October 7, 2009
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Six Enemies that are under our feet by Pastor Don Moore
Here is the closed captioning for Pastor Don’s sermon. What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says. I broke it into paragraphs for easier reading. It is slightly edited for readability. Have a blessed day !!! Heather
SAY AMEN
SHOW 130
SIX ENEMIES THAT ARE UNDER OUR FEET
9/6/09We’re going to go to the book of Joshua today, it’s right after Deuteronomy there and all and Judges. Right before the book of Judges is the book of Joshua. Praise God. [hallelujah] I can’t wait to hear this message myself. [amen] I want to just summarize and bring you some light on this issue. It appears that the Children of God have finished their 40 years in the wilderness. And Joshua is now the leader of the people. And he’s come into a land that God has promised them. The Canaan Land was the Promised Land. And they were now effectively crossing over from Egypt into Canaan Land that had been promised to them as the great Promised Land and everything’s supposed to be going along really great.
Up to this point in time, under Moses’ leadership, they’ve taken on great armies. They’ve taken on nations that were in existence and they’ve destroyed everything in their path. And so Joshua is now leading a victorious army. Can you say, “victorious?” [victorious] He’s leading a victorious army and they are going in to Canaan Land. In the 9th Chapter, by then, there’s an interesting scenario that begins to develop because there are other enemies in the land that God told them to conquer the whole thing. The reason that we have so many problems coming to us from Israel is because they did not complete their assignment.
Listen to me Child of God, if you don’t complete what God told you to do, if you don’t complete it, you are not going to be eligible to receive all that God has for you. Now, what I want you to see is that God has this plan. He wants them to possess the whole land. [yeah] But they didn’t follow His instructions. And when you don’t follow God’s instructions to the completion, you don’t do exactly all of what God said, then you will end up fighting battles and confusion and hardships for a longer period of time than really is necessary. And many of you know exactly.
But let’s get a description of it, and see how it plays out in the Word. “And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon – the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite — heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,…” Look out now. “…they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” Then the men of Israel said to the Havites…or Hivites...” Whichever way you want to call them. “…Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?”
In other words they were saying, we can’t make a covenant with you if you dwell close to us, or if you are near around us, because why? God told us to destroy all of the nations close around us. So if you are of the people that are close around us, then we’re going to have to destroy you. But these guys, they dress in these bad clothes, these poor clothes, they’ve got moldy bread, which to signify they’ve come a long journey, so they say to them, in verse 8, it says, “But they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?” So they said to him: “From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan – to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, “Take provisions with you for the journey, and go meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” This bread of ours we took hot…” You know, they worked for Dunkin’ Doughnuts, they had the hot doughnuts, when they left they said, “we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy.” Lord have mercy. “And these wineskins which were filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.”
I want everybody to just stand and read verse 14 with me. I want you to just stand and read verse 14 with me. Are you ready? [yes] “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.” Read it again, please. “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.” You may be seated in the presence of the wonderful, kind and gracious God. [hallelujah]
Let’s look at this then from the standpoint of what is the Lord saying to each and every one of us. I’d like to take a little bit of liberty with this scripture, right here. Just to bring it a little closer to home, so that it has kind of a ring, a ring for you, and a ring for me to help us kind of remember something. We see that these people, and it turns out that it’s interesting, there’s six different nations that these people come from. And six we know is the number of man. So I believe God is trying to tell us something. That these six nations represent six different types of problems, six different types of peoples that come to us. And it was to my surprise that when I looked up these names in the Scriptures, I realized that the sound of the name as well as the definition of the name had something to do with the type of person, type of place, type of curse, type of enemy, type of demonic personage and spirit, that these six represented something that comes to us.
But I want you to focus again on verse 14. “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions;…” [right] They took provisions from these six different people groups or spirit groups that were represented, “…but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” … Why would you take provisions from evil people?… That, not only are they evil, but they happen to be liars. [laughter]
Now, today’s message is for the mature, if you’re not mature, then please go sit out in the lobby or the hallway because I want to talk to people that have been through some stuff. I want to talk to some people that, you’re beyond pabulum, but you’re ready to think with some meat and some maturity. Can you do that? Huh? Look around and say, “I’m ready for this.” [I'm ready for this.] “I can handle this.” [I can handle this.] This is good stuff. [This is good stuff.]
