WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.959 Hello everyone, I'm Dr. 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:01.679 Steve Holt. 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:04.799 I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.360 Each week we go into God's Word. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.160 We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.599 And we are here to build a Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:21.280 So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:24.960 Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.079 Alright, well, I'm gonna be honest with you up front about Joshua chapter 7. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:34.640 It's not as much fun as Joshua chapter 6. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:41.600 All right, so Pastor Steve had the fun chapter last week with Jericho, and uh this one's a little bit different. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:48.320 But the good news is we get to read God's word together, and uh we're gonna learn, we're gonna grow, and he's gonna speak. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:52.880 So I'm gonna start by talking about a uh childhood hero of mine. 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.600 Um for those of you that know me well, I'm a huge sports fan. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:57.520 I love to talk sports with anybody. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:00:59.679 I'll follow pretty much any sport. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:04.560 I can talk to you about any sport, probably other than like golf and boxing. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:06.959 But other than that, let's talk about sports. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.640 And growing up, my dad was a big cycling fan. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:15.120 So every summer we would I would wake up early and watch the Tour de France with him. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:20.799 Um for those of you unfamiliar, it's this huge bike race uh all across the countryside of France. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:22.560 And so that was one of my favorite things. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:28.400 And as a kid, I would I would wake up early in the summer when I didn't have school to watch this bike race with my dad. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:36.159 And uh I grew up in the late 90s, early 2000s, so that's when Lance Armstrong was doing his thing and was winning uh Tour de France's. 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:40.000 So naturally, I was a huge Lance Armstrong fan, huge Lance Armstrong fan. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:41.519 I had posters of him in my wall. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:46.719 I had a trek bicycle because he rode trek bicycles, um, had the Live Strong bracelet. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:48.799 Anybody else rock a Live Strong bracelet? 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:49.519 You remember those? 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:49.920 No? 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:50.400 Okay. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:52.319 Um he was he was awesome. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:57.200 He was not only the best cycler, one of the best athletes in the world at the time, he also had beaten cancer. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:01:59.760 Um, and that was part of his Live Strong foundation. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.439 So I was I was enthralled. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:02.879 I was a huge fan. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:10.400 Well, it's common knowledge now that almost every cyclist, uh, American and not, during that time period was cheating. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:16.319 Um kind of like the baseball era where where a lot of them were doing steroids, that was happening uh in the world of cycling. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:20.719 And lots of stuff like PEDs, performance enhancing drugs, they take in testosterone. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.360 Uh but the main one was something called doping. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:24.560 It was pretty high tech. 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:38.800 They would actually remove their own blood, and then I don't, I'm not a science guy, but they would do something to it with the platelets and stuff in order to increase their capacity for retaining oxygen, and then they would inject it back into themselves. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:43.360 So, not allowed, it was against the rules, but all of these guys were doing it. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:49.680 It was pretty high tech and it was hard to detect, too, uh, because it's not a drug that shows up in your system. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:55.680 So, one by one, these guys start admitting to it, they start getting busted, they start falling. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:02.719 Um, other guys I followed, like Tyler Hamilton wrote a book about it, and they're all falling, but not Lance Armstrong, right? 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:06.000 He denied it and denied it and denied it. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:09.039 And me being a kid at the time, I believed him. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.439 I'm like, man, Lance Armstrong is awesome. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.759 Not only is he not cheating, right? 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:17.439 Everybody else is cheating, and he's still better than all of them, right? 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:19.120 As a naive kid. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:20.159 That's what I thought. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.639 Um, well, no, that wasn't the case. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:26.000 Finally in 2012, uh, they got him. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:27.599 They finally got him in 2012. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.080 He won his last Tour de France in 2005. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.479 So he he maintained this lie for a really, really long time. 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:42.080 Everyone else at that point had already admitted to it, moved on with their lives, but Lance Armstrong kept going, kept pushing uh this lie. 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:49.599 And I remember I was a little bit older in 2012, wasn't little kid anymore, but I was still crushed when I found out that he was was cheating. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:58.960 And and not only that, I think the part that bothered me more was not necessarily the cheating anymore, but was how long he maintained this lie. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.560 Because the longer he went, the nastier it got. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:11.520 And he started attacking people's character for speaking the truth, and and he was going after people in really pretty horrible, uh, horrible ways. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:18.959 And so I remember being more crushed, more upset by the fact that he lied and maintained this lie for so long than even the fact that he he cheated anymore. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:22.720 So sometimes the cover-up is worse than the actual crime. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:26.720 It often makes the whole situation a lot worse. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:33.199 So, why did I just spend five minutes talking about Lance Armstrong and cycling from the early 2000s? 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:34.560 Well, stay with me. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:37.519 Let's read this chapter and I'll make it make sense, I promise. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:42.240 So uh, before we read chapter 7, I want to start with the last verse of chapter 6. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:47.360 So if you look back in your Bibles, chapter 6, verse 27 of Joshua says this. 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:53.839 So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:05:05.279 So last week we talked about Joshua and the Israelites and the Lord's huge victory, uh, the defeat of this mighty, historic, powerful city of Jericho. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:07.360 God brought down Jericho. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.839 So what a high that must have been for the Israelites, right? 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.360 Imagine what that did to their faith, how that encouraged each other. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:18.079 They would have been so excited riding this high of defeating Jericho. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:25.279 And he says, the Lord was with Joshua, good things are happening, his name, the Lord's name is spreading throughout the land, throughout the promised land. 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:29.759 And then look at the first verse, or sorry, the first word of chapter 7. 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:30.079 Ready? 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:32.560 The first word of chapter 7 is but. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:34.879 Dang it, right? 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:40.720 But but, man, great things are happening, and now we have an ominous but. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:45.360 Moses described the promised land in Deuteronomy 11, 11. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:49.439 He described the promised land as a land of hills and valleys. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:52.800 Hills and valleys, and boy was he right. 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:57.199 In more ways than one, in more ways than he possibly realized. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.519 This isn't just a description of the physical landscape of the promised land. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:08.560 It was also a description of the Israelites' faith throughout this journey of entering the promised land. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.399 The same is often true of our own right, our own lives, right? 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.759 Our faith can often have hills and valleys. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:25.600 And my first question when I began studying chapter 7 and looking back at chapter 6 was like, well, how much time passed between chapter 6 and chapter 7, right? 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.319 Maybe they're in a valley with the butt, right? 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:32.959 Maybe because there was like years that passed by after Jericho and they forgot about Jericho. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:36.879 No, the there was zero time between six and seven, right? 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:38.000 It was immediate. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:39.759 So uh that wasn't the case, right? 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:50.399 They're coming right after this high high, this defeat of Jericho, um, this great thing that's increasing their faith, and all of a sudden they find themselves once again in a valley. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:55.120 And it's easy to look at the Israelites and think, what is wrong with these people, right? 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.199 Why are they so quick to question God? 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.120 Why are they so quick to go back to sin? 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:03.279 Why are they so quick to lose their faith after all that they've witnessed, right? 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:12.800 They've witnessed Jericho being defeated, they've witnessed the Red Sea being parted, the Jordan River being parted, manna from heaven, the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:20.160 Like, imagine the things that they saw with their own eyes, yet they're still so quick to go back to the valleys. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.279 And then my next question was well, am I any better, right? 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:28.000 Before I point fingers at the Israelites, am I any better with my own life? 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.600 How often am I quick to question God and what he's doing in my life? 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.040 Or am I impatient with my prayer requests? 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.199 Am I am I quick to forget the good when the difficulties come? 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:45.439 Well, let's read Joshua chapter 7, take in this story and see what is going on with the Israelites. 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:47.120 So we'll start in verse 1. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:57.680 But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan, the son of Carmen, the son of Zabedee, the son of Zerah, and the son of the tribe of Judah took the accursed things. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.600 So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:10.319 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.120 So the men went out and spied out Ai. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:19.279 They returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:23.040 Do not weary, for the people there, for the people of Ai are few. 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:28.240 So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:36.480 And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Share Barn, and stuck them, struck them down the descent. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:41.440 Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:46.000 In verse one we see the sin that was committed by the Israelites. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.960 Achan took the accursed things. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:51.519 This was a clear violation, a clear disobedience. 00:08:51.600 --> 00:09:02.799 If you look back in chapter 6, verse 18, it says, And you by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed, when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:09.600 So they the Israelites had clear instructions with the fall of Jericho that they were not to take anything for themselves. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:12.559 Clear instructions before it even happened. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:17.200 Yet Achan, for Achan, the temptation was too great. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:20.159 He knowingly and willingly sinned. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:22.480 And it says the Lord was angry. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:27.279 And then in verse 2, we see the Joshua and the Israelites continuing with their mission, right? 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:37.200 As they inhabited the promised land, there was this process of spying out and then attacking and conquering different groups of people as they take what the Lord promised them in the promised land. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:46.000 So they continued on with that same mission despite this unresolved sin that was currently taking place. 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:48.240 There was no pause. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:52.879 There was no time taken by Joshua and the spies to consult with the Lord. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:56.080 They were supremely self-confident. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:57.840 And I get it, right? 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:01.200 Look what they just witnessed the fall of the mighty city of Jericho. 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:03.279 Of course they're feeling confident, right? 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.799 But their confidence was in the wrong thing. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:08.879 Their confidence was in the wrong thing. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:14.799 They were confident in themselves instead of confident in the Lord. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.960 They were confident in themselves and they didn't pause and say, Lord, are we in the right headspace, the heart space? 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:22.639 Are we ready to go out and conquer somebody else? 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:23.600 They didn't do any of that. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.759 They just moved right on because of their self-confidence. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:29.440 There's a big difference, right? 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:31.279 You say, well, confidence in me and the Lord. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:37.759 There's a big difference in if we're confident in our own abilities or if we're confident in the Lord who's in us and his abilities, right? 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.879 And I my favorite example of that is David when he faced Goliath, right? 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:47.679 I'm sure that David was struggling with a little bit of anxiety and fear before that moment, right? 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:51.759 He was this little teenager and Goliath was a giant, right? 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:57.039 But he wasn't confident in himself or his abilities, he was confident in the Lord who was in him, right? 00:10:57.200 --> 00:10:58.720 The Lord who was in him. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.120 And so the Joshua forgot that for a minute. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:02.480 The Israelites forgot that for a minute. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:08.399 They pressed on, they kept going, and they didn't pause and make sure they were right with the Lord. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.480 So what was the result? 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:11.840 Defeat. 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:13.120 The result was defeat. 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:19.840 Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:27.279 The result may have been completely different how Joshua and the spies paused, waited, and listened to the Lord. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:34.639 If so, the Lord may have revealed to them Achan's sin, and they may have had an opportunity to deal with it before moving on. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.720 But instead, they pressed on without consulting the Lord, and the results were devastating. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.679 They lost 36 people, 36 men were killed. 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:47.279 And not only that, but it says the hearts of the people were melted and became like water. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:48.080 Right? 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:53.360 The faith of the people melted, their hearts melted, became like water. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:56.080 You see, trials don't produce faith. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:01.200 They reveal the status of your faith, the condition of your faith, where you're at with the Lord. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:02.240 That comes through. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:05.200 We see where you're at in the middle of a trial. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:09.120 And we saw the Israelites melt their faith, their heart melted. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.120 They thought it was going to be easy. 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.120 They said, the men of I are few. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:14.879 We don't need to bring the whole army. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:16.240 We can bring a little bit of the army. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:17.360 We just defeated Jericho. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:18.240 This will be easy. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:22.399 Men and women, don't ever underestimate a spiritual battle. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.080 Don't ever underestimate a spiritual battle. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:33.120 And don't ever think that we can handle something without first consulting and making sure the Lord is with us. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:34.960 Don't go alone. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.600 Don't be confident in your own abilities. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:38.480 Rely on the Lord. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:43.120 Trust him and seek him with every battle, with everything that we face. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:50.960 So after this hill, this high that the the uh Joshua and the Israelites were on, they now find themselves in a valley. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:53.759 And we see Joshua's reaction in verse 6. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:58.639 He tears his clothes, he falls before the Lord, he's crushed. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:04.480 And now we see Joshua take time to consult with the Lord. 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:06.399 Yes, he's a little bit late, right? 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:07.919 Would have been great if he did it prior. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:08.720 It's a little bit late. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:15.919 But I still think there's something we can learn from his reaction because when a trial comes, when the difficulty comes, hit your knees. 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.000 And that's exactly what Joshua did. 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:21.840 He he recognized somebody messed up, we we failed. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:22.879 What do I do? 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:24.559 He hit his knees. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:26.320 Cry out to the Lord. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.720 That's a great response and a great example. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:33.039 So let's see what he says, starting in verse 7. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:41.679 And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:49.120 Oh, that we have been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:59.360 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth, then what will you do for your great name? 