Joshua 15-19: Compromised -- Camouflaged Disobedience

You know, um I'm kind of mixed in terms of of which direction to go this morning.

Uh we'll cover it all, but I think there's probably a much more linear way.

But the way my mind works is sometimes you just don't get that.

You get the way my mind works.

And uh one thing I love uh about God's word is I I well I one thing I love about teaching God's word is teaching it uh verse by verse, uh chapter by chapter, going book by book through the Bible.

I like doing that because then we get to see things in the proportion in which God laid them out.

Uh there's not a lot of opportunity for a uh um an agenda, although there is some, but we uh we look at particular topics uh within context and within the portionality that God preserved them.

So uh I like that.

I like that about this.

And that being said, we're gonna look at like four chapters today.

Okay, so we're not gonna read every verse.

Uh we're looking at the allotment of land to the twelve tribes, and so it it's it's a lot of geography, it's a lot of cities, it's an area and region of the world that many of us are not familiar with.

Uh, we could look at a map and we could get a lot from it, and I think that it's important that it's preserved within God's Word.

Uh but this morning we're going to instead focus our attention on some of the uh outlying uh areas within each uh chapter and how they uh lay out.

And so we're gonna kind of bounce around just a little bit.

But let me talk a little bit about my history.

And I've talked about this many times, and you guys know I've been involved in the fitness industry for decades.

Okay, I've been involved in that world and in the business world of it, I've been in the competition side of it, I've been um just involved in the social side of it, I've been involved with the fitness space for a very, very long time.

And one thing I've done is I've worn the hat of gym owner.

And so what happens is people sometimes come into the gym and they come in and they have a goal.

You know, most people are they don't come in and say, hey, I'm just looking for friends.

Sometimes it happens, you know, hey, I've been alone.

Uh you know, this happened after COVID a few times.

People say, Hey, I just need to get out of the house, man.

Like, I don't know how to do that.

I'm looking for a healthy environment.

And uh I'm like, have you tried church?

But you know, anyway.

Um so they'll come in and they'll maybe ask for friends.

But for the most part, people come in and they say something like, I just want to be able to walk around the block without feeling like my heart's gonna beat out of my chest.

You know?

Um, I want to be able to go up the stairs or play with my kids or pick up my grandbabies.

They say things like that.

Every now and then you get somebody who says, you know, like, just they're just really honest.

You're like, I look down, I don't like what I see, I'd like to lose a little bit of weight.

Right?

You get you get that?

Um one of my favorite ones, because it's a strength goal, is people say, I just one day I would love to be able to do one pull-up.

I love that one.

You know, because it's not focused on on like an aesthetic.

And if you can do a pull-up, guess what?

The aesthetic starts to improve.

You know, it just that's the reality of how uh it works.

Typically, a performance goal will lead to an aesthetic uh appearance that matches.

Okay?

Um I can give you guys examples of that, but I don't think we need to go there right now.

But what happens a lot of times is I also get people because the the gym world uh is a world where you either feel some confidence or you feel a lot of uh self-consciousness and a lack of confidence.

So um, if you are at the latter, you guys can always come to my gym.

You'll always be welcome.

Our coaches will always do a really good job.

This is not a play for that.

I just don't want you to feel like you're being pushed out of that.

So, but let me just talk about the people who feel confident.

They walk in and they go, hey, I'm thinking about signing up.

Like, okay, cool.

I'm like, you clearly already worked out.

Like, where do you work out at?

And then they tell me some gym.

And uh I say, Great, well, why why switch?

What what's what's the purpose?

And sometimes they'll be really honest and they'll say something like I could tell they're in shape, they can I can they, you know, whatever, game recognized game, whatever.

And uh like, dude, I've never had a six-pack.

Okay?

I'm like, okay, all right, all right.

What do you mean by six pack?

We're not talking about drinking, we're talking about the bricks that that put together your abdominal muscle right here between your rib cage and your hips, okay?

A six-pack.

Now, sometimes you can see visible abs, but like a true one, two, three, four, five, six.

Never had it, okay?

And I'm like, if they're not like 23, uh, I'm like, dude, or girl.

Girl?

It's gonna be hard.

I never said that before.

Um, but you you you I have been in this space for decades.

To have a true six-pack, it takes a lot of work.

It takes a lot of work.

I mean, I know people who you can you can one, two, three, four.

