Shechem: The valley of decision, blessings and curses

Today, I just want to move forward a little further and look at Shechem, the valley of decision, the blessing or the curse. You know, I didn't highlight it all that strongly yesterday, but it never ceases to amaze me and I've enjoyed it all the time we've been here. It's been so, blessed me so much, it has encouraged and strengthened me so much, just our location. To most people looking in, they would think, you know, you're in the middle of nowhere, why here? And I say, well, ask God. He put us here and he put us in this place called Slalom, we didn't even know existed and we only lived down the road at Little Hampton and we didn't know Slalom even existed until he placed us here. When God spoke to me that day and said, it's time to get up and move, it's time to sell this place and move on, and it was such a specific instruction from God. And I told the family, God is telling us we have to sell this place and move, didn't have a clue where we were going. And after a period of months, this is where he located us. So, it was quite amazing, I mean, we are so strategically located. We're only 15 minutes from Mount Barker, we're only 15 minutes or so from Murray Bridge, we're only 15 minutes from Strathalbyn, we're in striking distance. You know, here we are at Shechem, a messianic group and, you know, my heartbeat and desire and focus is that one day there wil be a messianic community in Mount Barker. There will be a messianic fellowship at Murray Bridge, at Strathalbyn, out there to Victor Harbour, up into the city, out to Flinders Ranges, and wherever YHVH opens doors and opportunities we will see the establishment, our heart's desire, and I believe YHVH's leading, is messianic fellowships. And if we go back some months to when I preached that message on outlining how the book of Acts functions, and how Jerusalem was the centre of everything that God was doing, and everything radiated out from Jerusalem, and it didn't matter who went where throughout the nation of Israel and then beyond the borders of Israel into the nations around them. Whenever there was a question, whenever there was something to debate and to check and to find out are we on the right track, they always come back to Jerusalem. It didn't matter whether it was Paul or Peter or John or Philip or whoever was travelling wherever, up into the north, down into the south, here, there and everywhere, Jerusalem was the place where the purposes of YHVH flowed from. Everybody wasn't making their own decisions, establishing their own doctrines and conditions. They were following what YHVH had established in Jerusalem. That which flowed out of Jerusalem must be the same wherever it goes, it must never change. And when the millennial kingdom comes and Yeshua returns and the thousand year reigns begin, the Torah will go forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. It is a prophetic pattern and we see it established. I drew the diagrams of how it related to us and where our heartbeat is and how we fan out from here. Here we are in Mildura, one day we will be in Echuca, we will be in Ballarat, we will be in Melbourne. We will be where God sends us and we will establish what God wants established. And so it is this, why are we here in the middle of nowhere? Because God says from here you will fan out and do what I call you to do. And he gave us that property in Mount Pleasant, a place for all groups to come and gather for the festivals. It is such an amazing area, an amazing provision that where people can come from here, there and everywhere and we have 150 acres for people to put up their tents and pull up their caravans and come and meet and worship and have Sukkot together. It is YHVH with a plan. YHVH always has times and seasons and he does things in his times and his seasons for where people are at and where we are at in history. And this is our time, this is our season and YHVH unfolds it. We don't have all the answers, we don't know exactly how it will all look. But we have this generalised understanding that YHVH is at work and he has given us dreams and visions and understandings and directions and guidance and we have honoured and followed whatever he has asked of us and it just keeps unfolding, little by little, unfolding until we say YHVH we are working and functioning in your times and your seasons. And you will bring to pass everything that's on your heart and you will make it happen because without you nothing happens but you do the impossible. And you say to Gideon, you don't need 10,000 men, you only need 300. You can defeat an army of thousands with 300 when I'm with you. Don't despise the day of small beginnings because you don't know what God's going to do with it. And that's part of his plan, that's part of him revealing his greatness. All the glory goes to him and we're on an amazing journey and we continue on with this amazing journey of seeing what unfolds. So, what I never really clarified yesterday as strongly as I was going to, our location. It always blesses me, it doesn't matter whether I'm coming from Mount Barker or whether I'm coming from Murray Bridge, I love driving down the mountain from either direction. We're in a valley here and as you come down the freeway from Murray Bridge, Melbourne direction, we come down the hill and you see the sign, Bremer Valley. And you go past the sign Bremer Valley down to the bottom. If you're coming from Mount Barker, you're coming down the hill and it says another sign, Bremer Valley. We're coming down into the Bremer Valley and to me this is the valley of Yehovah. And when you come off the freeway, the only way you can get to Shechem is by crossing the river. And you cross the Bremer River and to me it's the Jordan River. We're coming into Salem, we're coming into Shechem, we're coming, we're coming, if you're coming from Mount Barker, you're coming down the Gerizim Mountain. If you're coming from Murray Bridge, you're coming down Ebel because that's the direction. If you're looking, we're looking east here and if you're looking east between the hills, you've got the freeway there and Gerizim is on your right, Ebel is on your left. You turn and you're facing west, then you've got Gerizim on your left and Ebel on your right. And that's the scriptural picture and it is, I just love driving down. You come from the city, you come up to the top of the hills and then you run down into the valley. If you're coming from Murray Bridge, you come up to the top of the high rise and you're running down into the valley and then you come into Shechem. Isn't it a fantastic picture? I think God, you know, you're an amazing God. How you give us this picture in the scriptures and you give it to me at a time that's according to your times and purposes. And it's an amazing thing and it's the same if you're on the old Princess Highway, it's no different. You're coming from, when we go to the farm at Hebron at Mount Pleasant, you come down that hill and it's a magnificent view when you're coming down the hill into Salem and you look over the expanse of the valley and the mountains beyond it. It's a fabulous view coming down there. It's the same when you're coming from Stathelbum, you come up to the top and then you run down into here. Wow, God, this is just, you know, it's amazing. I love it, I love it. It just keeps me focused on why we are here and YHVH is saying something, saying something. You are a chosen people. I'm not saying we're the only chosen people there. Thousands and thousands and thousands of chosen people, but we are a chosen people. God is with us, God has