All right, well, many of you guys know that we are a part of
a network of churches and move of God really for that matter,
that began years ago. And one of our guest speakers
that been a part of the movement for since 1991.
So he's like an original 1. All right, so Oh yeah.
Scott, why don't you come up? Yeah, I was going to wait just
for a SEC. I was just going to introduce
you. But a lot of you guys know we
have, I think it's about 150 works around the world.
You've, you've heard me mention that many times.
We're actually going to go help some of our guys in Vancouver
this summer, Miami and, and in Baton Rouge this spring.
And so we've had many guest speakers over the years and
Scott and I just got to go to many different conferences over
the years. And I was looking and you guys
know I have this like this prophetic history, about 80
pages, single space, right? And just writing all these
different words that, you know, people have spoken over the
years. And I went ahead and looked up
one of them. And this is actually pretty cool
and very timely. In 2019, we were in in Hungary.
And one of the things he said was in 2019, you know, he's just
talking about citrus, citrus trees in Florida, which we
that's where we live off of, off of that street and in Oviedo.
And it said that you'll be harvesting citrus plants all
around the world. And it said praying for
protection over the frost of the enemy and also wisdom for us.
Oranges are not lab produced, but doesn't really they don't
really look pretty. If you've ever seen a flora
orange, it's like brown kind of ugly looking like mold all over
it. But they are they don't look
very pretty, but they're actually sweet and they taste
good. They're genuine.
And so and then just a few other words over the years and just so
thankful for fathers and mothers who could come in and and speak
over you. And not just in conferences, but
then to us personally, for Nicole and I for encouragement,
but also to encourage our church as a whole and what we're doing.
So we got to spend about 3 or 4 hours whatever yesterday and
over at the house and just got to hear his heart.
He's like I said, he's been with the network and the movement of
churches since 1991. Even before, you know, I was
officially called Antioch Community Church in Waco, TX,
which many of us, 85 of us are going this week to World
Mandate, which is going to be really exciting to be there.
And but he's, he's served in Africa for 21 years, Debuji,
Somalia and Namibia. He's the area oversight for all
of Africa. And so we're really thankful for
him and he invited us in already.
I was already getting excited. I was like, OK, we need to get
into Africa, as many of you guys have asked already.
So I'm already thinking for like in the future, next couple of
years of where we could go and be a part of that.
And so I'm going to have Nicole pray for him.
And then let's just receive what he has.
And you know, the whole idea of like, just to receive the
prophet's reward, right? We receive the, the word of God,
let it transform our hearts. Amen.
OK, here we go. All right, y'all want to stretch
out your hands as we pray for Scott?
Jesus, I thank you so much for Scott and his wife Jocelyn.
Lord, I thank you that they are a couple who runs to the battle,
that they do not sit in their comfortable lifestyle, but they
say yes to whatever you are saying and they they are willing
to lay down everything to go where you are calling them,
Lord, as you have called them back here.
Lord, I pray just for their hearts as they are grieving
actually living physically in Africa, but Lord, that you would
use them in a mighty and powerful way here in the United
States as they still oversee Africa from afar.
Lord, I thank you for the way that you have used this couple
in our lives just to be mothers and fathers as we have sat
around the table with them different meetings and just
enjoyed their wisdom. When we thank you that you give
wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
When I pray that the wisdom that you have given to him will be
poured up upon us this morning. Jesus, that we will learn and
fall in love with you more because of His words.
Lord, would you fill him up and fill us up and translate
everything that is being spoken to exactly what we we need to
hear this morning? We thank you Lord for your word
that it is active and alive and sharper than A2 edged sword
Lord, that we are going to lean and grow because of this.
In Jesus name, Amen. Amen, Amen.
Well, the rumors are true. It's been spoken far and wide
and for many years that Antioch Orlando does family on mission
better than any other church in the Antioch movement.
I don't say that to puff you up. I say it to encourage you and
actually you do it so well. I'm overwhelmed.
Not a whole lot overwhelms me, but when the Spirit of God is in
a place, I'm undone. So today I am so thankful to be
here. It's actually an honor and a
privilege because the Spirit of God is here and you guys are
setting the standard and setting the bar for family on mission in
such a great way. And so to be here with you today
is a true joy. It's actually such an
interesting thing because little background context is I'm a
Floridian. I would almost say I'm a native,
but that would be a lie. I'm kind of a native.
