DOSE BONES Part I

Ezekiel 37:1-10
 
DOSE BONES look an awful lot like the modern day church. Consider (vs. 1-3) that say, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.”
 
Please recall what I said in the introductory column last week. How God dealt with Israel is how he deals with the Christian and the Church today. I hope you can see the parallel.

 

In this vision is the modern day man of God. He’s the pastor, teacher, preacher walking into the middle of this valley (the church), full of bones (spiritual skeletons if you will), and the Bible says they were “very dry.” It seems these bones had been subjected to certain elements. For it seems the skin and the “innards” had rotted away.

 

What are you saying Preacher man?

 

I’m saying that I see the man of God going to a dead church, but that dead church like these dry bones didn’t get that way over night!

 

Now, when it comes to bones, It sure didn’t work that way for me the other night when I threw a juicy ham bone out the door to my dog named Sunday, because in the morning I found it still juicy. Proving to me that when it comes to bones, they don’t go dry over night. What I’m saying is this: DOSE BONES look an awful lot like the church does today!
 
DOSE BONES are dry bones because of discouragement. Let me tell you a little story about “The Devil’s Pawn Shop.” One spooky day a dark hideous creature came into the devil’s pawn shop and says, “Devil, I want to be the number one super villain nemesis against the church, and I would like to buy some weaponry. The devil gives him a tour and starts to show him his arsenal of wicked weapons. Under the glass there’s the .22 ca of doubt, the .38 ca of unfaithfulness, the .45 ca of conflict and the .50 ca of stinginess. As this sinister being sees all this luscious weaponry he begins to drool and starts praising the devil saying, “What wonderful and powerful tools you have to stop the work of the church, but I only have enough blood money for one today. So tell me devil, if you were me, which one would give me the most bang of devastation for my buck?” The devil reaches way in under the glass counter, and pulls out a hidden weapon under lock and key, with a tag on it written, “The Bazooka of DISCOURAGEMENT.” The devil says as he continues to caress his most precious weapon, “By this weapon alone I’ve made preachers quit before they were done. By this weapon I’ve run many off from the church. By this weapon people stopped giving, quit serving and turned from tithing! I’m telling you brother, if discouragement was the only weapon you ever had, you would accomplish more with that weapon that all the others combined in the devil’s pawn shop.
 
Who ever said that the devil doesn’t tell the truth? He’s telling the God’s honest truth right here! The truth is, that if the devil can get a church full of people discouraged, it won’t be full very long! Because when the church is discouraged we won’t pray. We say, “What for? God doesn’t hear us!” We won’t read out Bibles. “We say, “What for? God doesn’t ever speak to us!” We won’t tithe. We say, “What for? God keeps us broke all the time!” We won’t listen to the preacher. We say, “He has no idea what its like to be me!” We won’t come to church. We say, “We don’t get anything out of it!” We won’t fellowship. We say, “What for they don’t care if I’m there or not!”

 

According to recent statistics given by Barna Research they say that on average 200 pastors quit the ministry every month, and 3000 churches close every year because of discouragement.

 

And God says to Ezekiel, and God says to the church today, “DOSE BONES DRY BONES BECAUSE OF DISCOURAGEMENT!
 

DOSE BONES Introduction

 Ezekiel 37:1-10

Late one night a man is walking home from a party, and since it was midnight he takes a shortcut through the cemetary. Half way through the graveyard he became frightened, for he heard this eerie “tap-tap-tap” from the shadows. With goose bumps all over he spots a decrepid old man in the moonlight with hammer and chisel in hand chipping away at one of the tombstones. He said to the man, “Whoa Mister,” after taking a big gulp, “You scared me half to death! I thought surely you were a ghost. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night that’s so important anyway?” He looked up at him hollow eyed and said creepily, “Because those fools spelled my name wrong!” (tap-tap-tap!) And it was then the man woke up … so glad it was nothing more than a bad dream.

It seems to me there must be something that triggers us to have bad dreams. Ezekiel is having a bad dream (of sorts) in Chapter 37 for some reason. However, the Bible doesn’t call it a bad dream. The Bible says God has given Ezekiel a vision.

Something tells me, though, his vision wasn’t triggered by bad guacamole, bad gas nor indigestion. I think it was Israel’s bad history that triggered this vision God gave him.  You see in 586 BC Jerusalem was annihilated by King Nebuchadnezzar and his army.

This was the King who also put Shadrach, Meshach and Abindigo in the feiry furnace because they wouldn’t worship his image. Its been said because of that they wouldn’t bend, they wouldn’t bow, and God saw to it they wouldn’t burn! (ref. Daniel 3).