planted us, God has put us in a strategic location and it matches the picture of scripture and God says don't forget it. I know what I'm doing, be patient, be patient, push in, keep doing what I ask you to do. So, Shechem, as we were looking at yesterday, you come to Shechem and you are in the valley of decision. You've got Gerizim on that side, you've got Ebal on that side and you have a decision to make. Which mountain am I standing on? And he wants us to walk the narrow path in that decision making process and make the right decisions of where he is taking us. So, Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 11. Moses commanded the people on that day saying, When you have crossed over the Jordan, these are to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. For the curse, these are to stand on Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gab, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Nephtali. Verse 13, no, verse 26, the last verse of the chapter. And then he goes through all the blessings, sorry, all the curses. Cursed is the one who does not uphold the words of this Torah by doing them, that all the peoples are to say, Amen. So let it be, so let it be. As he reads all the curses and he comes to the bottom and says, Cursed is the one who does not stand, who does not uphold the words of this Torah, my Torah, my teachings, my instructions, by doing them, then all the people are to say, Amen to being cursed. You know, you've got to be careful what you say to God. Don't look so worried, you snail. You say yes to the blessings, you say yes to the curses and you say, I'm going to walk the narrow path and the blessings will come on me and not the curses. You know, you can't come to Shechem without making a decision about your future. That's the message of what YHVH was saying to them, those people that day. You cannot come into the promised land, you cannot inherit my promised land, you cannot come into my kingdom unless you make the right decisions about your future. It's not about how well I travel today so that I'll enjoy my life and everything will go right. You know, bad things happen to good people. We can serve the purposes of God and we can get lots of things go wrong. The enemy will come against us, make no mistake about it. Difficulties and hardships will come our way, he will test our mettle. He will see whether we're going to be faithful to him or not. And that passage is in the context of hard times will come. How will you respond to them? How will you live them out? Will you trust me when the times are tough just as much when the times are good? That's what he's asking of us. I will test your heart. It's what he did in the wilderness and it's what he still does today. I will reveal to you what's in your heart. You don't know what's in there until I test it. You don't know what's in there until I bring it out. You don't know what kind of personality you are until I reveal it to you. And he has to do it all the time, continually. That's the worst part. He says the word, the Torah of YHVH is like a mirror. He says we look in a mirror, we go away and we forget what we look like. We will have another look tomorrow. Just remind myself how bad looking we are or how good looking we are or how bald we are or how much weight I'm putting on. You know what it is. So he says you look into a mirror. He says my word is a mirror. It reveals to you what you're like. It reveals to you what's in your heart. And he says I want you to keep on looking in so that you can compare yourself to what's in the mirror. Compare yourself to what's in my word. And are you on the mount of evil or are you on the mount of garrison? It is this, Shechem was that place of decision. How am I going to serve my Heavenly Father? So the challenge is to walk the narrow path that goes between garrison and evil. And if you are a true Messianic, that is a follower and a disciple of Yeshua and his Torah, you will be a child of the tribes of garrison who were born of the wives of promise, which I mentioned yesterday. And if you are a pseudo-Messianic, a pretending Messianic, a make-believe Messianic, even though sometimes we believe we're Messianic, sometimes we're just make-believe Messianics. We're not really living the lifestyle of a Messianic. A Messianic is a follower of the Messiah, that's all it means. I walk like him, I think like him, I talk like him, I honour and obey the Heavenly Father like him. I'm a Messianic, I'm a follower of the Messiah. I walk the way of the Messiah, that's all it means. And so we can walk according to our own thoughts, our own beliefs, our own traditions. We can put our own slant on everything. Then you're a child of the bondwoman and the maidservants. I don't want to get too tough here, but I just want to say what the word of God is saying. God always was testing the hearts of the people as they went through the wilderness. Never stop testing them. And he never stops testing us. He wants to keep reminding us, get off evil and get back onto the Mount of Gerizim. Stand true to the blessings, not to the curses. You said amen to the blessings and amen to the cursings, so they will both come on you, whichever one you choose. It's the valley of decision. And if we find ourselves back on Mount Evil, we have to do what Mount Evil stands for. Repent and get back onto Gerizim. Walk in the narrow path. It is this picture that so explains it so well to us. As we walk this pathway, we will make mistakes. We will need to make repentance and offer our sacrifices and say, Father, we got it wrong. We did not move the way you asked us to. We have dishonoured you or we have rebelled against you or we have not been faithful to you. Repent. Confess it. And get off Mount Evil and back onto Mount Gerizim and into the blessings. Don't stay there. Go there. Walk the narrow path. The valley of decision, Shechem, stands for the valley of decision. And so, you know, to the people on Mount Evil and they don't want to get off Mount Evil and they want to do their own thing and follow their own traditions, their own path, their own beliefs and do it on themselves, then to them does not belong the promise and the inheritance. They are more Christian than Messianic in their behaviour. Multitudes, multitudes of Messianics are more Christian than Messianic. Their doctrines, their beliefs, their traditions, their behaviours are more Christian than they are Messianic. And we have to come to terms with that. And just because someone uses the term, I'm Messianic, doesn't mean that they're really the kind of Messianic God wants them to be. So, he has to do a bit more work on them and us included. It's a journey. And so, God says, I want to work on your life. If you want to be a true Messianic, a true disciple, a true follower of me, I've got to knock off a few rock edges and I've got to show you a few more things and I've got to take you down this narrow path. And that narrow path is sometimes a pretty difficult path because it's not wide and easy. And so, we're on this journey. On Mount Gerizim, it was the sons or the tribes of Jacob's wives, as was mentioned, who were placed there, except for Reuben because he had made some serious mistakes. And God says, I'm not letting you stand on Mount Gerizim. You can stand on Mount Ebel because there's a lot of repenting that you have to do. On Mount Ebel were primarily Jacob's concubines and the maidservants of his wives. The picture here, as I said, is one of repentance. YHVH is, we're all slaves of sin, as I said yesterday. We just have to deal with that, repent and become a follower of Yeshua the Messiah. And slaves