Hamilton Elim Church
23 June 2024 - Options Part 4: Consider The Consequences
We are doing a series called options and this is the last of our series options. Next week we go into Matariki and so options and we love choices. We love to choose which team to support, which team not to support, right? But every choice comes with consequences, good or bad. Like if I should have an extra piece of chicken or not, right? Whenever I take another piece of chicken, I just say these words. "A moment on my lips are a lifetime on my hips." Everyone repeat with me, "A moment on my lips is a lifetime on my hips." I never listen to it and I always take another piece, now that ah, three, four, five. Anyway, the title today's message is consider the consequences, consider the consequences. Like when I was an intermediate, my little brother, he's about three years younger than me and I remember one time we were in the store, we were in the toy aisle. Okay, you remember growing up, if you're just a young kid, you always hit the toy aisle and you look at the, you covered all the toys that are there and that's what we're doing. And I saw these ninja stars in the toy aisle and had these little suckers on the end. So if you grab it, you throw it and it sticks to the window. And I thought, "Oh my gosh, I've got to have this." It was pleasing to the eyes, so I took it, stuffed it in my shirt. My little brother's with me, he saw some comic books. They look pleasing to the eyes, so he took it and stuffed it in his shirt. I went back home and I was at home throwing my ninja stars at the windows. You know, this almost looks like Spider-Man and I'm throwing it at the windows. My little brother comes up and goes, "Ance, Ance, could I play with ninja stars?" And like every good older brother, I said, "No." Get lost. Basically what I said to him. And he goes running to my mum and he starts, goes, "My mum, Ance, punch those ninja stars." That's what he does. Yeah, and I got a beating from my mum. You know what? Snitches get stitches. Snitches get stitches. We all know this, right? Snitches get stitches. So I was like, "Mum, hey, she's beating me." And I said, "David." Or whatever his name is, let's just call him David, because that's his actual name. He stole the comic book and then he got a beating as well. I felt so much better that we both got a beating that day. We're free to choose, but we're not free from the consequences of our choices. We're not. And as a Western culture, we're very individualistic, meaning that we treat everyone as separate individuals. And there's some positives to that. The positive side to being individualistic is that there's personal freedom. We've got the right to choose whatever we want. We can choose whatever career we want to be, whatever we want to study. Innovation comes out of that because I'm free to learn things and do things and whatever it is. I don't have to stick to the social norms that innovation comes free, self-reliance, human freedom that every life is sacred, that we got to protect every life, whether whatever color skin you are, whether you're ginger or not, or gender, whatever gender you are. Every ginger is sacred. Let's move on. Right? Oh my goodness. We're free to choose, we're not free from the consequences of our choices. However, with theory, positives come negative as negative theory, thinking of culture, whatever culture we're in. We've got positives and negatives, you know, we've got to recognize the negatives and deal with them. Celebrate the positives. It's what I'm celebrating with my Tariqi. Celebrate the positives from their next week. It's what I'm looking forward to it. But the negatives through this individualistic society that we live in is that it can lead to social isolation. Right? Because now it's just me and no one else cares about me because we just get stuck and me, myself and I, again, can lead to stress and equality. We could community ties, consumerism, because I just want what I want for me now. And we consume, consume, consume, because everything is for me. Now the danger of extreme individualism is that it can make us think of only ourselves and causing us to overlook the impact that our decisions have on everyone around us. And that's a very real danger, like, for instance, like, yes, I got a hiding for what I did. Right? But I didn't consider the effects that I had on my little brother who went and did that himself. I didn't think about the effect that it would have on my mum, thinking, oh my gosh, my terrible mum, where did I go wrong? I didn't think about the effects that I had on the stool that I stole from, meaning loss of revenue, potentially loss of employment for some people. I didn't think about that because all I thought about was me. It's what I want, what I need. And this can happen. This is why people have affairs. They get caught on the fair because all they're thinking about is themselves. I'm not hurting anyone else but myself. It's all about me. Absolutely not. Because we don't think we don't stop and consider the ripple effects, the devastation that causes on lies right around us. And people who take their own lives because we get so stuck in this and think about no one cares about me. And we don't think about the huge impact on all those families who are left to pick up the pieces afterwards because we get so stuck in it that no one cares. People care. If you don't know where you are, if you're feeling lonely, no one cares about you, let me tell you, people love you, reach out, reach out, you're so loved. And quite often all we see is ourselves and no one cares but there's devastation, how many families are utterly destroyed because of this, trying to pick up the pieces or what's happening around. And the right to choose, move at my body, my choice. What about the rights