In the process of this annihilation, Israel’s symbol pf pride and joy (Solomon’s Temple) joined the rubble. Now here in Ezekiel 37 its 400 years later, and Ezekiel and Israel are stiil slaves in Babylon.

Babylon is what we recognize as present day Iraq now for those who just have to know.

Personally, I’m convinced it was this bad history that triggered this vision God gave him. Just so you know … this bad history is all Israel’s fault by the way. Throughout the Old Testament Israel cannot seem to stand prosperity, because everytime they prosper they turn around every time and sin against God again. Then God sends them a prophet, who warns them that more bad history is in the making if they don’t quit it, and most of the time … as their bad history records … they don’t learn from their school of hard knocks.

In our text its the same old story. God gives a prophet named Ezekiel a vision to share with Israel including dead decomposed corpses in the Great Babylonian Graveyard. In this vision Ezekiel is indeed looking over all DOSE BONES.

To interpret this dream correctly, and for how it applies to us today, we have to keep in mind how the Old Testament is to be interpreted. The Old Testament gives what Bible scholars identify as “types,” and “ensamples.” Today they are akin to what we call “metaphors.” These are given to show us that how God dealt with Israel in the Old Testament is how God deals with the Christian and His church today.

So with that said, keep reading next week and find out more about DOSE BONES.

SIN IN THE CAMP EQUALS DEFEAT ON THE BATTLEFIELD Part III

Joshua 7:1-26
 
We pick up now where we left off last week at verses 8-9.

Joshua and Israel have just suffered a major defeat at Ai, and now General Joshua asks God, “Why?” Joshua throws his hands up in the air and cries out, “Lord what can I say now that Israel has fled from its enemies? For when the Canaanites and all the other people living in the land hear about it, they will surround us and wipe our name off the face of the earth. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?”

Do you hear what this man is praying here? He’s confused over his defeat, but he’s praying, “God you’d better get us out of this mess, because if you don’t, this won’t look good on your resume!”

 What gall this man has to suggest that God needs to worry about his reputation!

And what a response, I might ad, God has for him in return. For in (vs. 10) God says, ” … Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this?” God says, “Stop acting pathetic! Take responsibility for your own actions man, and cut the whining in sackcloth and ashes routine!”

God says, “OK then Joshua, lets do get right down to the nitty gritty here of why you are so defeated and confused!

You see, when feeling defeated and confused all we want to do is pray is for God to get us out of it, and God says, “No! You’re going to stay in it, until you deal with it!”

Deal with what?

Deal with the sin in your camp that has brought about the defeat on the battlefield of your life.”
 
In (vs. 11) God says, “Israel has sinned and broken my covenant. They have stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their belongings.”

Let me ask you a very personal question: What has been your personal covenant made with God? That promise you made to God, by the way, is much like a covenant.

With that in mind, have you ever promised God that you would put him first in your life? Israel promised God that in so many words. For in Joshua 6:19, when it came to conquering their enemies and the spoils left behind they promised, “Everything made of silver, gold, bronze or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought into his (God’s) treasury.”
 
Achan, the culprit here, did not keep his promise to put God first. You should know that when we make a promise to God about anything and don’t keep it … God takes that personally.

That means breaking any promise to God is a sin. Here in our text, Achan rather puts himself first. He took a garment, silver, gold and hid them inside his tent.

Remember what I’ve said all along, “Sin in the camp equals defeat on the battlefield.” Lets continue …
 
(vs. 19-21), “Then Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, ‘Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonianish garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them; and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” (KJV)
 
There are certain steps that lead to Achan’s sin which everyone who commits sin does: He saw, he coveted, and he took.

Now notice what Achan does when he’s confronted by his sin. He outright confesses! He lays his sins out there bare naked, and ugly as they are!

This is how Christians today are to deal with the sins in the midst of our tents too! We are to dig them up, and lay them right out there bare naked just like the Apostle John tells us to do. For I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
 
But you might say, “Preacher man I don’t know what my sins are?” Maybe this story will help you figure them out.

There was a man who was on the board of the Pacific Garden Mission, and there was a doctor whom when he prayed would always eloquently say, “Lord, IF I have sinned, forgive my sins.” The fellow board member got sick and tired of hearing the doctor’s vain babblings and went to him and said, “Listen doc, you always pray, “IF I have sinned …” “You mean to tell me you don’t know IF you’ve sinned or not? Come on!” The doctor blubbered and said, “Well, well, I really don’t know what it is.” That was when the fellow board member blurted out saying, “Bless God doctor if you don’t know what it is … then guess at it!” And you know what? By all reports given, the next time the doctor prayed, “He guessed it right the first time!”
 
