Before I came here tonight I took 250 mg of Lariam; it's mefloquine. It's to prevent malaria. Not jet lag, that won't help. It's to prevent malaria. Now I don't have malaria, I hope, but it was a prescription and I take it every time I go to countries like Africa or India. The funny thing is, is that I never used to take this stuff, I just would go. But the doctor said, "Now, you're going to need this stuff and then you take it every week for four weeks after you get back. So it's to prevent malaria. Now, when I was over in India last Sunday, I was with Paul Saber, he went with me.

And I looked at this medicine and I said, "I'm not going to take this stuff. I don't need to take it. It's no big deal." And he looked at me and he said, "Are you nuts? Are you crazy? You know, the things that have landed on us these last few days, and bitten us, you have no idea what they could have put in your body." And so it's prescribed, you take it on a certain day at a certain time, and you keep it consistent until it's finished, until it's run its course. Then before I went this time, a doctor in North Carolina sent me a bottle of all sorts of medicines,

And he put them all in one bottle, different colors, different sizes, for different things, with a detailed description of what to take if certain things happen. There's a certain medicine for moderate pain, another medicine for severe pain, another medicine in case there's diarrhea, another medicine in case there's nausea, all sorts of different kinds of medicines and strict orders on what color pill to take at what interval, for what reason. I can't just say, "You know, I feel like I've got a headache. Let me just open this up, and I like green, it's a nice color. I'm going to take that one. It's a pretty pill."

The instructions were given to be strictly observed so that I may live. I would be a fool to transgress those commandments. I'd be an idiot if I just at whim took something or didn't take something, because every medicine has its indications: you take it if you're feeling a certain way or if you need it. And every medicine has its contraindications: don't take this if you are having this other condition. The laws of God were also given for our benefit, not to be taken lightly, but they're given that we might live.

And so often Moses in Deuteronomy says, "Now this is the commandment of God, and the reason God has given these commandments to you is that you might live, that you might go in and possess all the land the Lord your God is giving to you. That you might enjoy it, that you might flourish and prosper in the land to which the Lord your God is sending you." In chapter 11 after Moses talks about what God has done for them, how that they used to be just seventy people in Egypt, but that they swelled in their ranks and became numerous as the stars of heaven, all that God has done for the nation.

He says "therefore" based on that, because God has done this for you, because these promises are for your benefit. "Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, and his commandments always." Notice the top priority is love. Therefore love God. That's the top priority. Obedience is based on love. Obedience follows love. Unfortunately the church, I think, has traditionally reversed the order. They've said do this, don't do that, or do that and don't do this:. "Thou shalt not." And they have preached strict obedience apart from relationship.

The reason God says love him first is because if God has your heart, God will have your obedience. If God has your love, if you have a relationship with him, you'll follow the regulations. There must be relationship before any regulations are followed. So love God, that's the first commandment. When they asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, he said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, all of your strength. That's the first and the greatest commandment." So that's the top priority---love God. If you love him, you'll obey him.

Jesus said, "Anyone who loves me will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and we will make our home with him. But whoever doesn't love me will not keep my words." And so the first step is really to know God, because once you know God, you love God, and once you love God, you obey God. And Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." It's like two people who are dating. They're in love with each other. They ask, they understand, they communicate what the other person likes, what the other person doesn't like, and they deliberately do things in order to please the other person.

They love each other. They want to please each other. They want to say things to encourage and to build up, to demonstrate their love toward one another. So it's that attitude of love that is to be first. "Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, his commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm." Moses is speaking to the second generation. Forty years before it was their parents who disobeyed and their bodies are not scattered around the wilderness.

This generation that is now adults listening to what Moses is saying were kids when all this happened that he's about to mention. But even though they were kids, they had seen it firsthand. It was a personal remembrance that they had. Verse 3, "His signs, his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, to their chariots: how he made the waters of the Red Sea overflow as they pursued you, how the Lord destroyed them to this day; what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place.

