"Help...I've Fallen!" (Joshua 8)

We continue our “Moving Forward” series in Joshua with a powerful message from Joshua 8 called “Help… I’ve Fallen!” Together we will discover how God restores fallen people, gives victory through obedience, and calls us to remember His faithfulness. As we celebrate Memorial Day weekend and share in communion, we will reflect on the cost of freedom—both the earthly freedom purchased through sacrifice and the eternal freedom purchased through Jesus Christ on the cross. Join us as we remember, worship, and celebrate God’s restoring grace.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Is help out of falling. Has anyone ever fallen who wants to admit it today? Okay, there's a couple out there. Anyone who doesn't want to admit it today, probably not gonna raise your hands. But I'm telling you that it's fumbling and it's one of those things that happens often in life. And I have five kids, and one of my sons, our third child, his name is Rocky. He was notorious for fumbling all over the place. And I remember uh looking at Rocky, his name is Rocky because of the movie Rocky. We love the quote when Rocky was in the life's not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit, get back up, and keep fighting. And we just love that. And so we named our son Rocky. And he has lived up to his name. I'm telling you this morning. We got a picture of him on the screen. We had no idea this boy would just be accident promo. There was one time we were at church when we were in Zealand, and I was a worship pastor there, and my wife's like, okay, I got a drop off, Rocky, and I was trying to do worship leading at the same time and trying to do rehearsal and everything. And he's on one of these like little scooters, and there were some stairs that were going down, and I told Rocky, stay far away from these stairs, and I thought he understood. But then next thing you know, we're in rehearsal, and he goes tumbling down the stairs, and you can see that middle picture, he got a nice shiner right on his forehead from that. So I thought, okay, that's the end of it, but you can see there's more. And so we were playing in the house and and we were watching a movie, and all of a sudden we heard this pow! And we're like, what just happened? Rocky ran into the wall, and the wall won, and we could see him. He got another black eye from that. And then we thought that he would be done, his black eye started to go away, and then we were outside hanging out in the yard, and I had my tailgate down in my truck, and he didn't know that or something. He went running around the truck and pow, hit the tailgate, and got another nice shiner. So we just thought, you know what, he's just always gonna have a black eye no matter what we do, to live up to his name. And uh my wife and I were praying, we're like, Lord, please just help him survive till at least he's three years old, right? Because he was just constantly getting accidents all the time. And then we thought, okay, it should be done, but it only gets worse. We were loading all the kids up in our van to get ready to go somewhere, and we're looking all around, we're like, where is Rocky? Well, he had held on to the garage door as the garage door went up. Thankfully, he didn't fall on this one, and he was strong enough to hold, but he was probably waiting there for three or four minutes, and we're kind of hearing, oh, you know, we're hearing the screaming from Rocky. Rocky is no stranger to falling. He falls quite often, and uh, he's still alive to this day, and he's doing well, and he's a pretty tough kid. He lives up to his name. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to admit when we've fallen? For those who are new with us this morning, we've been going through a series through the book of Joshua, and today we're gonna be looking at Joshua chapter 8. It's all about moving forward. But have you ever fallen physically? Maybe not fallen physically, maybe spiritually. We'll admit sometimes in our lives, like, you know, I'm busy, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed, but it's harder to say, oh, I've drifted. I've sinned, I've failed. And Joshua 8 happens after Israel experiences devastating defeat and Joshua sinner. In fact, I'm shocked that you all came back because last week I told everyone we're all sinners. You know? We're all sinners. We've all messed up. There's times where we have failed. That's just the truth. That's what the Bible tells us. We are all sinners in need of a savior. And Israel is full of sin. And we see the sin of I. And they go down there and there's this massive disaster. 36 men died. They never had lost a battle. They had won against Jericho and they go into the city and they lose those 36 men. And on top of that, we see Achan. Achan and his family, they had taken things that they should not have taken from Jericho that was supposed to be for the Lord, and he took stuff he hid in his tent. He had this hidden sin, and because of that, he and his whole family is burned in stone. A brutal book of the Bible. And we look at this. But Joshua chapter 8 is all about restoration, second chances, and victory after failure. And on Memorial Day weekend, that truth matters because Memorial Day reminds us freedom always costs something. Men and women gave their lives so others could live free. And so we're going to be taking communion today. Hopefully you saw that in the analysis because it reminds us that Jesus gave his