I was born in Georgia to Floridian parents, my mom from
Jacksonville, my dad from Miami, and when I was about 6 months
old, my parents left Georgia, came back to Florida, and they
moved back to Miami, as my grandfather used to say, because
he's an old Floridian. And if you know old Floridians,
they called it Miami, not Miami. So it's great to be here today.
Obviously, anytime I'm back in the Sunshine State, it's a
homecoming, even if it is a deep freeze Sunday.
The good news for me and maybe for you is that it's so cold in
here that I'm not going to lose you if I start rambling on too
much. You're not going to lose me
because I'm freezing. As John and I've been talking
over the last few weeks, he was sharing with me about the fact
that y'all have been focusing on the word of the Lord that we
have as the Antioch family. I think most of you know that it
might be up on the screen on the next slide.
And the word of the Lord for the next 5 year arc is families of
promise. We've already said Antioch
Orlando does family on mission so well.
So you're sliding in already so greatly.
Obviously the first one, 2026, is strengthen the family to
multiply. It's a beautiful word and I'm so
thankful that you guys are doing that.
And as I look out across the room and I look at the flags of
the nations and I hear about what you're doing to share the
gospel and build God's Kingdom not only here in Florida, but
around the nations of the earth. It's so encouraging to hear
stories about Colombia and every other place that y'all are going
and you've been to Europe and Japan and all these different
places. So a little fun fact though,
about the international application of the word of the
Lord is it's not something just for those of us here in the US.
It's a word for the whole globe because God's made the earth and
it's his his to possess because it's His creation.
So one of my real good friends is Pastor Dennis Acara, and he
lives in Antioch Gulu. He's the son of the movement
who's become a father in the movement.
It was a joy to have Dennis actually at our recent regional
conference for half of the Antioch movement overseas.
John, Nicole, why weren't you at that one?
You were in Thailand, but you didn't come to us next time.
But it was a great time and Dennis was able to join us.
And to have a Ugandan there as a son of our movement who, as I
said, is now a father, was just such a joy.
Now they've taken this word of the Lord and they've owned it in
such a way that earlier in this month, actually today is
February 1st, I think. So let me let me retract that.
In January they had a four day retreat for 45 different leaders
from all over Uganda, South Sudan and the Eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo. If you look at the next slide,
you'll see this beautiful group and look at that black and white
Antioch A painted right on the building of Antioch Gulu.
It's just so fun and amazing to see that God is about his family
no matter where we are. So today, with that in mind,
John and I had discussed Acts 931.
Great verse. I think all of you know it.
We will read it in just a minute.
But as he and I were talking about it, it really became
apparent to me as as he was sharing what he, what he's been
going through, what the series on spiritual warfare is all
about, that there's some key things there that God wants to
remind us of. There's a lot of this passage,
so let's just start reading it real quickly.
Acts 931 says so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee
and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in
the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
It multiplied. Very apropos for where we are.
A couple of obvious things stand out for for all of us, I'm sure
there was peace. The church was being built up,
they walked in the fear of the Lord, and they were comforted by
and in the Holy Spirit. And because of those things,
they were a setup to multiply. Most of this is pretty
straightforward, but one thing that really piques my interest
is that word and that sense of peace.
Because in actuality, it really wasn't a peaceful time.
It was actually a tumultuous time that they were all going
through when those words were written.
You remember what happened just before this, just after
Pentecost persecution started. It began to culminate when
Stephen in Chapter 7 was stoned, and then in chapter 8 of Acts,
that's when God intervenes and he saves Saul.
Jesus appears to Saul on the Damascus Rd. saves him and
begins a whole new process of intervention and a course
correction which has LED us to the point we are today as the
people of God. So here in Acts 9 God imparts
His peace in the midst of persecution and chaos.
They were the spear tip of the New Testament.
They were leading the way for us, and what they faced was
actually spiritual warfare. So when Luke refers to peace,
he's not just talking about ooey, gooey feeling peace.
He's actually saying in the midst of chaos and trials, God
will give you peace for your souls and he'll give you
protection. And that's what we want to look
at today. This is the kind of peace that
Jesus felt when he was in the boat when The Tempest was raging
and the disciples were freaking out saying save us, save us.
And he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, relax, be calm, have
faith. I'm with you.
See, we're that family of promise, and that's the word
that we want to apprehend for 2026.