"And what he did to Daythan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of Israel---but your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which he did." The reference in verse 6, you know, Moses is listing all of the things that God had done for them, delivering them, opening up the Red Sea, and also the swallowing up of this group of people that he mentions in verse 6, something that as kids would have left a great impression.

Not only what God has done in miraculous signs and wonders by opening the Red Sea and the pillar and the manna and the water, all that great stuff that happened, but the rebellion and how God responded. Now he mentions in verse 6 Daythan, Abiram, who are the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben. There was a rebellion; it was actually started, spearheaded by a guy named Korah mentioned in Numbers 16. Korah was one of the priests. He was in the family of the Kohathites. He was a Levite. He was a notable Levite.

And Korah along with these guys mentioned and 250 prominent leaders in Israel, people who were well known in the community, approached Moses and Aaron one day and they were ticked off. They said, "Moses, you are taking too much upon yourselves. You're elevating yourself as leader above these people. You're saying God speaks to you, you're separate, you that you're holier than we are." Korah said, "Actually, all of the people of Israel are holy. They don't need you. They don't need Aaron to be their representative as priest for the nation. We don't like your position. We don't like your leadership."

Moses responded by saying, "Actually, Korah, you take too much upon yourself. Let's see whom God has chosen. You and your 250 dudes get your brass censers out and I'll meet you tomorrow at door of the tabernacle. Let's have a show down. Let's see whom God has chosen. God will make his choice. You and the rest of Israel will see." So he called Korah on the carpet, and then he told these two guys mentioned in verse 6, Daythan and Abiram, he said, "You meet me at the door of the tabernacle tomorrow also." And they said, "We're not coming. We're not coming because," and this is what they said, "you took us out of 'a land flowing with milk and honey.' " That was Egypt.

Now, God said, "I'm delivering you out of Egypt, taking you into a land of milk and honey." And they got it all messed up, all reversed. They started seeing the land of bondage as a land of milk and honey. Oh, how we look back to the past sometimes and forget what it was really like. They cried out to God in bondage. "You took us out of such a lovely place, a land flowing with milk and honey. You brought us out here to this desert. This isn't a land of milk and honey, it's rocks and dirt. We're not coming." Morning came, Moses showed up, Korah showed up, and the 250 brought their censers.

And this is what Moses said, he said to them and to the children of Israel, "If these men who have rebelled die a natural death, then God hasn't spoken to me. But if the Lord does a new thing and the earth opens up and swallows them alive, then you'll know that God has spoken through me." Then God tells Moses and Aaron, "Separate yourselves from these men. Stand back, and I'm going to consume these people. And tell the children of Israel stand back, get away from their tents, get away from everything they possess. Separate yourselves because the earth is going to open up."

Now, it's interesting that in this rebellion Korah, Daythan, Abiram tried to separate, bring division within the camp of Israel. And because of that God separated them from the camp of Israel and judged them separately. It's interesting that he judged them according to their sin. Galatians tells us, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, that shall he will also reap." And often times God will judge according to that person's sin. They tried to divide the people. God said, "Divide yourselves from them, stand back," the earth opened up and swallowed them.

And the rest of the men that were left, fire came out of heaven and destroyed them, and it says, "Fear came upon all of the camp of Israel. "I guess so. [laughter] As a kid watching that, if they were in the vicinity, and this generation were little kids, they were just probably shocked, terrified. "Wow! God is in our midst. God has judged them." So he's calling them to remember this: "What he did to Daythan, Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of Israel."

It's important that the new generation remember that God had chosen Moses and Aaron. Aaron was to be the priest and his family was divided up, the Levites, the Kohathites, and they were given the part that God had picked for them. It was important that they remember that you can't just say, "You know, I'd kind of like to be the high priest when I grow up." You couldn't just make those decisions, God had to call you into it. No doubt Daythan, Abiram, Korah, and 250 of the leaders saw how important, seemingly, Moses and Aaron were to the children of Israel.

