I turn to 1 Chronicles 5 this morning, beloved. 1 Chronicles in the fifth chapter. A few weeks ago I brought a message from 1 Chronicles 4, the prayer of Jabez. And I think I indicated at that time that there was another passage that had struck me, and it's what we're going to look at with the Lord's help this morning. The book of Chronicles gives little windows into details, some of which is recorded in Kings, some of which is not. In terms of positive influence, it shows to us the fruitfulness of seeking God, depending on God, resting on the Lord. There are aspects that one might expect to be found in Chronicles, and yet they are omitted, such as the details concerning the rule of Saul. And then there are other details that we know, it's not recorded anywhere else, just put here for us, that we might, again, just see little lessons as we see the priesthood of all believers, the place of Israel when she's a witness to the nations around, and the tragedy when she fails to be what she should be. So 1 Chronicles 5, going to begin reading at verse 18, reading through the end of the chapter. 1 Chronicles 5, verse 18. The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow and skillful in war, were four and 40,703 score that went out to the war. And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, with Nefesh, and Nodab. And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them. For they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him. And they took away their cattle, of their camels 50,000, and of their sheep 250,000, and of asses 2,000, and of men 100,000. For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steds, until the captivity. The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land, and increased from Bashan on to Baal Hermon, and Sinar, and on to Mount Hermon. And these were the heads of the house of their fathers, even Epher, and Ishii, and Eliel, and Azrael, and Jeremiah, and Hodeiah, and Jadiel, mighty men of valor, famous men. and heads of the house of their fathers. And they transgressed against the God of their fathers and went a-whoring after the gods of the people of the land whom God destroyed before them. And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of Telgath, Pulneser, king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them on to Hallah, and Hebor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, on to this day." Once again, what you have heard is the eternal word of the living God. Receive it by faith, beloved, and the people of God said, amen. Let's pray. Lord, help us as we come to your word. We're so thankful for the scriptures. They are a lamp onto our feet and a light onto our path. And we need that because we live in a world filled with darkness, so much to confuse and distract. As parents, we struggle with the challenges of raising our children. navigating the complexities of the world in which we live, even the complexities of the varied personalities of our children, seeking to understand their peculiar needs. We feel it, oh God, abroad in all of our families, in the places where we work, in our communities. Yeah, Lord, simply we come today and acknowledge without Thee we can do nothing. Help us in this place. Help us through thy word. Prepare us to sit meditatively at the table of the Lord. Prepare us to seek the face of our God this day. Come and rescue us. Come and save us. Come and revive us. Come and multiply us. God puts sinners in these pews. saved by Your grace, and cause us to go forward with Thee. Give me now Thy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. One of the most sobering truths that should never be far from the mind of every believer is the fact that churches rise and churches fall. No church has a monopoly. No church has the promise that they are going to last forever or until the Lord comes back. I could go through history with regard to that, but just sticking with Scripture. You have churches in Asia Minor addressed in the book of Revelation that do not exist today. They no longer are present. no longer witness to their communities. The candlestick has been removed and they are no longer in this world today. And such has been the way for many churches, many denominations. It's a little hard with denominations because usually you see them kind of splinter off and then you see kind of branching off and in some way you might say they continue to exist over here by this name. But the reality is certainly when we look at local churches that they can appear for a little time and then vanish away. They come and they go. And I think it healthy for us to realize that. Because when a local church or a denomination believes it has a divine right to exist, that is one of the sure nails in the coffin. You're sealing your own end, your own doom. because you're making a presumption you have no right to make. Confidence in your right to exist may appear to be a position of strength, but it is built upon the most unstable of foundations, that of pride. Nothing built on pride can last. And while the church big C has a promise that Christ will build it and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The local church does not have that same assurance. They're warned, as Jesus warned the churches in Asia