life for sinners so that we could be spiritually free in our lives. And so, if you're taking notes today, the first point is this God restores fallen people. God restores fallen people. Praise God, hallelujah, amen. He restores fallen people. Let's take a look in Joshua 8 and verse 1. And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear, do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you and arise and go up to I. See, I have given into your hand the king of I and his people and his city and his land. And you shall do to I and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city and behind it. And so I love how this chapter begins. It says, And the Lord said to Joshua, Don't fear. Do not fear, do not be dismayed. Those words are powerful because they're coming at the moment where we just said they messed up. They messed up big. There was hidden sin in the camp of the Israelites. It's painful. Israel lost this battle of I. 36 men died. Think about all the fathers who passed away in that battle, all the husbands. Think of the spirit that's going on in this camp. People are probably just saddened. They're confused. God gave us a victory in Jericho, and now we're defeated by I because of hidden sin. And I'm sure there was fear all throughout the camp after seeing Achan and his family be burned and stoned to death. It's pretty brutal. And so Joshua, like any leader, falls down on his face in grief and confusion. And I think Joshua probably wondered, did I ruin everything? He was a great leader. And I'm sure he's thinking, man, did I just ruin everything? Is God still with us? Can we move forward after this? And then God speaks. And notice what he says. His first words are not condemnation, they are do not fear. Do not be dismayed. Right away we see a response of grace. I found it interesting that there's actually 365 references to fear in the Bible. That's one reference for fear every single day of the year. I think God knows that we could struggle with fear in our lives. And some people think that God is only close when we succeed. But some of the greatest moments of grace happen after a massive failure. And David, he experiences. We see this all through his life. We see it through Peter. And now, church, we see it through Joshua. He's experiencing this grace. And church, this chapter reminds us that failure is not the end when repentance is involved. Failure is not the end when repentance is involved. Israel had fallen, but God was not finished with them. He says that Joshua, take all the fighting men with you. This is also significant in Joshua chapter 7. Israel ran from the enemy. And now God says, go back and fight. That's important spiritually because one of Satan's goals in his life is to paralyze you. Paralyze you. Take you completely out of the fight. He wants people to think and be ashamed. He wants people to be discouraged, inactive, spiritually defeated, and spiritually sidelined. He wants that in your life. He wants to paralyze you from failure. He wants people to stay in this camp. But God tells Joshua right away, get up, move forward, do not fear, do not be dismayed. Trust in me again. And some believers have been sitting spiritually on the sidelines because of a past failure. But God's grace does not just forgive us, it restores us. He says to Joshua, Arise and go up to I. Notice this carefully, God sends Joshua back to the exact same place of defeat. I represented this embarrassment, this loss, this disappointment, broken confidence. Yet God says, Go back. Go back to I. Why? Because God often turns places of defeat into a place of restoration. And we're about to see this unfold. The place where Peter denied Jesus became the place where Jesus restored Peter. The cross in of itself. It looked like defeat, but became the greatest sign of victory in all of history. Sometimes God brings us back to difficult places, not to shame us, but to heal us and remind us that his grace is greater than our failure. See, I have given them into your hand, he says to them. God speaks victory before the battle even begins. That's faith building. Joshua still had to fight the battle, and Israel still had to obey, but God already promised the outcome to the Israelites. The first battle that I was fought in this self-confidence. Oh, we don't need all the men. We'll just take about 3,200 and go and fight the battle on our own. We'll be just fine. We just conquered Jericho. And they are way smaller than Jericho. We're going to do it all on our own. But then we see they get massively defeated and they get discouraged because they didn't do it for the Lord. They did it in their self. And victory was never about Israel's strength. It was all about God's presence. And church, that is still true today. You can have talent, you can have plans, you can have it all figured out. You can have a 401k that's just rolling in the dough, and you're like, I got it all set. I got a boat. I'm good to go. It's not the case. Proverbs 16, 9, my life first says the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. You can turn just in an instant. You can have all these victories, and boom, when you take your eyes off the Lord, it changes. And that's where we see Israel in. They just had this massive defeat. You know, I think about it with my kids. I I've taught four of my boys how to ride a bike, and my youngest is a little girl. I still got a teacher, and I'm really excited to teach her. But as I do this, they start riding their