Lets bring this expositional study on Joshua 7 to a close by reading (vs. 25-26) that says, “Then Joshua said to Achan, ‘Why have you brought trouble upon us? The Lord will now bring trouble upon you … “

You’ve probably figured out by now God doesn’t wink at sin. People died because of sin in the Old Testament as Joshua 7 further indicates. See (vs. 25). But in the here and now, for those of us living in this New Testament age of grace, God rather disciplines his people by allowing us to stay troubled. D.L. Moody said about troubled Christians that these, “People have just enough religion to make themselves miserable.”
 
Trouble and misery is what the apostle Paul is talking about in I Corinthians 11:31-32. He says, “But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.” 

The word “judged” here is better rendered “disciplined.” In other words Christian, we are being “disciplined” so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”

What in the world does that mean?

It means that if we won’t confess our sins, God will bring the discipline of trouble and misery into our lives. It means that if we won’t confess our sins, that we leave God no other option but to discipline us through trouble, misery and one defeat after the other until we do.

Somebody said, and I believe its true that, “Sin causes your cup of joy to spring a leak.”
 
This leads me to close this expository study from Joshua 7 by saying the complete opposite of the title above, “Sin Confessed In The Camp Equals A Win On The Battlefield!”

The very first verse of the very next chapter proves it when it says in Joshua 8:1, “The Lord said to Joshua; Do not be afraid or discouraged (the sin has been confessed now), Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the King of Ai, his people, his town, his land.”

 - THE END

SIN IN THE CAMP EQUALS DEFEAT ON THE BATTLEFIELD Part II

Joshua 7:1-26
 
Lets pick up where we left off last time. Lets continue in with (vs. 2-3) which reads, “Joshua sent some of his men to spy out the land of Ai, east of Bethel, near Bethaven. When they returned they told Joshua, ‘There’s no need for all of us to go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.”

I don’t know about you, but I detect a little bit of pride here. Maybe God’s people have become like this little boy I’m going to tell you about. A school teacher innocently asked her class, “Well, what would you boys and girls like to be when you grow up? Instinctively, one little boy piped up and said, “I want to be GOD.” He did this to be cute, but when you think about it, he’s really speaking the mind of many a Christian. We want to be God in the sense that we want, at times, to take the credit for the miracles HE performs.
 
In the context of our text, Israel is on the afterglow of a God-given miraculous victory. They have just brought down the mighty walls around the city of Jericho, but for some crazy reason, they wanted to take the credit for it themselves. If they are trying to be humble, surely their actions and speech betray them.

Joshua sends out just a mere few spies to look over little Ai. These spies come back smugly and report to General Joshua that defeating Ai will be “easy peasy.” Remember though what I’ve been saying all along, “Sin in the camp equals defeat on the battlefield.”
 
(vs.4-5) read: “So approximately, 3000 warriors are sent, but they are soundly defeated. The men of Ai chased the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries, and they killed thirty six who were retreating down the slope.

The Israelites were paralyzed and their courage melted away.”

What is the famous line your Mom would always say? She would say, “The bigger they are the harder they fall!” Somebody should have told Joshua that! Somebody else should have also told him, “You know something’s wrong when you realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is really an oncoming train.”  Notice that bigger Israel was felled by a little oncoming train called Ai.

Israel has an enemy on the inside, and in this case its pride. Paul calls pride amongst many other sins an enemy on the inside called ”the flesh” in the New Testament. For Romans 7:18 does say, “For I know that in me (that is my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
 
Let me tell you what I’ve discovered that should make any of us swallow our pride. I’ve found out that I can’t live this Christian life. I can’t battle the flesh on the inside in my own strength and win. However, I have found out I can live this Christian life, battle the flesh and win if I let the Holy Spirit control me. 

Paul explains how this control comes about in 8:6 where he says, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

Sounds like a win, win to me!
 
(vs. 6-7) say, “Joshua and the elders tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads and bowed face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until evening. Then Joshua cried out, ‘Oh sovereign Lord, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side.”

If you’re a Bible reader you have heard this song before sung by Moses and Israel just before the Red Sea parted in Exodus 14.  As a matter of fact, I’ve sung this song before, and so have you! Joshua has been defeated, he can’t understand why. Now he’s confused. He’s confused like I get confused as to why I still have to iron “wrinkle free” khakis!

By the way … if you go back to (vs. 3) you’ll find Joshua didn’t pray about taking on Ai.

By the way … you’ll find that this time they didn’t take with them the the Ark of the Lord which represented God’s presence either.