Minor. If they don't remain faithful, the candlestick will be removed. Now I've been meditating on this passage for a number of weeks on and off. Coming back to it, intending, feeling at some point I'm going to preach on it. And every time I've returned to it, the emphasis has changed. Where I want to place the emphasis, where I want to focus. Initially, I think, if I recall correctly, it was on verse 22. Where we have this language, for there fell down many slain because the war was of God. I was meditating on that. The war was of God. What does that mean? What does that say to us? And certainly we can drill down in that statement, and I have notes on that, that I eventually then dismissed. Then the focus was on verse 20, where we are told that they cried to God in the battle. And I thought, that's a great statement there too, isn't it? Full of instruction, crying to God, not just before the battle, but in the battle, in the midst of the battle. But as I step back, I couldn't deal with this. I found myself that I couldn't deal with the passage without looking at the entire context because the last two verses present a warning. A warning. And if we ignore that warning, then we're ignoring the contrast that the Spirit of God intends for us to see. That those who began well did not end so well. That, in this little snapshot that is given by the Spirit of God in 1 Chronicles 5, that is easy to overlook and miss, I think is here for us to observe and learn from. So I've titled my message, The Rise and Fall of a Local Church. The Rise and Fall of a Local Church. And you can glean from this text that precise fact, that reality, that there may be a rise, a people who take position, seem to be strong. living for God, knowing his favor, and then they are no longer there. They are carried away. My emphasis will be upon the positives. I will briefly note the negatives, the things to learn from the last two verses as well, but just two main heads, reasons for success and evidence of failure. Reasons for success and evidence for failure. of failure rather. So reasons for success. Let's look at this. Because as soon as I say the word success, the tendency is to immediately think of things of health and wealth and other aspects of material prosperity. They flood the mind. This is what success looks like in our present generation. But that is not what I want you to think of as we think of the word success. Because success in the Christian life is filled with paradoxes. I mean you can't be long reading the Bible before you see that, that success in the Christian life is filled with paradoxes. Some of those have been expressed in what we've been singing. It's not to the swift, it's not to the strong. God doesn't have it that way in the world. Matthew 16.25, we are taught that we can find our lives by losing it. Losing our lives. Where Jesus teaches that true life is found in surrendering our own desires, our own ambitions to follow Him. To make His ambition, His goal, His purposes our own. Losing our own life and having His aims and goals and His will supplant our own. And in that we find eternal life. Matthew 20, 16, the first shall be last, the last shall be first. Again, this is contrary to what we might expect, that true greatness, Jesus says, in the kingdom of God is not about status, not about power, but about humility and service. And those who are first in this world will be last. Those who appear to be last shall be first. One final one, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, where we learn that strength is revealed in weakness. And again, this is not what we expect. We look for strength and power and might, and yet we are told that God's power is not revealed in man's strength, but in man's weakness. When believers acknowledge their limitations, when they're conscious of their own inability, and rely then on God's strength, they get to see the power of God on display. Oh, there's a word there for us, isn't there? Maybe some of you are so actively involved in something right now, trying to manipulate an outcome, and what God is saying to you right now, step back, stop it. Stop it. Just pray. Depend on me. Bring it to me in prayer. Let me work. Let me act here. So when I use the word success, I mean it in the sense that the Bible deals with it. Success can look different. It can look like wearing the martyr's crown. The apparent end of a life, an existence, the sorrowful state of affairs when a man or a woman is caused to be brought to a point of death for their faith in Jesus Christ. The world may mock and laugh, but that sacrifice and loyalty to Christ is success. Success of grace. There are features in this passage, I believe, that we need to see with the Lord's help. Features that are important for every church, but of course I'm speaking to you and I'm speaking to this church and there are things that I want us to learn from and embrace. So as you think of it, how does a church rise? How does it come to a place where it is effectively fulfilling its purpose in a community? How? How does it be what God has called it to be? And I know immediately we go to things like numbers. Again, we go to things like numbers. And yet even there, we learn, again, God whittles down Gideon's army, right? Or