Joshua: Kingdom Conquest (8)
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Last week we discussed Jericho and the major victory they had. So much so that the chapter on Jericho ends
So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
They had this amazing victory. Everyone was on fire. They were going to conquer the world. Some here recieved that message and were ready to charge out onto the battlefield and storm their destiny. The few people that were here Wednesday messaged me late into the week as they were being victorious and growing in faith. But… some say BUT
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.
This is the bracket to the events that Israel is about to go through when attacking AI.
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.”
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.
How can we go from a faith-filled obedient victory against Jaricho- noted around the world for it’s defense system to being defeat against by the NY Jets. A small nobosy army in the armpit of the promised land?
The answer
Sin
Obedience
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.
Walking around the wall they were strictly obedient. They did everything God has asked of them down to the dotting of the i. Until they had the victory.
Understand:
We are more apt to sin on the mountain top than in the valley.
We cannot expect a Jericho victory with unrepentant sin in our hearts. Jericho took obedience. Your call in your life takes obedience. God may put a bigger picture in front of you, but if you don’t start putting together the small puzzle pieces you’re never going to get the big picture.
When I was 13 years old I was called into youth ministry. At 13.5 I felt my calling was to enlighten the women around me to my greatness. So I stopped pursuing the things of God and started pursuing the desires of my flesh.
at 23-Exactly 10 years later I started as youth Pastor. Why 10 years? Because I was too busy flaunting with the world instead of being obedient to Christ. After that it took another 10-12 years of solid steady work on myself with God’s direction. More failures than I can count. More correction than I wanted and more healing than I realized to be who I am today.
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!
If we are honest how many times have we prayed a prayer like this:
Lord you promised you said I would have it. I felt it within my Spirit. I knew it was from you. God you directed me and I failed. If you directed me how did I fail?
And I love God’s answer
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.”
In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households. And the household that the Lord takes shall come near man by man.
Imagine being in the depressed prayer. and hearing from God—Get up-you look stupid and pathetic. You guys did it to yourselves.
It’s like watching my kids do something I told them not to 10 times and then them hurting themselves. My response. I told you not to do it. Maybe next time you’ll listen.
They have transgressed my convenant- a covenant in today’s terms is a legal contract. They went against the contract, therefore God isn’t responsbile for their failure.
Although God forgives sin; sometimes there are Earthly consequences to our worldly decisions.
When we seek forgiveness for our sin God says he wipes us clean. This means we have absolutely no eternal punishment for the sin we committed, but on many occasions that still leaves us with an Earthly mess to clean up.
If you commit murder and find God, turn your self in and seek forgiveness. Repent-truly repent. turn from your ways the court is still going to sentence to jail. You still have to pay the price for the crime committed. God may have told you prior to this that he was going to use you to reach many souls for Christ and that you would have a great evangelistic ministry because of your turn around. That may be your calling, but you first have to faithful in your jail sentence before you’re faithful on the mission field.
You missuse money. God may have stated you will bless you beyond measure, but you still have to pay your financial debt first.
There are times in our life where we have to be faithful in our earthly consequences before we can reap heavenly rewards. It doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen, but the matter of sin and disobedience has to be settled.
So Israel did what God had commanded. They found the person who took things that didn’t belong to them.
And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.
When you read this you may say it sounds dramatic. Yes, it really happened this way. Yes God commanded that they die. We are told that the wages of sin are death.
What are wages-a reward for our work. I go to work-Iwork hard-I get paid-I earned my wages. The same here. Achan’s sin killed 36 men. He had 36 murders on his head. His sin had to be dealt with.
New Testament equivilant-
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
what is crucified- PUT TO DEATH
You must commit flishicide- or flesh suicide to be united with God we must put our own desires to death. There is a part of you that you must put to death everyday. Your desires must be set aside for God’s desires. If you struggle with spending you must put your desire for stuff away in order to embrace God’s desire of stewardship for your life.
You can place any desire that isn’t of God and put it in the place of finances.
Once they dealt with their sin not only did they have victory they had blessing. I find that there is usually a time of obedient giving before a time of obedient taking.
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.
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.”
The secret was simply
They had to put away their sin; so that God could wipe it away in order to receive victory and blessing. You can’t enter the promised land with a heart on both side of the jordan.
We must go back to the sin we struggle with and, no matter how hard it is, deal with it definitely and throroughly .
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The word confess means to call sin what sin is. It’s to identify it, call it by it’s right name. So God can cleanse it.
Sliver cell phone incident.