Epochs of Israel - The Conquest of Canaan

Series Introduction

Today, we begin a new series for the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas.  We will consider the four Epochs of Israel.  An epoch is a period in history, typically one marked by notable events or characteristics. 

The Bible is the great story of God’s rescue plan for humanity.  It is marked by many great epochs.  There is the epoch of creation and the fall of humanity when Adam and Eve sinned against God.  There is the dark epoch that followed as humanity descended so far into sin that the most

merciful thing God could do was destroy the whole earth with a flood and start over with Noah.  Then there is the epoch of God’s covenant with Abraham, where God chooses one man’s family to represent Him to the whole world. 

Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, migrated to Egypt where they were enslaved.  God rescued them in the Epoch of the Exodus.  At my church, we used this responsive reading to review that Epoch  and set up the topic of this blog.  

Pastor:  The Lord our God is mighty to save! He rescued to Israelite slaves from Egyptian Empire. 

People:  Through 10 plagues, He judged Egypt’s gods and proved they were nothing. 

Pastor:  Moses led the Israelites to the edge of the Red Sea,

People:  But the Egyptian army came to destroy them.  The Lord rescued Israel again.

Pastor:  He parted the sea so Israel could walk through on dry ground,

People:  But the Egyptian army drowned in the sea.

 

Pastor:  God led Moses and the Israelites to Mount Sinai to make a sacred covenant.

People:  The Lord gave Israel the 10 commandments and the Law.

Pastor:  If they would trust God and be faithful to obey to His Law,

People:  The Lord would protect them, prosper them, and give them peace.

Pastor:  But if Israel was unfaithful,

People:  The Lord would punish them with plagues and war and defeat.

 

Pastor:  The Lord promised to lead Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey,

People:  But Israel still did not trust the Lord to do it. They wanted to go back to Egypt and be slaves again.

Pastor:  So God made them wander in the dessert until that unfaithful generation passed away.

People:  Only Joshua and Caleb were left because they were the only ones who believed the Lord.

Pastor:  Then the time came for the Lord to lead Israel into the Promised Land.

People:  Joshua and Calab and the people of Israel were ready to obey the Lord.

 

All:  And so the first Epoch of Israel begins—The Epoch of Conquest.

The rag tag rabble of slaves that left Egypt has been transformed into an army of God’s faithful, harden by 40 years of nomadic dessert living.  They are thirsty to finally take possession of the Promised Land and begin their life as God’s Kingdom on Earth.  But to do it, the Israelites must first conquer the Canaanites who live in the land.  Moses is dead; so God appoints Joshua as the new commander and chief.  (By the way, Joshua is the same name as Jesus…)  And in Joshua 1:6-9, we read God’s instructions to Joshua.  They will be the war cry of the entire book and the entire epoch of the conquest of Canaan.

Joshua 1:6-9
⁶“Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. ⁹ This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Conquest of Canaan
Canaan was a land full of cruelty and debauchery that had persisted for hundreds of years.  You can be sure, God gave the Canaanites every opportunity possible to repent and be saved.  However, there comes a moment when your time runs out.  That time had come for the Canaanites.

The Canaanites lived in fortress cities, like Jericho, surround by impregnable walls.  Israelite spies had described them as giants who could not be defeated.  But if the Lord can defeat the mighty Egyptian Empire, He can defeat the Canaanites.  And that’s just what God does in the book of Joshua.  

In battle after battle, the Lord God of Israel defeats every king in Canaan.  No one can stand against Him.  But here’s the thing you may miss if you aren’t careful.  The victory in battle is never won by the Israelite army.  It is God who is doing the fighting.  As it says in Joshua 23:10, “Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised.”

Perhaps the best example of the Lord fighting from the Israel is the famous Battle of Jericho.  God told the Israelites to march around the city every day for seven days.  Then, on the seventh day, God told His people to march around the city seven times.  Then the were to blow trumpets and shout.  And when they did, the walls of the city came crashing down.  Now this is a ludicrous battle plan.  No military strategist in their right mind would suggest this as a viable plan, but it worked!  And the point is, this is God's work, not the soldiers.  Incidentally, their is archeological evidence in Jericho of an ancient city from around the time Joshua would have been there that shows a walled city where the walls have collapsed outward.  If this is the same city, it would be string evidence for a supernatural defeat of a walled city (walls don't collapse outward if they are being sieged by an army on the outside of the city).

It is God who does the fighting.  The Israelites just have to be faithful and trust God and be obedient.  Whenever they are faithful and obedient, God wins the victory for the Israelites.  Whenever the Israelites lose faith and are disobedient, they are defeated.

Three Important Lessons
There are three lessons we can learn from Israel’s conquest of Canaan.  We learn the first lesson from the sad demise of the Canaanites.  Judgement will come.  God is patient when we sin.  The Canaanites lived in sin for hundreds of years.  In Genesis when Abraham visited Canaan, we read some of the terrible things they did.  In addition to rejecting the one True God for idols, the Canaanites raped and murdered.  They were sexually and morally depraved.  They sacrificed their children to idols.  I was watching a documentary last week about the Canaanites that explained how their kings would defeat and capture a city and skin the defeated people alive and hang their corpses up for everyone to see.  And all this evil persisted in Canaan for well over 600 years until God finally said, enough is enough.  At just that time, the Israelites showed up at the door of Canaan to execute God’s judgment. 