Jesus, instead of taking from the thousands that gathered around him, he takes 12, and even one of those is gonna be laid aside. It's gonna be set aside. It's gonna be 11 who are going to go from there and carry on after he ascends. What can we learn then? What is it that we need to understand as a church that we are to be a successful representation of Christ at 1207 Haywood Road here in Greenville? What are we to do? First, believe life is warfare and prepare for battle. Believe life is warfare and prepare for battle. Look at verse 18. The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skillful in war, were four and forty thousand, seven hundred and three score that went out to the war." So we have here before us men who were able to fight. Of course, that tells us things about them. It tells us that they prepared, doesn't it? It tells us that they made ready, that they sought to put themselves in a place where they might be equipped for such an occasion. So, they understood that life is warfare because they sought for themselves. And we can learn from this. First, then, we might say this. This had been learned through experience. These men who believed that life is warfare, and you need to prepare for battle, have learned this through experience. These men are of the two and a half tribes. And for those of you familiar with your Bible, you'll be aware that as the children of Israel made their way to the promised land, there was an occasion where these two and a half tribes, they end up interacting with Moses and requesting that they can have the land on the east of Jordan. Now Moses seeks to give them warning about that. He's concerned about how that might look with regard to the rest of the people. But in the dialogue, he ends up agreeing and saying, that's fine, you can have this on one condition, that you do not occupy this land until all of your brothers, all the Israelites have found their place in the promised land. And they agree to that. And so they cross over, they enter into the battle, they follow Joshua, They engage in the warfare, the land then is taken, it's given to the tribes, and once all of that is successfully achieved, the two and a half tribes, the men of those tribes can return back to that area east of Jordan to fulfill their ambitions and their desires in that part of the land. So, in order to have the land, they already had battled. They already had fought. They understood the difficulties, the challenges, the hardships of this. And they had followed Joshua into the battle faithfully. Now Joshua is just another name for Jesus. And our Lord Jesus Christ is seen in type through Joshua. We see in him something what he achieves. You see wonderfully illustrated for us that Moses cannot enter in or lead the people into the promised land. It must be Jesus. And so Joshua fulfills that type for us seeing the Messiah who will come. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He will bring them into peace. He will bring them into that land that is promised to them. But of course there are other indications and things that are taught too. And Joshua of course foreshadows the kind of battle of life even in this world as well before we get to the final heavenly Canaan. Because the promised land they had was only a type, a foreshadowing. It wasn't the land itself. Though promised to them it was only again typifying another place where there's no need for warfare. The former things are passed away and there's true rest and peace from the curse in this world. These men had followed Joshua, went into battle, had learned to fight and wore a good warfare. And we need to understand this. We can learn from this, this mentality of realizing that life is warfare. Life is warfare. Right, so if you're here feeling the heat of the battle and the difficulties of life and feeling the strain and the pull, maybe economically, maybe with health, maybe within relationships and the family, maybe just you're overwhelmed, maybe depressed and discouraged about things you can't even put words to, whatever the case, life is warfare. When Jesus said his people are the light of the world, it implied that they're surrounded by darkness. When he taught them that in this world you shall have tribulation, he was preparing them for difficulties. When he said the wheat and tares grow together, he taught them that this world is an environment where the godly and ungodly inhabit the same space. And so as you heard last Lord's Day from Ephesians 6, the Christian needs armor. He's in a spiritual battle. But what happens is, a generation that learned to engage in the warfare, they learned that life is warfare. They learned to battle for God. What they do is, they prepare a place where the next generation ends up born into an environment of hard-bought peace. where there's this place of rest, the enjoyment of the success of labor, and they know little or nothing of the battle. And we are a generation in danger of reaping the last remaining benefits from the sacrifice and successes of previous generations. You hear language like this used politically? But it is certainly true spiritually that we're just going to wring out the last of the benefits and leave nothing but again a time of hardship for the coming generations. As