bike and they fall. They start trying to get back on the bike, trying to balance and trying to pedal and then they fall. Now, any dad in here would know that it would be horrible if I say, you know what, you're just going to fall again, so give it up. Just put it aside. Biking isn't really your thing. You can't figure it out. No. The loving father doesn't say, well, you failed, so you're done forever. No, he picks up the child and says, Try again. I'm right behind you. I'm going to help you try to ride this bike. Keep on trying. Keep on doing it. That's what God's doing with Joshua. He's down on his face. He is done. I would be too in that leadership position. And he is just so frustrated, and God says, Get up. I am not done with you. And I'm not going to let you lay down on your face any longer. I got a plan for you. And some of you today are carrying failure from your past, maybe this moral failure or family failure, spiritual inconsistency in your life. Or maybe like chapter 7, you have some hidden sin that no one you think knows about. God is not finished with you. You'll never recover, you might think. But in Joshua 8, it reminds us that God restores. God restores a repentant people. So we got to stop defying ourselves by our worst moment. We're going around saying, Oh, did you know what I did? But God's grace is greater than your worst failure. God's grace is greater than all that. God still calls people forward after they fail. Maybe today God's saying, in your life, do not fear. Do not be dismayed. Get back up. Walk with me again. Yeah, you fail, but don't follow the enemy and just stay sidelined, paralyzed. Come back into the fight. Come back in. I am not done with you. You're still breathing. I'm still going to work in your life. Maybe that's where God is with you right now. And communion reminds us why restoration is possible. We're free because of the men and women and the sacrifice they made for our country. We're also spiritually free because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And this memorial day, we honor those who sacrificed everything. And there are graves all over this country marked by courage and sacrifice. People who lay down their lives so we could live here and be free. And Jesus did the same thing for each and every one of us on the cross. That's why communion matters. The cross reminds us grace is costly. Forgiveness is costly. Salvation is costly. But take hope. God restores fallen people. God restores fallen people. Number two, God gives victory through obedience. God gives victory through obedience. Let's continue on in the story in verse 3. And so Joshua and all the fighting men rose to go up to I. And Joshua chose 30,000 men of valor and sent them out by night, and he commanded them Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city and behind it. Do not go very far from the city. But all of you remain ready, and I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them, and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, They are fleeing from us, just as before, so we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. And so Joshua, he sent them. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and I to the west of I. But Joshua spent that night among the people. So what a contrast. Joshua is very different from Joshua chapter seven. Israel rushed into battle carelessly in Joshua chapter seven. We don't need everyone. We'll be just fine. We'll just kind of go into this. They relied on their self-confidence. Hidden sin was in the camp, and they underestimated the enemy, and they experienced defeat. But now everything changes. The people are repentive, the sin has been dealt with, and now they move forward in obedience to God's instruction. And notice how detailed God's plan is. God tells Joshua where to go, how many men to take, where to position them, and then when to move and when to retreat and when to attack. And the question is why? Because victory comes through obedience. They had lost sight of that in Joshua chapter 7. It comes only through obedience. God was teaching Israel, you do not win battles in your own way. You win by trusting and obeying me. And that's still true spiritually today. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men. Joshua no longer was careless like the time before. At first time at eye, they acted casually, just sent a few men, and this would be easy. But that attitude led to defeat, and failure humbled them. But I want to tell you this more: the failure often drives people back to a dependence on God. We're seeing this in full right before our eyes in Joshua chapter 8. Their failure, it drove the people back to a dependence on God. You shall lie in ambush, he says. This strategy required trust on their behalf. I mean, think about it. God's plan did not really look normal or natural. It's actually brilliant because pride comes before the fall, and he's trying to get them to do the same thing they did before because they were cocky. They thought they could just take them on again because they won the last time. And the attack from behind. But obedience often requires trusting God when his ways don't fully make sense. I love this passage in Isaiah 55, verse 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. Sometimes God will give you instructions and they feel oftentimes uncomfortable. And they are fleeing from us just before. This is fascinating. God actually uses this Israel's previous failure as part