If you are clinging to your sin, refusing to surrender to God repent, you need to understand: time is running out.  God is patient, but He will not delay judgment forever.  You will have to face God’s judgment one day soon.  Jesus is either going to come back for the whole world all at once or he is going to come for you as an individual when you take your last breath.  What will you say when you stand before Him face to face? How will you answer for your sin? 

When Jesus came the first time, he said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Paraphrased from Mark 1:15)  And Romans 8:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  The believing that Romans mentions is not mere intellectual assent.  If a person really believes Jesus is Lord and He is coming again. they will act accordingly and it will result repentance and righteous living.  Time is running out.  Repent today.

The second lesson from the conquest is that God fights for those who are faithful and obedient.  When we trust God through Jesus Christ we are in a new covenant with God.  He becomes our Lord  and we become His people.  He promises to fight for us.  As Isaiah 54:17 promises, “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord…”  What a great promise we have in the Lord. 

Therefore, the third lesson for us today is be strong and courageous.  The conquest was a test for the Israelites.  God did the fighting, but the Israelites had to step onto the battlefield.  There are tests in our lives too.  God does the fighting, but we still must trust Him enough to show up for the fight.  We must step out on the battlefield.  We must be vulnerable and trust He will be our strength and shield.

Conclusion
What battles lie between you and the blessing God has for you? 

One battle may be fear.  You may be afraid to repent.  You may worry, "What will people think of me if I decide to follow a God you can't even see."  The Israelites were accused of something similar.  Everyone around them worshipped idols.  Now, today we would thin it silly to worship a statue made by human hands. Ironically, the opposite was true in the ancient world.  People looked at the Israelites and said, "Where is your God?" And all they could say is, "Yahweh is invisible. You can't see them." And it was ridiculous to non-Israelites because they could see and touch their statue gods.  Today, few people still worship statues, but non-believers make a similar ridicule of Christians.  "You pray to some invisible God," they think while they trust in more tangible things like science, reason, money, a job, power, and politics.  And some people are afraid to put their faith in an invisible God because it would irrational to trust something you cannot see instead of more tangible things.

Others may be afraid to surrender themselves.  They are not sure if they are willing to trade their life and dreams for the life God wants to give them.  They may be afraid to give up control.  But God vcan't fight your fear--whatever it is--if you are willing to step on the battlefield.

Perhaps the battle is something more specific: an illness or chronic disease, a career change, a new stage of life for you or someone you love.  Perhaps change is coming in your life and the fear is palpable.  But I want to encourage you:  Be strong and courageous!  Do not be afraid or discouraged. For [if you have faith in Him] the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Step out onto the battlefield and trust God to fight the battle for you and you will be victorious.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt, Plague 10 - The Death of First Born Sons

Introduction
The people in the Bible were real people living in the real world.  Don't ever forget that—especially as we consider this terrible 10th plague. Every 1st born through the land of Egypt died as the Angel of Death passed over the land--from the firstborn son of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the lowest servant, even the firstborn among the animals died. (COVID has effected all of us. Most of us know of someone who has had it.  The 10th Plague effected every family personally. In one dark night, every single family had someone die.)

Some would question why would God send such a terrible plague.  Well, I’m not one to questions God’s judgments (nor am I one to lightly blame God for every disaster that comes).  This passage clearly says God is the one who sent the plague.  There is a biblical principle that a person reaps what they sow.  How did Egypt treat the Israelites?  Pharaoh issued a terrible edict that every male child born among the Hebrews must be thrown into the Nile river. Do you remember that?  Moses was one of those baby boys that was to be murdered in the Nile river.  He escaped miraculously by the hand of God.  And now that same Moses is the instrument that God used for retribution against Egypt.  What comes around, goes around and the judgment you use against others is the same judgment that will be used against you. 

This was the most terrible plague of all that struck Egypt as the Lord brought judgment on all of Egypt's false "gods".  It was caused by Egypt's sin (which had persisted for centuries)and arrogance and the stubbornness of their leader, Pharaoh, who refused to surrender to God and let His people go. 

The Consequences of Sin
The first lesson for you today is this:  Your sin and idolatry doesn't just effect you.  The effects of sin spread from you to others like a virus.  Pharaoh’s son died on that fateful night when the Angel of Death passed over Egypt carrying out God’s judgment.  But other Egyptians—perhaps more reasonable people who were less cruel than Pharaoh—suffered the same fate as they watched their firstborn son’s struck down because of their nation’s sins. 

So when you suffer because of your own sin, you may think you are getting what you deserve and the price is paid.  But who is paying the price for the suffering and evil you sin brings on your family and your neighbors?  The sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth (and others) aren’t just deadly to you.  When you sin, it affects everyone around you—especially the people you care about most.  The affects of our sin can continue for generations.  You may still be suffering the affects of some of the sins your parents, grandparents, or great grand parents--alcoholism, abuse, etc.  These sins have a ripple effect down through the generations.  Your sins today, may have a similar affect on your children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren. 

I believe God is calling people today to surrender to Him—just like He was calling for Egypt’s unconditional surrender through Moses.  The 10^th plague shows the deadly consequences when we stubbornly refuse to listen to the Lord--even though He comes to us again and again.  It hurts us and even those we love most.

Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Family Idol
Throughout this series, I’ve tried to show you that we have idols in the modern world just as much as the ancient Egyptians.  Whereas they worship gods fashioned after frogs and cows and snakes, many people today worship idols of money, power, pleasure, patriotism and other false gods.  An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”[i] 

Idols don’t necessarily start out as bad things.  They often begin as very good things but become idols to us because we make them the ultimate things.  Then, they become our gods.  Even family can become an idol.  

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, family is on the hearts and minds of many people.  We want to gather with those we love most and most people have a strong tradition of visiting family during the holidays (even if their relatives annoy them). 

Jesus was once teaching when he said something very challenging about family.  “As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak to you.”  Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!” (Matthew 12:46-50) 

In Jesus’ Kingdom, family isn’t defined by our genetics—those who are our biological brothers and sister.  Out brothers and sisters in the truest sense are the people who share our common goal to do the will of God (our Heavenly Father).  

Jesus’ earthly family—in the beginning of his ministry—thought he’d lost his mind.  They saw their relative saying things that threatened the political authorities and attracted huge crowds of followers.  They wanted to take him home and shut him up.  They couldn’t see he was doing the will of God.  (Or maybe they were too afraid to care.) 

Some people would argue, “Yes, but the Ten Commandments say you must ‘Honor your father and mother’. (Ex 20:12)”  Yes that is true.  But that is the fifth of the Ten Commandments God gave.  The very first one says, “Do not worship any God but the Lord.” (Exodus 20:3) And the second one says, “Do not make idols of any kind.” (Exodus 20:4)  

When we put our family before the will of God, we turn them into idols and worship them ahead of God.  The results are terrible.  Idols lead us into darkness.  They always disappoint and destroy lives.  We should love our earthly family, but if we hold our children so tight we treat them like our gods, we will crush them under the weight of unfair expectation they cannot fulfill.  If we treat our parents like gods, they will be destroyed by the impossibility of living up to the role of God.  Our brothers and sisters are only our equals.  No mere mortal can ever fill the shoes of God and to expect them to is insane and inevitably leads to suffering.

Jesus is Our The Passover Lamb
The Israelites slaves in ancient Egypt were spared the horror of the 10^th plague.  Each family was to choose a perfect lamb or goat without any defects.  They were to sacrifice the animal and smear some of its blood on the sides and top of the doorframe to their home.  The blood would mark their household as belonging to God and everyone inside would be covered by the blood and the Angel of Death would Passover their home without bringing harm to anyone inside.   

The Israelites were no better than the Egyptians.  They were sinners too.  But the blood of their “Passover Lamb” signified they were in submission to God and therefore, God forgave their sins and gave grace instead of judgment.  (Incidentally, the same escape was available to the Egyptians.  They could choose to apply the blood to their doorframes as well and there is good reason to believe some did.  Of course, in doing so, they were turning their back on the gods of Egypt and turning toward the God of Israel.  And if they did, they were spared.) 

So in the morning after the 10^th plague, it says “There was not a single house [in Egypt not covered by the blood] where someone had not died.” (Exodus 12:30).  I can’t imagine.  But this is the terrible cost of sin. 

In the New Testament, John the Baptist announced the coming of Jesus Christ.  Pointing to Jesus, John said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  In 1 Corinthians 5:7, it says, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”  The Gospels tell us Jesus was arrested and crucified during the Jewish holiday of Passover—the holiday when they commemorated God’s deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt after the 10^th plague.  Jesus is the Son of God.  His blood pays the price for our sin.  And when we surrender to God—turning from our sins and idols and false gods and turning to God—Jesus blood, the blood of the Lamb, covers us and delivers us from death and slavery caused by sin. 

Invitation
These 10 plagues are not just stories and myths.  They happened to real people like you and me.  As we struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, I pray it has opened your eyes to your own vulnerability and mortality.  I hope you realize how desperately you need the saving power of God in your life.  I pray, it will not take another 9 plagues (like it did for the Egyptians before they surrendered unconditionally to God).  Please turn from your sins and turn to God today.  It doesn't just affect you; it affects everyone. 

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”  Let’s pause for a moment of silence to reflect on our sin, confess them to God, and allow God to cleanse us with the blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb. 

You are going to need help to walk with the Lord.  Please contact me and let me know of the decisions you’ve made so I can help you in your next steps. 

---

[i] pages xvii and xviii of Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

The Ten Plagues of Egypt, Plague 9

Introduction

Egyptians worship thousands of different gods and goddesses—deities they conjured up from their own imaginations.  The most important god among them was the sun god, Ra.  “Ra was believed to rule in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was the god of the sun, order, kings, and the sky. Ra was portrayed as a falcon and shared characteristics with the sky god Horus. The Egyptians believed all forms of life were created by Ra.”[i] 

Yahweh, the one true God revealed in the Bible, sent 10 plagues to show everyone that the gods of Egypt were nothing.  Yahweh is Lord of all.  In the 9^th plague, God sent darkness and it was a direct assault on the Egyptian god, Ra.  The Egyptians believed every evening when the sun set below the horizon, their god, Ra, descended into the underworld.  Through the night, Ra journeyed through the underworld and was reborn at dawn as the sun rising. 

Egyptian religion was all about bringing order to chaos.  Their religious traditions sought to maintain the natural order of things.  And their myth about Ra’s daily cycle of death and resurrection assured them that life in Egypt would continue as usual and Egypt would continue as the most powerful empire in the world.  The Egyptians believed that--like the cycle of night and day--dark times in their empire would always be followed by light as predictably as the daily cycle of light.