No need to be confused over this trouncing Joshua, because sin in the camp equals defeat on the battlefield.”

SIN IN THE CAMP EQUALS DEFEAT ON THE BATTLE FIELD Part I

Joshua 7:1-26
 
Notice that (vs. 1) says, “A man named Achan sinned …   so the Lord was angry with (all) the Israelites.”

This sounds like my grade ten mathematics teacher Mr. Bryan Markey. One guy gets caught cheating on our math test and the man fails us all! How crazy is that?

Well, that’s the Bible lesson we learn from (vs. 1). It’s that “Sin within affects all of us without.”

You see, when it comes to sin, we are like the man in the boat who cut a hole in the side of the ship. The water poured in, and when the other sailors confronted him he sarcastically said, “It’s none of your business, because its under MY bunk and not yours!” This man’s hole in the wall affected many sailors, and Achan’s sin affected many people.
 
Here are the effects of Achan’s sin:

1. God threatened to take away His presence from ALL the people (vs. 4).
2. Many men die, ALL Israel’s army melts in fear, and General Joshua began to doubt God (vs. 5).

Now listen, don’t tell me your sin doesn’t affect me, because it does! I can’t tell you that my sin doesn’t affect you, because it does! Furthermore, our personal sins affect all the church we belong to.
 
Now look, I didn’t say this was fair! That’s not my point. I’m just telling you that’s how God looks at sin in the local church. Paul tells the people in the Corinthian church the same thing in I Corinthians 12:26 where it says, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it … ” That’s why I say sin in the camp equals defeat on the battlefield.
 
Notice (vs. 2-3) that says, “Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the land of Ai, east of bethel, near Bethhaven. when they returned they told Joshua, ‘There’s no need for all of us to go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.”

I don’t know about you, but I detect a little bit of pride here. Maybe they’ve become like this little boy. A school teacher innocently asked her class, “Well, what would you boys and girls like to be when you grow up?” Instinctively one little boy piped up and said, “I want to be God.” he did this to be cute, but when you think about it, he’s really speaking the mind of many a Christian. We “want to be God” in the sense that, we want, at times, to take the credit for the miracles God performs.
 
In the context of our text Israel is on the afterglow of a God-given miraculous victory. They have done what God told them. Previous to the battle of Ai, Israel had marched around the walls of the city of Jericho seven times, blew their trumpets, shouted and the enemy walls of Jericho fell down flat. Bu now, for some crazy reason, they want to take credit for it, rather than praise God for it. If they are trying to be humble, their actions and speech surely betray them.

Joshua sends in just a few spies to look over little Ai. These spies come back smug as can be, and basically tell Joshua that to whoop Ai will be “easy-peasy.”

Remember though, what I said earlier, “Sin in the camp equals defeat on the battlefield.” Next week we’ll pick back up in this verse by verse exposition of Joshua 7 at (vs. 4-5).

Until then. God bless.

Preacherman

SIN IN THE CAMP EQUALS DEFEAT ON THE BATTLEFIELD Introduction

Joshua 7:1-26
 
Have you ever heard this little tune? Do you recognize the lyrics at at all? It has theological implications you know? 

“You’d better watch out, you’d better not pout, you’d better not cry and I’m telling you why. Santa Clause is coming to town. He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice. Gonna find out whose naughty and nice. Santa Clause is coming to town. He sees you when your sleeping. He knows when your awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good. So be good, for goodness sake.”

I know you’ve heard the lyrics to this little tune, and it tells me I had better behave myself or else Santa can’t bless my life! This little tune also implies If I’m not blessed its my own fault, but the real underlying theological theme to this ever popular Christmas carol is this: That (inside), I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to getting blessed by God!
 
Have you Bible readers ever considered that the worst enemy of at least two of the seven churches in Revelation was on the inside? For in Revelation 2:14 it says about the church at Pergamum, “You tolerate some among you whose teaching is that of Balaam …” (that’s inside!)

For in Revelation 2:20 it says about the church at Thyatira, “You are permitting that woman – that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet – to lead my servants astray …” (that’s inside!)
 
Notice that my worst enemy in getting blessed is inside me, and notice that the church’s worst enemy when it comes to getting blessed is inside it too! You see, if you’er a Christian the devil can’t do very much on the outside to hurt you, and if your a church the devil can’t do much on the outside to hurt you either. So, he tries to wiggle something in on the inside to bring about unhappiness, decline, defeat and bless-less-ness.  
 
This was the devil’s tactic in Joshua 7. Israel, by God’s miraculous intervention has just downed the Jericho walls, and now they’re well on their way to acquiring the rest of the Promised Land. Previous to this, God made a promise of blessing to Abraham. The promise is repeated in Joshua 1:3 which states, “I promise you (Joshua) what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set your foot, you will be on land I have given you.”

