What’s Under Your Tent

Intro

Illustration of Brownies:

Since I knew you guys were all working really hard this week I brought in a fresh baked pan of brownies.

ASK: would anyone here like a fresh baked brownie?

Hand out a couple… But dont eat it yet.

After handed out- Say “You guys saw a picture of my dog last night right? Who remembers his name! Stako”

im telling that dog is extra sweet. as soon as I walk in the door he runs up to me and wants big hug. I mean all that dog wants to do is cuddle. Everything about him is swweet

and so as I was making up these brownies i want them to be extra sweet so I went out in the back yard and found a nice little pile of stamps sweetness just sitting there.

I thought it would be interesting to put just a little chunk of dog poop into the brownie mix. EXAGERATE UPON THIS.

it still looks amazing it still smells delicious- In fact I figure really only one or two of you would even taste the po inside.

Now how many of you would eat this brownie?

No one in there right mind-

The whole brownies are ruined because of that little bit of poop.

***Ok I didn’t really put poop in there - you can eat your brownies..

Young People Do you understand that your sin is just like this poop in the brownies,

In fact in James 2:10

James 2:10 ESV

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Meaning it only takes a little sin in our lives to corrupt our entire person,

the question I have for you tonight is this … How do you view the sin in your life?

Do you look at it as something thats not that big of a deal or do you see it as something that has corrupted your entire character, that has tainted your entire spiritual life?

As we open the Word of God Tonight, we are going to look at an instance where 1 man’s relatively little disobedience corrupted not just his own life but the entire camp of Israel, and because of that little sin more than 50 people had to die.

Open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 6.

Background

We are jumping into the middle of one of the most well known stories in the Bible. Joshua and the children of Israel are about to conquer Jericho

and we read In verse 17 that God Gave Joshua clear instructs that no one was to take anything from the city because it all has been set devoted to the Lord for Destruction.

Only save the gold, and silver and precious vessels so that they can be given to the Storehouse of the Lord.

And if anyone takes anything for themselves they will bring destruction upon themself and upon the nation.

meaning the victory was the Lords and the Spoils of the battle were all His,

You know the story- on the seventh day God commanded the peopel to blow their trumpets and shout, and when they did , God himself knocked down the walls of Jericho and the people went in and captured it. and in verse 21 it says

Joshua 6:21 ESV

21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

meaning- They did what God had command them to do- They obeyed,

The people must have been so excited to see God do such incredible things.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to see the great city of Jericho fall in such a unique fashion?

In chapter 17 the story of Isreal’s Conquest goes On and Joshua decides to send up some spies to see what the next town called AI is like.

They come back and report that it is a small town.

“we will only need about 3,000 men to totally wipe out this because the city isn’t very big. “

So Joshua agrees.

The soldiers go up and The small town of Ai ends up killing 36 of Israels mighty worriors. chasing them away..

What a demoralizing defeat. They were broken.

Why would God do such a miraclous thing in Jericho and then allow this little town of AI to kill our men and run us away?

Joshua, not understanding what has happened, goes before the Lord and says “why have you led us out here to die.” (7:6-7).

Joshua is starting to sound like the Israelite people when they came out of Egypt.

He is starting to doubt that God was doing a work in their lives,

The response that Joshua receives is a total surprise to him.

in verses 10-13 God simply says “Someone in the camp has sinned, and until it is taken care of Israel will not win and The Lord will not be with you in battle. (7:10-13)

So Joshua has the people come before him.

He begins a process of narrowing down who it was that sinned and caused these deaths in Israel.

As we continue on in the story we find that it was a man named Achan

and His sin was that he had taken a Babylonian Garment, 200 shekels of silver ($2000), and a wedge of gold ($26,000).

Do you understand what is going on in this story>

Because of 1 man’s sin, 36 men died and Israel's reputation was tarnished.

Young People How do you view your sin?

Do you see your sin as serious as God sees it?

Tonight as we look closely at God’s Word, our goal is self examination.

I believe God has some incredible things in store for each of you this summer at camp.

I believe that God is planning to do great things this summer through the ministry of IRBC

and I believe that if your hearts are right, you will see God do Immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine!

But in order for this to happen, we need to make sure that we don’t allow sin to fester in the camp.

So this evening in an attempt to help us better understand how this can happen we are going to look at SINS PROCESS, SINS EFFECT, AND Our RESPONSE...

turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua 7:19–21 and listen along as I read our text.

Joshua 7:19–21 ESV

19 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; do not hide it from me.” 20 And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 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.”

Did you Notice the Process of Achan’s sin

SINS PROCESS

I Saw 7:20

Achan must have been one of the men charged with going through the city to gather up the items of silver, gold, for the house of the Lord. I can picture it now, Achan is searching through the rubble of Jericho and all of a sudden something catches his eye. So he goes over and brushes it off and it’s a wedge of gold. He picks it up and carefully wipes it off. Then he just stands there for a little bit looking at this beautiful piece of gold.

Achan’s sin began with a simple look.

We need to understand that Achan’s heart was not in the right place- His heart was looking in the direction of sin and not at the glory of God.

The word “saw” means “To look after longingly; To revere or be in awe of; To view with great value”

The idea here is that Achan continued to“gazed in awe” at the gold and silver.

Young People- Sin generally starts when we look too long at what we don’t have.

We need to be so careful to control our eyes, Because too often it is through our Eyes that sin creeps into our hearts.

Young People -

What sin keeps grabbing your eyes attention?

The problem is that unless we chose to look away andf Back to Jesus that sin will turn into covetousness.