of the bondwoman. But through Yeshua and repentance, we become sons and daughters of the kingdom. And that's what he is wanting us to make the transfer. So, we go from Mount Ebel to Mount Gerizim. And YHVH is just using a very practical thing to paint a picture, to give us a spiritual message and understanding. And to bring that nation of Israel into the perspective that I am God and you are my people. And if you want to inherit this promised land, then you're going to have to do things my way or you will lose it. And they did. And so, there's a spiritual principle in this arrangement by YHVH that's seen right throughout the scriptures. And of course, we know the story of Cain and Abel. And Abel was prophetically on Mount Gerizim. And Cain was on Mount Ebel. And he killed Cain in his anger. And God said to Cain, why are you so angry? If you don't deal with this anger, then the devil's going to get the best of you. Because he accepted Abel's offering, but he never accepted Cain's. And Abel wanted to do it his way. He said, I'll serve God. I'll do it my way. I'll make the kind of sacrifices I want to make. They're the ones I'll make. And God said, no, you make these ones. He was standing on Mount Ebel. His brother was standing on Mount Gerizim. And the outcome was pretty bad. And of course, we know that Isaac was of Mount Gerizim and Ishmael was from Mount Ebel. It is this spiritual comparison. It is this, the ones that will serve the purposes of God. The one that was born of Abraham's wife and one that was born of his concubine. He's drawing, he's making a picture. He's telling a story. He said there is the child of promise and there is the child of the bondwoman. They both had the same opportunities. And they both made different kinds of decisions. And we know how Ishmael used to treat poor old Isaac and give him a hard time because he was the older brother but he was the chosen one. You've got to look at these things in spiritual terms and say, what is the picture? What is God saying? And so, you know, you see there are many other examples of these things that YHVH is trying to show us of how he wants us to proceed in our life and our walk with him. But he is telling us about the results and the blessings of the obedient and the results of being rebellious and disobedient. It's the story of the blessed and the cursed. It's the story of the Isaacs and the Ishmaels, of the Canes and the Abels. And Mount Gerizim for us is for those who are united in community as Israel was to be united as the body of YHVH in that land. Gerizim is this community of those of the promised bloodline who will walk together in unity and obedience to Torah and its commands. Children of promise, called and chosen, a remnant. These are all terms used in Scripture to reveal those who will walk according to the blessings and those who walk according to the curses. Both children of God, both belonging to the same nation, the same peoples, yet both walking with different heartbeats and different attitudes and behaviours, different dispositions and personalities. Yet he wants them all to be one body, one community. And he's saying, if you do not listen to my word and my ways and my Torah, you're going to be two separated communities and it's going to tell its own story. There will be the blessed among you, there will be the cursed among you. And this will unfold in your history if you don't honour all of you, my Torah, and live close to me and walk in repentance, walk with hearts that are quick to confess and to forgive so that you can get off the wrong mountain and be on the right mountain. He's OK. So, Mount Evil is about those who walk in disobedience. They walk according to their own fleshly desires and their own instincts, whether they're individuals or whether they're groups of messianics. It doesn't matter. There is this necessity to understand that we cannot walk according to our own attitudes, thinking, desires. We cannot establish the group that we want to establish according to what we want. If it's not built on the Word, if it doesn't match the Word, if it isn't what we see in the Word, then we're building something that is not built on the foundations of Torah and Yeshua our Messiah. So, too many walk alone. They live in isolation in their homes. They become nothing more than messianic monks in their caves of isolation, thinking they're doing the will of God, but are living in idolatry, serving gods of their own making. You know, I have this thought in my mind and YHVH put it there some time ago. There are these messianic monasteries where you have these leaders I'm not going to mention any names. You will see them all over the internet. But they are messianic preachers who proclaim themselves as masters of the messianic. I don't use the term masters, but that's how they come. People flock after them on the internet. And they're sitting in their messianic monastery, their studio in their home in front of their TV camera and their microphone and they're proclaiming the message of the messianics to the world. And many of them are preaching to people and they tell their people, it's okay, you live in your house and I'll teach you how to be a good husband to your family and how to be a good messianic people in your home. Just follow me. I will teach you week by week. And you don't have to go anywhere else but live in your home. That is messianic monasteries. A monk in their messianic homes or the messianic monks in their caves and they are not becoming part of a community contrary to the word of God. God says if I've given you giftings and abilities and callings, if I've placed something in your heart you must become part of a community. You cannot exercise your gift. You cannot exercise your calling alone in your own house in the way God wants it. He wants community. He wants a body. He wants a body of people that emulate his kingdom. That's what he's asking for. He says I want you to be united as one people, one heart, one mind and I want you to serve me and to serve one another. I want you to be strong and powerful so the enemy shudders when they hear you coming. That the enemy is in fear when they see this powerful group of messianic believers in Yeshua the Messiah moving their way. You cannot do that on your own. You have to be a community and this is what YHVH is saying to these people on Mount Sinai, sorry on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebel as they come into Shechem. He's saying you must be a community of unity that is powerful in my name and I will bless you with power and authority. And as we read yesterday when people heard that Israel was coming their way they would be in fear and trembling because God's people were coming that way. They weren't just an isolated little, no they were a powerful force for God united in their purpose and their reason for being. And so YHVH is saying that he wants an obedient people to walk in his ways and do his thing. There is only one way into the promised land and into the kingdom of God and to be part of the first resurrection and that is walking the narrow path of righteousness found in the blood of Yeshua with the fruits of that righteousness which is obedience to Torah. You've got to have both. Yeshua my righteousness and me walking in that righteousness the fruits of that righteousness Torah. James said I will show you my faith by my words. Don't tell me you've got faith and you're walking in the truth of God's words and you don't live it out. You're fooling yourself. Call yourself anything you want. A rose is a rose by whatever name you call it. Call it anything you want. It's still a