Broken Faith

Joshua Burgess

Faith For the Impossible • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

Joshua 7

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Joshua 7:1–13 (ESV)

But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” (Israel had faith) So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?”

The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 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. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

Recap

This is our last week in our series on “Faith for the impossible”

Where we have been following the conqest of the people of israel into the promised land.

We started when israel first came to the jordan river

and were forced to choose have faith in God.. and failed

Choosing Faith

We talked about how we will have moments in our lives where we are going to have to choose faith in god

and put away the cricumstances.

Bold Faith

Then last week we talked about the first battle after israel has come into the promised land.

The City of Jericho

And we talked about Bold Faith

How if we are going to have bold faith we have

to be willing to believe god even when it doesnt make since.

We have to be willing to act on Gods direction and our belief in him

and we have to learnt to praise him prophetically, before the victory has even come

Now

The battle of jericho would seem like its now over

the people of israel have taken the city and destroyed it..

and carried the goods off to the treasurey of the lord.

and they have now moved to a different battle.

the battle of AI..

Israel had faith at ai

And i want us to take notice, that in the battle of AI, as we just read, the people had faith..

Spies

Joshua sends out a group of spies to go and see AI..

and they come back with great faith..

they say, listen, you dont even need to send the entire army

the people are not that big..

The 3,000

And so they only take 3,000 men with them..

and im sure you could feel the momentum in the air as they approached AI..

faith is high

They have crossed the joran on dry ground..

God miraculously gave them jericho..

Their faith is high..

They have chosen faith in the battle..

they have chosen to believe believe they are going to win..

they are marching in confidence..

All the components of faith are in place..

Unexpected

but then something unexpected happens..

The bible says the people of israel fled before the people of AI..

36 of them are killed in the loss..

and faith goes out the window..

the bible says that the hearts of the people of israel melted and became like water..

what happened?

what brought down the mighty army of israel..

How could they miraculously defeat the impenatrable walls of jericho..

Have great faith before the lord..

but they couldnt take the little groupd of people in AI?

Israel Broke Faith

The bible says that it was because of broken faith..

Look at verse 1..

Joshua 7:1 (ESV)

The bible says that israel broke faith with god..

that somone in the camp sinned..

and god was angered..

So their faith became ineffective..

and they lost the battle..

How did israel break Faith?

Its important that we understand how faith was broken in this story..

Because if we are not carfeful..

we too can choose faith..

and have bold faith..

but fail to see the victory because of our own broken faith..

so how was faith broken in israel..?

God gave a command

You see if you rememeber back in the battle of Jericho..

the people were given very specific instructions about what to do after the walls came down..

Joshua 6:17–19 (ESV)

And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”

You see the poeple have been commanded..

Everything you see is to be destoryed.. and the metals were to do into the trasury of the lord..

THE PEOPLE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE OR KEEP ANYTHING FROM THE CITY..

IT WAS A TITHE OF SORTS ON THE CONQEST OF THE LAND..

IT ALL BELONDED TO GOD..

BUT.. Not all of them listened..

The Comand was broken

The bible says that achan didnt listen..

and achan, after being drawn out by lots.. admited this..

look at his own words in verse 20-21..

Joshua 7:20–21 (ESV)

And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

Achan knew gods command..

dont take the spoil..

BUT ACHANS FLESH WANTED WHAT HE WANTED..

HE saw the robe…

He say the silver..

and he saw the gold..

and he desired it..

he longed for it..

and instead of saying.. no.. God said im not suposed to take those things..

He gave in and took them..

AND BECAUSE OF HIS SIN, HE BROUGHT GREAT LOSS BOTH ON HIS PEOPLE AND HIMSELF..

There were consequences....

Achans sin..

His failure to obey gods comands..

Broke the faith of israel..

Cost them the victory over the first battle of AI..

and cost him, his famil, and all he had thier lives..

why?

Because he failed to keep the comands of the lord..

Broken faith is Possible for us..

I want us to understand this morning..

that it is possible to choose to have faith in god..

and to have bold faith that god can do anything..

And still fail to see breakthrough and victory because the faith we have is broken?

It it spossible for our faith to be broken..

How do we break faith?

Its simple.

Just like achan, we allow disobidience to come into our camp.

a refusal to do what god has told us to do..

thats what happened with achan..

SIN

And were not just talking about sin in general..

The kind of sin that broke israels faith was not accidental sin..

Its wasnt an ignorant sin that they did because they didnt know..

its was willful and knowing sin..

