WEBVTT 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:13.919 Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:19.359 You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:21.199 Thank you for listening. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.559 Thank you, choir and congregation, for a beautiful time of worship. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:28.640 Turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 9. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:31.199 We're going to continue moving forward. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:41.119 Last week we talked about the Battle of Ai, and we were grateful for Pastor Matt preached and unpacked that passage of scripture for us. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:45.359 And this is a great run right here in the book of Joshua. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:58.079 As we've talked about, the book of Joshua is an Old Testament history of how the nation of Israel stepped into the land of Canaan, the promised land that God had given them, how they became as a nation God's people. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:05.200 We've also talked about how it is an Old Testament picture of our New Testament walk with Christ. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:20.640 And it is a picture from the Old Testament as they go through those struggles of becoming God's people and being established as a people who coherently and together followed him. 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:35.200 It is a picture for us in the New Testament of how we walk with Jesus, how we experience the inheritance that is ours in the Christian life, which includes what Jesus described as the abundant life in Christ. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:40.159 Jesus said in John 10, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.159 So what should the Christian life be for us? 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:44.000 It should be that abundant life. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:48.159 It is the birthright that we have that Jesus bought for us on the cross. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:02:01.040 But it is something that we grow into, that we learn, that we mature and go through the process of becoming a person in the transformation into the image of Jesus. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:08.560 As we know, what happens when we get saved is I'm over here, I'm a sinner, I confess my sin, and I trust Jesus as my Savior. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:10.159 I surrender my life to him. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:18.639 But in that moment, when I got saved, I still think and act and behave a whole lot more like lost Greg than I do like the person of Jesus. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:27.280 And so when you give your life to Christ and you're saved, you begin this journey towards the person of Jesus in which he is transforming us to be like him. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:37.759 He is taking out things, he's putting in things, and in that journey, we become more and more like the person of Jesus as we go through these lessons and these learnings. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:52.800 And so these battles that the children of Israel are going through as they are becoming the people of God, or an Old Testament picture for us in New Testament life of becoming that person of Jesus and learning to follow him. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:03:01.280 And so this is a great stretch right here because these three battles set the pattern and the tone for how this occurs. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:08.319 The first was in Jericho, where they followed God's plan and he showed himself to be mighty. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:12.000 He was fulfilled his promises and they defeated Jericho. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:25.039 Last week, as Matt talked to you about the battle of Ai, they came to this place, and Jericho was mighty with these mighty walls, and Ai was this little pipsqueak, nothing sort of place where just these sort of people lived. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:34.000 They weren't very smart and they weren't very good and they just didn't know what they were doing, and it was kind of a problem, and they were kind of wimpy, and we just kind of thought terrible of them. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:37.680 And so they disrespected them because they weren't really worthy of respect. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:43.199 If you need a modern day example of AI, think Oxford, Mississippi. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:46.879 Some of y'all got that. 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:51.039 Some of y'all from Mississippi, you can talk to me afterwards and I'll apologize, okay? 00:03:51.199 --> 00:04:00.560 Um, but here so they lose that battle, then they get it together, and they come back and repent, and they follow the Lord, and then they win that battle, right? 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.919 And now you come to another type of battle. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:11.280 And I think this battle may be the one that the most Christians struggle with. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:15.039 This is the one that we see happen the most time. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:19.920 This is the thing that I think most people struggle with most of the time. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:27.279 So here I want to talk to you about how to make wise biblical decisions in an unbiblical world. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:37.680 Now, before we read this passage of Scripture, let me give you a reminder of the pattern that we see unfolded in every one of these battles. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:46.160 When they do it well, they follow these principles, and when they mess up these principles, one or more of these are broken. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:52.959 So let's remind them before we read through this passage and see if you can't begin to trigger an understanding of these battles. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:55.360 First is understand and pursue your inheritance. 00:04:55.519 --> 00:05:00.160 Our life should be pursued following Jesus and who he is and what he has for our lives. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.800 That is our primary focus in all of what we do. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.160 We need to trust God for victory over every enemy and obstacle. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:13.439 One of the things that happened in the AI battle that broke down was they thought, well, that's just this wimpy little city, and we can do that on our own. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.160 We can just take care of that for the Lord on our own. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:22.160 Third, we recognize the reality and the necessity of God's presence. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:27.600 We must have Him in our lives for things to work as they should. 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:32.000 And then we immerse ourselves in and obey God's word. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:33.920 Those things must happen. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:40.959 Now, the context we find ourselves in after the victory at Ai, when they got it together and they came back and did it at the end of chapter 8. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:42.959 We won't read it, but here's what happens. 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:48.319 They re-identified how vitally important it is for them to follow God's word. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:52.800 So Joshua follows the plan of Moses and he sets up an altar. 00:05:52.879 --> 00:06:02.000 And then the Bible says that afterwards Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings as well as the curses. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:05.680 In other words, he's reminding them God set a choice in front of you. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:07.519 You follow him, he blesses. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:11.360 You don't follow him, he judges, like Achan and his family. 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:12.879 All of those things are happening. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:23.439 According to all that is written in the book of the law, there was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:25.920 And so he read in front of everybody. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:34.160 The Bible even says to illustrate everyone in Israel, including the women, the little children, and the foreigners who were with them. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:43.519 So there are people who are watching God work, like Rahab, who began to repent to follow the Lord because they are the example of him. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:49.920 And so all of that, so what you have here is a people who've reaffirmed their love for the Word of God. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:54.000 They have affirmed that the Word of God is the Word of God. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.240 They have affirmed that we believe in the Word of God. 00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:00.240 They have affirmed that we should follow the Word of God. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.480 But then let's read and see what happens. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:03.839 Chapter 9, verse 1. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:33.439 When all the kings, these are the pagan kings in this whole area referred to as Canaan, when all the kings heard about Jericho and Ai, those massive victories, those who were west of the Jordan in the hill country, in the Judean foothills, and all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I'm not going to make the old preacher joke about mosquitoites and Luddites and all that stuff. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:35.920 I would never do that. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:43.040 They formed a unified alliance to fight against Joshua and Israel. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:44.800 Now, just a word here. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:08:06.879 From the beginning of God's establishment of Israel as their chosen people, there have been people and cultures and nations that have set themselves against the people of God, and they have set themselves to destroy the people of God, the work of God, because they hate the person of God. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:13.120 That will always be the case until Jesus returns and ends all this and ushers in eternity. 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:19.839 And we see it have seen this played out through history, and we see that played out now, even in our modern day. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:30.399 There are people who will always hate the people of Israel and the nation of Israel and the underpinnings of that, because they are the people of God and they hate Jehovah God. 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:34.000 And so you see that, and it's just played out. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:40.240 Now he says in verse 3 that there's a different nation that responded in a different way. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:48.720 When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they acted deceptively. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:55.600 If you underline your scripture, if you're looking for key verses in this, that's one of the key points right there. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:58.240 They acted deceptively. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:05.120 They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins cracked and mended. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:10.320 They wore old patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:13.600 Their entire provision of bread was dry and crumbly. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:18.799 Now these are people who live not very far from where the children of Israel have been established. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:29.120 So what they're doing is they're trying to make it look like they came from a long way away, and they're not one of the nations that God has pronounced judgment on in the land of Canaan. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:36.799 So they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and they said to him and the men of Israel, We have come from a distant land. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.279 Please make a treaty with us. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:43.919 The men of Israel replied to them, Perhaps you live among us. 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:46.080 How can we make a treaty with you? 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:48.399 So they have, you know, some wisdom. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:55.519 They understand, you know, we're living amongst all these pagans who are fighting against God, they're plotting against God, and so they asked that question. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:58.480 They said to Joshua, We are your servants. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:02.080 Then Joshua asked them, Who are you and where did you come from? 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:10.399 They replied to him, Your servants have come from a far away land because of the reputation of your God. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:11.759 So they're lying. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:16.960 They've come a long way, and we've heard about how awesome your God is, and they're buttering them up and all of that. 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:23.360 For we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan. 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:30.720 So our elders and all the inhabitants of our land told us, take provisions with you for the journey. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:34.960 Go and meet them and say, We are your servants, please make a treaty with us. 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:42.240 This bread of ours was warm when we took it from our houses as food on the day we left to come to you. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:43.600 But take a look. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.080 Now it's dry and crumbly. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:50.639 These wineskins were new when we filled them, but look, they're cracked. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:57.840 And these clothes and sandals ours, they're worn out from the extremely long journey. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:09.039 Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, here's your next key phrase, but did not seek the Lord's counsel. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:14.799 So you have these people who are against God, they see the power of God. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:26.799 Instead of repenting and turning to God, they work to deceive the people of God, and then the people of God don't seek God's wisdom. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:34.720 So Joshua established peace with them and made a treaty to let them live. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.600 And the leaders of the community swore an oath to them. 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:45.679 Three days after making the treaty with them, they heard that the Gibeonites were their neighbors living among them. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.240 So the Israelites set out and reached the Gibeonite cities on the third day. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.000 That's how close they were. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:12:02.480 Now their cities were Gibeon, all that list, but the Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the community had sworn an oath to them by the Lord the God of Israel. 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:04.799 Then the whole community grumbled against the leaders. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:09.360 In other words, all the Israelites were looking at Joshua and his brain truss, like, what do you guys do? 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:16.799 You made this treaty with his people, and God says we're not allowed to make treaties with all these pagans, and we're supposed to exact his judgment on them if they don't repent and all that. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:17.759 What are you guys thinking? 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:18.960 What are y'all doing? 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:25.519 All the leaders answered them, We have sworn an oath to them by the Lord the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them. 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:27.679 This is how we will treat them. 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:35.440 We will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us from God as judgment for breaking the oath we swore to them. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.440 They also said to them, Let them live. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:44.799 So the Gibeonites became woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community as the leaders had promised them. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:48.480 In other words, they put them in a very subservient role. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:56.559 Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said to them, Why do you deceive us by telling us you live far away from us, when in fact you live among us? 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:05.360 Therefore you are cursed and will always be slaves, woodcutters, and water carriers for the house of my God. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:07.360 The Gibeonites answered him. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:17.440 It was clearly communicated to your servants that the Lord your God had commanded his servant, Moses, to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:19.840 So they understand what's happening. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:32.559 They know that God is God, they know that the Israelites are the people of God, they understand the judgment of God, but unlike Rahab, they do not repent and turn and trust in God. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:42.240 Instead, they go through this deceptive deal to get a treaty to get to live as they are without repenting to the Lord. 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:46.480 We greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:47.840 Now we are in your hands. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.679 Do to us whatever you think is right. 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:51.200 This is what Joshua did to them. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:54.399 He delivered them from the hands of the Israelites, and they did not kill them. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:04.000 On that day he made them woodcutters and water carriers, as they are today for the community and for the Lord's altar at the place he would choose. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:22.480 And so there's a really fascinating story that goes on here, but I think there's an incredible amount of application for us as we begin to think what's going on here as the children of Israel enter into this moment and they find themselves duped into this treaty with a worldly people group. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.759 Now, let me give you uh let me give you a thought. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:27.759 I want to just tell you this right here. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:50.320 Uh when I am teaching people how to teach a Sunday school lesson or young guys, and we're talking through preaching and all of that, I always tell folks this you need to have, before you sit down and write your sermon out and all that, you need to have encapsulated the theme and the foundation of your sermon, the biblical message of your lesson in 50 words or less. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:53.519 Now, I thought today I'll just show you my fifty words or less. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:54.960 I do this in every sermon. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.759 It's important because it does a couple of things. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:05.919 It helps us be sure that we are anchored on a truth from God's word, because if we're not anchored on a truth from God's word, we're just wasting our time. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:06.720 Amen? 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:13.440 And so now what it does is here's the central truth from that passage of scripture, here are the things that support that and where we're going. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:21.200 If you think about it, all communication is better when it's clearer, when you're clearly communicating what you're doing. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:31.919 If you think back to your English classes or your writing classes in your middle school or high school days, and everybody started out with a five-paragraph theme. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:32.879 Do y'all remember that? 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:34.720 You had to write a five-paragraph theme. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.240 And what is the structure of that? 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:41.679 There are five paragraphs, and they're teaching you the structure of a lesson how to communicate correctly. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:43.759 There's an introduction in the first paragraph. 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:49.679 There are three supporting arguments why your point is correct, and there is a conclusion with your point. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.799 The best and first activity that you do in that is you write a theme sentence. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:16:05.919 The theme sentence is in the introduction, and then the three points support the theme sentence, and then the theme sentence is repeated as if you have proven it in the closing paragraph. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:13.279 If you think about when you have communication models, verbal communication models, many of you have heard them say this. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.919 Tell them what you're going to say, tell them, then tell them what you told them. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:19.759 What is that model trying to do? 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:23.679 It's trying to be clearer in the point that you're communicating. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:30.320 And so we could go on and on and on with those communication models, and so it's important that you grasp that thought. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:35.360 It's just so important to get this major thought that I wanted to give you my 50 words or less. 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:52.320 Because we live in an ungodly world fundamentally opposed to us as believers, we must recognize how culture seeks to oppose and or deceive us away from Jesus. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:54.240 We must. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.519 We must, we must. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:01.440 If I'd have had a few more words, I would have repeated that more often. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:09.440 We must own and obey Scripture so it shapes our views and directs our choices. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:11.359 We must do that. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:13.599 This is such a powerful lesson here. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:24.400 You come right off the fact that someone had sinned, violated God's instruction, Achan and his family, God had warned them if you sin, then what will happen is you will bring trouble on all the people. 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:25.359 And that happened. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:26.720 And then they repented. 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:28.400 They followed God's plan. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.160 He gave them victory at AI. 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:34.000 And to make sure that everyone understood that, Joshua brought them back. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.720 He reiterated the point of what they're doing. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:38.240 We are following God's word. 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:39.599 They read all the law. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.559 God's people affirmed the word of God. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:59.200 So they are in a position and a mindset where they love the word of God, they affirm the word of God, they are positive about the word of God, they believe the word of God, but then they find themselves in this spot and they rely on their own wisdom instead of seeking counsel from God. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:05.440 And because they do that, they find themselves trapped in a treaty with the world. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:17.279 And there are so many Christians in our life today where we just flow with the culture and we allow things that the culture tells us to be how we develop our perspective of things. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:53.359 Even people who love the word of God, who affirm the word of God, who are glad when the preacher and the other leaders, like Joshua, read the Word of God, but we get in the decisions of life, how we do relationships, how we do money, how we do people, how we do work, how we do deals, how we do our planning for the future, how we do everything, and we rely on our own wisdom and some maybe of the affirmed biblical principles that we might remember, but we come to these decisions and we make these decisions without the counsel of God. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.039 And we end up in treaties with the world. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.400 Let me give you these three points, three truths, I think, help us as we prepare through this. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:13.839 First, we are twice-born people in a once-born world that opposes our pursuit of Jesus through persecution andor deception. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.319 This twice-born people, this is a phrase my pastor Rodgers used to use. 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:21.359 And he'd say, we are twice-born people in a once-born world. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:23.359 What does a twice-born people mean? 