Darkness
And then our Lord sent darkness on Egypt for three days.  The darkness Scripture describes is not just the darkness of night or of a naturally occurring eclipse.  The plague of darkness lasted three days.  This is a supernatural event.  (It brings to mind the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the whale or the three days Jesus was sealed in a tomb after crucifixion.) 

Verse 21 says it was “a darkness so thick you could feel it.”  A few years ago, Kelly and I took the kids to the underground sea near Athens, TN.  This is a depe cave, in which is an underground lake.  We used flashlights and their are lights on the walls of the cave passages.  However, at one point our guide said, "OK.  Now we are going to turn off all the lights so you can experience absolute darkness."  And with that, she turned out all the lights and you couldn't even see you hand a couple inches in front of your face.  That's the kind of darkness God sent on Egypt.

Verse 23 says, “people could not see each other, and no one moved”.  And this went on for three days.  “But there was light as usual where the people of Israel lived.”  This is a principle for you to understand.  If you follow the Lord, you will have light in your life—for Jesus is the ‘light of the world.’  But if you reject God and turn to idols, you will be lost in darkness, a darkness so thick you can feel it wrapping it’s evil hands around you, closing in until it’s too late.

The Idol of Tradition
As we draw near to Thanksgiving, I’m reminded of how important tradition is.  We all probably have important traditions we keep every year.  My mother and my extended family (my siblings and their children) has had a tradition of gathering for a Thanksgiving meal, usually the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Sometimes this has been at my house and other times at my mother and sister’s house.  This year, because of COVID, we decided it’s best to not gather so many people from different households together in one large gathering.  Many of you may be altering your family traditions as well.  It’s a little sad, but I’m choosing to focus on all the good things God is doing and all the things I have for which to be thankful.

Tradition can be a good thing.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and one of the greatest Christian leaders of the last 500 years, included tradition among the four most important ways we can know God.  The first and most important is Holy Scripture, but there is also tradition, reason, and experience.  Traditions can help us learn from past experiences as we remember and honor those who have gone before. (Aren't you glad you don't have to learn everything the hard way through personal experience.  Think about how dangerous that would be!)

Yet Wesley also taught that when tradition and Scripture are in conflict, you must always follow Scripture and not tradition.  And when reason and experience show your tradition is wrong or dangerous, you must break with tradition. 

Tradition is a good thing, unless we make it into an idol—making it more important than God, letting it absorb our heart and imagination more than God, and expecting it to give us what only God can give.  You know traditions have become idols when they can't be changed no mater what.  Idols are disgusting to God because they separate us from God and plunge us into darkness.

If you don’t believe tradition can become an idol in church, you may be as blind as the Egyptians were during the plague of darkness.  “Tradition” is an idol that is erected right in the sanctuary of many churches.  As a young pastor, you learn very quickly to be careful how you deal with people’s traditions in church.  (You learn or you won’t be a pastor for very long.)  Ironically, we even have a name for these unbreakable traditions; we call them “sacred cows.” 

One example of tradition becoming an idol comes from an experience early in my ministry.  A church was getting ready for their summer Vacation Bible School.  Their new children's minister was decorating the church.  She decorated the sanctuary with the theme for the children's lessons.  Unfortunately, a group in the church became very angry that she had (in their eyes) desecrated the sacred space of the sanctuary.  That was a sacred cow for them.  Decorating a sanctuary for VBS may seem like a silly tradition to get so worked up about, but that is because it’s not your tradition.  What are your sacred cow (whether it’s at church or somewhere else)?

For many, nostalgia about “the way the world used to be” becomes an idol.  We look back fondly at the way things used to be in “the good old days” and it blinds us to the good days God is giving us right now.  Or worse, it keeps us from moving forward into the new good God wants us to have tomorrow.  Some look at the 1950s in America as a golden age when everything was at it's best; they think, "If we could just go back tot he way things were then."  Perhaps they forget that in the 50s, America was still segregated--black people were not afforded equal rights and equal access as white people and it was a great stain our our nation's integrity.  I'm very glad things have changed for the better.  The truth is, the “good old days” weren’t as “good” as we think.  We conveniently forget all the bad of those days and only recall the sweet memories.  Ironically, we often only see the bad things of our current situation while overlooking the good.

The Pharisees in Jesus day devoted their whole lives to God, yet they rejected the Son of God when he came to them.  They were threatened because he challenged their traditions.  And so Jesus said, “You can’t put new wine into old wineskins.” (Matthew 9:17 paraphrased) 

I have heard it said recently, nostalgia is the enemy of Jesus’ mission.  Jesus told his followers, “go and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19)  Meanwhile, so many Christians spend their time arguing about what style of songs we should sing in church or whether we should wear dress clothes or go casual.  Perhaps we argue about these things because we want to focus on our comfortabl traditions instead of going out as soldiers of Christ.  When the church worships the idol of traditions, it forsakes Jesus’ mission and becomes irrelevant.  Sanctuaries grow empty and churches close.  Jesus said, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Paraphrase Matthew 310)

What is Your Mission?
The Church is not a building. The Church is the people.  All who follow Jesus as Lord and are saved by His grace are the Church.  We are each one stones in a living Temple.  And we have a sacred purpose.  To tell the world about Jesus, to share His love, and to make disciples.

So what is your mission?  How are you going to live out your mission this week to bring the light of Christ to our dark world?  May I make some suggestions?

