The Canaanites Among Us

Okay, well good morning, and I greet you in the name of Jesus. It is good to be here with you. I got this newsletter this past week from our pastor that we are supporting that's been over in India.

It's through Unreach Villages, and I just thought I'd share this story. The story goes back 22 years when Stan was over there. I guess it was him anyway.

He went with the leader there in India with Unreach Villages back into the tribe of people, back into this area of India, south-central India. I guess there's a lot of mountains there and a lot of little isolated villages, and they're going back in there to try to find out what opportunities there might be to reach these unreached people with the gospel. Well, while they were back there 22 years ago, a leader came up to these men and handed them a baby, and the father was there, and they said, the mother of this baby died, and the dad says, I can't take care of this baby.

You're going to have to take him. He's going to die if you don't. So they carried this baby back out of the woods and back to Rameshwaran where the headquarters is of this ministry, and they took care of this little baby, named him Simon.

Simon grew up in the home of Billy, one of the leaders there of this organization, and when he got old enough, he attended Bible college, this little boy did, Simon, and he took three years of training, and now he's ready to go back into those same villages carrying the gospel, back to those people where he had actually come from. One of the things that happened while they were back there as well, or one of the conditions was, there was an old man back there, 79 years old. This was 22 years ago.

Now, I don't think they met this guy 22 years ago when he was 79, but now they went back in, and now he's 101 years old, and they did meet him this time, and here's what it says. At our most recent gospel outreach team, oh, the team ventured up the trail into the steep slopes of the same mountain ridge. They met an old man said to be 101 years of age.

As most people in India, he had never once heard the gospel of salvation from sin through faith in Christ. As Billy and the team carefully explained the gospel to the ancient sojourner, he joyfully received Jesus into his heart and was born again, and then everybody got together to watch the Jesus film, and a number of more people gave their hearts to Jesus. So, praise the Lord.

The gospel is going forth in spite of incredible difficulty. So for a message this morning, I have been reading through, or listening to, or both, the Old Testament, and I was in the book of Judges recently, and then some verses stood out to me there. You can turn to Judges if you will.

I am going to watch. I'm curious when we say to open the Bibles and follow along, there's so many options these days. We have actual physical Bibles, like I have this one.

We have electronic devices. We have some people just listen. So it would be interesting to see how many follow along with various messages or with various tools that are available.

But follow along as best you can. Whatever the tool is that you have in your hand right now. This book of Judges is interesting.

We're just going to set the context here a little bit for what we're going to talk about. The book of Joshua just finished, and at the end of Joshua it said Joshua died, and it said people stayed faithful to the Lord, drained the lifetime of Joshua, and also the elders that outlived Joshua. And they served, so as long as Joshua or the people who knew Joshua were alive, they stayed faithful.

And as long as they stayed faithful, God blessed. As long as God blessed, they could conquer their enemies. And that success is still hanging over into these first couple of chapters of Judges.

But we're going to watch and see how this success starts to deteriorate. So the first success they had was in a battle against the Canaanites in verses 1 to 7 of Judges, and they captured this guy named Adonai Bezek. And part of their, I don't know how they got this idea, but they decided, let's cut this guy's thumbs off.

So they did. And then they said, let's cut his big toes off. So they did.

And now they released him back into society without thumbs or big toes. And he said this comment, he said, well, that's quite interesting because I used to do that all the time to the kings that I would conquer. So that's story number one.

Story number two is about Caleb. And Caleb had this certain area he wanted to conquer. And he says, you know, I need some help here.

I'll tell you what, guys, young men, I need some help. He's 80 now by this time. He needs a younger guy to come help him.

He says, if anybody comes and conquers this area, you can have my daughter as a bride. So Othniel did that. And that was his younger brother.

And he got Caleb's daughter. And then that brings us up to that. That brings us up through verse 18.

Now we get to verse 19. And here the picture begins to change. Judges chapter one, verse 19, halfway through this verse, failure starts to happen.

And the Lord was with Judah and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron. And there something changed. Suddenly the unending string of successes came to an end.

And there was suddenly somebody they could not drive out. And you go down to verse 27 and it gives a whole string of other failures. Verse 27, Manasseh was not able to drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns.

Verse 29, neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites. Verse 30, neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitrin. Verse 31, neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akbo.

Verse 33, neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh. And then in verse 34, you have the Amorites getting into a skirmish with the tribe of Dan and Dan wasn't able to conquer them. So they pushed Dan and his tribe up into the mountains and said, you got to stay there and you can't come down when you want.