I say, they had learned this through experience. Have you? Have you? Has your life been fraught with battles and difficulties or has it been relatively easy? Are you living your life with a sense of warfare? Think of when you pray. I think prayer is really where we see it. Because when you can get down on your knees and simply pray, God bless my day today and cause everything to go well and give me the wisdom I need and do all this for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen. When you can pray in a way like that, it's likely that you're in a season of peace, and you're not conscious of warfare. I remember one of the challenges that came very powerfully to me when I first began ministry, and especially during time of training for the ministry, was being very aware of the fact that I no longer felt in my own heart the sense of warfare. When I went to work every day, surrounded by unbelievers, working in close quarters with people who did not know Christ, who loved to try and mock and say things and rebuff your arguments and statements and mock your faith in some way. I knew they wanted me to fall. And you had this sense that you're entering into battle and you needed divine help. So assess your own prayer life. Because what I realized was, going into college every day to study and do all the subjects that were before us, I became so invested in that that I lost the sense of the warfare. And you know what happens when you lose a sense of warfare? You stop engaging in the disciplines that matter. The muscles become weak. The reflexes become much slower. The abilities and powers, the conscientiousness of the battle begins to fade from your mind and you're like one sitting in a trench playing video games. This generation that fought with Joshua had learned through experience that life is warfare, they must prepare for battle. You can see that. They were able to bear buckler and sword. They weren't picking it up for the first time. They invested their energy in preparations for battle. How to shoot with bow. How to be skillful in war. They were conscious of the challenges. And they had learned them through experience this fact. And it had been exemplified by famous men. Not only learned through experience, but it had been exemplified by famous men. Look at verse 24. These were the heads of the house of their fathers, and were given names of these men. Mighty men of valor, famous men. Mighty men of valor, famous men. They weren't born famous. And the idea of famous men is like men with names. That's the sense of it. Men with names. You can get the sense of that, don't you? I mean, people whose, their name stands out, right? I say Churchill, there's only one Churchill you think of, right? You say certain names because of what they did, because of how they lived. There's something that is, their name becomes charged with meaning. That's what happened. These men had gotten to that point, famous men. So at some point they face a confederacy, that confederacy is verse 19, the Hagarites with Jeter and Nephish and Jodab. And they defeat them and they plunder them. They take their livestock and their men are slaughtered and so on. And it is a great victory. And these men are described as mighty men of valor, famous men. They had this name because they fought for God. They gave themselves to battle. They understood that life is warfare and it's not just about running for ease. I think there's an element that we can see in the last few years people have done that. Now I'm not telling you that if you live in California, and you decide that it's so far gone you want to move, that that is wrong. I'm not saying that. But you do see in that. I think there's an element of that that reflects a running for the hills, right? Running for places of peace. I know there are arguments in different ways. You could argue in terms of, no, we're going to come and collectively strengthen the places where they are still strong. And maybe there's an argument for that. I get it. But I think for some, at least, the motive is just peace for themselves. Make it easier for themselves. Now, 47 years ago, a little group of people in Greenville asked for help on the other side of the Atlantic. And 44 years ago, that help arrived in the person of Alan Cairns, and since then, it's been years of battle. Right here, Sharon Drive, and then here on Haywood Road. Battle. Battles have been fought. Some have been won, some have been lost. Souls have been reached, some won for Christ, some lost to the world. Churches have been planted, some exist to this day, others are closed. Overview of the last four decades or so of this work here. But what you did was, you realized that we need help for the battle. You're in warfare. And that's what happened. Those early years were fraught with a sense of danger, of difficulty, but vision and burden and hope. I have gone, I've listened to some of the early messages, I've listened to some of the kind of vision that the first pastor sought to have for the church, the desire that it might be a mother of other congregations and so on and so forth. I've sought to imbibe certain aspects of that, thinking that this is a legitimate vision, this is a right burden, this is something that should be embraced, this