We want to live in a state of peace irrespective of the
turmoil that surrounds us. So as I was pondering what all
of this meant, the Lord really clearly led me to a passage in
the book of Joshua that I think provides a template for us to
live as the people of God, particularly in the face of
extreme challenges and in the potential to shrink back or give
up entirely from a crippling fear that we often don't see
when we read this passage. This is the extraordinary story
of the conquest of Canaan, of the promised land that God has
given us. And it shows how that plays out
in the book of Joshua. So let's turn to the book of
Joshua. And by the way, I'm going to
stay a little more tethered to my notes today.
The reason for that is I'm typically more of an all over
the show kind of person and more exhortative than expository.
So I'm really thankful that I've got this because I can use both
of my arms. You can see that I'm, I'm not
bashful about that, but I'm going to kind of tighten my Ted,
Ted talk circle today and stay a little bit closer here because
there's some things that I believe the Lord really wants us
to, to hear. And I don't want to get off
track as I'm prone to do. So let's let's turn to the book
of Joshua. And as we do, I want to set the
stage for where we find ourselves.
Israel's encamped on the eastern Bank of the Jordan River Valley.
They're awaiting God's next move.
So picture this for a minute. There are at least 1,000,000,
1/2, maybe 2 million Israelites that are on the eastern side of
the river, the rivers and spate. It's flooding, as it always does
this time of year. They're waiting on God.
The baton has just been handed to Joshua from Moses.
Moses has recently died. And the challenge that they face
is far more sinister. It's not just about going in and
taking over and colonizing a piece of land.
There is a very real sinister and fear provoking challenge
that lies before them. It's not the same thing that we
learned about in Sunday school, and I'll explain why in just a
moment. But as you'll see, they need
deep wells of bravery, of courage, and of peace.
You see, because God's rescue plan had started long before it
began at Babel, when Yahweh, the Most High God our Father called,
separated himself from the nation, scattered the nations.
And then he calls Abraham to be the heir of his blessing and to
be a blessing to the nations of the earth.
While the nations were scattered, scattered, God's
ultimate plan was actually to bring them all back in the
fullness of time. That plan was later threatened
by the gods of Egypt. It was threatened by 4 centuries
of enslavement. And Abraham's descendants, who
in time came to be known as the Israelites, were ultimately
delivered through the story that we all know through the Red Sea.
But then what began was a period of immediate fear and immediate
disobedience that crept in. And for 40 years, the
consequences of that fear and disobedience was a wandering in
the wastelands of the southern deserts of what we know is the
Promised Land. So now here we find ourselves at
the beginning of the book of Joshua with Israel encamped on
these on these riverbanks. And here's what happens next.
Israel stands on the brink of appropriating the land of
promise, and they need courage and bravery to do it.
The task is literally impossible, as you'll soon see.
Why? Diving deeper in the story, we
see a few themes that permeate this entire saga.
So as we read this passage in just a moment, let these things
stand out for you. There's a promise from God.
There's an inheritance that must be appropriated and possessed.
There's extreme fear that could thwart everything that's meant
to happen. There's a call to complete
obedience in holiness and in action.
And there's a need to consecrate ourselves, consecrate ourselves
to the purposes of God if we're going to be able to walk any of
this stuff out. So let's read Joshua 1 verses
one through 9. After the death of Moses, the
servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun,
Moses's assistant. Moses, my servant is dead.
Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this
people, into the land that I'm giving to them, to the people of
Israel. Every place that the sole of
your foot will tread upon, I've given it to you, just as I
promised to Moses. From the wilderness in this
Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all
the land of the Hittites to the great sea, the Mediterranean
toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your
life. And just as I was with Moses, so
I will be with you. I will not leave you, and I will
not forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for
you shall 'cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to
their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very
courageous, being careful to do all the of the law of Moses, My
servant commanded you. Do not turn to the right or to
the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate it on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will
have good success. Have I not commanded you?
Here it is again. Be strong and courageous, Do not
be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God
is with you wherever you go. And then at the very end of of
the chapter in verse 16, which we don't have up on the screen,
they repeat back to Joshua showing that they get it, they
understand. And they said, echoing what
Joshua said, only be strong and courageous.
It's so important that we take heart into what's happening here
because there's a reason why God is saying that.
It's vitally important. God's reminding the Israelites
of his promise to multiply them and prosper them.
