is our schoolmaster. Which brings us to Christ.

The law tells us, you know what, you're not right, you're not

living up to the standard, you're missing out.

You're you're, you're not where you need to be.

But the law couldn't fix that. But it points us to Christ, the

one who can. We need something that shows our

errors, that can point us to the one who can correct our errors.

We need a magistrate governance. Thirdly, Laish.

It was far from Zeidan. It's not not doesn't it a part

of the Confederation or strong ties with Zeidan.

Whereas it might have been nice not to be answerable to anybody

or answerable for anybody. That left Leish in a isolated

state. But the Bible also tells us

there in verses 27 and 28. What that meant was this.

It also left them without a deliverer.

They're without a deliverer because they might have some

loose attachments to Zidonian. These are people that's along

the Mediterranean coast over in the the Middle East.

That lace is far from that. Lace is about 50 to 60 miles

from that, and there's a lot of hills and mountains and valleys

between them and it. You know what that meant?

That even if they wanted to send a messenger for help, or if the

Zeidonians want to send the army to aid them, it would take to a

week to several days before a messenger could ever ask for

help and then for a army to ever make it back to lay.

So in essence, they were left without a deliverer due to their

isolation. They were too far away from

Zidon to call for help. And they didn't make it easy for

Zidon to aid them because where they were positionally, they had

no deliverer. They were too far from their

greatest ally. They had no deliverer.

Can I put it in terms that sometimes we make prayer distant

and our walks with God distant, Amen.

And our commitments distant. But, folks, if that's the case,

if you're living far, all that means is you're going to be left

in alert when you need them at hand To God's people and to

those who have made him Amen #1A priority in their life.

He said That God, David said God is a refuge and a strength, a

very present help in trouble. These day nights, says Leish, is

very good. But Brother Fred, that's a mixed

up mind. Danites looking at a land and

giving a very human evaluation. These people are drawn to that

place because these people are like that place there.

Bible says in verse #10 that it was a large land people secure a

place where there is not any want of anything that is in the

earth. Here's what I know.

When I get comfortable and feel like life supplies everything I

need, you know what that causes my humanity to do?

Stop depending on God. I would say that more people

lose out with God when everything is peachy.

The job's right, the house is great, the vehicles are there.

No illness in the body Because why do would I need God?

I got everything I need. Then I says that's the type of

place we want. That's the type of place we

want. For all the attractiveness of

lace, that lack of accountability of their actions

just really left them wide open for attack.

And that's what happened. The Scripture even admonishes us

as Christians in 1st Corinthians 10 and 12 that whenever,

wherefore, let him that thinketh he stand, Take heed lest he

fall. It's the church in Latosia that

said, you know what? We don't need anything.

We don't need anything. But the Bible says they were

blinded to the reality of the fact that they were miserable,

they were poor, that they did need something.

Whenever the dandites take over, and they did, the Bible says

they slayed the people with the edge of the sword and they burnt

the city. Ladies and gentlemen, all of

this happened just in one day. And they no sooner did that, but

the Bible says they're setting up a graven image in Leish,

Amen. They have a larger land now.

It's not as straight, not as strict, not as narrow.

They don't have any accountability, any rules, no

magistrate. They have a larger land, Amen.

And now no boundaries, no magistrate, no deliverer.

They're setting up an idol God, the Bible says in Judges 1830,

and the children of and set up the graven image.

So now they're practicing idolatry.

Let me state it like this. When you lack boundaries and a

magistrate governs and you are far from a deliverer, you open

yourself up. That's right.

Yes, Sir, the things you would thought you would never open

yourself up to the possibility of an idol.

Idolatry which is absolutely opposing the God at lace.

That's what no boundaries, no magistrate and no deliverer

brings you. It starts there, but it don't

end there. Who might not hear me right now.

I've had people set across from me and you know what they were

towing around with? Give me the boundary list area.

Give me a more broad area. I'm telling you from experience

from the past, just almost 15 years of being here.

I've sat there in the room and they have, if you will, touched

around with having no magistrate.

I don't need any governance. I don't need any guidance saying

all these different things. That's where it starts, but

that's never where it stops. Those type of things will open

you up as it did late for someone to come in, set up an

item. They'll do things they never

thought they would have done. But when you live your life with

no governance, no boundaries, far from your deliverer, you

open your yourself up to the inevitable.

No, no, no, no. Look here.

I'm getting there, folks. I'm sorry, I'm getting there.

But the Bible says Elisha will become the city of Dan.

It's there in the Scripture text that we read to you in verse 29.

You'll become the city of Dan. Dan took it.

He renames it after himself, the tribe.

You'll become one of the cities. It's in your Bibles.

This Elisha will become one of the cities that King Jeroboam

will place later, a golden calf. It's in your Bibles first Kings

1 Kings 12:28

12 verse 28, Whereupon the king, this is king Jeroboam of Israel,

took counsel and made two calves of gold and said to them, It is

too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Behold, by Gods little GODSO Israel, which brought me up out

of the land of Egypt. See, that's what they said when

they made the golden calf at the full of the mount too.

And he set the one in Bethel and the other put he in.

That's large land, that's no boundary land, that's no

magistrate land, that's without a delivery land.

That's where our idols already setting said he set the other up

and down, and this thing became a sin for the people went to

worship before the one, even unto Dan, Jeroboam was

presenting to the people. It's too much to put in these

terms. It's too inconvenient for you to

travel all the way to Jerusalem to worship.

He's talking Dan's language because it was too convenient,

inconvenient for them to fight for their inheritance too.

So let me make it convenient for you.

We wouldn't want to be the sweat to come on your brow.

It's too much work, too much sacrifice for all of that.

So the Dan mentality rears its head.

