2026-03-29 - Failure isn't Final When Obedience Follows Repentance

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Sermon podcast from Church at The Well and Tellsyn Maryland.

[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about Church at The Well, visit our website, ThewellBaltmore.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, here's today's Sermon from our pastor, Dane Carreway.

[SPEAKER_01]: cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it is Palm Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: Big shout out to Mr. Leon.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's done this every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember the first year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does anybody remember the first year we were in the movie theater?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the palms were a big, Mr. Leon.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nobody more enthusiastic about our church starting in our first Easter than recently on.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went all the way to the to the to the forest of Jerusalem and brought back homes on how you got through customs, but he did, you know, and I just remember the person who came in after our church.

[SPEAKER_01]: to get ready for the next movie to play, was not happy with being Palm Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: But so shout to him, these are like, nice size, so mom and dad, if you let your kids have them, it won't be all over your car at the end of next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: So make sure that you take one, make sure that you use it as a reminder for what today represents.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's kind of cool kind of thing about Palm Sunday, in view of going through the book of Joshua, because of the contrast.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean, like, some of the same people that have been lying the streets leading into Jerusalem were the same folks who a week later would have been sounding crucifying.

[SPEAKER_01]: A year over, think about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, by the way, it's probably not too far from us to think about where we are today.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's enough things in the world to like the same things that you love, are the same things that you're shouting against.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a football fan, you get it, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: The same team you're cheering for, your same team, you're a shadow person, but it'd be fired, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: One day we love being Americans the other day we're like, not so much, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: The same like, like we love and we support, you know, a thing that happened in the world and the same thing is like, I don't know if that's as great.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard, like we get the contrast of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here we are, where these people,

[SPEAKER_01]: these people, these folks that we see, like, that they're dealing with this Jesus who had become a rock star, had become like this, like, you know, they stop just being about the miracles.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was a on the brink of like he's done so much good stuff how could we not say moly it's been it's been a lot of Celebrating it's been a lot of good this is right off the brink of Lazarus right he just raised the kit from the dead It's undeniable now This isn't just fishing bread like a kid was dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he walks in and we know how the rest of the week went

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but we have, we have a group of people who the same folks that were celebrating him, putting their cloaks down, putting their branches down, as he rides into the city, I was like a victorious, you know, war hero, yeah, they wound them dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, last week we read about how a nation, a young nation, that was promised everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't just a promise of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was the promise of their ancestors.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was the promise that was given to their parents and their grandparents.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like the fulfillment of the promise that was made way back in Egypt, that they come after Jericho, they had seen God do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't as if they didn't know what the outcome was.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jericho was gone, and they just couldn't help themselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: Skynam Aiken, he looked at the treasures of Jericho

[SPEAKER_01]: and said, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Not only is it good enough all the promises and things that God promised me, but I'm gonna be the richest guy in the promised land.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have more than everybody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what God says is sufficient, what God has provided for me, it's just, it's not enough for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need more, so I'm not gonna obey in the way that God wants me to obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna take some of the stuff with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: This guy failed, I'm going to use that word a lot today, he failed, and not only did he suffer for it, everyone did, almost 40 people died.

[SPEAKER_01]: One guy's sinned and 40 people died because of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The nation suffered its first loss of battle, remember, they weren't supposed to lose a battle, nobody was supposed to die in this conquest of the Promised Land.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, like some of the background of it was that these were nations that turned against God, these were nations that did not recognize the God of Israel, and God had like, you know, it said, like, I'm taking my land back and I'm giving it to my people, and nobody was going to die.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to push all these people out before you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to do it, and it doesn't go that way, because one person sent, aching this family were sitting at death.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we see this scary message about taking God seriously in the consequences of our sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we talk about last week like that maybe the problem isn't that God's not fair or like this is weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like measure is God just or is he mean because of how we treat people like this or maybe it's that we don't take sin seriously the way that God does.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see Joshua and his nation have to do a terrible, terribly, I'm sorry, terribly difficult thing to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have to trust in the forgiveness of God and they have to start again.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have to begin again to follow the Lord's leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a big idea I want to work off of this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Failure isn't final when obedience follows

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, when obedience falls repentance, um, I was not a great student growing up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I, um, was like, I think in, um, cold beer muffs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Earmuffs?