And so that's the context now in Judges 1. We go into Judges 2 and an angel shows up with a message. And the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokom and said, I made you go up out of Egypt. And I brought you out of the land which I swear to your fathers.

And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land and you shall throw down their altars. But ye have not obeyed my voice.

Why have you done this? Wherefore, I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare to you. And it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words into the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept and they called the name of that place Bokom and they sacrificed there unto the Lord. So God came up with a message.

You guys failed. You didn't do what I told you to do. I told you to drive out these inhabitants, these Canaanites, you didn't do it.

And now they're going to be a punishment to you. It's going to be bad news for you. And the people repented.

They wept. And then we go on the next section there, 6 through 19 seems to be kind of a summary of the book of Judges. It goes all the way back to Joshua and it tells again the story how Joshua died, how people stayed faithful while Joshua was alive.

But then there was this cycle. They would fall into sin and then the enemies, God would come and allow them to take over. And then God would raise up a judge and this judge would tell them, you need to repent.

And so they would repent. And after they would repent, then God would restore his blessing and they'd, they'd get rid of these people. And then after life was peaceful again, they'd fall into sin again.

They'd fall into idolatry. And then God would raise up another judge. And over and over again, that happened.

The judge would die. Things would go back. So now let's go up to verse 20.

Judges 2, verse 20, and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he said, because this people has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers and have not hearkened into my voice, I also will not henceforth drive out from before them the nations which Joshua left when he died. That through them, these nations, I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did keep it or not.

Therefore, the Lord left those nations, which without driving them out hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. And let's keep going up into chapter three. Now, these are the nations with the Lord left to prove Israel, even as many as of Israel as had not known the wars of Canaan, only that the generations of the children of Israel might know to teach them war at the least as before them, before knew nothing thereof, namely five Lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites that dwell in Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon unto the entering of Hamath.

And they were there to prove, and they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken to the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of the Moses. And then it goes on with the verse that Benjamin shared, and the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites. So that's the context of this whole story.

You have God saying, first of all, go in and drive everybody out. Israel came along and didn't obey. They left some of them there.

Whether their lack of faith, their lack of power, their lack of trust in God, their lack of obedience, whatever it was, they didn't get the job done. And they didn't get it done when God was willing to give them the power to do it. And so once that was all done, God first of all said, this is going to be a punishment to you.

Well, they wept. They repented. Then God said a little bit something different.

He said, now there's going to be a test for you. You see, there's a difference between a punishment and a test. A punishment is pain inflicted to make people repent.

But now God says something else. He says, I'm going to use these very people that I told you to get rid of. He says, there'll be a tool in my tool bag, and I'm going to see if you're going to obey me or not from now on.

These people are going to be a test for you. Let me read it in another translation. He says, I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left and conquered when he died.

I did this to test Israel, to see whether or not they would follow in the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did. That is why the Lord left those nations in place. He did not quickly drive them out or allow Joshua to conquer them all.

These people were left to test the Israelites, to see whether they would obey the commands of the Lord given their ancestors through Moses. The title of the sermon this morning is The Canaanites Among Us. The Canaanites Among Us.

I'd like you to imagine you were living in Israel during this time. Now, you don't remember. You're a young man.

You grew up in the home of your parents. Your parents remember Joshua. He's been long dead now.

Your grandparents remember Joshua, but you don't remember Joshua. You never saw Joshua. He was long dead before you were born.

And as you're growing up in Israel during this time, everywhere you walk, you see these people called Canaanites. They're all around you. Everywhere you go, there's the Canaanites.

Hey, that's a Canaanite house over there, and over there's another Canaanite house. These guys aren't worshiping God. They're worshiping idols.

They have their bales, and they have their little statutes and statues, and sometimes they invite you, hey, come on over to my place, and we can play together, and we can pray to this little idol there. But your mom and dad told you, no, don't do that. Don't pray to that idol.

But they say, hey, you know what? There's some pretty good rewards for praying to this idol. Hey, I did it last year. Our crops weren't doing so well, and we prayed to this idol, and the crops started growing.

The hens weren't laying eggs, and we prayed to the idol. We got some eggs out of the deal, and it's pretty good. You can do it if you want, and so now you've got to make this decision.

And this pressure is just always there. There's always this invitation to go worship these idols, and a lot of your Israelite friends, they're given into the pressure. They say, well, hey, maybe we'll try it.

I mean, hey, the seed price has been down lately. Let's see what we can do with this idol thing. And so more and more are doing, and you're still the only one.

