the glory land and I long to be by my Savior's side just over in the glory land just over in the glory land over in the glory land The mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. I am on my way to the mansion's fair, just over in the glory land. There to sing her praise and her glory share, just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land, well, say, oh, when in the angels' band, just over in Just over in the glory land There with the mighty host I'll stand Just over in the glory land What a joyful thought that my Lord I'll see Just over in the glory land And with kindred safe there forever be Just over in the glory land Just over in the glory land There with the mighty host of strangers Just over in the glory land Just over in the glory land With the mighty host I'll stand Just over in the glory land With the blood washed clean I will shout and sing Just over in the glory land Glad Hosannas to Christ the Lord and King Just over in the glory land Just over Brother Peace, would you open us up in a word of prayer? Remain standing and turn back to page 144. Page 144. It's coming a day When no heartache shall come No more piles in the sky No more tears to dim the eye All is peace forevermore On the happy golden shore What a day, glorious day that will be When my Jesus I shall see And I look upon his face The one who saved me by his grace When he takes me by the hand And leads me through the promised land What a day! that will be. There'll be no sorrow there, no more burden to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day that will be When my Jesus I shall see When I look upon His face The one who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the promised land For today, glorious day, that will be. Brother Phelps, would you ask the blessing of God on the offering? Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity that we have to give back to you a part of the bounty that you've given each one of us. We pray, Lord God, that you'd multiply it, use it to your honor and glory. We pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Our scripture reading tonight is Judges chapter 1 verses 1 through 3. Judges 1, 1 through 3. When you find it, stand in reverence to God's Word, that Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I've delivered the land into his hand. And Judah said unto Simon his brother, come up with me into my lot that we may fight against the Canaanites. I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simon went with him. Thank you, and you may be seated. Pastor? All right, good to see everybody out tonight. And in spite of this, is there a Super Bowl going on today? Is that later? When does that go? Right now? Yeah, okay. Is that baseball? Yeah, I think so. It's pure, it's American football. It's the only football. And anyway, no, never mind. Claudia's going, wait a minute. Anyway, we're going to have a battle here in a minute. So good to see everybody out. Let's go to a word of prayer and just get ready for the message here in just a little bit. Starting the book of Judges. And what a weird book that is. But I'm looking forward to that. Let's have a time of prayer and I'll close this out here in just a moment. Father, thank you tonight and for all those that have been able to come out here and Lord that have chosen to be here tonight, I thank you for that. I pray you'd just bless tonight in a special way as you teach us and seek to change us. Pray we'd allow you to do that in our heart and life, that as your Holy Spirit does His work in our heart, we'd be ready, just quickly ready to say yes, and to see what you point out to us, to agree with you quickly, and to do whatever's necessary to make the changes that we need. And Father, I just pray you'd bless your people here in a special way, bless those that aren't able to be here tonight through sickness, and just pray that you'd just strengthen them and raise them up and bring them back to us. And we'll thank you for what you do, in Jesus' name, amen. All right. Please stand one more time and turn to page 158. Page 158. There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. for the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by we shall meet o'er the beautiful shore. In the sweet We shall meet on that beautiful shore We shall sing on that beautiful shore The melodious songs of the blast And our spirits shall sorrow no more, Not a sigh for the blessings of rest. In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on the beautiful shore. In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore To our bountiful Father above We will offer our tribute of praise And with the glorious gift of His love In the blessings that hallow our day In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Thank you. You may be seated, pastor. Every once in a while, I hear different chords in that song that I usually play and I like it. Oh, nice chord. I like that. I pick the, I hear those things. I'm like, I don't usually play that chord there. And I really like it. I'm going to have to ask later what is in there. Cause I just, anyway. Okay. I like it. So, where are we at tonight? Brother Jim