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All right keep your place there in Joshua 23 that will be our main text for this evening. So this sermon I actually rewrote a brand new sermon on on Friday because I had a conversation with a man at work on Friday afternoon that just I just had to write a sermon about it talk about it and you're gonna sit here and especially after this morning you're gonna sit here you're gonna listen to this sermon you're gonna say you wrote this sermon this afternoon but I had no time I'm telling you I went we went to our house for the baptisms after church we went solo winning we came right back here so this actually happened on Friday but it's it's perfect for what you know transpired today and probably what will transpire in the future so the title of my sermon this morning is peace in our time peace in our time and I changed this sermon I had a completely different idea but I talked to this guy at work at this he was an older man an older engineer and I just happened and I typically don't do this at work where I I go and end up just talking to people about things but this man just started talking to me about things so I just sat and I listened to this man for 30 or 40 minutes and the funny thing is he's a nice man he was a nice man he's confused on some things he was confused on some things that I'm not confused on he just he's not the typical type of person that's gonna listen so I just did the listening in the conversation but there's some of the things that the Bible is very clear on which is why I'm not confused on these things and there's some of the things that was the older I get you know I realized that you know they've I become convinced that it's a big danger that we face as Christians which is why you know I I'm preaching on it tonight and the premise of this conversation with this man is this this man was telling me he said you know I grew up lower middle class he said he's trying that was his way of he was a you know he's what you'd consider a kind of a powerful person he I grew up lower middle class and he was talking about some of his colleagues and friends that grew up lower middle class basically saying he came from humble beginnings this man and he says you know I've risen to such heights and you know done such great things and he just couldn't understand how he's raised a generation and these people that he knows have raised a generation that doesn't want to do anything that doesn't want to go out and and be motivated for anything they just want to lay around and do nothing and they he went into great detail he gave free college educations to the next generation hundreds of thousands of dollars you wouldn't believe the amount of money he told me hundreds of thousands of dollars still they don't want to do anything and then the man I mean his concern was genuine you know the man and the company that he works for they've built some of the biggest things in the world this this man he's an incredibly experienced person and he's just he's lamenting he can't understand it was genuine confusion on how the next generation just he said to me he said he went on to say he said who is going to build the cities and who's going to build the bridges and who's gonna build the machines he was he's genuinely concerned look he has misguided goals we understand that I understand that but the concern was genuine from this man look the point of this sermon tonight I mean I have several points but look the world I'm trying to get you understand here in the introduction the world is losing this fight to itself they're losing the fight with itself the premise of this man concern is also a major risk to Bible believing Christians it's a major risk some of you I fear might may lose this fight so we you know we've talked a lot about separation we've had sermon series about separating your family and what the Bible says you know but here's the thing there's more that must be done than just separation so tonight I want to talk to you about this idea of peace in our time and the man actually used that phrase which is strange but he said you know it's just there's nothing but good things and good times it's peace in our time but still nothing and he's just confused about it so I want to talk to you tonight about this idea of peace in our time and the dangers of that peace and I put peace in quotes for you as we head forward so let's let's look for a moment as an intro here at the man Joshua at the man Joshua turn to numbers chapter 11 in verse number 28 turn to numbers chapter 11 in verse number 28 keep your place in Joshua 23 will be will be coming back to that as well so let's look at at Joshua and his life and the end of his life and see what we can take from this and apply to this situation that this man was confused about and that we will face as Christians as we try to raise you know the next generation look at numbers chapter 11 in verse number 28 and the Bible says this it says in Joshua the son of Nun the servant of Moses one of his young men answered and said my Lord Moses forbid them my only point in reading that verse for you is to understand that Joshua was Moses's servant even before he became one of the twelve spies to go into the Promised Land okay in numbers 13 Joshua and Caleb and the other ten spies they go into the Promised Land to spy out the Promised Land and of course they come back and Joshua and Caleb are the only ones that have faith in God that say you know what God can fight these battles for us all the other ten men are there they're giants and they're though the cities are walled and they have chariots of iron and they're just afraid and that of course is when God decides you know you'll wander in the wilderness until every child over 20 is dead basically and he basically says that only Caleb and Joshua are gonna get in this generation you're gonna get to see the Promised Land so they you know my point is that Joshua even before he got to the Promised Land he was a servant of Moses for at least 40 years he was a servant for a long time turn back to Joshua chapter 23 so Joshua after they enter the Promised Land Joshua takes over after Moses dies and it's Joshua that takes the fight to Jericho and all the other Canaanites and the people in the Promised Land and he goes and he takes that battle and he starts securing all that land that God has promised the children of Israel it was Joshua that took that fight it wasn't Moses Moses had died Moses did not cross so Joshua the servant became