You're debating. Maybe I should go try to pray to this idol, see how things work. I mean, some of the others are getting pretty good results from it.

Now, the fact is, you're living in the same country as these Canaanites. Here's a question for you. Is it a sin that you're living in the same country as these Canaanites? No, it's not a sin that you're living in the same country as them.

Now, maybe it was a result of your parents' sin. They didn't drive them out. They sinned in that, but then they repented.

And God, presumably, we could say He forgave them. There's sin of not driving them out. Today, they're still there.

It's a result of sin, at least somebody's sin, but not really your sin. You're just a young man that grew up in this home, and what are you going to do about it? I mean, you didn't have any choice about it. And to some degree, your parents are now innocent as well because they've repented, they've been forgiven.

But the effects are still there. These people that God left there to test you is still there. And you have an opportunity now to prove by walking past and saying no to God that you really love Him.

You're really going to keep His commands. But you have to do it over and over and over again. And it's getting tiring, it's getting wearying to say no to these people, these neighbor boys, these neighbor men, these neighbor women that keep on trying to tell you, hey, come on in and let's worship some idols, let's pray to some of these idols.

But the fact that you're living there is not sin. The fact that they're living there is not sin because, see, you haven't chosen it. Sin is a result of choices.

And so far, what I've described to you, this young man walking past Canaanites' houses and saying no, he hasn't sinned. And as long as you consistently say no to their enticements, the fact that you're living among the people by itself is not sin. It opens the possibility of sin.

It certainly would be sin if you would give in. It certainly puts you in a dangerous position. But the pure fact that they're there doesn't make you guilty.

So, as this young man then is walking up and down the trails of Israel during that time, or Canaan, whatever they were calling it by this time, his pressure to worship something keeps growing strong. Well, his parents tell him, hey, it's not that we can't worship anything. We have a tabernacle over there.

So if you're getting tired of this pressure to worship something, let's go to the tabernacle. Okay, that's great. I get to worship something too.

So he waves at the Canaanites on the way he's going to the tabernacle. They go to the tabernacle and they worship. And now they come back.

And guess what? The Canaanites are still there. Worshipping at the tabernacle didn't make the Canaanites go away. They were still there, still waving, hey, come on in.

But they're still walking past. Then you have these kings that grow up. And sometimes these kings would, after the time of the judges, the time of the king started.

And the kings, some of them grow up in godly homes. God-fearing king would come along. Let's say the God-fearing king Hezekiah.

Well, then he has a boy named Manasseh. Well, what's Manasseh do? He gets so tired of constantly saying no to these Canaanites. So what does he do? Once I'm in power, things will be different.

And sure enough, they are different. For 55 years, Manasseh was king. And he decided he's going to say yes to these Canaanites.

So yes, yes, yes, yes. Doing idolatry, doing witchcraft, serving every idol he could find, living in all kinds of sin. And he's not the only one.

Ahaz was a king with a godly father, but he lives wickedly. Ammon was another one. Jehoram was another.

They had a godly father, but they got tired of saying no. And they started saying yes. And the cycle kept on going.

There'd be revivals. A new king would come on. There'd be repentance.

But after the revivals, the Canaanites were still there. And does that mean God rejected the revival? No, God honored the revival. When people turned back to God after sinning, God loved that.

He blessed them for it. But the Canaanites were still there. They'd never left.

And so the question is, does God even notice when you walk past these Canaanites and say yes? I'm sorry, when you say no. The answer is yes, God noticed. You see, there was another time in the northern kingdom.

Now there was a split. You had the more godly of the two, the Judah people to the south. You also had Israel to the north.

And Israel to the north was by far the most wicked of the two. In fact, Elijah the prophet, he came along, and he had won twice in one chapter. He told God, I'm the only one left.

Well, God finally corrected him and said, nope, I've been keeping track. And you know, a while back there was 8,000 people, and then one more person started worshiping Baal, and now it was down to 7,999. And then another guy did, and now it's 7,998 and on the way down.

But there's still 7,000 who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal. They've not yet prostrated themselves before these gods. They're still faithful, 7,000 of them.

That's a small minority, but it's still significant. And God knew every one of those 7,000. And he told Elijah, I know who they are.

So here's my question to us today. Would your name be on that list? Would you be one of those 7,000? All your friends are going and praying to these idols. Not very many people left.

You got one guy in that village. Yeah, he hasn't prayed to the idol yet. Another guy over there in that village.

