(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright so Joshua chapter 9 we have basically just one thing happens for this entire chapter it's kind of a longer chapter than some of the ones we've dealt with and there's still a few a few major things that I see happening in this chapter but basically what happens is the children of Israel are getting ready to continue their war right they beat Jericho they beat Ai here they had the old fiasco with Ai and the cursed thing and now they're getting ready to continue on in the battle and all these kings of these of the different you know nations within the land they hear about what's going on so they're gonna band together they're gonna unify they're gonna yoke up together to join forces right because they're gonna have the best chance and winning a battle right I mean it makes sense just in the wisdom of the world hey let's let's band together and fight against this this force because they're coming to destroy all of us so instead of waiting till they get to each one of our cities let's let's yoke up and let's join together so we see that in the first couple of chapters first couple verses and then we see that Gibeon they hear about this instead of joining up with everyone else they decided to go another route and basically say that you know they deceived them into thinking oh yeah we're from really really really far away you know and they have all this stuff that they bring up to them saying see look we travel really far we just want to join up with you we heard about the Lord you know like like we want to make a league with you and of course make the league and then they realize no they're actually not from really far away or one of the people land that God said that they were to destroy so they got themselves into this position that's a really bad position to be in because now they're they're basically forced into sin they're not going to be able to do what God commanded them to do and if they do wipe them out then they're gonna go back on their oath and their promise that they made unto them and we're gonna go through all this and cover but that's basically the the chapter in a nutshell right this is what happens in the chapter now let's dig in because I might not read every single verse over here we just read every single one but a lot of it is you know I want to focus on the main points that we're gonna get to so let's not read here verse number one Moses they came to pass when all the kings which were on this side Jordan in the hills and in the valleys and in all the coasts of the great sea over his lebanon the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Eryzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite heard thereof that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with one accord now these people we don't have any like I have an idea how well they might have gotten along before but it is interesting how people will band together under a single cause especially to fight God's people like we see this happening so much just just with a lot of events that are going on these days that people that hate the work that's going on right now the new IFB you have all these heretics now that normally probably wouldn't have anything to do with one another but when they see the the force that they're facing of men of God preaching God's Word they're gonna band all together because they're gonna think hey this is the best chance that we have so you've got the Tyler Baker's and the Wesley Tomlinson's and all these other unsaved reprobated heretics yoking up joining together trying to fight this battle and obviously it's futile it's in vain you know God is with us we have the truth on our side we're promoting God's Word and you know God before us who could be against us and we're gonna see the exact same thing happen with the children of Israel when God is for the none it doesn't matter how many it doesn't matter if the whole world joins up with the Canaanites they're gonna be destroyed because if God is with them no one can withstand no one's gonna stand up against them but that's what we see happening in this story that they're yoking up they're joining together and they're gonna fight verse number three Bible says that when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho man they hear they're utterly annihilated they're utterly destroyed right that's a pretty fearful thing now forgive me and they're probably thinking we're next this is coming to us this isn't for they did work widely and went and made as if they had been ambassadors and took old sacks upon their asses and wipe out and it tells you all the stuff that they did you know their clothing their food is your dry and moldy so they made it look like they had been on this really long journey you know so when they show up in the town it's not like they have all this fresh food and all this stuff like okay yeah you didn't come from very far away you've got to live pretty close you know they put on their their act they put on their costumes to just make it look like oh yeah we've we've traveled for months and months and now we finally made it here you know to to just get this this treaty or this what's the word this deal was agreement with them not to what is the word yeah the alliance but the the Bible word in any case yeah in this in the in the passage yeah all those words were submissions they're right the lead the lead they may be a packed right and in countries do this all the time the United States does this you know it's a lead that Israel for example you know is this you know we're allied with so that basically what it is is this agreement where okay we're gonna protect each other one we're not gonna attack each other we're you know make it as peace treaty work you're not gonna take us we're not gonna thank you but also in a league what you're doing is saying we're gonna defend one another almost as if you're like one nation or one country saying we are in agreement we're joined together so that way if someone comes up I you will go and help you out if someone comes to tax us you become and help us out and that is what what they were doing here and what they were trying to convince them of because they were just worried for their lives right and everything they see hey they've utterly destroyed these other cities and they're like we don't want to be like that so they go through all these efforts to deceive them to trick them and it says here let's keep reading in verse number six about says they went to Joshua under the camp of Gilgal said end of the men of Israel we become from a fire country now therefore making a league with us there's the word and the men of Israel said unto the high bites her adventure you dwell among us and how shall we make a league with you so right away they're thinking the right thing they make the right cause they will wait a minute how can we make this league with you because they know they know full well what God commanded them to do that the inhabitants of the land were to be destroyed they were warned over and over again you can read through the law of Moses you can read through those books you can read through Deuteronomy you're going to read and see say hey if you leave the children of the land there to be a thorn in your flesh they're gonna they're gonna cause you to sin they're gonna draw your hearts away from serving the Lord God wanted them utterly destroyed and they have no remembrance left of them under heaven and by leaving any of them to remain is going to cause a major problem for the children of Israel now we know those of us have read your Bible already at least once know that yes they do leave some of them alive even in this chapter we see now that they're leave these people alive