is what we're here for. And it's been in my prayers, and to see us, you know, supporting the work in Maine, seeing the elders go to Orlando, in some ways supporting by, whether by men or supporting an effort of a new work to be planted, this is it coming to pass. God fulfilling the burden, God answering prayer. These men, these two and a half tribes, especially of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, these men, they learned to fight, they learned to battle, they gained a name for themselves, those that led them. And you know, they had a powerful influence. Later on in David's day, we learn in 1 Chronicles 12, verse 8, it tells us that the Gadites there separated themselves onto David, Into the hole to the wilderness, men of might and men of war fit for the battle that could handle Shield and Buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as the rose upon the mountains. These are Gadites who were of the same stock as we read off here. And so following generations still had this element of warfare, an element of battle, an element of commitment, an element of vision and burden, not taking the easy road but aligning with David in order that the work might go forward and not come to nothing. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that greater David. He has a vision in every generation. He has a purpose to advance His own name and His own cause in every generation. The prophets spoke of a day when all the nations would be gathered in. The New Testament makes clear from every tribe and people and tongue and nation, there should ascend a unified voice of praise to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And you're either contributing to it or you're not. This church, as much as it needed the kind of commitment that it had four decades ago, needs it today. Are we resting on the kind of commitment that was shown four decades ago? Are we merely sustaining what they fought for and won? Or have we stepped into the gap? In the next couple of months or so we're going to have an election of elders and that's going to put on this congregation a responsibility to choose by God's grace men who are committed. I know that every man here is going to feel just as I felt when I first thought of being an elder. I don't have the gifting. I'm not worthy. I can't do it. What I've discovered is it's not so much about gifting. There's an element of that. Certainly men of gifting have potential to do more good than those who don't. That's evident. But I have learned that commitment, commitment to Christ, unwavering, That is your whole life's goal to honor the Lord, to put Him first, to make the best with what you have, and He crowns it. He uses it. So, believe life is warfare and prepare for battle. That's key to success. Secondly, believe unity is essential and act with cohesion. Believe unity is essential and act with cohesion. Look at verse 19. They made war. Look at verse 20. Follow as I skip here. They were helped. They cried to God. They put their trust in Him. You think that emphasis is there? By chance, they made war, they were helped, they cried to God, they put their trust in Him. Believe unity is essential and act with cohesion. This is what these men did. It was they. It wasn't about one individual. It wasn't about a handful, it was about the whole. It was for the whole. All they were doing was for the whole. They laid down their lives for the whole. They acted on behalf of the whole. They gave themselves to this for the benefit of the corporate. More often than not, the success of the work of God is dependent on unity and acting with cohesion. joining together and acting with cohesion, like a sense of, yes, that's the direction. Now, an army, you know, must be unified. It must be. Imagine going to battle with an army not expressing unity. Imagine that they were splintering. Imagine there were those acting in a maverick fashion. They would be defeated more often than not. There may be some exceptions to that, but more often than not, they would be defeated. Now when decisions are made regarding warfare, when decisions are made within the ranks of the army, does that mean every soldier agrees with every decision? No. Do officers sometimes challenge the direction of the superior? Yes. But when a decision is made, unity means the body acts with cohesion. You can argue it out in the office. You can discuss it. You can give the counter arguments. You can present the other evidence. You can give all the case for why you think this might be a better plan. But when the decision is made, when you're in the battle, you follow the command and you go with cohesion. Because the assumption is we're all on the same page. We all have to stick by the rule book that we've been given. That's how we succeed. Now many of our ministries exemplify this wonderfully. I love seeing the little details of ministries that are organized not by me but by others. And I get a little window into some of those ministries, and just one came in this morning for generations. For those who don't know, Generations is a boys' home where there's a ministry there. And I was looking at this. I said, look at that. Look at this perfect example of what I'm talking about, that we work with unity and act with cohesion. This