Don't Mess Around (Deuteronomy 13) Pastor Daniel Fusco

so I gotta be honest with you guys the intro music for this series gets me all sorts of like hyped up you know it's like it's almost like I wanted just to keep going while I teach and I'll teach a little quicker with a little bit more sassy sass anyway open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13 Deuteronomy chapter 13 as we continue this study as exciting and slow as it may be like like a hike in the beautiful Pacific Northwest's on a beautiful day through the Bible I have someone say to me pastor Daniel so you've already taught all this stuff already when we were in Exodus and Leviticus and how slow are you're really gonna go and I said I'm gonna go at my normal speed so I realize that means something different to everybody but Deuteronomy chapter 13 now listen this message I've entitled don't mess around and the reason I've been titled at that is that we ended Deuteronomy chapter 12 with the reality that we needed to be careful to make sure that the children of Israel when they're going into the Promised Land they're gonna be tempted because of all the different ways that people worshiped in the promised land before the children of Israel got there they were gonna be tempted to want to worship the gods of the people's who God has dispossessed out of the land so God says don't listen I want you to destroy all the high places that's where we ended last week right but God also realizes that it's not that simple that the human heart isn't that simple right like it's not like if you just remove the opportunity that a temptation ends right it'd be great if it was that way right like if you just like get rid of the potential opportunity then the temptation doesn't exist anymore but you realize because you're human and you allow the Spirit of God to search your own heart is that oftentimes because our hearts are so bent on rebellion against God left up to its own devices that just removing the high place is not gonna remove the potential for problems so there needs to be a greater discussion about it and really what you find in deuteronomy chapter 13 is that we're gonna see three examples of ways that this temptation could take root in people's hearts one through a false prophets through people who are coming supposedly in the name of God and who are coming and they're there they are sent to try and pull people off the path and get them distracted from following hard after the Lord the second would be a loved one or a friend or a family member who is not following the Lord and wants you to join them because misery loves company that's how that goes and then finally what happens if an entire town or an entire nation were to choose not to follow the true and living God what happens when there's that strong peer influence of a lot of people and and what do we do then and how should we deal with these things now I think what's fascinating about this is that if you look at the world that we live in today and you look at your own life I'm pretty sure that each one of us has probably all three of these things going on that one there is no there are so many false teachers who are out today it's unbelievable you know what I mean and it's like and oftentimes some of the worst teachers are the best funded which means they're everywhere right and and and so so one you have there's such an amazing opportunity for us to be distracted by bad teaching to be pulled off from the simple teaching of Scripture right so yeah they're at false prophets are all over the place they're a dime a dozen not only in their day but in argh and also each one of us have the temptations of loved ones and friends who are not following after Jesus who are inviting you to be a part of their compromised right they invite you along on their journey but their journey isn't going to draw you closer to the Lord it's going to draw you away and then as it relates to an entire town a region or a nation and I'll talk about this when I get there American culture is like people have to say that American is a Christian nation or was a Christian nation I don't believe that because I don't believe a nation can be a religion I think people within a nation can be a religion right but you have to realize that America is a secular nation now whatever it used to be it was but it's not that anymore and the secularism of America is permeating the church at a rapid rate and we are experiencing within the people of God the compromise that comes from living in a host culture that does not want people to follow heart after Jesus and so we're all getting pressed in from the outside from a culture now I also want to talk about I'm going to talk about how we should deal with that because I don't think we should be hysterical I don't think us being hysterical ever whenever anyone to follow Jesus there's a better way to get at it but we'll talk about that when we get there so let's just jump on in Deuteronomy chapter 13 picking up in verse 1 look at what it says it says if there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him keep his Commandments and obey his voice you shall serve him and hold fast to him but that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage to entice you from the way which the Lord your God commanded you to walk you shall sow you shall put away the evil from your midst now I want you to notice this this person who arises this profit or this dreamer of dreams they also have at their disposal certain signs and wonders and I think this is important to realize because the people of God are not the