Joshua 8 - God's way or the highway

Announcements

No service next week since it’s Christmas but we will stream a service

Men’s meeting next Saturday at 9

Christmas Eve Service at 5

Be praying for Brian Doyle and Tammy Thomas

Tithe and offering

Prayer and Fasting starting on Jan 1. Come on the journey with us.

It’s important to start getting your body ready for the fast

Cut out sugars

Reduce the size of your meals

Skip a meal and pray

In your prayer time begin to ask the Lord what you are to go after

Read the letter of what the kids are going to be doing.

Recap of last week

Last week we went over the first part of Chapter 7 of Joshua. The Israelites got a little bit prideful and went to attack AI and got their butts handed to them. It wasn’t because they weren’t able but because of disobedience and secret sin.

Joshua was torn up because of the defeat and questions God. Why would you have brought me all of this way only to be destroyed. We should have just stayed on the other side of the Jordan and been content.

I can feel the disappointment from Joshua and I can relate to this.

Has there been a time in your life where you feel like everything is going smoothly only to have your feet swept out from underneath you?

Story of the car cutting me off this week.

The enemy wants to rock your boat and get you to give up your peace.

The thing about peace is that true peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of God.

When you read the bible you see a book filled with people that went through hard times yet God was always there.

Joshua went through some stuff but do you think Joshua ever went back to the beginning and remembered what God said.

Joshua 1:7 ESV

7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

So let’s talk about peace.

We see that God is a God of Peace

1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV

33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

Talk about emotions and anxiety

They aren’t bad, but we need to figure out why they are there and then deal with them through prayer.

Many times we feel like if things were to change then I would have peace.

If only I would make more money then I would be able to have what I need and I would have peace

If only I could remove someone from my life, then I would have peace.

True peace is only found in Jesus

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Sometimes we walk through hard times because we live in a fallen world but sometimes we go through things in our life as a result of sin

Joshua 7:10–11 ESV

10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.

We see that Achan had stolen some things that were supposed to be devoted to the Lord. Because of that, there was judgement on the whole nation of Israel.

We see the rest of chapter 7 of Joshua where the Lord instructs Joshua to to bring every tribe before him, then every clan, then every household and then every man. The punishment for disobedience......was death. Aren’t you thankful for Jesus!!

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Romans 3:21–22 NLT

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

If we have a way to take care of sin why don’t we?

I believe that God wants to deal with the buried sin in our lives.

The fall of AI

After the sin in the camp is taken away God wants them to engage and get back to the mission.

Joshua 8:1–2 ESV

1 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai 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, behind it.”

Jericho was a tithe and when you honor the Lord with all that you have he will bless you.

So Joshua has this beautiful plan of an ambush for the people of AI.

He takes 30,000 men to fight the battle

He sends 5,000 men to the front of the city and the king of AI saw these guys and goes out to fight them like last time and chase after them.

Joshua let’s all the men of AI to chase the israelites. And then takes and points to the city and the rest of the men go and take the city and begin to burn it to the ground. The king of AI sees the smoke and knows what happened. The bible says that they lose all their strength and were defeated

Call worship team up

Joshua 8:30–35 ESV

30 At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 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. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on 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 Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a 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 the sojourners who lived among them.

It’s only God’s way. You can’t do it on your own

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.