is for this afternoon, the ministry down there. I mean, if anyone there decides they're not going to do it, it falls apart, right? Something's going to be missing, and the whole plan kind of begins to cave in, and you have to make adjustments along the way, and it isn't what was envisaged. And I thought that's a perfect example of how things function, how they work well. When everyone's on board, when everyone's thinking we're unified, we're unified, the broad vision of what we're involved, we're trying to reach these boys, we're trying to present God's word, we're endeavoring to minister to their hearts, and it requires each piece of the puzzle. But if, for example, You know, and this gets all arranged. And someone starts saying, I'm not going to bother doing that. Or starts kind of talking behind backs and saying, this is a dumb idea. Why do we do this? Questioning the whole thing. And that's fine to question, but go to the person who made the arrangement. Ask them. Ask them, why did we do it this way? Would it not be better to do it that way? And they might explain, well, we tried it that way, but, you know, here's the difference. That kind of thing. But what happens is, you know, when you hear these things, and sometimes, okay, it doesn't happen regularly. But sometimes I hear, it comes to me, that people talk negatively, right? They talk negatively. It's like they're finding grounds to complain. And I know that that can arise within us all, but what do we do with it? But what really bothers me is when there's this spreading of that disease to others. And there's no questioning, there's no asking, why? Why? Why is it that way? Is there a reason why we do it that way? When we don't stand together, things fall apart. Go to Deuteronomy 20. Go back to Deuteronomy 20. Maybe you see the importance here of everyone being on board. Deuteronomy 20 verse 1. that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies. Let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto the people." Note this. And they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. You know, I preached on that, I'm pretty sure a few years ago I preached on that. But the influence, the influence of unbelief, the influence of criticism, and here's what's being said, if you're of that mind, go. Your fear spreads. Your negativity weakens our position and we're better without you. Now does this mean everyone has to be just a yes man who agrees with everything? No. But it is functioning in unity and acting with cohesion. It is endeavoring to see The plan, understand it, commit to it. If there's an issue, you can talk. Things may be changed, corrected, whatever. But living according to our own rules, living in kind of like in factions will never work. And those of you who have a long history in this church will know that her brightest days were when she was unified. Her lowest days was when she was divided. And it's had that history, and you know it. For the work of God to go forward, Christians must understand the importance of intention, action, and cooperation. You intend to help to take action and cooperate with others. We embrace differing roles, 1 Corinthians 12. We maintain the unity of the spirit, Ephesians 4. We forbear and forgive grievances, Colossians 3. We be like-minded, Philippians 2. And we pray with one accord, Acts 2. Thirdly, Believe outcomes are providential and commit to pray. Believe life is warfare and prepare for battle. Believe unity is essential and act with cohesion. Believe outcomes are providential and commit to pray. Verse 20, back in our passage. They cried to God in the battle and he was entreated of them because they put their trust in him. I don't know exactly what happened here. I don't know how they prayed together. Now we read in Deuteronomy 20, it gives us indication that the priest comes and leads. Before they go out to battle, so their minds are meant to be brought into a spiritual frame before they fight. And just a word on that, this is why we pray before certain acts of ministry. You're stepping into spiritual warfare. You pray before you go. This is why you pray before your morning, before you step out of the home. This is why you commit to God. But once you then do that, you commit to God before the battle, then you're allowed to and encouraged to cry to God in the battle. I love it. In the battle. I love what that implies. I love what that means for moms who are hearing screaming children while they're washing dishes and like, in the battle, like, Lord, please, bring peace. Quieten the children, please. Or fathers who are in the midst of a meeting and they see things going in a bad way and they can, in the battle, they can cry to God. Whatever the context, whatever you're dealing with, In the battle, you can cry to God in the battle. Some of you are in it. Now here's the thing. Belief in the sovereignty and providence of God does not diminish prayer. It provokes prayer. Since God is sovereign, we pray. If God is not sovereign, there's no point in praying. It's the fact that he is sovereign that there's every point in praying. To have a fatalistic mentality, to say that God's in control of it all. and he's going to fulfill his purpose regardless, is to have a fatalistic mentality that