of this unborn child? We get so stuck in this extreme individualism. We don't see the knees of everyone else around us or how we are connected. We're connected together. We're free to choose but we are not free for the consequences of our choices. When we open up the Bible, the Bible is full of people just like you and me, the same struggles, the same issues, human beings, real people. And they struggle these same things as well and today our reading is going to come from the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua opens, Moses is dead and now Joshua leaves the children of Israel across into the Promised Land and their first city to come across is the city of Jericho. And it's surrounded by these impenetrable walls but God said, look, you can take the city or you've got to do is obey my commands and they march around the city seven times and the walls come tumbling down. Great victory. Take the city but all the silver, gold, bronze and iron are sacred and are devoted to me. These things devote, devote these things and behave all the rest but this is mine. Right? So they have this great victory but there's an issue, there's an issue with this victory and let's pick up the story in Joshua chapter seven verse one. But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things. Who was unfaithful? The Israelites. They were unfaithful to the devoted things. Aiken, son of Kami, the son of Zimruh, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took some of them. So Yahweh's anger burned against Israel. So Aiken disobeyed God and he takes for himself. He sourced things and he took it for himself. Things that were items that were devoted to God. Verse two, now Joshua sent some men from Jericho to I which is near Beth Avon, just in case you didn't know, to the east of Bethal and told them. And reason why these details are here but it's because these stories are real. These talents are real and Beth Avon to the east of Bethal and he told them go up and spy out their region. So the men went up and spied out I. Now the spies come back and say, hey, you know, the city's not that big, it's a small city. What do you need to take the whole army? Let's just take just take some of our men and so about 3,000 went up and they were routed by the meno I who killed about 36 of them. They chased Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes at this the hearts of the people mounted in fear and became like water. Like oh my gosh, we defeated the great city of Jericho. We get routed by the small city and goes, how are we supposed to take this land if we can't even take this small town? See, they went into battle with it in their own strength. They went in their own strength like, hey, we did it before, you know, we can do it again. All right, and they go on there and how often do we get caught up into, well, God blessed us before He's gonna bless us again and we are caught up into yesteryear and we don't realize that God moves differently in our lives, doesn't move the same way. Verse 6, then Joshua told his clothes and he fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And then he starts complaining, starts complaining, let's get him carry on. Why did you bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan where we were comfortable. Right? We should have stayed there where everything we needed, you brought us here, isn't it really funny that we love it when things go well for us and we thank you, Jesus, praise God for all the things that are done. As soon as things get tough, we start complaining, man, we're as God, where are you God, where are you, when I needed you most and we forget how God had moved for us before. The breakthrough in our lives, how short our memories are. We're praising Jesus two weeks ago and two weeks later, we're like, where are you God? How short our memories are. Verse 10, Yahweh said to Joshua, stand up, I love what he says, I love what he says, stand up, what are you doing down on your face? Oh my gosh, get up, have you forgotten already? Verse 11, Israel has sinned, who's sinned, a kid, no, Israel, Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep their taking, some of the devoted things. They've stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. When you read the story, tribe by tribe come before Joshua and before the Lord, and finally Aiken, Aiken is called out and he's identified as the perpetrator. No matter how much you try to hide things, things seem to come out on the wash. You think you're hiding, no one else will know, it's just me. All of a sudden, people know about your ninja stars. Verse 20, Aiken replied, "It is true I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel. This is what I have done. When I saw in the plunder a beautiful road from Babylonia, he saw these things pleasing to the eye, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. Imagine using a bar of gold, no one else will notice, bar of gold. I covered to them and I took them, I was pleasing to the eye, I saw it and I took it. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath. This takes us back to the God of Eden where humanity saw the fruit and was pleasing to the eye so they took it. And then when they found out they were hiding, they were hiding from God. Isn't that what we do? When things are pleasing to us, we see the opportunity to define what is good and bad of my own eyes. I want to define it for myself and no one else has gone. Whatever is pleasing in my eyes, whatever is right in my thinking, I'm trying to look for things that line up to what I believe is right. It's the God of Eden, those ninja stars are pleasing to the eyes and this is how affairs happen. Someone else's wife looks pleasing, someone else's husband or son, verse 24, then Joshua together with all Israel took Aiken, son of Zera, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had to the valley of Acre. Acre means trouble. Joshua said, why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today. In all Israel stoned him and after that stoned the rest, they burned him. Did you read that? Aiken's whole family were killed along with him. How fair is that? How fair is that? This is a hard read, don't you think? Like, oh my gosh, can we just read the other parts of the Bible? Let's just look at the other parts of the Bible. Why did you bring this one up? Why did everyone else suffer for one man's sin? Why did everyone else suffer one man's sin? Now why does this text bother us? The reason this story bothers us is because of our modern society, it stresses that everyone are separate individuals and we fail to see the connection to our communities. Do we have this individualistic view of humanity? That's what we have. We have individualistic view of humanity. Now the Bible does not have an individual view of humanity but a corporate view. The Bible has a corporate view and I'll tell you why as we get closer to the end. Keep you waiting. See, the Bible does not see people as separate individuals disconnected from each other. That's what Joshua chapter 7, it doesn't begin with Acre has sinned but how does it begin, Israel had sinned, Israel had sinned. The consequences of Acre and sin was far more reaching than just himself, it didn't just affect him but it cost the lives of 36 men at AI, at AI and ultimately his family but still it kind of doesn't sit right with us but the Bible does give us a balanced view of individualism. In fact, the Bible is a beautiful way, it brings individualism and this corporate view and brings it together. Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 16 says this, "Fathers shall not be put to death because of the children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin." This is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, underlies all the law in the Bible. Every single one of us are responsible for our own sins. Every single one of us, the sin of, of what happened in the garden sin came into the world because what happened in the garden but, but it's, but it's not, but I'm, how to come to what I do, not to what Adam did, I'm, I'm how to come to what I do, I have the right to choose but every choice comes of consequences, good or bad. So what, so what this implies is that Acre and sons and daughters were willing participants in the wrong doing, naturally we think of little kids, right, be careful what we do because your actions influence more people than you know, you know, that, that saying, hey, do what I say, not what I do, right, with our kids, your kids are watching you. Who we are is a combination of, of our experiences growing up but we, for any of the day is who I am is not because of, of the mistakes of my, my appearance. I get to choose. If I repeat that, that's on me, that's on me. But it will save your kids a lot, a lot when you begin to, to, to model before them, model before them the godly principles. And so we have Akins and so this implies that Akins sons and daughters were, were willing participants in what was happening with free to choose but not free of the consequences of our choices. So what does this mean for us? It means that we always, we always, this is what we need to do, we need to always consider the consequences. Are they good or bad? Because our correct view on life is that we are all connected. We belong to one another. Maori has this, this beautiful phrase, it's called "fenongatanga" that we belong to one another. We're connected. We're connected. So the next time you feel compelled to take some particular action, stop and ask yourself what the consequences will be, whatever action you're about to do, stop and ask yourself, what are the consequences? Because that moment of consideration can make the world of difference and the kind of future you create for yourself and those around you. That moment of consideration to stop and consider, always consider the consequences, are they good or bad. I'm not saying that individualism is bad and neither does the Bible. But the Bible beautifully bleeds individualistic and corporal reviews together, teaching us that we are all interconnected and that we need each other and at the same time encouraging us to innovate and be all that God has called us to be. We are free to choose but not free of the consequences of our choices. Always consider the consequences. Are they good or bad? See, I cannot make a decision absent or the effect of those around me. Which means I'm responsible because it gets like, "Well, it's me, only I should suffer. I'm not hurting anyone else. We are." I cannot make my decisions absent or the effect of those around me. I need to take responsibility. That's what we need to do. Take responsibility for our actions because we are all connected. Finongatanga, we're all connected. Now I'm going to end with this video. I played this a few years back but I thought this sums it up. This is Dave's story. Growing up, we didn't have much and for our lunches as well, we would only get sandwiches so I became really good at stealing. My uncle and his family had moved into a house and for some reason he would bully me and my brother and beat us with his close fist. He would punch us in the face and I would get blood nose. I would get knocked out and as a result of that, my schooling went down, I had to go into school and my parents would never around when the beatings would occur to me and my brother. As a way to show the rest of the world, I used to bully other people. My mother had to work three jobs just to get food and pay for the rent. My father worked long hours during the day and he would go to night school because they all