WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.200 We are back in the book of Joshua. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:07.839 So we have this epic story in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.119 This is God's people were enslaved in Egypt. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:12.480 They come out of that. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:16.239 They are wandering around the desert for 40 years. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.559 After that, they cross the Jordan River. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:21.039 They win this battle at Jericho. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:25.920 And then they so confidently march up into the hills to take this city of Ai. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.719 This is the story in Joshua 7 that we looked at it last week. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:29.600 And they're defeated. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:30.239 They're destroyed. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:31.120 They're demoralized. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:33.679 They're so in despair over this loss. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:45.920 And they're in this loss because of some coveting that happened by one individual and a family, and this coveting and this discontentment inside of this man, Aiken. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:53.840 So yesterday I was driving to church, driving over to the church building to work, and I was driving and pulled onto Session Street off of Church Street. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:01:15.280 And as soon as I pull on Session Street, way up ahead of me, I see what looks to be a 16, 17-year-old kid, and he is on his mountain bike, and he is riding a perfect, perfect, beautiful, fast, controlled wheelie all the way down Session Street, down the middle of the street. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:20.560 And just when he gets to me, he sort of curves back over into his lane, stays on the wheelie, mind you. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.920 I'm talking about a half mile, perfect wheelie. 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:28.480 As a parent, immediately I think to myself, um, he's gonna kill himself. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:36.159 And then also there's this part of me, the kid part of me, that was never quite able to ride a great wheelie. 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:43.040 Like I could ride like 10, 20 feet, but Gary in my neighborhood, Gary could ride like a half mile, like this kid. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:02:00.159 And there's this part of me that even though this kid's probably gonna kill himself and he probably like you know hurt himself further down the road, uh, still it was like, man, to be that age, to be that fearless, to have that kind of guts, to know if you fall down, you're probably not gonna get hurt anyways, because you're so young. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.640 If you do get hurt, you're gonna be healed in like two and a half weeks. 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:04.959 I mean, how amazing that would be, right? 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:13.120 And it's so easy for us, maybe wheelies aren't your deal, something else is your deal, but how easy for us to crave something that we don't have. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:16.319 Maybe we never had it or we used to have it and we lost it. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:22.560 But all of this is this word coveting, to crave that which we don't have. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.879 And it's so easy to do with all sorts of things, right? 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:31.599 Like you can covet less busyness, probably not right now. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.479 You can covet more busyness. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:40.639 You can covet your friend who is 50, but his body or her body looks like and works like it was 20. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.800 You can covet your friend who can eat a whole pizza and not gain a pound and sleep all night. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:58.400 You can covet Jimmy Fallon's house in the Hamptons that he keeps recording all his videos in, and like the videos are funny, and then you start to look at the background at this house, and you're like, that's amazing, because you also know he probably has a great apartment in New York, and you're like, whoa, that's amazing, right? 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:02.159 We can covet so many things that just aren't ours. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:05.759 And so we know what this guy, Aiken, feels like. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:14.639 They just won this battle of Jericho, and God has said, don't take any of the treasure from this battle, that those items that are worth a lot. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:17.039 That's a lot of wealth. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:25.280 And God says, Don't take any of it for yourself, don't make yourself wealthy by these items that were given for Canaanite worship. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:33.280 And so you know what, you know what Achan was feeling like when he sees these items, because these are items that can make him wealthy. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.759 Make him independent, make him feel secure. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.319 He could provide for his children better. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:43.680 We know all these, oh no, all he has to do is take them. 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:45.120 That's all he has to do. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:47.599 So we know what that feels like. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:49.120 We know those feelings. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:53.520 So we jump into the story here at verse 19, and we know this has angered God. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.960 And we talked about anger last week and last week's sermon. 00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:00.719 I'm I'm so tempted to re-preach all of that, but I'm gonna pull myself back. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:02.400 You can go back and listen to that. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:04.719 Joshua 7, 19 through 21. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:13.759 Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and give praise to him, and tell me now what you have done. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:15.759 Do not hide it from me. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:22.160 And Achan answered, Joshua, Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:39.600 When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shannar and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:46.560 And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:49.120 So he comes clean. 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:51.120 He comes clean. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:59.199 Point number one is this overly desiring the next thing has always been a failure in humanity. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:03.279 Overly desiring the next thing has always been a failure in humanity. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:04.639 You are not the exception. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.000 I am not the exception. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:07.839 Modernity is not the exception. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:11.199 This was happening thousands of years ago. 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:21.040 And to covet, to crave, to yearn that which is not yours or that which you do not have, and to think, if only you get it, if only I get it. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:24.319 That coveting? 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:26.480 It's not new. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:29.360 Point number two is this, straight from verse 20. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:33.439 Our sin is against our holy and loving God. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:36.639 Our sin is against our holy and loving God. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:38.240 So here's the whole story, right? 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:40.399 Like our story doesn't begin with sin. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:45.279 Our story always begins with we are created in God's image. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:46.800 We are image bearers. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.720 We are created beautiful in God's image. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:50.720 That's the beginning of our story. 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:57.519 And now we sinned against his authority over us, and that sin is a break. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:05.199 It is a break in wholeness, it is a break in peace, it is a break in what God desires for us and for this world. 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:12.399 We see it in this story because Achan's sin causes individual, family, and communal disruption. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.759 Now we know this side of Jesus, all of our sin is taken care of. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:31.439 And that's the good news that we talked about last week that all of God's anger is handled within the grace of God and the incarnation of God as Jesus and Jesus on the cross that our sin is put upon Jesus, his righteousness given to us, so we're beloved in his sight. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:32.959 So the anger is handled. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:34.720 We don't have to ask, is God angry at me? 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:38.959 He's not angry at you, he loves you. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:43.759 And he is committed to formation of you, is what we said last week. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:51.120 But this story also has a clear warning for us, for us to be serious about what sin can cause. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:54.879 Because it causes a break in freedom. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:07:03.920 It causes a break in wholeness, it causes a break in holiness, it causes disruption, destruction. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:13.040 And now that depravity is also not the end of our story, it's part of our story. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:17.040 So this story goes on, the story in Joshua 7. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:21.759 Joshua, he sends some men into the tent to dig this up and to find this, as they can tell them the truth. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.000 Sure enough, they find all of it. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:25.199 They find all of it. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:46.399 And this is where the story takes a turn that many of us get uncomfortable with, including myself, anytime I run into this sort of anger of God, because I live in so much of this side of Jesus, that this anger of God can make me feel uncomfortable, but it also helps me see how beautiful and supreme the grace of Jesus is. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:56.160 That God could hold this sort of anger and rightful justice and wrath toward sin and toward that which disrupts and causes harm. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:02.079 And yet, in the grace of Jesus, all of that is absolved. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.040 And we live in loving regard with him. 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:07.839 Here are the verses in verses 24 through 26. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:22.800 And Joshua and all of Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zarah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, his donkeys, and his sheep, and his ten, and all that he had, and they brought them up to the valley of Akur. 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:24.079 Verse 25. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.680 And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble on us? 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.879 The Lord brings trouble on you today. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.799 And all Israel stoned him with stones. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:44.240 They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones, and they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:48.159 Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:54.480 Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Accor. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:57.679 So this is the way of law. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:02.320 That when we fail the law, we have to pay the price. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:07.279 And what we have in Jesus is the fulfiller of the law who paid the price for us. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:14.879 Now, what's worth mentioning here, because when I read through this right away, I start to think about this guy's kids and what do these kids do. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:19.840 But many commentators believe that the children were accomplices in this. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:28.000 Nonetheless, it still returns us to this idea of God's anger, our concerns about God's anger. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:36.159 23 years ago, a 17-year-old kid, and I was with my buddy Kevin, who's Christie's older brother. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:38.879 We grew up in the same town, and my buddy John. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:43.120 And so Kevin and John and I, it had just rained for two days straight. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:44.159 Hard rain. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:45.600 It's springtime. 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:55.039 And we're over at Kevin's house, and we decided we're gonna raft down the Alcove River, which is like this big creek out in the countryside about 15 minutes from our homes. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:02.559 And so we get this great idea that it's gonna be so much fun to voyage down the Alcove River in a flimsy raft that was meant for the ocean. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:07.200 And so we get the raft out of the closet there in Kevin's garage, and we're starting to pump it up. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.240 We had just finished pumping up, just putting on our bathing suits. 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:11.279 We are ready to go. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:19.840 We are loading up in the SUV, and Kevin's dad walks out and he sees this flimsy raft and these stupid 17-year-old kids. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:20.799 What are they gonna do? 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.360 He said, What's going on, boys? 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:26.159 Not much. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:29.519 What's the raft for? 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:36.159 Oh, we're gonna, we're gonna um we're gonna um we're gonna raft down the Alcove River. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:37.679 That's that's what did it. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:38.960 Didn't take much. 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:40.480 Didn't take much. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:43.440 And he lit us up. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:11:02.480 He went from what's going on to anger very quickly, the thought that we might even venture to do something this stupid, and he went on to rip us to pieces about our foolishness, about the flood stages of a river and what trees could be there, entrapment, and we don't even have life jackets on. 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.200 Now, why is he so angry? 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:09.360 Well, we took his property, we didn't ask him. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:19.840 Uh, we're gonna trespass on other people's property to get to this river of which we don't really know anything about, and at flood stage would certainly be dangerous. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:32.240 So he's angry that laws are broken, but he is also angry because he knows something that 17-year-old kids don't know that we could actually really hurt ourselves. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:33.759 And here's my point. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.480 It's not a technical point, but here's my point. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:42.159 God's anger is toward our sin as an offense to his authority. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:52.960 And also, God's anger is because it's an offense to his desire for us to live in peace and holiness and wholeness. 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:57.840 Now, the good news is that our mistakes are never the end of our story. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:11.039 Later in the Old Testament, there's this prophet named Hosea, and Hosea is writing encouragement to the people of Israel who had been again disobedient and in failure again, and he's writing uh encouragement to them. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:17.360 And we get this incredible verse that refers back to this story in Joshua. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.720 Hosea 2, 14 and 15. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.200 It's very provocative language, too. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:24.799 Listen to this language. 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.840 Therefore, behold, I will allure her. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:29.679 So the her is God's people. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:44.960 Therefore, behold, I will allure God's people and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her, and there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of a kur a door of hope. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.559 What beautiful language for us. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:52.000 What beautiful theology for us. 00:12:52.399 --> 00:13:00.000 This point number three: God turns our valleys of failures into pathways of restoration. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:03.360 We all have these valleys. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.440 We have these moments, we have these failures before the law, but we are not stoned to death. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:11.840 Rather, Jesus took the price. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.200 God Himself, the grace of God, absorbs it. 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:19.679 And what we have left is a loving God committed to our formation. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:26.240 Part of our formation is to move out of covening and to move into greater contentment. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:31.519 Paul wrote in Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, 6, you probably know this, maybe you've heard this. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:36.000 Godliness with contentment is great gain. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:39.519 So, last point, point number four, last point. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:45.919 God desires our hearts to be defined by godliness and filled with contentment. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:51.200 God desires our hearts to be defined by godliness and filled with contentment. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:53.360 That is God's heart for us. 00:13:55.039 --> 00:14:01.360 And our godliness is always, the phrasing that we use here, I didn't make it up, is always already but not yet. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.039 Already, but not yet. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:10.080 We are already fully godly because of Jesus, permanently, by gift, by grace alone. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:17.039 And yet we're also not nearly as godly as God desires us to be. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:27.440 We're still on that ongoing, imperfect walk toward godliness, which is also a walk in freedom and toward freedom. 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:32.799 And Paul's giving us a huge secret here in this passage, in this passage in Timothy. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:34.799 We won't get this a lot of other places. 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:43.200 You won't get it on Instagram, certainly, at least not on my feed, and it's not coming in like the 18 catalogs I get on Tuesdays, of for me to buy something else. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:58.960 What Paul says is that great gain in life is godliness, the gift of godliness, the pursuit of godliness, and that is connected to your heart being content. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.559 Now, this word content, what a rich word. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:06.320 This is this Greek word that means self-sufficient. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:17.759 That you could be independent, independently joyful and at peace apart from what you have or you don't have. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:19.360 Right? 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:29.919 Contentment is in its greatest expression, is the ability for us to be free from all wants and even needs. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.120 What a great gain that would be. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:40.000 A few weeks ago, the Washington Post published an editorial, and here's what it read. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:50.480 So we were maybe halfway through this pandemic, this coronavirus pandemic that we've been experiencing for six weeks now here in the U.S., and so three weeks ago or so this was published. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:54.399 The novel Corona Pandemic is a thief. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:16:08.799 Among the things that snatches away are the connections that feed passion, contentment, belonging, and all of the other variations of love. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:17.840 And then this week, I was driving and I heard twice this week, because when I drive, I listen to the radio. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:19.759 Yes, I still listen to the radio. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:34.559 That's how old I am, and I'm listening to Star 94, our the biggest pop radio station in Atlanta, and I'm listening to Star 94, and twice this week in my very, very, very limited driving this week, I hear Whitney Houston's Higher Love. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:35.840 You remember it? 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:47.120 It's 34 years old, and yet our current, most current pop station is playing a 34-year-old song. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:49.600 Well, of course there are. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.320 What else are they going to play right now that people want to hear? 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:54.240 Listen to these words. 00:16:55.360 --> 00:17:02.960 Worlds are turning, and we're just hanging on, facing our fear and standing out there alone. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.000 A yearning, yeah, and it's real to me. 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:09.440 There must be someone who's feeling for me. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:13.039 And then she sings, and I can't do it. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:17.039 Bring me a higher love, O Lord. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:21.440 And see, this is what we need to hear today, but this is what we need to hear every day. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:27.680 This is what we need to hear during a pandemic, but this is what we need to hear in the most abundant, flourishing U.S. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:29.680 economy life. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:38.079 We need to know that there is a higher love, a love richer and deeper than any shiny things that could be offered to us. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:59.680 A love that can satisfy us no matter what we have or what we don't have, that can create in us, gift to us godliness, inspire and empower us toward godliness, and begin to create in us a contentment, a freedom, a freedom that we can have all we need in the love of Jesus. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:06.400 I'll close with a prayer from my mentor, Scotty Smith, that wrote about contentment and coveting. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.119 So let's pray together as I read this prayer. 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:19.599 God, through the gospel, I realize that all I really need is Jesus, plus what you choose to give me. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:25.440 If I owned everything I envy and covet, as your word says, my bones would rot. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.000 It would never be enough. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:36.160 Father, there's a Jesus-shaped vacuum in all of us that only Jesus can fill. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:40.400 Thankfully, he is more and more. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:50.319 Free us to be more content in Jesus, more present with people, and more generous with that which we have. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:52.319 So very amen. 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:58.240 I pray in Jesus' beautiful and more than sufficient name.