Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Evening, its good to be back with you tonight and I look forward to sharing the word of God with you.

Turn with me in your Bibles tonight to the book of Joshua chapter 8 were going to be looking at verses 30-35 tonight.

We come upon a scene in our text tonight that really holds meaning for us as children of God. after a strategic military advance on AI and the conquest of the city, the Israelites renew their covenant on Mount Ebal.

If you will remember the children of Israel have just come off of a major defeat, they failed miserably, but when they came in repentance and gave themselves whole heartedly to the Lord once more then God sent them back to where they had failed and gave them the victory.

Now here on the mountain as the people have defeated AI Joshua reads all of the words of the covenant and formally reminds the people of the blessings that come from following the Lord and the curses that come when they disobey.

Why did Josua do this?

Joshua did this because He wanted to keep ever before the eyes of the people the spiritual realities that make up a relationship with God.

There are two pillars that make up our relationship with God.

COMMITMENT AND SERVICE

God did not save us and give us an eternal home just so that we might enjoy our inheritance and sit back and wait on those things to come.

He desired a people set apart for Himself right here on this Earth.

This is really about our commitment to spiritual renewal.

(repeat)

commitment and renewal is a noraml part of our everyday lives.

for example married people renew their vows as a sign of commitment.

For the most part most of us renew our membership to the gym, or insurance policies, or even Sams club.

but most importantly when it pertains to our spirituality we are called to regularly seek after spiritual renewal.

you see the problem is this sin creeps in and it lures us away from the presnece of God, and what we find in that very moment is that we need God.

so what do we do?

We must seek Him.

What are some other ways we might find ourselves being pulled away from the presence of God.

Well sin is one way, but also just the business of life.

Many of you work all the time, man and you find yourself drifting away from God.

Even taking care of our families, we find ourselves mothers drifting away from God.

The business of life causes us to drift away from God. Drift away from the fountain of life.... Jesus Christ.

You see in we see Gods people renewing their commitment to the Lord.

This is why this text is so important, because sin creeped in and caused them to drift away from Him and now in this text we find Gods people saying “god I want to renew my committment to you.

My prayer is that if not all of you many of you will desire to recommit to the Lord, that you would renew your spirituality, your faith, your commitment to the Lord.

The book of Joshua is a book of Gods faithfulness to His promises and covenant.

Fo those of you who havent been on this journey with us I think it is important that I give you a preview of whats going on.

Ch. 1 god commissioned Joshua to lead His people into the promised land.

However Joshua will only be victorious only because of the presence of God and the word of God.

Ch. 2 The Israelites receive affirmation from this woman.

A Cannanite prostitute woman named Rahab who actually told the 2 spies that God has given the land of Jericho into the hands of Israel.

But not only that this prostitute woman named Rahab she confessed and professed Yahweh to be the only god.

Ch. 3 we see Gods faithfulness to HIs covenant to His people by the ark of the covenant this dominates chapter 3. It is the presence of God among His people.

Gods presence lead the people to the JOrdan River it was the ark of the covenant carrying the presence of God that dried up the Jordan river.

Ch. 4 Gods people are faithful to Him by simply setting up 12 stones of rememberance in the place called Gilgal.

Ch. 5 Gods people are renewing their covenant with God (circumcision)

They were committed to taking the passover.

Ch. 6 we see that God is fighting on behalf of the people that God brought down the walls of Jericho

Ch. 7 The people sin against God

we see that because of thier sin God disciplined the people of God and let the people of AI defeat them.

35 were killed Achan and HIs family was stoned

Ch. 8 we see the faithfulness of God by restoring His people.

He restored them by giving them victory and now in this text after the people have experienced great victory they are on their way to renew their covenant with thier faithful God.

Let’s look at 2 facts Concerning spiritual renewal

we see this in the life of the Israelites but we as a church we must pursue these facts.

Spiritual Renewal Requires our commitment and fellowship with God

MT.

Ebal now I want you to understand this.

This si the second time in the book of Joshua where we find the people renewing the committment to the Lord.

I mentioned to you in ch 5 it mentions they renewed their covenant by circumcizing those who had not been circumcised.

What we find they are doing it again.

Now in ch 24 the Israelites will renew the covenant again.

So three times in the book of Joshua they are renewing their covenant.

There is something we cant miss in this text.

dont miss this.

WE TOO AS A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH SHOULD RENEW AND BE COMITTED TO SPIRITUAL RENEWAL.

On a daily basis we should examine our hearts and make sure we are not drifting away from the presence of God.

We too must do this on a consistent basis, dont miss this.

As believers we should not be lax in our spirituality because the faithfulness of god towards us should deepen our comittment toward Him.

(repeat)

I wanna illlustrate this

Paul what is your commitment?

There it is

I AM SO COMMITTED TO JESUS I PRESS ON TO MAKE IT MY ON.

But Paul what is stimulating your comittment?

Jesus’ faithfulness to Paul is what dirves HIm forward to chase Jesus even harder than He did before.

god was faithful to restore them after they sinned, god was faithful to give them victory over AI and now they are saying GOD BECAUSE OF YOUR GOODNESS TOWARD US WE ARE GONNA PURSUE SPIRITUAL RENEWAL.

God is so faithful towards us, that even when we sin, even when we drift away from Him. HIs desire is to draw us back into the fold.

what gets us back to God is not our own self efforts but HIs faithfulness when we stop and think about His faithfulness and His goodness.

Look carefully

they took a 20 mile trip to Mt Ebal, to renew their covenant with the Lord.

I want you to see this any military strategist would disagree with their decision.

A logicla decision would be man after you have defeated your enemy AI continue with those victories dont go away 23 miles away on this spiritual journey, no you keep on going.

you stay and fight, now you can say that if your looking at this through a worldly perspective and this is proof enough that action and comittment is proof enough and all the victories they will experience through the book of Joshua did not come from their military strategies, but came as a result of them making their relationship with god their top priority.

For us to find success in our days it does not come because we are special it comes from us being obedient and seeking hard and fast after the face of