We'll call it four.

We'll call it four, right?

Or somebody has a flat stomach or or whatever, right?

The the the shape and and all that stuff.

And I'm not trying to make this like it's like a really important thing, but this is some people's goal.

A six-pack.

I'm like, just so you know, when you if you want a six-pack, you're gonna get to the point where you can see your abs a little bit, and then you have three to six, nine more months of not having, not walking by your coworker's desk and grabbing a piece of candy, you know, not going to Starbucks and getting a frappuccino or a mocha or even a latte for that for that matter.

You're gonna eat a lot of protein, okay?

You're gonna hit the gym.

You're not gonna be able to get that week where you just go, you know what?

It's kind of feeling a little bit under the weather.

I don't wanna go.

Like you're sick?

No, I just not feeling it, you know.

You don't get any time like that.

Like you have to be so diligent.

So you can go like 80, 85, even 90% of the way, but to get that last 10% for one, two, three, four, five, six.

It takes so much work.

And the price to pay is so high that out of the people who have come to me and said that I want, I've trained thousands of people and said I want a six-pack.

Hundreds of people have said that.

You know, people have actually went from not having a six-pack to having one, two, three, four, five, six, like you could name them all.

Zero.

Zero.

Now, I'm not saying I've never trained somebody who has a six-pack, or there isn't people who do, but what I'm saying is to go from having none to having a six-pack takes so much work.

Why do I talk about that?

I think it'll become clear because what we're gonna see, you guys, is in the book of Joshua, the Israelites were called to eradicate the inhabitants of the land.

And they did a pretty good job.

But what we're gonna see through these next verses is they weren't willing to go all the way.

In fact, they struggled.

They always stopped short, and they paid the price for it.

And you guys, we're not talking about a six-pack, we're not talking about vanity here.

We're talking about the faithfulness that we're supposed to have before our Heavenly Father.

We're talking about our walk with God, our intimacy with the Lord, the victorious Christian life that He promised each of us as believers.

Something that costs and is worth way more than abs.

So let's turn our Bibles to Joshua chapter 15.

Joshua 15 · chapter mention

If you don't have your Bible today, that's okay.

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There's some of them back there.

Thank you.

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Just let us all know.

Um, okay, so chapter chapter 15.

We actually did chapter 15 last week.

Why are we back here?

We're gonna read one verse from 15, the last one.

Joshua 1563.

But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, could not drive out.

So the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

At the time of writing this, Joshua, presumably, the the the Jebusites were still in Jerusalem because they did not finish driving them out.

And so what we see, uh, if we're looking at the totality of the book of Joshua, before we go into more of these sort of outlying verses where we get to see the children of Israel not necessarily doing what they should have been doing, is we see a book where when the people are faithful to the Lord and what he's called them to, they experience victory.

Right?

They go across the Jordan River and into Jericho and they do this ridiculous battle plan, like walk around, be quiet, then do it seven times, and then the walls just fall.

And we get to see victory when we follow God.

But then we see when there's uh sin in the camp, at I, or AI, however you want to say it, that they lose to a to a to a group of people they should have no business losing to.

They don't listen to the Lord.

And here we are as the Lord is beginning to divide out the land and give each tribe their inheritance.

And the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

That's crazy, right?

The city of Jerusalem, it says that the tribe of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites.

So they just dwelled with them.

I mean, God told Joshua a few things.

Very specifically in Joshua 1.9, he says, Have I not commanded you, 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 he told them that I have given this land to you.

Like this land, it's yours.

Okay, so what do we do?

You still have to go in and take it.

So he tells them that I'm with you, and this is your land, go in and take it, and you're to drive out all the inhabitants of the land.

And and he was vicious with what he said.

He was ruthless and total in his judgment of the Canaanites.

Why?

Because of 400 years of rebellion and unrepentance.

So God is doing two things at once.

He's eradicating sin and he's trying to get these guys to walk in obedience.

But instead, the Israelites here, and in this particularly the tribe of Judah, they just decide, you know what?

We can't do it.

We're gonna dwell with them.

Driving them out is is just too difficult.

Drive out the inhabitants of the land, I don't think so.

Not today.

So they're living at peace with this culture, like we said, that's got 400 years of unrepentance, pagan practices, awful things that we outlined in previous studies.

But this is who they're cohabitating with now.

This is who they're allowing to influence them, God's chosen people, right?