Worship the Lord, not just by what you do on Sundays at church.  Worship Him all week long; let your actions be your praise.  Turn away from all else--even traditions--and follow the Lord.

Use every opportunity to share Jesus’ love with others.  Jesus said "They will know you are my followers by the way you love one another.  It's not your political views or the football team you follow.  It's your love that shows people you are a Christian. 

Tell someone what Jesus has done for you.  If Jesus has made a difference in your life, then tell people about it.  This is what it means to be a witness and Christians are called to be witnesses for Christ.

Invite someone to church.  It's never been easier to invite people to church.  All you have to do is attend an online worship service on Facebook live and click the "share" button to share the service with a friend.  Invite people to church--whether it is for an online service or onsite.

So then, go and make disciples of all nations...

---

[i]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra#:~:text=Ra%20was%20believed%20to%20rule,with%20the%20sky%20god%20Horus.&text=All%20forms%20of%20life%20were%20believed%20to%20have%20been%20created%20by%20Ra.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt, Plague 8 - Locusts

The Ancient Egyptian Board Game "Senet"

My wife and I were watching a documentary on ancient Egypt the other day. They were excavating an Egyptian tomb and they discovered artifacts of an ancient Egyptian board game called Senet.  How cool is that?  The ancients played board games!  you can still buy and play the Senet board game they played today.

One of the marks of a successful culture (at least by worldly standards) is the ability to enjoy entertainment.  You have enough surplus time and resources to stop working just to survive and just enjoy life.  In America, we take our entertainment for granted because we are in one of the most prosperous nations in the world.  Do you realize that 99% of the people in our world today will never visit Disney World.  90% will never take a vacation to the beach or even go to an amusement park.  These are luxuries most Americans can do because we can afford them while most people in the world are too busy just struggling to survive.

God wants people to be able to enjoy life.  He said, "Remember to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy…” (Exodus 20:8) And, “On that day no one in your household may do any work…” (Ex. 20:10) “For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.” (Ex. 20:11) God didn't want HIs people to have to work all the time and never have time to rest and enjoy life.

The Pharisees in Jesus' day turned the Sabbath commands into a legalistic regulations that were a terrible burden for people.  They were no fun at all.  They were always upset with Jesus because he didn't follow the Sabbath commands the way they thought he should.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)  The commandment to rest on the Sabbath is one of the great gifts God gave humanity. We need to time rest. And God wants us to enjoy life. 

The ancient Egyptians were a very powerful and prosperous empire.  They had time and wealth to enjoy board games, theater, sporting events, and other entertainment.  Unfortunately, they did not appreciate God for blessing them with the resources to enjoy life.  In stead, they worshiped idols.  And through 10 plagues, God punished them for their idolatry.

Locusts
When I was a child, I heard that strange sound in the trees in late summer.  It sounded like a whinning buzzing that started soft and grew louder and louder  and then was echoed in another section of trees.  I asked my mom what it was and she said they were locusts.  It wasn't until I was older that I learned they weren't locust, but cicadas.  Cicadas are not locusts but are related.  In fact, cicadas, crickets, katydids, grasshoppers, and locusts are all cousins. 

I went to a Cub Scout camp once with my dad and they had us play a game.  In the morning, the challenged us all to find a critter to bring to a critter race that evening. My dad and I found a frog.  I thought we had the race in the bag that evening with our speedy little frog when we gathered around a big circle they had drawn on the ground that evening.  We all placed our critters in the center of the circle and began yelling for our critters to go.  The first one outside of the circle would be the winner.  All the critters started moving and I thought my frog might win.  But then a lone grasshopper leaped into the air and spread it's wings and flew off into the woods never to be seen again.  In one move, the grasshopper won the race.

Locusts are the swarming phase of certain kinds of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers usually live alone, but under certain circumstances they multiply radically and become social.  They join together and create huge swarms.  

According to National Geographic, a dessert locust swarm can cover 460 square miles and pack between 40-80 million locusts into less than a square mile (18-36 billion locusts in a swarm).

To put it in perspective, a typical swarm of dessert locusts could completely cover Whitfield County in Georgia where I live and nearly half of neighboring Murray County all at once.  A typical swarm of locusts can eat 423 million pounds of vegetation per day!  And the Scripture tells us the swarm that plagued Egypt was the worst “in the history of Egypt”.  

Unconditional Surrender
It's no wonder Pharaoh and his officials want relief.  They've already endured 7 plagues and their empire is in ruins.  So Pharaoh starts bargaining with Moses.  "You can go worship your Lord in the wilderness, but who is going?"  Moses says, "We are all going--men, women, children, and even the animals."  And Pharaoh says, "No.  Only the men can go!"

Now, there's an important principle you need to understand.  You cannot bargain with God for your salvation.  Jesus came to make a way for you to be saved from sin and death, but you are only saved through surrender; and you must surrender, unconditionally.  You can't say, "Lord, I will give you this part of my life, but I'm gonna keep that part of my life for myself."  No.  That will never do.  You must give God your whole life.  Philippians 2:9-11 says, "One day, God elevated him [Jesus] to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

The Idol of Pleasure
Egypt was an empire with thousands of idols and false gods.  But YHWH (pronounced Yahweh), the God of the Hebrews, our God, the only true and living God, sent 10 plagues on Egypt to expose the impotence of all Egypt’s false gods so that all nations and generations would know that there is only one God—the Lord. 