read our text in the book of Judges. If somebody could remind me, when church is over, to have a quick business meeting, and it's something we need to make a decision on quickly, so we do have that, ah, look at that, we do have that ability to do that once in a while when we need to, and I've already talked to the men, and about, actually, I called you, but, I didn't, he didn't answer. Allen is one of those that looks at his phone a little bit kind of like anathema, you know, it's just there, right? Yeah, and some of y'all are like that, right? Your phone is just, yeah. You have a friend right here. Oh yeah, that's right, Martin. And yeah, and so anyway, Yeah, so well if somebody were remind me after church, I'll explain some things to you, and we'll have a quick meeting and see that goes. Anyway, alright, Judges chapter 1, and Brother Jim has read the text. If you go back to Joshua chapter 23 with me, I want to set a little bit of ground work before we jump into the book of Judges here. But in Joshua 23, Joshua himself is old, his years are waning on, he is on his way out, so to say. In verse 1 it says, and it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And so Joshua in verses 2 through 3 is going to call up all of the assembly of Israel and he's going to give them a charge. And you see it here in verse number 3 and on down into verse 11. And the Bible says this, and you have seen, this is what Joshua told Israel, and you have seen all that the Lord your God hath done. unto all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is He that fighteth, that hath fought for you." How many can look back in your life and see what the Lord has fought for you? Amen? Aren't you happy for that? Behold, I have divided unto you by the lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan with all the nations I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. and the Lord your God he shall expel them from before you and drive them from out of your sight and ye shall possess their land as the Lord your God hath promised unto you so God has already made the promise the land is yours Right? And now you're just going to have to move forward with me. Look at v. 6. Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. Right? Stay in the book. Don't veer from the Word of God. Don't change. Verse 7, that you come not among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods. Right? The Bible says it's a shame to speak of those things of them that are done in secret. There's some things we probably ought not to even talk about. He says, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them, but cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done this day. So we see the warning that Joshua is giving and the admonition that he is giving to the children of Israel of the Lord here. not to get close to the nations, not to make mention of the nations, don't make mention of the gods of these nations, definitely don't swear by their gods, don't bow down to their gods, and hey, don't serve them. It's very simple. And he says, but, verse 8, but cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day." Now these people that came out of the wilderness was a different generation than the one that came out of Egypt. The one that came out of Egypt 20 years and upward, they died. This new generation that has come out, they have a relationship with God that Joshua has brought them through. And I tell you, this is a different group of people, and they have a heart for God. And it says here, the admonition is to continue to cleave to God as you have done. I mean, don't stop this. And I was looking at this word cleave here, and my wife brought something here for me. And this word cleave means to cling or to stick. to cling or to stick, how many hate those boxes of saran wrap? You ever try to use, I mean, you have to be a, the ladies are like, no, it's fine. I don't know what your problem is. It's nothing at all. Yeah, right, whatever. You take it off, you pull that box. We have this box. It's, I don't know, it's huge. It's the bulk size, right? And I pull it out, and I begin to tear it off, and I slowly tear it off, and I get to about the end of it, And it's like, oh, it's like all, it's like this. Actually, it's doing it right now. It is all wrapped up. Did you do this on purpose? This is all, yeah. No, I don't need help. Look at this, I hate this. So then, watch, then you gotta come back and do this, because you're gonna try to help your wife and put this over a bowl, which it ends up going like this. and it's fine. Why? I know you ladies, you're absolutely disgusted with this, but it'll go out a little bit. But why? See, I can't even get it off this. This is the problem. This is perfect. Why? Well, because it's sticking to itself. What is it doing? What do they call it? Cling wrap. If it was a company. Oh, right in my water. If it was a cling wrap company that read their King James Bible, they would have named it cleave wrap. Here's you some cleave wrap. And because it cleaves to itself, it's supposed to cleave to everything else. And this is what, I love the illustration here, because this is what God is