They're supposed to be the ones who are carrying forth the Messiah and what's gonna come.

They are God's chosen people, and yet they're now interwoven with the unbelievers, the pagan culture.

Yes, and it was 350 years.

It wasn't until 2 Samuel when David actually went in and ended up driving them out.

350 more years of these guys causing all kinds of problems.

And I there is where I want to pause and just say, I think sometimes we do the same thing.

We make peace with our enemies, we make peace with the sin in our life because we're just not ready to take on the fight.

Like we've already gone far enough.

I could already kind of see my abs.

You know, like they're better than that, guys.

You know, and and and we we just stop short because we don't want to take on the fight and then walk in all that God has for us.

We're so reluctant to go there because we can be whatever.

There's so many, so many reasons why.

And we'll actually see more of these as we start to look at the different tribes that do this very same thing.

But we see here, for whatever reason, Judah, the tribe of Judah, not one man, but the tribe of Judah, the descendants of Judah, going in and not even willing to take over Jerusalem.

Just left and dwelled with and cohabitated with the pagans.

But let's let's move on, let's go into Joshua 16, verse 10.

Joshua 16:10

And I'm not trying to bounce around, we're gonna paint a picture here, and we're looking at the tribe of Ephraim.

Okay, and as he outlines the allotment of land, describes various landmarks and cities, he then says, Joshua here says, however, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gazir.

So the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day, but have been made to do forced labor.

Okay.

Interesting.

So here we see something similar to what we just saw from Judah.

The Canaanites in that territory, not driven out either, and they lived among the people, but they were made to do what?

Forced labor.

Well, the Lord said for me to drive them out, but how about I just bring them into subjection under me?

That's probably close enough, right?

Because we've now limited their influence by being over them.

And I mean, remember our history, we're we're Israelites.

We were just slaves in Egypt.

It's gotta be our turn now.

It's just the way of contextualizing and trying to figure out and justifying not obeying the Lord.

You're going into this new land and you just see and you're like, look at this, there's these ruins and all these pagan temples and these places where they offer children for sacrifice, and we've got to tear these things down.

We might as well just keep these guys around, and then they could do the work for us.

So we we then we're not at war.

We can maybe make a little bit of money because we got these slaves.

They're just practical.

But I mean, is is this what the Lord said?

He didn't say that.

He said to drive them all out.

You know, the uh the compromise, I think, in this particular instance is is subtle but also obvious.

You know, when I read it, I I can read it and go, I can see how they they went there.

I can see how they would say, you know what, did the Lord really say?

But that also sounds very familiar.

Did the Lord really say?

You know, but you kind of get to this place and you're like, it just makes sense.

But at the same time, it's so obviously not.

Especially when you remember and you reflect on um the sin of the camp, Aiken burying the the idols and the trinkets into the ground and how much that really caused problems.

I don't want to compromise at all.

And what's weird too, if you think about it, if you could make a people group slaves or do forced labor, could you not have then just driven them out?

You had all the power, you had all the ability, and yet instead of driving it out, you made peace with it and tried to utilize it for something that you thought was gonna be good.

I'm gonna repackage God's promise and his words, and then I'm gonna use these people and look, we're not going to their temples, we're not doing this or that.

The problem wasn't the Canaanites, it was the Israelites.

That's where the unfaithfulness was.

The Canaanites, they're just acting like Canaanites.

Right?

I mean, so often we want to point to the world like, man, the world's really screwed.

They're just acting like the world.

When we see Christians doing that, then we gotta go, oh man.

I think compromising, the bending of God's word is is to fit what we want.

It's just it's oh, it's part of our sin nature.

If we don't go to war with it, we end up doing the exact same thing.

I mean, uh uh.

You guys hear, I hear these things.

Oh, we love each other.

We just don't have the money to do the wedding that we really want to just yet.

So we found this cool apartment over off 2nd Avenue, you know.

You know, and you're like, okay, I guess.

I guess that's what you want to do with God's word and with his promises.

Dude, you listen to a lot of uh music that's a little sketchy, you know?

I the beat, bro.

I just listen to the beat.

It's just the beat, you know?

I don't really worry about the lyrics so much.

Oh, would you let your three-year-old listen to it?

It's just the beat, right?

Drinking and drugs or whatever, sober as a gopher.

Unless it's Friday.