We have idols today too—even in our modern world.  God designed people to worship.  Trying not to worship is like trying not to breathe.  People just can't do it.  Even if someone doesn't believe in God they will still worship something.  They will worship money or power or their country or their leaders or people they admire.  They may even worship themselves.  One of the idols we worship is pleasure and entertainment. 

Now as I said before, God wants us to have time to rest and enjoy life and have pleasure.  He commanded us to rest on the Sabbath.  This was originally not some stiff religious regulation; it was God telling His children, “You got to take some time to stop and smell the roses!” 

Work can become and idol, but so can the pursuit of pleasure.  Many in our time bow down to the idol of Hedonism.  Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure and sensual self-indulgence.   

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying life.  God wants us to enjoy life.  But any time we take something that’s good and treat it like a god—treating it as more important to you than God, letting it absorb your heart and imagination more than God, and expecting it to give you what only God can give—we are worshiping an idol.  And idols always fail us and hurt us. 

We all want to be happy and enjoy life.  Ironically, the one thing that guarantees you will not be happy and enjoy life is if you spend all your time in the pursuit of pleasure.  You may find some fabricated, false sense of happiness.  Others may even look at you from the outside and envy your “happiness”, but that’s only because they can’t see how unhappy you are on the inside.  With hedonism, all your “happiness” is as empty and false as the impotent idols of Egypt. 

In contrast to hedonism, the two most effective ways to find the greatest real pleasure in life are to 1) be thankful, and 2) help others. 

First of all, be thankful.
Being grateful is not just the polite thing to do.  When we give thanks, it actually increases our capacity to enjoy our blessings.  You see, when we are unhappy, we often think the solution is to get more things or more experiences that will make us happy.  However, that is rarely the real solution.  Most often after we get the things or experiences we wanted, the satisfaction they give goes away so quickly and all we can think about is the next thing or experience we have to have. 

The solution is to learn to be truly thankful for what we have.  Our thankfulness magnifies the pleasure we receive from the things and experiences.  Amy Harris issued a challenge in her Youth Moment last week—to name one thing for which you are thankful each day.  That is a great habit—especially this month.  But don’t stop in November.  Be thankful every day.  Get a journal and each day write down some of the things for which ayou are thankful.  Another idea is to get a jar and some slips of paper and each day write down some things for which you are grateful and put them in the jar.  Form time to time--especially when you may be feeling down--take out your journal and read from your gratitude list.  Or dump out the slips of paper from your "gratitude jar" and read them.  You will find it cheers you up and brings your new joy. (My family does a gratitude jar all year long and we read the slips together on New Years Day after dinner.)

Second, help others.
Another great way to experience true and lasting pleasure—a pleasure that soaks down deep into your soul—is to help others.  Nothing brings joy like helping someone.  As Christmas draws nearer, we remember the old cliché--it is better to give than receive.  It's a cliché, but it's true.

Scientific studies show that helping others boosts happiness.[i] It increases life satisfaction, provides a sense of meaning, increases feelings of competence, improves our mood and reduced stress. It can help to take our minds off our own troubles too.[ii]

Don’t look at helping others as a burden you have to bear.  Carrying a heavy load doesn’t sound like fun and it won't bring you much joy either.  So help others with a cheerful heart.  It’s not some religious duty you must fulfill in order for God to love you.  God already loves you!  Think about just how much He loves you.  Now, turn around and help somebody else and you may find it is the most fun you’ve ever had. 

Holy Communion
Jesus gave us a special meal to remind us how much God loves us.  The last meal Jesus shared with His disciples--what Christians call Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist.  At the meal, Jesus took bread and gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my body, which is given for you." After the meal, he took a cup of wine and said, "Drink from this all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  And as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me."  That meal symbolized the way Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. And every time we celebrate Holy Communion, it does three things that can help us experience true joy in this life and for all eternity.

First, it reminds us how God helped us. Jesus left the glorious perfection of Heaven to come down to our broken world. Doesn't feel good to know God loved you so much He gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life?

Second, Holy Communion offers us the opportunity to be truly thankful.  Holy Communion is sometimes called "The Great Thanksgiving," for in it we give thanks for what Christ has done.  This is not just being polite.  It is an act that increases our capacity to experience joy as we the depth of God's love that prompted Him to leave the glory of Heaven for our sakes.

Third, Holy Communion is a sacred ceremony, that God uses to empower us to help others just like Christ helped us. His Spirit fills us and enables us to love people like God loves them.  And we can help people.  And helping people brings us joy.

So, I pray today you will stop trying to find joy through hedonism--a relentless pursuit of pleasure.  Instead, turn to God and find true and lasting joy as you learn to be thankful and seek to help others the way God helped you through Jesus Christ.

[i] [1] Post, S. G. (2005). Altruism, Happiness, and Health: It's Good to Be Good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12(2), 66-77.

[ii] Midlarsky, E. (1991). Helping as coping. Prosocial Behavior: Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 12, 238-264

Is It Good To Wear A Mask?

Is It Good To Wear A Mask?

We’ve all been told we should wear a mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19. 

We might also wear a mask as part of a Halloween costume. 

It can be fun to dress up and pretend to be a superhero or a scary monster for Halloween.  Sometimes it’s safer to wear a mask—to protect people from germs.  However, are there any times you shouldn’t wear a mask?