saying. Listen, don't bow down to the gods of this land, don't worship them, don't talk about them, don't come near them, don't serve them, but Cling to God, right? Cling to God. Wow, when you, and this is your choice. See, this is, I hate this stuff. This is, watch, when you cleave to God, you know what, not much can get in between it. Right? It's hard to get away from Him. It's hard to pull it apart, right? If you, out of your own heart and desire, have desired to cleave to God, it's kind of hard to pull you away from Him. But the thing is, there are things that can pull you away. There are things that can. I'll save that for later. That's a good piece right there. Anyway, here you go. You want this? See, look at this. It does it every time. Hate that stuff. Cleave to God. That's what he's saying. Cleave, cleave to God. You know what he says? If you will do that, if you'll stick to God like this, you know what he'll do? He'll drive out the inhabitants. That's what they're told. He will continue to drive out those nations that are living in your land. if you would just continue to cling and to cleave to God like you have been. He goes on in verse 11 and says, Love God. Protect your heart. How do you continue to cleave to God? To love Him and to protect your heart. Guard thy heart. Right? The Bible says over in Proverbs, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. We're supposed to keep and to guard our heart and to keep our heart from loving anything, anything before God. I don't know if this is a more appropriate time tonight or not, but there are people that love a stupid game, rather than they love over God. I'm sorry, if you've gone somewhere tonight to go watch a game, but instead of coming to the house of God like God has desired, and God would be pleased with, and God would speak to you, could you imagine, hey, we're gonna meet over here and God's gonna come talk to you here in a little bit, yeah, I'm gonna go watch a game. Wow. Yeah. Keep your heart from loving anything before God. He says, if you'll cling to me, or cling to these things instead of me, watch. He says, I'm not going to drive them out. Verse 13. God does not override your free will. God will not be the third wheel in the relationship you have with this world, the flesh, or the devil. He won't. Listen, if you want to cling to other gods, He's going to allow you. He'll allow you to do that. He'll put roadblocks. You'll have the conviction of the Spirit of God and the drawing of the Spirit of God. But listen, you are able to do what you want. But listen, you cannot expect God to deliver you from someone or something that you love. You cannot expect God to rush in and deliver you from some inhabitant that you actually have ended up falling in love with. Now this is the problem that we face on a daily basis. We come to the place where over and over again we have the propensity to fall in love with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And so God warns them though, verse 13, know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you, but they shall be snares and traps unto you, scourges in your side, and thorns in your eyes, ouch, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God given you. There's a warning. Watch, when you don't deal with the inhabitants, not God, they, they will end up becoming the thorn and the trap and the snare and the scourge. And so in chapter 24, Israel's in total agreement. They said, amen, absolutely. We're gonna just keep serving God. I like this. 24, look at verse 16. They respond to Joshua and the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Look at verse 21. And the people said unto Joshua, nay, but we will serve the Lord. Verse 24, and the people said unto Joshua, the Lord, our God, will we serve? His voice will we obey? And we see in verse 31, Israel served the Lord all of the days of Joshua and all of the days of the elders that overlived Joshua and that in which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done unto Israel. Now this is the backdrop as we come into the book of Judges. Israel has been in the land, God has driven out nations already that had been there when that had been occupying the promised land that God had given them. He has already driven some of them out. He has promised to continue driving them out as Israel continues to cling on to Him and love. But there was one caveat here at the end of it, which was, I will continue if you continue. I will move forward if you move forward. forward. And this is the backdrop as we come to Judges chapter 1. Judges chapter 1, Joshua has died. Joshua is gone now. He was a great leader. He had a great heart for God. He loved God. I think he had such a walk with God it was contagious to those around him. I mean, when you look at the generations after he died that continue to serve God, it tells you a lot about Joshua's relationship with the Lord and with these people. And so, but he's gone now. He's gone now. And look at verse 1, Now the death of Joshua came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them? And so Israel here is going to God and asking, Hey, obviously, there's still inhabitants of the