Joshua the leader and Joshua the the warrior who went forth and conquered the land and Joshua after he conquered the land God gave him some rest in his life okay look at Joshua 23 in verse number one and the Bible says and it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age so from my reading you know of this this battles that Joshua fought throughout you know the Bible you know from my reading of it in Joshua you know 6 through you know chapter 12 or so Joshua fought for several years I mean it wasn't just you know six months and he was done Joshua fought for it for several years I don't know exactly how many years that was but it was years of fighting okay and I mean when you think about you know just soldiers that have gone to you know tours of duty in in Vietnam whether it be whatever you know they don't fight for years you know the average soldier in World War two you know actually saw combat for you know maybe a few weeks basically Joshua went into the promised land he fought for years to secure this land and the Bible says in Joshua 23 verse 1 that God gave him rest after that and then he became old in rest right and it was much deserved rest that Joshua head look at verse number two then Joshua as he gets old and stricken in age he's gonna give some advice to Israel and the Bible says in verse 2 Joshua 23 verse 2 and Joshua called for all Israel and for their elders and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and said unto them I am old and stricken in age and you have seen all that the Lord your God had done unto these nations because of you for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you jump down to verse number eight for sake of time but cleave unto the Lord your God as he have done unto this day so he's saying hey you know you've been you've been doing well God's been fighting for us been cleaving unto the Lord he's a keep doing that as he have done unto this day for the Lord had driven out from before you great nations and strong look those ten spies they came back I mean they weren't lying I mean they were great nations they weren't Giants they weren't dead big walls of Jericho but the Lord fought for them the Lord they the argument that Caleb and Joshua head wasn't that these people weren't great and powerful is that the Lord will fight for us they had the faith right look at verse number nine or verse number ten one man of you shall chase a thousand this is a verse of a week for the Lord your God he it is that fighteth for you as he hath promised you take good heed therefore unto yourselves that you love the Lord your God so look after the after Joshua the people that remembered the battles remain the people that remembered the battles remain turn to judges chapter 2 all was fine all was fine look at judges chapter 2 just a few pages over in your Bible let's look at judges chapter 2 and look down at verse number 7 and the Bible says this in Joshua 2 7 it says and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua so there was Joshua and then Joshua died and then all these elders that remembered who look at the next sentence who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel so these people it said Joshua died and then these elders remained and they had seen the battles they had seen Joshua fight the battles maybe some of them actually fought the battles with Joshua but they had at least seen the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel verse number eight and Joshua the son of none the Sermon of the Lord died being a hundred and ten years old and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timathenes in the mountain of Ephraim on the north side of the hill gash and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers now all those elders died and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel so we see that there was Joshua then there was these elders that had seen at least the great works of Joshua in the Lord with Joshua and then there was another generation that arose that had not seen those things and they forgot the Lord just like that the generation that was alive to see those fights was fine is the point I'm trying to get across to you before we get started this evening but the next generation that didn't see the battles that's where the problem began they forgot the Lord look at verse number 11 it gets worse and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam they turned on God and they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger and they forsook the Lord and they served Baal and Ashtoreth and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so they could not any longer stand before their enemies so they forsook the Lord and God just he forsook them basically and he gave him into the hand of their enemies so the app the application here tonight is it's not that there weren't any more battles to fight for these people for some reason they just they forgot about it and they stopped fighting those battles turn to Ephesians chapter 6 turn to Ephesians chapter 6 now I wanted to press you tonight but I want to tell you what you're up against look separation is not enough you see the man I talked to fry I talked to on Friday his standards in life were money and personal success your standards are much higher your standards are much higher than for the success of what the world will call success look at Ephesians 6 verse number 12 for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places look there will always be spiritual battles for you guaranteed in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 the Bible says this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come so the Bible says it's just gonna get worse but let me ask you this knowing what you know about the Bible do you think that the next generation is gonna have harder spiritual battles than you or easier spiritual battles than you think about that I mean just look at the world and tell me if you think that those battles are gonna be easier for the next generation or more difficult I mean they're obviously it's it's getting it's gonna be way harder for the for the people in 30 40 50 years than it is for us today turn to Jeremiah chapter 6 so here's my first point tonight here's my first point tonight turn to Jeremiah chapter 6 my first point is this as we apply this lessons of the life of Joshua my first point is that if you don't fight your battles today the next generation doesn't have a chance no chance you say you know I was I was with my wife at a restaurant