And two people over there, husband and a wife. Over there, there's a woman, but her husband prays to the idol, but she doesn't. And you count all those people up and you get 7,000.

And God knew every one of them. Would your name be on that list? So that brings us to today. Who are the Canaanites among us today? I don't know that we have any Canaanites here in Halsey.

If we'd walk up and down the streets and ask them, hey, where are you from? One would say California and one would say Washington, but nobody would say Canaan, probably. So who are the Canaanites? Do we have to worry about Canaanites? Should we be concerned about Canaanites among us today? You know, as I thought about this, I thought about the parallels to our life. There's a word I want to put up on this board that I think probably looks as close to the Canaanites as we need to deal with.

And this word is this right here, desires. We have desires in our life. And I'm especially looking at desires that would, if we would fulfill them, would lead us to something that is wrong.

We could also use other words. We could say attractions. We could say temptations.

But I chose the word desires for the sake of this sermon. Desires that would produce sin if you would give into them. But see, here's the thing.

They aren't sin in themselves. The fact that you have these desires does not make you a sinner. It gives you a choice about being a sinner.

It certainly puts you in a dangerous position. It allows the opportunity for sin. But you shouldn't feel guilty just because you were tempted.

You shouldn't feel guilty just because you have a desire. Now, I know there's people out there that are teaching something that sounds awfully close to this. I don't think it's quite this way, but it sounds almost like saying if you're truly born again, these desires are going to go away.

I want to say I don't see that in Scripture. I see that there are people that have truly been born again and they still have these desires and these temptations. They have to keep walking past saying no, no, no.

And the fact that those Canaanites are in the land does not make you a non-Christian. It does give you a choice though. What am I going to do with these things? Now, I want to be awfully careful about how I address this teaching.

If you heard a teaching that says if I have wrong desires, it's proof that I'm not a Christian. I want to be awfully careful about how I address that teaching. Because there is some truth that we do need to acknowledge.

It's true God wants to change our desires when we become a Christian. He says in Psalm 37.4, delight thyself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He has desires he wants to produce.

He wants to give us new desires and then he wants to fulfill those desires and God wants to change our desires. That's absolutely true. We need to acknowledge it.

We also want to acknowledge if a person says I have these desires, these desires want to lead me into sin and I have no power to say no to the desires, I would say it's right and good to question your own salvation. If you say over and over again, I just keep falling. I just can't.

I mean, not only do I have the desires, but I'm failing. I'm giving into the sin. I'm giving into the desires.

It's right to ask, am I truly born again? But on the other hand, if you have truly repented of past sins, if you've purposed in your heart to say no to sinful temptations going forward, then don't be alarmed if you discover the Canaanites are still there. Don't be alarmed if you discover that there's still desires there, there's attractions, there's temptations that you need to say no to, that you need to renounce. In fact, there's verses in the New Testament that would indicate those desires are still there.

Flee fornication. You wouldn't need to flee if those desires were not there. 1 Corinthians 6.18, mortified therefore the members that are upon the earth.

Colossians 3.5, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Let me read that again in the NLT. So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you.

Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. They're bringing up that whole thing of covetousness again, but these are desires.

And in this verse, it especially seems to focus on two kinds of desires, the desire for possessions and then sexual impurity. Those are the two that he especially brings up and says, flee those things, mortify them. He doesn't say they don't exist anymore.

He doesn't say the Canaanites have been excluded from the land completely. Rather, he warns us, don't give in to them. Learn to say no to them.

God has given you, just like he gave those Israelites an opportunity to prove he loved them, to prove that they loved him, sorry. Those Canaanites were an opportunity by these young men, old men, Kings, priests, whoever, by them walking past day after day and saying no, even when they're extremely tired of saying no, but they kept doing it because they purpose in their heart, I will not defile myself with those things that are out there. I will not defile myself with those idols.

And by doing so, they proved their love for God. So these are, these desires that are part of our life are here to test us and prove our love for God. Now, my question is this, where did these desires come from? Again, let's call them temptations.

Where do temptations come from? Attractions, where do they come from? If I was to ask you, you'd say, well, they must come from Satan. He wants us to sin. Somebody else says, well, they come from God.

Or do they come from ourselves? Where do these things come from? Well, let's, there's a verse in James that says, well, no, don't say they come from God because God says that, it says in James that God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man. So temptation doesn't come from God. Yet, let me ask you a question.