land. At this time, they still have been cleaving unto the Lord in part. And so they go up to the Lord and they're like, okay, well, what are we going to do next? Who are we going to take out next? Who are we going to drive out? We need help in driving these inhabitants out. Who should go up first and do this? And of course, God tells them that Judah is going to go up and do this. But I want to give you a reminder here in this section. You know, I am thankful for the Joshua's that God brings into our life. And I believe everybody, when they got saved, maybe God brought a type of a Joshua into your life to help you and to lead you and to guide you and to disciple you. And they were somebody you could call when you needed some advice. I mean, when you needed somebody to pray for you, they were the one that you were going to call. But can I tell you, you'll find in the pattern of your Christian life that eventually God will remove the Joshua from your life. He'll take them away. It might've been a pastor. It might've been a godly lady. It might've been a godly man. It might've been somebody. Might've been a sibling. It might've been a father or a mother. But eventually God will remove a Joshua. Why? Because he wants you to have a relationship with him on your own. And right here in Israel's life, Joshua's now gone. And I love this, after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites? At this point, they still had a relationship with the Lord on their own. No doubt, Joshua, we see in Joshua 23 and 24, Joshua had led them that way, to have a personal relationship with their God. And this is exactly what they're, doing, right? Listen, you can't always make decisions based on someone else's help and eventually you need to come to the place where your decisions are going to be made between you and God alone. And you know what that means? It means you're going to have to know how to get a hold of God. You're going to have to know how to hear from God. And you're going to need to know the leading of God in your life. And you can't do that with Joshua there. He's going to have to go away. And this is exactly where they are. They didn't have, so what did they do? They asked the Lord. Look at verse two. Judah was chosen by God. Judah was gonna go first. They know they're not strong enough. They know they're not strong enough for this enemy, and I love this in verse three. So they went out and found help of Simeon, another tribe. Verse three, and Judah said unto Simeon his brother, come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanite, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot, So Simeon went with him. Now, throughout the chapter of chapter 1, we have a list of tribes who had land to clear of inhabitants that were still living there. Inhabitants that serve other gods. Inhabitants that would be a snare to Israel. Inhabitants that would be a thorn in their side and a snare and a trap to them. These are the inhabitants. They did not serve the God of Israel. They had no desire to serve the God of Israel. They were just fine with their own religion, with their own idolatry. but they were still living throughout the land and they, listen, no matter how long it has gone on and no matter how long the inhabitants have now lived in the land with Israel, the command of God still stands to get them out of the land and to clean out the land. And so we saw here there are three different people groups that are mentioned here in chapter one. There are the Canaanites, we're very familiar with them. There are the Jebusites, we know that name very well. And then there are the Amorites. And of course there's more than that, but these are the ones that are listed here in chapter 1. But the point is, every one of these, all of them, had to be driven out from the land. Why? Because God said so. Why? Because God knows better than we do. And God knows better than Israel does. So Judah thought enough to get help. But the rest of the tribes really don't. Judah was unable to drive out the inhabitants in their possession. So they got help. They were unable. They were unable. That's the operative word. Unable. They knew they were weak. But the other tribes, it seems to me that they just chose not to. Think about that. They just chose not to. Look at verse 21. And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem. But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. Look at verse 27. And neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethsheen and her towns, nor Tanakh and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Eblim and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns. But the Canaanites dwell in that. 29. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. 30. Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries. 31. Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko, nor the inhabitants of Zida, nor of Ehlab, or of Aksib, nor of Helba, nor of Aphek, nor of Rahab. But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out." Verse 33, "'Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but dwelt among the Canaanites.'" Go down, look at verse 34, and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not suffer them to come down into the valley. I mean, they were just totally overrun, right? They had no power whatsoever, and obviously they didn't ask for any help. Don't you think Judah would have come up and helped Dan? I think they would have. I think Judah and Simeon could have said, hey, yeah, yeah, well, come on up. I don't know why they didn't. Bible doesn't say, so I don't want to interject too much here, but Dan was completely, completely unable. No, Judah knew they were weak, and so they went with Simeon, and Simeon eventually went and helped Judah, and Judah helped Simeon, and vice versa. But it seems like the rest of these tribes, it doesn't seem like there's any inference in these verses whatsoever that it was just a power issue except for Dan, and they still had an option to get some help as well, no doubt. But the others seem just pretty content to go ahead and just hang out with the inhabitants, to deal with them. to placate them. If you don't poke the hornet's nest, it can stay there, and I can get along with my business. See, it's one thing to have inabilities. Watch, it's another thing to be indifferent. God will help those with inabilities. He does not help those who are just indifferent, who, watch, refuse to choose a side. Do you remember what it says over in Revelation chapter three? Unto the angel of the church of land, to see or write these things, I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold, right? I would thou wert cold or hot, but because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. It's like, blech! Disgusting. Kind of like lukewarm coffee. I know there's crazies out there that like that. But I tell you what, they're not godly by any means, because God doesn't like it. My wife doesn't, you don't scare me. God says pick a side. Joshua said the same thing, choose you this day whom you will serve, right? Just choose you to, what's that guy on Mount Carmel? Elijah said it, right? If Baal be God, serve him. If God be God, serve him. Just pick a side, don't be indifferent. Hey, so, You can be weak and cold and have inabilities and know God will show up. He puts on His clothes of war and He shows up. He's the Lord of hosts and He can show up. But listen, if you're just indifferent and go, whatever, whatever, I'll just deal with it, whatever. You're gonna have inhabitant trouble. Yes, you will. And so this is, these inabilities and the indifferences here with the inhabitants, with the children of Israel, with the tribes. But in chapter 2, as we get to chapter 2, there's going to be a remembrance here that God brings back to Israel. Look at verse one, and an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt and I brought you into the land which I swear to your fathers as I said, I will never break my covenant with you. Aren't you glad that God is a covenant keeping God, right? We are in covenant under a blood covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Our names are written on his hand. The marks are on his hand. He can show them to the father at any time. They belong to me. Those covenant marks are right here. And I'm so thankful he keeps covenant and God reminds them that he keeps covenant. He says, you shall make no league with the inhabitants of the land. You shall throw down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. Look at this. Why have you done this? You ever had a parent say that to you after you? Why have you done this? Oh, right. That is the best answer. I don't know. Because if you really told the right answer, it might be really bad. God said, hey, listen, I did everything on my part. I have been faithful. I have continued to be faithful. I brought you out. I brought you where you are. I have kept my covenant. In spite of you, I will continue to keep my covenant. So why have you done this? It was a rebuke. So notice the warning here in verse 3. Wherefore, I said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. Can I tell you this tonight? We all know this by experience. If we've lived on planet Earth for a little while, you've realized this, no doubt, in your Christian life. It is much easier to pull up weeds when they are small than when they get big. You ever get a hold of an old horse thistle and that thing's about this tall? You try to yank that thing out of the ground, especially when it's about July or August. You know what you do? You make sure your granddad's not looking and you just chop the thing off and you walk off. Because you're not digging it. You'd need a backhoe to dig that thing up, right? It would stay too long. He always, excuse me, you didn't pull that up. No, I'd be in trouble. But anyway, and then he'd say, why'd you do that? I don't know. The root's 10 feet deep, man. Come on. No, you get them when they're, you know, you nip them in the what? Bud. You get them when they're small. It's always easier to do that, to pull them up when they are young. And God says, if you don't, I told you, you could have at one point, but if you don't, this is what is gonna happen. And so we see here in verse four, repentance came, that it came to pass