Jesus shared about one way it is not good to wear a mask.  It’s not good to use a mask to always hide who we really are from God and His people.

In Matthew 23:27, Jesus warned, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”

You see, the Pharisees were the holiest people who lived in Jesus’ day.  At least, that’s what they wanted people to think.  They dressed up in fancy clothes and did a lot of very religious things for everyone to see.  Unfortunately, the Pharisee’s hearts were not right with God.  Their religion was all for show.  It was almost like they were wearing masks to cover up who they really were.

Of course, Jesus knew what was really behind the Pharisee’s “masks”.  He said they were like a graveyard.  They looked pretty on the outside, but were like a rotting corpse on the inside.  Jesus wanted to help everyone—even the Pharisees—get cleaned up and be beautiful inside and out.  Jesus has the power to make anyone clean, no matter how dirty they start out.  But Jesus can’t clean someone up if they won’t admit they need his help.  And most of the Pharisees didn’t want to admit they weren’t as perfect as they made everyone think.  They wanted to keep wearing their masks and pretend to be something they were not.

Jesus loves us all, even today, even you.  He’s not afraid if you are dirty or if you have problems or even if you’ve done some things that make you feel very ashamed.  Jesus loves you anyway and he can clean you up and put all that bad stuff behind you.  He will give you a better life and even eternal life.  Even after you die and are buried, Jesus can raise you to new life where you can live with God forever in a perfect paradise. 

However, Jesus can only help you if you take off your “mask” and don’t pretend to be something you are not.  You have to admit you’ve sinned. (Sinning means you’ve done things you shouldn’t do).  If you are willing to just be honest with Jesus and ask Him to forgive you, Jesus will forgive you and heal you and make you clean again.  Jesus will help you live a new life and a better life from this day forward.

So please, wear a mask for Halloween or to help protect against COVID-19.  But please, don’t ever try to hide who you really are from Jesus.  Jesus is God and he knows who you really are anyway.  And Jesus loves you and he won’t ever stop loving, no matter what.  There’s no need to pretend to be someone you are not.  So, just be honest with Jesus.  Pray and ask him to forgive you and save you.  He will.

You can be honest with me and my church too.  At my church, we don’t expect you to be perfect, because we aren’t perfect either.  We are just broken people that Jesus is putting back together.  So come join with us and we can all be a family of forgiven people who follow Jesus together.  We’d love to talk with you more and to have you worship with us.  Why don’t you?

You can worship online every Sunday at 10:55 AM eastern standard time.  Just click this link to worship with us online - pgumc.online.church.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt, Plague 7 - Hail

Egyptian Government and Society
Ancient Egypt was a theocratic monarchy.  What that means is, Pharaoh (their king) ruled by mandate of the gods.  In America, “we the people” vote to choose our president, senators, representatives, and other leaders.  In ancient Egypt, they believed the gods chose their leader—and it was Pharaoh.  What a convenient system they had.  Do you see?  

The leaders of Egypt created gods to explain everything, who supposedly control everything—from the weather to fertility and the harvest, the protection of the nation, etc.  The leaders of Egypt told the people to say prayers and sacrifice to the gods to ensure their help and protection. And these “made up” gods chose Pharaoh to lead the people.  So if the people believe these “gods” chose Pharaoh, then whatever Pharaoh says, the people have to do or else it will bring down their wrath.  So Pharaoh was able to rule with absolute authority.

Attributing divine authority to national rulers is one of the oldest tricks in the book.  Kings and governments have used it throughout history.  In fact, it was not until a wild bunch of independent thinkers we know as the “Founding Fathers” got together and put their ideas to work that anyone had the guts to really challenge this notion.  At the time, King George was the ruler of the British Empire.  Most of the world accepted the king derived his right to rule from God.  One of the reasons it was so hard for the American colonies to break free from British rule was that everyone believed it meant rebelling not only against King George, but against God who chose the king to rule.

Never-the-less, our founding fathers believed King George’s actions—his “history of repeated injuries and usurpations” (as the Declaration of Independence states)—had overwhelmingly proved he was a tyrant rather than a king operating under God’s authority.  And therefore, the founding fathers laid forth all their reasons why they were rejecting the king's rule and seeking independence.

Our ancestors won a hard-fought war to gain our independence.  And many have made tremendous sacrifices to maintain our freedom for the last 244 years so that we can continue to be ruled by a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Well, God showed that the ancient Egyptian idols were nothing.  God could have destroyed Egypt with just one plague, but He opted for 10 instead so that He could draw it our and bring judgment on all of Egypt’s so-called gods—like Set, who was supposed to be the god of chaos and storms.  So in the 7^th plague, God brought chaos through a terrible hail storm—the likes the Empire had never suffered before.  Massive hail stones dropped from the sky, raining down death and destruction to everyone not protected by a substantial shelter.  Egypt’s storm god, Set, was silent—offering no help or relief.

The Idol of Patriotism
I was born in Maryland.  We moved to Macon, GA when I was still very young.  Before we moved, I lived just outside of Washington DC for a short time.  Some of my earliest childhood memories are of driving around the capital and seeing all the beautiful national monuments.  One of the most iconic is the Washington Monument, which is actually based off of the obelisks the ancient Egyptians used to build to glorify the power of their empire.