Can you think of any time in the Bible where if temptation didn't come from God, he definitely played a role in getting it there? Can you think of any times like that? What about the Garden of Eden? Who planted the tree of knowledge of good and evil right smack in the middle of the garden? Was that Satan? No, it was God. God planted that tree, and God said, don't eat of it. And God made a woman with an appetite, and there it was.

The whole setup was there. The whole opportunity for sin was there. Now, Satan had a role too.

He came along in the form of a snake and said, hath God said, you know, go ahead and eat it. It's all right. And then there was a person that was involved too.

That was Eve herself. And she went ahead and ate of the tree. So God planted the tree though.

So somehow God is involved in this whole process. What about Satan? Can we think of a time when Satan was involved in the temptation? What about Job? Here's Job, upright man. Everything's going good.

Satan says, let's tempt him. Let's destroy this guy. Now, God put the brakes on.

God said, you can only go so far, and that's it. But Satan had a very real role in motivating everything that happened. He destroyed all his animals.

He killed all his children. He inflicted them with boils. Satan was having a good time.

And God knew exactly how far he was going to let him go, and he didn't let him go any further. So Satan has a role in this whole thing. But you know, people also have a role.

James also said, every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And so you had these Canaanites, and they were filling in the blanks. They were taking part, them and Satan together, and with God's permission, somehow everybody was faced with a test.

What am I going to do with temptation? So God, Satan, people, all three seem to play a part. So I think in this life we live, there are people that are shocked sometimes with the intensity of these things called desires. A little boy growing up, young age, everything he wants, he gets.

Drinks all the milk he wants to drink until he's one or two years old. And then at two years old, he might discover that he can't have all the toys he wants because there's another two-year-old that wants some of the toys too. And somehow he's got to limit his desires a little bit.

And then they grow up even older and come into the teenage years and discover more desires that cannot be fulfilled. And the intensity of them is shocking. And what are we supposed to do with these desires? Now, we have a promise from God, thankfully, for those who are in Christ.

The promise from God is that there's no temptation taking you that's too strong that you can't handle it without His help, or with His help. With His help, the strength is there to say no to every temptation. With God's help, you can walk past every Canaanite in the land and say no.

It's possible. He's always going to make a way of escape. That's what He promises for those who are in Christ.

But the intensity of the temptation, the intensity of the desires are still very real. And that's also true for people who come to Christ. People come to the Lord and they get to this depth.

Maybe they're sitting in a prison cell somewhere. Maybe they're down at a homeless shelter in Albany. And a group comes to sing for them and hand out suppers, and they say, I'm just desperate.

I need to come to Christ. And they pray, and they commit their life to Jesus, and God forgives them, and a peace flows over them that they never understood. They never knew existed.

And they feel the forgiveness of sins, and they bask in that forgiveness for two weeks. And on day 15, something happens that shocks them. They discover, I still have a craving for some sin that I used to do.

I thought that craving was going to be gone. I thought the Canaanites were going to be kicked out, but they're not. They're still here.

And it catches them off guard. And they say, what in the world is going on? Why do I still have this desire? And we've heard testimonies already. Persons in all kinds of addictions, and they cry out, God, I can't do this.

And drink is a big one. And God takes away the taste for alcohol. They say, I don't even desire it anymore.

God worked a miracle that I cannot explain. I had to have the bottle every hour, but now I don't even want alcohol. Wow.

Praise the Lord. That's wonderful. Oh, but you know what? There's one thing that I still struggle with.

I still have a craving for nicotine. And I'm battling it. I haven't touched it, but I would sure love a cigarette.

And that's not an uncommon testimony. People have said that over and over again. There's one thing that God helps them with.

And then another one, he says, look, I want you to learn to say no. I want you to learn to say yes to me and no to these Canaanites that are in the land. I want you to learn to say no to some desires.

I could have taken them all away. I could have removed every one of them. I could have taken away every temptation.

You would not have had to resist anything anymore. But I didn't. I left it there to test you.

And so learn to say no. Learn to be strong. Let's do a little change of pace.

And we're going to talk about two names that are in the Bible. And I wonder if we can think of similarities between these two names. The two names, maybe I should write them up here so you know who they are.

The two names are Joash and Josiah. Now, I could ask you, what do these guys have in common? But before we do that, we got to decide which Joash and which Josiah there, because there's at least two Joashes in the Bible, and there's at least two Josiahs in the Bible. So these are both kings of Judah, all right? So let's talk about what do they have, these guys, in common? Well, first of all, I'll help you out.

The first two letters of their names is the same. It's a J and an L. And beyond that, three more letters are the same, too. A little bit mixed up, but they've got a lot in common just by the spelling of their names.