There are parts in the body of Christ, there are positions in the church, the body of Christ that seem to be attractive positions because you're in front of people. And people see a position like that and they're sort of drawn to it. And, "Gosh, I like all the adulation. I'd like to be in front of people. I'd like to be seen by people. I like Moses' job. I think Moses thinks he's a big shot. He takes too much on himself. He claims to speak for God. I want his position." That's where it all began. I'm convinced that there are people who look at the ministry and feel the call to the ministry to fulfill some personal psychological need, not because God called them.

They love attention. They love people coming around them. So rather than being called by God, they sort of call themselves. But in the book of Hebrews concerning the priesthood, and it's a lesson for all of us, the writer of Hebrews says about the priesthood, "No one takes this position unto himself, God must call him." Jeremiah was told by God concerning some of the prophets and those who claim to speak to God, false prophets, he said, " 'I didn't call them. I didn't summon them. I didn't send them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all,' says the Lord."

It is frustrating to try to be what God never made you or equipped you to be. It's gotta be the most frustrating thing to try to force yourself into a peg, into a position, into a ministry that God hasn't equipped or called you. And that kind of a person will struggle and struggle to bear forth fruit in that position. They'll never do it. There's so many different parts of the body of Christ. That's what makes the church so exciting, is that we're not all called with the same gifts or callings, but there's a variety.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the church, the body of Christ, he said, "If the ear should say, 'Because I am not the eye, I am not part of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I'm not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body?" He said we need all the parts. Generally the eyes get more attention than the ears. When you meet someone you often look into their eyes, you notice their eyes. You don't meet a person and go, "Nice earlobes, [laughter] beautiful."

The same with the hand. You shake the hand, you notice the hand. You don't shake feet. You generally don't notice the feet. The feet are covered up with shoes, that's a good thing. But your feet are necessary. You don't walk on your hands. Normal people don't. [laughter] You need your feet to stand, to walk, to move. All the parts of the body, so important, so necessary. And God has given to every one of you a gift and a part in his church to function. You say, "I'm not seen." You know what? You may not be seen, but you may be so vital.

I don't see my pancreas, that's a good thing, or my lungs, my aorta. What if my lungs could say, "I want more exposure. I want people to notice me. I don't like this being hidden." You'd die if your lungs got that kind of exposure. God has placed us each in the body of Christ, and we should be content, finding out what gifts God has given to us, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, and then being content to function in the God-given role and capacity that he's given to us. That was a lesson they were never to forget. "But your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which he did." What a statement.

Firsthand, they had personal experience, they saw. They're about to go into a land and Moses says, "Don't forget what you saw with your own eyes." I think everybody needs to have this kind of experience, a personal experience. Not that you see God, but that you see God's change in your life. I don't think you can really have any kind of permanent, lasting relationship as a Christian with God and really last unless you can say, "I personally experienced God's work in my life." Otherwise you'll be there for a while, but after a while you'll fade away. When John wrote that classic epistle 1 John, he opens up by saying, "That which was from the beginning," speaking of Christ.

"That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have gazed steadfastly upon, the very word of life." It must have been awesome for John, and Peter, the apostles, to finally come to the realization who they were with. You know, they looked at Jesus, they at first didn't know who he was. They heard his stories, they saw his signs and wonders, and through all of that process they came to understand, "This is God. We just listened to God speak. We just watched God do something. When he touched a leper, we saw God touch a person."

When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, they could say, "We saw God weeping over his people." The same thing Peter experienced when he wrote, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; we were eyewitness of his majesty." They had a personal experience. Their eyes saw it. What have your eyes seen? What changes have you seen in your life? What experience firsthand have you had with the living God? That's an important question. Moses says, "You're children haven't seen it, but you've seen it." That personal encounter, that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you need it.

You know, there are churches across the United States and across the world, for that matter, who have people who attend them, but it's really, it's just routine. It's not something that is personal to them. They're Christian only by association: "My parents were Christians. My friends are Christians. Maybe there's a two-for-one deal, a family package rate." It's not true. You have to have that personal experience with God for there to be any lasting change in your life, otherwise you're sort of like a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Let's say you have a twenty-dollar bill, it's counterfeit.