earth the true and living God is not the only one who has the ability of signs and wonders at its disposal if you remember when when Moses and Aaron were speaking before Pharaoh the first number of miracles that Moses showed Pharaoh the magician's were able to do the same thing so you have to realize that if you're the kind of person who signs and wonders gets you all excited you have to be very very careful because if you read through your Bible what you find is that signs and wonders that best can authenticate faith but signs and wonders will never sustain your faith you know why because only the Spirit of the Living God can sustain your faith you have to realize that now don't get me wrong I'm not anti signs and wonders actually if you're here on Sunday no or quite the opposite here across the earth but we do not think signs and wonders is the whole thing we think Jesus on the cross and resurrected is the whole thing that make sense and so they're oftentimes in the name of signs and wonders along with this will also come an encouragement to leave the true and living God and follow after other things like right now we see this a lot in the body of Christ that there is a very strong experiential bent that's going on and I said it on Sunday God is to be experienced but God has also given us his word to hem us in and that's exactly what the Lord keeps saying to me listen don't go walk the way you were commanded to walk by God in His Word and so whatever about prophets and signs and wonders it's all fine but all of it comes back and we look at the scriptures because God has given us the scriptures to hem us in and if something goes on you say well that's all great wonderful so cool but what does the scripture say and that's the way we keep the scriptures in the right hand of power the scriptures are what Hamas is and then all this other stuff goes on and we were always checking it against Scripture we always have to check it against Scripture now what you have to realize is that not every dream not every sign not every wonder is a divine revelation sometimes it could be it could come from another origin and what we find here is that sometimes somebody will give you a prophetic word telling you something that's gonna happen and it's good and then it does happen you say oh they might be onto something so I'm gonna follow what they're up to but notice what it says here is you'll know you'll know whether somebody is a true prophet or a false prophet whether they're spiritual giftings that they're functioning in are divine as opposed to maybe satanic or otherwise you'll always know because where are they trying to lead you to that's the key what is it pushing you towards in verse 2 let us go after other gods which we have not known and let us serve them see oftentimes people who are extraordinarily gifted also realize it's a great way to make lots of money and oftentimes people who have there are very charismatic want to draw people away to them as opposed to pointing people to Jesus and that's where you know you have a problem so listen pros and sisters we study the Bible here because we do not want to be like what the Apostle James talks about ships that are on like a sea tossed all over the place carried her out with every wind of doctrine why because we have the truth and the truth is Jesus and Genesis to Revelation to make sense because Jesus says that in the last days there will be all sorts of deceivers are going to come and even some of the people who are chosen by God could be deceived so we live in a world that's full of the potential of deception so if you want to make sure that that's not you you stick in the book you stick in the book and you always make sure that you don't allow one verse pulled out of a place out of context what I always say when you take a text out of its context what do you have left I'll con pretty good right context take text out you have a con so what happens is someone will take some verse and normal it's an obscure verse from like the Prophet someone they run it out there look this is what it is you got to read it in context and not only in its immediate context but its context from Genesis to Revelation because certain things in context here but when you tie in this scripture in this scripture in this scripture you get a much bigger picture that's why we do this is why we studied the word that's why we always encourage you and the key is everything that you see everything that you experience you don't want to follow after a church movement you don't want to follow after a teacher or a prophet you want to follow after Jesus the true and living God and anything that pulls you from that is a false prophet I don't want people to become disciples of Crossroads I only beat disciples of Jesus and if Crossroads is a healthy place we're gonna be making disciples of Jesus because we're disciples of Jesus and we have to make sure because especially in a celebrity culture like what we live in today people want to follow people people want to follow charismatic people or gifted people or handsome people or any of these things we want to follow Jesus because he's the one who conquered sin and death and he always says those things which please his father make sense super important now notice in verse 3 we get God's kind of prescription for this you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul now that's the kind of a scary thing isn't it see when it says that God tests us it's not that God doesn't know what's in our hearts we just don't know what's in our hearts God knows everything so he God knows