Jan. 19, 2025

                                                            Joshua 23:6-13

                                      “Our Commitment to Spiritual Fitness”

January 19, 2025                                                                                         Dr. Don Bazal

       More than any other before, this generation is committed to physical fitness.   Health spas and gyms have become our pagan worship sites.  The latest figures show:

• Spa industry pulled in $21.3 billion
• Americans spent 16 billion on plastic surgery
• The nation spent 16.28 billion on anti-aging and beauty products 

         = $1754 per person.

• 22.5 billion was spent in fitness centers.
• Americans average $112,000 in a lifetime on physical fitness or

$66 a month on average with some going as high as $150 a month.

Psalm 90:12 – So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

 TRUTH:  God’s faithfulness is best seen by looking back.

 Joshua warns the people to stay spiritually fit and addresses three things to accomplish that:  23:6-13.

STAY WITH THE WORD:  vv 6-8

 I Peter 1:23-25 – For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 

²⁴ For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers,
and the flower falls off, ²⁵ But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you.

 Joshua 1:7-8 – Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. ⁸ This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

 James 2:17-18,20 – Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

¹⁸ But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” .  . .  ²⁰ But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

STAY FROM THE WORLD:    VV 7,12

 Mark 6:15 – But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”

 Ephesians 6:16-17 – in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 I John 2:15-17 – Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

 TRUTH:  The love of the Word keeps us from the love of the world.

TRUTH:  Compromise with the world leads to being conquered by the world.

Judges 2:10-14 – All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Israel Serves Baals ¹¹ Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, ¹² and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger.  ¹⁴The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

 I Kings 11:1-11 – Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ² from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴ For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. ⁶ Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. ⁸ Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. ⁹ Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. ¹¹ So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.

Joshua 23:11-13 –  So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you ^[a]associate with them and they with you, ¹³ know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to ^[b]drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

 TRUTH:  If we do not guard our affections, affliction will be the result.

 STAY TO THE LORD:  vv 8-11

 “cling” or “cleave” – Genesis 2:23-24 = “Hold fast” or “glue”

 TRUTH:  Failure to “hold fast” or “cleave” to God is s sure formula for spiritual failure.

 Colossians 3:1-2 – Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

 Romans 3:14 – “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”

 We cleave to God by the renewing of our minds.

 Romans 12:2a –  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,