FBC Morning Worship Service

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Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. This is Father's Day. We look out and see a lot of fathers here this morning, so we welcome you and trust the
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Lord is going to give you a good day. Being respected as a father and in some way honored in, you know, maybe a special dinner or a card or something, maybe a phone call.
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I don't know, but I hope your day gets recognized as dads and it will be a great blessing to you.
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We do have a gift for all the dads who have children still at home, so when you leave today, please take a hold of this.
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I think we have enough copies for you dads with children at home. It's a little booklet entitled
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Gospel Meditations for Fathers. See how thin that is? All right, dads, you can handle this.
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The nice thing about it is only one page a day. You read one page a day.
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It's 31 Gospel Meditations for Fathers, so it doesn't mean it has to be done in a month either.
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It just means you need to read one a day or one at a time, so I hope that will be a blessing to you and be an encouragement to you in your fathering.
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So congratulations to all the dads for this special day for you.
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We also want to congratulate a special couple. I don't know if any of you have seen
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Diana kind of walking in with a little bit of a limp because the left side of her left hand is a little heavier than it was last week, so she and Erin got engaged this past,
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Erin McCann got engaged this past Thursday, and she will stay outside when you leave today so you can walk by and get a view of the rock.
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So congratulations to them, and trust the Lord will guide them in the days and the years ahead.
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So then a couple other announcements in your bulletin, if you would note these. Wednesday night at 6 o 'clock we have this next supper together, a light supper before the evening service, especially encouraging the
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YMSA group to come for that supper and fellowship. There will be a bit of a game time for the children before the 7 o 'clock time begins, and in that Wednesday night 7 o 'clock session we're watching these videos of different key characters in church history.
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At first I thought we would just do this chronologically through church history, but then I thought, no, let's kind of mix it up a little bit.
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So this week's is one that's a more up -to -date character, Eric Little. He was an
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Olympian in the 1924 Olympics, and it's a fascinating story of Eric Little.
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Maybe some of you who are older than 25 or 30 might remember the movie
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Chariots of Fire, which was roughly a dozen years ago on the basis of his life.
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But anyway, we'll be looking at that, seeing that Wednesday night. It'll be a real blessing to you.
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I encourage you to be here. If you're planning to come for the supper, we really need you to sign up this morning or today and let us know of that intention.
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All right, the rest of the announcements in your bulletin, you can read those and note them. I encourage you to do so.
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We have come together today to worship the Lord. So we are grateful for our fathers. We want to honor them and so forth, and we will pray for you fathers in just a little bit.
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But really our focus is to worship our heavenly Father, and we've gathered together today to do that.
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As we begin, let me share this verse of scripture from the Psalms, Psalm 104.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with majesty, who covers yourself with light as with a garment.
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He's going to come and lead us in our opening hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.
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Jim? Thank you, Pastor.
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It's on page number 63 in your hymnals, 63. Let's all stand together, please, and sing all four verses together.
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Number 63, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise. Immortal, invisible,
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God only wise. In light inaccessible, in from our eyes.
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Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days.
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Unresting, unhastening, and silent as dust, as like mounds which are fountains.
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To all life, thou givest small.
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In all life, great
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Father. Remain standing for prayer.
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Let us pray.
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Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you right now, Lord, for giving us the opportunity to come into your house and worship you.
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Lord, we praise you. We pray that you'd be glorified today. Help us to learn from your word, not just to be spectators in this world, but to be doers of your words.
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So, Lord, speak to us, lead us, and may you be honored and glorified again.
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In Jesus' name, amen. May we be seated. Alright, our psalm reading, back of your bulletin,
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Psalm 44, I want to read together the first eight verses. Let's read this section responsively today.
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So, I'll begin with verse one, and you respond with verse two, and we'll go back and forth as such. Psalm 44.
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We have heard with our ears, O God. Our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days, in days of old.
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For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them.
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But it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you favored them.
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Through you, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we will trample those who rise up against us.
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But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put to shame those who hated us.
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In God, we boast all day long, and praise your name forever.
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Indeed, we shall. So, let's sing this section of Psalm 44 together in our psalter.
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Jim, come and lead us, please. And it's, again, in your psalter, your red book.
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O Lord, we have heard. There's six verses. We're going to be singing all six verses. O Lord, we have heard for the scripture in those great days.
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We have passed out that thy people might dwell. We could no conquest afford.
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Give thy right hand, save us, and the light of thy hand.
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For God will not go. People are full of vain ghosts.
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He'll turn us away from the fold, and spoiler us,
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I pray. Like the sheep in the slaughter, nations are driven now, silenced, and captive and counted.
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For not their schemes and indebtedness will ever end.
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O Lord, we have heard for the scripture in those great days.
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We have passed out that thy people might dwell. We could no conquest afford. Give thy right hand, save us, and the light of thy hand.
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For God will not go. People are full of vain ghosts. He'll turn us away from the fold, and spoiler us,
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I pray. Like the sheep in the slaughter, nations are driven now, silenced, and captive and counted.
