Everyone did as they saw fit
This past Sunday during Breakfast Club, we began our journey through the book of Judges. As we started, I asked a simple but challenging question:
What happens when we try to live with something God has told us to let go of or leave behind?
I asked that question because I know it’s something we all struggle with.
For some of us, it may be a relationship. For others, a job or a hobby. Maybe it’s a habit, an addiction, or something that has defined a large part of who we are. It could be anything.
For the Israelites in the days of the judges, it was a desire to fit in and be like everyone else.
On the surface, wanting to fit in and be accepted isn’t a bad thing—it’s core to who we are as human beings. But who we fit in with and who we want to be accepted by matters for that very same reason.
Why?
Because the people we surround ourselves with and the environments we place ourselves in will shape who we are, where we go, and who we become.
I tell our youth all the time, “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.”
God knew this about the Israelites, and He warned them through Joshua, their leader, as they entered the land He had promised them:
“The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”
– Joshua 23:9–13 (NIV)
But they didn’t listen.
Later, we read this in Judges:
“The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, ‘I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, “I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.” Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? And I have also said, “I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.”’” – Judges 2:1–3 (NIV)
The Israelites tried to live with the very things God told them to let go of and leave behind.
As a result, they forgot God and became trapped and ensnared by false gods—gods that promised fame, fortune, prosperity, comfort, pleasure, and more.
Life became a cycle of suffering, slavery, arrested development, and false hope because they wouldn’t let go.
And that cycle kept them from experiencing the life God desired for them.
So let me ask you:
What is God calling you to let go of or leave behind that you are trying to live with?
What is holding you back from experiencing life as God intended it to be?
Are the people, things, and environments you surround yourself with encouraging you to become more like Jesus?
As we begin 2026, let this be a marker—a moment when we finally take intentional steps toward letting go of and leaving behind the things God does not want us to live with.
It’s not easy. And many times, it’s not as black and white as we would like it to be. But when we fight to hold on to something God is asking us to change, we keep ourselves from moving foward and experiencing the life He desires for us.
When we do that, we find ourselves stuck in the same cycle of suffering, slavery, arrested development, and false hope that the Israelites experienced.
Let this year be different.
Let it be the year we pursue the freedom Jesus calls us to—by letting go and following Him.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Justin Porter
PS – It’s not too late! We would love for you to join us on our journey through Judges—Sunday mornings at 8:30 AM in the Teen Center (Building B).