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:34.640 When you realize that you're a sinner, you realize that God must judge sin, and you understand the gospel, and somebody shares with you that Jesus loved you so much that he died for you on the cross to pay the price for your sin. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:38.799 And somebody helps you understand, someone is going to pay the price for your sin. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:44.160 You will pay the price for your sin unless you come to Jesus and trust him to do it. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:49.279 His life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection to pay the price for your sin. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.160 And you realize, boy, nobody ever loved me as much as Jesus. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:20:01.279 And you take your life, everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you surrender it to Jesus, you trust his death, burial, and resurrection, and you make him the Lord of your life, and you follow him. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:02.880 At that point, you are saved. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.359 Bible uses the phrase, born again. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:14.240 There was a man who came to Jesus named Nicodemus in John chapter 3, and Jesus tells him, you know, you have to be born again, and he's trying to understand what that means. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:18.160 It means that we were born alive spiritually that second time. 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:30.960 When you give your life to Jesus and you give him your sin and you trust him to pay the price for your sin, he in returns give you his righteousness and his life, and you are made alive spiritually to live for all of eternity with him. 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:34.079 And so we are twice-born people in a once-born world. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:44.480 The world that we live in is a world that is tainted by sin, and it it gr the Bible says it groans under the effect of sin, physically on the planet that we live in. 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:49.920 The people that we walk around with are people who've only been born once. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:55.920 They were born physically, they have a human life, but they're dead spiritually, and they are sinners, as the Bible refers to. 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:58.799 And because of that, they walk around doing what sinners do. 00:20:58.880 --> 00:20:59.599 They sin. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:06.720 And so we are literally living opposite of the world and culture that we live in. 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:12.319 Jesus is transforming us from being a once-born person to a twice-born person. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:22.400 He is literally changing our mind, our heart, our goals, our perspective, how we think, how we function, what we feel, what we prioritize, who we are. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:24.960 He is transforming all of that. 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:28.640 And we are living in the land of Canaan. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.200 We are surrounded by people who are under judgment. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:33.680 We are surrounded by ungodly culture. 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:46.000 We are surrounded by all of this sin, and we are called to be transformed to be God's people and to live out the gospel in front of once born people as a twice born person. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:52.480 Now, that is not a process that is without opposition or adversity. 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:59.680 Jesus made it clear that people would oppose him until he deals with all of it at the end of recorded human. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.240 History and eternity begins. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:09.680 And then he told us listen, if they're going to persecute me as the master, why wouldn't they persecute my servants as well? 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:13.519 Jesus described the situation of salvation this way. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:26.160 He said, There is a wide road, and it is easy, and it is smooth and it is straight, and many are the ones who go down that road because of that, but the end of it is destruction. 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:31.279 But there is a narrow road that is hard, that is difficult, and at the end of it is life. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:33.200 What is he trying to illustrate? 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:44.720 You can go with the flow with everybody else, be a once-born person, walking with all the once-born people, and not have to face the transition and the conflict of being transformed. 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:52.559 But if you follow Jesus as your Savior with life and eternity and salvation at the end, then you are swimming upstream. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:54.319 You are going against the current. 00:22:54.480 --> 00:23:00.960 You are changing from that culture into a different person. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:06.079 That's why there's always been persecution against the people of God, and there always will be. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.799 That's why the Bible says that the gospel is a stumbling block. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:21.200 It says in the book of 1 Corinthians that we who are being transformed, we who are Christians, twice-born people walking with Jesus, he says, uses this illustration. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:28.480 We are the aroma of life leading to life to those who are being saved. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:36.640 And he says, to those who are lost, we are the aroma of death leading to death. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:41.359 That's who we are as twice-born people to a once-born world. 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:46.640 I remember when I was a kid, our garage all of a sudden started smelling funny. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:49.759 And then our garage started smelling funnier. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.240 And then our garage started stinking. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.799 And then our garage started really stinking. 00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:57.279 And it was so bad mom wouldn't go in it. 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:03.039 And dad drugged me out there one time, and we're trying to figure out stuff, and we're cleaning stuff, and we're spraying the wall. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:05.759 And it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:08.799 My dad was one of those, man, the garage is for cars. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:12.160 Store your junk out in the backyard or the shed or somewhere else. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:13.200 I'm putting my car in there. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:19.680 I'm not scraping windows in the winter, and I am not getting into a hot car in the summertime. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.200 The air's going to be running. 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:27.440 And yet we began to park our cars in the driveway because nobody would go in the garage. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:28.480 It was so bad. 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:33.839 Finally, my dad got us masks and clothespins. 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:36.880 And I mean, we drug everything out of the garage. 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.200 We had already done that twice, and we were trying. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:47.200 Finally, back in some nook and cranny, back in somewhere, some cat had died, crawled in there and died. 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:51.759 And there was about half cat and half larva in there. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:53.599 It was horrible. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.519 It was death. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:56.720 You got that? 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:00.079 The aroma of death leading to death. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:07.039 That's who we are as believers in a dying world. 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:13.119 That's who the children of Israel are to all of these nations. 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:16.559 And some of those nations oppose them and go to battle. 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:17.920 We'll see that in the next chapter. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:19.680 We saw that in the last two battles. 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:32.400 And some of them will try to oppose us and try to protect their world by deceiving us and getting us to be duped into a treaty to allow them to function with us. 00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:42.960 And when we begin to do that and allow the world to live in us, around us, and have treaties with us, it affects us. 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:46.319 And it hampers our battle. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:47.599 Now let me tell you this. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:49.519 Here's another truth I want to give you. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:53.359 I'm a conspiracy theorist guy. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.519 Some of you are nodding your head, and some of you are going. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:01.759 Alright, now let me tell you about my conspiracy theory. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:05.279 Satan is the evil in the world. 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:09.119 I don't believe there's some Illuminati or whatever. 00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:21.119 There are times that lost people get together and they plan things and their strategies or whatever, but ultimately the conspiracy is Satan is the conspiracy of evil against good and against God. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:24.079 We live in a world where Satan is alive and well. 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:26.480 The Bible calls him the prince of the power of the air. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:41.839 And he is always trying to take this once-born world and put his thumbprint on it to guide people who don't have the wisdom of God, who are not saved, who are once-born people going that way, and to mix that culture against the people of God. 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.880 He does not want you to give your life to Christ. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:47.440 He does not want you to be saved. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:53.440 If you are saved, he does not want you to take anybody else with you. 00:26:53.839 --> 00:27:04.880 And he does not want you to live a life of victory and gaining your inheritance because he does not want God to receive the glory of his transformation in our lives. 00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:08.079 And so he is directly opposed to the person of God. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:08.960 What does this look like? 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:10.559 Let me give you just three references. 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:12.240 I don't have time to go through them. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:13.920 They're regular scriptures. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:16.640 If you go back, let me just show those references one more time. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:19.680 The first is two scriptures in Ephesians. 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:20.799 This is what it looks like. 00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:32.079 Ephesians chapter 4 says this that in the church we are to equip the saints for the work of the ministry to build the body of Christ till we all come to the full measure of the stature and maturity of Jesus Christ. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:44.799 And then he says this, so that we are no longer tossed about and driven like a leaf in the wind by the wind of trickery and human deception. 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:58.400 In other words, we're supposed to be serving the Lord, growing in the Lord, impacting each other's lives, so that we are not susceptible to these winds of culture that are being dominated by the principle of the power of the air. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:27:59.839 Ephesians chapter 6. 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:07.039 He says this put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the scheming of the devil. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:21.039 The devil is scheming, he's using this culture, he's planning these things, any idea that he can come up with to distract the people of God, to create a culture that opposes the culture of God, the presentation of the gospel, all of those things. 00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:24.480 He is putting his thumbprint on all of that, making that work. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:53.519 The result of that is all of these people who are once-born people who are following all that culture, they may not even believe in God, they may not even believe in Satan, they may not even believe in all of that, and they're just doing life and they're trying to figure it out on their own, but they are lost, they are deceived because they've not seen the gospel, they don't understand the word of God, and so they come up with all these ridiculous, crazy ideas so that they can live life their way and they can oppose the person of God. 00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:55.759 And that's what Romans chapter 1 says. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:05.279 It says there are people who have seen the fullness of God in creation and all of that, and what happens is they reject the creator and they start to worship the created. 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:12.960 And then the Bible says they begin to desire things that are evil that are against the natural creation of God. 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:16.960 And it uses the illustration of homosexuality. 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:22.960 And he says, listen, it is clear that God has created man and woman, he's created this, and then you have this situation. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:32.799 And so once they've made that choice and they follow that, the Bible says they've given themselves, he has given them over to a reprobate mind because that was the choice that they had made to reject him. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:37.119 And then the results after that are Katie bar the door. 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:46.960 They go into every kind of evil and all that they possibly can because they have rejected absolute truth, they've rejected God, and that's the world we live in. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:48.960 That's the world we live in. 00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:54.079 Now, there are two areas where we are often deceived, and I'll sort of structure them this way for you. 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:55.440 Now, here's what I want to do. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:01.200 I don't want to run off into preaching about all these things and getting into all of them. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:11.599 What I instead I want to do is give you a thoughtful way for you to begin to understand what happened when they did not consult God's counsel. 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:16.880 And begin to recognize that there are these issues, and I need to be thoughtful as a believer. 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:18.480 Now let's go to that next string. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:22.000 I kind of categorize them these two ways. 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:24.400 They're existential issues. 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.200 These are the fundamental questions of all time. 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:29.039 This is the existence of God. 00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:30.880 Who is the creator? 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:32.559 How did creation occur? 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:34.240 Human identity. 00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:38.480 God made man in his image, he made male, and he made female. 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:42.079 And I know that seems to be controversial in our world. 00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:46.480 The reason that it is controversial is because exactly what I'm talking about. 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:48.000 Exactly what I'm talking about. 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:49.119 Romans 1. 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:52.319 The result of Satan putting his thumbprint on culture. 00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:53.839 And absolute truth. 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:59.440 If I can do away with absolute truth, then I don't have anything that I have to be obedient to. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:05.359 Absolute truth is an absolute follow of the existence of God. 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.480 If God is the creator, then it is his creation. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:11.519 And if he created it, he has the right to make the rules. 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:14.720 And his rules are absolute and truthful. 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:43.839 And that's why when Achan sins, God creates judgment, when all these nations that are against the Lord and they are evil in their worship practices, they have temple prostitutes, they're sacrificing babies, they're doing all these horrible things, and they are fighting against the people of God, and they've set themselves against God, is because they have rejected absolute truth, because they have rejected the creator, and they have rejected him as the creator and his right to make the rules. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.599 Those are fundamental existential issues of how life works. 00:31:47.839 --> 00:32:01.839 If God makes the rules, and he is because he is the creator, and then he has given us his word as truth to understand what the rules are, understand what the punishment is, and understand what salvation is through Jesus, that is absolute truth, and that's what the Word of God is. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:04.079 That's why I'm so important that it guide us. 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:06.559 Then we have experiential issues. 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:18.880 This is how we take the definitions of the existential issues, the fundamental questions of life, and now we live in a practical way on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Friday nights and everything else. 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:23.519 How do those definitions apply in how we live our lives? 00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:29.279 It is how that truth affects our choices in regular things. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:36.240 Family and marriage, how relationships function, money, stewardship, and wealth. 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.240 Scripture speaks to all of that. 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:45.359 It is a very fundamental thing to be a pastor in a third world country and to be a pastor in a first world country. 00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:49.599 In a third world country, there are matters of faith when it comes to money and all of that. 00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:53.839 And most people don't have any and they're looking for a job, so there's a different way that's structured. 