You go to the gas station and with that twenty-dollar bill you buy a tank of gas. It's now in the hands of the gas station owner. The gas station owner uses it to buy the stock of gas for his underground tanks from the company. Now the twenty-dollar bill is in the hands of the company manager. The company manager takes the twenty-dollar bill to the store and he buys groceries for the week, and now the twenty-dollar bill is in the hands of the grocer. The grocer deposits the money at the bank. The banker looks at the twenty-dollar bill and says, "It's a fake," and takes it of circulation.

Now, that twenty-dollar bill, though it's fake, did a lot of good while it was in circulation, but once it reached the bank it was spotted for what it was, a fake, a counterfeit. It was taken out of circulation. There are people like that. They do lots of good while they're in circulation on the earth, but you can't cash those things in the bank of heaven. You have to have a real personal relationship with the living God. And Moses says, "You saw it, man." "Therefore", because you saw and you had that experience, "you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong," notice that.

Be obedient that you might be strong. There is strength that comes by obeying. If you start young--if you start while you're a young Christian I mean, not just young in age--obeying what God tells us to, you will be strengthened so that you can obey for bigger things later on. You develop a pattern of obedience. And the more you obey, the obedience strengthens your life so that you can be obedient in the greater things as God would call you to them. "Go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to them and to their descendants, 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'

"For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year." These are the verses that on our first day on our tours to Israel we share with those who are on our tour over the bus PA system, usually our first site, in giving them a general description of the land of Israel.

It's filled with hills and valleys. They're not in the land at this point; they're on the plains of Moab overlooking the land. And Moses says, "Now, you came from the land of Egypt, this is land is very different from the land of Egypt." Egypt is dry for the most part. Rainfall is sparse and they depend on the Nile River for watering crops. And generally the Egyptians did and still do take the Nile River and they depend on the overflow of the Nile River flooding its banks so they can divert the water into manmade channels. Channels are dug out close to the river, and then they water their gardens by foot.

You say, "What do you mean, 'water it by foot'?" Well, there are foot pumps that go from the river into different channels or ponds. And it's like a big wheel made out of wood with flaps or buckets sometimes attached by ropes. And you can sit and peddle these things like a bicycle and it would allow the water or push the water from the river or one channel into another channel to water the vegetable garden. They're foot pumps. Last Sunday in Southern India we took a walk through the jungles, through the rice paddies and saw all of the foot pumps scattered throughout that southern region. They're all over the place.

That's how they water all of their rice paddies, all of their gardens. They take and divert the water, and there is this wooden circle with flaps in it, sort of like a windmill, but, you know, it's got slatted edges. And they just push this thing and it pushed water through one channel into another out into the rice paddies, out in the gardens. That's how Egypt was. But he says, "The land that you're going to isn't like that; it's a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven." I found this out firsthand when on one of my first trips to Israel I took a bicycle over there to bicycle through Israel.

It's a great place to bicycle through. But though I had trained for weeks and months before I went over there, there were some hills, and the gearing isn't like what is it is on modern bicycles, back---way back then. There's some places you had to walk your bike. The hills in Israel are very steep, very precipitous. If you've ever been with us on a tour and you've had to walk from the Mount of Olives down into Kidron and up, your legs get tired. The whole country, for the most part, is like that, hills and valleys everywhere. So it's dependent not on the Nile River or one source of water, but the rainfall that would come out of the heavens.

There's two seasons of rain in that part of the world in the Middle East and Israel. There's the early rains and the latter rains. The early rains come in late October, that's when they begin. They're called in Hebrew yoreh, and they begin in late October, continue through the winter. The heavy rains come in the end of that season, the latter rains, March and April. It's usually the time when the rains are the heaviest, very abundant water fall that as the grain begins to ripen, it's like the last dose of water, called the malkosh in Hebrew, before the long, hot summer drought.