There’s nothing wrong with statues or national monuments.  They help us honor our heroes and remember our most important values.  However, we must be careful not to turn love for our country into an idol.  And, as a pastor, I must to warn you of something important.  Your nation’s leaders probably won’t mind if you bow to the idol of patriotism.  It works in their favor.  They may even encourage it because the more devoted you are to the country, the more it helps them. Why would they care if you choose to love your country more than God? 

Now, patriotism is not a bad thing.  We don't usually turn bad things into idols.  We take good things and idolize them.  According to Timothy Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.”   

I really struggled with how to present the next part of the message.  I went round and round and just couldn’t break through to find the words.  So, after praying about it, I felt God leading me to simply ask you a series of questions.  These are just designed to make you think as you look deeply into your own heart.

First Question:  To whom do you pledge your primary allegiance?  God or Country? 
Whenever I ask this question, people usually say, "Can’t it be both?"  And on the surface, the answer is yes.  You can pledge allegiance to both God and your country.  Jesus was asked a similar question about a very hot topic in his day.  The Pharisees didn't like Jesus and so they tried to trap him with a question: "Should we pay taxes to Cesar?"  They knew that common people in Jesus' day hated the Romans as foreign oppressors who were extorting money from God's chosen people.  So if Jesus said you should pay taxes to Caesar, it would discredit him with the people. On the other hand, if Jesus said no, then the Roman military would arrest him.  Jesus' answer was perfect.  He asked the Pharisees for a coin and asked, "Who's image is on this coin?"  It was Caesar's.  So Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to  Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God."  You see, we are all made in God's image.  His image is stamped upon our heart.  So give money (which really isn't that important) to Caesar and give your heart (your everything) to God. 

You can give your allegiance to both God and your country, but one must be primary.  Jesus also said, "You cannot serve two masters.  For you will either hate the one and love the other; or you will ove the one and hate the other." So to who do you pledge your primary allegiance?

If I asked you to recite the pledge of allegiance, could you do it.  Most would proudly stand and begin, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...", but stop.  Why did you choose that pledge.  You assumed I mean the American pledge.  Why did you choose that one over the pledge to the Christian flag?  Perhaps you didn't know their was a pledge to the Christian flag.  More likely, it's because you simply assumed when I asked "Pledge of Allegiance" that I meant the pledge most children grew up saying every morning at school.  Do you see?  The state has done a much better job indoctrinating us all than has the church.  (The Pledge of Allegiance to the Christian Flag:  I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands; one brotherhood, uniting all mankind in service and in love.]

Next Question:  If you had to choose between being an American or being a Christian, which would you choose?
Again, people will always ask, “Can’t it be both?”  Of course it can.  You can be an American and a Christian—but one must be primary.  For God will not be second to anyone or anything.  And most Americans aren’t going to push this issue very far because it risks potentially pointing out that we really have made a choice and maybe the choice is America first and God second.  We don’t want to see that in ourselves so we avoid this question and sit on the fence.  Most people will be “Both American and Christian.”  But if you had to choose, which would it be?

It might be easy to deceive ourselves in answer this question.  So let me ask a few more than might reveals something we've never thought about.  Do you fly a flag at your home? Which one? Almost all the homes I see as I drive around my community fly the American flag.  Is that the one you fly?  Why did you choose that flag?  The obvious answer is you are American.  You may never have even given it much thought.  But if you are a Christian, you are a citizen of God's Kingdom and there is a Christian flag.  Why, as a Christian, do you choose to fly an American flag instead of a Christian one?

My goal here is not to judge anyone.  You may have good reasons.  But I suspect most people have never given this much thought.  And I also wonder if we do give this much thought if it might reveal our subconscious primary identity as either Christian or American.

Last question:  Do you believe you would be safer living as an atheist in America or as a Christian in Saudi Arabia? Why?  Perhaps it is because you believe we are more protected in the US because we have better laws and are under the watch of a strong military but in Saudi Arabia we would be vulnerable without that protection.  What if God specifically sent you to Saudi?  Would He protect 
you? Would His protection in Saudi Arabia be stronger or weaker than the US military is in America?

Now, let's dig in a little deeper.  I asked about your safety.  Did you think of safety primarily in terms of protection of this temporary life rather than considering it from an eternal perspective? In other words, what probably came to you mind was whether you would be physically safe.  You probably didn't think about the safety of your soul.  You were worried about your life (this life).  Why?  The early Christians saw this life as something they would gladly sacrifice for the sake of God's Kingdom.  They viewed life from the perspective of eternity.  Have we grown so comfortable with this life and the things of this world that we cherish it above eternity?

The Election
I will be so glad when this election cycle is over.  People are going crazy.  Everyone is so ramped up like this election is the end all and be all and it makes people who are normally kind and civil act very badly.  To be sure, this is an important election, but it's not an excuse to behave badly. I think some people think the stakes are so high because they believe the outcome of this election will either preserve or damage an idol they have in their life.  Their “America” will either be preserved or destroyed based on who wins.  

I’m not as concerned because my future is not tied up with the success or failure of this nation.  I care—don’t get me wrong.  I care, but the stakes aren’t as high for me because my hope is in the Kingdom of God.  Whether America rises or falls, my hopes rest in the Lord who said in Exodus 20:1-2, “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.  You must not have any other god but me.” (Exodus 20:1-2) 

Invitation
Who rescued you? Who preserves you? Who will you honor and trust to preserve you in the days ahead regardless of the outcome of this election? Who will you choose to serve?

Joshua 24:15, “Choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”