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For God will not go. People are full of vain going on in opposition to Christianity, really, so I want to pray for their protection.
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I also want to continue to pray for Jodi Knapp, thank the Lord for what has occurred in her life and her development, but there's much, much, much road ahead to go, and just pray for the
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Lord to continue to help her make progress heading in the right direction. So, let's look to the
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Lord in prayer, shall we? Our Father, we are grateful today that we can call you our
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Father. You are, the Lord Jesus has instructed us when we pray, to pray our
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Father who art in heaven. Truly, our Father, may your name be hallowed in this place and in our lives.
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May your kingdom come, may your will be done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven, may it be done in our homes, may it be done in our personal lives, may it be done in our church, may your will be accomplished in the halls of government, in the nations of the world, in the interrelationships of those nations, may your will be done.
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Our Father, we would pray today that you would forgive us our trespasses.
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They are many, and every one of us, if we're honest with ourselves, can look back over the past days, and we would have to confess our sins.
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We have committed sins of commission. We have committed sins of omission, things we have not done that we should have, things we have done that we shouldn't have, thoughts we've had, words we've said.
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Father, we have dwelling within us that indwelling sin that so often, too often, besets us.
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Forgive us, forgive us for the expressions of that sinfulness. And Father, we pray that you would not lead us into temptation, but you would deliver us from the evil one.
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Father, we pray that you would continue to provide us with what we need. We are grateful,
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Father, for your hand of provision. You have faithfully met our needs in this past week, and we can look to you daily, every day, for the provision of what we need in that day.
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We need physical strength. We need health. We need sustenance.
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We need rest. We need shelter. We thank you that we can trust in you to provide just what we need.
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So we pray that you would give us this day our daily bread. And may we forgive others as you forgive us,
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O Lord. I pray that you would deliver us from being grudge holders, but I pray that we would be quick to let love cover these minor infractions of everyday life that can so easily settle down in our souls and become causes of affliction within and causes of stress and strain in our relationships with others.
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Lord, I pray, deliver us. We thank you, our Father, that we can trust in you for the care of those we love.
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We do pray for Jodi today and pray that you would be gracious to her, to her family.
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You continue to give her some progress in her healing.
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And I pray that there would be evidence of that progress, there would be an encouragement to Bob and to Rebecca and to Hannah, just be a blessing to them.
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We pray, Father, for Karen as she has this procedure tomorrow on her back.
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I pray that it would be effective. We also pray, Father, for Renee and the treatment on Tuesday.
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We pray that it would be effective and that when the tests come in a few weeks to determine the effectiveness, it would be very encouraging and there would not be any further treatments needed.
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Father, we thank you for the dads here today, and we pray for each one.
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We pray that you would give us wisdom as men to be men of God, to live out the biblical truth that we learn and that we know, to live it out in our personal lives, in our home life, in our workplace, and even in our church.
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Help us to be godly men, men that our children can look up to and respect, and I pray that by your grace in their lives, they would follow in those steps.
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We also pray, Father, for Aaron and Diana. Thank you for your work in their lives and your providential direction in their lives.
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As they look forward to the future, may you guide them in it. May they look to you and trust you for each step of the way, for each change of every day.
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Meet their needs, we pray. Again, Father, we thank you for bringing us together here today, and we pray that you would continue to work in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives as we are in Christ Jesus.
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May we be conformed to his image. May you use the remainder of this service today to do that conforming work, making us more and more like our
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Savior. And this we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Number 417, 417 in your hymnals,
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Faith of Our Fathers, and I ask you to stand once again. We'll sing all four verses together.
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Number 417, stand please. Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword.
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Oh, how often, whene 'er we hear this word,
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Faith of our fathers, chained in prison's dark, we're still in heart, and come, we will be their church, if they like them.
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Faith of our fathers, we will strive to win.
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Faith of our fathers, we are both friends.
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Thank you, please be seated. I just want to give a note of thanks to Deb Foreman.
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She's, maybe you heard the strings on the, as we sang today. Appreciate her taking part in the worship of the
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Lord by playing on that, the clavinova, giving some added layer of music to our singing.
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Our scripture reading for our message this morning is in Judges chapter 2, and we want to read verses 6 through 15.
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Judges chapter 2, follow along in your copy of scripture, we'll read verses 6 through 15.
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Judges 2 verse 6, and when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
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So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the
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Lord, which he had done for Israel. Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the
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Lord, died when he was 110 years old, and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath -Heraz, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
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When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the
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Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
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Lord, and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.
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And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the
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Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
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And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
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Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the
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Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed." Brief prayer.
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Our Father, I pray that the solemnity of the last half of this passage would not dampen our spirits on this
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Father's Day, but the whole passage taken in its entirety would serve to encourage us, encourage us to pursue faith of our fathers.
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This we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. I can't remember the exact details of this little story that Alistair Begg tells.
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I heard him tell it a couple of different times in different message settings, and I know I read it in one of his books, but I could not put my hand on this thing, and I wasn't going to spend hours trying to find it, because I could remember the gist of it.
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It goes something like this. He tells of a pastor's history of preaching on the home.