Alright, let’s consider then, what do we have on our hands here? We have Joshua who’s going to see great battles, and great things are going to be done. We have the elders of the church, the leaders of the church, and all like that. And the elders and all, and the wise people are sitting in the assembly and in come these six types of people. These six types of people come in and they are liars. Can you say liars? [liars] They are masqueraders, they are not what they appear to be. And they don’t get uncovered for what they are because Joshua and the elders did not ask God. [amen] They didn’t ask God about it, they just were so busy.
I just want to say that, in my flesh I get a little frustrated with the scenario that just keeps happening to believers in the House of God. Asking God after you’ve created a mess is a whole lot harder, cause if you’d asked Him before you get in the mess, He would give you the answer before. But we have to believe that by faith. We have to know that if we seek counsel from the Lord, if a mess breaks out, He’s got it. [yes! amen!] Oh Lord have mercy. Let me say it again. If we ask counsel of God, and God gives us counsel, and a mess breaks out, then we know that since we asked first, then guess what? When hell breaks loose, guess what? He’s got it covered before it even hits the fan. [thank you Lord] Come on, somebody. But, if we go forward too fast, or if we do like Joshua, when the deceivers come, and these people types and these spirits start getting mixed all up in here, we won’t know who they are or what they’re about. Come on, do this with me. [laughter] It just gets all stirred up. And you don’t know who you’re looking at and what’s going on.
So, I broke it down. Can I tell you what it is? [yes] The Hittites – you got to identify them. Those are the people that are coming to hit you up for stuff [laughter] the Hittites are coming. They’re going….how many of you pick up the phone and it’s what? Somebody begging for money. [yes] The Hittites… they are hitting you up. The Hittites are hitting you up. Looking for every crumb you got. You got one loaf of bread and they’re coming for your last crumb. [unh unh] You know, Hittites. There’s a million organizations out there. How do you know which one to give to? [amen] You need to have a church with a group of elders and trustees that examine the charitable organizations to make sure they’re doing what they say they’re doing, with God’s money. [amen] You know, there’s some Hittites in the Church. They never give you nothing but they’re always trying to get something. [well, well, well] Well glory. Moving right along. So, watch out for the Hittites.
The Amorites, got to watch out for the Amorites, especially you ladies. But a lot of the ladies are Amorites too. You got to be careful. Because sex is their goal. Lust drives them so much that that’s what’s really, that’s their modus operandi. They’re really about sex and lust more than they are about the things of God. And so, how do they operate? They operate because they’re involved in this idol worship, of romantic love. Do you know what the idol worship of romantic love is? I came out of the 60′s. The worst thing that happened in the 60′s was this glorification of romantic love. That basically said, if I get a guy I’m happy. And if I get a girl, I’m happy. And so, all the songs now are permeated with this – I am your happiness, oh baby, baby. [yeah, right] (singing) “OOOOOOOh, baby, baby. OoooOOOOooooh baby, baby. I want your love, my heart went out to play, but in the game I lost you, what a price to pay. Heyaaaay, I’m crying,…” [boooo hoooo] See, I knew all the sinners were here today. [laughter] I know all the sinners. Listen, that’s romantic love and it became a god to us. It became an idol to us. And we really, sincerely believed if I get the convertible car, and I get the babe, oh, life is going to be perfect. And then she gets in the car and wants curtains. [laughter] You know, and then … you got to be careful about the Amorites. Be careful of people that say they love you but they never show up for you. [that's right] That’s an Amorite. They love you as long as everything’s coming to them, but they’re not prepared to come out and do anything for you. They’re an Amorite. Watch out for the Hittites, people hitting on you. Watch out for the Amorites, that worship and do what? Worship love.
