HOW TO FAIL IN YOUR FAITH
July 2, 2023
Pastor Brian
“All these things happened to them as examples—as object lessons to us—to warn us against doing the same things; they were written down so that we could read about them and learn from them…” (1 Corinthians 10:11, The Living Bible, Paraphrased)
“But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”” (Numbers 33:55–56, NLT)
“So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.” (Hebrews 4:11, NLT)
AUTOPSY OF A BACKSLIDE
1. THEY
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you…These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” (Deuteronomy 7:1–6, NLT)
“You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.” (Leviticus 23:3, NLT)
2. THEY
“The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight and served the images of Baal.” (Judges 2:11, NLT) See also 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, and 13:1
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“Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you.” (1 Corinthians 15:33, CEV)
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“Some of you say, “We can do whatever we want to!” But I tell you that not everything may be good or helpful.” (1 Corinthians 10:23, CEV)
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“And so, each of us must give an account to God for what we do.” (Romans 14:12, CEV)
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“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4, NLT)
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” (John 17:14–16, NIV)
3. THEY
“Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commands.” (Judges 2:17, NLT)
How to Turn Back to God
“But I do have something against you! And it is this: You don’t have as much love as you used to. Think about where you have fallen from, and then turn back and do as you did at first. If you don’t turn back, I will come and take away your lampstand.” (Revelation 2:4–5, CEV)
REBELLION & RESCUE: A 22-day reading plan through the book of Judges.
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/25508-rebellion-a-study-in-judges
2nd Base