If you do not root out the giants in your life, they will become your masters!

If you do not root out the giants in your life, they will become your masters.

Hello and welcome. In this message, we will talk about the failure of the Israelites to root out all the inhabitants of the promised land when the Lord brought them into it. And we will show you how this relates to the need to root out and turn away from sin after coming to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior. And just as the people whom the Israelites failed to root out of the land became a snare and a stumbling block to them, so too those sinful behaviors, those habits that we continue in after confessing Christ as Lord can become a trap to us.

Sin is like a cancer, friend, which starts in one area of the body, but it has a plan to spread through the entire body until it destroys that body completely. In the same way, sin desires to own us. It starts out as a small thing, but continues to weedle its way until it masters us. For instance, the Lord told Cain that sin was crouching at his door, desiring to rule him, but he must master it. He must rule over it. And we are often naive and have a casual view of sin. And this is very dangerous. Often times in studying the Word of God, we do not read between the lines to get an understanding of how powerful, how dangerous, and how destructive sin really is.

And in a minute, we will talk about generational sins, which are giants in families. But let's pray first.

Father, I thank You for the wisdom of Your Word to help us govern our lives. I pray that the listeners to this message will take heed and root out those sinful habits from their lives before Satan uses them to pull them down Father. Strengthen your servants. I pray in the holy and the wonderful name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

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There are some denominations that teach that generational sins are no more since Christ came and died for us. But the Bible does not confirm this view. Well, just take a look at families around you. Very often, but not always, the same kind of dysfunction passes from one generation to another. Sometimes the mother and father have lived together in an unmarried state and some of the children do the same or they end up having troubled marriages in similar fashion. Alcohol abuse runs in families. But because of Christ Jesus, it does not destroy the entire generation. And being aware of the power of sin, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." In other words, he must rule over sin or it will rule him. Pray for generation curses to be broken from over your children and siblings. Root out the giants, my friend.

And just before crossing over the Jordan to enter the promised land, the Word of the Lord came to Moses to tell the Israelites to be sure to drive out the inhabitants of the land that He was giving to them. The Lord instructed them to not only drive out the inhabitants of the land, but also to destroy their idols, destroy their pictures, destroy their molded images, and to demolish their altars and high places, and to take complete possession of the land, and to live in it. Now this driving out of the inhabitants is a hard saying for us in this age when there's so much talk about the atrocities of genocide in the world today. But when we consider that the entire earth belongs to the Lord of heaven. It helps us to put this into proper perspective. Everything is on loan to us and the Lord gives to whomever He desires. In fact, He's doing this every day. He's giving to whom He pleases without consulting anyone.

And Moses warned the people about what would happen if they failed to be obedient to God's command. Then in numbers 33:55, He said, "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them."

And true to form, the Israelites did not root out all the inhabitants. So let us take a look at who remained in the land. Number one, the Gibeonites who lived in Canaan were filled with fear. Fear of the Israelites. So they deceived Joshua, telling him that they had come from a distant land. And Joshua made a treaty with them that made them servants of the Israelites in the land. Number two, Rahab the prostitute. Her entire household was saved out of Jericho because she had helped the scouts by hiding them when they had come to get information about the city, about its people and its fortifications. They became citizens of Israel. Number three, there were the Anakims, the giants who were destroyed by Joshua and Caleb. However, some remained in three cities, namely in Gaza, in Ashdod, in Gath! We must root out the giants.

Now, as Joshua became old and stricken in years, the Lord told him, there was still very much land to be possessed. The land that remained at that time were number four, all the borders of the Philistines. Number five, Lebanon and more. They remained all the land of the Geshurites and the Maachatites.

Israel did not expel the inhabitants from these places. And just as the Lord had said, they remained as thorns in their sides, some even to this day. Perhaps this happened, because their constant disobedience had caused so much time to be lost in the desert. 40 years in fact, and maybe this allowed the Canaanites more time to fortify their cities. Another theory is that perhaps many of the strong men of Israel died in the wilderness. Whatever the reason, they were unable to complete the task of rooting out the giants from the land.

The Anakims became aligned with the Philistines. For instance, the 9'9 tall Goliath was a remnant of the Anakims. He was from Gath! And if we have difficulty accepting that Goliath was really 9'9 inches, then consider another giant named Og, who had a bed that was 13 feet long! Besides, Goliath wore what is called scale armor that weighed about 125 pounds. So, he had to be massive in size. And some say this armor that looked like the skin of a serpent, connected him with Satan. They proposed that Goliath was the seed of the serpent and David was the seed of a woman. So David, the seed of a woman, bruised the head of Goliath, a seed of the serpent, referring to Genesis 3:15. And this is a picture of Christ conquering Satan. And they conclude that the moral behind the story of David and Goliath is that the giants of the day represented Satan and had not been rooted out according to God's command.

