Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Well, this past week, I was admiring the beautiful fall weather outside and thinking about the game of golf.

Does anyone play golf this morning?

Well in case you don’t I came across an article this week that explains:

Have you ever watched professional golfers and been awed by their ability to land a shot from two hundred yards away just a few yards from the hole?

You wonder how they can judge the distance to the hole with such precision.

Do they have an internal GPS system that enables them to guess the distances on the course with Great accuracy?

Not really.

What they have is a yardage book.

A yardage book is a map of each hole on the course that gives distances from various landmarks on the hole to the green.

Decades ago, Arnold Palmer and his caddy began drawing rough yardage charts with little pictures of trees, fairways, greens, sand traps and such of the various holes on all the courses they played.

Jack Nicklaus was the pro who really made yardage books popular.

Today along with the maps many pro golfers will keep what essentially is a personal journal of how they have played each hole of the course, what clubs they have used from various distances, what the wind was doing, what happened to their shots, and so on.

You see, Golfers swear by their yardage books.

Zach Johnson, winner of the 2010 Colonial, says, "I feel naked without it out there.

It's my golf bible."

Steve Marino says, "You see what you did in the past, you make sure you have the right number and then trust all of it, because the room for error is nil."

Scott Vail, caddie for Brandt Snedeker, says, "There are huge ramifications if you are just even 1 yard off."

You see I realize that many of you don’t play golf, but the implications for us this morning are the same.

When we talk about the bible, we learn from what they did in the past, you see that there are ramifications for your actions, both good and bad.

And ultimately, you live your life as Paul tells us, so as to win the prize.

You see, I don’t know how your week was… maybe you had less than ideal circumstances… maybe you were hoping to land on the green, but you actually landed on the rough.

Maybe Conditions in life right now aren’t so great after all.

You see last week, we discussed this idea of the presence of God in our lives, as we looked at the book of Joshua.

This morning, we’re going to continue with the same idea, being close to Christ, with the focus of how sin gets in the way.

If you have your bibles with you, turn with me to Joshua 7.

And as your turning there, we have just 2 points (there are more… but this is where I felt lead to focus).

1. Sin leads affects your confidence (or mindset) .2. Sin affects your circumstances.

Want to make the distinction of suffering for doing right as we see with Elijah 1 kings 18 or job… suffering for doing wrong / righteous suffering…

1. Sin affects your mindset.

(or confidence).

Sin leads to fear, obedience leads to faith.

It’s interesting, as we begin this morning’s message, you may recall from last week that Joshua and the nation of Israel has recently come off a massive victory.

After crossing the Jordan river and then conquering Jericho, as the walls come tumbling down.

Joshua and the nation of Israel is at an all-time high.

They’re up on top of the mountain top.

It would be like if you were a baseball team, perhaps not even the best or most qualified from the outside… but that year, your team went on to win the world series, how great of a feeling would that be?

What sort of excitement would be in this experience?

You see, that’s where Joshua and the people of Israel are in Joshua chapter 6.

But then we flip forward one page, one chapter… and everything, everything has changed!

The people of Israel have gone from a standpoint of victory… to defeat, from total excitement and joy… to total confusion and heartbreak… from confidence and standing tall… to melting with fear and falling to their faces….

And we ask ourselves this morning: “what changed?”

How can we literally change the just one page and everything has changed?

Have you ever felt that way before?

Have you ever been in a season in life, where things felt like they were going great?

I mean you’re on top of the world, you’re on cloud 9.

Your marriage is good, work is going great, you’re actually getting along with your in laws, you just got a promotion and if the icing on the cake, you’re going on vacation next week?

To then, your dog dies, your in laws don’t like you after all, your promotion fell through and your vacation that was supposed to be glorious was cancelled due to a cockroach outbreak.

Yeah, it’s kind of like country music, you lost your wife, your truck, your dog, your house… which by the way, do you know what happens when you play country music backwards?

You get all your stuff back!

But church, here’s the point, Israel was riding on cloud 9. Life was good, it seems like things couldn’t get much better… and then, everything comes crashing to a screeching halt.

All the momentum, all the success, all the victory, it seemingly went right out the window.

Church how could so much change… in such a short time?....

You see, after defeating Jericho.

And marching around the walls for 7 days and then letting out this massive shout as the walls come crashing down, God give the people just one command… Just on thing to do…

Joshua 6:17-18 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted[a] to the Lord.

Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.

18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them.

Otherwise, you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.

Alright, so God has set the stage, God has set the conditions for the Israelites to follow.

He delivers, Jericho into their hands, I’m sure they let out an excited, joyful, victorious shout as the walls come crashing down… but here’s where things get ugly.

A few verses later in Joshua 7, we read how the Israelites respond.

Joshua 7: 1-5 tells us:

7 But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.

So, the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.

2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.”

So, the men went up and spied out Ai. 3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai.

Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” 4 So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them.

They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes.

At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

(melted, dissolved, snowman.)

You see church, the first point this morning is that obedience leads to faith, disobedience leads to fear.

If you recall from last week.

How can a nation, who is God’s chosen people be doing so good, one moment, and so bad the next?

It all starts with sin.

You recall from Adam and eve; they’re walking faithfully with God.

They’re obedient to him.

And yet, in a moment, in a laps of judgement, they sin… and sin ultimately affects their mind first.

Genesis 3:6-10 tells us:

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so, I hid.” (move to point 2

You see church, when we look at this scripture this morning, we see that they’re eyes or in the Hebrew ʿayin was suddenly open.

Now this word pertains to their sight physically, but what it’s referring to here is their mindthat is open.

You see as we’re told, sin leads to the knowledge that Adam is naked.

Which does, what, causes fear.

It causes Adam to be afraid.

And in his fear, he hides.

Later on in this scripture, we’ll see that Achan, the start of the show this morning, also is afraid.

So, he hides his treasure… and ultimately, his sin leads to death.

But church I want us to see this morning that ultimately, when we sin… it affects the mind first.

The nation Of Israel goes from victory, to defeat, from faith fear, and listen, it all starts with sin.

The bible tells us that this how Joshua responded, we’re told:

6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening.

The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.

7 And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?

If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! 8 Pardon your servant, Lord.

What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?