What is he telling them? He is telling them in Egypt whenever you wanted water you could just go out and work, push with your feet, but God is taking you to a setup where you're going to have to be totally dependent on him. It comes just as rain comes out of the heaven. That's how the land will be watered. It won't be like Egypt. And God's going to tell them that if they obey him, God will send rain; if they don't obey him, God will withhold the rain. "It's a land which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end."

Now before we pass on, I see these verses a lot like life itself for the Christian. Notice, "It's a land," verse 9, "flowing with milk and honey," but though there's milk and honey in the land, it's a land with hills and valleys. God wants to prosper your life, make it abundant, make it fruitful. But, you know what? There's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be times when you're on the mountain peaks, there's going to be times you're in the valleys. Now, we don't like the valleys, we like the mountain peaks. David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death"; he didn't say, "Lord, when you lift me, airlift me from mountain peak to mountain peak."

That's what we'd like. I think if we had our choice and we could write a prescription for our life, we would write: "path of least resistance, whatever is the most comfortable." We like it smooth. We don't like valleys. We don't like when life takes a dip and goes down. But you need both. The fruit is often more abundant in the deep valleys than is it on the high mountains. So you go through them that your life might be fruitful. God wants to make you totally dependent upon him, where you rely upon him. Now, to do that, God will take you through the valleys. God will pull out, frankly, the rug out from under your feet sometimes.

Because sometimes we forget what it is to just totally depend on him. We love our job. We expect a raise. We go to work Monday waiting for the boss to say, "Come in my office; you were just promoted." We want him to say, "You're going to be vice president of the company." Instead he hands you the envelope, but it's your last paycheck. You think, "God, why would you allow that? Why would that happen?" Well, could it be that God wants you to have a better job than you have? Could it be that God has something better for you? Now, last week, you weren't looking for another job, you weren't even open to that possibility, now you are. You've got no choice.

You're totally dependent upon him. Will it rain? Will the crops grow? But verse 12 a fundamental truth, I think, not only speaking of the land, but your life. "It's a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord are always on it." There is a fundamental truth, in fact, there are certain fundamental truths you need to have firmly fixed in your life for there to be any stability. Number one, God loves you and cares for you. There will be times that you'll be standing on mountain peaks; there will other times when you're deep down in the valley. You'll have doubts.

You'll wonder when things happen, "Does God really care?" Satan will come and whisper to you, "God doesn't care about you. If God cared about you, he wouldn't allow this to happen." And a lot of times when he whispers those things, we find ourselves agreeing with him. Maybe not consciously, but it's almost like, "Yes. Amen, Devil. I receive that, that negative thought." [laughter] And then we start going, "Well, God doesn't care about me." God does care. It's a land, it's a life for which the Lord your God cares. God's eye is always upon you, whether you're on the mountain peak or down in the valley. "

All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose." So realize God cares for you from the beginning of the year to the very end. "And it shall be if you diligently obey my commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain," that is, the yoreh, "and the latter rain," that is, the malkosh at the end of season, "that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

"And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled. Take heed," or watch out, be careful. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and you worship them, lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you, and he shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord your God is giving you." An idol is something you set up or allow in your life that would take the place of the affection of God. It could be anything at all.

And they were going into a land that was swamped with idols,the nations had them all around, and God says, "Beware, lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and you serve them, you forget me, you forget who you are, you forget your home." "Therefore," verse 18, "you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, bind them as a sign on your hand, that they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." These are things to remind you, lest you forget. "And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up."

Notice the church is to be something that goes on in your home all the time, every day, God the center of life, the commandments of God, seizing every opportunity, use it as an object lesson to teach your children. "You shall write them on doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children, "verse 21, "may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. For if you carefully keep all these commandments, which I commanded you to do---to love the Lord your God, to walk in all of his ways, and to hold fast to him---then the Lord will drive out all of these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea [the Mediterranean] shall be your territory." God's original intention for them was to occupy this 300,000-square-mile plot of land. You know, there's a lot of contention today about Israel. It's ongoing. It has always been ongoing. As far back as I can remember there's been a dispute over the land. Now, I remember when the Sinai Peninsula was the property of Israel and there was the dispute with Egypt. Egypt said, "We want that land. You want peace? Give us the Sinai." Israel gave it away.

