Dwuteronomy 20:16-18 Kill Sin and Receive Your Inheritance

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.


Generally speaking, all people want to succeed and live to try and do so.
There are countless examples of people in this world who have succeeded.
They tell us what they did to succeed and the things they did that have caused them also to fail.
On Friday night, pastor Ko spoke about Adam and Eve.
When God asked Adam where he was, did God do so because He did not know?
What do you think?
He knew but He asked.
Why?
It is because He wanted to see our hearts.
If my heart is focused on God, then I know that I am a sinner and must bring myself out before God and confess.
If we look at Adam and see that God is asking us to see our hearts, though we think we can hide from Him, then this day God is also asking me,”Howard Park, what are you doing right now?”
“Where are you right now?”
He is asking me ,”What are you doing right now?”
He is looking for me.
But do I see God with my eyes?
If I do not see Him, then what am I doing?
I am covering myself with a fig leaf and thinking that because I do not see God, He does not know what I am doing.
We continue in our sin.
We have not even the slightest bit of shame.
We have no remorse.
We do what we want and get angry, frustrated, bitter, and live exactly like those who do not believe in God.
This is our condition.
Why?
Because we have covered ourselves with fig leaves, so we think that God and also people will not see us as we are.
We think that people will not know if I am a Christian, a church member, and even if they did, because people make mistakes in life, I can do as I want and afterwards say I am sorry and everything will be fine.
This is why I do what I want much of the time.
Does God not know this as He seeks me by asking me,”Howard, where are you, what are you doing?”
I act as though I do not hear Him and live my life boldly in sin.
Is not the problem being able to admit it and to change our lives?
I said in the beginning that generally all people want to succeed.
We look at those who have attained success and desire to live a life like theirs, but when you hear the stories of those who have succeeded do you decide to change your life and live as they have done?
Do you change your actions to those that need to be done?
We do not.
We look at those who have succeeded as having lives that are different than ours.
If someone turns to Jesus and is blessed we say that it is good for them, but we do not think that it is also for us.
Why?
Why do we consider ourselves any different before God?
It says that God so loved all the world.
That means that we can all equally attain the same glorious blessings.
But in my mind I think they are them and I am me.
I do not look at myself as anything special so that I may live a life that I choose to live.
I saw an article about Bill Gates yesterday that I thought I would share with you.
He is one of today’s most successful persons as we all know.
Of all the things that he did to become successful the one thing he says that allowed to to be so is that he adopted the good habits of others.
He would look at someone and look for the one thing that they did well and decide to also do that himself.
He put great effort into doing this.
Because he filled himself with good things that others were good at he had no choice but to be successful.
But if someone close to us tells us to change something about ourselves so that we can be better, do we accept such criticism?
Rather, we get angry, frustrated and bitter at them because our pride has been aroused.
We do not succeed because we refuse to change to be better than we are.
To see someone study hard, then he would study hard. If he someone read many books, then he would read many books. If he saw someone get up early, then he would get up early.
His greatest asset was to do the things that he considered that others were doing good.
He made great effort to think differently and to learn how to communicate and do things that he considered were good behaviors to have.
He became the person that we know as Bill Gates because of his hard work at becoming the best person he could be.
We also know of Warren Buffet.
What is it about him that allows him to be such a great person in the field of stocks?
He read five times more than the average person.
He read a lot.
By the time he turned 16 he had read hundreds of books on business and economics.
The first thing he did when he went into his office was read a book. After reading, he worked diligently for the next 8 hours doing business.
After finishing his work, then he would gather what he would read next, and bring that home. He read so much more than any other person that he is far ahead of anyone in the field. Many people describe him as having the Midas touch.
If we are told to put this much effort into studying to be great at something, do we do so?
We do not.
We think that in today’s era, having the internet we have all the information at our fingertips, but that is not enough for we lack the depth and understanding without reading the information and knowing it for ourselves. Mr. Buffett tells us to read a lot.
The one who chooses to accept and behave in a way that he sees as good in others, and the one who studies diligently to be ahead of everyone else, these are the ones who have succeeded.
There is also a story of someone in the faith who many have not heard of.
He was a professor at Emory College and his name was James Rainey.
He was a scholar, pastor, and also ambassador from 1994-1997.