what is inside of my heart God knows what's inside of your heart but God wants us to learn what's inside all right and really what God wants is God wants us to be personally devoted to him that we love him with all of our heart with all of our soul and by extension and Deuteronomy chapter 6 with all of our strength and with all of our mind he wants us to be completely devoted to him so what is it that can keep you from loving God's to is it a relationship is it some foreign substance is it some opportunity is it's something that you feel like you're been lacking that will pull you away see God wants us to be passionate with the singular passion and that passion is him because God knows that when we are continually focused and passionate about him then we become a vehicle that he can leverage to bring blessings into the world see you were created to be singularly devoted to God and when you're devoted to God you will be a great husband or wife grandma or grandpa aunt or uncle neighbor employer employees see all those things all the different roles we play in the world comes as an outgrowth of that relationship by your singular devotion to God as I always say don't do a good job at your job for your paycheck do it for Jesus and that your boss get the benefit of it when you're singly devoted to Jesus it's a kind of a terrifying thing because you'll be having like a disagreement with your spouse or whatever you know and you be like oh lord I love you but if you love me go apologize for being a knucklehead well that's how he talks to me you wouldn't talk to you that way you know but but he'll give you another one it's like you know you should go apologize because you're being stubborn or you're being prideful or you're you're just not being you're not being logical right now you're being emotional or whatever the thing comes out but when you go to the Lord you say lord I love you I want to love you more as I want you to love the people around you you love me then why don't you honor me in the way that you carry yourself and so princess I want you to be singularly focused that we it's all about Lord I want to love you more I want to love you with all my heart with all my soul with all my strength with all my mind I want to love my neighbor as myself because you love me the way that you want me to love other people you want me to pass that love along but you got to be careful because if we're honest each one of us can be sidetracked to compromise that's the reality of it each one of us can be it doesn't matter how long you've known Jesus how long you've been walking with the Lord we all could be sidetracked verse 4 it says you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his Commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve Him and hold fast to him now you know I love those I want you to notice all those words walk after him fear him keep his Commandments obey his voice serve and hold fast so I need to take your pen I want you to underline all those words and your neighbors Bible go ahead just reach out over and just nail their Bible disability Circle it star it if they're if they're on a smart device you highlight that thing in their Kindle or whatever you know but I love those action words because God see God isn't stagnant in that way you know what I mean God God you know I once heard of a theologian say gain you'll always follow the verbs that's what he told me always follow the verbs because God is always on the move and you're always on the move to follow the verbs and I love all these verbs you can get at these things you can just grab hold of verse 4 and say okay Lord this was my marching orders for the rest of the evening and tomorrow as I go forward lord I want to walk after you I want to fear you because fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom since I want to keep your commands I want to obey your voice oh that's simple obedience that we always talk about I want to serve you got on a holdfast to you you know the idea of holding fast to God that speaks about us realizing that we're all apt to be sidetracked when you hold fast to something you hold on you hold on for it's funny like sold my daughter Annabelle she's - in a couple months and I keep telling you guys got to pray for us because she is so exceedingly naughty she is so cute but she is naughty and so she's in that place where she's teasing bits busy mode you ever heard of a two-year-old she busy right and so Annabelle will take something and she'll run away you know so literally before I'm getting here i'ma Church I'm going I'm at home and I'm going through my notes I'm making sure everything is nice and I know what I'm gonna do and everything and sure enough Annabelle comes up to my desk and she takes my wallet she run you know not like I won't tell them but look it's all yours anyway so it's like you know I'm gonna spend on you anyway but sure nothing I need my wallet back you know and I'm like ever I need to got a gold at work new gym you know and then you know cuz she's - she thinks if she covers her eyes that I can't see her so she goes like that and so it's so cute cause she's like this and she can't you know and I'm like you know me even though yeah I can't see you can't I balls can't see me I know you're standing in there and she this little thing right and so sure if I walk over and I grab the wall and she's got that thing so tight safe she's been doing Crossfit or something she's like and I'm just like and I've been doing Crossfit so I can't get out of her hand you know that's how God wants you to hold on to him like you're