Then there was the annex of the West Bank. Now Syria is saying we want the Golan Heights. The truth be known, God intended Israel to occupy all the way to Iraq, Jordan, Iran, or Iraq, part of Syria, Lebanon, all the way down to parts of Egypt. That's what God intended them to have. Now they never occupied that. In their zenith of history under David and King Solomon who expanded their borders they occupied, at best, 30,000 square miles, a tenth of all that God had originally promised them. Why? Because they didn't do the second part of this promise, their part.

"Every place on which the soul of your foot treads," didn't tread there, they didn't believe God for that part, "shall be yours: from the wilderness"---and these things are given. The problem is they did not appropriate what was promised. Now, I think, I have seen as a pattern in my life, in many Christians' lives the failure for us to appropriate what is ours. I hear us pray sometimes, "Lord, give me more power. Lord give me more love. Lord give me more of your Holy Spirit." You don't need more. You don't need an ounce more. He's given you everything you need.

You need to know what you have and you need to use what you have. Peter said it's "His divine power," 2 Peter, chapter 1, "has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us." That's the problem: we don't know, we don't read the bankbook, we don't know how spiritually rich we are. It's like a millionaire with an incredible bank account going and begging on the streets: "Man, can I have a dime? Got any spare change?" He owns the bank and he's wanting spare change.

"God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, whereby are given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust." Well, that's great, but that's only the first part. Peter said, "For this very reason, giving all diligence, let us at to our faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control." I think I shared that Scripture last time we met, in fact.

Add things to your faith, be constantly growing, take what is yours, use the promises of God, be fruitful, go in and take what God has given. He says, "No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land which you tread, just as he said to you." So God says, "I've got your bases covered. Go in, walk in the land, settle there, and I'll make everybody afraid of you." Now remember the twelve spies that went out at Kadesh Barnea?

And ten of them came back and said, "Man, you know what? Those guys are huge. They're giants and we're like grasshoppers in their sight. They're just so formidable, so big, so substantive. We could never take it." But by the time Joshua crossed over into the land and goes into Jericho and meets Rahab the harlot, you know what she says? She says, "Now, you guys have a reputation." She said, "Ever since we heard of you down in the Sinai Desert out in the wilderness, the fear and the dread of you has filled our hearts. We heard what your God has done." It was the exact opposite of what they thought. God had put the dread of Israel in the hearts of the Canaanites.

God had gone before them, they just didn't trust. "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. And it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

"Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?" I guess the answer would be yes. "For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today." So when they got in the land, that's what they did. They went into Samaria. And there's two mountains: Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

Some of them got up on Mount Ebal and shouted the blessings, the others shouted the curse, and the people antiphonally responded to it. You know, they listened and they basically said amen to it, so they were held publicly accountable for these blessings and cursings. Now we have time, believe it or not, to get into chapter 12, or part of it. "These are the statutes," now beginning in chapter 12 is the recapitulation of the law given already in parts of Leviticus, Numbers, Exodus. We're not going to go through all of these chapters in depth. We're going to highlight on some of them.

But beginning in verse 12 he's going to talk about some of these regulations in particular. "These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord your God, the God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on earth." Notice, you are to "be careful to observe them." God does not want sloppy service. God does not delight in haphazard--"Well, it's good enough for God. "I think God wants excellence in service, excellence in ministry. Be careful to observe them.

So often we give God cast-offs. You go, "I'm not using this beat-up old thing, this beat-up old piece of furniture, let's give it to the church." "These clothes, they've got holes in them, let me give it to some Christian." Let your service excel. Let it be the best. Be careful to observe. Then he says, "You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, under every green tree. You shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place."

