Missed Momentum
Notes
Transcript
It’s the week after Easter!
So often the 6 days between Easter Sunday and the Sunday after Easter at peculiar at best. One of the conundrums that is often thought about is the amount of Christians who “check out” after Easter service. They have come and celebrated their Resurrected King- they sang the songs, heard the Sermon, even reflected a little bit- but that was it and now life gets back to normal.
If you want to see the complexity- you do not have to look any further than church attendance trends. Almost every church attendance stat tells us that Easter Sunday holds the largest attendance numbers for church- meanwhile the very next week is the lowest Sunday in terms of worldwide attendance.
What’s with that? Where did everyone go? Full churches one week just to get half empty the rest? Social media feeds that were full of the Good New’s of Jesus’ Resurrection that are once again filled with profanity, sin, gossip and slander? A world that celebrated a Risen Savior crucifying that same Jesus again in their hearts just 7 days later? What gives?
Well, its the story of humanity, friends. A waxing and waning relationship with God was Israel’s history, the early church’s history, and I would argue our history too.
So, if you find yourself not as passionate about the Gospel this week as you were last- this Sermon might just be for you.
Let’s look at the story of Joshua and the nation of Israel in Joshua Chapter 7- the chapter after their most historic victory. A lot of us know the story of Joshua 6- the battle of Jericho. Remember? Joshua leads the people and the trumpets blow and the walls fall and the Israelites storm in to victory!
We hear this story and most of us would think that they continued on into bigger and better things- how could they not? They just watched God blow up city walls and let them in! Surely they would never back down now---- right?
But the story of Joshua 7 is quite different. It shows a defeated Israel- whose men are killed at Ai and a broken and morning Joshua who is a shell of the leader he was in chapter 6.
They compromised on the covenant of their faith-
They compromised on the covenant of their faith-
The very first verse of chapter 7 reveals a major problem to us about the mess the people were in. They broke their faith in regard to devoted things. In Chapter 6 verse 18-19 God gave the people a very specific command “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. 19 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.”
Don’t take any of the things, God said, but Achan took some; he compromised. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyway.
Friends, being a follower of Jesus comes with a price. There are things in our lives that God asks us not to do, and things that we are asked to do. Too often we find ourselves compromising on the things of God.
I know this is wrong- but God will forgive me
Just this one time, it wont hurt
God will understand if I do this
A very wise friend of mine once said to me “Compromise is defeat on an installment plan.”
We see this in Achan’s actions. The compromise that he made brought calamity on the entire camp. I wonder, if he knew the trouble that his sin would eventually bring- would he have done it? There again, I wonder the same thing about us-
If you knew the couple beers would lead to a DUI
If you knew the sexual compromise would lead to a broken family
If you knew the suggestive pics would lead to a porn addiction
If you knew the gossip would turn into a lost friendship
Would we have done it? Probably not...
They underestimated their enemy
They underestimated their enemy
Verses 2-5 tell us about the second thing Joshua and the people did to set themselves up for failure that day. “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.” 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.”
When you do not take your enemy seriously, it is easy to get defeated. In sports we see if often when the undefeated team gets toppled by the 2-10 team; they look past the task at hand thinking “they cannot compete with us!”
The report of the spies was arrogant at it’s heart, wasn’t it? We just overthrew Jericho! These guys are a joke- send down 2-3 thousand and let’s move on- the problem? They got more than the bargained for.
We do the same thing, don’t we.
I am a good person, that will never happen to me
I know I haven’t picked up my Bible in a while, but God still loves me
I don’t really go to church, but you do not have to go to church to be a Christian.
Can I just be blunt today, the Devil does not care about your good intentions. He does not care that you are mostly a good person, or that you did not mean to hurt anyone. The Devil does not care- Listen to what the Bible tells us about the Devil
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
When Joshua and the people underestimated their enemy- it cost them the battle, and cost people their lives.
How many marriages have been destroyed, houses been foreclosed on, children been placed into foster care, and people been hurt to their core because a Christian has underestimated their enemy? The answer is too many!
They did not take sin seriously
They did not take sin seriously
In 7:10-13 we read that Joshua goes into a complete pity party.
We live in a world that does not take sin as serious as it used too
When we compromise the seriousness of sin, we are compromising the holiness of God!
GOD SAYS BE HOLY AS I AM HOLY!
God told them how to fix their problem in v13- You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.
The same can be said of us, we cannot live the lives God has planned for us if we are living in sin, or knowingly involved in sin.
Have you ever let a small cut, or a small medical problem go, and it turn into an infection or a more serious problem? This often happens with sin
Once Joshua and the people repented God blessed them, and they renewed their covenant
Once Joshua and the people repented God blessed them, and they renewed their covenant
7:16-26 tells us of how they dealt with the actions of Achan- it was SERIOUS
They did not say “it’s okay, we know you didn’t mean it” or “well, it is none of our business what he does”
In Joshua 8:30-35 Joshua renews the covenant with the people.
We too, need moments like this. Not just when we repent, but when we renew