my daughter stealing my wallet you know like you just grab that thing you hold on and you don't let go you know every time I think it a holding fest I always think I'm you guys remember that movie Rudy remember Rudy we're Rudy Rudy okay for those of you who are young you're like I don't know Rudy is listen I'm sure it's like free on whatever your on demand TV is because it's free always it's probably on Netflix or you go on YouTube you watch it for free it's a movie from the 80s it's the guy from you'll know from the Lord of the Rings also older people note from him from Goonies and other places he's in the movie and he's like a walk-on football player and all you ever want to do is be a football player for a Notre Dame and he walks on and he's they're never gonna let him on the team but over four years like he begins just washing helmets and stuff and then eventually that him on the practice team and literally just trying to break this kid Rudy and that he's just unbreakable he just wants it so bad and he's like he's coming out of practice and he's all beat up by these guys who were huge and at the end you know by the time is the end of his fourth it's his last game he's there and the coach ends up letting him in not because he wants to but because everyone's freaking out that Rudy needs to be in this game and there's this scene where Rudy's trying to tackle this guy and he's holding on for dear life and he's just like you know and I think of holding so I think of images like that because I think what it is is I think oftentimes for some of us we don't hold fast to the Lord we kind of got slippery fingers with the Lord we hold them until it gets a little bit challenging and then we're gonna forget that you know no I like GE well no I don't know like Jesus right now you know but no no we need that grit we need to hold fast to the Lord especially in a world full of compromise we need to hold fast Lord and not only that but notice in verse 5 that were told but that prof. or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God now I don't want you to miss the what we would consider to be an extreme punishment for that now you have to realize that for the children of Israel their religion was also completely wrapped up in theirs in the way that they understood themselves as a nation and all of their laws so so God so the worship of the true and living God is completely tied into all their laws but what see the reason the reason this ability to draw people away from the true and living God has such a dire consequence in the Bible is because the Lord knows that if you can pull people away from the true and living God all bets are off then people will end up doing whatever is right in their own minds and all sorts of depravity will follow and let's be honest for many of us we have spent time away from the Lord and when you think about it you're amazed at the things you can find yourself involved in until you realize that there's people who are involved in even more stuff see the depravity of the human heart has no limits there's no boundaries and when people will leave the true and living God they will find themselves involved in all sorts of stuff because in the end of the day every sin every mistake every act of rebellion every every missing of the mark that happens it always begins with idolatry always it always begins with a worship problem the reason someone steals is because they worship something other than the true and living God the reason somebody will murder or lust the reason somebody will do any of those things is because there's a Idol problem in their own hearts and that's why this is so serious so that's the first scenario if there's a false prophet somebody with the gift of signs and wonders now look what it says in verse 6 Deuteronomy chapter 13 it says if your brother the son of your mother the son of your daughter the wife of your bosom or your friend who is as your own soul secretly entices you saying let us go and serve other gods which you have not known neither you nor your fathers of the gods of the people which are all around you near to you or far from you from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth you shall not consent to him or listen to him nor shall your I pity him nor shall you spare him or conceal him but you shall surely kill him your hand shall be first against him to put him to death that afterward the hand of all the people you shall stone him with stones until he dies because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage so all Israel shall hear and fear and not again do such wickedness as this among you so now it's about somebody who is close to you whether it's a brother or the son of your mom or the son of your daughter or it says here are the wife of your bosom which is a Hebrew way of saying the woman who you cherish what you hold towards your bosom like a like a mother does her child the wife of your bosom is is the woman that you cherish that's what it means in the in the in the Hebrew idiom right and so you have all this is if they or a close friend a friend who it says here is as your own soul we have an example of that in the Bible don't we where David's when he was a young man his good friend was the son of King Saul's name was Jonathan and says that David loved Jonathan as his own soul now we live in a day where people say oh well David and Jonathan were homosexuals and I'm just here to tell you that's just bad history what it means is that they were like they were bosom buddies close friends that's what it means they cared about one another they were