and they end up learning the ways of the heathen and they do end up getting their hearts taken away from God and it does cause them a lot of problems because God's Word is true every single time without fail all the warnings that he gave all of them come to pass because it's the truth and that's what's gonna happen that's what God warned them of but they didn't keep that warning security and we know every time we read these stories I understand that was perfect but we just need to continually remind ourselves that God's Word is true over and over again and that these warnings we can't just take them lightly and it doesn't matter how how much God has been with you up to this point in your life and how well things are going and how many victories you're having we continue to need to be able to take heed and to be careful of our ways and make sure that we're doing everything in accordance to God's Word and that we're not being sloppy about anything because if you're going to boil this up or chalk this up to anything we're in chalk is up to them being sloppy and we're going to see later I'm going to get to this about them not seeking the counsel of the Lord when they make their decision it's an important decision that they make it's a costly one well let's keep reading so they say they ask the question well wait a minute what do you live among us how can we possibly make a league with you first number eight and they said on the Joshua we are thy servants who are you from whence come you and they said I'm from a very far we have heard the fame of him and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan the scion king of Heshbon and the King of Bashan which was that astro so notice they're they're kind of lifting him up for the last take of a very far country they don't even say like oh yeah we're from here it's right over here there's like oh we're from really far away there's be real think about where's from we're from really far and we heard what you did to these two kids because obviously they can't say that they heard about Jericho and AI because those are recent events and they're like wait a minute you can't come from that far away we just heard about these things right but that was what they were really concerned about as they saw Jericho they saw AI like we don't want that to happen us of course they knew about those other battles but they didn't really get scared until they were encroaching and getting a lot closer to them but they use those examples say oh yeah we heard what you guys did with those Kings over there you know and how God's with you and they say first number 11 wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us saying take middles with you for the journey and go to meet them and saying to them we are your servants therefore now make me a league with us this our bread we took pop for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go on to you but now behold it is dry and it's moldy and these bottles of wine which we built were new and behold they be rent and these are garments in our shoes I become pulled by a reasonable very long journey now what we see here one of the things that we can learn is is part of the ways that deceivers work and liars work and we can see a little bit of a you know modus operandi the way that the way that people who are going to try to deceive some of the things that they'll do and we can learn a little bit from this first of all they were prepared to have a story with a questions that they figured they were going to ask right away but they knew they had to say they were from far away because they knew if they said they were from close that they would be destroyed they already had knowledge of that few things that knowledge of so they had to of course make this effort this show to be able to demonstrate oh no look you know so basically to squash any of their fears that they might have any their concerns now obviously one of the things they didn't do the children of Israel that is well was be very diligent in their inquisition of them they're questioning them because typically with deceivers they'll have some of their bases covered right they'll know they'll have a story figured out but the more you press for details on questions of things or maybe separate a couple a few of them coming together you can figure out there's a deception a little bit easier that way but one of the things that we notice is one of the things that popped out to me and this is the way that the deceivers will work is how quick they are to supply evidence they're saying oh look well look we have this food and look this is molding how could it possibly be molding it let you know and they're giving you this this you know they're kind of overselling this thing oh and then our shoes I mean look at how worn and dirty and everything and look at my costume and look you know and look at this and look at our bottles of wine and you know just look at all this up how could this have possibly happened unless we made this really great journey now the deceiver is going to want to take you down that path but we always need to be questioning the things that we are especially in a scenario like this I mean this is a pretty important situation that Joshua is in because they're deciding whether or not they're going to make a leave make a pact make an agreement with these people to not destroy them when they're on a mission to destroy like that is what they are to do they're going out to wipe people out and you need to have wisdom here and be able to handle these people when you see this come up you see people to supply all this evidence you got to be aware of those type of people are trying to convince you of something and they just so happen to have all this evidence prepared because you have to start thinking well that the only thing that possibly could have happened is that they took a long journey of course not because that's not what happened they just happen to take some old stuff and brought it with them there was no real evidence that they made a long journey other than is what they're trying to prop up to show them it's very weak it's not real evidence and we're making very important decisions especially don't rely on such weak evidence what Joshua ended up doing here was very foolish he was obviously already aware of the possibility that these people might live among them and thus cause a problem for him to carry out the command that God gave him that's he thought about that's why he even asked him wait a minute where are you from but he's too quick to accept what they were saying now the first problem that I have with them making this leap the very first thing is that what benefit is it really for the children of Israel to make a league with anybody in the first place there is I mentioned earlier league is where they say oh someone attacks us you know they'll come and help us out or sometimes you will go help you out well the children of Israel have God as their defense God is the one leading them God's the one that's saying look I'm your shield I'm your butler I'm gonna be here for you I'm gonna defend you so why in the world would they need any other country any other support from any other nation in the whole world to say oh yeah we got your back well your God's got our back thank you very much but instead this this league is only going to benefit the other people so why are you gonna bring that yoke and that burden on yourself to then sacrifice your own lives and your own resources to help some other country that who knows who they are who knows what God they serve they don't Joshua didn't know anything about them and the little if you thought he knew about that was a lot and he goes and gets themselves yoked up and bonded with this