After working as an ambassador, he settled down in Atlanta, Georgia as a professor at Emory College.
Every morning, for his health, he would walk to and fro from work.
One day he noticed an older gentleman sitting alone in front of his home and he drew near to him to befriend him. He became a friend to that older gentleman and they shared stories with each other.
Whenever he had time he would go search out this gentleman, cut his lawn, have coffee and conversation with him.
He did this for two years but one day on his way to work, the older gentleman was no longer there.
He found out that the day prior, he had passed away.
He later found out that the older gentleman was the president of the Coca-Cola company.
After the funeral, the president had left him a will.
In it was letter that said...
For the past two years you have passed by my home and have become my friend.
You spent time listening to me. You mowed my lawn. We drank coffee.
Thank you for being a friend to me.
So he left him with something.
What do you think it was?
How much do you think it was worth?
He left him 250 million dollars and 5 percent of Coca-Cola’s stock.
If you had this much wealth what would you do?
Overnight he became wealthy.
Professor Rainey learned three things from this event.
First, he never knew that one of the wealthiest persons in the world could live in such modesty.
Second, though that person was the president of Coca-Cola company he never once boasted about his position.
Had he known it may have been a different type of relationship and he could have tried to get on his good side due to the position of the other.
It was because he did not know who he was, he was able to be more open and humble to him.
Third, he was completely surprised that someone could be given such a vast sum of money even though he was not related to him.
He received this for only being a friend who listened to him for a brief two years.
But also just as important as these three things that professor Rainey had learned was what he did.
He saw no need for this vast sum of money so he donated all of it to Emory University for the future development of the school.
The school in response made him the president of the college.
We can see from a worldly view that if we had received such a vast sum of money, we could have donated even 10 million dollars and try to negotiate a position of status.
But he gave away 250 million dollars without seeking anything in return.
The lives of these people, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, professor Rainey, if you want to live like these people, then I want to ask you how must you live your life?
Like Bill Gates, I must get rid of my bad behaviors and use all my strength to adopt good ones or else I will never be successful.
If I live my life for my pleasure and comfort, I will never be ready to find the information that is going to help me succeed, especially in these days where information passes rapidly.
What is more, is if I attain great wealth and my heart is consumed by it, then I will never be able to receive the true reward in the end.
I am not saying that we are not to have wealth, but be able to give it up for the future of the school and the students. He was able to be placed in a great position.
If I am presented such an opportunity where does my heart stand and what will I choose to do?
When God asks me, “Howard, where is your heart?” Will I be able to respond to Him and say, “Yes, Lord my heart and my life belong to you.”
Without this we can never be successful.
These are simple examples of these people.
Let us look at examples from everyday life.
In Korea, due to the increase in population there are many people who are retiring in their 40s and 50s.
So they take their retirement money and open up a business to stay busy.
Are there many people who succeed or fail when they open up a new business?
Fail.
Why are there many people who fail?
Because it is not their field.
What else?
They have no idea how to do business.
Then they shouldn’t do business.
The reason they fail is because they run their business stubbornly.
They open up a business and remember the days where they were sitting in a position of authority in their old company, but now in their business venture, the customer is king, they are to give service to their customers to bring in business, but they only remember where they had others do for them and still have that mind-set though they opened up a business, why would customers come to their place.
They will not come.
They think that since they were once a person who was in high position that now people will come find them.
They will not.
They must go out on their feet and let people know what they have done, what kind of business it is, and offer them great service.
They need to advertise themselves, humble themselves, and find customers.
But rather than finding customers they assume they will just come.
Will they come?
Why would they come to your place when they are already going to a place they have been going to?
Your business is going to fail.
But then there are those who do succeed.
When we hear their stories, today as we have about Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and professor Rainey, they were willing to do that which others were not willing to do and put great effort into doing so, so that when they put their effort into doing something they succeeded.
You have put your faith in Jesus, been redeemed and are now a part of the church.
Like I have mentioned in the beginning, if I know that God knows all of my sins, then I cannot continue to sin.
But like Adam, who covered himself with a fig leaf, if I think that God does not know my sin because I try to hide it, but demand that God provide everything that I ask for so that I may live in abundance, then it is like a student who refuses to do their homework, to listen to their teacher or study, can this student do well in school?
