This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word, verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes, where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. Foreign. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Judges, chapter 2, verses 7 through 10. Really, the important part of this is not the death of Joshua, because we're gonna, you know, this is. This passage is going to enlighten us about his death and burial. But the important part of this is the end of it and how it relates to how the last Bible study worked out. And in our last Bible study, the angel of the Lord came and told them that, you know, he had delivered them out of Egypt, he had given them the inheritance, he swore to their forefathers, he had told them to obey his voice. He had told them to drive out the enemy, and they'd not done it. And so he said that when they didn't drive out the enemy and they didn't do what he had told them to do, that the enemy, the Canaanites, would be a thorn in his side. And remember, they are a people who worship false gods and who practice abominable things. Okay? They practiced child sacrifice. They practiced all sorts of deviancy as far as their worship and related to also other practices. Don't wanna get into it too much with our Bible study here, but they were an abomination to God. God told them to drive them out, not have them anywhere near them. And when they didn't do that, the angel of the Lord said, they're gonna be a thorn in your flesh. They're gonna be a problem for you. And what did they do? Well, they did what a lot of Christians do. They wept about it, they mourned over it. They lamented greatly, as it were. They did the things that on the outside seemed as if they understood the gravity of the nature. And then they went back home rather than figuring out how to fix the situation, rather than figuring out how to do it right and do it rightly, which would have been to come up with a plan to finish the job, to drive out the Canaanites. Which would have been to come together and decide, we're going to meet this challenge and we're going to be obedient where we were disobedient. Rather than do that, they wept loudly and they went home. All right? And when they wept loudly and went home, they didn't learn the lesson. They didn't learn that God requires obedience over sacrifice. Just because you give him a sacrifice of mourning, a sacrifice of tears, doesn't mean that you've done anything good. God desires our obedience over our sacrifice. He desires his grace over our sacrifice. Just because your heart broken over it doesn't change anything. That's not going to change anything. What's required is that you do something about it, that you act upon it, that you hear God and it moves you to words and actions that change things. And they didn't do that. They just went back to where they were. And where were they? Well, they were living amongst the Canaanites, and so they just went back to what they were doing before. They didn't change anything. They didn't do anything to change anything. So what happens? Well, things just move along as they always have. Things just keep going. They just continue in a continuum that never changes. It says, so the people serve the Lord. All the days of Joshua, what did they do? Well, they worshiped God. They followed his laws and. And precepts. They heard his voice and practiced all the things he told them to practice. As far as worship's concerned, as far as the festivals are concerned, they did all the trappings of the religious. They did all those things. But their hearts never were fully changed because they never fully acted on what God told them to do. And so they served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. I mean, they kept on going past Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord had done for Israel. Notice the people who had seen God do the big stuff were slowly passing away. They were slowly moving away. And the generations came after them because they were not obedient to God and doing what God said. They did not see God do big things. You go, well, it wasn't a time where God was going to do big things. That's not, that's not true. There's never a time where God doesn't desire to be God to His people. I want to say that again. There's never a time when God doesn't want to be God to His people. And God does big stuff. God reveals Himself in mighty ways. God desires to be glorified and to be known for who he is. And who is He? Well, he's wonderful. He's good. He's mighty. He's great. He's full of love and mercy. He wants to do big stuff. God wants to do big stuff. He wants you to see him for who he is. He wants you to enjoy the wonder of his goodness. He wants you to enjoy the wonder of his grace. He wants you to enjoy the wonder of his. Of. Of knowing him and the, and, and the amazement of what it's like to, to really see God for who he is. He wants that for his people. Which, which necessarily, and hear me, it necessarily means that he wants to do big things in your life. He wants to do that. Now, what would cause him not to do that? Disobedience. What would cause him not to. Not to. What would cause you not to do that? Well, you just having a form of godliness, but denying its power, just continuing on, doing the stuff that was done before, not because you're seeking after God, but because it's become a ritual or practice, it's become your tradition to do these things rather than. We're doing it because we love God and we want to be obedient to Him. And so what do they do? They, they went back in their disobedience, remained in their disobedience, lived in their disobedience, passed that disobedience on down to their children. And what did their children do? Well, they're, they're not a generation seeing anything that God does. Because God's not going to move. In your lack of faith, you go, well, God can do anything. Sure he can. But the problem is, is he's not a God that enables sin. He causeth no man to sin. The Bible says God causeth no man to sin. Well, if I, if I enable you in your sin, am I not causing you to continue to remain in your sin? If I make it easy and if I make it palpable for you to live the way you live, if I do that, do you remain in your sin? Yes. Am I in some ways a cause of that? Absolutely. I am. I'm Not a cause of the original sin. But I'm a cause that you remain there. God doesn't do that. God doesn't do that. He doesn't cause you to sin. He does not desire that you remain in your trespasses and your sin. He doesn't want to do that. So what is he going to do? He's going to put you in a position where you must choose. That's the salvific