on Friday night and I just I pointed out to my wife and I said look around I said look around it looks it looks like peace it looks like peace we're having a nice time it's quiet it looks like peace put down to Jeremiah chapter 6 in verse 13 Jeremiah was preaching to the children of Judah they were about to be taken over by Babylon because God was judging them and look at Jeremiah chapter 6 in verse 13 and the Bible says for the least of them even unto the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness and from the prophet even under the priest everyone deal with falsely he's saying all the prophets and priests of this time they're just lying they're not saying what's really true they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace so that look here I'm here to tell you tonight there is no peace in our time turn back to judges chapter 2 there is no peace you better get this idea out of your head that we're just there's just peace in our time turn back to judges chapter 2 they stopped fighting judges chapter 2 look at verse number 1 if you don't fight your battles and there's plenty of battles to be fought the next generation won't fight anything judges chapter 2 look at verse number 1 and the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant with you and you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land and you shall throw down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this wherefore also 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 nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them so they forsook the Lord they forgot they they quit fighting all those spiritual battles and the physical battles they were given into the hand of their enemies but God's merciful this is when the book of judges you know pops up in the Bible and God God at least sent judges which shows his mercy by the way look at verse number 17 and yet they would not hearken unto their judges but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying they turn quickly out of the way that who walked in the previous generation obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so so if the battles weren't over God had to send the judges to try to get to help them to show mercy to them look the battles that you fight will be a testimony to the next generation the battles that you fight the most memorable moments from people's childhoods and I've seen this again and again and again our battles that their parents fought it's across the board spiritual and and not I remember one of my wife's most powerful memories of her dad is her dad lamenting and sitting at the table thinking we're gonna lose the farm we're not gonna make it but he kept fighting he kept fighting coming back from the cattle sale saying what I didn't make any money of all the labor I put in this year because of the prices I didn't make any money this year but we have to keep going how are we gonna make it well I mean that's not a spiritual battle but it can be when it comes to supporting your family just doing something hard but it's a it's a memory that has earned him great respect from the next generation of his family because it's a battle that he fought and he kept fighting so the battles that you fight or don't fight will define the next generation no pressure you say you say what battles it seems peace in our time things are going well for me what what battles well I mean I know that's laughable today but separation it which we talk about all the time your separation is a battle being becoming a peculiar people a peculiar family that's a battle I mean are you gonna fight that battle standing up to family that may not like that separation that's a battle getting sin out of your life is a battle saying alcohol doesn't have to rule me anymore you know you don't have to be involved in this pornography and these drugs and this filth that's out there that's a battle getting into a good church is a battle it's a battle people might fight you the world will fight you but it's a battle it's a battle that if the next generation sees you fight they will fight it to disciplining your kids properly and and and and having faith in God that that it's not what I think but it's what the Bible says is a battle will you fight it if you don't discipline your kids properly and train them properly the next generation has no chance none getting to work supporting the family I mean we could go on and on and on it's a battle starting a new job is a battle kicking a filthy sodomite out of church is a battle it wants to come in here and and disrupt a godly church service I told you they would come here and they'll come here you think anything is a coincidence we're here in a sermon out of Genesis 19 you think it's a coincidence I mean are you kidding me I mean you can't make this stuff up you couldn't write a book like this we're preaching out of Genesis 19 some filthy sodomite comes in here and starts trying to just defile this church service but we got to get some fight in us and look I mean they're telling me when I'm about to move to Fresno they're like oh you know there's there's a lot of gangs in Fresno and here to the Bulldogs you know the Bulldog gang you know I don't know we gotten quite a few of them saved so far they seem pretty receptive to the gospel to me they're not busting into church you know screaming obscenities and a bunch of kids are gonna hear never had to drag one of them out yeah nice look these are evil people I mean I don't know when people are gonna figure this out but you know what if another enough of us start learning the truth maybe maybe other people will figure it out too and I understand that it's a spiritual battle but when some filthy sodomite lays their hands on my kids we're fighting now that's how it's always gonna go for me they have to see you fight your kids have to see you fight period but wait there's more it's not enough that they see you fight you have to train them to fight to your kids need to learn how to fight period I fear that some people you know in our culture or whatever you want to call it will use you know this freedom of homeschooling and freedom of separation and freedom that we have because we do have these freedoms right now thank God to train the next generation to not fight I fear that I fear that you will want to do everything for them now I'm not talking about exposing them to sin like the world would say that's stupid it unbiblical I'm talking about you know never expecting them to do anything hard or