James 4:4-8 You adulterous people, don’t you know that

friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think

Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud    but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,

and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

A) The Testimony

Joshua 4:20-2420 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they

had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed

over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the

LORD your God.

Joshua 24:14-1514 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your

ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve

the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Judges 2:8-138 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres

in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of

the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought

them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They

aroused the LORD’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

B) Gardening

Genesis 2:8-158 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in

Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground

—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil.10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from

there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is

good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the

entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth

river is the Euphrates.15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden

of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 1:27-2827 So God created mankind in his own

image,    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be

fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the

ground.”

C) The Fruit

Gal 5:22-2522 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let

us keep in step with the Spirit.

Mark 7:5-85 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their

food with defiled hands?”6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he

prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:“‘These people honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain;

    their teachings are merely human rules.’8 You have let go of the commands of God and

are holding on to human traditions.”

Mark 7:14-1514 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and

said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into

them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

Mark 7:20-2320 He went on: “What comes out of a

person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice,

deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come

from inside and defile a person.”