The Blessing Runs Out the Bottom: Unholy Alliances

Sermon outline

God gives His people territory but forbids covenants with those who do not know Him, because every unholy alliance punches a hole in the bowl, so that the blessing still comes but runs out the bottom.

1. Sanctifying grace

   Jesus is our sanctifier. To be sanctified is to be set apart and holy, in the world but not of it. There are ways of thinking, walking and talking that do not please God, and as we allow the Spirit to work, He slowly works them out of us so that we serve Him with gladness and become more like Jesus.

   “Sanctification is a process in our lives that we will go through. How long this will take depends on each of us.”

   • 1 Corinthians 1:30

2. The territory without the treaty

   God promised Israel borders from the Red Sea to the Euphrates and said He would drive out the inhabitants, and in the same breath told them not to make a covenant with those people or their gods, because it would become a snare. He would make them an amazement to the nations, but they were not to partner with the ungodly in the land He gave them.

   “God is going to give us territory, and God is going to give us land, but we are not to partner in those lands and in those places with ungodly people.”

   • Exodus 23:31-32
   • Exodus 34:10-12

3. Where you put your trust

   He runs a chain of scriptures on trust. Some trust in chariots and horses, in the resources of others or of government, but we trust in the name of the Lord. It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in princes, and those who trust Him are like Mount Zion. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help because the chariots are many. The man who depends on flesh becomes a bush in the wasteland that does not see prosperity when it comes; the man who trusts the Lord is a tree planted by water, green in the drought and never failing to bear fruit.

   “Some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

   • Psalm 20:7
   • Psalm 40:4
   • Psalm 56:11
   • Psalm 62:8
   • Psalm 118:8-9
   • Psalm 125:1
   • Psalm 146:3
   • Isaiah 31:1
   • Jeremiah 17:5-8

4. Owe no man anything but love

   He aims this at business people in particular: do not hang your success or prosperity on a political party, an individual, a businessman or a contract, or fear that a wrong word will cost you what was promised. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow, but what men give is always conditional. We all know not to marry an unbeliever, but being unequally yoked in business, with a partner who serves another god, breaks the hedge and gives the devil a gap, whether or not you tithe on the business.

   Illustration: Driving a little Toyota Yaris and being promised a Range Rover once the business takes off: that is not the blessing of the Lord but the deception of the devil.

   “Our alliance and our trust must be in the Lord.”

   • Romans 13:8-10
   • Proverbs 10:22
   • 2 Corinthians 6:14

5. A friend, not a partner

   You can stay friends with unbelievers, but what you owe them is love and the truth of the gospel: pray for their salvation, because we are the salt and the light. Do not stand surety for them, and do not assume a Christian is safe either, because there are unholy Christians too, and Jesus' critics were the religious men in the synagogue. Once you are entangled in a deal with someone you lose the right to speak into their life, because if you need them you must comply, and they keep you like a puppet on a string.

   “Jesus' critics were not unbelievers.”

   • Matthew 5:13-14

6. The bowl becomes a colander

   You stand holding a bowl out for the blessing, but every unholy alliance puts another hole in it until it is a colander. The blessing still comes, but it filters out the bottom, frustration follows, and the first one we question is God. If March has come and you have not seen the blessing, make a course correction: ask the Lord where you have broken the hedge and where you are unequally yoked. The test is simple: the moment you are afraid to tell them about Jesus, or think you cannot say something because they will be offended, it is an unholy alliance. Seek first the kingdom and the rest will be added.

   “The minute that you have a fear of telling them about Jesus Christ, it's an unholy alliance.”

   • Matthew 22:37-39
   • Matthew 6:33

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