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When the pastor was a young man, prior to having any children himself, he and his wife were relatively newlyweds, he preached a message entitled,
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Six Steps to Raising Godly Children. Well, after he and his wife had been married for a while, and they had a couple of children their own, somewhere in the elementary years of their children's lives, he preached another sermon on the home, and it was entitled,
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Six Guidelines for Child -Rearing. Get the distinction there.
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Well, then those children continued to grow up. They reached their teen years, and in those adolescent years,
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Dad, the pastor, preached another sermon on parenting, and it was entitled, Helpful Hints for Parental Survival.
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And then finally, after the children were grown and gone from the nest, he preached some thoughts on the home.
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And what that little kind of humorous sequence of message titles illustrates is the error of assuming that parenting is some kind of a formulaic experience, where if you just follow points one through six, the result will always be the same.
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And as every parent here knows, it's pretty easy at the early stages of life, before you actually have children, to look at what other people are doing, and how other kids turn out, and all the rest of that kind of stuff, and assume that you know better, and that you've figured out what you're going to need to do to ensure that you have great success in the rearing of your children.
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Then he comes along the nitty -gritty of life, and you discover there really aren't any formulas that guarantee results.
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You discover that neither God nor life really works that way. Well, that reminds me of how
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I preached this passage 30 years ago. It's been a long time since I preached in Judges chapter.
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I've never preached through the book of Judges that I can remember. Not that my notes tell me that anyway.
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But I have preached a topical message on this section of Scripture, and particularly verse 10.
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Verse 10, you look at it again, it says, When all that generation, that is the generation of Joshua and the elders that outlived him, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the
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Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then it goes on to talk about the collapse of the nation in terms of its obedience, and so on and so forth.
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Well, I concluded 30 years ago from this passage, I concluded that Joshua's generation and the elders that outlived him, that that generation basically failed as parents.
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They failed to pass on the faith, and consequently their kids derailed and led the nation into all kinds of disarray, both morally, spiritually, and every other way.
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Well, I see the passage a little differently after 30 years, and I think a little more accurately because I've stepped back and looked at the bigger picture.
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And from this bigger picture, I find that there's something here not only for the dads, but some important truths for everyone in this room.
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And I want to communicate those in three propositions, three ideas, and they are three propositions for each generation, for each generation, so no matter whether you are a young person here or a grandparent here, there's these three propositions for each generation.
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The first is this, each generation will come and go.
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We see this in verses 8 through 10. Joshua, the son of Nun, died when he was 110 years old, and in verse 10, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose.
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Each generation will come and go. So here's Joshua. Joshua represents, you know how the different generations get labeled, right?
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You know, my generation is called the baby boomers. The generation that preceded me would have been the greatest generation, all right?
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The baby boomers is my generation, and then came, I don't know that I get the sequence all right here, doesn't matter, you get the point.
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The baby boomers, and then there are the millennials, and then there's the Gen Xs and the Gen Ys and the
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Gen Zs, and then, you know, and on we go. All these generations, they have their different labels.
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Let's do that. Let's label Joshua as representing the
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Egyptian generation, the Egypt generation. Joshua, you remember, was one of only two surviving individuals who was born and reared in Egypt, went through the wilderness, came into the land, and now he has passed away.
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He represents the Egypt generation. And that generation, as I said, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, that generation is gone.
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They died in the wilderness. That generation, the Egypt generation, they knew what hardship was all about.
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Remember, they were slaves in Egypt. They knew what bondage was like. Now, most likely,
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Joshua was a child, maybe into adolescent years, maybe early 20s when they left
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Egypt, but they knew what that was like. They knew what it was to be subservient to harsh masters.
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They also heard the promises of God. As Moses came into Egypt, he shared with them the message that God gave to him, that God would deliver them from Egypt and take them to the land of promise.
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They heard the promises of God regarding deliverance and deliverance from and deliverance to, being brought out of the
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Egyptian bondage and brought into the land of promise. They heard these promises. The Egypt generation also followed the leadership that God had appointed, that is,
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Moses. When Moses came and told what God was going to do, they all accepted it as true.
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Now, it's not that there weren't any hiccups along the way, there certainly were, and so on through the following of Moses.
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Many people expressed rebellion against him and so forth, but that generation all died.
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Joshua and Caleb serve as exceptions to a lot of those who rebelled against Moses' leadership, but by and large and as a whole, the
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Egypt generation followed the leadership of Moses out of Egypt and through the wilderness.
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They also, the Egypt generation, witnessed, personally witnessed, the insurmountable power of God.
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I wonder what it was like for, let's say, a 15 or 16 -year -old
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Joshua to witness the incredible power of water being turned to blood, of frogs just appearing overnight and overwhelming the land, the power of God as he rained down fire and hail from heaven, as he afflicted the
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Egyptians with lice and with boils and misery and so on and so forth.
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He witnessed all of this. He saw with his own eyes the insurmountable power of God as God showed that power over the pagan deities of Egypt in the plagues.
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The Egyptian generation experienced the insurmountable power of God over the elements.