What else? Does anybody else maybe call it out? What other things do those two guys have in common? Anybody know? They're both kings. They're both kings. There you go.

What else? Young age. All right. Both under nine years old.

I think one was seven, one was eight. But very young age, they became kings. What else? They sought the Lord when they were young.

Very good. They were men. Very good.

We could probably come up with a list of them, but maybe there's more. Both of them had a father that was wicked. Both of their fathers became king at age 22.

Both of their fathers reigned less than three years before they were either killed or deposed or whatever. But both of these men, they went on to reign a long time, Josiah and Joash. They both reigned for over 30 years.

Both of them spent a lot of time repairing the temple of God. Both of them at age 15 were righteous. Age 20, they were righteous.

Age 25, they were still righteous. And as far as we know, at age 30, they were still living for God, both of them. So now let's talk about the differences.

What differences do you know between these two men? One of them did not stay righteous. Which one was it? Joash. You say Joash? Joash fell away.

Josiah, he sought the Lord. It says he turned not from the right hand or to the left. He kept on going.

He served the Lord. Now, maybe he made an unwise decision that ended up getting killed at the end. But either way, as far as we know, he was absolutely faithful to God his entire life, but not Joash.

So what went wrong with Joash? Joash had an older friend who was a priest named Jehoiada. Now again, Jehoiada is the name that shows up at least twice. I mean, at least two different men were named Jehoiada in the Bible.

But we're talking about Jehoiada, the older man in the life of Joash. And Jehoiada was the one that rescued baby Joash from his grandmother Athaliah and hid him away. Or I think it was a relative of his.

But anyway, they hid him away. And when he was seven years old, they brought him out and said, this is now the king and got rid of Athaliah, the wicked queen. And Jehoiada was a mentor to Joash.

Jehoiada took Joash by the hand and led him down the path of godliness, led him down the path of serving the Lord, led him down the path of repairing the temple, led him down the path of saying no to the Canaanites and their idols. And as long as Jehoiada was there, Joash stayed faithful. But then Jehoiada died.

And Joash very quickly turned away from God. In fact, Jehoiada's son, he ended up having him killed because he didn't like what he was prophesying. So my question is for everybody in this room, are you a Joash or are you a Josiah? Which one are you? Is there someone in your life, do you have a Jehoiada in your life that if that person were to die, you would fall away from God? Maybe it's your parents.

Maybe it's your father. Maybe it's your mother. Maybe it's your church.

You say, well, if I wouldn't have a connection with my church, I would fall away. If I wouldn't have a connection with my youth group, I would fall away from God. If I wouldn't have a connection with whoever it is, maybe my girlfriend, maybe it's my wife.

If I wouldn't have that person in my life, I would go the way of Joash and I would be unfaithful. That's a horrible pressure on poor Jehoiada. If you're a Jehoiada here today and you have people in your life that you say, I know they're going to be faithful as long as I'm around, but the moment I die, they're gone.

They're going to turn away from God. That's a horrible pressure to be in your life. And so how are you going to be able to tell, am I a Joash or am I a Josiah? Well, here's a way that I'm going to encourage you to find out.

Here's one way, one test you can give yourself. Are you a Joash or are you a Josiah? The question is the issue of boredom. Do you ever have times of boredom in your life? And when you have times of boredom, now what's the time of boredom? Boredom is when you have nothing else to do.

Your job is over for the day. Maybe you're on a weekend. You can't go to work today.

Whatever book you've been reading is finished that or you're tired of it. You invite some friends over to get together, do something and they can't, it doesn't suit them to come. And so it's just me.

I'm all by myself here in my bedroom, here in my living room, times of boredom. So my question is this, do times of boredom, do times of boredom bring me closer to God or push me further from God? Which is it? It's usually one or the other. It's usually not neutral.

If I have a time that's absolute boredom, what's it going to do to me? And so if you know that, you probably know the answer to the question, am I a Joash or am I a Josiah? If times of boredom pushed me closer to God, I'm probably going to be a Josiah because I'm going to stay faithful. But if times of boredom pulled me away from God, then that's a warning sign. There's something wrong.

There's something unhealthy about that situation. I have in my Bible, a prayer calendar from Open Doors. Open Doors is an organization that helps the persecuted people around the world.

They have this ministry in Yemen. And in Yemen, there's some Christians there, but it's not permitted. They're not looked upon favorably.

The government wants to crack down on the church, on the believers there. There's a guy there by the name of Majed. He's a former Muslim.