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:59.920 In a first world country, this is a major experiential definition of life. 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:04.079 The Bible speaks all throughout the New Testament about giving. 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:10.160 It challenges pastors to tell people who are wealthy not to place their trust and their wealth and all of that. 00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:12.720 Stewardship, tithing, all of that. 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:18.240 Listen, when we're tithing, when we're passing the plate, we are not trying to raise money. 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:21.759 The budget is not how God builds the church. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:33.119 Tithing is how God builds Christians to understand how to be a twice-born person in a once-born world and to set our pursuits on the person of God. 00:33:33.759 --> 00:33:35.119 That's what that is. 00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:38.960 Human desires, we deal with these things. 00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:44.160 Sex, food, drinking, greed, handling emotions, all of that. 00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:47.440 Those are how those definitions apply themselves. 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:52.880 And when we get into our experience, how do we answer those questions? 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:59.279 Do we, as Joshua and the leaders did, rely on their own self-effort and their own wisdom and knowledge? 00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:00.960 I mean, they weren't stupid. 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:03.039 They applied themselves. 00:34:03.119 --> 00:34:04.559 They tried to be diligent. 00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:06.160 They loved the word of God. 00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:10.320 They had just gone through reading it all to everyone and making altars to it. 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:18.800 But when it came time to make a decision, what they believed did not affect how they chose to proceed. 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:35.519 And so what we've got to understand is these definitions are vital because we are making them in a culture that is deceiving us as a part of its opposition to us. 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:40.079 It is trying to pull us away from the person of God. 00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.639 Let me give you just one example on this list. 00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:44.800 Just follow with me. 00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:46.320 Don't push back. 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:49.840 I want to use this as an illustration to think through this. 00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:55.679 You think about the issue of drinking alcohol or not in American culture. 00:34:56.559 --> 00:34:57.920 It's incredible. 00:34:58.159 --> 00:35:08.320 If you take the word of God and you list all the scriptures, drinking never is affirmed. 00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:10.719 It's never affirmed. 00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:20.079 In fact, in the book of Proverbs, you are literally called a fool for focusing on it. 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:28.000 Now, we live in a culture that pushes that, pushes that, pushes that, pushes that. 00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:30.880 Why does the culture push that? 00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:40.559 How many products do people spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising for you to not use? 00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:45.760 Does that make sense? 00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:53.280 I want you to use my product, but I'm going to warn you it'll kill you if you drink and drive. 00:35:54.800 --> 00:36:12.880 Now, if we take the cultural issues out of that and you just look at that as a base decision, read in Proverbs, read all the verses, do not be drunk in Ephesians, do not be drunk with line, be filled with the Holy Spirit, put on the arm of God, stand against the schemes of the devil. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:19.199 You read all that and you think people are dying all the time in these car wrecks and being maimed. 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:28.880 You think about how many abortions occur because people were drunk and not making good decisions and had pregnancy and you just go on and on and on. 00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:36.639 You think about how many marriages are destroyed because somebody got drunk in a bar and tempted and weren't making decisions and weren't fully in favor of their faculties and all that. 00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:44.480 I've been pastoring long enough now that I can just tell you it does nothing but be destructive. 00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:47.440 And I come from a culture where I practice the law for six years. 00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:49.519 And let me tell you what, I was in that environment. 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:53.920 I understand it in a business sense, I understand it in a cultural sense, I understand and all that. 00:36:54.079 --> 00:37:03.039 But you think about, you look at all this, even now, you go to Instagram, it is filled with all of the medical studies that are continuing to come out. 00:37:03.199 --> 00:37:04.800 I read another one this week. 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:17.119 People who drink, even social drinking, by 20% you increase your possibility of death by any and every cause. 00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:18.719 20% increase. 00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:22.880 Over a 20% increase to have early onset dementia and all that. 00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:27.519 Not saying that it causes it, but I'm saying it increases your susceptibility to it. 00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:28.639 On and on and on. 00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:30.880 How many brain cells it kills, all of that. 00:37:31.039 --> 00:37:37.199 We look at the science, we look at scripture, who would come to that and think, this is a really good idea? 00:37:38.639 --> 00:37:42.000 Who would think that, I mean, just take it from an objective standpoint. 00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:46.000 So why does it become something that Christians argue about? 00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:56.079 Because it's a decision that we struggle with in a culture that is trying to deceive us. 00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:05.280