thick as thieves they were like Frick and frack we have all these words you know what I mean for people who are everybody have friends like that I hope so we have those people who they're just they're just close with you you just know them really really well he says listen if those folks did do it they say to you come on let's go serve other gods which you have not known to God to the people you know all around the gods of the far away notice what it says to him to do not consent to go with them now let's be honest the peer pressure of close friends and family members is very very challenging I think in my own family I grew up in a an extraordinarily loving Italian family now listen when I was I'm all time so when I was born when I made my first confirmation I got me a gold chain with a big cross on it and an Italian horn you know what I mean like that's it I was like that was and and then when I was a little bit older then they sat me down made me watch the first two Godfather movies it's like my socialization you know what I mean and so it was all good like every you know you go into the house everyone's got a cross on everyone's got a picture of Jesus somewhere but God forbid you actually go to church a couple times a week and read your Bible and then all of a sudden you're in a cult like literally when I when I came to know Jesus when I got when I got radically saved right and and and I was pursuing a career in music it's amazing that when your family doesn't really follow Jesus there's nothing worse than I mean a kid who's a professional musician but is nothing worse than having a kid who's a professional musician the never kid wants to become a pastor and and there and I love my friend my family loves me but I was living on the opposite coast and like what you left music you're going into the ministry you know and all of a sudden my hand flies out she shows up out of nowhere you know what I mean she wants to make sure I'm not in a cult or something you know what I mean and like and this is literally like four years my dad's like I want to give you a Christmas present you gonna give it to the church I'm like well yeah dad my you know all my my bank accounts the church is paying accountant talking about it but he didn't know any better but but listen and then there's all the pressure that comes your friends who don't want you to really follow hard after Jesus the people who who you party down with a little bit and then you start following Jesus and they're like yeah you know like you guys stop doing that you were so much more fun before you were following Jesus and all the pressures start start coming and that's a very reason to real reality and for a lot of people your friends are more important than God came to redeem you and for many people like there's some of you here right now this is like this is you and the gun the gun maybe it's not go worship some other gods I don't know just don't be an on fire Christian don't be the kind of person who says I'm gonna read my Bible and I'm gonna start dreaming about my life not just doing barbecues every Sunday but I want to bring the gospel cross-culturally or I'm gonna stop doing these things that we always plan on doing I'm gonna sell my 97 jet skis and I'm gonna keep one so that I can send that money to Lebanon or or to help fund a project I still got one set of jet skis so I'm gonna be fine but you can buy the boat you can have the expenses I'm just gonna come hang out with you probably use my money on other things like helping people who are starving to get fed because Jesus is real and I want people to be different but then your friends start being like whoa you know like don't be doing that like like like let me follow Jesus but like not like that and I can share I've had these conversations with people like what why does it have to be so important I'm like listen if Jesus is real then this is the most important thing in the world and everything flows out of this see that's the thing for me everything flows out of the cross of the empty tomb of Jesus every everything about life flows out of that reality and whatever is the fountain through which everything flows is quite important isn't it but if you're one of those people who know I bet there's some of you in here right now you're actually the friend who's trying to hold someone back right now that you're the person you have someone who God a close friend God is doing something in their life and you're like we'll hold hold on like I mean that's cool like well go to Crossroads on Wednesday night you know what's funny one gets a little crazy like and stuff but like but like what's not like really like that now if that's you if that's you this is what your friends supposed to do to you verse 89 you shall not consent to him or listen to him nor shall your eyes pity him nor shall you spare him or conceal him but you shall surely kill him so let the killings begin no I'm just kidding I'm just I'm I'm kidding but again because this is so significant serious notice and not not only says yujeong but it says this it says your hand verse 9 shall be the first against him to put him to death then afterward the hands of the people and you shall stone him with stones until he dies now listen this is this is capital punishment by stoning and it says stone with stones as I always say not stone with weed because we listen we live in Washington so it's like I say this stuff you know it is a stone with stones all right and so the glitter the idea was the person who brought the charge against them would be the first person to have to cast the