of their victory strategy. It makes absolutely no sense at all, but God wants to use that. The enemy remember their first defeat, and they're thinking, oh, we'll take them on again. We can get them. And then later we find their ambush and they take over the city. In Romans 8 28, it says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. It says this in the text the Lord your God will give it into your hand. I mean that phrase matters. Victory was never ultimately about Joshua's leadership or military strategy. It came from God. Israel just had that responsibility. They had to simply obey and move and trust and fight and follow. But God was the source of the victory. It never was any one of them, it was God all along. And that is the balance of the Christian life. We obey, but then God empowers. Joshua spent that night among the people. I love this. He's a great leader. He's doing this. He's spending time with the people because they were so glued to this failure and what they just saw with Achan Sin. And he's roaming around that camp, I'm sure, trying to encourage people to keep on obeying God, keep on trusting in God. Even though this plan doesn't make sense, keep on obeying. He's giving us victory in Jericho. He's going to give us victory over I. You know, I think about this. I get the privilege of coaching uh students here at Pountwater. And I start off with basketball, and they're like, hey, can you also do soccer? I mean, they'll take any coach they can get, right? And so we're coaching, and I'm like, okay, I'll take on another sport. And I was talking to the boys as they were playing soccer, and like, oh, we lost again. We had another failure. We lost and we were defeated. And I didn't say, you guys just didn't try hard enough. That's why we lost. No. A good coach wouldn't say that. A good coach would say, hey, we did lose. But what can we learn from this for next time? How can we apply this to our life when we play this game again? And that's what I see happening in the story. Israel learn more through one defeat at eye than through many victories that they have had. Sometimes failure becomes God's classroom. It's not so much fun for us, but wow, does God teach us when we fail? God's blessings, they follow surrender. God's power follows this dependence, and God's victory follows obedience. And maybe God's calling you this morning to just obey. Obey Him in the area you've resisted. Forgiveness, maybe, or purity or honesty, spiritual leadership, whatever it is, the late obedience still weakens our spiritual growth in our lives. But notice, God used Israel's previous defeat as their future victory. Only God can redeem failure like that. The thing that once embarrassed you may become part of your testimony. I can't tell you how many people I've met where they say, Matt, I have failed miserably in this in my life. And I say, I bet you that's how God's going to use you the most from a failure in your life, than all the successes you've ever had in your life. God will use that failure even more so in your life than a success. And we see this unfold right before our eyes in Joshua chapter 8. Israel has learned more than they ever have in Joshua chapter 7, going into Joshua chapter 8. And Jesus obeyed the Father. He obeyed the Father. It didn't make any sense. He was in the garden, he was at the cross, who's suffering all the way to death. He had to choose to willingly obey. He was fully God and fully man at the same time. Philippians 2.8 says this. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Jesus obeyed. He obeyed his father, even though it didn't make sense. And he was in the garden. I find the story of the garden of Gethsemane fascinating because he's in the garden and he is fighting his flesh. His flesh didn't want to die. And he was fighting, and Satan, I'm sure, was tempting him. He got so stressed out, he started to sweat blood. Any medical person you talk to say that is the utmost amount of stress in your life. And he battled his flesh to the point he sweat blood and he obeyed the Father, even though his flesh was trying to fight against him. He obeyed and he followed through with what God asked him to do. And so God gives victory through obedience. He gives victory to these Israelites through obedience, and he gave victory through Jesus on the cross because of him obeying as well. God gives victory through obedience. Last but not least, God deserves to be remembered. God deserves to be remembered. In verse 30, at the time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel on Mount Ebel, just as Moses, a servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel, as is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has welded with an iron tool. And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, and all of Israel, sojourners, as well as native born. With their elders and officers and their judges, stood on the opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Jerizim, and half of them in front in front of Mount Ebel. And just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel, and afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curse. And according to all that is written in the book of the law, there was not one word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and sojourners who lived among them. And so we see after this victory, Joshua's like, We're not going to forget. We just forgot. We had one big victory in Jericho, and boom, we forgot when we went to