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in summer school, seventh grade, and eighth grade, and ninth grade.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I was a kid, okay, you're good.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I could not get myself off the matty, like I remember like I would fail a test and then like I would be like, well, that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would just, I would put myself in summer school before I was mathematically in summer school.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if any teacher had like a kid like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I could give up easy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I could just kind of resolve in my mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, this is where I'm going to end up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it could never just be a thing where like, you got you had one bad test.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you had one, like you messed up this one time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you didn't start like you're supposed to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's do better on the next one.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I would wait until like it's like, okay, no, like now you can't mess up anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I would try to get to work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd then I would try to be studious.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like my grades would be like near, and then like right at the end it'd be like, mmm, but it is not enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: So like I would be the kid that would be in summer school with a 69 and you needed a 70.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how you feel about the things that you have done and failed in the past, but it doesn't have to be the end of the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the stories that we've never heard about talk about this last week.

[SPEAKER_01]: We hear a lot about the leaders and like, you know, this team has to be pastors, but the world leaders, the owners of big companies and the folks that they fail morally.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't get to hear about what happens next most times.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes like you're done, you're done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Name a pastor who messed up in the pulpit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or not in the pulpit, that'd be weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like who messed up and it cost him his pulpit.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like like, or name somebody who did something terrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm calling it sin too.

[SPEAKER_01]: They did something terrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what is the rest of your life look like?

[SPEAKER_01]: If I shouldn't use me, if somebody messed up,

[SPEAKER_01]: and it cost them their job and they suffer greatly for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then they move on with their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: They recognize their pinching of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they live in light of their repentance that they've had.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is their life still wasted?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is the rest of your life judged by the mistakes that you've made beforehand?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying this is comfortable and I'm saying that it feels good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure like, we all could think about terrible things where like, no, we should call that person what they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: We should do it, but then we got to do it for everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: The apostle Paul would only be a murderer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter would only be a traitor.

[SPEAKER_01]: know it would only be a drunk.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses would only, you know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can go on and we can use modern examples too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like everybody would only be judged and be labeled by the worst mistakes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the promises, it doesn't mean much for aching in his family, but for the rest of the nation, we see this picture that failure doesn't have to be final.

[SPEAKER_01]: when your obedience follows the repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just when repentance is bigger, you probably have said this or heard this on your home, it's bigger than saying I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's how you obey after the I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's how you live differently after the I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: The question we're after today is how do we respond after our failures?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to start reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to read verse one and chapter eight and then we'll come back and we're going to read a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to get a little bit of scripture and then a lot of a description.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if here it goes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse one, it reads like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid or discouraged.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take all your fighting men and attack AI for I have given you the King of AI, his people, his town, and his land.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we respond after our failures?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first things is, we listen

[SPEAKER_01]: We listen, because God is sure to speak again.

[SPEAKER_01]: That alone is grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, that alone is a miracle.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, it reengages Joshua with the same promises he made at the onset.

[SPEAKER_01]: When someone hurts you or harms you, how do things get restored?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's wives in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your husband's probably said some stupid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe this past week.

[SPEAKER_01]: me as dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had to apologize to my sons this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did something bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did something that I shouldn't have.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do things get restored?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you wait for that person to crawl back to impress their way back into your good graces when something goes wrong?

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody harms you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody hurts you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody sends against you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the way that it gets restored.

[SPEAKER_01]: You wait for them to do all of the work like they're in debt to you now.

[SPEAKER_01]: You let them crawl back into your good races.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do they have to earn their restoration in your eyes?

[SPEAKER_01]: After Joshua chapter seven, Israel's defeated, they're exposed, they're ashamed because this was never supposed to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does God do?

[SPEAKER_01]: He initiates, again, God starts the conversation, like let's look at verse one again.

[SPEAKER_01]: So all this happens in chapter seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: They lose, that people die.