moved over from the Cook Islands, coming here with nothing. My dad finished work early one day and when he walked through the front door to come home, he saw me getting thrown across the room and smacking my head into the wall and then from that point on, my father said to my mum, this has got to stop and I kicked my uncle and his family out but the damage had already occurred for me. I was already on the bandwagon, I'm hating school and everything has been downhill for me. My brother got caught up with a youth group. So I still got my brother, my brother became a Christian and then I sort of followed in his footsteps because I wanted to be like my brother. So I sort of followed the God route that he took, always having them back in my head that when I get older, I'm going to get my uncle, that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to get him. And then when I started reading the Lord's Prayer, then after the Lord's Prayer, Jesus continues to say, you know, forgive people because if you don't forgive people, I won't forgive you. And I know that in my past, my past is a real bad past and I was like, if I can't forgive my uncle, you know, Jesus God ain't going to forgive me. So we actually made peace with my uncle. I went from not having no education, leaving school, I'm not knowing how to speak, not knowing how to read or write, to then later on reading God's Word. And for some, I don't know what happened, I was able to read and I was able to speak. So I went from not being able to speak at all and just stuttering, to being able to hold a conversation and start to talk. What I do now is that I actually work with a youth that offend me and try and have their lives have a better outcome in their lives. And when I tell them my story, often encourages them and gives them hope because what we do now will affect up to five generations from us. And that's one thing that I know and that's one thing that I've always taught and spoken to with the families that I deal with. I'm now in the police. My sister is now detective in the police and my brother is a senior pastor and, you know, how can that happen and the environment that we grew up in, you know, and what I actually link it back to is actually my grandma, continue praying and looking at where we are now. That's like, yep, that was not by us, what we've done. It's about what she had done, how pray for the covering upon us and for the generations to come. For me, that's what I believe living large is by thinking about the generations to come. And leaving your legacy, not only for you, but for five or so generations just to have their covering upon them. And that's living large, that's living to the potential of where God wants you to be. Not from, because I've only got a small view, but God's got a bigger picture for me. Just got to save man, that guy's got a real good looking brother, real good looking brother, man. You know, say funny, that video, you actually see I'm limping down the beach like this. I had just, this was seven and a half years ago, I had just ruptured the left side of my disc and affected the left side of my body and boxing, they just go and I finally ruptured the other side of my disc and now I'm ripping on the right side. So now I'm all right, I'm all right. In that video was my, my dad's actually in the, in the video of the area and my, my, my dad actually, my brother actually lived with my dad and so he will drop him off in the morning and then come back after working, pick him up and, and go. And it was that moment when he come home one time and he saw what it, what it did, what had happened and spoke to my mom and said, told my mom that something has to happen. And so my mom, I'll tell you what, the courage that she had to go up to her older brother and tell him that he has to leave and effect, trying to think actually, cause they're really good at first service. But I mean, the words she said is like, you know, do not touch my boys again. I'll tell you what, the, the decision that she made, the decision she made, the consequences of reactions was good for her family, was good for her family. You know, you cannot change the past, but you have the power to choose the very best for your future. You can't change your past, but you can choose this moment right now. You can decide right now. You can choose and that moment of consideration can make the world a difference for the kind of future that you will create for yourself and those around you, but you choose. This is why the Bible doesn't have an individual view of humanity by the corporate view. This is why 1 Corinthians 15, 21 to 22, for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man, for as in Adam or die, so in Christ, or will be made alive. Amen. It's the beauty of individualism and corporate world views coming together that Jesus died for all of humanity, for all of humanity, but each person individually must choose. We must decide to say, yes, Jesus, thank you for what you did for me on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice so that I can be free. We can choose or we can choose to live our life our own way, seizing the opportunity to decide for myself what is good and right of my own eyes, or we can humble ourselves and submit this saying, God, I need you in my life. I've been trying to do these things in my own strength and I need you. I don't know where you are in life right now. If you find yourself in the middle of a storm, it's a good idea to follow Jesus because he knows the way out, but you need to decide. Please consider the consequences of the good or bad, come on, let us pray, Father, we thank
We love options, we love to choose, it's good to have options.
This week Pastor Ants explores Joshua 7. We are free to choose, but not free from the consequence of our choices