I, and we're not going to do that again. And so they built the stones of remembrance. And to never forget, remember what God has done. Memorial Day. We remember people who sacrificed for our freedom. Communion, remember Christ, who sacrificed for our salvation. Jesus Himself said, Do this in remembrance of me. He knows we're prone to forget. He knows we're prone to wander. And Jesus died in our place. He he paid the cost, the ultimate cost with his life for the sin in each and every one of our lives. And Jesus restored our fallen people for those who receive him. And maybe today you feel like Joshua 7. You feel like you're defeated. You feel ashamed. You're spiritually sucked. But Joshua chapter 8 reminds us that God restores a repentant people. And communion reminds us that restoration was purchased through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so today, stop holding on your sin. Give it to Jesus. Bring it to the foot of the cross. Ask for forgiveness. Don't hold on to shame. Bring it to Jesus, and he will forgive you of that. Don't go around poundwater carrying a big burden. Surrender at the foot of the cross of Jesus. He paid this. Because the gospel says you have fallen, but by God's grace you can rise again. As we come to the Lord's table today, I want us to examine our hearts. Maybe there is some sort of hidden sin in your life. There's things that have been going on in your life, and you're just like, I am done. Surrender that before the cross. Jesus gave his life that you could be free. You can be free today. You don't have to hold on this burden any longer. I love the verse. It was on in the video, and I'll say it again. In uh John 15, 13, it says, Greater love has no one than this. As someone laid down his life before his friend. Today we remember Memorial Day, the men and women who have sacrificed so we can have freedom here, but we also remember the ultimate sacrifice. What Jesus did for us on the cross before we take community today, I really want you to visualize in your mind Joshua ate that they failed. They've fallen. They have done things that they shouldn't have done. And yet we see God respond to Joshua. Do not fear, do not be dismayed. And we see this gracious response with him saying, Remember, I'm still God. I'm still on my throne. I'm still going to help you do this. God brought them back. And Joshua sought the people to remember. Remember. Never forget. Our God is faithful. Let's not go over to sin any longer. Let's stay on the straight and arrow. Let's remember. His way is a better way. And that's what community is. It's the moment where God's people stop and we remember. That's why we're here this morning. We remember the cost of death, the grace of our God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because unlike Joshua, our victory did not come through swords or army. Our victory came through a cross. He died. A horrible death. In our place. So when you hold the bread today, remember his body was broken for you. Not your neighbor, but for you. For all of us. His blood was shed for you. Your sin, your iniquity, it was shed for you. It was the people who know I need grace. I need forgiveness. I need Jesus. That is what this communion table is all about. It's not for those who are perfect, it's for those saying, I'm a sinner and I am in need of a Savior. And I need to remember the sacrifice He did for me on that cross. I would encourage you to come honestly, to come humbly, become grateful, and remember the same Jesus who died for you and also rose again. So today, remember the greatest sacrifice you ever made. That we could truly live and live life to the full. The enemy says, I've only come to steal, kill, and destroy. Oh, sin is so much fun. But the enemy says, I've only come to steal, kill, and destroy. God's saying his very best that we may have life and have it to the full. And I love that we see Israel sin and we see how God responds. And I love hearing stories of people who have sinned and seeing how God even responds to them with his grace. And so this morning, I would encourage us to have your communion God. 1 Corinthians 11, 23 says, For I received from the Lord what I've also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed. He took this breath. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Before we partake, let's just take a moment. Thanking him for the sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Some took the blade or the rest of the cross.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

May we never lose sight of what your son did for us. We thank you for that ultimate sacrifice, Father. I pray if there's anyone here who does not know you as their Lord and Savior, Father, they would not leave this place. In the burden and the bondage of sin, but Father, they would come and repent. And they would turn to you and they would stop living the life that steals, kills, and destroys. But Father, they would come and live life and live it to the full. We thank you for the power of the cross. And we thank you that because you live, we can face tomorrow. Let's continue in worshiping our Lord in that last song.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

God sends his son. He lived for game. And life is worth the living. Just because he lives.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So we thank you for the ultimate freedom found in trusting Christ and knowing him as Savior and Lord. And in his name we give thanks.