He's now a Christian. Majed knows there is a target on his back. A number of his friends who are Christians, they've already been arrested.

They've been put in prison. He knows I could very well be stuck in prison as well. And so Majed, he's expecting this.

He's not trying to flee the country. What is he doing instead? The calendar said this, Majed is feverishly memorizing Bible passages to be prepared for prison. He is feverishly memorizing Bible passages to be prepared for prison.

You see, he sees times of boredom coming, times when he's going to be sitting in a prison, and he's probably not going to be provided with even a Bible. He's going to be there all alone with him and whatever's in his mind. And so he knows between now and then, I've got an opportunity to fill my mind with the Word of God.

And so that's what Majed is doing. So as we draw, yeah, get down to the end here. We're not quite to the end, but I do have a question I want to ask you here.

What's the Canaanite in your life? Do you know what the Canaanite in your life is? Do you know it's something that, again, by itself, it's not sinful simply by existing, but it would be sinful if you would give into this thing. Do you know what that is? Maybe the thing in your life is a result of someone else's sin. Maybe it's a result of your parents' sin.

Maybe it's a result of your own sin. Maybe by you compromising in some area, you have made it worse. But you've already repented of that.

You've been forgiven. You've been completely forgiven. But the Canaanite is still there.

Do you know what that is? What is that thing? We got a call on the billboard line the other day. A young man, I'll call him Lester. I think he was probably from some sort of an Anabaptist church.

I don't think I shared this with you before, if I did, forgive me. But Lester had a question. What's a fellow to do with impure thoughts? You know, Lester sounded weary.

He sounded tired of the battle. He sounded like, he sounded desperate. What's he supposed to do with impure thoughts? I asked him, well, Lester, are you a believer? Yes, I am.

But he says, these thoughts, they just keep on coming. Now, what am I supposed to tell Lester? I say, well, hey, I got a little, you know, I know how you can get rid of the thoughts. Well, I didn't say that because I don't have that answer.

But what I did say, I said, Lester, here's, here's a few things I would like you to do. Number one, purpose in your heart. That's what Daniel did.

He purposed in his heart. He made a purpose. And that is to say no, to say no to the temptation and be prepared to say it over and over and over again.

Now, God knows how much you can handle. So be prepared to do it. Say to the temptation, I belong to Jesus.

I cannot take part in this temptation. I cannot take the next step down this road of lust. I cannot go look at pornography, no matter how intense the attraction becomes.

I can't take, I can't take the next step down this path. I don't, and I said, but don't feel guilty just because you're being tempted. Don't, don't make the excuse.

Well, I've already been tempted. So now I'm already guilty. So I might as well go and engage in this sin.

Don't, don't fall into that trap. Everybody is tempted. Temptation is not sin.

So don't let the devil deceive you in that way. But beware when those temptations come, you're just outside, even though you haven't sinned yet, you're just outside the door of sin. The sin is, sin is huge and the consequences are huge.

I was looking back through my recent notes and it almost looks like this sermon here fits into a little bit of a series of messages that I preached talking about desire, talking about temptation. There was one sermon that was called the eclipse of sinful desires that I preached within the last two years. Another one, I want it so bad I can taste it.

So I guess this is kind of another, another step of sermon in that series, if you want to include it in a group. But I want it so bad I can taste it. There was a young man, a son of King David, Amnon, and he wanted his sister and he wanted it so bad he could taste it.

What he didn't realize is crossing through that door was going to absolutely destroy his life. And he should have ran from it. He should have said, no, he should have, he should have turned the other way and ran, but he didn't.

He gave into that temptation. And so I shared that with this young man, Lester. I said, you need to be aware, be careful because even though the temptation is not sin, even though you haven't sinned, I mean, at least as far as I know, he hadn't fallen into anything yet, but he was struggling and he was saying, I don't know what to do.

But I said, take courage, be willing to say no, be willing to say no to the rest of your life, for the rest of your life, if possible, cry out to God for help, make sure you have that connection and keep going forward. Now there's a question that comes up right now. Should I have told Lester this? Well, Lester, what you need to do is get married.

Some people would say that, and you know what? There's even a biblical basis for saying that. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 2, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. And so that could have been my answer to Lester.

And maybe that will eventually be the answer for Lester or part of the answer for Lester. But you know, real life, even after reading that verse, 1 Corinthians 7, 2, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, real life has been disappointing in that area because I see people over and over again. I hear of people over and over again who were living in some sort of sexual impurity, and then they get married.