They can never do well.
If you have opened a business but do not go out and advertise yourself to others telling them that you are going to give them the best service possible, but you sit there and pray asking God to bless you, then will you be blessed?
Can you tell God that you have faith because God has saved you and given you life, and no longer a sinner but righteous, and though you live in the same manner as before that you are still to receive His blessings?
Will you be blessed?
Can you be blessed in that condition?
Can you?
If not, then though you may have opened up a new business today, because it is a business that God has given you to serve His purpose, by serving others from which you are to give your best to God.
Then God will be with you, He will change the hearts of those you work with, and God will change there path that they may start coming to your place of business rather than where they have already been going.
You do not advertise.
You do nothing to show that you are there.
You have no evidence of a life that follows Jesus.
With what evidence will people see that you are a Christian?
How will they know the fragrance of Christ from you?
There is nothing.
The vision is not important.
But what is important is the work that you must do in order for that vision to be.
Your work.
It is certain.
God desires that I reveal to others that I am His child.
We desire to do great things and use the great blessings for God’s glory, but the requirement is that we must live a life that is in accordance with the Word of God which is what we are being shown today.
God created everything from nothing.
From His spoken word we know and believe that God created the entire universe.
When God saved Israel from Egypt, why did He do so by bringing such destruction to that land?
Was God bored and decided to play games with them?
Could He not have just killed all the first born in the beginning and brought the Israelites out?
Was there no other choice but to bring the ten plagues without which He could not bring the Israelites out?
We know that if God wanted He could have just spoken the Word and placed all of the 2 million Israelites into Canaan.
But these are things that are beyond our thoughts.
The Israelites that were saved from Egypt, had many times rebelled against God and turned away from Him until they came to the entrance of Canaan.
Moses has now died and now through Joshua, God could have done the same thing and created plagues to the Canaanites, but He did not do so.
What did He do?
He allowed them to choose to live in obedience and by doing so God gave His promise to dwell amongst them. But what did they need to do?
They needed to go and wage war.
They needed to go and kill their enemies.
If you go and fight believing in Him, then God would give them the victory.
Though the people they were to go against were giants and you seem as small as locusts to them, if you believe in me and go out and fight, I will give you strength and victory, but it depends on your faith and how you choose to fight.
Who must choose to have faith and fight?
The Israelites.
If this message is for me, then God has sent His Son to die on the cross for me, and by believing in Him, I am made His child.
God has even promised to give us all that we ask for in Jesus name.
But who must fight against the world?
The fight is mine. I must go and fight.
If all that you seek from Me you have faith that it will be, then the fight against the world, that fight, I must put my faith in God and fight.
God will not destroy the enemies for the Israelites so that they may inhabit the promised land, but the Israelites, in faith, are to fight.
They are to kill everything that has the breath of life in it.
100 percent of it.
Child, elder, man, woman, it does not matter, all is to be killed.
The reason?
Because they may make the Israelites turn from the Lord and worship their gods and to prevent this they are commanded to kill all.
To apply this in my life, God is giving the Israelites the land as an inheritance.
What is God giving me as an inheritance?
It is my soul.
We are told that the body is a temple of the Spirit.
The life that I had lived previously, with the breath of life from the things of this world, like that of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, all these past things of this world that are filth, I must kill.
I must decide to do this and accomplish it.
My anger, temper, bitterness, envy, jealousy, greed, all that which occupies my soul that has breath which causes me to live in rebellion against the God, I must kill believing that God will grant me victory.
I must kill them all.
I cannot do anything to anyone outside of me.
I am not to do anything to those who dwell outside of my inheritance, but within my given inheritance, all that has breath that is evil, I must decide to kill it and do so.
God does not say it will happen just because we pray about it.
You think that because you have prayed that it will all happen as you asked, but it is not so.
I am the one who must believe, to draw the sword, stay awake in the night, protecting what I have been given, just in case an enemy comes in to destroy me, or a spy come in a take away information about my weaknesses to hurt me, I must protect myself.
God does not do your work for you.
In our lives, if I do not make these kinds of decisions, the result will be that I will not find success in faith.