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Here they were being led out of Egypt and they come to the Red Sea. Now what do we do?
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We're sunk. Here come the Egyptians behind us. There's the sea in front of us. We're trapped, except for the insurmountable power of God.
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Moses raises his staff and the water parts and they walk through on dry ground.
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Imagine the wonder in the eyes of a young Joshua as he walks by these walls of water on either side of him and sees, you know, it's like looking into the glass of an aquarium, except it's not glass, it's water, and sees these fish that are just kind of right there and they won't go any further.
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And he looks down and he's walking on dry ground. What amazing power he witnessed.
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And of course, they witnessed the insurmountable power of God over the enemy, their captors.
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They come to the other side of that Red Sea and they watch as God in his power causes the water to collapse upon the
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Egyptian forces and leaves them all to perish in that watery grave.
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This is the Egypt generation. Joshua represents that generation.
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It has come and now, in verse 8, it is gone. Joshua died.
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Well, there's another generation in the first part of verse 10. It's called that generation.
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It is the generation that verse 7 speaks of as the elders who outlived Joshua. We might label this the wilderness generation, all right, the wilderness generation.
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The Egypt generation has basically passed off the scene. I think
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Caleb is still alive, but Joshua has passed off the scene. Then there is the wilderness generation.
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Wilderness generation had quite an experience with God, didn't they? They had to learn what it meant to trust him, to trust him rather than complain.
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They came to a place where there was water. They tried to drink the water. It was bitter. They complained.
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Moses threw a tree in the water. It was sweet. They learned to trust
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God, who could make bitter water sweet. They came to another place in the wilderness, in their wanderings in the wilderness, where there was no water.
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They ran out of water, and again, they complained. And the Lord told Moses, strike the rock.
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And he struck the rock, and the water gushed out. They learned, they learned to trust.
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They were learning to trust and not complain. Then they ran out of food.
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They didn't have anything to eat, and they complained once again. And the Lord provided for them this manna in the wilderness, and it never ceased.
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Through that entire wilderness experience, they got up every day, and they had food to eat.
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All they had to do was go out and pick it, pick it up off the ground. There it was. God provided, and they learned, they needed to learn, and they were learning to trust
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Him for the provision of everyday needs. And He did so with meat, as He sent the quail.
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And He did so, He did so in this miraculous way, as these, these wilderness wanderers go through day after day, month after month of traversing this arid, dusty, rocky land, and they never needed to go to the shoe store and buy a new pair of shoes.
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They never needed to go down to the clothing store and buy a new set of clothes.
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There weren't any stores to go to, as you well know. But what happened?
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They were learning to trust God and not complain. Their shoes never wore out, their clothes never got old.
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God miraculously provided. This was their experience, the experience of learning to trust rather than to complain.
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They also learned to experience the providing power of God through these various means.
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And then they also, they also, by God's grace, this wilderness generation, received this spectacular revelation from God.
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Moses leads them to Mount Sinai. Here they are at this mountain, and the mountain quakes, and there's fire on the top of this mountain, and they are filled with fear of the awesome power and presence of God.
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But it wasn't that that was so spectacular in the long run. It was the fact that this
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God who met Moses on the mountaintop revealed himself to Moses and to his people.
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He revealed to them what he was like. He revealed to them what he likes.
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He gave them the law. He told them about himself, and he told them about what he wants of them, what he was expecting of them.
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They were the recipients of this revelation. No other generation prior to them had such a written law, the written word of God.
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This was totally new. Prior to the wilderness generation, there was no written word of God.
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Isn't that fascinating to think about? Well, this wilderness generation also suffered the consequence of unbelief, at least the parents of the wilderness generation, of those who have come into the land, the parents, the children who are alive here in Judges chapter 2, these elders that outlived
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Joshua, they witnessed the consequences of unbelief.
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As they watched their parents, their grandparents, and their aunts and their uncles die in that wilderness.
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Now, why? Because when they got to Kadesh Barnea, their parents said, we can't go in, we can't,
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God can't give us this land. I know he said he would, but he can't, he can't give us this land, the people are too great for us, they're too powerful for us, we can't do this.
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And God said, okay, you're not going to obey, you're not going to trust? Very well, you can wander for the next 38 years.
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And so they did until that generation, the parents of these in Judges chapter 2, these young people watched as they grew up through the years, they watched their parents die in that wilderness because of unbelief.
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Furthermore, the wilderness generation enjoyed the ongoing guidance from the
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Lord. Remember that guidance, the pillar of fire, the cloud that led them by day, the pillar of fire by night, anytime they, anytime the pillar stopped, they were to stop and set up camp, anytime the pillar rose off the camp, they were to pack up camp and get ready to go, and that cloud led them all through their journey.
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This, this is the experience of the wilderness generation, they enjoyed the ongoing guidance of the
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Lord. And then it is this generation also that witnessed the overcoming power of God, while still in the wilderness, in the journeying mode, they saw the defeat of Sihon and Og, these kings on the east side of the
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Jordan River, they saw the overcoming power of God when they arrive at the Jordan River, another body of water that stands between them and receiving the promise of God.