Now, where they were going was laden with images, statues, idols. In India Hinduism has brought 330 million gods to that nation. I think it has devastated the potential of that nation---a nation that worships rats that eat their food supplies, that worship monkeys, that worship cows. You can't escape a week in India without reading in a newspaper where a man was run over by a public bus, usually, to escape a cow that was walking in the street. If you're a bus driver and you run over a man, if you kill a man, there won't be serious consequences as much. If you kill a cow, you will be sent to jail immediately.

And everywhere you look there's shrines. They're under trees just like in the times of Israel in Canaan, the Canaanites, all sorts of ghoulish looking idols everywhere. That was the kind of land that Israel came in to possess. God says destroy their images, destroy their names from that place. "You shall," verse 4, "not worship the Lord your God with such things. But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put his name for his habitation; and there you shall go. You shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

"And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, to which the Lord your God has blessed you." What God didn't want them to do is use the methods of the nations, the pattern of the pagan nations in their worship of God. He didn't want them to get into a nation and see all of these items around them, all of these high places where there were groves and statues, and take what the nations did in worshiping their gods and incorporate it in the worship of the true and living God. "Don't borrow from them. Don't copy them. I am the true and living God. Don't even have an image when you worship."

In Canaan many of these high places, the hills where the altars were, were carved statues representing human sexuality. In primitive cultures, and especially ancient cultures there was the worship of man's capacity to procreate. There is a certain power, and people even saw it as a sacred power, the awe of life, that I can somehow add in the creation of a life. And it is pretty awesome. It is an awesome power. Every time you hold a little baby in your hands, every time I get to dedicate every Sunday a little baby, I look and I go, "Look at that. Awesome! Little fingers, toes, the potential. This little baby will grow into an adult."

I know it's obvious, but it is almost sacred. But people used to worship the genitalia of humans. They would carve statues into phallic symbols. And then there was Diana and other goddesses that were depicted with several, you know, breasts, twenty to thirty breasts on the front of a statue representing fertility, the power to procreate. God says, "You're going into a place laden with idols, don't be like them." It's sad, but everywhere you travel in India, even in Southern India, Christian Kerala the southern state of India, you'll see Hindu shrines dotting the landscape on the sides of the street.

And then you'll come to Christian shrines that look just like the Hindu shrines, except it'll be a Jesus or a Mary or some other saint. And the covering and the depiction looks almost identical to a Hindu shrine. In fact, that's why many of the Hindus have received that form of Christianity, because, "Hey, we've got gods, you've got a lot of them, we're all one big, happy family. You've just added a few more to our 330 million." That's not distinct. It's not separate. It's not exclusive. God says you are to be exclusive when you get into this land. Don't set up an idol.

Of course, that's why they went into captivity, right? The Babylonian captivity is because of the idols. In the book of Judges God repeatedly delivered them over to the hands of the Philistines because of idolatry. They disobeyed God in this command. And then God tells them, as we've already read, that there is to be a certain place that they're to gather. They can't just go under a grove of trees, and go, "You know, this is kind of a nice place, I'm going to worship right here." God wanted it to be centrally located. Why? The reason is obvious: to prevent idolatry, the nation could be unified in worship, because there were so many shrines, statues, temples around.

So he brought them together, first of all, he brought them to Shiloh. That's where the tabernacle was set up. After that, Gilgal. And then David had the temple built in Jerusalem. That was the central place of worship for the nation. Verse 10, "When you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide.

"There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithe, heave offerings of your hands, all the choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, and your sons and daughters, your menservants, your maidservants, the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you." So they're all to come to this one place of Jerusalem. Now, can the same be said today that there's one central place of worship? No. We don't center our worship around a place any longer.

We center our worship around a person, Jesus Christ. True worship is centered around Christ. It doesn't matter where. It doesn't matter the denomination. It doesn't even matter if you have a building, or what the building looks like. The Samaritan woman in the interview she had with Jesus Christ made a big issue of where do we worship. She said, "You know, our fathers here in Samaria, we've always worshiped in this mountain, Mount Gerizim. We've always said this is the true place of worship. Yet, you Jews say it's Jerusalem."