first stone and so the idea here is that if you can be a person who've been trying to stumble somebody close to you then you are in influence that will have a negative impact on the entire community it reminds us of Matthew chapter 10 verse 37 or it says he who loves his father or his mother more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me see Jesus has to be more important than your family than your close friends like because Jesus is the fountain through which everything flows if your family your close friends are more important Jesus then you're not worthy to call him Lord because he's really not your Lord your family your friends is your Lord their the fountain through which everything flows and this also reminds us of Matthew chapter 18 verse 6 whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him if he had a millstone hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea a millstone was a rock that was very heavy probably bout a hundred pounds he's saying if you're one of those people who brings who puts a stumbling block in front of other people it'd be better for you if you got drowned in the sea weighed down by a big anchor that's how the Lord feels about this but for the sisters are you either a allowing your friends to lead you into a compromise way of living or B are you one of those people who was causing someone to compromise now you guys realize that when we get into the New Testament especially in John chapter 8 when they want when they catch that woman in the act of adultery and they wanted to be stoned and she just said listen that he was without sin cast the first stone as important to bring up at this juncture because we all maybe it's not in this servant in another area haven't the opportunity to be purveyors of compromise we all can be and let's be honest we probably all have been in different ways in our lives so rather than picking up the stone to kill the compromiser we need to say Lord I don't want to lived in a compromised way lord I want to be an encourage your for people to follow heart after Jesus see and I think maybe more than anything as I thought about this preparing for this message is that each one of us has an impact on a lot of people around us none of us live in a in a vacuum and not like a vacuum that you do your carpet with but the idea on your own you each one of us impact families and friends and co-workers and neighbors and and and so each one of us our lives are destined for impact in that way and when we live compromised then we don't have the impact that god created us to have that you don't have the impact on your community in your world that god has desired and designed you to have and that brings less than what God wants into the world through our lives and I think I could probably speak for all is to say that this is kind of depressing like man but brothers and sisters listen we're studying this tonight because all this has written for our admonition and if you've been compromised even today God wants to do a work in you right now we are here today hearing his word so that we will act on it so that we will say Lord I am turning away from a life of compromise and I'm turning to you and I'm coming home again the saying lord please forgive me that I have failed and you know what happens when you do that he's been waiting for us to make that turn he's been waiting for you to hear this word and say I am NOT gonna be a negative influence in this world anymore I am gonna become the person that Jesus died and rose again that I would be that God created me to be in my mother's womb and I'm not gonna let anything hinder that because I realize that my life is already having an impact and I actually wanted to have the impact that God wants it to have not some sort of compromised impact that makes sense amen I also realize I also realized that we're talking about relationships and friends and I've been using this phrase a lot it's been really meaningful to me personally the word we use this where we have a responsibility think about the word its responsibility it's the ability it's our god-given ability to respond in a certain situation so if your loved one or friend is tempting you to compromise you have the god-given ability to respond to that invitation in the negative to say you know I do love you and your life is your own but one I can't do that because I'm following Jesus and two I don't think you should either because I love you and that is your responsibility you don't have to give in you choose to give in and so let's grab hold of that god-given responsibility to react to whatever those invitations are in a way that brings glory to Jesus and that is all responsibility you choose to respond to everything however it is that you respond to it nobody makes you do it sure other people might set the stage for a patterned response but you can always make a new pattern response it doesn't have to be the same old thing why because jesus said that where his spirit is there is freedom and we sang about it that we have the freedom to make a whole new set of choices given the same exact invitation to compromise so make a new one and listen I walk through this as a young believer I mean I've been smoking weed all the time growing up like all the time and I remember that was just part of my lifestyle I remember I started following Jesus I was like man I can't do this this honors the Lord and I remember the battle that I went through to try and stop waking up and smoking weed you know eating lunch and smoking weed before lunch after lunch you know I was playing music you know