He says they'll be with them. He demands again complete
obedience. And most interestingly, he says
this, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid, only be very
strong and courageous. He says it four times just in
chapter 1. These Hebrew words he says, the
Lord says and are used only seven times in this way
throughout the entire Old Testament.
So why then is God saying this four times in chapter 1 alone?
I would say it means it's important, and God does this
because, as I said, it's vitally needful, because you'll see what
awaits the Israelites in Canaan, and they knew it.
We don't see it at front isn't this version that we're taught
in Sunday school. But the forces of evil that are
aligned against the purposes and plans of God are waiting for
them on the other side of the river.
They're natural forces and they're supernatural forces.
And I promise we will circle back to what I'm saying here,
but I'm just wetting our appetite.
So this is our little intro into what's to come.
Everything will become clear and it has everything to do with
spiritual warfare. Chapter 2 goes on to tell the
story that we all know about the two spies.
They go into Jericho. Jericho is a massive fortified
city that we know from biblical texts as well as other
historical sources was actually a very sinister place with some
very sinister origins. But we know what happens there.
The spies go in, they're protected by by Rahab, and then
when they come out, we move into this pivotal scene in chapter 3
where Israel consecrates themselves.
So let's look at chapter 3 verses one through 10.
I'm going to read this together. Then Joshua rose early in the
morning and they set out from Shateem and they came to the
Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and they lodged there
before they passed over. At the end of three days the
officers went through the camp and commanded the people.
As soon as you see the ark of the Covenant of the Lord your
God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall
set out from there from your place and follow it.
Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000
cubits in length, that's about 3000 feet.
Do not come near it, in order that you may know that the way
that you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.
They need to rely on their father.
Then Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves for
tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among
you. And Joshua said to the priest,
Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.
So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the
people. Then the Lord said to Joshua,
Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that
they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
And As for you command the priests who bear the ark of the
covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the
Jordan, you shall stand in the in the Jordan River.
And Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to
the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, here is how you
shall know what the living God is doing among you, and that he
will without fail drive out from before you.
This is important. The Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and
the Jebusites. These people represent something
to be feared, which is why God says be strong and courageous.
So let's let's stop here for just a minute.
God says to Israel, consecrate yourselves.
What does that actually mean? When we consecrate ourselves, it
means we're dedicating ourselves to a sacred purpose.
We're setting ourselves apart. We're devoting ourselves to
something sacred, especially devoting ourselves irrevocably
to the worship of God. It's this.
It's essentially A solemn ceremony.
It's a decision that we make. So consecrate yourselves is a
common phrase that's used as a command throughout Scripture.
We see it a lot, which again means it's very important, and
it always comes as a means to prepare ourselves to follow the
Lord in complete obedience or in preparation for Him to do
something that will glorify His name.
Wonders among us. Consecrate yourselves for
tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among
you. So I can promise you at the
moment, the Israelites knew the importance of consecration
because they knew what we don't know.
They knew what they were facing and how impossible the task it
was. And this is where things get
really interesting in this story.
Most of us don't understand what was actually happening here
because there's layers of truth hidden in plain sight.
But what's happened is since the Middle Ages, really since the
5th century, the Word of God in these stories have been
sanitized in demythology so that we miss something of gravity
that's actually taking place. So I'm going to take a big step
out on a limb right now because in many ways this is a very
complex subject and it's not going to be a long tangent, but
it is an important one. And we only have time to scratch
the surface today. So just please bear with me, but
I have to ask. I'm going to trust you to trust
me and to follow the train of thought here because it gets a
little bit weird. So what stood in the way of the
Israelites and in the land of Canaan included very real, very
literal giants. These aren't the so-called
giants in our lives that are so common in self help books or in
watered down sermons. These are the real thing we're
talking about. Real, voracious, devouring,
rapacious, depraved 8 to 15 foot giants who along with their
little G gods have rebelled against our Father.
And they have corrupted the nations that stand before Israel
and therefore threaten God's plan and purpose for His
families of promise. Now, I'm going to assume that we
all know that there was a remnant in Israel of giants
because we know about David and Goliath.
That story is about a giant who is leftover from a remnant of
earlier giants that we find ourselves looking at here in the
book of Joshua. Just to back this up a little
bit, we see in Second Samuel 21 and the First Chronicles 20,
they talk of several more brothers of Goliath actually
that were left after his demise. Then we see in Numbers 13 it
refers to the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, or the Anakim, a giant
himself. And this is when the 12 spies
went in to the land of Canaan, and only Joshua and Caleb were
men of courage and bravery. The rest were so frightened that
they led Israel in rebellion which had consequences because
it resulted in 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the
wilderness. And all of them of their
generation except for Joshua and Caleb died in that wilderness.