rose. If we're going to be messianics let's be true messianics. Let's follow the Messiah. Let's walk as he walked. Let's live as he lived. Let's teach as he taught. Let's honour what he honoured. Let's obey what he obeyed. That's a messianic. Otherwise we're just pretending. We're just fooling ourselves. Every single moment. Obedience. Absolute obedience. Absolutely right. There will be no entrance into his kingdom. We will spend a thousand years in the grave waiting for the second resurrection and the judgement. True. Our Shechem in Salem is a picture of the Ark of the Covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem. Yeshua, our Messiah is seated at the right hand of the Father. And that's the picture of those names whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life and are seated in heavenly places ruling and reigning within. He wants a people who along with Yeshua and in Yeshua are seated at the right hand of the Father whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life and who are ruling and reigning with him here on earth in his name, with his authority. He's wanting to build a people who can be like Yeshua said you will do even greater things than these. Honour me. Obey me. Walk with me. And I will bring you into that place where you will see me do amazing things for you. I'm just telling you the story that's in the Word of God and we have to begin to walk it out and live it out and to understand it and get rid of the rubbish that's floating around out there and in Christianity which I was born and bred in and which he brought me out of the same as you guys. He has been bringing us into that place where he says I want you to be my people. I want you to walk in my ways. I want you to be my community. Don't try to do your own thing your own way. No, be a community and I will use you and do amazing and wonderful things for you, in you and through you. And so the Ark of the Covenant stood in Mount Shechem and it pictured, it was a picture because it was in the holiest of holy places and it was a picture of what is in the heavenlies. It is Yeshua the Messiah and the truth of the Torah. It is the Lamb's book of life. It's there for those who will be that kind of a people and he is saying that's Mount Gerizim. And we ask the question what camp are you in? What camp are you in? We make the decision of how we will walk and live it out. Numbers chapter 13 verse 1 YHVH spoke to Moses saying send some men on your behalf to investigate the land of Canaan which I am giving to the children of Israel. Each man you are to send will be a prince of the tribe of his fathers. A man from each tribe. So according to the word of YHVH Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran all the men were princes, leaders of the tribes of Israel. Of course we know the story. They've come out of Egypt. They've gone to Mount Sinai. They've been there 12 months. God has given Moses all and everything he needs to know of how to run this nation. All that they need to understand. The statutes, the commandments and everything that is necessary to be a nation of people. All the rules and commands for the social life for the political life, for the religious life for every aspect of life Moses was given all of those instructions. They built the tabernacle and now YHVH says you're ready to enter the promised land. You've stood on this mountain with me. You've said yes we will honour and obey you. We will do everything you ask of us. We will follow you obediently to whatever you want and say we will do it. And so then they head right up to the entrance of Canaan, the promised land. And here YHVH said send in 12 men to search out this land of promise. So we continue reading. Verse 16. So these are the names of the men Moses sent to investigate the land. Now he gave Hoshea, the son of Nun, the name Jehoshua, Joshua. And as he sent them to explore the land of Canaan he said to them you go up there through the Negev, through the southern wilderness. Then go up into the hill country, Ephraim, northern of Israel. See what the land is like and the people living there, whether they might be strong or weak, few or many. In what kind of land are they living? Is it good or bad? Also what about the cities in which they are living? Are they unwalled or do they have fortification? How is the soil, fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land. And it was the season for the first ripe grapes, which would have been the Sukkot time. So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin, as far as Rehob, the entrance of Hamath. They continued on up through the Negev and they came to Hebron. There lived Ahimon, Shishai, Telmai, descendants of Anak. And Hebron was built seven years before Zon in Egypt. When they reached as far as the Valley of Eshkol, they cut a single branch with a cluster of grapes. It was carried on a pole between two of them and they also cut some pomegranates and some figs. And that place was called the Valley of Eshkol because the cluster cut by the children of Israel, they returned from investigating the land after 40 days. So they travelled and returned to Moses, Aaron and the entire community of the children of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They gave their report to them and the entire assembly, they showed the land's fruit. I read a few more verses before I was going to. Verse 27. They gave their account to him and said, We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey. This is some of its fruit. Except the people living in the land are powerful. The cities are fortified and very large. We even saw the sons of Anak there. And Analek is living in the land of the Negev. The Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the mountains. And the Canaanites are living near the sea and along the bank of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people. That's an important little point there. Caleb quieted the people. They were listening to what's going on and they're getting pretty, Oh wow, what are we going into? Caleb settled them down and he quietened them. And he said before Moses, he said, We should definitely go up and capture the land for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, We cannot attack these people because they are stronger than we. They spread among the children of Israel a bad report about the land they had explored, saying the land through which we passed to explore devoured its residents. All the people we saw there are men of great size. We also saw there the Nephilim. The sons of Anak are from the Nephilim. Nephilim just means giants. We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes as well as theirs. Glad I wasn't part of that. How important it is to be faith filled in the plans and the directions of YHVH. When YHVH says something we have to be very, very careful how we respond to that. What are we looking at? The difficulties? The challenges? The costs? The giants in the land? Or the voice of YHVH? What are we looking at? What are we listening to? YHVH wanted them to understand this is not going to be a walk in the park. You're going to have to fight for this land. It is worth fighting for. Look at the fruit. Look at everything it's got to offer. Look at what I'm bringing you into and I'm going to give it to you. Fight them you will have to. I'll give you the victory. You will have everything that you need at your disposal when you've got rid of these men. Don't let them frighten you. Don't let the challenge be too great for you. Don't look at yourself in a negative way. Don't look at yourself and say who am I? How can I do this? No, if