Fight
Num 33:50 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Num 33:51 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
Num 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places:
Num 33:53 And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.
Num 33:54 And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.
Num 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Our text this morning takes place in the plains of Moab and the Israelites have been wondering in the wilderness for 40 years and they are now receiving instruction on how they are to take the land: how they are to CONQUER CANAAN. And this is what I want to talk to you about this morning.
Sometime around 600 years prior to our text God spoke to Abraham...
Gen 12:7
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
(KJV)
And so we find this being fulfilled here this morning. Although, they have not yet gone over into Canaan just yet. They are here receiving instruction on what to do.
We as a church, as the people of God, have been given a promise. We have a land awaiting us in which we have yet to inherit. It is already ours but for us to receive it, we like the Israelites need some instruction.
We, like the Israelites have done our share of wandering and have had our times of discouragement, but as time goes on, I find that it is time TO MOVE TOWARD CANAAN, and then we must CONQUER CANAAN.
They give up everyday on life
o For every two murders in the U.S. there are three suicides
o Every hour and forty-five minutes another young person commits suicide
- They give up everyday on school
o In 2000, approx. 31% of students dropped out of High School
- They give up everyday on purity
o Eight hundred-twenty thousand (820,000) teen girls get pregnant each year. Thirty-four percent of young women get pregnant at least once before they turn 20.
- They give up everyday on families
o 50% of first marriages ended in divorce in 1997
- People give up everyday on God
o 71% of the teenagers who go to church will stop going by the age of 20.
1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
2Ti 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
It is going to be a road that will lead to many battles, battles that many are facing today.
The Israelites didn’t have the land just handed over to them
and we aren’t going to have the land just handed over to us.
The Israelites had to fight many battles
We are going to fight many battles
The Israelites fought with sword and shield
We will fight with shields of faith and the sword of the Spirit
The Israelites fought flesh against flesh
But the battles we fight we cannot fight in the flesh
The Israelites won because they obeyed The Captain of the Lord’s Host
We will win because we will obey The Captain of our Salvation
What made the Israelites so powerful was the Lord their God
What makes us so powerful is the Lord our God
for God is never changing...he was looking to give his people their promise and he is looking to give us our promise.
The Israelites coming out of Egypt and going into Canaan had to become warriors and so must we, we must be warriors if we are going to Conquer Canaan. We must understand that we are at WAR.
Hos 12:2 The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
Hos 12:3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:
Hos 12:4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us;
Hos 12:5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.
Hos 12:6 Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.
resist
We must realize that our resistance is not futile, rather it is our only hope. Rather than trying to assimliate into a world that is hostile to our conviction and faith, we must resist from the beginning. We must not buy the lie that we can live at peace with this world. We must realize the evil intent of sin and the diabolical nature of hell. We can not sign a peace treaty with hell and think everything will be fine.
Rather we must stand in the face of an encroaching enemy and let the Battle go forward.
We must see that not only is the Battle of a spirtual nature, but that we are not alone. There is an equation that far supercedes anything that we can calculate. The Battle is the Lords. We fight, but God multiplies our efforts to bring his purpose.
The mother of Moses resisted. Rather than giving in and just giving her baby to the soldiers to kill, she wrapped it, fed it and finally followed an intuitive sense to see her baby spared.
Resist.
Don’t surrender to your circumstances. But Stand Up, act like Men and Women of God and Fight. As Barak. As Jehu. As Deborah. As Jaheal.
We win, when we resist. If we fail to resist, we will follow a fate that is beyond horror. Hell hath enlarged itself. The Flames have not been abated, but rather been stoked. In the face of the Expansion of Hell, we must stand up and fight.
For our Families.
For Our Churches.
For Our Futures.
For Our Promises.
For Our Visions.
For Our Dreams.
Stand. Resist. Fight.
