We see several interesting things happening in our text today. First, like yesterday, and like tomorrow again, we see the dangers of being influenced by the world. We have to have our identity and being deeply and firmly rooted in Jesus, first and foremost. He is where our life is found. But see another warning. The people drifted away after Joshua because they put too much of their identity in him, not in God. Leaders, even Godly ones, will fail. Only Jesus is perfect. Because of that, we need to share our story of faith, especially with our children and grandchildren. Tell them about Jesus. They need to know, they need to hear from us. Pass on your story to the next generation, so they know the truth of our faith!

Shameless plug: here’s a link to Method(ist) to the Madness, our

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you this Friday morning as we continue our time together in Judges. We are getting ready for the weekend. I hope you have a great weekend planned.

We do. I’m looking forward to it. Middle of my son’s senior concert season—concert last night, concert tonight. So can’t wait for that. And then a good weekend ahead of us. I hope you’re all ready for a great May and a great time together.

So, we are gonna pick up today with Judges chapter 3. We’re gonna read Judges 3:1–6. Yesterday, we talked about the pattern we’re going to see over and over again in Judges: the same pattern—freedom, sin, oppression, repentance, judge, freedom, sin, and so on and so forth. That pattern is going to keep happening. We’re going to see kind of the tone set here for what’s to happen in the coming verses.

Let’s read chapter 3:

Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan. It was only that successive generation of Israelites might know war—to teach those who had no experience in it before: the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebo-Hamath. They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord which he commanded their ancestors by Moses. So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. They took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons; and they worshiped their gods.

Something really interesting about this. Judges is going to mention all these—what we joke about as the “-ites”—the Jebusites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the termites, all these -ites, the people that lived in Canaan. One of the critiques people used to make about the Bible is that when it listed all these different groups, there was no archaeological evidence for them existing. So people would say, “Can we really trust it? Did it really happen? Where’s the historical record of all these groups?”

And there wasn’t any—up until about 50 years ago. And then we found all this archaeological evidence of all these groups existing. So now we see that this is a pretty apt description of the different groups that lived in the Holy Land. We see that being fairly true.

Let’s talk about the idea of testing, and then let’s talk about what’s happening here.

I think it’s important when we think about the Lord testing people—because we always think about God’s testing as something God does for His sake. As if God needs the test to know something. And I don’t think that’s the case. I do not believe that when God tests us, it’s for His sake.

Because think through that—if testing is for God’s sake, that implies God’s up in heaven going, “Golly, what’s Andy gonna do? Wonder what that joker’s gonna decide to do this time. Think he’s gonna follow me? Or not?”

That implies that God doesn’t know what we’re going to do—and that’s simply not the case.

Scripture tells us God knows what’s going to happen. He is at work in all things. He brings all things toward good. I believe we have human free will—scripture teaches that—but it also teaches that God is aware of what’s going to happen. Scripture says not a word comes to our tongue that He is not aware of.

So the testing is not for God’s benefit. We’re not tested so God can know who we are or what we’re about or what we’ll do.

We’re tested so we can know.

It’s not so that God sees what He has in us—the testing is so that we see what we have in Him.

The testing is not for God’s benefit—it’s for ours.

So the Israelites are finding out—will they be faithful to God or not? This is for them to know these things.

Now let’s talk about what it says—that the Lord left these nations there to test them. That gets me thinking about temptation.

What we want to happen with temptation and struggle is this: we struggle with something, we’re tempted by something, and what we want is—we want to have that moment. We go down to the altar, we lay that struggle down, we lay that temptation down, and we’re done with it forever.

We expect that when we lay that temptation down, we’re done with it forever. And so what frustrates us sometimes is we do that—we know we’re struggling, we know we’re sinning, we know we’re falling in these areas, so we go to the altar—whether it be in public in worship or private in our prayer time—and we say, “God, I can’t do this. I need your help with this.”

And what we expect is—we expect God to take that from us and for us to never struggle with it again. But a lot of times, we find ourselves struggling with that very thing again within a matter of moments.

He doesn’t take it. That thing remains. That thing stays. That thing becomes a thorn in our flesh.

Remember Paul?

At one point, he tells the Lord that he has a thorn in the flesh, and he asked the Lord to take it from him. And three times, the Lord said no. “For in your weakness, my strength is made perfect.”

There are some things, friends, that we struggle with—temptations that we have—that when we get saved or come to the Lord, He does take them from us. And we never struggle with them again. I have seen that in my life. I’ve seen it in the lives of others—those moments where the Lord comes, and He takes those things away. They’re just gone. And we never, ever struggle with them again.

And praise God for that. Praise God for those moments. They are amazing, awesome moments and amazing, awesome gifts of God.

But the reality is—that isn’t always the case.

There are some temptations that you will struggle with the rest of your life. That may be the thing you deal with until you draw your last breath and wake up in glory.

There are some temptations the Lord takes from us. There are some—often many—that He does not.

So just because you have that temptation, and you’re still struggling with it, doesn’t mean you’re unfaithful. Doesn’t mean you don’t love the Lord. Doesn’t mean God’s not at work in your life. Doesn’t mean God’s not doing great things in your life. Doesn’t mean any of that.

It just means there are some thorns in the flesh—some things that we are always going to struggle with—because it is in that struggle that we are sanctified.

Our sanctification and our Christian growth come from battling with, struggling with, and wrestling through these temptations and trials.

That’s where it comes from.

That’s what the Israelites wrestled with—these nations that remained, that became a thorn in the flesh to them, that they struggled with over and over again.

But that struggle, friends—that’s where we grow.

So don’t see the temptation as a failure. Don’t see the temptation that remains as a sign of your lack of faith. But understand that there are some thorns in the flesh that are there to test us. That are there to show us the struggle. That are there to test us—are we really going to depend upon God?

They are there for us to see that God’s grace is enough. They are there for us to work with and through and fight against every day of our life, to become more holy.

That’s the struggle, y’all.

It’s dealing with that.

So today, if you are facing the same temptation you’ve faced for years—keep fighting, friends. Keep fighting. Keep working.

God’s grace is enough.

It is.

And as we fight against sin and temptation in our life, we find God’s grace making us holy.

Thanks for being with us today. I hope you have a great weekend, and we will pick back up Monday as we continue in Judges. Have a great day.