Wisdom to Walk in the Power
Breakthrough • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro
Intro
Last week we spoke of taking a stand for Justice in both society and more importantly in our own private lives. We spoke about the importance of defending the weak and not remaining silent when others are mistreated. Talked about the slippery slide that takes place when we choose to remain silent about small injustices, and how that slope leads to greater and greater injustice.
Tomorrow is memorial day and we are honoring the men and women who fought and gave their lives for you and I. People they would never know they sacrificed for. Young men gave a up a life they never fully lived so that you and I could live ours to the fullest.
They sacrificed their lives for Justice and Liberty. May be a beacon for today.
Moment of Silence for the fallen Solders
When Sin occurs justice is demanded
When Sin occurs justice is demanded
Last week we talked about this. That all injustice is a sin.
Follow me here, the people of while they were in the wilderness fell into sin multiple times.
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
So Israel is wandering through the wilderness, stops and stays near Shittim, Northeast of the Dead Sea. There in the land of Moab. While there the Israelite look at the moabite women and go hey they are really pretty. Then they committed sexual Sins with these women and these women begin to tell Isreal. “Hey come and serve my God. Worship Baal Peor.”
What Happened there?
They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
So the Men of Isreal, fell in love with the Moabite women and then began to turn from God.
God was enrage at the open sin and He sent a plague that came and killed 24,000 people before it was over.
Phinehas is zealous for the honor of God
Phinehas is zealous for the honor of God
Then The Lord told Moses, “Kill everyone that sinned.
The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
This sounds terrible, but if the leaders do not bring justice then far more people will die.
Because we serve a Holy God. He cannot tolerate Sin.Expose the Sin, Bring it into the light and let Justice be had.
So moses told the judges (Leaders) “put to death anyone who yoked themselves with baal peor.”
In this process while the plague is flaming hot, there was a Israelite man who brought a woman in absolute defiance and rebellion. He marched in front of Moses and all of Isreal while they were crying over the devastation. The Israelite went into a tent with his woman, and there they engaged is sin.
When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;
In His anger for the honor of the Lord. Phineas became zealous for God and he walked the tent behind this man and brought justice. Saving the community.
They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
Justice brought by the power of God leads us to salvation
Justice brought by the power of God leads us to salvation
Phinehas
The Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
Phinehas, saw injustice and full of the Zeal of God, he brought forth Gods justice, saving the people of God.
When you and I walk in the power of God and we become his agents for Justice and righteousness, people are rescued.
But my friends when we act in our own zeal, we don’t bring redemption. We bring terror.
Justice brought in our own power leads to terror and destruction.
Justice brought in our own power leads to terror and destruction.
Saul of Tarsus
though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
Saul, A jew of Jews. Zealous for the god he supposedly served, but his fleshly zealousness lead to pain death and terror.
When you I work to bring justice in our strength and timing we break people and drive people from the gospel.
Love Must prevail!
Love Must prevail!
We know that God does not discipline to destroy us. He does it to teach us and to bring us home.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Our goal is not to point out every flaw around us. No. Our goal as ambassadors of Christ, is to remain near Christ so that when he says speak, we are ready to speak not just with zeal, but with authority from the most high.
Phinehas was a man who was intimate with God. He knew the heart of God. When Sin rose in the camp the holy Spirit fell on Him and filled him with the Zeal of the Lord, to bring about Gods justice and Gods redemption.
Saul was Zealous for Revenge. He saw Christians turning people to Jesus and instead of seeking the Lord, he took matters into his own hands and fueled with rage persecuted the God he claimed to avenge.
Phinehas was Zealous for God
Saul was Zealous for Saul.
Phinehas brought healing and redemption
Saul brought terror and pain.
In closing, if we are to bring about Gods justice to our hurting, families, communities, and land we must first learn the heart of God.
What will you bring?
Gods justice wrapped in Love and grace? Or mans justice, fueled by blind rage?
If we are near to Jesus we will see the injustice that God sees and we will see it through Gods eyes.
When it comes to speaking up for Justice especially around our friends, we make excuses why now isn’t the time, or why we will let God handle it. If you don’t speak out against injustice in our friends lives, who will? Yes it will hard.
Notice Here what God said
They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
Phinehas stood up and Intervened, and the plague was checked. It stopped.
Where was Aaron, Where was Eleazar? Surely they saw this. But it was Phinehas that God called upon to stand in the gap.
Had He chosen not to, many more would have died.
If we choose to remain silent when God speaks, we may be condemning our “Friends”to sin. Then may continue their sin and it could very well destroy them. YOu my friends are their hope in that moment. Stand up for the Love and Justice of God.
2nd closing,
How do live out this life? How do we live like Phinehas, not Saul?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love God
Love the world around you.