Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Key to Battling Sin | Judges | Judges 1:27-36

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. Hey, Patrick and I are starting a new podcast. It's called Truth Over Tribe, where we talk about cultural and political issues from a Christian point of view. If you're interested, subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player so you won't miss any of the episodes.

Starting point is 00:00:32 It's time for a new series here. on Timitit Bible Talks. We're going to go through the book of Judges. And I have to admit, I'm super excited because Judges is one of my all-time favorite books in the Bible. I love well-crafted stories, and Judges is one of the best. On top of that, Judges has great characters. It's filled with action, and to be honest, it's a little dark. No one would call Judges Polyana. There are few, if any heroes in the book. And all of that means I love it, love it, love it. Let me set it up.

Starting point is 00:01:06 I'll share a story from my life. We'll dig into the first chapter. And we're going to do all of that in the time it takes to drive to work. Or at least that's our tagline. So drive slowly. Judges chapter 1 verse 1. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, who of us is to go up first to fight the Canaanites?

Starting point is 00:01:26 So judges obviously picks up right where John. Joshua stopped. After the death of Joshua, now this story begins to unfold. Now, even if you were with us in the last series through the Book of Joshua, you could probably use a quick refresh. The book of Joshua tells the story of God, keeping his promises to Israel to bring them into the promised land, defeat their enemies, and to begin to give them blessing and rest. Joshua is a book that teaches us that God always keeps his promises. God never fails us. Therefore, God's people can risk everything to obey and follow him. Now, as the book of Joshua comes to an end, Israel has taken control of large portions of the land, but there's still more work to do. They need to trust God, to keep

Starting point is 00:02:17 trusting God, to push out the current inhabitants of the land. We're going to see in a moment that Israel fails to do this. Instead of driving out, the Canaanites, they make peace with them. Before we get there, I think it's important to note that when the people of Israel are pushing the inhabitants of Canaan out of the land so that they can take control of it and live there, this is not a racial issue. It's not an economic issue. It's a spiritual issue. See, all the way back in the book of Exodus, God had warned Israel that if they didn't drive the Canaanites out of the promised land, well, then they'd end up worshipping the Canaanite idols. The Canaanites worshipped Bail and other gods that they believed blessed them

Starting point is 00:03:00 with children or crops. Just like us, Israel was susceptible to worship the idols of their neighbors. We live and work among people who worship all kinds of gods. Not only the gods of formal religion, but also the gods of wealth or celebrity or pleasure or ideology or nationalism or achievement. The time we live in can be characterized by the phrase which sums up the book of judges. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So just like the people who lived during the time of judges, we too are prone to worship other gods. But in Judges Chapter 1, God commands the Israelites to drive the Canaanites out of the land. But again, they don't do as they're commanded.

Starting point is 00:03:47 You might say they are half-hearted in their obedience. And we see it at the very beginning. So back to Judges 1-1 all the way through verse 3. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, Who of us is to go up first to fight the Canaanites? The Lord answered, Judah shall go up. I have given the land into their hands. The men of Judah said to the Simeonites,

Starting point is 00:04:13 their fellow Israelites, come up with us to the territory allotted to us to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you, into yours. So the Simeonites went up with them. Look, this might make sense militarily, but it is spiritually rebellious, and it only gets worse. Later in this chapter, we learned that instead of driving out the Canaanites, the tribe of Ephraim allows the Canaanites live among them. Instead of driving out the Canaanites, the tribe of Zebulin forces the Canaan into some sort of slave-like labor. Instead of driving out the Canaanites, the tribes of Asher and

Starting point is 00:04:51 Neftali lived among the Canaanites. Now our fight isn't against the Canaanites, but against sin in our own lives. And half-hearted discipleship is dangerous because sin is dangerous. Half-hearted discipleship acts as if we can tolerate sin. It acts as if we can get sin under control in our life. It acts as if we can live among sin and be okay. What sins do we tolerate in our life? What sins do we think we can control? What sins have we gotten comfortable with so that we don't really fight them anymore? What sins have we made peace with?

Starting point is 00:05:32 At a pivotal point in my Christian life, I got together with breakfast with several guys on a Friday morning. We'd spend time catching up about what happened during the week. We'd look a little bit into the Bible. But most of our time was devoted to confessing our sins to one another. Most of our time was spent acknowledging the areas of our life in which we had disobeyed God, rebelled against God, or only obeyed God half-heartedly. Now, those Friday morning breakfasts, they were pivotal in my life.

Starting point is 00:06:03 God used them like he's used few things in my life. Because what it did has taught me that sin is incredibly dangerous. As I listened to my stories or other guy's stories about how sin had damaged them, it woke me up to the power of sin, the danger of sin. But it was also important in my life because it allowed me to experience God's cleansing, that God freed me from the control of sin as I confessed my sin to other people as they prayed for me in my battle against sin, as they prayed that I would not be a half-hearted in my faith. fight against sin and allowed me to come clean and be honest and stop pretending. Are there people in your life that you can be honest with about your sins and your struggles? Are you the kind of person that someone can share their sins with and you won't judge them? You'll just pray for them.

Starting point is 00:07:05 Sin is our enemy. Sin is dangerous. Don't play with it. There are no respectable sins. There are no safe sins. There are no sins that aren't that big of a deal. All sin is dangerous. So let's pray for each other.

Starting point is 00:07:21 Let's fight against sin in our life. Let's trust God to defeat sin. And let's follow Jesus with our whole heart. Will you pray with me? Jesus, we don't want to be half-hearted disciples. We want to follow you with our whole heart. So we pray that you would drive sin out of our life, that you would open our eyes that we might see it, and that you would give us a distaste for it, that you would help us see its danger

Starting point is 00:07:51 so that we would not play with it. Oh, God, make us fully formed followers of Jesus. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. that helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper,

Starting point is 00:08:20 check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Key to Battling Sin | Judges | Judges 1:27-36

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