God says go, then you go. If God says do this, you do it. If God says change, you change. If God says repent, you repent. If God says rise up and be strong, you rise up and be strong. Chazak! We encourage ourselves in the promise of God. We don't promise ourselves in our own strength. We promise ourselves in his strength. And we say we will go. We will do. We will be whatever you ask of us. And God will give us the victory. He will give us what he promises to us. He will lead us in a way that will bring us into his kingdom purpose and we shall rule and reign with him. And so, are we a Caleb and a Joshua? Or are we one of the ten who never knew how to trust and obey God but complained at the difficulty, the cost and the inconvenience? The danger or faithful? We have to be a people of faith-filled obedience regardless of how things look, regardless of what we think is in front of us, regardless of what other people think or say. We have to be faith-filled and obedient. What was the influence of these ten disobedient, faithless men? The majority listened to them and followed these mealy-mouthed, undisciplined, self-opinionated men who wanted their own way out of fear and probably a lot of other things. They had a lot to say and none of it was good. None of it was positive. None of it was built on faith and trust and obedience to what God was asking of them. Numbers chapter 14, keep reading from verse 1. Twelve verses. And all through that night, the entire community raised up their voices. The people wept. What a night that was. A couple of million people wailing all night. I mean, wow, that was some night in the dead silence of the desert. All the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole community said, if only we had died in Egypt. If only we had died in this wilderness. Why is YHVH bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be like plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt? I mean, this was, wow, I'm glad I wasn't Moses trying to lead them that day. They said to each other, let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt. I mean, this is desperate. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the entire assembly of the community of the children of Israel. Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes. They said to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, the land through which we pass is an exceptionally good land. You hear what YHVH is saying to us. The land in which we are and where he has taken is an exceptionally good land. Will you be challenged in the process? Yes. If YHVH is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land and he will give it to us. Amen. A land flowing with milk and honey. We have been feasting on milk and honey. Only don't rebel against YHVH and don't be afraid of the people of the land. They will be food for us. The protection over them is gone. YHVH is with us. Do not fear them. But the whole assembly talked about violently stoning them. Then the glory, the kavod of YHVH appeared at the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel. YHVH said to Moses, How long will these people treat me contemptibly? How long will they neglect to trust in me? In spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them, I will strike them with the plague. I will destroy them. But you I will make into a nation greater and stronger than they. We know how Moses responded to that as it goes on. But there are two important things to understand here. One is the percentages between the called and the chosen. Those who are the obedient and faithful to the will and the word of Elohim and those who are not. From the twelve whom YHVH led and called them to check out the greatness of what he was leading them into, only two out of the twelve honoured him. I found this to be true in our experience over the last 26 years. For about every twelve that have come through our doors at Shechem and they have said to us personally, many of them, God led them to this fellowship and called them to be part of this community. Words out of their own mouths. And after a period of time only about two have remained. I'm just talking in percentages and comparisons. You know, we have a dozen people here today instead of 200 people. I never cease to be amazed. So, you know, they could not remain faithful to the challenges and the changes that they had to embrace and understand to be part of Father's will and plan and they left. If you come to Shechem, you come to the valley of decision. That's what I've been saying. If you come where God sends you, you will always have to make changes. You will always have to adjust. You will always have to get used of mixing with other people who are different to you. And you will have to be different and iron sharpens iron. And we know that when you become community, you've got a bunch of different people and you're going to annoy each other. You're going to upset each other. You're going to say things that we don't agree with each other. But God says you do not walk away from my purposes and my plans. You sort it out. You change and adjust. You consider and talk. And you work together. And no matter how long that takes. And you repent and you become a community under the hand of God. United as one heart and mind. There is nothing else in scripture. Paul says in Ephesians, until we all come into the unity of the faith. Until we all come under the one spirit. That's his objective. Yet we call ourselves messianics and we all want to do our own thing. We don't want to work together. God says I'm looking for a people who will stand true to my word and my ways. Some people left after a few weeks. Some after a year and more. But it doesn't matter. The challenge is always there. I've had to make multitude of changes. The same as all of us have had to make changes about our doctrines, our beliefs, the way we run meetings, the way we do this. We've had to change. And anyone that comes here will have to respect the fact that God brought us through change. He has taught us things. He has shown us things. And he's going to bring people in and say you're going to learn something here. We will learn something from you and they will learn something from us. But you have to be willing to say yes, God is doing your work. Two out of twelve. That's all that remain faithful. In that particular exchange. The second point is even more serious for those individuals and families that left us with wrong attitudes and reasons of behaviours. And there's lots and lots of them over many years. And as we see in this scripture record, the people listened to these men and ran with their bad report. We've had people leave this fellowship and then spread a bad name to us about our neighbours all around. Took a bad report about us. None of it was true. They just didn't like what they were being asked to become. Those who would not trust God and his ways and do things God's ways and relate properly in God's ways, they ran Moses and Aaron down. Let's get rid of this leader. Let's go back to Egypt. They condemned Moses and Aaron and said they'd rather be dead than follow them. That's a pretty big statement. I mean, wow. Moses didn't send them into that land. YHVH did. And they said that their wives and children would suffer because of their leadership and that they would die in the wilderness under Moses' leadership. And they went even further, as I said, and they said, let us go back to Egypt where we came from and under a different leadership. Let's get ourselves another leader and let's go back to Egypt. When I was in Nigeria, I went up there and I had a man. YHVH sent