the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that they lifted up their voice and wept, and they called the name of the place Bochum, for they sacrificed there unto the Lord. Now this section is really interesting actually because it's going along kind of seemingly chronologically but then you jump into verse 6 and you notice what, now what? And when Joshua had let the people go the children of Israel went every man into his inheritance to possess the land. I thought he was dead. He's shown up again, right? This is a little bit of a reminder. This is looking back. Watch, it's being brought up again to Israel to remember where they were, a reminder to the current generation that are indifferent to the command of God. He's reminding them. What are the results here? Well, verse 8, okay, Joshua dies again. Verse 10, this is what we didn't get in chapter one. We get a little more information. Chapter 10, or verse 10, that generation dies with Joshua as well. And then also in verse 10, the next generation, sadly, didn't know God. Did you see it? And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." Hold on a minute, time out. Why didn't that generation see any of the works that God had done for Israel? Their parents had not been clinging to God and cleaving to God. And because they had not been, for some reason, somewhere down the line, somebody had stopped and God had stopped. And so another generation came along and they hadn't seen the works of God. Do you know that generation that came in with Joshua? They had seen the miracles. They had crossed the Jordan River. They had watched God wipe out nations and countries and things like that. They had seen the works of God and they were convinced of who God was and what God can do. But there was a generation that came along that didn't see anything. Why? Because obviously it wasn't God's fault, but obviously somebody quit following God and cleaving unto God to where God was done working. I mean, did you see the rebuke we saw here? Something for us to think about, isn't it? I wonder how much the generation that came after us looked at our life and saw the work of God. Wait a minute, why would they not have? Except we hadn't clung to Him. So you see in verse 11, rebellion and idolatry. Look at this. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. Wow. Yeah. The minimizing of separation has a really bad destination. It really does. Yeah. What was God telling them? It's just good old-fashioned one-word separation. We don't like it. We don't like the word. Oh, you're just legalistic. That's a bunch of legalism. Okay, well enjoy the inhabitants of your life. Enjoy not having victory. Enjoy not having joy. Does that make sense? That doesn't even make sense. Have at it. God will let you. And so, This is the backdrop again for judges. This is going to explain the rest of the book. It's a weird book. It really is. Many of you in here have are students of this book. You have read it and you've studied it. And you know, this is a weird, weird book. Because why? Because they didn't believe God that the inhabitants needed to be driven out. because they didn't believe that or think that it was serious enough to have an opinion of the danger of the inhabitants. It's like, eh, just indifferent. They didn't think it was a big deal. Watch, there was no urgency to clean out the land, and there was no urgency passed on to their children. And so that generation came up and saw nothing. And so you know what they did see? Wait, you know what they did see? They saw what they served. What did they serve? Balaam. Why? Because that's what they saw. That's what they saw. Maybe we have a generation serving the world because that's what they've seen their parents serve. I don't know. What do you expect when the Super Bowl is more important than God? What else have they seen? What else are they going to see? Well, I've done good over here. Well, good. Now they've just seen hypocrisy and confusion because that doesn't make sense. You're all for God here unless it's better than God, then I'll stop. Come on. I thank the Lord you're here tonight. I do. Praise the Lord. So because of this, because of this lack of urgency, because of where they are, because there's nothing passed on to their children, we're going to see a pattern through the book of Judges as we go through this, a cycle throughout the entire book. And I learned it this way, and you may have as well. It goes like this, it's sin, then came servitude, then came supplication, they cried out to God for help, Every time, then came salvation, and then came a period of silence, rest and peace. You know what the bad thing is? That happened over and over and over and over and over. Our life can look like that too, can't it? Sin, servitude, supplication, salvation, silence. Sin, servitude, supplication, salvation, silence. Over and over and over. You know why Judges is such a weird book? It's all because they didn't believe God. That's what it is. And because they just didn't obey and carry on and do what God wanted them to do. No, it's a big deal to trust and obey. It is a big deal, right, to follow God and just try to have a heart. Listen, I know