Or I'm at Vegas on a girl's trip.

I wouldn't be on a girl's trip.

You know what I'm saying, though, right?

Like a girl's trip, a guy's trip, you know, nobody goes to Vegas anymore, Nashville, wherever you go.

Or everybody goes, I don't know where people go.

Whatever.

But we are all honest, though, at least.

We can all look at each other in the face and say, we're honest, unless we do our taxes.

Right?

Well, I mean, I love my wife.

I I I serve her as Christ did the church, and I love her, and I mean, as long as she's being submissive.

Church.

Football.

Church or football.

Well, I went to church last week.

You guys, we have a tendency to compromise in little areas where we've already been promised victory and something better.

We do.

We do.

Not you.

We.

We do.

And it keeps going.

It keeps going.

Look at this, you guys.

This is the tribe of Manasseh in verse, I'm sorry, in chapter 17.

If you want to turn the page again.

If you don't want to turn the page yet and you want to read the geographical areas and the map, go ahead.

My wife couldn't sleep last night.

She should have read that portion.

Um verse 12 of chapter 17 says, Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.

Now, when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.

It's it's peculiar, it's not peculiar.

It actually makes sense to me how with with with Judah it was just sort of they dwelled with them.

And now with with um uh Who was it before?

Uh Ephraim.

Yeah, thank you.

Ephraim.

They they they they dwell and then they make force labor.

And then this one it says that they they they make them force labor and they didn't drive them out.

It's like this sort of progressive compromise just keeps moving.

And so there's this uh this tension that's going on between Manasseh and the Canaanites.

And the Canaanites are just doing what they've done in the other two chapters or three chapters that we just read about.

And what they're doing is they're just not rolling over.

Like, hey, we were here first.

And we're not just gonna leave just because you guys show up.

You guys showing up has nothing to do with what we're gonna do.

We are here, and we raise our families here, and we we did all the crazy wild stuff that we did here.

I've got memories of that tree and this place and those rocks, and this is where we get our food.

It's all we know.

They just didn't want to give in.

Because the strongholds in our lives, they don't just give in.

You just start showing up to church, and all of a sudden you're like, your problem with lust is just like gone.

You know, sure, lust is one of them.

Big one, big one.

The love of self, just like the prioritization of me.

Me being first, me getting what I want, me following my dreams, me following my career path, me getting this or getting that, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Is such a huge problem with Americans.

With people, with Aiken, with Pastor Ben.

Money.

Money.

You know what's not gonna give in easy?

The love of money.

In our culture, it ain't gonna give in easy.

The love of money is a funny one, because you know, I can do all of them, right?

But it's just the love of money walks around talking about stewardship and frugality as though they're spiritual disciplines that they've mastered.

So you're just kind of like, oh yeah.

But in reality, sometimes it just people are just consumed with money.

With money.

It's like their security and safe place.

What is our security and safe place?

It's Christ, yes.

Jesus is our rest.

Jesus is our safety, not money.

Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at the rich young ruler for just a second.

Luke 18, 18 through 29, the rich ruler.

It's recorded in three different gospels, but we'll read it out of Luke.

Verse 18 says, And a ruler asked him, speaking of Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.

And he said, All these I have kept from my youth.

It's a stand-up human being, right here.

Think of the stand-up human beings in your life.

Maybe we ourselves, by these standards, are stand-up human beings.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, One thing you still lack.

Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me.

Pretty straightforward.

Not very complicated.

I use a lot of words to say very little.

Jesus used a little bit of words to say a lot.

He said everything that just cut this man to the heart.

And it says, but when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Stand-up guy.

Loved his money.

Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Those who heard it said, then who can be saved?

We've read these things, guys, but do we allow them at times to read us?

What a great story.

I better pass this on to my kids.

What about us?

Where has compromise just filtered in, snuck in, broke in, and we just make peace with it?

Those who heard said, then who can be saved?

But he said, What is impossible with man is possible with God.

And Peter said, See, we have left our homes and followed you.

And he said to them, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God.

He says, I'm not trying to beat you up if you love money.

I just pick that one.

But you know who the Lord wants?

To follow him.

Those who would rather be poor and with him, not those who are rich and lawful and well thought of and frugal, but monetarily motivated.

That's not what God wants.

I'm also not trying to beat you up if you're like, hey, I've been working hard to become a good steward.

Awesome, praise God.