me to this church to bring a message, a warning to that church just in the last 12 months. And a man stood up in their congregation, one of their own people, and he read the Scriptures from here. And he said to their pastor, he said, why did God allow this to happen? Because the Scripture that he read was one that we read yesterday where they said, Father, even though you've seen miracle after miracle, even after I've done all these miracles in the land of Egypt to bring you out and you saw the devastation I've brought to that land and they still have hard hearts toward you. They still don't want to do things. You can sit there if you want to sit there. So, it was, he didn't understand. He said they saw all the moves of God. They saw all the goodness of God. They saw the miracles of bringing them out and they still didn't trust him. They still had hard hearts toward him. They still disobeyed and dishonoured him. Why was that? Why did God allow that? It's a legitimate question. So, let me tell you, you cannot go back to what you came out of without incurring the judgments of YHVH and his wrath. If God has brought us into something that he wants to bless us in and take us further on in his purposes and plans and truly use us the way he wants to use us and to use our giftings in that which he has given us and then we say, I'm going back where I came from. These ten spies died in the plague that YHVH sent upon them because of it in judgement for their rebellious behaviour to truth and disobedience to his leading. He sent a plague in amongst them and those ten men died. God judged them immediately. And this is exactly what so many of those who have left us has done. They have turned their back and walked away from what they said God brought them into and said we're going back to do our own thing, our own way under a different leadership or whatever. So that doesn't mean we don't care about them, not at all. I'd like to see them back. But they have brought the judgments or the curses of God upon themselves. I'm just trying to say what the word of God is saying. He said if you do not do what I say, curses will come upon you. But if you do do what I say and if you do honour me and follow me then I'll bless you. And we can turn our backs on the blessings and inadvertently bring curses upon ourselves, judgments in other words, of whatever kind. So their self-confessed righteousness was no more righteous than a pig on a stick. They have returned like fools to their vomit. I'm just quoting scripture. Proverbs 26 verse 1 and verse 11. Like snow in summer, the last thing you want. Or rain at harvest, the last thing you want. So honour is not fitting for a fool. Like a dog that returns to its vomit so a fool repeats or goes back to his folly. Just to see what Peter says. He picks up on that very refrain. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1. We will read some verses. Peter says, A false prophet also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you. Now remember that every one of the epistles, every one of the writers of scripture spend a lot of time writing about false teachers, false prophets, false apostles. Warning after warning after warning right throughout the Messianic writings. And here Peter is saying, there will be false teachers among you. He's talking to his own people. False teachers are going to rise up from among you. Paul said exactly the same thing. When I'm gone, because they know how strong I am, when I'm gone, false teachers are going to rise up from amongst yourselves and draw people away to themselves. And he's warning them. You be aware of this. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their immoral ways. That word for immoral is debauched lifestyle. Not talking about sexual sin. It includes that, of course. He's talking about their lifestyles have become debauched, separated, different from what they were born into or brought into. And as a result, the way of truth will be maligned. You have to know the way of truth to know when it's being maligned. In their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgements from long ago is not idle. God spoke judgements way back here in their readings of Moses. And he said, they're as true today as they are then. They are not idle. They will fulfil their prophetic mention. And their destruction does not slumber. You know, people don't take enough time over these words. They gloss over these, they don't even read them at all. Christian preachers don't even think that this even applies to me. Yet Peter is talking to believers in God. His own people. We don't take these things seriously. These things come and they will impact us. For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol, place of death. He put them in chains of gloomy darkness to be held until the judgement. He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. I'm reading probably further than I should. Down to verse 12. Where's verse 12? But these people are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and killed. They malign what they don't understand and in their destruction they will be utterly destroyed. They will be paid back for what they have done. Evil for evil. They consider carousing in broad daylight a pleasure. They are blocks and blemishes reveling in their deceitful pleasures while feasting together with you. They have eyes full of adultery and I'm talking about idolatrous behaviour, spiritual adultery. It doesn't mean it doesn't include literal adultery. There's plenty of ministers out there committing literal adultery. But it's also speaking about spiritual adultery which is idolatry. They have eyes full of their own pursuits, idolatrous ways and teachings is what he's talking about. They never stop sinning, enticing unstable souls. They have hearts trained to greed, a cursed brood. They have abandoned the straight way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he received a rebuke for his own wrongdoing. A dumb donkey spoke with a man's voice and put a stop to the prophet's madness. He is applying people in his own fellowship to these terms. I mean, some people say I'm too strong. Get a bit of Peter or Paul. These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them for by mouthing grandiosities that amount to nothing, they entice in sensual fleshly passions those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. You can't see that of yourself unless someone points it out. And when you point it out, they don't like it. For a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him. For if after escaping the world's pollutions through the knowledge of Adonai and Saviour Yeshua the Messiah, they again become entangled in these things, we're getting back to what we read with the ten spies. If they become entangled in these things and are overcome, the end of then has become worse than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after learning about it to turn back to the Kedosh commandments passed on to them. What has happened to them confirms the truth of the proverb which we just read. A dog returns to its vomit and a scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud. Peter knows his word. And he's applying it to the people of his day. We have to do the same. People have to understand the seriousness of the decisions that are made. Peter tells this end time truth of so many messianics as well as Christianity itself. The message goes out in these words. A dog returns to its vomit and a scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud. That's pretty up front and in your face, isn't it? God wants a people where no one can ever