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And what does God do in His overcoming power? Again, splits the water, they pass through on dry ground, they witnessed the overcoming power of God as they simply marched around a city seven times, and after the seventh time they blew trumpets, and the walls of that city just collapsed, and they were able to go in and conquer
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Jericho. They witnessed the overcoming power of God as Joshua just prayed for the sun to stand still, to give us an extra day of daylight so that we can finish conquering this foe, and it did, it did.
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Imagine that, noon today if the sun is shining, it stays that same state for the next 24 hours, and it doesn't start to go down again until noon tomorrow, and you witnessed that.
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Is that something you would be telling your kids about for the rest of your life and make sure your grandkids heard those stories?
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Absolutely. And this wilderness generation, these elders that outlived
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Joshua, who here in Judges chapter 2, this generation, they experienced the defeat as God gave them victory after victory over the
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Canaanites in every region of the land of promise. They experienced all this, the wilderness generation.
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So, you've got the Egypt generation, you've got the wilderness generation, the Egypt generation represented by Joshua, the wilderness generation by the elders that outlived
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Joshua, but then in the middle of verse 10, you have another generation, the generation that arose after the
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Egypt and wilderness generation. We could call this the Canaan generation, the
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Canaan generation. This is the generation that we read about back in Judges chapter 1.
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What do we know about this generation? Well, going back to chapter 1, Judges 1, verse 1, what this generation, one thing we can say about this generation is that, listen, they knew in their head, they knew that they were supposed to trust in the
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Lord. How do we know that? Because verse 1 says, after Joshua died, that the children of Israel asked the
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Lord saying, who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?
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The Lord said, Judah shall go up first, and they said, okay, Judah went up first. So they knew that they were supposed to trust the
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Lord. Previous generations have successfully taught them this important lesson.
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Before you're going to go out to battle, you need to seek the Lord's guidance. They learned that by their own experience.
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They learned that by their own failures. Remember, the Egypt generation's failure.
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When the Gibeonites came to Joshua and the elders around Joshua and said, we're coming from a very far away place, and we want to make a treaty with you.
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Okay, sounds good. But they didn't ask the Lord. When they went to fight
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Ai, remember that? Well, we just whooped Jericho, piece of cake.
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This little place, Ai, is nothing compared to Jericho. We can handle this. They just sent some men to go fight and defeat
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Ai, and then they lost. What happened? They did not trust the
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Lord. They didn't go to the Lord for guidance first. So that generation learned from their mistakes, learned from their failures, and taught the next generation, the
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Canaan generation, before you go out to battle, ask the Lord for direction. So they did.
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The other thing we can see from this Canaan generation here in chapter one is that they experienced victory, although it was limited.
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So we read this a couple of weeks ago. We saw how this tribe went to their area, and they did some battle, and they defeated some of the
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Canaanites, but they didn't defeat all of them, and so forth. So they experienced victory, but it was limited. And the third thing we can say about this generation, the
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Canaan generation, is that they devised some strategies for relative prosperity.
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What I'm getting at here is what we see in chapter one, for example, verses 29 and 30.
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Look at that with me again. It says, Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer.
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This is the Canaan generation. The Canaan generation of Ephraimites, they didn't drive out all the
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Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
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Verse 30 says, Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahelol.
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So the Canaanites dwelt among them. But then this statement, And were put under tribute.
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They were put under tribute. That tells you a lot. Because here's the thing. If you can put a people under tribute, you can defeat them.
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You can destroy them. What was God's instruction to his children as they came into Canaan?
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You are to cleanse the land of the Canaanites. You are not to allow them to continue living in the land.
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You're to destroy them all. But this Canaanite generation, they come into this area, the
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Ephraimites and the Zebulun and Asher and some of the other tribes. They came into their territory. And they said,
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Well, you know, there's some Canaanites here. Yeah, we can whoop them. We can beat them. We can destroy them. We can beat them. We can wipe them out. But wouldn't it be better to let some of them live and just put them under tribute, make them our slaves?
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Surely that makes more sense because they can do all this work for us and we can benefit from their work.
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Ah, they devised some strategies for relative prosperity.
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The Canaanite, the Canaan generation did. But was this God's will?
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Was this trusting in God's direction, God's plan, God's power? Obviously not.
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Well, each generation comes and goes. Here's the second proposition.
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Each generation has its own unique responsibilities. Each generation has its unique responsibilities.
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All right. Let's think about the elder generations, the two older generations. The Egypt generation and the wilderness generation, the elder generations, they have their responsibilities.
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And let me put it this way, fathers, fathers, you need to lead by your instruction.
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You need to lead by your instruction. The Lord commanded this of the elder generations.
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He commanded it back in Deuteronomy chapter six. This is Moses giving the law the second time just before the
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Egypt and wilderness generations go into the land of Canaan.
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And he tells them in chapter six verses one to nine, this is what you're to do. This is the commandment, the statutes, judgments, the
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Lord's commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you're crossing over to possess, that you may fear the
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Lord your God to keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you and your son and your grandson all the days of your life that your days may be prolonged.