And more often than not, they end up back in that trap, that same sexual sin. Those who dabbled in pornography before marriage end up going back to it after marriage. Those who dabbled in homosexuality ended up going back to it after marriage.

So is the Bible wrong? When the Bible says get married to avoid these things, does that not actually work? What's the issue that we're dealing with? You know, after watching life for the last 53 years, I'll just share my conclusion. You can feel free to comment on this, think about it. But it's this, those who live in sin before marriage without complete repentance now, I'm not talking about those who've repented, but without repentance, if they live in sin before marriage, they're likely to go back to the same sin after marriage.

However, those who purpose in their heart to say no to sin before marriage, sexual sin especially, those who purpose in their heart to say no to sin before marriage will likely continue to stay faithful after marriage. And marriage, especially a good marriage, will make that commitment easier. Marriage will make that commitment easier.

But if you haven't been faithful before marriage, you probably won't be faithful after marriage. But if you do make that commitment, marriage will help you in keeping that commitment. That's my observation.

I'm open to your thoughts, your correction. Let's look again at Colossians chapter 3. We looked at that verse earlier that said, mortify your members. I'd like to look at that verse again.

Mortify, put to death, mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience? Let me read it again in another translation. So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you.

Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person's an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.

So he's saying put these things to death, put these desires to death, put these sins to death that result from these desires. Why should we do this? We'll back up a verse in Colossians chapter 3. It says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then ye shall also appear with him in glory. That's why we should do this.

Jesus is coming back. He's coming back soon. It could be today.

That's why we should put these things to death. Let me read that again in another translation. And when Christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

What a wonderful thought. That passage starts out, Colossians chapter 3, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. We know that in those verses we have a song that's put to, you know, somebody put that to music.

Again, I'll read another translation. Since you have been raised to a new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits on the place of honor at God's right hand. And then it says, set your affections on things above.

Set your desires on things above. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. He's talking about believers here.

He's not talking about unbelievers. He's not saying, look, if there's desires that are still plaguing you, that means you're not a believer. He doesn't say that.

He says, no, if you are a believer, if you have been risen with Christ, then seek those things that are above and mortify these things, mortify these desires. This is something I know I shared with you guys before. I'm going to share it again.

There is an event coming up this year, October 29, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called the Caleb Summit. And here's the invitation. I want to read this invitation that blessed me.

I hope it blesses you as well. Even if you don't make it and probably most of you will not make it, we're a long ways from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If some of you can make it, I think it'd be a blessing.

It looks like it'd be a blessing. But even if we can't be blessed by going to the Caleb Summit, hopefully we can be blessed by the invitation to the Caleb Summit. Here's the invitation.

Caleb Summit is a gathering built to activate and align men age 16 and older with the historic Christian faith and to ignite church planting, evangelism, and movement growth. This is not a retreat or a recovery meeting. It is a forward-leaning rally for men who want to carry the historic faith with confidence, clarity, and courage.

Our model is Caleb at age 80, still fierce, still faithful, refusing retirement, insisting, give me this mountain. Caleb Summit calls men into that same triumphant spirit, holy ambition, joyful strength, and bold initiative. The core message is this.

Most Christian men's conferences are defensive, focusing on failure, guilt, and what men need to stop doing. Caleb Summit is the opposite. We take a joyful offensive stance.

Men were created to build. Men were created to lead. Men were created to advance a kingdom.

Evangelistic momentum requires male initiative, and courage, and we believe every man, intellectual or redneck, scholar or tradesman, is responsible for promoting, defending, and expanding the historic faith. Shoulder to shoulder, these men will pray, worship, debate, and evangelize as brothers. So my last message is this.

If you're risen with Christ, go seek the things that are above. As you go, put to death the attractions and desires that belong to your earthly nature. Put them to death, and as you go, set your affection on the things that are above, and then when Christ who is our life shall appear, you also will appear with him in glory.

That's my wish for every one of you. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you so much for all that you've done.

Thank you for the stories of your people down through history, Old Testament and New Testament, people who were faithful to you. Thank you also for the stories, the sad stories of those who turned away from you for some reason, people who gave in to the Canaanites, the idol worship, the witchcraft, the temptations around them, and met up with disaster. I pray that you would help us all, purpose in our heart, to stay true to you, to say no to sinful desires, and say yes to right desires, and to develop even more right desires that you want to fulfill in us.

I just pray that you would guide us, and direct us, and help us all to seek the things that are above, and help us when that time comes, when Christ who is our life appears, we can all be with you in glory. We commit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.