we're human and I know we sin, I know we fall short over and over and over again, but there's a difference in an individual who messes up and sins than the individual that just doesn't have a heart and a desire for God. There's a big difference. See, do you know it's possible to have a life that looks like the book of Judges? It really is. Hey, let me remind you, we're talking about the inhabitants, right? Can I tell you, every one of us has old inhabitants in our land when we came to Christ? Unless you had them and I have them. The Bible says, you know, we're told over in Hebrews where they talked about I'm laying aside every weight that does so easily beset you, right? Everybody that comes to Christ has something that easily besets them. But it doesn't mean it ought to rule your life. It means you ought to have victory over it. No, they may go by different names. They might be called Jebusites, or Canaanites, or Ammonites, or they may be called fear, and anger, and food, or lust, or whatever it may be. No, it may go by a multitude of different names, but they are all the same thing. They are all little inhabitants in our life that get into our life that can take our heart from God. You know what they do? They get in between the cling wrap, right? I imagine if I got dirt all over this, it wouldn't stick anymore. Is that true? Would it? It still stick? No. It would de-stick. That's what I need. I need a pile of dirt. It would. I want you to notice the similarities of the different inhabitants of the land here and the inhabitants in our own life. Listen, some are controlled, some inhabitants are controlled by you, but allowed to stay. Yep. Zebulun controlled the Canaanites in verse 30, but he let them stay. They still didn't get him totally out, But he felt like, well, they're under tribute. I'm good. I'm good. Some of you have inhabitants. Some of us may have inhabitants that we're controlling them, but they're still there. We haven't totally ejected them out of our life. Some control, and you're only an occupier. Right? tribe of Asher. They were only occupiers in a land that the Canaanites essentially inhabited and dwelt in and owned. But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. The Canaanites were the inhabitants of the land, not Asher. Asher was just allowed to live there. And it's possible to have inhabitants in your own life. that there may be some control over them, you're right, but not much because really you're just the occupier of their land. They run you. They run you. They control you. There's another inhabitant type of inhabitant and where those that are completely, the inhabitant that is completely powerful and they tell you where to go and you what to do. And at any given second, at any given time, that inhabitant is barking the orders and you're saying yes. That was Dan. They just came in, they just drove up in the mountains, get out of here. He had no power whatsoever. We all have inhabitants. We absolutely do. Do you know how you keep from having a life like Israel in the book of Judges? Do you know how you keep from that type of life? Joshua 23 verse 8, But cleave to the LORD your God, as you have done unto this day. Cleave. Cleave unto Him. Watch. We'll just roll it all up and then watch. Then you've got to pull. It's kind of a pain to pull. Look at this. It's hard to pull it apart. Stick. Hear that? Stick. Cleave. Cleave to God. God. You know it's kind of funny my wife and I we do this funny thing. We have a dog this German Shepherd. Is this distracting? I'm sorry I've got to put this thing away. We have this German Shepherd Hans and Hans is the loveliest little big dog. And it's the funniest thing if I'll do this on purpose if I I will hug my wife and Hans will come up and he'll jump up and be like, and he's trying to get in between and it just drives him crazy. And I'm like, oh, what's the matter? And he's like, right. What's he doing? He's trying to get in between. He's trying to get in between. Yeah. This is what the inhabitants of our life are doing. Watch when you cleave to God, Right? When you hold on to God and cleave to Him. Yeah, the inhabitants are always going to be trying to get on, but you know what? If you're cleaving to God, it's a lot easier to be like, get out of here. Go on. Need to go. Sit down. Yeah. You know it's possible that there's some inhabitants lurking around your life. It's still possible that there's some lurking around your life. Yeah. That are making it really hard for you to cleave to God. Can I tell you, on the other end of this, you need to get them out. You need to get them out. If you don't, listen, if you don't, your life is going to mirror the book of Judges. And it's not a pretty picture, it's not. It's not a life that glorifies God. It's not a life full of joy. It definitely is not. So what do we do? Cleave. I like how cleave, really, really, if you just cleave to God, you know, they're still there, right? And they may not have the ability to get in between you and God. But listen, they still need to be driven out. Intentionally and on purpose, driven out. Look, listen, it's not a killjoy. It's not like, oh, you know, you guys