This
week, we continued the “West Side Story” series – examining Promised Land
living on the west of the Jordan
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 Israel
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