never having them see you do something hard I fear that you'll make excuses for them it's the worst thing you could ever do for your kids you're training them not to fight when you make excuses for your children you know you can see this in parents early on that that don't discipline their children early on in their life you can see this it's just because they don't want to see them upset it's hard on them they don't want to see their kids going through a hard time you're training them to fail is what you're doing turn to Proverbs 22 you know that older engineer he was talking to me and he was just like he was just I mean the man was depressed when he was talking to me and I just sat there and I just listened and I sat there and I listened to him and he's like who's gonna do these things and who's gonna do this and who's gonna build these things now I'm just like who's gonna serve the Lord is what I'm thinking because I'm like we've got the same problem buddy but who's gonna serve the Lord that's my problem turn to Proverbs 22 but teaching your kids to do hard things is a battle Proverbs 22 verse 29 says this it says see is thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men you know there's many examples we could go into this and there's that it's it's not there's no time but I know that some of you are gonna are gonna be taking some tests so I'll use this as an example in the coming in the coming weeks you'll be taking some tests look if if your kids sit at home and are never pushed in school they will never know how to do anything hard I'll just use education as an example tonight because I know that like look learning is not easy many times it's not fun and many times there is failure involved okay I fear that because I preach that I won't send my kids off to a wicked University system which I won't that some of you will use that to be lazy and teach your kids that education is not important that's not the case I had a wise friend of mine tell me a few months ago I was whining about some tests that I had to take look I hated school I still hate school I don't like taking tests I was whining to this friend about eight or nine months ago about some tests that I had to take and he's like look he's like you should never be done taking tests in your life and he's right how are your kids gonna exceed succeed if they don't keep pushing themselves in their education and and pushing themselves to do things hard tests are hard so they're called tests look I hate tests are you taking it are you training your kids to take the easy road in everything pastor talked about it this morning it's it's always the wrong road you know teaching them to accomplish great things they must battle for those things what's easy is just coasting by that's what's easy are you teaching them to succeed are you teaching them how to study in school I know this is just one example when they fail are you making excuses for them when you fail a test it's because you didn't study enough period you didn't know it well enough period you know I used to say wrestling was the best sport when you won and the worst sport when you lost because there was nobody to blame you're like you know the other guy was just better than me I remember I had there was three periods in wrestling matches and I was wrestling against this guy and I think it was my dad or the coach I can't remember my dad was usually there but it was the period the break on the period and I came to the side and you know my dad's like that guy's stronger than you and I'm like thanks you know got anything else you can tell me right now yeah he's like you know he gave me some advice but he basically just said look he's stronger than you he's throwing you around like a ragdoll you're not strong enough if you lose you weren't strong enough if you fail you didn't work hard enough you weren't diligent enough is what the Bible would say which meant you didn't train hard enough are you trained teaching the next generation to train through diligence to train to be diligent is what I'm asking look if they're not going to stand before mean men is the proverb says that means that's because they will be strong they will be diligent right so you better give them some problems to solve some hurdles to overcome in your life you say you know I you're you're an adult now and you say I wasn't raised this way turn to Colossians chapter 3 turn to Colossians chapter 3 you say I just wasn't raised that way I don't know you know how to change that well the Bible tells you how to change it whether you do it is up to you Colossians chapter 3 look at verse number 23 Colossians 3 verse number 23 the Bible says and whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men so everything that you do you should be doing it unto Christ you're studying for a test you're like hey I want to do well on this test you should do it as unto Christ you should work as unto Christ you say you know my mom made all kinds of excuses for me well she was wrong move on she shouldn't have done that move on you're an adult now okay look conclusion we all have battles to fight there is no peace in our time there's no peace some of you will just choose to not fight those battles it's a choice you'll make and if you don't fight those battles the next generation will not even know that there's a battle to fight turn back to Judges chapter 2 judges chapter 2 turn to judges chapter 2 judges chapter 2 and verse number 7 the Bible says and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlive Joshua who had seen the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel I love that verse you know I think when I read that verse I think of these generations that are going around a curve think about it this way these generations are going around this curve and as long as the guy in the front can see the guy back behind him that has fought the battles he's fine he'll fight him too or there's a better chance at least that he'll fight him but as soon as it gets like one generation out and he can't see around the curve anymore of somebody who's actually fought these battles then it's it's a disaster that's what happened here and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlive Joshua but when those men all died they they forgot the Lord that's the importance of you mom and dad that you fight these battles you recognize what they are and you actually fight them you know I mean forget the world you can ruin them so you better equip them for what's coming you know there's great