[SPEAKER_01]: Akin is like in his family.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're stoned to death.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it says in the chapter 1, God starts the conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not the person who sinned.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua, is it the one that says, God, please forgive us?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can we be back good again like, like, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, God started it back.

[SPEAKER_01]: The person who was sinned against starts the conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the Lord said the Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: He starts the conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: You messed up this week, did you drop the ball spiritually?

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you been distant from God?

[SPEAKER_01]: You just, like, you haven't been in your word, like you're supposed to.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's been something blocking it.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's been distance between you and God.

[SPEAKER_01]: My guess is that God didn't go silent.

[SPEAKER_01]: My guess is, you know, God's still has grace for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say the most underrated miracle in your life is that God is still talking to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're thinking about like that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the miracle that God still loves you, God is still speaking to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He still has a word for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He still has, you know, like, like, once communion with you, which we're gonna celebrate on Friday, in spite of everything that you've done, everything that you've thought, everything that you've said, that should make him more distant and not wanna talk to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're a thing about like that, like the relationship between you and God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have relationship with God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I got a relationship with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if that's true, how much do you do to contribute to that versus how much you do to hurt it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, God being full of grace, all the things that you do to harm the relationship.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still speaking to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: How much of a miracle is that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's keep reading in verse two.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will destroy them as you destroy Jericho in its king.

[SPEAKER_01]: But this time, you may keep the plunder in the livestock for yourself, set an ambush behind the town, so Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors, 30,000 of his best warriors, and sent them out at night with these orders, hiding the ambush close behind the town, and be ready for action.

[SPEAKER_01]: When our main army attacks, the men of AI will come out to fight as they did before and we will run away from them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town for they will say the Israelites are wanting away from us as they did before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then while we are running from them, you will jump from your ambush and take possession of the town for the Lord your God will give it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Set the town on fire as the Lord has commanded.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have your orders.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they left and went to the place of ambush

[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds like like a rap song, the West Side of the AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Joshua made among the people in the camp that night.

[SPEAKER_01]: Early the next morning, Joshua Rouss his men and started towards AI accompanied by the elders of Israel, all the fighting men who were with Joshua March in front of the town and camp on the north side of AI with the valley between them and the town.

[SPEAKER_01]: That night, Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie an ambush between Bethel and AI on the west side of the town.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me stop for a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: So already we see a big difference between how they were approaching this battle in the last one.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last battle was, get your horns, get the arc of the covenant, walk around the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got the rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, now it's about strategy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now it's about like, they got a, they're going to go fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even in like the strategic like, God's involved.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think like this is cool like kind of like the message outside of the message.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think like for a lot of us like, we forget that God works inside of strategy too.

[SPEAKER_01]: that when we have to make plans that we just don't need to be the questions that are looking up and waiting for God to say the next thing that sometimes God's like, no, let's make a plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's figure out how this makes sense that God still a God of orders God still works into strategic.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it doesn't always have to be like the, I want to Jericho moments too to where God's going to do something that blows my mind and I can't like, I can't explain how we did it, but he does it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This one is pretty much, this is exes and exes in those.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going

[SPEAKER_01]: and we're going to plan this out and God's going to work it out for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, let's keep reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 13, so they stationed the main army of the town and ambush of the west of the town, Joshua himself spent the night in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the king of bay, I saw the Israelites across the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: He and all his armies hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he didn't realize there was an ambush behind the town.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua and the Israel army fled towards the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then all the men in the town were called out the chase after them, and this way they were alert away from the town.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was not a man left in AR Bethel who did not chase

[SPEAKER_01]: Then a Lord said a Joshua, point the spear in your hands towards AI for I will hand the town over to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua did as he was commanded.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was a spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember this in Moses in the story of Exodus?

[SPEAKER_01]: In the story of Moses in Exodus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me take this sip of this coffee.

[SPEAKER_01]: The story Moses in Exodus, where they're doing a battle, and God says the Moses, as long as your hands are up, you're going to defeat the battle.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Joshua's kind of having like another Moses moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember he told God told Joshua that I will be with you as I was with Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like a little shout out to that little callback.