process. These are people who know him. He puts you in a position to choose, to be obedient to what he says, how he works. So what happens here? They didn't do that. And so Joshua passes on. And all the elders that lived with Joshua and outlived him, they all pass on. And what do they do? Joshua, son of nun, the servant of the Lord died when he was 110 years old. He lived till ripe old age. They had the opportunity to hear from God, to see God, to act upon what God has done. They'd had the opportunity to see that a lot. They didn't do it. So what do they do? Well, they bury him within the borders of the inheritance of Timnaharis in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of the mount of Mount Gaish. You go, well, why is it telling me that? Well, it's going to tell you where Joshua's inheritance was. We already know where he took his inheritance. And he died in his inheritance. That's a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful picture of Joshua living a long life. A long life in which he'd been obedient to God. A long life where he. He got to enjoy the fruits of his faith. He got to enjoy the fruits of his faith. And he got to see God do big stuff. And he got to. He got to see him thunder on the mountain and part the Red Sea and make the Nile river turn to blood. He got to see the manna from heaven and the water from the rock. He got to see the Jordan river mount up on both sides as the priest stepped into the water. He got to see the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. He got to see the sons of Anat killed. He got to see the big stuff. He did. And God blessed him and allowed him to live for 110 years and enjoy his inheritance. And he was buried in his inheritance. And what a great story that is. But that doesn't fix the problem of the people. Doesn't fix the problem of the people at all. When all the. And let me say this. If you're. If you're if you spend your Christian life following someone who is following after God, and you're not following after God, your own self in your own heart, then they're going to pass away and they're going to reap the benefit of all that. But you're not. You're not. That's why pastor worship and leader worship doesn't work. There's only one leader to be worshiped and there's only one shepherd to be honored, and that's the Great shepherd, and that's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And when you've given your heart totally to him, sure, you're going to follow your pastors and the leaders God's placed in your life, but you're going to walk boldly yourself. You're going to be like Caleb, and you're going to take your own inheritance and you're going to do the things God told you to do, and you're going to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and you're going to enjoy the benefits of God's grace given to you. And you're going to see see big things happen in your life. And it says, when all the generations had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. And this is the worst part of it. And we all love our children and we really, really love our grandchildren. And we want to see all of them come to a full knowledge of God. And we want to see all of them walk with God. And we want to see all of them benefit from the great reward it is to serve our God. We want to see that. But if we don't walk in, it's hard for them to see it. It's hard for them to know it. What they know is to be comfortable in their religiosity, to be comfortable in their traditions, to be comfortable in their practices, rather than to be discomforted by a God who's a God of change and who is a God of new life and who's a God of hope and light. They learn to sit on their laurels and be disobedient to God not by sins of commission, but by sins of omission. They omit. They fail to do what God has told them to do because they've seen it practiced by their parents and their grandparents. And so they think serving God is just a few religious acts during the year or a few religious practices during the week, and. And then you're okay. They don't talk about him when they're going to come and they don't, they don't discuss what God did in their lives. They don't expect big things from God and they don't see big things from God and then they don't know God. Nobody wants that for their children and grandchildren. Nobody desires that for them. Nobody sets out in their life to say, I'm going to follow God and uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be religious, I'm going to be a Christian, but I'm not really gonna pass on anything of any value to my children. Nobody starts out that way, but many, many in that way. And so their children don't chase after God and their children have no hearkening toward God. And when the, when the waves of this world and the storms of life hit, they, they're blown off course. And when, when the enemy comes and sells them lies in their college classrooms and on TikTok. And as they walk in their way and they start living a lifestyle that doesn't even have the appearance or any of the trappings of what we would call the spirit filled Christian life. And their lives start spiraling toward this world. And you can see death and destruction down the road. You wonder why. And you wonder why? Because they have never ever seen it practiced out by those who know the power of God. And there has to be. And you go, well, there's a lot of people that never ever seen the power of God in any place, anytime, anywhere. Well, that's because they've not been around the people who've chased after him. There's not been around a people who've desired to see his hand at work, desired to see his heart feel. And it's always been a hunger of my life to see that happen. And praise God, I do get to see it happen. I've got to see it happen before and I'm getting to see it happen now. And I want to be a part of that. I want that to be the end result of the resolution of my days. That sure I'm buried and I get to enjoy my inheritance, but that the main thing is that I got to see God and glorify him for being who he really is and that he's not just the big Santa Claus in the sky, that he is the, he is the God of all things and Lord of all of my life and Lord of all of those lives around me so that we can see, see the fullness of his hand. I praise God for that. And I praise God that he offers that to all his children. He wants us all to know him. And he never ever wants a generation to be raised up who don't know him and don't know the works of his hand and wander off into darkness. He doesn't desire that. He wants us to know Him. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name