opportunity I mean think about this there's great opportunity for people who get this right this man and I think this man said is he kept saying the pool the pool of people that can do anything it's getting smaller and smaller and smaller he kept saying he's right the pool of people is getting smaller so that means that if your kids can fight that they're gonna be they're gonna be special they're gonna be able to help others fight as well you know so there's great opportunity but there's also great danger if they don't know how to fight now here's the really stupid thing here's the really stupid thing about this whole topic that man was confused he didn't know you know and I tried to tell him a couple things but when you realize people aren't gonna listen then you know you just I just listen but here's the thing that he was confused but we are not I mean we should not be confused on this because here's the thing you know you can win look at your bulletin don't even look at just look at the front of your bulletin if you say look if you choose to fight God literally promises that you will win I mean that's good news God promises you say no matter what it takes I'm gonna get this sin out of my life God promises that you win you say no matter what it takes I'm gonna get my family into a good church you will win that battle and not only will you win that battle look at look at the verse if one man one man of you shall chase a thousand I know people who have moved to a good church and they're chasing a thousand that's what they're doing they're affecting thousands of people this is what you can do and then at the end of the verse it says as he hath promised you I mean you hear about people moving I mean people moving for a church and taking this leap of faith and then you hear about people moving away from a good church and you're just like you're just like I mean what one man will chase a thousand what take a poll who wants to do nothing with their life nobody would ever raise their hand how many of you want to chase a thousand how many of you want to affect you know this world you know but look chasing a thousand men must have been a considerable amount of work I mean Joshua obviously knew how to fight I mean he went into the promising he knew how to fight but God promises that promised him that he'll win he promises you the same thing that you will win so fight your battles your kids and those around you need to see you fighting they need to see us not putting up with this garbage that's walking around on these streets out here they need to see that but and just and just just telling them just telling them is not good enough they need to see it the world you know the world doesn't understand what's happening here but we understand we understand all of it we understand why there's people like that we understand why every single time we run into one of these filthy sodomites they're all the same way they hate the Lord they're they're they're disgusting the things that come out of their mouth you don't even want to put your hands on them but it's necessary at times to get them out of here but it's it's all the same I mean the Bible we understand at all look if we look if we chase if we chase a thousand and we train other people to chase a thousand pastor and I were passionate we're talking about this the other night what just think about this there's 38 40 million people in California what if we could chase a thousand and then we could train other people to chase a thousand the soul-winning tip and then we could take it out to you know Samaria we could take it out to the uttermost parts of the world and then other churches could get planted and that churches that get planted plant other churches and then they could chase a thousand I mean that's called exponential math I wonder if you know we could actually affect change in this state look so many people thought I was crazy for moving here but think about it the people that thought I were crazy they're conservative decent people they're not they're not on board with any of this filth that's going on out here they're conservative decent people but here's the thing why as the fight goes California is the front line so if we actually want to affect change in this world why would we not be on the front lines of that battle and fighting that battle no matter what it takes and then the Bible says that we'll chase a thousand will plant churches they'll chase a thousand and we can affect this entire state we can actually make it happen but look some people some Christians will chase no one and they'll run they'll be in a Bible preaching church like this do you think that guy's walking into some other church no he's walking into this one why it's not a coincidence folks I told you when I started here we're gonna see some weird stuff here I just told you because they're coming here there they know who we are they know the gospel that that our feet are carrying and Satan hates him and he's gonna try to stop it so look if we don't choose to fight these battles this is all I'm trying to say and what I what I wish I could have said to this man that it's because it's because they they never saw you fighting and that you never trained them to fight is the answer for that man and I would have loved to open the Bible and give him a lesson from Joshua and and get him saved and get him directed in the right direction but that's that's the bottom line folks it's it's about fighting your battle seeing your kids fight the bat they've seen you fight the battles and then training them to fight as well and then you know we can succeed as separated Christians and the next generation will succeed and then when they fight their kids will see them fighting and they will train their kids to fight this is how it's supposed to work and it's possible the Bible tells us Joshua told the people he told the people in his last words they just didn't listen that's all so keep those battles in mind fight those battles choose to fight and we'll affect change we will affect change the answer is yes we can change this state it's just it's just math it's just math let's bow our heads and pray dear Heavenly Father I thank you for this evening thank you for all these people to be faithful to church on Sunday night Lord I thank you for the pastor of this church Lord I pray that you give him a safe trip home bless the the church service this week bless the fellowship tonight and bless everybody's trips home Lord we love you in Jesus name we pray amen