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Therefore hear, O Israel, be careful to observe it that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the
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Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the
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Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
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And these words, he says, that I command you shall be in your heart.
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You shall teach them diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you are to fathers.
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You are to teach your children the word of God.
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You need to lead with your instruction as you communicate, you teach
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God's word. But you also lead by your instruction as you remember and you recount
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God's works, his works. So, for example, back in Joshua chapter 4, look with me here, follow along in some of these passages and catch this.
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In Joshua chapter 4, verses 21 through 24, the
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Israelites, they have crossed the Jordan River. The Lord gave instruction that an elder from each tribe is to pick up a stone from the middle of the
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Jordan River, the riverbed. Pick up a stone, all right? And so in Joshua 4, verses 21 to following, it says,
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Joshua spoke to the children of Israel saying, they set up these 12 stones on the other side of the
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Jordan River, on this side of the Jordan River. When the children of Israel, then he spoke to the children of Israel saying, when your children, when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, what are these stones doing here?
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Then you shall let your children know saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land.
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For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over as the Lord your
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God did to the Red Sea when he dried up before us until we had crossed over that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the
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Lord, that it is mighty that you children, whom
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I'm telling about this, these works of the Lord, that you may fear the Lord your
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God forever. Fathers, you need to lead by your instruction as the
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Lord commanded. Now, here's the question, did the leadership of Israel do that?
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I believe they did. Look at Joshua chapter 8, all right,
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Joshua chapter 8, this is the verses 32 through 35. Here's the
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Egypt generation, is the Egypt generation going to faithfully lead by instruction?
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Verse 32, Joshua 8, it says, there in the presence of Israel, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he had written.
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Then all Israel with their elders and officers and judges stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the
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Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim, half of them in front of Mount Ebal as Moses, the servant of the
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Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people. And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law.
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There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women, the little ones and the strangers who were living among them.
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Yes, yes, there was the elder generation doing what God had commanded them to do, to teach these truths to the next generation.
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And furthermore, they memorialized the wonderful works that God had done.
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You remember the mound of stones that they brought from the Jordan River.
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They did this repeatedly throughout the conquest, throughout the book of Joshua. After Achan's sin, remember the failure due to Achan's sin.
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What did they do about that? When Achan died in judgment for his sin, they piled a heap of stones.
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Dad, what's this heap of stones for? Why is this heap of stones here? We've seen the one over there. What's this heap of stones for?
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Well, let me tell you about Achan and the trouble he caused by his sin. After the defeat of Ai, another heap of stones was set up.
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After the victory of the long day, when the sun stood still and they defeated the enemy, another heap of stones was set up.
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Dad, what's this heap of stones here for? Why is this heap of stones? Let me tell you about the most amazing thing that happened.
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When we were fighting, I was like 22 years old, before you were ever born, Joshua, he prayed and asked the
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Lord to have the sun stand still, and it did. For the whole time of the day, we kept fighting and we were victorious because God made the sun stand still.
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Isn't this amazing? They memorialized these works of God.
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Furthermore, look at Joshua 22, in verses 26 through 28, they not only memorialized
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God's works, but they memorialized the divine covenant that existed between them as tribes and between them as God's people and God, in Joshua 22, verses 26 through 28.
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The context of this is that, remember, the two and a half tribes, Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, they were receiving their inheritance on the east side of the
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Jordan River, and the other tribes on the west side of the Jordan River. The fighting men from the two and a half tribes were to go with everybody else on the east side of the
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Jordan, or on the west side of the Jordan River, to fight the Canaanites, and then when the land was sufficiently conquered, those two and a half tribes, the fighting men of those two and a half tribes, could go back home on the east side of the
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Jordan River. Well, it's time for them to go home. And when they, before they crossed the
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Jordan to go back home, they built an altar of stone.
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Joshua and the others, they heard about this, and they thought, well, they were erecting a pagan altar. And so they,
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I mean, they thought the worst of this, you know? So they come after him and say, what in the world are you doing? Are you inviting
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God's wrath upon us by erecting an altar to pagan gods? No, they say, that's not what this is all about at all.
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This is what it's about. Look at verses 26 here in Joshua 22.
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Therefore, we said, let us now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but so that it may be a witness between us, between you and us and our generations after us, that we may perform the service of the
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Lord before him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, with our peace offerings, that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, you have no part in the
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Lord. Therefore, we said that it will be when they say this to us or to our generations in the time to come, that we may say, no, look here, here is the replica of the altar of the
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Lord, which our fathers made, though not for burnt offering nor for sacrifices, is a witness between us and you.
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You see what they're doing? What they're doing is erecting this thing to serve as a memorial, a testimony of the covenant that they had between themselves as the tribes and between them and God.
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They were doing this so that the descendants, their descendants would not forget. They would not forget the
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Lord. Fathers, you need to lead by your instruction, but you also need to lead by your example.
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Turn over a couple of pages to Joshua chapter 24. Here is the representative of the
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Egypt generation, Joshua, right? Look what he says in verse 15, familiar verse to many of you.