I play music when I'm not sober I didn't know how to do this I mean I've never even called up a buddy of mine who's a drug dealer and says if I call you and ask for drugs just hang up on me I'm like and he's like really he's like you're like my best customer you know that's what he said I'm like listen are we friends he's like yeah I'm like if you're really my friend you'll hang up on me you know what he did he told me hung up on me well I get even like and one time he cussed and then he hung up on me you know what I mean like you're just like you know but he was my friend and I was I had to learn how to respond differently to the temptations that I'd always give it into one way and I'm here to tell you that it wasn't easy and it wasn't neat but it got the job done I haven't smoked weed in 16 years praise God praise God and this was every day all day every day you know and I mean and it's like and I praise God for that but it was hard but I know that it's possible because Jesus is real and you don't have to just give it in the same old ways you can make new decisions and God is encouraging you too now I have this little this last little section here that I want us to look at so look at what it says in verse 12 it says if you hear someone in one of your cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in saying corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of the city saying let us go and serve other gods which you have not known then you shall inquire search out now Stila gently and if it is true and certain that such an abomination was committed against you you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword utterly destroying it all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword 4:16 and you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street and completely burn with fire the city and all of its plunder for the Lord your God it shall be a heap for ever it shall not be built again so none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy have compassion on you and multiply you just as he swore you fathers because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God to keep all of his commandments which I command you today to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God so now we have this idea of once they go into the promised land they're gonna settle into communities and the land that God was giving them was expansive so right now they've been travelling for this time as a whole clan through the wilderness when they go and they settle in what happens if a city that's a hundred miles away all of a sudden the whole city gets in Tights and goes away what should you do is first you should enquire I'll always love that ask don't assume that's my take away from that ask don't assume ask questions rather assuming and I'm here to tell you what I've learned in my life is that 90% of the assumptions I make are totally wrong and if that's 90 percent for me then it's probably 80 percent for you right it's like most of the time we just have the wrong assumptions about people we we miss assume their motives we miss assume what they're trying to do but we're so convincing right so always ask don't assume so when you hear a story about someone don't just assume that it's true you might want to ask somebody and preferably them because if it came from somebody else is probably gossip anyway which is no bueno you know I'm saying and so first you ask you make an inquiry but if you find out that an entire city has has fallen into apostasy or falling away from the Lord then you go again it you kill them on you and you burn everything that's what that's what it says now why because now you have an entire city that is in the exact same spiritual place as all the high places and all the things that they were told to burn in the last chapter except the only difference is instead of being people who God is dispossessing from the land it's the very people who God redeemed and brought into the land and now they've completely turned away now to me this speaks of the idea of a community or a region or a nation that has gone into apostasy now I'm gonna fight the worst team to come up and I just give you a few things to think about I made the case that American culture is secularized which means American culture as a culture and I don't think America is is unique in this I think Europe went the same way before that you go through all the world and you have these things is that there is a prevailing religion in America and it's called secularism it's that my that you can't have a belief in a true and living God who is the only way right our culture says that is an unacceptable belief but what's amazing is is the only privileged belief is that belief which is the one that they hold so it's amazing as in a secular culture of tolerance does anybody think our culture is really tolerant now if you if you think our culture's talent just read the comments section on any political article and you'll realize that America's tolerant culture is the most intolerant culture that ever that it is going to it is literally gonna lead it is gonna lead to civil war because secularism says you can believe whatever you want as long as it fits in my system for you and that's the world that we live in there is an overarching belief structure in our culture now that says and if you have to believe this and if you don't believe this you will lose your job we will pull you off of a sports network we will do all these things and we're seeing it every single day every single day in our culture just watch the news but I'm here