TRans: Step #2 in the process of sin is

I Wanted

look at our text….

The word coveted carries with it the idea of “delighting in, finding happiness in, and lusting after.”

Achan has now come to the point in His sin where he is now willing to do whatever it takes to get these “THINGS” for himself.

He has convinced himself that what He saw would be better than what God has promised,

Sin progresses from seeing and wishing we had- to being consumed with getting.

A simple glance has now turned to a burning desire that is consuming him.

This is the step of sin where we start to believe that this sin can bring us more happiness and pleasure that God Himself.

Friends that’s what Sin does- The longer you stare at what you should not be looking at the deeper it will pull you in, and the more your heart will Justify why you should have it in our life.

Achan’ heart was not where it should have been He was looking in the direction of sin to find pleasure and when the sin caught his eye He coveted the pleasure that that sin could bring his life.

and what Happened next?

Look at His confession in the text…. Read slide

“So I took The,”

I Took

Achan’s look turned to lust, which in turn led to actions

The outward visible act of sin is simply a continuation of the sin that started with the longing look.

sinful Action is Sin that didn't get dealt with when it should have been taken care of!

Young People Achan’s Sin did not begin when He took the gold -It began when He looked too long at its worldly beauty.

it began when His focus had turned from what God had promised to is own temporary pleasure .

He was in essence saying “God what you have given me isn’t nearly as good as what you’ve allowed the world to have and So Im going to take what they have instead of what You have called good for my life.”

Young People- Dont be fooled- We do the very same thing daily in our own lives.

We look too long at things we should not be looking at

and we let our looking turn into Wanting and little by Little step by step we go deeper and deeper into our sin,

Do you understand what it means for us to chose sin over obedience?

We are saying to God “I love the pleasure from my sin more than I love my Savior!

and from Achans story we can see that even with the tempory pleasure of sin in our lives always leads to destruction- .Young People Sin is never worth it!!!

Look at the Effect Achan’s sin had on the camp…

Read slide-

The NET Bible Chapter 7

4 So about three thousand men went up, but they fled from the men of Ai. 7:5 The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them and chased them from in front of the city gate all the way to the fissures and defeated them on the steep slope. The people’s courage melted away like water.

SIN'S EFFECT

Young People Achan’s personal sin did not just affect Him. he was not the only one who died because of His sin

36 soldiers were killed in that Battle.

Israel was Defeated and lost their courage.

and Achan's entire Family lost their lives. and all their “stuff” was destroyed by Fire,

Young People dont be fooled into thinking your sin doesnt matter- All sin has consequences and God will Punish your sin-

Listen to some of the consequences your unconfessed sin is having on your life.

John 8:34 says that sin makes you its slave

Phil 3 says that sin always brings destruction

Romans 6 says that my sin demands a death penalty

Eph 4:18 Says my sin alienate me from the love of God & hardens my heart towards him

Eph 4:19 says that my sin always brings an insatiable lust for more

Psalm 66 tells us that our sin destroys my prayer life with God

Tonight, many of you are still hanging on to a sin that you think no one else knows about. Many are holding on to a sin believing that its not that big of a deal!.

Young People dont let your “little sin keep you from what God has planned for you this summer!

IF you want God to do a great work in your life and at this camp this summer than you need to get rid of that sin..

SIN'S REMEDY

,In our story inJoshua, God gives us the Remedy for sin

look at what He says in verse 13

“You are contaminated oh Israel! You will not be victorious until you remove the contamination from among you”

When the Lot fell on Achan as the one who had sinned

His family was put to death and all of his belonging were destroyed by fire.e sin was destroyed

His family was put todeath and all of his belonging were destroyed by fire.

The children of Israel wanted nothing to do with that sin ever again.

Young people this is what it means to remove the sin from your life

its to get rid of every part of it that can capture your gaze so that there will not be any more temptation to go back into that sin.

So How do we remove it from our lives?

it all begins with Confession

Confess – 1 John 1:9

"if we confess our sins, HE IS FAITHFUL and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When that verse says confess the idea behind that word is to "say the same thing as".

We need to call our sin what God calls it - SIN - its not an oopsy daisy , its not a “my bad” ITS SIN- ITS OPEN DISOBEDIENCE AGAINST A HOLY GOD!

When we truly see our sin like God sees is it will drive us to change!

Change – Psalm 119:59-60

The Psalmist writing about his sin wrote in

in Psalm 119:59-60

“I thought about my ways” — He is saying I see My Sin the way that God sees my sin

I turned my feet to your precepts” — He is saying I want victory over my sin

and I ran like crazy to do them” —- I took Action against my sin

Young People Do you understand that the remedy of Sin is a pursuit of Godliness in your life.

its to run like crazy towards the things of God!

Bring It Home

In order for us to have a right relationship with God…We must first deal with the hidden sin in our lives.

As david said in Psalm 139 (SLIDE)

Psalm 139:23-24

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Test me, and know my Concerns;

24 And see if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way .

Young People What is under your tent?

What sin are you secretly trying to hide- Hoping no one will ever figure it Out!

Young People Its time to make a DECISION

Understand that sin wants to enslave your life!!

Sin will always take you where you dont want to go

Sin will always keep you there longer than you want to stay

sin will always cost you more than you want to pay.

The real queation we all musat ask our selves about our sin is this

DO I love my sin more than I love my God?

Because if you love your God You will not let this wedge of sin continue to fester in your relationship with Him

If you truly love God - You will not go another day without turnign from that sin in confession and running towards the word of God!