And then we have the third group, the Canaanites. I looked it up. If you look up the definition of a Canaanite, here’s what it says. It says, a merchant, a trafficker, a merchant or a trafficker. In other words, a Canaanite are promises in the Promised Land. But not the promises of God. Canaan Land represents the Promised Land. But a whole lot of people went to the Promised Land not looking for the promise of God, but looking for the merchants and the traffickers. [amen] The merchants and the traffickers. You know, face it, I turned on the TV, hard to get away from all the traffickers. [oh yes] I mean they got, there are more QVS stations than there are Christian stations…. You know, QVC, what is it? You all know what I’m talking about. Cause I know you know. I know that you know that you know. Cause I’ve seen some diamond rings that weren’t diamonds. I know where you got that. [laughter] Come on now. Let’s be real, you know. Some of us get on that thing and it become a gambling addiction. If they can’t get you in a casino, or OTB, they’ll bring it right on your TV and you’ll be watching those numbers. [yep] Come on, those merchants, they’ll be, the guy says we have, we only have 15 of these. Now come on, you know he’s lying. He got a box back in there with 30 dozen. [laughter] I only have 15 of these at two ninety nine. That’s $299 dollars. And we’re going to slash, now check this out, we’re going to slash the price from $299 to $29.95. [laughter] Now tell me, who’s the fool? [laughter] Who’s the fool? You better figure out, if he’s going to slash it from $299 to $29.99, it isn’t worth $9.99. [laughter] Merchants and traffickers, they distract us from the things of God. [amen]
We get distracted when we get this, I gotta have it. I gotta have it. I’ll admit man, the merchants almost got me. I lost my boat. I had a beautiful 24 foot boat. I loved the boat. I love being on the water. I love riding in the boat. I even love telling people I had a boat until I realized the more people that know you have a boat, the more people want to ride in your boat. [laughter] But I went a whole year this year with that voice saying, “You know you want a new boat.” [laughter] “You know you want a new boat. Come, I’ll help you get a new boat. Reach in your wallet, you have the plastic to get it.” What do you mean I have the plastic to get it? I don’t need no more debt! [amen] You can’t afford it, don’t buy it. [amen] Come on say, “If I can’t afford it” [if I can't afford it] “this year” [this year] “I don’t buy it.” [I don't buy it.] Say it again. [If I can't afford it this year I don't buy it.] Watch out, the traffickers, the merchants, the traffickers, they go, they got everything for you that you think you need.
And then there’s the Perizzites. Perizzites. I love this cause I’ve been in the church, yeah I know this. There’s some Perizzites in the Church. You know why? They’re people that just come rubbing up on you with flattery. [hmmn] Just trying to make you purr. [laughter] … I know everybody rub up on me, “Oh Pastor Don, I love you Pastor Don. I love you Pastor Don. Pastor Don I love you. You got twenty bucks?” [laughter] Moving right along. Alright, so be careful about the people just flattering. There’s some people that love me to death, flattery, rub on me just cause they want to get to the pulpit. And I tell them there’s an easier way to get to the pulpit, without acting like you like me. Act like you like Jesus. [amen] Moving right along.
And then the next ones, I really like these guys. Number five, you know, it’s the Hivites. The Hivites. These are the people that are over medicated and self absorbed. [Oh, Jesus] They’re just over medicated and self absorbed. You know the people that walk around on an unnatural high… They just can’t cope with anything, they just can’t cope with anything, so they just get high. I’m not talking about legal drugs. Your doctor prescribes something to help bring down your blood pressure or something like that. I’m not talking about that. But I’m talking about, you know, we get high and we’ll escape in a heart beat. The body of Christ, we’re no different than the people out there. Sometimes we just have to admit when we’re escaping we need to call it like it is. We need to just say, you know, right now, I can’t cope. I’m going to drink the whole thing. I know I should be past this, but I’m going to smoke the whole bag… I know I ruined this, but I’m going to the medicine cabinet and take it all. I’m taking everything in there… And haven’t consulted God on any of it. I told you this is for the mature. Listen, life is hard. I know that. I know life is hard and sometimes we just get to a place where we just can’t take it, we just feel like we can’t stand it. But I just want to ask you a question. Before you get high, and substitute, before you get high on drama, creating a drama situation to feed your adrenalin, to escape. And you know, some people will come home and start a fight just to get high, to escape the pressure of life.
Some husbands will spend all the money, get home, start a fight cause they don’t want to ask that question. Where’s the money? Some women will go shopping, not because they need anything, but because they just can’t cope… Come on, you all know I’m telling the truth. Say, Pastor, go ahead. [Pastor, go ahead] You know, and sometimes we just substitute to get high. We will do something either artificial outside of ourselves or whatever. There’s some golfers. I like to golf. But there’s some guys that golf to get high, to avoid dealing with the reality that there’s two little kids at home that need them to roll around on the floor, and they just don’t want to do it… And we get high. There’s some of you that won’t like this message, so your first trip is to the buffet today. [laughter] You’ll go like, you know, Pastor Don was good, he made some nice jokes or whatever, whatever. But I can’t stand it. Let’s go to the buffet. I love going to the buffet. But I don’t go there to eat the whole thing. [laughter] I mean, all of it? [laughter] I mean all of it until you hurt? [laughter] I mean, you should never be eating until you can’t stand it. [amen] But you’re doing what? You’re getting high. You’re just trying to escape. You’re just trying to get high. Ok, I’ll move along. I’m not even going to talk about getting high on pornography or any of that stuff. Or gambling or anything else. Those are all highs that when we can’t cope we just go, we become a Hivite… Well, glory to God.