I want to be frugal.

I don't want to live for the things of this world.

Awesome, praise God.

But you know if your peace is tied to your bank account.

Pastor, are you saying I should just sell everything?

You know?

I'm just saying.

I'm just saying what I'm saying.

I'm just saying what the what the word is saying.

I'm telling you to give it all away if you love it more than Jesus.

You love your job more than Jesus?

Leave your job.

I'm not even qualifying that statement.

If you can't figure out how to give it back to the Lord and say, Lord, this passion of mine, I don't know how to do it.

I love it more than you.

It's keeping me from walking in intimacy with you.

That would be radical.

But there's there's other ways to deal with it.

There is.

I don't really have a great one.

I don't know if you're gonna die tomorrow.

So I'd rather you just went to the extreme.

If you're worried about money and you're not sure what you should do, I don't know, give until it hurts.

Be generous.

You don't have to give your thousands or your millions to me.

I'm not here.

I'm not saying that.

Give it to those who don't have.

Because I'm already rich.

I already have everything I need.

You know, I do.

I don't want you guys to sell a million dollars and be like, hey, Pastor Ben, I felt led to give you a million bucks.

Why?

Give it to somebody who, when you give to them, they can't give you anything in return.

Right?

Give it to the poor.

Give it to the least of these.

So that when you give it, you don't get something else.

Praises of men.

That's right, that's your reward.

The Canaanites persisted in dwelling in the land, you guys.

Our sinful behavior, the lust, yes, the love of money, anger, pride, idolatry.

None of it's going down without a fight.

None of it.

It will plant its feet, it will cement its feet, and it will stand there and it will box with you.

And then just when you think you have it beat beaten, somebody or something or will happen to just drive you right back to it.

And you're gonna have to go, God, I gotta surrender this to you now.

Again.

It's actually easier to preach like this than to live like this.

I'm being honest.

I'm just a living example of that.

It is hard.

It is so hard, church.

My sin, the enemy, my natural flesh is hoping that I will give up and give in before I actually surrender it all to the Lord.

And I'll just, you know what?

I'm just gonna make peace with it.

I'm just gonna let it kind of exist in this dark corner of my heart or my life.

That's what it's hoping for.

In verse 14, it says, Then the people of Joshua spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me.

So so Joshua is lining up this allotment for uh for Manasseh, and now they're complaining that they don't get enough land.

They don't get enough of an inheritance.

What a spoiled answer.

What a spoiled answer.

They didn't even drive out the Canaanites in the first place in the land they've been given, and now they're like, we don't have enough.

And the only reason they have it is because God's been faithful, despite their unfaithfulness.

And they're upset, our inheritance is too small.

They probably looked at Judah's land.

Look at Judah, Judah's got all this space.

Why do we get just this?

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Rather than looking at what has God given me?

Again, we do that too.

Me, I'm always looking at people who are like six foot.

People look at me and they go, you know, you're at least 5'10.

I'm not 5'10.

I'm 5'9.5, man.

And I feel guilty every time I say 5'9.5.

Because I want to just run up to 5'10.

You know, I mean, like it's very easy to compare.

Somebody says, at least you're not 5'7.

There's a pulpit joke, anyway.

We were talking about that earlier.

Anyway.

You know, it's just like it's it's it's real easy to start to compare yourself and then lose the joy of what God has already given you.

The ministry he has for you.

You have a beautiful place in God's tapestry of trying to reach the people in this world.

Wonderful place.

If you walk in it.

But if you start going, like, I want his ministry or her ministry, I want to live there.

I played all those games.

I still play those games.

Lord, help us.

Really easy, just to compare.

You know?

All the singers up here, sounding all good and looking all good.

Wish I could do that.

You know, those people have so much patience.

They're over there with the babies.

I don't have patience for like my own babies.

John's teaching people how to share the love of Jesus with people.

I want that.

You know what I mean?

It's like it's so easy just to go like meh, meh, meh, meh, meh.

This is what Manasseh's doing.

Compare this to Caleb.

Remember last week, Caleb's like, hey, God promised me this, give me this.

He goes in, he destroys the people who are there, and then he just gets right back on mission, trying to help the rest of the Israelites eradicate the Canaanites.

The dude is like, on mission.

Verse 15, Joshua says to them, If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest and clear the ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites.

And the Rephraim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.

The people of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us.

Okay, all right.