Now, here's the reason the Lord urged them to be sure to root out all the inhabitants of the land. Deuteronomy 7:4 and 16 tells that the Lord said, "For they will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly." And just as sure as bad company corrupts good manners, the Lord warned that those allowed to remain in the land will corrupt their children. And this is exactly what happened. We must root out the giants.

Psalm 106:34 refers to this saying, "They did not destroy some of the people as the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They married their daughters. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

And when it was time for his departure, Joshua called the Israelites together. He told them he had divided by lot the lands that remained and promised that the Lord their God would expel the rest of their enemies. He instructed them, however, to be obedient to the law of Moses and do not turn away from the Lord. But he warned them that they would be driven off the land if they failed to be obedient if they went back and mingled with these people. In Joshua 23:13, he said, "If they intermarried with them, know for sure that the Lord God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.

In similar manner, believers in Christ are encouraged to slay the giants in their lives, namely sin and the fears of life. Each of us have our own giants to slay, and we often mistake them for people who have come against us. But these giants are actually spiritual beings and each one can be considered a false god. After all, have we not made things like drugs, alcohol, pornography, lying, and similar sins gods that control us? Root out these giants, friend.

And just as the giants needed to be rooted out of the land in the day the Israelites entered the promised land, the world is crowded with the enemies of Christ that seek to pull us down to the very depths of hell. And so the spiritual giants of fear, of doubt, unbelief, false teaching need to be driven out from around us and from our souls that Christ may reign in our hearts. And this is a spiritual war and will only be won by spiritual warfare such as prayer and fasting and abstinence. Ephesians 6:12 tell us that we do not fight against nor do we wrestle with flesh and blood. We are fighting spiritual wickedness and principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Friends, these are real giants. root them out.

The fear of giants prevented Israel from entering the promised land and the fear of sinful giants in their lives prevent many from accepting Jesus Christ as Lord. And we meet many such on the street who say they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but refuse to commit. They give reasons like this. I do not want to play with God. But what they're really saying is, I want to come to Christ, but I'm not prepared to give up certain things or certain people. In other words, I'm afraid that this sin in my life will cause me to fall. And so, I'm exercising my option to remain outside the kingdom of God. And when people consider accepting the Lord, it is a sobering thought because they think of certain relationships, certain habits, things they enjoy, and they're faced with the reality of the pain that they will feel when they abandon these habits and these relationships. And so, friend, these giants prevent repentance.

Scripture says the glory of God will cover the earth. And the book of Habakkuk 2:14 says, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." This will happen with us teaching and preaching God's Word. In the end, the nations will come to know God. The spiritual giants will be defeated. The small gods will be defeated and put aside. And the glory of God will flow through the entire world, and all flesh shall see it together. Isaiah 45, let us root out the giants.

Now, two main points as we conclude. We must root out the sinful giants in our life when we come to Christ. Otherwise, we will not be accepted by Him. We must leave no habitual sin alive in us. Otherwise, it will corrupt us and take over. And in the end, the Israelites failed to root them out and they lost the promised land for more than a thousand years. We thank God for His Word today.

Now, you've been listening to this word and perhaps you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And all who do not know Him, we want to give them an opportunity to embrace Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins. Please say this prayer of repentance after me:

• Father, I am a sinner.

• I am sorry for all my sins.

• Dear Lord, I crave Your forgiveness.

• Please forgive me.

• Today I have decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

• Dear Lord Jesus, welcome to my heart.

• I give You the key to my heart because I now belong to You forever.

• Please keep the key forever.

• And please give me the Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth.

• Please give me the Holy Spirit to teach me Your Word.

• To cause me to be consistent in my commitment.

• Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Amen.

Welcome, friend, to the body of believers in Christ. There are so many of us here awaiting the return of the Good Master. In the meantime, we encourage you to let your pastor know that you've given your heart to the Lord and you want to become water baptized in the way that Jesus Christ was.

Begin reading the Word of God every day. It is your daily food, daily necessary food. Begin in the book of John, then go to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, reading audibly as often as possible because faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Pray daily. Attend at your local church. And one glad morning the Savior will come and receive us all unto Himself and we shall indeed forever be with the Lord. God bless and keep you in Jesus mighty name. Amen.