questions God's use of means. God uses means. And if you think the fact that everything has been determined by God, therefore there's no point in praying, you miss the fact that his favorable intentions are inextricably linked to means he has ordained, such as prayer. These men knew God was in control, so they prayed. They didn't say, we know God is in control, so we don't need to pray. They said, no, God is in control, so we should pray. We must pray. So the priest led them, maybe before they entered into battle, and then while they were in battle, they continued to pray. Yes, because they had to believe, that's what it said. Anyone fearful among, you see the emphasis of the priest back in Deuteronomy 20? Don't be fearful, the emphasis is not, whether you question your skill set, right? The question is not whether, you know, it's about material things or preparation in regard to the cogs of warfare. The question is, are you fearful? Or do you believe God? Because that's it. God works through believing people. God uses believing people. God uses people who aren't so dependent in their gifting as they are in their God. So the warriors then carried this spiritual mindedness into the battle and kept crying to God for his help. Apparently the Jews, and I don't know how true this is, apparently the Jews had a war cry like the Romans and others in past, where they're told that they would shout, rak chazak amatz, or maybe it's kazak, rak kazak amatz, which is taken from Joshua 1, only be strong and courageous. Only be strong and courageous. That's what they would cry in the midst of the battle. Only be strong and courageous. And even in Joshua 1, the whole point of that is not them just talking positively, trying to speak affirmations that I need to be courageous. It is how are they strong and courageous? By faith, by faith, by believing in their God. So it is for every child of God. Are you in the warfare? Are you? Are you in the battle? Every Christian should have at least one person beyond their own family that they're trying to win for Christ. There's something about trying to win someone beyond your own family that makes you sense that you're engaged in the Great Commission. I'm not diminishing how child rearing is part of the Great Commission. It is mom, it is dad, it is, but there's something about. Seeking to win someone beyond your family, having a name, having a person, someone you work with, someone you live beside, someone you're in contact with, having that name and bringing it before God and seeking as opportunity arises to win them for Christ. There's something about that objective. It's like a task. Again, if you're in a war, if you're in an army, if you don't have something to do, then you're a liability. Everyone needs to be there for a reason. And every Christian is engaged in the Great Commission. And there's not one of us who can say, I can't do it. Not one. Don't tell me. Don't tell me you can't do it. Every single person can have one person they at least are praying for desires to win them for Christ. So finally, evidence of failure. We've seen the success, seen why a church rises, these things, why the two and a half tribes came to enjoy this time of peace and so on, but there's evidence of failure. And this is verse 25. This is a sad reality, and I'll just, the two main heads here are first, they forgot the faith of their fathers, and second, they became familiar with the surrounding world. They forgot the faith of their fathers, and they became familiar with the surrounding world. Let's look at it just really briefly. They forgot the faith of their fathers, verse 25. They transgressed against the God of their fathers. What do you think this entailed? I was thinking about this and the Scriptures I'm aware of, what the Bible teaches about forgetting or going against and transgressing, as Israel did. I would say this, I would say this. They didn't forget the content of the faith of their fathers, but they didn't commit to it. That's the first thing. They didn't forget the content of the faith of their fathers, but they didn't commit to it. Or to put it this way, they didn't forget the identity of the faith of their fathers, but they didn't invest in it. They knew themselves to be children of Abraham. They wouldn't have denied it, but they didn't invest in what that meant. Or to put it a third way, they didn't forget the background of it, but they didn't believe in it. They forgot the faith of their fathers. There may be children here, and you know the content. You have the identity. You're aware of the background. But you have not committed, you have not invested, and you don't believe. That means you're transgressing against the God of your fathers. There may be adults here doing the very same thing. You know the content. You embrace the identity. You're knowledgeable of the background, but you do not commit, you do not invest, and you do not believe. But also they became familiar with the surrounding world. They went whoring after the gods of the people of the land, and God destroyed before them. They went whoring after the gods of the people of the land. You know, I had someone say this to me, that God gave us a book filled with words. That's what he gave us, a book filled with words. And