group of people and not doing his deal to research so when you make important decisions think about this I think of the you know the biggest application we can make are the most obvious one to me is you know when you make a like a covenant is in marriage now obviously we need to be careful who were yoking up with we're bonding now I'm not saying you've got a you know realm and put them through the third degree and you know do they make it really awkward and weird and comfortable but you ought to know who it is that you're getting married to before you I mean that's just that's just a wise thing to do you ought to know something about them you ought to know more about them than just you know just being real quick I got it you got to spend some time to get to know who they are and you know for the most important thing make sure that they're safe right nobody should be yoking up and get married to someone that's not a believer if you're already a believer because you're unequally yoked together now turn to go to Deuteronomy chapter 33 real quick I just want to show you what the what the Bible says in one place about God being their defense and God being there for them I think it's very interesting the way this passage particularly fits in with what we're reading here and we just think we need to be aware of how deceivers will work and how liars will will spin their lives and be ready to ask questions when people especially when people want something because they came to that looking for a lead they came to get them looking for something oftentimes if I at least have a little bit of time when this hasn't happened in a while I don't know maybe I have a proper situations but when a pen handler someone come to me you know asking for money I'm not always just a no person most of the time I am if they're like some drug or some drug addict and it's pretty obvious that they are there's no way I'm going to give them any of my money because that's not going to help them one little bit but some people you're not quite sure you don't know I mean there are people that do fall on hard times and it's not it's not a sin to help out someone who's falling on hard times you know there's that's a whole nother sermon kind of getting into all of that but what I always like to do if it is someone that I think might need a little bit of help asking them questions so yo I love the ones that say oh man I'm on my way to get here I just need a little bit of gas money right how many times have you heard that just be a little I'd say five bucks for gas to get me to wherever oh so where you coming from what were you doing over there well weren't you know and just start asking a lot of questions because usually there's total deceivers and it breaks down pretty quick some people have been pretty good I still I knew they were lying but some people are pretty quick on their toes if you lie for a living they get better at it but most of them you'll still be able to trip up and just be like yeah don't you know don't lie to me but it's usually when someone's coming to you asking for something you know just believe everything that they're throwing at you oh man my car broke down I'm out to the hospital my dog's about to die and you know I need five bucks look here's my dog look you're you know whatever you're trying to try to get something that's exactly what these people do look at Deuteronomy 33 verse number 26 the Bible says there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun who writeth upon the heaven and thy health and it is excellency on my sky on the sky the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and she'll say destroy them Israel then shall dwell in safety alone it was good well safety why because God is with them alone to the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine also as heaven shall drop down do look at verse over 29 happy art thou Israel who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help again I mean open all these verses someone God being their shield copy in their support copy for them and who is the sword of thy Excellency in thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places this is Moses's words are you see God's words but it's in the book of Moses Joshua should have known these things hey let your enemies be found liars underneath trust in God you don't need to be making leads with anybody I don't care if they start lifting you up or praising you and they know how great your people are oh we heard what you did to these kings you know we heard what great power you guys have we want to be your servants we want to just serve you and allow that to flatter you so then give them what they want yeah okay we'll make a lead when you make a covenant with you you shouldn't make it leave with anybody now of course these people are liars but even if they weren't even if they were telling the truth what value is in the lead you don't need their help you don't need anybody's help and you shouldn't be committing and pledging your support for someone else and you don't even know there's pastors that are even guilty of this very thing of just pledging support before even knowing anything about a person I had the experience of that happening to me and I'm you know I don't think this person's a bad guy at all I think he's a great person but I had a pastor who doesn't or didn't I don't know if he does now I have no idea didn't know anything about me didn't know my background didn't know what I believed didn't really know anything I just showed up to his church and when I let him know I was going to be starting a church he pledged this oh man we'll be there for you will help we'll go so they will do this we'll do that and you know what that's just foolishness now it turns out that I'm not a bad guy right at least I think all of you think that right because you're here but I guarantee you there's a lot of things that would be don't line up with now they're not things are going to make me not want a fellowship with it but it might be the other way around he might not want anything to do with me or his name in any way whatsoever associated with having helped our church so you can't be so quick to just pledge support to somebody when you don't even know that he didn't even ask me he assumed it I mean someone comes into church I know what it's like you go to a benefit of love at this church you carry your Bible in awareness you know assume the time you come and you sit down and you know the song you sing a song you say amen you know you're paying attention you're going to assume it's natural to assume that someone is saved they're born again when they come into your church but you can't make that mistake because I can't tell you how many times I've seen people come in that look well church that were unsafe and I don't know if I specifically asked every single person in this room about your salvation but I think I came close to it if I didn't ask everybody when I first started the church I was trying to just you know I think I don't want to assume anybody's saved for sure without knowing some kind of testimony hearing it from their own lips I mean just because you follow the new IOP movement not live and you listen to Pastor Andrews or you listen to pastor or anybody you can't assume that someone's saved it's actually kind of incredible because I've heard people give testimonies of listening to servants for years that were unsaved that they're like these repent of your sins people I'm just thinking like service is going right over their heads and they could see they like the hard preaching the light preaching on sin so it's obvious they weren't listening all the servants but a lot of people are the same so we can't just just you know assume that and especially