Deuteronomy 2 and other passages talk about the Raphaim, another
catch all name, kind of like the Nephilim, which was used for
giants. Then there were the wicked kings
Sihan and Aag of Bashan. They're spoken about in Numbers
21 and in Deuteronomy 3IN detail.
And actually they were so important.
If you look through the Psalms and many of the prophets they're
referred to again, which shows that these were important
figures. These were important stories in
the whole history of Israel that needed to be remembered because
the threat had been so grave. Agav Bhashan, just as an
example. We knew about how big he was
because he had a bed that was 15 feet long and seven feet wide.
But somehow the church and all of her modern pomposity has
conveniently sanitized many of the Old Testament scriptures and
turn this story of Goliath as though it was some kind of lone
occurrence into a nice Sunday school story.
Point made on that. So if I haven't lost you
already, you're probably asking where do these guys come from?
We know from the scriptures that they somehow are connected to
the Nephilim of Genesis chapter 6 pre flood giants whose
rebellion and depravity was so grave that God flooded the
entire earth to destroy them. Now this hybrid abomination was
was really the primary reason for the for the for the flood
happening to begin with. But somehow they reappeared
again, which is a mystery after the flood, as we see here in
this particular scenario. I've got my own thoughts and
theories on why this happened, but there's tons of theologizing
and speculation about it. We're not going to get in the
weeds too much today, but be that as it may, there were
giants in the land who are hybridizing with or consorting
with these tribes that are named in the book of Joshua.
The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the
Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites collectively,
along with several other names of giant type tribes that are
mentioned elsewhere. These were all the enemy who
stood in the way of God's redemptive plan.
But the point of this isn't really the giants themselves,
it's the fact that we need to understand this so we understand
how amazing and extraordinary this story is, and that when God
said I'll be with you and be strong and courageous, he meant
it when God gave Israel the law through Moses.
The prohibitions that we find in Leviticus 18 and Deuteronomy 12
are deliberate and purposeful. We see in those particular
chapters that God commands the Israelites not to get into the
things that the land of Canaan is so famous for.
They were defiling the land because of their sexual
immorality, homosexuality, bestiality, incest of all sorts.
They were sacrificing their children to their little G gods
and to their they were, they were, according to historians,
even practicing cannibalism. This is actually all in the
Bible. I'm not making this stuff up, I
promise. We've just often been programmed
not to see it. But for me, when I look at this,
it actually makes our God so much bigger.
He's not just this most high God, this Yahweh that we read
about. He is mighty and powerful and he
is meant to be worshipped. And he and his purposes and his
plans have been threatened by a sinister, rebellious plan that
the that the original rebel, who we call Satan, instigated long
ago. The promised land was crying out
because of this defilement and because of all these atrocities.
And God's goal was to cleanse the land from all of it.
So as horrible as it all sounds, I do see some very eerie
similarities with things that are happening in our earth
today, right now, in this world. In the end, there's really
nothing new under the sun, is there?
It's just been recycled and reanimated, and it's still
things that oppose the living God.
So now we're starting to see why consecration was so important.
We need to set ourselves apart. We need to dedicate ourselves to
the sacred purposes of God, which is why he commands
consecration in Joshua 3. And this is absolutely integral
in spiritual warfare, consecration, which leads us to
another problem, and that's the obedience problem.
Because if we're not fully obedient to God, then we can't
align up. We can't align according to his
purposes. So God continued to warn his
people, be holy as I'm holy. He knew that Israel would be
tempted to drift and a whore after the gods of the nations.
Those are his words. And that's exactly the trap that
Israel would actually fall into from time to time, cyclically
over the ensuing centuries. So I'm going to fly through this
part and read a few scriptures so that we see the importance of
complete obedience because God calls the Israelites to go in
and wipe out all of the rebellious, defiling nations.
But over and over again, they delude themselves into partial
obedience and blatant disobedience.
We've seen the Israelites consecrate, consecrate
themselves, then they cross over the Jordan and they muster the
courage to engage in all of these battles before them.
A lot of it happens in these in these next several chapters.