to tell you this my friends the reason our culture got here is because the people of God became ghettoized we had our buildings we stayed in our buildings we loved our time we had our potluck for not knocking bollocks you know I like me a good potluck you know what I mean it's like but we stayed together and and and a secular community said do not bring your face into the public square which don't miss the fact that's their faith in the public square and the church said okay we won't and we pulled everything back and then this thing grows and it grows and it makes it into school now our kids in public school are getting this stuff pumped into them every single day and then what happens is is although we were pulled away in a nice little church thing all of a sudden because it's everywhere now it's making its way right into right where are we so brothers and sisters you know what our plan is to deal with this we're taking the public all over again we're going back out in the community we we are not listen amen and brother sisters not in like some sort of militant way not on some sort of anger it we're going we're going public with the love of God in Christ Jesus well what we're going public with look we don't necessarily agree with you but we're gonna bless you anyway and you know what I don't you don't agree with what we believe we don't we love you anyway and we're gonna serve you and we're gonna help you and you know what yeah we don't agree with you and you know what we're not even telling that you have to agree with us but we're gonna let our light so shine before men that they're gonna see our good work through our Father in Heaven and we're gonna also tell them why we're doing it you know what I mean like we're gonna say look we are doing this because we follow Jesus and if you don't follow Jesus listen we think that you should but we're gonna serve you anyway we're not gonna serve you because you deserve it because Jesus came and died for us and we didn't deserve it and we don't deserve it today and we've been walking with him for a while so we are gonna love you proactively and if you even if you don't like it it's okay because we love you our love for you is not predicated on you loving us back you know why cuz God's love for us is not predicated on if we love him back He loves us because love is who he is at the essence of his nature and the only way the only way for the people of God in this generation to take background I don't want to I don't want things to go back to the way that it was in the 50s or the 60s or whenever the good old days were I want to see a little bit of heaven on earth in the 21st century amen and we live in a culture that has left any semblance any semblance of following Jesus but we're not gonna cry about it we're not gonna fret about we see this as God's given opportunity why because my friends the light always shines the brightest in the darkness there's nothing more beautiful than when it's totally dark out and all of a sudden that first star shows up in the horizon when that Sun when that when the moon pops up on the horizon it's dark that's the most beautiful thing in the world there's nothing more amazing in a desert when all of a sudden you see a little bit of water and I believe that in the world that we live in it is parched and it is dark and it is dry and people are grasping for something and we know that Jesus is the living water so my encouragement my friends we're just gonna rise up in love not not in hate not an anger not yelling at them not right and mean things on Facebook none of that stuff that's the way we used to do things when everybody kind of believed like us no no now we're gonna rise up in Jesus name with love and joy and self sacrificial service and no deck look I don't know why they do it I don't agree with them but I'm kind of grateful that they're around because are the only people like that when everybody's about me me me me me and other people like man it's about Jesus and visited by Jesus about you and I'm gonna steam you higher than myself all of a sudden people are like why are they like that and it's amazing in the early church after the time of the Apostles when the early church was persecuted first by the Jewish leaders then by the Roman Empire you can read it in the writings of some of the the Emperor's they were persecuting the church and the church was still helping them the people who are sick and they're like look we don't really you know like we've been trying to get rid of these people but you know we're kind of grateful they're around because in the middle of like all like in the middle of the bubonic plague the Christians were the ones who were helping people and literally what happened to persecute the church and all of a sudden the church becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire what happened to change that really the people of God were salt and light and in the end of the day good always wins over evil that's how it works even though even my proliferate for a while good always ends up winning in the end now I'm not saying that making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire is a good thing either but it does show a complete change in the way people viewed Christians why because the Christians were different so brother and sisters get on with your bad selves and Jesus being different amen all right

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 3,670

Rating: 4.6825395 out of 5

Keywords: Deuteronomy 13

Id: Ty8YmcY5JXQ

Length: 49min 46sec (2986 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2016