if you're going to pledge support if you're going to pledge of yourself to someone else and kind of get into a yoke like that and get into some form of agreement know who it is that you're talking to at least to the best of your ability and the greater the decision the greater the the yoke the greater the commitment that you're going to make the more time you need to invest and just make sure you got this right so I mentioned the first thing that they did that was I didn't like I don't think that they should but anyways just to get into that agreement at all because they don't need to be a league with anyone but even worse if you go back to Joshua chapter 9 even worse they didn't bother to go to God with such an important decision to make Joshua chapter 9 verse 14 says in the men took of their vittles so they take of their evidence right they take everything oh yeah look this is dry it's moldy it's oh yo that's what they take as sufficient for them to just say okay yep you're telling the truth we'll make a leave with you like this pack to this agreement with you now nowhere that God ever say hey go make yourselves leagues with any nation God never told them to do that this is something that would be new coming outside of God's Word and they're just just taking these videos okay yeah that's enough for me it doesn't ask not counsel at the mouth of the Lord and that was their biggest mistake right there even if they didn't understand that they don't need to be making leads and agreements with other people they dead sure should have been going to God about this first before making an agreement we need to remember that I mean all aspects of our life we ought to be seeking counsel from the Lord in all that we do that we could get this wisdom in life and guidance and especially in the important decisions that we make in our life hey what's the right thing to do God God help me out God I'm going to go to you God I'm seeking your advice we're seeking your wisdom now at this point in time God could have literally given him a word like that would be from the mouth of God if they would have asked but they didn't do it I'm just going to read some of these for you just on the council of the Lord and how and how strong and sure that is which is why we need to continually go to God for our counsel for our advice Psalm 33 11 says the council of the Lord standeth forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations Proverbs 19 verse 20 says here counsel receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end there are many devices in a man's heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand God's counsel the Lord's counsel is going to stand stands the test of time Isaiah chapter 30 verse number one turn if you want a second Chronicles chapter 16 second Chronicles chapter 16 but in Isaiah chapter 30 verse number one the Bible reads woe to the rebellious children said the Lord that take counsel but not of me so our rebellious children children that are being disobedient if they're not going to God to seek counsel yeah they might seek counsel but they're not going to God and that cover with a covering but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh it's a trust in the shadow of Egypt therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust the shadow of Egypt your confusion all throughout the Bible see Egypt is a picture of the world and as a wicked nation they're always a wicked nation there are people that that represent the wisdom of the world the strength of the world that that if they're anti Christ or anti God and he's saying look you guys want to go down into Egypt you want to go get strength from them and make leagues with Egypt and rely on Egypt to be your strength because they're so prosperous and they have all this military might everything else and you're not coming to me you rebellious children is it as a result of that when you go and you go around God you try to make your own strength with the flesh of this world instead of putting your strength and your trust in this in the arm of the Lord he said he's gonna take that's right like the strike of Egypt and just turn it against you and it's gonna wipe you off it's gonna come back around your own head because that's not sure because their strength is not everlasting because their strength doesn't endure and they're a wicked nation and when you go to the world you can't expect you know the world to hold their word now is God true to his word absolutely God you know what God cannot lie God's promises are more sure than anything but what about the men of the world the nations of the world I mean think about the politicians world they're all just a bunch of liars all I don't care what country you go to every country world the world leaders are all a bunch of liars how much is it even worth literally how much is it worth for any country to say oh yeah we'll have your back is that really worth a lot especially when you compare that word to the word of the Lord when God's like I'll be your defense if I live in a much smaller country I would be I would I would hope and pray trying to reach as many people my country saying you know what let's not seek the defense and the shelter of the United States of America let's let's just follow God let's just band together and say you know what the Lord's our God let's not trust in the military might and strength of the United States because you know what that's gonna crumble and if we're doing right by God the entire United States military could come after us can we be just fine that's the attitude everyone on ahead and not to trust in Egypt not to trust in that that arm of flesh the arm of flesh will fail you the reason why King David was so successful as a king he stayed on the throne for so long all the way in his old age and it's so many victories and victory after victory victory and defeated his enemies just time and time again is because he continually sought the counsel of God Oh Lord should I go up against his people Lord I go here Lord so I do God will you deliver this people into my hand with like every battle he's going to God thank God we use he's listening I'm God saying yep go I deliver yet you said no don't go yet you go over here and then wait okay that's what he did and he followed the counsels advice of God and that's why he was so successfully a great success because of that and similarly on the other side the downfall of a son that's what we're looking at second chronicles chapter 16 the downfall King cuz King Asa was a righteous King because he started off great he ended terribly he started off great entrusting in the Lord and getting victories through his faith in God to be his strength for God to be with them for God to help them and to defeat their enemies but the downfall of a so when he stopped trusting in the Lord and seeking counsel from the Lord and ended up having a bitter attitude even towards men of God let's read your second chronicle 16 verse number one the Bible says in the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Bayash a king of Israel came up against Judah and built Raymond to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to a second of Judah so he's trying to set up this seat right Bayash is setting up a siege against against Judah to try to squeeze them out to slow down the resources rice of gnome you come in and out silver and gold on the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and said to Ben hey that King of Syria that's well to Damascus saying there is a league between me and me as there was between my father and my father behold I have sent these silver and gold go break thy lead with Bayash a king of Israel that he made it hard for me so get what's going on here because a lot