point the finger at us and say you never told us. You didn't warn us. You never made the truth known to us. You know God is two sides of a coin. He's righteous and kind and merciful and good and long suffering and patient and he's full of wrath and judgement and fury and anger. That's God. This is the same warning that was given to Israel at Shechem and the two mountains. Don't go back to evil. The only way off that mountain is by repentance and dealing with sin. It's the message of the mountains. If you go back and do what is wrong then you have to go to Mount Ebal, repent, make sacrifices and put it right. That's the only way back to Mount Gerizim and into the land of promise. The Samaritans lived on these mountains. They even built a temple of their own on Gerizim for God as well as one for false gods and idols and altars for false gods. Asherah poles all over the place. They set a new date for the Feast of Tabernacles and appointed priests who were no priests. There's no difference between Christianity and the Samaritans of Jeroboam's day and of Yeshua's day. They have walked away from the truth of Torah as found in Yeshua and the apostles. Joshua 24, just about to finish. I'll read the whole chapter of Joshua 24. Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. Remember, he brought them out of the desert and into Shechem. This is near the end of his life now. He summoned Israel's elders, head judges and officials so they presented themselves before God. Isn't that amazing? He calls all of Israel to Shechem. They've been there for many years. They've driven out all the other nations. He says, I want you to come to Shechem. Meet with me there before God. Then Joshua said, thus says Elohim or YHVH, Elohim of Israel, from ancient times your fathers, to Pera the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, lived beyond the river and worshipped other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through the entire land of Canaan and multiplied his offspring. I gave him Isaac and then to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it as his own. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. So I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst. And afterward I brought you out. I brought your fathers out of Egypt when you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers to the Sea of Reeds with chariots and horsemen. But when they cried out to YHVH he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. Then he brought the sea upon them and it covered them. And your eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you stayed in the wilderness for a long time, 40 years. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who were living beyond the Jordan. Though they fought against you I gave them into your hands and you possessed their land. When I destroyed them from before you then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, he rose and fought against Israel and he even sent and called for Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I refused to listen to Balaam. Instead he had to keep blessing you. Thus I delivered you from his hand. Then you crossed over the Jordan and you came to Jericho. But the men of Jericho fought against you and the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jerusalites fought against you. But I delivered them into your hand. Then I sent the hornet before you and drove them out from before you. The two kings of Amorites, not by your sword or your bow, no, by the hand of YHVH, I gave you a land on which you had not laboured and cities that you had not built and you have settled in them. Vineyards and olive groves that you had not planted and that you are eating. Now therefore fear YHVH and worship him in sincerity and in truth. Get rid of the gods that your fathers had worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt and worship YHVH. If it seems bad to you to worship YHVH then choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. Whether the gods that your fathers worshipped that were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, they were slipping back into idolatry. But as for me and my household we will worship YHVH. Absolutely. Or you're in trouble. Absolutely. No. No, very true. It's going to be their downfall. Then the people answered and said far be it from us that we should forsake YHVH to worship other gods for it was YHVH our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us all along the way that we travelled and among all the people through whose midst we passed. It was YHVH who drove out from before us all the peoples, the Amorites that lived in the land. Therefore we also will worship YHVH for he is our God. But Joshua said to the people you will not be able to worship YHVH for he is Kedosh, set apart totally separate from anything in this world that is not of him. He is a jealous God as Matthew was saying. He will not pardon your transgressions and your sins. If you forsake YHVH, worship foreign gods, idolatrous then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done good for you. Two sides of the coin. But the people said to Joshua no, we will worship YHVH. So Joshua said to the people you are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves YHVH to worship him. We are witnesses, they responded. Now therefore get rid of the foreign gods that are in your midst still and incline your hearts to YHVH the Elohim of Israel. And the people said to Joshua we will worship none but YHVH our God and we will obey none but his voice. Exactly. And they had done it before when they first came in. So Joshua cut a covenant with the people that day again. And set for them a statute and an ordinance where? In Shechem. The valley of decision. The place where you choose. Who am I going to follow? Who am I going to obey? Am I going to listen to what God is saying to me? Then Joshua wrote these words in the scroll of the Torah of God and he took a great stone and he set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of YHVH. Joshua said to all the people behold this stone will be a witness to us for it has heard all the words of YHVH which he has spoken to us. So it will be a witness to you lest you deny your God. Joshua then dismissed the people each to his own inheritance. Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua son of Nun the servant of YHVH died at the age of 110 years. So they buried him in the territory of his own portion in Timnath Sera which is in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gash. Israel worshipped YHVH all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work of YHVH that he had done for Israel. Joseph's bones which the children of Israel had brought up from Egypt they buried in Shechem in the parcel of ground that Jacob had brought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. It became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. Then Elias the son of Aaron died and they buried him in Gidnea which had been given to Phinehas his son in the hill country of Ephraim. Everything was going great for him until he started to worship God. Exactly right. Very true. Joshua ends and now begins the book of Judges. Joshua is dead and now they go into idolatry. God raises up a judge. Into idolatry God raises up a judge. Into idolatry God raises up a judge. They were messing themselves up all the time in this process. So what I'm saying here is we see the powerful place that Shechem plays in the word of Elohim. There are a lot more encounters and references to Shechem in the word. The truth of Joseph's dreams were played out at Shechem at the hands