Too much work. Oh, yeah.

It was too hard to fight against any adversary.

My inheritance it it was too straight.

And so he sets up a golden calf right there.

Again. This is the same type of image

that Moses found at the base of the mountain after he got the 10

commandments. Let's pause here for a moment.

Just take this in 10 commandments.

Thou shall not have no other gods before me.

Thou shall not make into the any graven image.

Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not kill.

That's huh, Right? Thou shall not murder all the

commandments. What's it sound like to you?

Boundaries, A magistrate, even Bishop.

There's a delivery laced in that.

Because before the commandments ever start in Exodus 20, which

many Jews believe, this is the first commandment that the Lord

says, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of

the land of Egypt and out of the House of bondage.

What is that deliverance? He follows up the with the

boundaries and the government's after reminding them that he was

their deliverer. And So what began as a people

then? No boundaries, no magistrate, no

deliver. Even now in the city of Leish,

it invites idolatrous practices looking for easier in a route

divided this end and ultimately it disintegrated into a nation

without any covenant faithfulness as recording the

Book of Kings. And it all started with Dan

saying that place is too straight for us.

Too little too straight. Amorite's not suffering us to

come to the valley. It's interesting Lace was in the

valley and the Bible says this I'm headed toward folks judges

and I know I covered a lot of ground Judges 18 verse 28 and

Judges 18:28

there was no deliver because it was far from Zeidong.

Speaking of Lesh and they had no business with any man any Lesh

was in the valley that lieth by Beth Rehab and they built a city

and do what they're in and they will call it Dan Bob tells verse

29, which at first was Lesh. Here's what I'm getting at Beth

rehab that they camped beside that lieth here next to lation.

This valley Beth rehab means this House of the Broad Street

or the Broad Place. Rehab itself means Broad Place,

open, square wide. St.

Dan left the straight for the broad.

Please note that in the New Testament, when Jesus is talking

about the two ways, He's really not giving anybody an option.

That's right, because he starts out saying emphatically enter in

the straight gate. Dan's left the straight for the

broad. Listen to Pastor night, because

by the time we reach the Book of Revelation Chapter 7, and

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

there's the ceiling of the 144,000 to 12,000 from each

tribe, there's a tribe there. Ephraim now, or Manasseh rather.

Do you know who you don't find? You don't find Dan.

You don't find Dan being sealed among the others.

I want the broad Give me no boundaries, give me no

governance, give me a far distance from any deliverer,

turns into adultery, turns into a golden calf that Moses dealt

with with the 10 Commandments. It turns into a lack of a seal

in the Book of Revelation of saying he's mine.

You stand with me tonight. Layish burned in a day.

In a day. But the idolatry of Dan lasted

for centuries. So the illusion of Lacia's, this

is not what it appears to be. Yeah, it's not what it appears

to be. I know we get things in our head

sometime. Only if and we put in all the

little things if, you know, we need the boundaries, we need the

governance, we need, we need a deliverer.

I've said on this night, I don't want to end on the unhappy note,

right? Everybody's sad and depressed

and leave here and have to go eat a gallon of ice cream.

Just get over it. The story of elation, Dan, it's

not just a warning. But tonight I believe it's an

invitation. Dan abandoned the land of God

because he thought it was and felt it was too straight, too

too restrictive. Reach for the Broadway, the easy

inheritance, so to speak. Again, it led to centuries of

idolatry. But the positive twist on this

for us is this tonight we are not bound to repeat Dan's story.

We're not bound to repeat Dan's story.

Jesus has called us in the New Testament to the straight gate,

to the narrow way, not because we're the Fred.

He wants to rob you of all the joy that you even have coursing

through your body. No, but because he wants to

protect you. He wants to guide you.

He wants to deliver you into an everlasting inheritance.

The broad looks attractive. Anything a person would want in

the world, but the end thereof is death and destruction.

Jesus says straight looks restrictive.

Straight looks small, but it opens up to a clearing of

everlasting life. They Knights wanted a land they

didn't have to fight for. I got good news for you.

God has a promise that he's willing to fight alongside you

for. So what are you saying tonight,

pastor? I'm saying stay within the

boundaries, stay within the limits.

Honor the deliverer who helps govern your life, and always

keep close to the refuge. Never, never be far from the

refuge. Can we bow our heads tonight?

I'm urging us do not settle for the illusion of Laish when the

promise of God is before you, because eternity is on the line.

Ladies and gentlemen, the seal of God's ownership upon our

lives is upon the line. Ladies and gentlemen, He is the

straight gate. He is the narrow way.

And I'm telling you tonight, He is worth every battle, every

sacrifice, every step that I must take.

It's rewarding in Him. This altar is open tonight for

anyone that may be at a place in the road that they are in deep

contemplation between the straight and between the wide,

between the narrow and between the prod.

I wish you would hear the admonition of the Lord tonight.

He's telling you the option is this.

Enter in the straight date, enter in the straight gate.

And if it feels like it's too straight, maybe there's some

things that you need to dismiss from your life that's taken up

space in the inheritance that he's asked for you.

Maybe there's some things that set up camp in your life that

doesn't need to try to coexist with you.

You need to give them their eviction notice in your life.

Perhaps tonight he's pulling for you.

Yeah. There's safety in the Lord

tonight. There's safety in the Lord

tonight. He is my deliverer.

He is my governor. He sets the limits of my life.

But I find a freedom in the limits that he said.

Don't you understand that? Adam and Eva, had they only

grown comfortable with the limits?

He said. He says you have the whole

garden and you can eat of every tree in the garden except that

of knowledge of good and evil. And if you allow yourself, the

enemy of your soul will have you concentrate on the one tree you

can't partake of, and overlook all the other trees you can't

partake of.