of a lot of things to learn from what happens just in this one story especially when it comes to making a league the king of Syria has a league both with Judah and with Israel he's got a league with both people we see here the king of Judah is taking money out of the house of the Lord to pay this other nation to yoke up with him in order to defeat this enemy that's coming against with this wicked King Bayasha King of Israel who's come against them now going back to just having leads or why it's why it's just not a good idea at all if he didn't have this lead to begin with it may not have been an option for him to even think about hey I'm gonna go take money out of the house of the Lord and give it to this guy because we have a pack we have an agreement he's gonna come he needs to come over here and help defend me if that wasn't even on the table right it may not have happened he may have just been like well we got to go trust in God because we don't have anyone else to look to for our protection we have to look to God they should have been doing from the beginning and he did do earlier and actually got victories but then we see he says hey here's some money break your promise to them and what does he do he brings a promise to okay yeah we don't have a lead with them anymore and he goes and attacks them through our saying about making these leaves well how good is that really it's only good until someone else comes with some more money it's okay here you can you can buy my my trust you can you can buy my confidence it comes and it goes so he makes a lead and and he trusts in the king of Syria to help it out here universal reports has invaded has been hey dad harken unto King Asa and sent the captain's of his armies against the cities of Israel they smote I John and Dan enable ma'am and all the sources of Naphtali and it came to pass when Basher heard it and he left all building of Rhema and left his work cease then Asa the king took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rhema and Timbir there of where with Basher was building and he built there with Geba bismillah it worked sometimes when you when you when you do things that are wrong in the short term it'll work right but what he did is please the Lord and we're gonna see here it ultimately doesn't end up very good for Asa because the root of the problem was in his heart anyways not going to the Lord for their further help and just just for going then and when he gets rebuked it gets even worse look at verse number seven well says and at that time and a night a seer came to a second Judas and I'm in because I was relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord by God therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped we're not the Ethiopians and Lubens a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen yet because that is rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand so the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show themselves strong in the behalf of that whose heart is perfect toward him herein thou has done foolishly therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars so he is being punished for not trusting Lord yeah yeah it worked out for him that time it was a cost of a lot but now he's saying you know what you're just gonna continue at war you're so worried about this one battle when you've already been proven to have victories over even a bigger enemy there are bigger enemies that he's fighting against and now he gets worried now he runs off to the world now he's just dug the the prophets tell them you know what now you're just gonna have wars and you've done this to yourself you brought on yourself verse 10 says that Asa was wrong with the seer he's really he was really angry with this man of God the prophet and put him in a prison house for he was in a rage with him because of this thing and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time talk about your heart being just just completely backwards and not able to receive rebuke or corrections it made it really really angry you know what that's usually how people will respond to a review you're either going to one be humble and accepted or two you get really really angry and just get really bad it'll drive you crazy and you know hopefully we can all recognize if you ever hear preaching and it's true Asa knew that this was true he wasn't the dummy he knew that he already has seen the truth of God Asa was a righteous King in many many ways but he was in the wrong here and he just became stiff-necked and decided not to not to want to listen to it and he got so angry it says that he ended up oppressing some of the people too so he started turning into like this tyrant because his heart was just turning cold against the Word of God and we need to be able to recognize too hey if you ever find yourself just getting really angry at some preacher doesn't matter who the preacher is if it's coming from the Word of God you might want to just take you take a step back and be like am I being like Asa right now and just just getting real upset and angry at something just that's true but oftentimes what people do is then they'll start attacking other believers just just other people that that may have nothing to do with their situation you're just going to just turn into more oppression just because you're angry and you're going to take it out on other people and that's what Asa did. Verse number 11 says and behold the acts of Asa first and last though they were written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great so Asa has this great disease one little little bit that's given to us in this chapter it says yet in this disease he sought not for the Lord but to the physicians and guess what that didn't work out for him either we need to be ready to seek unto the Lord for everything especially with our health no I'm not saying don't ever go to a doctor I don't believe that to be true there is a purpose and a need for people to see physicians there are physicians that have value there are a lot of physicians that don't have value but the point of this is that if we're not putting God first and if Jesus Christ doesn't have the preeminence in your life you can't just trust that man is gonna be able to save you at all man can help you but if God's not gonna be there to beat your strength and to be the one you're trusting in you got nothing we need to go to God first let him have the preeminence with health reasons could God have healed the disease that Asa had his feet of course you could absolutely can God still heal people today absolutely yes he can I believe that now you know we're not a Pentecostal Church we don't we don't believe in a lot of the weirdo things that they do we don't believe in these faith healers that you know you're gonna walk up here I'm a snack in your forehead oh man you're healed you know it's amazing they don't ever go to the hospitals I don't know why why don't they ever just go to the house oh wait because the actors aren't there that's right but God can heal turn to James chapter 5 in the New Testament this is what we're punished to do in the church we know that we serve a powerful God God is capable of doing anything and ultimately what does God want he wants us to worship him he wants us to love him he wants us to serve him he wants our attention he wants us to recognize him for all that he's done for us he really doesn't ask a lot of us but to be recognized and appreciated you know just pretty much you think about you have kids what do you what do you want from your kids very similar so the kids start growing up you want them just to be spoiled brats that just are given everything and then they just never care and never say thank you and never do