By the way, for the sake of practical application and illustration. God said this blessing, this happy place of victory was theirs. It was just a matter of going in and taking it. Now for the practical application and illustration part. For you curious readers out there you should know that the Promised Land, given to Abraham and his seed, is actually over 300,000 square miles. In Israel’s best days they have only claimed 30,000 square miles of it. Today they claim only 150 square miles of it.

I said all that to say this: God says the blessed, happy and victorious Christian life is a promise to us. Its just a matter of claiming the promise and going with it. However, just like Israel we will have battles to fight against our own worst enemy within to acquire all of God’s promises.

Which leaves me with the question: Would you rather have 300,000 square miles of God’s blessings on your life, or only 150 square miles of God’s blessings on your life? Is really up to you, but we have to conquer our own worst enemy within to have all God’s blessings promised to us. Thus the column title over the next few weeks is “Sin In The Camp Equals Defeat On The Battlefield.”

SETTLING FOR THE GOOD RATHER THAN STRIVING FOR THE BEST Part III

Luke 10:38-42
 
To strive for the best means setting the right priorities. Notice in (vs. 40), that Martha has issues. The verse tells us, “But Martha was cumbered with much serving … “

I couldn’t help myself but chuckle when I read an ad found in New Mexico’s Quay County Sun newspaper that said, “Farmer with 160 irrigated acres wants marriage-minded woman with tractor, When replying please show picture of tractor.” I would dare say this man’s priorities would be right if he loves work, but surely not if he were to love a person.
 
I said all that to say this: Martha’s priority was to work for the Lord, but Mary’s priority was to love the Lord! Once again (vs. 40) proves what Martha’s priority was. For it does read, ” … Martha was cumbered about much serving … ” Martha is one hard working woman! She is using her gift of hospitality to serve the Lord, but the Bible says she’s “cumbered” by it. It would be accurate to say she was “distracted” by it.

Now, who would argue that serving up a meal isn’t a good thing? The truth is, had it not been for Martha’s service to the Lord there wouldn’t have been anything good for supper!
 
You might ask, “Is serving a bad thing Preacher-man?” Oh no no, I highly recommend it. Martha here in our text is commendably working hard to exercise her gift of hospitality … so what’s the problem with that? The problem is that she’s “cumbered” or “frustrated” by it. I don’t know, maybe she spilt the goat’s milk or burnt the lamb chops and that’s why she’s so cumbered. Whether frustrated or not, I think we can all agree, that Martha is doing a good thing here in the kitchen. However, Martha was settling for only the good thing. She was working for the Lord, at the total expense of the best thing which is knowing the Lord! Warren W. Weirsbe quips about this passage, “What we do with Christ is more important than what we do for him.”
 
Consider this: If your a woman looking for a relationship with a man … do you want the best one or do you want to settle for one? Mary wasn’t going to just settle for a “working relationship” with the Lord. No way! She wanted the best in a ”loving relationship” with the Lord! Mary knew all along there was work to be done in the kitchen, but she purposely didn’t do it until she took the time to sit at Jesus’ feet first. That’s good advice! Our Lord even commended Mary, and needled Martha at the same time about it when he said, “Mary has chosen the best part.” (vs. 42)
 
Maybe you’re like me. I am a “doer” by nature. I hope in the context of what I’ve just written you understand me when I say, “I find it easier to get up and work for the Lord like Martha, than I do to sit down and love the Lord like Mary at his feet.” Here’s what we should learn about this telling tale of two sisters in Luke 10: If we are too much like Martha, we are out of balance in our relationship with the Lord. Please don’t be fooled by the “busy bee” Martha’s serving in the kitchen all the time; that its always a tell tale sign that they love the Lord. As a pastor I’ve spoken to many busy bee Martha’s over the years whose service for the Lord is terrific, but their personal relationship with the Lord is terrible!
 
When someone like a Martha comes to me as their pastor disheartened and discouraged over their work for the Lord, I’ve learned to ask them a telling question. The telling question I ask is, “How’s your devotional life?” What’s telling is their bowed head, embarrassed look and confession, “I haven’t read my Bible or prayed daily in quite a while.” You see, if that’s you, if that’s me … we’ve got issues like Martha.
 
In closing out this series of columns, let me remind you as you go on your way, that you can’t work for the Lord and love it, if you won’t take time with the Lord and love him first. Are you a Mary or a Martha? The issue very well could be that you are settling for the good, rather than striving for the best. 

- THE END