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:04.240 Joshua is broken, and he's questioning everything, right? 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:05.200 He's questioning everything. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:06.960 He's why are we even here? 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:07.519 Right? 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:09.039 He's questioning everything. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.080 He's coming from a place of fear and doubt. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.320 Where do we find ourselves when we're in the valley, right? 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:18.480 Where we've just been defeated, where something went wrong. 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:21.279 Are we filled with fear and doubt? 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.399 Do we fall back to that place of fear and doubt? 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.120 That's exactly where the enemy wants us to be. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:32.960 He will use difficult and tragic situations to instill fear and doubt. 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:36.000 But as we just prayed, that's not how we were created, right? 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:37.519 That's not how we were created. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:41.039 And in this moment, but that's the uncertainty where Joshua was. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:42.480 That's what he was dealing with. 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:47.279 But what's cool is you see his heart in these verses, he's also concerned about the name of the Lord, right? 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:50.799 The last verse in chapter 6 said his name was spreading throughout the land. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:52.399 We see he didn't care about that. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:55.919 What he said in these verses is, Lord, I'm worried about your name, right? 00:14:56.159 --> 00:15:00.320 Your name being changed, being being hampered, right, by this defeat, right? 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:05.440 And he's feeling bad that he may have caused damage to the Lord's name. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:09.360 So the Lord responds to Joshua in verse 10. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:13.759 So the Lord said to Joshua, Get up, why do you lie thus on your face? 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:18.240 Israel has sinned, they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:25.279 For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived, and they have also put it among their own stuff. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:33.759 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have been doomed to destruction. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:39.039 Neither will I be with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed things from among you. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:47.279 Get up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.120 You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. 00:15:51.200 --> 00:16:04.879 In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe with uh which the Lord takes shall come according to families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come by man. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:15.840 Then it shall be that he who has taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:21.440 So the Lord reveals to Joshua what had happened, the sin that had taken place. 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.200 God hates sin because sin holds us back. 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:30.799 Sin prevents us from doing what we should be doing, walking how we're we were created to walk. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:35.360 And so God told Joshua that the sin needed to be addressed and dealt with. 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:44.159 He said, The Israelites cannot stand before their enemies, they're not going to be able to have success in the promised land if this accursed thing, if the sin is not dealt with. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:47.279 So Joshua does just that. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:49.679 He followed the Lord's instructions. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:59.360 He rose the next morning, he brought each tribe of Israel before him, he brought each family from each tribe, each household from each family of each tribe, until he got to Achan. 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:04.240 And finally, in verse 20, we get a confession from Achan. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:06.000 Verse 20. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:08.240 That's a lot of verses, right? 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:15.519 It took a lot of time to get a confession from Achan, this whole process of dragging out each family from each tribe from each household. 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:20.319 Finally, get to Achan in verse 20, and he says this. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:26.480 And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the God, the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:35.039 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and I took them. 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:40.480 And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:46.400 This was a selfish, self-seeking, self-satisfying sin for Achan. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:53.039 He coveted, he saw something, he coveted, he wanted it, he took it, and then he hid it, because he knew what he did was wrong. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:54.799 He hid it under his tent. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.279 He tried to keep his sin covered. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.160 So Joshua hears this confession from Achan. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:05.200 He verifies it, he sends his men, they find what Achan said to be true. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.720 They then burn the accursed things and they stone Achan. 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:12.240 Achan paid the price for his sin. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:14.400 Jesus paid the price for ours. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:15.200 Amen. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:20.240 Sin caused a whole lot of problems for the Israelites in Joshua chapter 7. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.839 Sin can cause a whole lot of problems in our own lives as well. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:31.920 So I have three points regarding sin and its role in our lives that we can learn from this chapter, Joshua chapter 7. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.960 So the first one is this sin prevents. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:37.680 Sin prevents. 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.960 You cannot be fully used by God if you are harboring unrepentant sin. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:48.480 If you're walking in unrepentant sin, you will not be able to be fully used by God. 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:55.039 God told Joshua they would not find any more success in the promised land until the sin of Achan was dealt with. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.640 Israel couldn't go in two directions at the same time. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:05.759 They can't continue to conquer land for the Lord God and represent him while they're harboring and dealing with unrepentant sin. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:08.559 You can't go in two directions at the same time. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:11.519 Israelites couldn't, and neither can we. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.279 Sin prevents us from living the life the Lord wants us to live. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:18.880 It prevents us from having a kingdom of God impact. 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:38.559 I remember when I was a youth in a in a youth group, different church that I was growing up in, and and uh I was struggling with some sin, and I reached out to a youth leader in my church and asked him for some help, some advice, some accountability, and he responded uh with read, uh I think it was Colossians 3, read Colossians 3. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:39.920 Sorry, you're dealing with that. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:40.640 And that was it. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:41.759 I never heard from him again. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:45.599 There was never a follow-up question, there was never check-in or anything like that. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:50.799 I did read Colossians 3, I love Colossians 3, but um I was missing that accountability part. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:58.079 And what I learned years and years later was that that youth leader was in the middle of a ton of sin, walking in sin himself. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:05.039 So he was unable, uncapable of ministering to me and helping me because of the unrepentant sin in his own life. 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:14.240 So now that I'm in the role that I'm in and I have a team of youth leaders that I train and uh work with, it's one of the things that we we do in our training, right? 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:20.640 I tell him, I say, if you have unrepentant sin in your life, if you're actively walking in sin, your ministry is useless. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:21.039 Right? 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:24.880 You will not be able to help students who are also struggling, right? 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:25.680 You can't. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.400 You just can't fully commit to the kingdom. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.839 You can't fully be used by God if you're walking in sin. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.200 Hebrews 12 says sin entangles, it distracts, it trips us up, it slows us down. 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:39.759 So it needs to be dealt with. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:40.640 Well, how? 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:42.160 It needs to be confessed, right? 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:47.279 Sin in our life, unrepentant sin in our life, needs to be confessed to the Lord first. 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:49.200 It needs to be confessed to the Lord. 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:51.519 Then it needs to be confessed to those who have wronged. 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:57.839 If your sin has directly affected somebody else, if you've sinned against somebody else, it needs to be confessed and brought to that person. 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:02.240 And then lastly, it needs to be confessed to somebody who's gonna hold you accountable. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:09.839 Who's a blood-stained ally in your life, who's somebody who's walking with you, who's close to you, and if you don't have that person, find that person, right? 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:14.480 We need to have blood-stained allies, we need to have community in our lives. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:21.519 James 5, 16 says, confess your trespasses to one another, pray for one another, that you may be healed. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:27.519 So confess that sin that's in your life to the Lord, to those you've wronged, to accountability partners. 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:29.920 So that's number one, sin prevents. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:32.480 Number two is sin festers. 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:34.559 That's a gross word, isn't it? 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:36.240 Sin festers. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.680 The longer Lance Armstrong lied, the worse it got. 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:40.559 See, I brought him back. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:41.279 Do you guys see? 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:41.839 Follow him. 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:42.160 All right. 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:46.000 The longer Lance Armstrong lied, the worse it got for him. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:52.079 Um his lies got nastier, his reputation suffered more, ultimately, it left him as a villain. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:58.240 You'd be hard pressed today to find uh somebody who has a positive view, a positive opinion of Lance Armstrong. 00:21:58.559 --> 00:21:59.680 So the longer we hide city. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.079 Me become prisoner to it. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:02.559 Right? 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:07.119 For 10 years, for over 10 years, Lance Armstrong covered this huge lie. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:12.079 He had broken the record for seven titles, seven Tour de France victories in a row. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:13.359 Nobody had ever done that, right? 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:16.720 So he's he's covering up this lie to keep those titles. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.920 And I'm sure it's something he thought about every single day. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:21.119 It probably still is, right? 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:23.440 He was captive to it, prisoner to it. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:28.240 Lingering sin can also have a physical toll on your body, right? 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.519 It causes guilt, it causes stress, it causes shame. 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:33.440 These things are physically bad for you. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:39.039 If you're walking around carrying stress, covering this lie, cleaning up that's not good for you. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.759 That's not a good way to live. 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:44.160 Sin also isolates you. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:46.480 The longer it festers, the more it's gonna isolate you. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:50.160 You were designed to be in community and have blood-stained allies, as we were just talking about. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:54.319 But if you're hiding and wrestling with sin alone, you will become isolated. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:56.880 This also happened to Lance Armstrong, right? 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:00.559 He had this team of guys that have been biking all around the world together for years. 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:05.279 None of those guys talked to him today because he threw them all under the bus with this lie, right? 