It was a direct defying of what they knowingly knew god told them to do..

Covet

Even achan himself admitted this in verse .. 20-21

Achan say I saw the devoted things..

and i coveted them..

and I took them..

Lets upack that for a moment..

I knew

Achan admited he knew he should not have done what he did..

he admited it was sin..

Saw

Then he admited he was tempted..

he saw the things..

and they looked good to him..

(Sounds like the garden of eden doesnt it.. )

Coveted

Then he says he coveted them…

That word means he desired them..

He wanted them..

There was a strong desire in him to have them..

And so what..

took them.

HE gave in and took them..

Achan knew what he was doing was wrong..

but it looked good..

It felt good..

and so he did it..

and the result was that faith, not just in his life, but the camps was broken..

if we are not careful..

the same thing will happen to us..

It happened to eve..

it happened to achan…

it happen to sampson..

and many more in the bible..

The enemy in our faith will send temptation ourway

and our flesh will desire it..

and if we are not master over our flesh..

IT will take it.. and have it..

and it will break our faith..

BECAUSE DISOBIEDEINCE TO GODS WORD BREAKS OUR FAITH…

I want to talk real quick about three ways in which disobiedience breaks our faith..

1. Disobiedeince breaks our covanant relationship with God..

Both the old and the new testaments are covanant relationships between god and his people..

What does that mean?

The word covanant refers to a binding relationship between two parties..

for us..

Its means that when you come into relationship with Christ..

and he saves you and sets you free..

you enter into a binding relationship with God..

Where god promises that he will uphold his end of the relationship, and he expects us to uphold our end as well..

yes god expects something out of you..

we see this relationship expressed in exodus when god is estabilishing relationship with the poeple of israel..

Exodus 6:7 ESV

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I will be your god..

You will be my people..

those are the terms of the covanant relationship..

New testament

In the new testament..

We as gentiles are brought into the equation..

Where we can be grafted in as the people of god..

And through Jesus, we are brought in..

and Jesus and his sacrificial blood become the new covantant..

that now, instead of through bulls and goats, through chirst, we become the poeple of god..

and he becomes our god..

Two

but notice the two terms of the covanant..

I will be your god..

God says I will do my part..

I will save you, protect you, and bring you to your home..

and you will be my people..

in other words you will act like the poeple of god..

Jesus

Jesus said it this way..

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1 John 4:20–21 ESV

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Breaking

You see when we walk in willful sin..

and choose to live in willful sin..

we are breaking the covanant nature of the relationship with god..

and there by breaking faith with him..

and instead of our faith being in him..

our faith is really put into our selve and what we want..

and this in turn brings defeat in our life..

because we are incapable of saving ourselves..

Second way

Lets look at a secind way disobiedeince breaks our faith..

2. Disobiedeince breaks our faith before others..

Notice that achans actions brought problems for everyone, not just him..

Sin and disobidience effect everyone around us..

there is not solo consequences to sin..

achan

for achan..

we see his whole family lost their life..

36 men lost their lives..

and israel was defeated

God was angered..

It effected everyone..

When we choose to live in disobiedeince instead of holiness to the lord..

our sin effects the faith of others as well.

Jesus

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus in matthew told us we should let our light..

the way we live our life..

shine before others..

so they can be pointed to god..

when we choose ot live in willful sin, we nulify our faith before others..

and essentially tell that that God is not worthy to be served..

because we would rather keep our sin..

see

People are watching us..

and when they see us acting like the world..

they will stay in the world..

disobidience kills our testimony..

3. Disobiedience can cost us everything..

achan lost his life and so did his family.

adam and eve lost the garden..

sampson lost his sight and then his life..

david lost his infant son..

saul lost the kingdom..

If we are not careful to follow the word of god and live how god has directed us to live..

we can lose everything..

up to and including our eternal life..

Relationship

our eternal life in heaven is a covanent relationship thing..

if we descide its better to live in our sin.. than to live by gods words..

we are gambling our eternity..

disobiedience can lose us eveyrthing..

If we are going to choose faith, and have bold and effective faith we have to be obiedient to gods word and live his way..

GOD WILL NOT BLESS WHAT HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITED TO HIM..

Altar Call

How do we restore faith?

get rid of our willful disobideince..

get rid of the things we are choosing to hang on to..

Whats hidden in your camp, that is preventing God from blessing your faith?

how do we get rid of sin in our camp?

Admit it.. achan admited it, even though it cost him his life..

Let God kill it today..

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