Wednesday, September 18, 2013

West Side Story Part 2


This week, we continued the “West  Side Story” series – examining Promised Land living on the west of the Jordan. We examined the importance of driving out the “ites” from our hearts (where the Promised Land is for us). The ites represent sin and sinful ways that have been rooted in us that limit us from being productive in the Kingdom.  Numbers 33:55 says that, if we do not drive out all of the inhabitants, they will become barbs in our eyes (causing “vision” problems) and thorns in our sides.

We discussed three examples from the Word of this instruction in practice. The first was with Joshua himself leading God’s people into Canaan. After the victories at Jericho and Ai, Joshua is approached by the Gibeonites, but they didn’t present themselves as Gibeonites. Instead they made themselves appear to be a people from far away who wanted to make a treaty with Israel.  Their story appears to check out so, and this is important, Joshua does not “inquire of the Lord” (Joshua 9:14). We can do that sometimes. We can get overconfident and not stop to ask God for His opinion. Then we make a mistake that can cost us. Remember, God is not leading us to defeat to teach us a lesson. We find defeat by our own weakness and mistakes.

Exodus 34:15 specifically stated that God’s people were not to make treaties with anyone in the Promised Land. If Joshua had asked God, the deception would have been revealed. The Gibeonites end up being an issue for the Israelites on numerous occasions. Joshua might have thought he fixed the problem by making the Gibeonites work for them. That is simply making a deal with and accepting sin.  We can tend to do that. We may have a sin in our hearts that we make a deal with – perhaps even delude ourselves into thinking it is actually a good thing in our lives. Maybe we declare that our anger problem is actually a motivator for us. Maybe we think our gossip problem is not gossip – it’s being helpful in warning people about others. This is a dangerous place to be.

 

We listed the ites in the Promised Land and what they represent for us:

1)      Hittites—fear and worry—this stops us from stepping out and risking for God

2)      Canaanites—perversion and lust

3)      Amorites—selfish ambition, jealousy, envy, gossip

4)      Perrizzites/Hivites—poverty and lack

5)      Jebusites—worthlessness and low self image

Remember these things aren’t sinful unless we accept them in our lives as how we’re supposed to live.

We also looked at the story of Samson. Samson had a problem with women. Eventually, it cost him dearly. But his problem was not a one-time thing. You see, Samson was a Nazarite. As such, there were three things he was not to do – cut his hair, consume wine or grapes and be near dead things. When we read his story in Judges chapters 14-16 we find he does all three.   He even thought he was getting away with it because nothing bad was happening to him. This is how the enemy likes to operate. You see, God is not punishing you for your sin. But, when we don’t feel like we were punished we can think it was all “ok.” The enemy is the one who comes to collect on your sin. He is not always going to come right away. He likes to wait until the worst possible moment. He likes to wait until you are about to hit a new level in your Christian walk or until you reach a level of great influence. He wants the most bang for the buck.  This is what happened to Samson. Finally, the enemy came to collect. His un-dealt-with sin finally produced after what had been sown. The haircut was not the cause of him losing his power, but merely the final straw.

Finally, we looked at Paul who in 2 Corinthians 12 talks about a thorn in his side (sound familiar – Numbers 33:55???). Many have theorized what his thorn was. Some believe he had a sickness or physical handicap. However, I believe the thorn was a sin. What, Paul struggled with sin? Um, yeah, we all do.  Paul was a student of the law. He knew exactly what he was saying when he called it a thorn in his side. Then he says he asked God three times to take it away. You can’t ask God to take away the sinful desires you have. He is definitely always faithful to take away the penalty of your sin when you ask. But he needs you to do something to remove the desire yourself. The answer is in God’s reply to Paul.

God’s response is “my grace is sufficient.” To me, this proves it was a sin issue. Grace is the prescription for sin. It is not the prescription for sickness or disease--Healing is. Grace is what we need to overcome sin. Let’s not confuse the way we like to use biblical terms with their actual meaning. Some may think God was saying He would give Paul the grace to deal with the ailment.  But, Biblically, grace applies to sin. Titus 2:11-12 says that grace is what teaches us to say no to ungodliness. That is what Paul needed (as so do we). God’s grace would be sufficient to cover his sin and to teach him to sin no more.   Get hold of that grace to help you drive the sin out of your heart.

Three things we need to do to overcome ites
1) Remove the temptation
2) Fast
3) Keep eating Daily Bread (the word)--that way we can replace the problem with the truth



  To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.