It it starts at Jericho. We know the story there, so I'm
not going to go into all those details.
But then they go through decades long battles through the land.
Sometimes it just happens so quickly, Chapters 4 and on that
we don't realize how long this actually took.
The sin of Akan takes place at the battle of AI, and in Chapter
7 he disobeys, he keeps some of the spoils, deliberately
disobeying the commands of Joshua and actually from God.
And there was severe consequences to him and his
family. They end up dying a very brutal
death. The Israelites drive out many of
the wicked Canaanite tribes, but not all of them.
So here's a few examples. Joshua 1122.
There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people
of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath and in
Ashdod did some remain. So some did remain, but the
Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah
could not drive out. So the Jebusites dwell in with
the people of Judah at Israel to this day.
Again, disobedience. Joshua 1610.
However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in in
Gizer. So the Canaanites have lived in
the midst of Ephraim, one of the tribes of Israel to this day,
but have been made to do forced labor.
Yet the people of Manasseh, this is in Joshua 1712 through 13.
Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those
cities, but the Canaanites persisted and dwelling in the
land. Now, when the people of Israel
grew strong, they put the Canaanites to force labor, but
did not utterly drive them out. All of these remnants actually
became a snare to the Israelites for centuries, and they suffered
the consequences of it. They were disobedient.
And if we're not careful, our disobedience leads to the same
kind of consequences hundreds of years later.
This is one example. We see what happens with King
Saul. King Saul is commanded by the
Lord to destroy the Amalekites. And you guessed that the
Amalekites were one more of these remnants that lived on the
borders of Israel that were a bloodthirsty people.
Actually, the name Amalek or Amalekites is blood liquors
because they were purported to be in many of the Hebraic extra
biblical texts and historical texts of that time.
They're purported to be cannibalistic.
Again, these are things we don't see on the surface, but they're
actually right there in front of us.
So Saul is disobedient, He deludes himself, He takes the
spoils. He takes King Agag back to the
royal palace and then Samuel the prophet shows up and is
absolutely livid because of Saul's disobedience.
Samuel could see right through this.
So Samuel actually hacks Agag to pieces and you think, how could
Samuel, a man of God, be so brutal?
Well, again, lest I get into the weeds too much, the king of Agag
was an evil, horrible man committing horrible atrocities.
So I think we can give Samuel a pass for that.
But then he prophesized to Saul. Saul, there are consequences for
your sin and disobedience. You have lost your throne and
you have lost your Kingdom forever.
God intercedes, but there are consequences for Saul and
friends. God doesn't play.
When His Holiness and the fate of His people are at stake, He
doesn't play. Stay with me for just a minute.
I promise we're going to land this plane pretty soon.
One last thing we learned both in Acts 931 and in the Joshua
story is that in the midst of all these trials, God wants us
to know His peace even in the midst of this kind of spiritual
war. And this is good news.
Joshua 1123 says this. So Joshua took the whole land
according to all that the Lord has spoken to Moses, and Joshua
gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal
allotments. And here's the important point.
And the land had rest from war. Think back to Acts 931.
They were in the midst of persecution and yet there was
still peace happening in the same way much more to the story
lay before them. If you read the rest of Joshua,
you see, and I, and I hope you do read this when you go home
some point this week, that the whole land wasn't actually fully
subdued until much later. It wasn't conquered yet.
But somehow, as is the way of God, he brings peace in the
midst of the war. He brings breaks in the midst of
the war between the battles, and He offers that peace and
protection as only His Emmanuel presence can give us.
I want to turn to a familiar Psalm again, the Psalm that we
all probably know but has some hidden gems in it.
Psalm 23 says this, Speaking of peace and protection.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me besides still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
Listen here, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for you're with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Like so many familiar passages in the Bible, There's a deeper
meaning here. The valley of the shadow of
death is actually a real place. David knew it when he wrote this
Psalm. But somehow, through the sands
of time, we've lost the meaning. The Valley of the Shadow of
Death is the Jordan River Valley north of the Sea of Galilee,
which it pours into. It runs from the snows of Mount
Hermon in the north, through the old land of Bashan, where King
Ogg of Bashan ruled, held sway, and had defiled the land.
In this dark and sinister valley of the shadow of death, even to
this day and certainly in David's time, there are what's
called dolmens. Dolmans are stone tombs.
These were the these were the tombs of the ancient kings that
were evil and had defiled the land in the days before the
Israelites came. This was a place that was feared
in David's time when he wrote this.