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:09.680 As he was trying to preserve this lie and his reputation, he lost his friends. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:11.519 Sin isolates us. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:17.680 And I just wonder, I wonder if Lance had revealed the truth sooner, how different would things be today? 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:20.799 And as I was studying this chapter, I wondered the same thing about Achan. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:30.240 If Achan had revealed his sin before verse 20, before they went to uh conquer the people of I, before, what would have happened? 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:32.720 Maybe those lives would have been spared. 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:36.400 Maybe the whole story would have been much, much different. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:38.640 So don't let sin linger. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:44.240 Deal with it, confess it, get it out, repent, don't let it fester. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:55.359 Recently, our oldest son had a uh cavity, and we didn't deal with it quick enough, so it festered and it became infected, and he actually had to get it pulled. 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:58.480 Which he's a six-year-old boy, he loved the whole thing. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:04.960 He thought the whole thing was really cool, and many of you have probably seen the hole in his mouth where his tooth was because he likes to show people. 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:10.160 Um but sin is a lot like an infection, right? 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:11.519 Sin is like a cavity. 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:18.079 The longer it goes unaddressed, the more it will fester, the more it will get infected, and the more damage it will cause. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.759 So don't let sin do that in your own life. 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:24.720 Don't let it get infected, don't let it fester. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:26.640 Let's get it out, right? 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:29.119 Get it out, um, which leads us to our last point. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:29.680 It will get out. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:33.279 And number three is this sin will be revealed. 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:34.960 Sin will be revealed. 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:38.480 Your sin will be found out just like Achans was. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:47.359 Ecclesiastes 12, 14 says, For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:57.519 And likewise, Jeremiah 16, 17 says, For my eyes are on all of their ways, they are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:02.640 Here's the truth, men and women, God loves you too much to allow you to get away with your sin. 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:06.960 God loves you too much to allow you to get away with your sin. 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:24.240 Whatever it is, wherever you find yourself this morning, if you're struggling with lust, with greed, maybe it's anger or laziness, maybe it's a you struggle with honesty or gossip, wherever you're at, the Lord loves you too much to continue to let that sin go unnoticed because it's causing damage. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.000 It's causing damage to you, and it's probably causing damage to other people as well. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:34.640 God loves us too much to allow us to continue to cause damage. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.599 And I think of that as from the view of a parent, right? 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:40.880 As a parent of four, we had our fourth about a month ago. 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:47.839 We we as parents love our kids so much to not that we can't just let them do things that we know are bad for them. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.920 Let them sin, let them let them get into trouble, let them do things that are gonna hurt themselves. 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:54.720 We love them too much to allow that to happen. 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:58.160 Now, you might not feel the same way about your neighbor's kid, right? 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:03.119 You might not be correcting their every move, but you feel that way about your own kids, and that's how God feels about us. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:04.880 He loves us as his children. 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:11.759 He wants us to live a life where we're not actively hurting ourselves, we're not actively engaging in sin. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:18.160 So he will allow that sin to be revealed so that we stop, because he loves us. 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:23.519 Now it's interesting in this chapter, God also made it clear that it wasn't just Achan's sin, right? 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:24.799 It was this community sin. 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:26.319 It affected all of the Israelites. 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:27.200 It was a corporate sin. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:30.640 Israel was one people under the Lord. 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:33.599 And today we are one people under the Lord. 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:36.799 We are the body of Christ, as Scripture says. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:41.119 If one part of the body is wrong and suffering, the whole body suffers. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:44.079 One way or another, your secret sin will be revealed. 00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:46.960 God loves you too much to allow it not to. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:50.480 So deal with it, confess it, and address it. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:51.920 So that's number three. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:54.640 Your sin will be revealed. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:03.680 So in conclusion, I want to say this: the the events of this week are a reminder that life is short and not guaranteed. 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:07.200 Every day that we are here is a gift. 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:10.640 And I want to encourage you to live with that mindset. 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:12.640 Live with that in mind. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:23.119 So if you do have unresolved sin this morning, if you do have an unresolved sin issue, don't continue to live that way. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:28.400 Don't continue to live with it festering inside of you. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:31.119 Let's take care of it. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:40.000 If there's unresolved conflict in your life, if you're at odds with somebody, don't live that way. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:44.480 Resolve it, address it, deal with it, go to that person, make it right. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:52.880 Make today the day we fix it, today the day we confess it, today the day we acknowledge it, today the day we move on. 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:56.799