Look at this last one. The last one is the Jebusite. I looked it up. I looked it up. Did you know I was going to look it up? [yeah] You know what a Jebusite is? A Jebusite is someone, to be Jebusited eventually, ever heard of a threshing floor? [yeah] A threshing floor’s where they would bring the material and thresh it, to get the wheat. Threshing floor. But part of it would be it would have to be trodden down. To break up the kernels of the wheat, you’d have to trod it down and whatever, whatever. I just want to speak to you sometime. Sometimes the Lord is trying to call you into a new place and guess what? The Jebusites come and they bring you back to the places where you were trodden down. They bring you back to the threshing floor where the devil beat you before and redeposit you there… Some of us have been so hurt. Some of you have had tragic childhoods, but right when you’re about to get your breakthrough and things are about to get good, the devil brings you back to some childhood memories and tries to remind you of the abuse that you took when you were trodden down and beaten so he can bring you back to that state, that condition.
I spoke to a lady on the phone this week, where the devil was trying to get her depressed, he was trying to bring her back to past failures and I said, “My goodness, she’s dealing with a Jebusite.” The devil was trying to bring her back to where she failed so that she couldn’t go on. She’s about to drop out of school, she’s about to totally change her life. She’d get off of her life plan. How many of you all know you got a life plan? [amen] There’s somewhere that you’re going. There’s a direction that you’re heading. But the Jebusite will bring you back to the threshing floor where you were beaten before and trodden down. Where you were crushed. You’re believing for a new marriage and he’ll bring you back to all your failed marriages. You’re believing for a business and he’ll bring you back to your poverty. You’re believing for a happy relationship and he’ll bring you back to your failed relationships. There’s some Jebusites, we have to be careful about them because they want to bring us back to places of being downtrodden. You’re believing for health, and he’s trying to bring you back to consciousness of sickness. He’s trying to bring you back to failure when you’re trying to get to success. He’s trying to say God’s plan won’t work, you gotta go back to where you failed before and you might as well just accept the fact that I got you down, I’m going to grind you out. [amen] … Lord have mercy. Somebody say, “Praise the Lord.” [Praise the Lord.] They did not ask for counsel.
I want you to look at verse 23. Verse 23… Go look at verse 22. … Verse 22. By verse 22 Joshua’s beginning to figure some things out. “Then Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us,...” Well, what did they do? The convinced them that they were from far away. They convinced them that they were not of the close brethren, and so, without consulting God, listen to me. Without consulting God, they signed a covenant agreement with them that they could live. Lord have mercy. Joshua and them messed up. They didn’t ask God…
But I want you to see something. Even though the elders did it wrong, watch this. God still blessed them. [amen] All six of these people groups became slaves and servants. But I want you to see what Joshua did. He made them slaves and servants eternally. If you read your Bible, even when they get to the time of Solomon, those people groups are still cutting wood, delivering water, and are still slaves to the priests in the Temple. [hallelujah]…
So, let me ask you a question…. If they were defeated then… come on, somebody. [amen] If they were slaves then,… has God changed their status? [no] No. These same types of people are still spirits that have been defeated by our God. [amen, hallelujah] … Who’s in chains? Come on, wave your hands around. Who’s in chains? Come on. [hallelujah] Who’s God’s freeman? You are. Are you bound by addictions? No! Can gambling hold you? No! Can drunkenness hold you? No! None of those things can hold you! How about jealousy and envy, can it hold you? [No!] How about greed? Can it hold you? [no] How about poverty? Come on now. [no] Can poverty hold you? [no] Can indecision hold you? [no] How about bad decisions? [no] No! Can fear hold you? [no] Come on, you’ve got to say it like you really mean it. [No!!] Thank you, Jesus. Fear can’t hold you… Everybody stand to your feet…
Comments (1)
quite a message!