anything right never listen to what you say and don't take your instruction and don't you know and then they expect you just to be there for them just no matter what I mean obviously you're there for children but you know what I mean like if they're you know they're digging themselves in digits or give themselves to the problems and they're not they're not giving you any regard or any respect willing to say this problem you got to learn this lesson because I've been trying to teach you this lesson and tell you so you didn't have to learn the hard way but you didn't want to listen and now here it is it's coming to come your way James chapter 5 in verse number 13 the Bible says is any among you afflicted let him pray is any Mary let him sing psalms is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him and not with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise above if you have committed sins they shall be forgiven him confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man a bailing clutch and then goes on to explain how Elisha was a man steal subjects like passion he said he prayed that it would rain and it didn't rain in demonstrating the power saying look you need to be praying you need to have people praying for you to be praying for one another and pray for the sickness and break your disease go to God and have other people go to God for you why because it works because it's powerful because Eliza is able to make it not rain for years through a prayer through asking God we're saying God don't let it rain we go to God first in our help we ought to be going to God first there are times when I will seek the assistance or aid of either a physician or some type of medication or something along those lines to help the problem you know the first thing I do get on my knees and pray to God even things as little as a headache you know whatever you know sometimes there's lots of ways to remedy such as a minor thing right but we ought to have that in our minds and trust that he can do all things know that he can do it it's not just a little ritual saying oh I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna go to the doctors and his trust in the doctor you know we're gonna pray to God knowing that he can heal knowing it is power knowing that he can do whatever he wants to do and then after I pray after we pray we go out you know we're still gonna try to do what we can do that to help ourselves right we don't just throw up our hands do everything we ought to be doing to be diligent about being sufficient self-sufficient trying to do everything we can but first thing we're going to help turn through the first Corinthians chapter 2 first Corinthians chapter 2 we go to God for health reasons over God for everything important decisions that we need to make we need to be able to trust God we need to put it first we need to be getting the counsel from the Lord now you might be thinking well how do we do that you know Joshua should have gone to God to get counsel he forsook the comes of the Lord he didn't ask for it if he would have asked my counsel or he would have gone to the breeze or you know got his word from the Lord itself or whatever I might do but what don't we do today well when we go to get counsel to the Lord which we're not going to expect it to hear and if you do that's another problem you're starting to hear voices but we have all the council we need at our fingertips with the direction of the Holy Spirit look at 1st Corinthians 2 verse number 10 Bible says but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit for the Spirit searches all things in the deep things of God for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Ghost teach it comparing spiritual things and spiritual but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they're spiritually deserved we were somewhere 15 but he that is spiritual judges all things now if you're spiritual you have the Spirit of God you're getting wisdom from God how are you judge means you're able to make good decisions if you're judging right from wrong you're judging and making good choices because you're able to judge all things because you're spiritual because you're walking in the spirit and God the Holy Ghost is leading you he has spiritual judges all things yet he himself the judge of no man for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him but we have the mind of Christ we have the mind of Christ we have God's Word and God's wisdom to give us all that we need to make the decisions that we need to make in our life we need to rely on the principles and on the truths found in this book as well as the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help to guide us into all good decision-making in our life and you think that the more important the decision the more we need to be relying on biblical principles and biblical truths I've been undergoing this process personally this is home even notice for me because a big decision for me is providing for my family working at a job I was just talking about that earlier trying to find employment because unfortunately right now the church isn't able to support my entire family I cannot make this just be my living right now there's other needs that the church has you know it's not it's not necessarily cheap to support my family and everything right now so I need to one apply principles I'll just go through a little bit of this mindset with you on how I use try to use biblical principles to go to God first and seek counsel the Lord and what's the right thing to do because God's not gonna tell me oh yeah make signing this application right here and work for this company right there you know I'm not gonna hear that I'm not gonna I'm not gonna dream one night and be like oh I'm gonna email this company right here instead of my resume and they're just gonna give me a job it's not how it works they start off with all the biblical truths and principles one knowing that I need as a man to provide for my family that is a very fundamental foundational truth that is found in Scripture and then I need to be willing to work hard to support my family as well as to work for the Lord not even just being the pastor but just being a church where it's being a believer Jesus Christ we need to be able to work hard especially the field men work hard to support your family and work hard to serve the Lord we all have service to the Lord to do whether you're a pastor or not we need to be willing to do that type of work so that's number one number two I have to consider you know either person being the pastor what is my workload here I can't let you know just pursuing after you know too much money or you know obviously to be my family I trusted God I prayed to God every day God you know help you out God for me and he will but he's not gonna just let me be lazy either I need to work roll my sleeve to get to work so it's not that hard to come up with a plan or decision is to say hey okay well I'm gonna work and I already know right now I haven't settled in my heart then I'm only gonna work another job or as long as I have to support my family and once I'm able to not you know to be supported here then I'm done then I'm not gonna be you know splitting up my time at all to be all going one direction but because I need to provide for them I need to work you know it's very simple so what I do then also is I look for jobs that are going to work with putting down first I can't take a job that's gonna keep me out of church on any church day at all I can't do it these are principles I find in Scripture I'm not gonna you know put God in the back seat I am gonna work it's more my family but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give up so what am I gonna give