just, you overdo everything and blah, blah, blah. How many of you have witnessed and dealt with and tried to help the lives that have totally been wrecked by sin? People that are born again, they have loved the Lord, they've tried to serve God, but listen, the inhabitants took over. They didn't cleave to God like they ought to have. And even if they did cleave, they didn't continue beyond the cleaving and drive out the inhabitants. It's a sad thing to witness. I have seen it over and again and you have seen it as well. And this is what we're going to see when we get into the book of Judges. This is the backdrop of the entire book of Judges. It is right here. Because they didn't drive out the inhabitants, this is why Judges is going to look the way it is. So let me ask you, is there anything that God has already spoken to you about that has not yet been taken care of? It's possible. It's possible. We all have inhabitants, friends. We all do. Maybe you've gotten a lot of power over them and you've been in control, but boy, they're still there. They're still there. Would you do this tonight? Maybe you're not indifferent, maybe you're just weak. Maybe you're just weak right now. Ephesians 6.10 tells us finally, brother, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Isn't that wonderful news? You don't have to be strong in your power because we don't have any really when you think about it. Just like Judah is like, boy, I can't do this. Simeon, come help. You know what? We can say to the Lord, I can't do this. Lord, come help. He says, I'm here. I'll help. Yeah. Maybe you still have inhabitants in your life that still need to be taken care of. It could be inhabitants that somebody else in this room would, you might tell them and they would go, that's it, really? I was thinking it might be like something bigger. You know, it doesn't matter how big or small it is. It's something, listen, it's something that has the ability to get between you and God and take your heart from Him. Maybe the Lord would help us tonight, would help us tonight to get a hold of Him and seek help. And whatever the Holy Spirit might point out in our life, the inhabitants that are still there, that we turn over every rock and seek every aspect of help to completely and utterly drive them out and then cling to God and cleave to Him and have a heart for Him. Have a heart for Him. That our life doesn't turn out to look like the book of Judges because as we go through this you're going to see it's not pretty. It's not pretty at all. Our Father, I'm thankful that you know that we are but dust. I'm thankful that you know our frame. I thank you know that we are feeble and frail. When I think of this universe, when I think of creation, when I think of how insignificant we are and how small we are compared to everything else and how weak we really are, even the strongest among us, are entirely weak. And Father, we just look to you tonight, no doubt, no doubt, all of us have had inhabitants in our life and some may still have inhabitants in the life. And Lord, we look to you tonight to help us that we would cleave to you and separate from these things before they destroy us. yet no doubt it probably looked like for some years that Israel went along and things looked just fine as they lived with the inhabitants. But we'll see, I know, Lord, as we go through this book, that it catches up. It absolutely catches up. And it leaves a path of destruction and chaos and weirdness throughout the life of Israel. And so, Father, would you help us to have an urgency, an urgency, to deal with those things that have remained in our life, that have brought in, that were in the land when we showed up in our own life, that came in this life of Christ. Would you do that work tonight and deliver us of those things and give us the strength to fight these things and to remove them from our life. In Jesus' name, amen. The invitation is open. Stand with me if you would. And however the Lord has dealt with you tonight, maybe just need a little help from the Lord tonight. You come and you deal with Him. Say, I don't want anybody to know I have inhabitants. Friend, we all have inhabitants. We all have something left over that we're dealing with and trying to get the victory over. It'd just be a really good time to sit with the Lord and say, Lord, I want help. I need help. I want to cling to you. I don't want anything between me and thee, and I want help. I will look under the hills from whence cometh my help, right? My help cometh from the Lord. Yeah. You can run to him tonight. You can look to him tonight. He'll quickly help the inability. Oh no, he's not gonna help the indifference. But he'll help the inability. And you know, I don't think you ever get too old to have inhabitants in the land. You'll get one taken care of, and the Lord will show you another one, you get that one taken care of, and here's another one, and here's another one, and here's another one. But regardless, as long as you cling to Him and cleave to Him and seek help, You can keep picking them off and kick them out of the land. Absolutely. Amen, amen. All right. Let's be closed in a word of prayer