Jesus said, "You know, it doesn't matter. The time is coming, and now is, when neither in Jerusalem or in this mountain will people worship the Father, for the Father is looking for people to worship him in spirit and in truth." He just wants true worshipers. And what is true worship? Worship that is centered around the person of Jesus Christ; anything else is idolatry. He's to be the center of worship, the center of affection. Notice twice already God has said, it's mentioned again in verse 12, "And you shall rejoice." That's a command. I'm glad it's a command.

God is saying, "Be happy when you come to worship me." Oh, what a sad days it was when people said, "You know, true Christianity is you dress up in black and you look sad and you never smile. But the more sour you are, the holier you are." Get rid of that. That's nonsense. You have every reason to be filled with joy. God says, "When you come together, have a blast, rejoice, you, your Levite, gather them together." And so many of the feasts of Israel were happy, joyful times of convocation.

Then a warning: "Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, there you shall do all that I command you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you; the unclean and the unclean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. You shall not eat the blood," and we've already covered that, "you'll pour it on the ground."

What he's saying is this: when it comes to eating food, no problem, eat what you want at home, in your gates, in your city; but you don't sacrifice these holy offerings, you don't sacrifice them anyplace you want and eat them anyplace you want, but normal food, normal fare, feel free. Verse 19, "Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land." The Levites were to live off the tithes and the offerings of the rest of the people. Then clean and unclean meats are alluded to in the next several verses. And since in chapter 14 they are outlined in detail, we won't go into them in detail.

By the way, we've already covered them in detail and so we don't want to get lost in it. Verse 28, "Observe and obey all these words which I command you," notice again, "that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God." That's exactly what Dr. Furman told me before I left on the trip. "I've given you this bottle of medicine, be careful with it. Take heed to all those instructions that I left for you on that sheet of paper. Obey what I said that you may live. It's for your own good, your own protection."

"When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and displace them, and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." There was a practice among the Philistines and among other tribes of the Canaanites to worship one of the principal gods called Molech.

Molech originated in his worship east of the Jordan River, and he was brought into the land of Canaan itself. And on certain occasions they would take the arms of Molech, who was a little statue---I've seen pictures of it, archaeologist have uncovered them, they were metal statues---and they would heat Molech up in a fire, in coals of fire until his arms were red hot, sometimes it was white hot. And as part of their worship some would actually place their babies, their infants in the arms of Molech. They would offer their baby and the baby would burn to death in the arms of Molech.

Also they would even build their homes and their cities and inaugurate their city or inaugurate their home by placing an infant in a jar, in a clay jar, a dead infant and place it in the very foundation stones of the house offering it to their gods. It was so detestable, no wonder God said, "Get rid of them. Wipe them out. Utterly destroy them." Eventually, because Israel said, "Well, you know, that's really not politically correct, God. We don't want to do that," they became ensnared and did the very things that God detested and took on these practices themselves. "Whatever I command you, be careful," there it is again, "to observe it: you shall not add to it, you shall not take away from it."

It's the same kind of thing God says in the book of Revelation. "This is my word, don't add, don't take away." Over and over again the principle theme is God is first, do what he says. Do it out of love, have a relationship of love. And if God has your heart, God will have your obedience. If you love him, you'll keep his commandments. And if you love him, he'll be your master passion. Is God your master passion tonight? Is he the one you live for? Is he the one you look to? Is he the one that has your complete attention and affection? Or is there an idol in your life, another pursuit?

Is there something that has usurped the position of God? Do you pant after God like David said he did? Do you pant after God like maybe you remember doing earlier on in your Christian life? Maybe tonight you look back to the time when you and God, you know, were like this, when God and I walked together in sweet fellowship. And could it be that like Adam you've sort of gone your own way and now God has to call for you? "Adam, where are you?" Instead of being there to walk with God in the cool of the garden, God is having to hound you down. Walk with him; love him with all your heart. Let everything you do be based upon that relationship of love.