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Some of you may have part of this verse on your wall in your living room or somewhere. Joshua says this, if it seems evil to you to serve the
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Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. He's speaking to the tribes, he's speaking to the nation.
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Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the
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Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, Joshua says, we will serve the
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Lord. So the people said, far be it from us that we should forsake the
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Lord to serve other gods. Joshua is leading by his example and the elders, shall we say those representing the wilderness generation, the elders further led by their example in verses 16 through 18.
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They said, far be it from us that we forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for the Lord our
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God is he who brought us up and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who did those great signs in our sights and preserved us in all the way we went and among all the people through whom we passed.
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And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the Israel. We also will serve the
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Lord for he is our God. What are they doing? What are these elders doing?
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They're leading by example. We will and our houses will serve the
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Lord. So each generation has its unique responsibilities. The elder generations, the fathers needed to lead by their instruction and example.
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But what about the next generation? The next generation, Judges 2 speaks of.
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I would suggest a few responsibilities that are borne out by the account here.
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One of them is, be teachable, be teachable.
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The next generation needs to be teachable. And by that I mean this, you need to accept the teaching that you are receiving from the elders.
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You need to accept that teaching as authoritative and true and trustworthy.
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In so far as that teaching is the divinely revealed, inspired word of God and its truth, you need to accept that teaching as authoritative, as true, as trustworthy and furthermore, to be teachable means you not only accept it as true and trustworthy and authoritative, but you need to accept that teaching as personally essential.
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So that you say, I need this. I need this.
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It isn't just something for my mom and my dad. It's not something for my grandparents. It's something for me.
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I need this truth. I need this authoritative word from God. Be teachable.
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And following up on that, be malleable, be malleable.
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What does that mean? That means be like clay in the hands of the potter where he can shape you and mold you according to his, according to his will and to his way.
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Be malleable. Be malleable regarding your philosophy of life, regarding your worldview, regarding the grid through which you see things.
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That grid must be, now listen, it must be formed by God's word and by God's works.
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The next generation that is to learn from their fathers needs to be malleable in the sense that you, the grid through which you look at life, you look at the world, that grid needs to be formed by God's word and by God's works.
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So, for example, in contrast, Judges 1 verse 19, right?
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The Lord was with Judah and they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron.
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You see the problem. The grid of the next generation, of the
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Canaan generation, the grid is not formed by God's word and by his works.
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His word says, you can drive out any of the Canaanites, no matter what their weaponry.
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The works that God has performed say, you can drive out any of the enemy, regardless of their fortifications and regardless of their weaponry.
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You can do it. That's the grid that should have been formed. What's the grid through which they're looking at the
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Canaanites? It's a grid that says, they got chariots of iron.
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We don't have chariots of iron. We can't deal with chariots of iron. We better make peace.
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Your philosophy of life, your worldview, your grid through which you view life needs to be formed by God's word and works, malleable.
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Not only your philosophy of life, but your manner of life. Your manner of life, it needs to be formed by God's revealed will, by God's revealed will.
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What has God revealed that he wants you to do, wants you to be like?
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What does God's revealed will say? Does God's revealed will say,
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Canaanite, Canaan generation, does God's will say to you, you know, it might be a good idea if you let some of those
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Canaanites become your slaves. You can benefit from their bondage.
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No, that's not God's revealed will. God's revealed will was clear, it was plain.
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But the Canaan generation said, we know better. We can figure this out better.
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We can override God's revealed will because God just didn't see some things that we see.
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We know better, we're wiser, we're smarter. Be teachable, be malleable, and then be faith -filled, faith -filled.
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That's the crux of the matter, isn't it? In verse 10, the last part of the verse, it says this other generation arose after them who did not know the
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Lord nor the work which he had done. Let me tell you what that does not mean. That word know does not mean intellectual awareness.
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So in other words, it's not saying that this generation rose up and they didn't know, they did not know intellectually anything about Yahweh, about the
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Lord, the God of Israel. They were just totally ignorant. No, that's not what it means.
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There's a difference between knowing facts and knowing something by experience.
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So this is the deal here. These are people, this is a generation that arose after the elder generations who did not know by experience the
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Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. Why didn't they know?
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Because when they came to these Canaanites that had chariots of iron, they said, ah, we can't deal with them, we better just make a peace treaty with them.
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No faith, no faith. See, here's the deal.
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The fathers can lead by instruction and example. But listen, next generation, listen.
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You personally need to experience God's word. You need to experience
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God's word. Now, so you need to by faith put your trust in God and what
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God has said. You need to look at the Bible not as a bunch of nice stories that you learned when you were a kid in Sunday school, and it's got some helpful stuff to make your life more successful, but it's not indispensable.
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If that's how you view God's word, that's not a faith -filled view of the word of God.
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You personally need to experience God's word by believing God and believing his word, and you personally need to experience
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God's word by trusting God and his promises. God's word promises that Jesus saves, that whosoever cometh unto me,
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I will in no wise cast out, is the promise of God's word in the words of Jesus himself.