[SPEAKER_01]: God believes in callbacks, guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped from their position and poured into the town, they quickly captured it and set it on fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: Smoke from the town was spilling the sky, and they had nowhere to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the Israelites who had fled in that direction, the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Joshua and all of the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded, and that the smoke was rising from the town, they turned in attack the men of AI, meanwhile the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they're running back home, and people in the other enemy was coming from their home, so now they're stuck.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the men of AI were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides, Israel attacked them and not a single person survived or escaped.

[SPEAKER_01]: Only the King of AI was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the Israel Army finished chasing and killing all the men of AI in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the entire population of AI including men, women were wiped out that day, 12,000 in all.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we respond to our failures, wheel bay?

[SPEAKER_01]: You failed before, let that be a lesson to not fail again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Play by the rules.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's giving you rules to live by, God's giving you commands, I don't know if you can compare the two.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if this is fair, but the first battle Jericho, walk around the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: do that for a whole week, walk around the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: This one was a little bit more complicated.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, you guys are going to go camp out over there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a deeper level of obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think, of course, sleeping overnight somewhere, like being in ambush and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Josh has a sleep in a valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, sometimes we've got to obey the first time to do the next thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So how we respond to how we failed the last time

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, for some of us, we allow our disobedience to compound.

[SPEAKER_01]: We take a different approach, it's like, we'll have already failed in this area.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our mind is, well, keep on listening because like, you know, then I could just do one big apology at the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no, that's, like, the way that you respond is the next opportunity that you have to obey, you obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got something like, I found this happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's probably nothing better than folks that are like, I've got to break my habit of cousin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they'll stub their toe, they'll get scared by a spider, and it'll slip out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, well, I already started a cousin today.

[SPEAKER_01]: My husband will let the whole day be up, you know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll hit my prayer this night, and tomorrow we'll start again.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, the next opportunity, just start again.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't have to be like, I think, especially up in our area, I think there's so many amazing things that I think are rooted in discipleship on that come out of the anonymous groups.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's some amazing things about, I think, some of our, never mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's some really great things about the anonymous programs.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that I think we could learn from is they celebrate the achievements.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been sober this many days and this many days.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that we need to celebrate like every time that we get to obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because for some people, it's almost like holding them hostage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I failed because I was a thousand days sober and then now I'm back to day one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, praise God for the day one.

[SPEAKER_01]: And praise God for the 30 minutes, praise God for the 40.

[SPEAKER_01]: The next opportunity that you had to obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: The next opportunity that you had to say no to something that you needed to say no to.

[SPEAKER_01]: The next opportunity you had to say yes to something that you really needed to say yes to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kimmy, I'm not saying that you're not going to have the scarves.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that guilt isn't real and it guilt's always associated with our transgressions against God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that those things don't have long, lasting feelings in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times we're just trying to escape those things, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I got to get out of this pit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to get out of this, like whatever's like compounded, whatever's been wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, like, those things are only solved.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those things are only really like wiped away over like a pattern of obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know what I mean like the father like when you repent from things the father you walk away from it God gives you the freedom from those things but you can't walk away from unless you take a step and maybe you need to you need to celebrate the steps you know what I mean you wanted to be so far in your past that you got to remember that you got to start walking there every time I restart in the gym

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to like go back to work, the last place that I left off on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I got realized, I'm doing 30 minutes on the treadmill at five miles per hour.

[SPEAKER_01]: It ain't working like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so jealous of this kid, this kid ran two miles in the park the other day and like 12 minutes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, buddy, for me to walk from here to the car in 12 minutes, maybe a little tired about it's how I get there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I just like you got to start somewhere and if that's true for anything while tonight getting back on the gym breaking and how that things like that, wouldn't it make sense that it will work with your obedience and your repentance?

[SPEAKER_01]: That you guys just be willing to take a step somewhere?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we respond from our failures?

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to obey because obedience changes are outcomes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two keys were equipped with the Israelites victory this time around that was in in Jericho.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, the difference wasn't location.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, with their victory, this attacking AI didn't the last time when God didn't give them the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: The difference wasn't location, it was condition.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua 7, we read about hidden sin and it led to a loss.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was sin in the camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't do what they're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Joshua 8, much different story, we saw repentance and we saw that repentance led into obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't just that they recognized what they did was wrong and turned into obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: God gave in the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: Other kids this strategy matters.