up preaching I'm not gonna give up church I'm not gonna give up any of these things for employment as important as employment is God's more important right and of course I'm not going to be looking for a job or even applying for a job that's just totally wicked company or industry or something like that where they're just just supporting all kind of promoting filthiness and whatever that that should go without saying those are pretty basic principles of where you go I don't care you know if you're being a computer person if some if some internet porn site wants to hire me so the hobbyist is gonna be like no I hope you know I hope I hope your whole site is destroyed and you know whatever those are the types of decisions that we need to make what we need to be going to God first like I've been praying you know because we don't always know exactly where things are gonna lead us but we pray that God will lead us that through using wisdom in our choice-making as much as we can as much as we've learned from the Bible we just keep going through that is pray God just keep leading me help me to know what's the right decision to make here give me the wisdom to do this and I believe as the Bible says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord that he will direct our paths he will do it if we're seeking him first if we're going if we're going to God for our counsel he will help us to make those decisions even if you're not fully I believe you're not fully conscious of the full picture of where you're going if you're doing your best to apply God's Word to decision-making he will leave you have not steered you away let's keep it go back to Joshua chapter 9 there's one more point I want to make here from this this passage before done but it's important obviously a major failure here was not seeking counsel of God to make this treaty to make this make this a brilliant first over 15 Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them let them live in the princes of the congregation swear attack and it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a lead with them that they heard that they were their neighbors that they both among them oops already made the deal now they find out oh wait you actually live among us and show Israel journey and came under their cities on the third day so it didn't take them you know three months to get to a different three days sorry but your bread and your shoes and everything else gonna be all dry and moldy and worn out after three days of traveling we think about golf hiking get on a horse or whatever and travel for three days bring the local bread with you see how bad it is it's not gonna be bad it's gonna be fresh and it says and then they were like and the children of Israel during verse over 18 sorry in there and show visual smoke them not because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation murmured against princes so now you know the people say that the congregation the people are angry because their princes or their rulers the people who are in charge make this agreement and now they're saying you know you guys got to see well what's the matter with you so they're all disgruntled and upset because obviously they were fooled they were tricked verse number 19 says but all the princess and I kind of come to all the congregation we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them because they wanted to go and destroy what they're right here and these are people we have to destroy but then to warn them and say no look you know we made this promise you guys can't go and do this the importance of an oath in the Bible Trump's just about everything else here find it and this is a very important point it is so important to have integrity to say what you mean and to keep your word at a time where people are just treating promises and just the statements that they make so flippantly we need to make sure that we are we are going to be a matter of our work that when you say something you will follow through and do it and a lot of people don't have the character anymore and even follow through a few things and you know what this is so important on so many levels as a parent you say something to your children you better follow through with it because when you don't follow through with it they don't respect you but it's not just your children anybody if you start making promises to people I'm going to do this I'm going to do that and you don't do them that person isn't going to respect you anymore but not only that how about this when you start you know treating your words as being not that important and then you really want to try to tell someone something very important like how to be saved but your testimony with them personally is how willing are they going to be to even listen to what you have to say cause a lot of damage think about how important God's Word is God's Word has to be perfect or it's not God's Word God's Word is what is what we hear and believe in order for us to be saved God is very very careful and very clear with his words and never goes back on any of his words he expects us to do the same way I mean Jesus Christ is the Word of God the Word is held up and elevated so high the Bible says that if anyone takes away from the words of Robinson's book he's going to take away his part on the book of life God holds his words so high that it is just damnation for the person that's going to corrupt God's Word the most severe thing you do is to say you are just automatically going to go to hell and there is no other way around that at all you mess with my words you're going to know and similarly exactly the same similarly though we need we need to take treat our words very carefully what do you really have what do you really have in this life how are you going to impact other people with your words at least in any meaningful way you're gonna impact someone's life in a meaningful way it's going to be with your words we be careful with the words that we choose we need to be very careful with the promises in the post that we made and we are true to those there's some examples in the Bible I'm just going to go over a few real briefly Deuteronomy 23 turn if you wish to judges 11 we're almost done judges 11 I'm gonna read from Deuteronomy 23 Deuteronomy 23 21 says well now shall bow about what to the Lord thy God thou shalt not slack the pay for the Lord thy God was surely required of thee and it would be sin in thee Ecclesiastes 5 verse number 4 read when thou bowest a bow unto God deeper not to pay for he hath no pleasure in fools hey that which thou hast bow better is it that thou shouldest not bow then that thou shouldest bow and not pay suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel oh that was an error oh that was a mistake is what he's saying oh oops I didn't mean to say that was a mistake just wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hand you're gonna make God really angry by just saying oh oops I didn't mean to say that that was just that was just a mistake I didn't really mean that you better you better mean what you say say what you mean because God has no tolerance for that God expects you to pay the bowels that you made we see an example here in judges 11 of a man that made a really stupid foolish bow his name was Jeff though he was one of the judges of Israel he had a bow unto God saying God if you if you know he's going into battle God if you deliver this enemy into my hands would you give me this victory I'm gonna offer you a sacrifice and well let's see what he says they reverse number 30 judges 11 says in Jeff about about under the Lord said if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands then it shall be that whatsoever coming forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace for the children of Ammon shall surely be the Lord's and I will offer it up for a bird's offer that's his vow that's his promise now let's see what happens after the victory verse number 34 and Jephthah came to this be unto his house and behold his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances and she was his only child beside her he had neither son nor daughter came to pass when he saw that he rent his clothes and said alas my daughter that was brought me very low and now aren't one of them that trouble me right open my mouth and the Lord that cannot go back you might want to say well God I didn't mean that I mean of course I didn't meet my daughter of course I didn't mean that God God you know I didn't mean that so we're just gonna forget that ever happened and we're just gonna take the second thing that comes out to meet me and that's what I'm gonna offer you know that's what a lot of people might want to do today you know what Jephthah understood the importance of making a vow and I'm not saying it's right for him to offer up his daughter but I'm also saying it was not right for him to make it such a stupid vow that's where he got himself into trouble he forced himself into a no-win situation because he could have broken his vow to God which is a no-win situation or offer up his daughter which is also not a good you know not not a not the right thing to do there was no right thing to do but what he did here was he did keep you over summer 39 it doesn't it came to pass at the end of two months that she was turned into a father who did with her according to his father would you about he kept that bow she knew no man and it was a custom in Israel and the daughters of Israel you went here to prevent the daughter Jephthah the Gilead I four days a year why because the bow is so important that over is is held so highly even in God's eyes that that when you make a bow and it got that is important and people are forgetting that these days especially when it comes to the bow of the marriage you're following be with your spouse forever or at least until one of you dies when one of you is not dead and you're breaking that bout that is a serious serious sin I mean Jephthah did what was willing you know to offer up his own daughter not to break a bow to God yet people today are breaking their vows before the Lord every single day the best advice now we ought to be careful with our words and definitely with our vows but I mean the things that you say can be construed as if you're making a promise to someone you have to say I bow or I swear to God that I will you know you don't have to use those words if you're promising someone something that is still about we need to be careful about that the best thing to do is not make at all this is the advice that Jesus Christ himself gave in Matthew chapter 5 verse over 33 he says again you have heard that it has been said by them of all time thou shalt not forswear thyself but shall perform unto the Lord I know it's true right don't make yourself a liar hey what do you battle but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it has got thrown nor by the earth for it is put stool not about Jerusalem where is the city of the great King neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black a layer communication just speak truth don't bow you don't make any special promises you don't say oh I swear on this I swear on that this is true just speak the truth and then your your guests and your nose should be good enough because you're someone that when you speak it's the truth very matter of fact that people can trust you at your word you don't have to go on making any extra promises in fact what when people have tendency to make these great oh I swear to God you know more often than not they're actually lying because they're trying to gain more trust from you to get you to believe them by invoking this call of swearing to God and Wow what they are bringing upon themselves by doing something I don't ever get caught up into that it's not you know kids probably the easiest for kids to do this because you may get in trouble with your parents and you don't want them to know what you did don't ever ever say I swear to God I didn't do that you're guilty of doing something like that you should learn this never to swear to God about anything all you're gonna do is getting yourself in trouble if you're just able to speak truth you don't need to go swearing to anything else and that's that's teaching from Jesus Christ himself in that each other thought let's finish up this chapter verse Joshua 9 verse number 20 see they understand this even though these people were so wicked and they knew got judgment against and they had to destroy them they're so wicked yet because of that oh they say we can't do this now because we found because their word was that important to be held with integrity that if they recognize if we go back I don't promise that word now who's ever going to believe you when they're when they're going to try to do good and trying to preach the truth no one's going to listen to a building believe Josh and I think we're going twice if this will we do it to them and we will even let them live less wrath be upon us they also understand that God's wrath is gonna be honest God said this is gonna make God even more angry if we go and break that hope we made the mistake by making the oath with them to begin with but now if we go and break that it's gonna be even worse for us because the oath which we swear under the first over 21 and the princess said unto them let them live but let them be hewers of wood drawers of water and all the congregation is the princess of promised them Joshua call for that and you know basically rebuked says it why do you lie to us and the answer of the verse 24 you know because it was certainly told by servants how that the Lord I got man into servant Moses to give you all the land and destroy all the inhabitants of land before you therefore we were so afraid of our lives because of you to done this thing look we heard what Moses is told to do and you're gonna wipe us out so we're afraid what do you what do you want from us yeah we like you you know and they're basically just throwing themselves in the beat and say look behold we're in my hand as it's even good right and the deed if you want to us do any they're gonna die anyways they go from their perspective they they got one over they you know they ended up living but from the from the and that's that's what the world from the children and of course they make them become their servants they're Bob servants they have to you know do all this work and hard you know cut down trees moving water around and all this stuff for the service of the house is gone that's the what they're what they're now bond to do but they're still they're still alive and first number 26 essence so did he unto them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel and Joshua made them that day he was a wood drawers of water the congregation for the altar of the Lord even under this day in the place which he should choose let's borrow his ever word of prayer your heavenly father over thank you so much for your words and I pray that you please just help us all to be true to our word and that you would lead us and direct us Lord help us to make wise decisions help us not to be deceived by the seers of this world but to be wise and being diligent to do as much as we can to make sure that we're not being fooled and deceived and Lord I pray that you would please tell us all remember that we need to go to you first seeking our counsel from you regularly daily dear Lord and that you would we know God we love you to Jesus name and pray amen