Trying to give you something.

Yet all the Canaites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Bethshean and its villages, and those in the valley of Jerzeel.

Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a numerous people, and have great power.

You do not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to the farthest borders, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.

So Joseph, I'm sorry, Joseph, Joshua concedes to greater ground, but with that comes what?

Work.

More warfare.

Right?

That's what it comes with.

So that which they were left with in the land they've already been given, sure, you can have more, but guess what you now have?

You have more warfare.

You have more fighting.

You want to increase the boundary of your ministry?

Guess what?

It doesn't get easier.

It gets harder.

There's more to be done.

More faith is required, not less.

You don't get that, and then all of a sudden you're you're like, oh, oh, sweet.

He gave us the forest.

Done.

You don't get to do that.

But the Israelites were compromising, you guys are left and right or north and south, whatever.

Dwelling with, conceding to the Canaanites, not listening to the Lord.

Oh, we'll make them servants.

God said, get rid of them.

They constantly just preferred the easier route.

I want to just encourage you guys.

I mentioned his height as a joke, but the spiritual stature of Pastor Dan, he talked about comfort a lot.

And how it can kill you.

You guys, we cannot become comfortable with sin.

We cannot become comfortable with compromise.

Oh, we just want the more peaceful route.

We just, they just allowed a lack of faith to exist, a lack of zeal for the Lord to exist, a love for the world to lead to this compromise.

And it just more challenges in the future.

That's all that comes.

My wife and I were talking, we had to hear a story about a family.

I was just like, oh.

I was talking to another pastor about it, and I'm just, you know what that reminds me?

It reminds me that I should do things God's way.

Because when I do, I have less issues.

And I'm a better witness for the Lord.

I didn't do everything right, but I'm reminded at times to see it that way.

Because compromise is really, when we make compromises, when we allow sin to exist in our life and not have war with it, when we camouflage the love of money with stewardship and frugality, compromise is really just camouflaged disobedience.

That's what it is.

It's camouflaged disobedience.

And you know who it camouflage?

The Lord sees it.

We actually are camouflaging it from ourselves.

And maybe trying to fool the people closest to us.

But if we're really being honest, that's what it is.

It's disobedience.

It's not doing all that God has called us to.

But there is actually another way.

There is another way.

Let's look at Joshua chapter 19, verse 40 through 48.

Joshua 19:40–48

The inheritance for Pastor Dan.

I mean Dan.

Verse 40.

The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the people of Dan, according to their clans.

And the territory of its inheritance, including Zora, a few other places, and a few more places, and some territory over against Joppa, verse 47.

And when the territory of the people of Dan was lost to them, the people of Dan went up and fought against Leshem.

And after capturing it and striking it with the sword, they took possession of it and settled in it, calling Leshem Dan, after the name of Dan, their ancestor.

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Dan, according to their clans, these cities with their villages.

So aside from the allotment that was given to Joshua himself, this is the final allotment described.

And I think it's there because I believe Joshua, the Lord wants us this morning to see a good example of how to deal with these inhabitants and deal with his promises before we leave this promise of script, this portion of scripture.

See, the tribe of Dan, they had to go up after their land was lost for a moment when it says the people of Dan went up and fought against Lesham, and after capturing it and striking with the edge of the sword, they took possession of it and settled in it.

See, they didn't dwell, they didn't lose the land and then just decide, hey, you know what we're gonna do?

We'll just dwell with these really aggressive warrior pagans that God has already given us victory over, and all we have to do is actually just drive them out.

We're gonna make peace with them.

They didn't just dwell with the people of the land.

They didn't say, you know what, well, let's just put them all in chains.

We'll shackle them all together and we'll make them do work for us.

They didn't do that either.

They didn't avoid the fight.

Guys, they didn't they didn't just say, you know what?

It's war is too much.

The cost is too great.

Compromise like that would have just left them in the same spot as the other tribes.

So I'm gonna ask you this.

Do you want to walk with the Lord?

Do you want to see uh the giants and strongholds, the sin in your life, fall?

It's gonna take everything that we have.

We have to go to the Lord over and over and over again.

Dan fought for victory and captured it.

They just followed through.

That's all they did.

They followed through on what God had called them to.

So, uh, so then, Pastor, what do we do?

I don't have a sword right now.

Are we just walking around with swords ending people?

Nope.

Nope, not at all.