[SPEAKER_01]: It matters.

[SPEAKER_01]: God works do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He uses it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can do things strategically.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't just have to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sitting here waiting on a miracle.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's gonna like, God made this plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's his strategy, strategy matters, but obedience to the strategy matters more.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the point of making a strategy if you're not gonna do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest freedoms of my life was that from this year, last year, last year, I coached middle school basketball, not coached middle school basketball this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what happens to middle school basketball.

[SPEAKER_01]: You make a plan, you draw up a play, and you tell them to go and do it, and they don't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had this boy, or my team, yes, I had a boy on my team who he thinks he's God's gift to basketball and we were down by two, I'm sorry, we're down by one, so we only needed two and I drew up a play and of course it was going to work and I'm like here's what happens, here's what you got to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: and I dropped the play and I just know this is gonna work or it really is gonna get a shot.

[SPEAKER_01]: This kid gets the ball and before he gets a shot off, he's just dribbling dribbling dribbling dribbling and the clock runs out before he even gets the shoot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, he just looks at me, he's like, oh, I forgot the plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just talked about it since seconds ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I had a better come back out, if I had that thought about it, if I could go to, if I could send you to summer school for basketball, I would send you to summer school.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how bad it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I just got mad all over again.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's shutt of you matters, but it doesn't matter if you don't, you don't know Bay.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't obey, it doesn't matter what the strategy is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This time God gives a completely different plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was not about marching, it was about an ambush.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jericho, they shouted in the wall's fell and required their trust that God would do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: In AI, it was about a military strategy.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a setup.

[SPEAKER_01]: This required patience.

[SPEAKER_01]: Man, to wait for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had to see if what God said was gonna happen was gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had to work with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: and do what he said, and then we're going to see this compound into future battles as they move into the Promised Land.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 27, only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed for the Israelites kept these as plunders for themselves, as Lord had commanded Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Joshua burned the town of Ayai and it became a permanent mound of ruins desolate to this very day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua and Pele the King of AI on a sharp and pole and left him there until evening.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of rough.

[SPEAKER_01]: At sunset, the Israelites took down the body at Joshua commanded and threw it in front of the town gate.

[SPEAKER_01]: They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God allows him to take the plunder this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember in Jericho, it was, no, no, this is mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jericho, this is mine, this is the first battle, it's mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: This time God says, yeah, you could take this stuff with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't that God would never let them keep the thunder.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would just have the first one belongs to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is like almost like the approach of our giving.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, God is in say, like, hey, give me everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't deserve the money you earn from your hard work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Guy just want you to recognize who gave it to you in the first place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a part of your worship to say, I've received from the Lord, and I'm going to give him back to him as an offering to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jericho was the first fruit, it belonged to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was I'm saying like, you've given us the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: We recognize who gave us the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we've, and by the way, God did it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knocked down the walls, he did it miraculous thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're recognizing that you did it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to leave it here for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: AI, God says, take it with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to receive it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we should approach our giving.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we should approach so many of our things.

[SPEAKER_01]: God wants you to have and benefit from your paychecks, from your stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: He also wants you to firstly recognize who gave it to you in the first place.

[SPEAKER_01]: God isn't upset with what you have, it's about him being first.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows that the best way for you to interact with the stuff that he made is recognizing the Creator, not the creation, which is something that since the beginning of time, man has worse, but the same mistakes that Aiken's family made.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Aiken made, excuse me, we're going to make the same mistakes that Adam and Eve made in the garden.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to choose God's stuff over God's voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to choose God's stuff over how we would obey God.

[SPEAKER_01]: God isn't upset with these days.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about God needing the money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last time I checked God was in broke.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about who you recognize as the source and as the source of your of your of your of sufficiency.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in this whole section of verses, we see the same battle but a different outcome.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't God that God had changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: They did.

[SPEAKER_01]: The people had changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some would say that aches like it was necessary because they're like, oh, God's not playing with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: that it's an obedience, that his promise is not.