as we were talking about that particular issue, it was kind of, hitting me. That's what he's given. A book with words. And it's meant to change your life. Words change your life. They do. All words change your life. All words have an impact. All words. Those of you who have been hurt by words know it. Those of you who have been helped by words know it. Words change us. Now, in light of that, what is it that the culture pours into everyone who's willing to receive it? Words. This is why media is such a problem. This is why I don't get, there are other Reformed churches. I'm not against them. I hope God uses them and will use them and bless them. But one thing that where we are distinct than very many of them is in this fact. You will not find the leadership of this church, the day you do, God help us. You will not find the leadership of this church encouraging, embracing pop culture, and all that it has to offer. When we drive up to youth camp, you can be assured, parents, we will not have Taylor Swift playing in the background, or any other carnal, worldly, pop culture garbage. It will not. Because I've heard just recently, Reformed, meant to be biblical, church, and it is, best I can tell. They're heading to a youth camp, and they're listening, to One Direction, listening to car music, it will not happen here. Now I cannot control what you do in your home, but I'm going to tell you, words impact you. The culture is discipling you. The culture is catechizing you. And it does through its music, its movies, its media. Am I saying watching one Disney movie will derail your life? No. Will the fact that you heard Taylor Swift on the radio one time cause you to abandon your faith? No. The catechizing, as we all know, comes through repetition. So this is why we talk to the gods, why we say the same things from the pulpit. It's why we preach Christ every week and point you to Christ all the time. It's why we go over the same things repeatedly. Because through repetition the life has changed. Meditate on the law of God's where the change comes. Constantly going over it. But we have a generation, instead of thinking on God's Word, reading God's Word, giving yourself to God's Word, there may be people here and you're not opening your Bible from one day to the next. You can't be in the warfare. You cannot be in the warfare. You do not have the ability to fight because you don't have the words. The words of that priest, the words of that officer before they went to fight were critical because they reminded them of God's promises. Go and read it again. They're just rehearsing and saying again what they all knew to be true, what God had promised them. God's Word. And this is why we read the Word daily, why we meditate, why we must, and why we repudiate. Encouraging God's people, imagining that the words of the culture does not change and shape you. They do. We can't avoid it all. We can certainly fight against the repetition of its influence. And I beg you parents to give consideration to that. And I beg you to draw boundaries. And I beg you young people to love God's word more than anyone who's seeking for your attention, who cares not a jot about who you are or what you do. Give your loyalty to the one who shed his blood for you. Is this not what it's about? That we lift the captain of our salvation, the greater Joshua, who took to the battle and didn't simply say go and fight, but he fought himself. And he wrestled against all the enemies of our souls. And he took all the responsibility, engaging in the temptation of the wilderness, and all the mockery of the world. and all the lies of, he does this by Beelzebub and so on and so forth. He took it all and he went to Calvary and he laid down his life, suffering, dying, bleeding. And then he brings you into his army when he saves your soul and he says, here's what I want you to do. Preach Christ. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Take these words, take these words, give them to your children. Take these words, give them to your neighbors. Take these words, share them with your enemies. For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. We're in battle. May God give us grace to fight for what really matters on that day. Let's pray. In just a moment, we will sing and prepare our hearts to sit at the Lord's table The one who prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies allows us to sit, knowing the rest that he has procured for us. Are you fighting? Are you going forward with God? Say unto the children of Israel that they go forward. That's how it began on the other side of the Red Sea, and that's how it's continued until we cross our own Jordan and enter into that place that is fairer than day. Lord, bless Thy Word. We are very grateful for the labors of Your people in this place. We rejoice even in recent tokens of people being saved, and lives being influenced, and numbers even increased in terms of influence upon those involved in our outreach. We thank you, Lord, for your word, and we thank you for your people who obey it. Lord, I pray, give us a collective desire to see your name magnified here on this earth. Come. Come even now as we prepare to sit at this table. Lead us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.