You might be familiar with places that conjure up images of
this if you're a fan of JRR Tolkien.
In The Hobbit, it's a bit like Merkwood Forest.
Or in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it would be like the
minds of Moria or the Dead Marshes or Minas Morgul.
Places that were in their minds haunted, where you wouldn't want
to go because the spirits of evil were so pervasive.
So when David writes this Psalm, he's saying even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil
because you're with me. The peace that only the Spirit
of God can give in the midst of the darkness and spiritual war
is that kind of peace that David refers to.
Friends, the fact is that until the trumpet sounds, we are a
people at war. John's going to be unpacking
this more and more. He's going to give you a lot
more practicalities. But I think setting this stage
and setting this foundation and coming to the reality that we
are not a people of of rest. We are a people who are
privileged to have rest. But as CS Lewis says, he frames
it this way. He says enemy occupied
territory. That is what this world is.
Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed,
you might say, landed in disguise, Jesus, and he's
calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
So for us as believers, this campaign of sabotage is fueled
by a few things. It's fueled by love, It's fueled
by faith. It's fueled by obedience.
It's fueled by courage and by continual consecration.
So let's take a moment to consecrate ourselves today.
As I think about this, and I prayed about this, God has given
us this amazing privilege to consecrate ourselves on a
regular basis through taking the Lord's Supper together.
Communion with Jesus our Lord is the time that we take to set
ourselves apart, to say, Lord, we dedicate ourselves to your
service. You've called us to be holy as
your holy. What does that look like for us?
You've set us free from the bondage of sin and death.
You've indwelled us with the Spirit of the Most High God.
You've invited us to be your friends.
You've invited us to be warriors for your Kingdom, so the ushers
are going to be coming up, and we're going to take a moment
today to consecrate ourselves through Holy Communion.
As I've thought about it, and as I said, I was undone by the
presence of God earlier. I didn't really share much of my
story today, but I'll share this right now.
I'm 55 as of a month ago, and for all of my adult life since I
was 18, to the best of my meager ability and through many
failings, I've said yes to God. I said it as a single young man,
I said it as a husband, I said it as a father, and I say it
today as a grandfather. And maybe let's say today I'll
say it to all of us to invite all of us to this consecration
table today as a father in the House of our Antioch family.
So As for me in my house, we get that from Joshua, don't we?
As for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord as John and
Nicole and the rest of your team walk through the practical
aspects of spiritual warfare before we appropriate and
possess the promises that God has given us.
As a people of God here in Oviedo, in Greater Orlando, in
the state of Florida, and throughout the nations of the
earth, we need to be prepared for the battles that lie before
us. There is so much onslaught in
our world today that will cause us, as the Scripture says, very
graphically to poor after other gods.
That's a horrible thing to consider, Hebrews 1039 says.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but
of those who have faith to preserve our souls.
So as we take the Lord's Supper today, and I think you guys know
how to do it, as I understand it, you'll go to the sides and
then filter down as you go back to your seats and you think
about these things and what it means for you personally to
dedicate yourself to the holiness of God, to get your
hearts right. Meditate on the blood of Jesus
that washes us from our sins, regenerates our spirit, and
grafts us into the family of God, the family of promise.
He's worth it because we're not of those who shrink back.
So, Lord, I just want to pray as this begins and you guys can be
getting up and starting to take communion.
Lord, I pray over us today as the people of God.
We are a family of promise. We are what Israel has become,
the church. We say, Lord, we love you, we
want to worship you. Lord, even though we've delved
into some maybe graphic strange imagery, I pray today, God, that
we see these things in light of the fact that we're not meant to
be fixated on the enemy. No, no, no.
But we need to know who the enemy is so that we know how
great and wonderful and good and powerful and loving you are.
There is a task at hand. That task starts with being, not
with doing so today we want to be in your presence.
We want to be a people consecrated to the purposes of
the most high. So I pray father from for my
friends here, my family here. Whether you're here with your
own family, whether you're here in a life group, get with
someone, hold hands, put your arm around somebody's shoulder,
and consecrate yourselves in a place of not just individualism,
but in corporateness as the family of God.
Jesus, we are so thankful that you are mighty and strong.
We are so thankful to be your people.
There is none like you. Spirit of God, glorify Jesus
right now as we consecrate ourselves in your name.