Actually, quite the opposite.

In the New Testament, we have the same God that we see here, same God, now speaking through Christ.

The fulfillment of the law and the prophets and all these uh uh uh moments that foreshadowed his coming.

And he says in Matthew chapter 10, 34 through 39, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

I've not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Oh, wait a second, I thought you said no swords.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against his mother, or her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother in law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves the father, or loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life.

Will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

You see that last portion there in verse 38 whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Who is killed when we pick up our cross?

We are.

We are called to die to self and to sin.

Matthew 5, how do we deal with this?

Because I'm still thinking that maybe I should be dealing with uh with uh Pastor Mark's sin right here in front of me.

That's way easier than dealing with my own sin.

Nope.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it is better for you to lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell.

Guys, this is not literal.

If it was, could you imagine?

Most of us wouldn't get through today.

Some of us might last until, not me, till like Wednesday.

And then we'd all show up here.

You know?

But what we're supposed to be aggressive against is the sin and the compromise that exists within us.

And guess what?

I could have no eyes and no hands, and I would still sin because of my heart.

This is what I need to bring before the Lord.

This is why I pick up my cross and I die daily, like Paul said.

We wage war on sin in our own life.

You know, I think a lot of us we would say, and we know because we've put our faith in Christ that we are in the promised land.

We we love God, we have a relationship with God.

Yet there's all these giants in the land that we have just left there.

And we experience some fruit because of God's faithfulness, because he is good, despite our unbelief and despite our unrighteousness, and despite all those things that still exist within us, because we're not on the other side of eternity yet.

But I'm just asking you guys, where is God calling you to stop compromising?

Where is he revealing to us?

Where are we like the rich young ruler?

And we're just gonna, when God says, give this up, we just go and we walk away sad.

The love for the world can just creep in.

It's weird.

It's a weird way that just kind of sneaks in.

And if you're not constantly looking for it, you don't realize it.

And then it just finds this, it's like a warm spot by the fireplace, and just like it feels like it can just stay there.

And then for five years you've dealt with the same anger issue, or for 50 years you've dealt with the same pride issue.

And I think that we need to remember just the power of what Christ did on the cross.

What he did, what he gave up on the cross.

John 3, 16 through 20.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

You guys, Christ paid far too great of a price, too great of a sacrifice for us to dishonor it with compromise.

And Paul reminds us that Christ has set us free.

Free.

So stand firm.

And then 2 Timothy, he says, I have fought the good fight.

His final letter, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.

He's not saying I've killed a lot of people.

He's saying I've kept the faith.

Henceforth there is laid for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.

And not only to me, but also all those who've loved disappearing.

Let's pray.

Lord, this morning, as we just try to maybe allow you, Holy Spirit, to search our hearts for the areas of compromise.

Lord, we also reflect on the goodness and the greatness of the cross.

We want you to be magnified in our efforts to follow you more, to walk after you.

There's just no way for us just to try harder in our own strength.

So, Holy Spirit, help us fully surrender.

Fully and totally surrender to you, God.

The love of the things of this world, the spiritual laziness, the deceptions of the enemy, Lord.

I pray against all these things in our life.

Would your power help us to overcome, Lord?

Help us to see, Lord, how we can better surrender to you.

Lord, where we would not compromise any longer, God.

Lord, you have a plan for us.

And Lord, we may not physically ever get abs.

Lord, but spiritually, God, would you help us be in the best shape we can be?

Father, would you help us surrender those same old areas that pull us down?

Help us not fall for the new traps for this next season of life.

Help us just follow you, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You guys, um, if you've not submitted yet to Christ, and you and I both know, um, believer, how the Holy Spirit is convicting and convincing us and the unbeliever all the time of the reality of who God is.

I just want to tell you, if you have not surrendered, and you end up playing church, um, it gets easier and easier to ignore the Lord when you just keep saying no.

And it gets harder and harder to surrender to him on the other side of that.

Like I said, Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord.

And eventually, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.

So today, if you guys are in here and you're just like, I know I've just been hardening my heart in some area or another, don't do that with the Lord anymore.

Ask him just to take away whatever it is that we've been holding on to, the sin, the compromise, the lifestyle, the love, the passion for lust, money, anger, self, the praise of men, the accolades, the attaboys, the attack girls that motivate some of us just so much.

Let's just surrender it all to him.