of his brothers. Two dreams. You will be bowing down to me. My whole family will be bowing down to me. They hated him for it along with other things. Literally and absolutely. They could not speak one nice word to him the scripture says. Then the father sends him. Go and see how your brothers are going. They're here in this place looking after the sheep. Gets there and they're gone. They've moved on. They've moved up to Shechem. I went to Shechem to find his brothers. I said here he comes. Dad's favourite boy. Let's kill him. That was at Shechem. Threw him in a pit. Sold him off to Egypt. And his dreams came true. In spiritual truth and shadows and types Joseph the dreamer stood on garrison and his brothers on evil. They were at Shechem. The valley of decision. And they made wrong decisions about Joseph. Joseph was blessed and prospered and became one with Abraham. The blessed. The tragedy of Israel becoming two separate kingdoms was also played out at Shechem. As I said yesterday, Solomon died. Rehoboam his son became king and he went to Shechem to be proclaimed king and all Israel went up there to make him their new king. Jeroboam comes and challenges him and said can you lift some of the heavy burdens off us like your father placed upon us. And he says no, I'm going to make it a whole lot harder than my father. He made a wrong decision at Shechem. He did. So we find here that ten tribes followed Jeroboam and two tribes were left to Rehoboam. Here we get the comparison, the percentages again. Two out of ten. And it was the remnant who kept the truth alive in Jerusalem. Judah and Benjamin. The other ten tribes became Samaritans. They lived on the mountains of Gerizim and Ebel in the Valley of Decision. Two out of twelve. What is God saying? Will we ever be big? I have no idea. But I know we will be influential. I know we will always be used by God to establish his messianic communities wherever he sends us. And I know that he will always give us the victory for whatever he sends us to. Just over twelve months ago I went to Mildura just to have a holiday for a couple of weeks thanks to Neil and Christine. And when I got there God said I want you to come and live here and start another fellowship. I said what are you asking God? I do not want to come back to Mildura. Forty years ago as you know I lived in Mildura and started a church there for the Assemblies of God. Forty years later he's sending me back. He says I want you back here and I want you to start a messianic community. And here we are. Six months later we've started it. God says I will enable it. I will cause it to happen. I will send you where I want to send you. You will go where I want you to go. You don't look at the challenges. You don't look at the costs. You don't look at what you have to leave behind. You do what God tells you to do. That's a Jerusalem people. Not an evil people. That is God bringing you into that place of the belly of decision where we have to choose either to serve him or to serve our own interests. To do what is hard and costly or to stay here and enjoy the fellowship. God has raised us up for a purpose. We do not turn back. Ten out of twelve walk away because the cost is too great or the challenges are too great or the doctrines are different or the beliefs are different or the way we function is different and they don't want to come to terms with it. They don't want to work it through. They don't want to change. It's a problem. But nevertheless that's in God's hands. That's none of my business at the end of the day. People make decisions. We will do what God asks us to do and the rest are in God's hands. He will do what he has to do and they answer to God, not to me. That is not. It makes no difference to us. But it makes a huge difference to them and it makes an impact on how big of an impact you make because you have become a bigger community of God's people. God wanted to use them. God wanted to make them a part of something greater than themselves. But they walked away from it. Do we care about them? Of course we do. Do we love them? Of course we do. But we can't change what happened. They have to make decisions. They have to get back onto Mount Ebel, repent and make the sacrifices so then God can say now I will take you where I want to take you. You do not go back to Egypt. You do not choose another leader and go back to where you came from because God says you know better and I will bring judgement upon you because of it. I'm just quoting the Word of God. That's all. And we have to be aware of who we are and the impact we make on people and people who come here have to be aware of the impact that is made on them. I want to see multitudes of us all over the place with community groups being run all over the place with leaders other than us but who relate to us who work with us and together we are a community as we see in the Book of Acts. John 4. Close with just reading the verses. 19 to 26 that we read yesterday. Sir, the woman tells Yeshua, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain but you all say that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Yeshua tells her woman, believe me, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, it is here now when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such people as his worshippers. Elohim is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman tells him, I know that Messiah is coming he who is called the Anointed One. When he comes he will explain everything to us. Yeshua tells her, I, the one speaking to you, I am. So everything I've said is about the spiritual application to the literal we see in the days of Abraham and Moses and Joshua. And here Yeshua is saying, don't get hung up on Samaritans or Samaria or Jerusalem. Understand the spiritual truth behind these things and walk in them and worship me wherever I locate you, wherever you are. Walk according to the truth of God's word. Stand true upon Torah and my teachings and my instructions and I will bless you and not curse you. It's very simple. It's very straightforward. We just have to say God give us a heart to listen to you and to be honest to what we say. Israel kept on saying, no we will worship only you. No we will do what you have said. No we will listen to your voice. What you have asked of us we will do. And then walk away from it. It's not in there. You've got to say what's true. YHVH said whatever's in your heart will come out your mouth. That's what You will walk and live. And he says, Yeshua said, you say lots of good things from your mouth but your heart's not with me. That's what it is. And we have to be very careful about that because he said you will answer for every word that you say. I will call to account what you have said to me one day unless we repent and put those things away with God. Heavenly Father, you are the creator of the universe. You are the giver of life. Yeshua came and paid the price. And you love us. You care about your creation. You are not willing that any should perish. So Father we pray, as we just commit ourselves to you and we say, Father, use us in whatever way you want. Help us, Father, to be true and faithful to your word, your calling, your voice, whatever it is, wherever it is, whenever it is. Help us, Father, to walk in truth and sincerity. And Father, when we get it wrong, help us to put it right quickly. Help us, Father, to continue to walk in faith and unity as community. And help us, Father, to honour you and bless you and to give you all the praise because we know that you will always do great and mighty things to those who put their trust in you. Amen. Amen.