There are many things we can speak of in this manner using the Bible, but more importantly, if I want to live a life that allows the vision that God has given me to be, then are we thinking about the obedience that is required in the life of faith that we live?
If by merely saying that I was a Christian gave me success, without obedience, then we may be unique, but countless Christians, those who choose to follow Jesus, many of them had businesses that failed, were fired from their jobs, had problems within their families, many personal problems, until they humbled themselves before God.
They are all witnesses to this.
The single difference that set them apart, was when they faced these times, they did not quit, but every time they faced circumstances they humbled themselves before the cross and looked upon the sin in their life, confessed to God their insignificance, and surrendered their lives so that the Lord would be revealed.
And when God is revealed, He restores the family, restores their business, restores their health, and their children are restored.
We hear the testimonies of these people and see these things with our eyes.
You are all faced with problems.
Search your heart with the light of this Word.
Am I still expecting God to do everything for me?
Where is my heart in light of the Word?
Or, though I may have thought that I have cut it all off, but what is it that I have yet to let go of, which is continuing to create problems for me in my life.
It is not just one problem, but there are many peoples with each their own king living within the land.
Within me, my desires, greed, unless I kill these things that live within me, these kings have set up places within me and unless I get rid of these kings, do I see that God cannot use me for His glory?
Or , do you think that I am good enough, and refuse to bow my head before the cross, refuse to bend my knee and shout to God and choose to face Him head on in stubbornness?
Let us examine ourselves.
When we try to live our lives according to the Word, and as we look those who have gone before us in the faith, there are many things that I at times would refuse to do.
When Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert, who were the first ones to turn against him. It was his own family, his brother and sister.
Miriam and Aaron tried to rise up against him.
The ones chosen by God, Korah, Dathan and Abiram are the first to rebel.
The ones who are leaders, who are learned are the ones who rise up and rebel.
It is not the insignificant ones who rebel.
If this is so, and I look at my life, and see my rebellion against God, it is the pride in me that wants to boast in myself that rises up and chooses to be disobedient.
Do you ever think that for you to refuse to believe that other are better than you and to think of yourself better even in the slightest bit is rebellion against God?
We do not think so.
While we were eating last week, I told the story about Abraham Lincoln and the ridicule he faced though he was president.
When people spoke about the flaws in his character he never denied it.
Rather, he acknowledged those things and turned it into a positive.
He did not concern himself with the circumstances of his upbringing and where he grew up though people tried to shame him, but if people were to point out our past our pride is hurt.
What does it matter?
If by his parents’ circumstance he stands here today, then he can stand on the foundation that his parents have set and honor them.
But we are embarrassed and pray that no one knows about our past, and if someone does mention something our pride is bothered.
Does God not know all that has happened as He put you where you are?
He knows.
When someone speaks about your flaws, if you acknowledge them then there is nothing more to say.
But the inability for us to acknowledge it is the desire for us to keep covering ourselves and present a different self.
If we would just accept and acknowledge everything then there is nothing else that can be addressed.
Then we can stand before God without hiding anything.
But to do this, what are we to do?
As God has spoken to the Israelites through Moses, because the sin in Canaan was too great, God was going to remove those who are there and give that land to the Israelites so that God may be glorified.
But without killing all that has breath in the land of Canaan, the Israelites would eventually fail to live a life of faith that would please God.
When we look at the history, the Israelites did not kill all that had breath in Canaan.
They lived a life of sin in failing to follow God completely.
If we are to look at their history and apply the teaching in our lives, then what must we decide today?
Are we going to think that we are good enough and embrace the life that the world around us approves of?
Or are we going to live a life of victory by killing all sin that desires to breathe within us?
The decision is yours.
Because I tell you something, to do this, do that, receive a blessing.
The one who is ready to be blessed, God will bless.
When you kill all the sin that has breath in you, and give yourself to God believing in the promise He has made to you, the Spirit of God will be upon you, He will guide your life, and be with you.
This is the blessed life.
You are not blessed because someone speaks blessing upon you.
When the Blessed One, God the Father, is in your heart and dwells among you , guides you and is with you, then your entire life is a blessing.
It is a life of victory.
For this reason, to live this life, we have spent time in this Word so that you may decide to kill all sin that has breath in you.

Sermon by Pastor Howard Park
Translation by Miguel Park