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You personally need to come to that faith in Jesus Christ. Whosoever believes on the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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Whoever receives, believes in, trusts in Jesus, he is given the right to be called a child of God.
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You personally need to receive that truth, to trust in God and his promises.
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You personally need to experience God's word by obeying him. God tells you repent and be converted, and so you must, you must.
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God's word says to you, commands you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You must personally do so. It is not enough that mom and dad did.
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It is not enough that your grandparents did. It's not enough that the elders around you in the church building did.
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This is something you personally need to be faith -filled in response, personally experiencing
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God's word, and you personally, you personally need to experience God's works.
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Not only his word, but his works. His works of saving grace, where you can look back on how
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God so graciously worked in your life that he brought you to a place of utter repentance and faith, where you repented of your sin and you trusted
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Christ as your savior, and you look back on that and you say, God did this, this is the work of God.
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You experience the work of God in his saving grace. You experience God's work in sanctifying grace, where he's molding you and shaping you and changing you, making you more and more like Jesus Christ.
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You need to experience personally his work of daily grace, where you see him providing your needs.
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You look at this food on your plate, and you don't look at it as something that mom fixed and put on the table.
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You look at it as something that God gave as he provides your daily needs.
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You experience his answers to your prayers, not just the prayers of mom and dad, your prayers.
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That means you pray, and you experience God answer that prayer. You experience
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God's work of guidance in your life, where you seek his guidance and he responds.
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Each generation has unique responsibilities. Then thirdly, and I'll quickly close, each generation will be held personally accountable.
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Each generation will be held personally accountable. Look at these two verses, verse 7 and then verse 11.
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Verse 7 says, so the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived
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Joshua. Here's the Lord observing. What's he observing? He's observing the
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Egypt and the wilderness generation, and what he's observing is they're serving the
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Lord. Then verse 11. Then the children of Israel, this is the next generation that arose.
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The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. Verse 13, they forsook the
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Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths, these pagan gods. The Lord observes those who are faithful and serve him.
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The Lord observes those who are evil and serve false gods. He's observing.
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As he observes, he identifies righteous living in verse 7, serving the
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Lord. He observes evil living, verses 12 and 13, the forsaking of the
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Lord, the worshiping of other gods, the committing of yourself to other gods, the snubbing of the
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Lord God of your fathers for your own gods to worship and follow, and the
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Lord responds. The Lord observes, the Lord identifies the behavior, the response, the faith or lack thereof, and the
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Lord responds. How does he respond? The last part of verse 6, it seems that the
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Lord blesses obedient service. Joshua dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
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Those who are faithfully serving the Lord saw him bless as they conquered more and more their tribal territory.
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But the Lord also responds, you see in verses 14 and 15, by punishing evil departure.
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The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. He delivered them into the hands of plunders who despoiled them.
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He sold them into the hands of enemies all around, so they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the
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Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed.
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The Lord punishes an evil departure, delivering you over to those who will take advantage of you, disabling you from enjoying true success.
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Devastating, the Lord was against them for calamity, distressing them.
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They were greatly distressed. So here's the thing. You may think, next generation, you may think that your way, pursuing your gods, will bring you happiness and success and pleasure and comfort and joy.
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You're in for a very, very unfortunate ride, because the
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Lord observes and he identifies and he responds.
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Look, each generation, each generation comes and goes.
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Each generation has personal responsibilities, and each generation is going to be held personally accountable.
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So fathers, lead by your instruction in God's word.
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Lead by your example of faithful growing in Christ likeness service, to the one true
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God, lead. Perhaps there's a father here today that needs to forsake the false gods of your fathers.
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Maybe you need to leave those gods behind. Maybe there's a father here today that needs to turn to Christ, and trust him as your savior.
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Do so, do so today on this Father's Day. Bow the knee to Christ and discover, find, experience a heavenly father.
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But next generation, listen, next generation, don't listen to the siren call of today's gods, wannabe gods, don't listen to them.
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Know God, know the one true God, know him through the only savior, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and know God's works as you trust him and obey.
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Our Father in heaven, I pray that each one of us in this room would respond to your word.
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As you confront us with our responsibilities, whatever generation we land in this morning, help us to respond rightly, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Let's take our hymnals and turn to number 418. 418 as we close today.
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Just want to sing the first and the last stanzas of trust and obey. Good challenging song, but it's an encouraging song as well.
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When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. Let's stand as we sing, shall we?
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418, the first and the last stanzas. When we walk with the
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Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way.
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While we do his good will, with us still and with all who will trust and obey.
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Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
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Then in fellowships we will sit at his feet or we'll walk by his side in the way.
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What he says we will do, where he sends we will go.
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We trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
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Make it back tonight, six o 'clock for evening service. Be back in the Gospel of Mark. Looking at the purpose of Jesus challenges us to know our purpose.
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Otherwise, have a wonderful afternoon, especially fathers. I trust the Lord will bless you in this day.
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Let's pray, shall we? And now, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, may our
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Lord Jesus Christ enable you to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
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Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. On this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.