[SPEAKER_01]: His promise is linked to our obedience to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't that God changed, they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Same enemy, same city type, same calling, but a different heart posture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 30, then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, God of Israel, and Mount Ebal.

[SPEAKER_01]: He followed the commands that Moses, the Lord's servant had written in the book of instruction, make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools, then on the altar that presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied on the stones of the altar, the instructions of Moses had given them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then all the Israelites, foreigners, and native born alike, along with the elders, officers, and judges were divided into two groups.

[SPEAKER_01]: One group is sitting in front of Mount Garism, and the other in front of Mount Igual.

[SPEAKER_01]: Each group faced the other and between them said the Levitical priest carrying the arc of the Lord's covenant.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was all done according to the commands that Moses deserved and the Lord had previously given for blessing the people of Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the book of instruction.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to make sure they knew about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to make sure they heard about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Joshua's reading to them, this is what Moses received from God, the instructions and the curses.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to make sure that they didn't make the same mistakes that they'd done before.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was good for them to remember what God had commanded them to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the consequences, the curses, the consequences, as if they did not listen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel,

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but coming from a Joshua perspective, I wonder if we can see the ownership of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, last time that we read about how men and women died because some of them follow the instructions.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard to reconcile when one guy messed up, a lot of people got a suffer for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua is going through and making sure that people know this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hear that as a dad and I'm like, no, it's my job to make sure that my kids know what happens when you offend God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my job as a dad, it's my job as a husband, it's my job as a pastor of my home that people understand that God gets offended, that God like that, my choices offend

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't get to say, I don't get to choose.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's eminent.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's above me.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is something that I'd pray daily.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would encourage you to do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you always have the right recognition that my opinions or my thinking, that the consequences are too severe, they're not so severe, because even with Josh, we're like, so you're telling me, everybody in these nations that are under God's judgment, all of them hated God, I don't get to choose.

[SPEAKER_01]: God judges the man's heart, like he sees this in a way that I never will.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's my job for the people that I have influenced on.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why we take evangelism so seriously in our church.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my job to do what Josh was doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my job to open up a book that says, that says the Lord, so that the people that I have influenced on, they don't suffer the judgment.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that I'm gonna assemble for God one day and he's going to like, he's going to like take a account on here's who was under your influence and you didn't say anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't do anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, one of my favorite reasons why Joshua and my favorite people in the Bible is because he learned from the lessons.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't approach things the same way.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, we just want a battle.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to talk about what all of this is here in a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he's going to make sure they hear about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here are the commands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's not forget about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's remember what happened here.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had the same battle that we had to do twice because the first time we didn't know Bayray.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's my job.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my job as a leader to remind you of what was handed down.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, Josh was reading this from a generation of people that would have heard the same things and they could not.

[SPEAKER_01]: They could not repent in no bay.

[SPEAKER_01]: They couldn't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like they were left.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were buried in the wilderness because they just couldn't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if the same sentiment, like, you know, we're celebrating Easter this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember what Jesus said from the cross?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where he, like, cries out to the Father, forgive them Father for they don't, they know not what they do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if we've ever just got to that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if that, that same heart is like, it's found in, it was found in Moses when he's looking over his people in the wilderness and what Joshua's trying not to avoid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua's not like, like, I don't know about you, but I don't ever want to have to pray that prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to pray that prayer that Jesus did.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather instruct the people, my family, my kids, the people under my influence.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather say, hey, you gotta know, you have to know how God feels about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So much out to point you in this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my job to point you in this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we respond out to our failures?

[SPEAKER_01]: We worship because restoration leads to worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: You failed, you messed up, you're trying to figure out how to get back up again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have to know that God's still speaking, you have to know that you got to listen because God's going to speak again.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to obey because obedience changes outcomes, and then you've got to get back into a relationship with how you worship them, because when you are restored, it leads

[SPEAKER_01]: I love people that you can kind of tell that the way that they sing and the way they crowd to the Lord, the way that they approach God is built with the story and recognizing that they don't deserve to be in a good relationship with God based off of their past.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can kind of tell that there's pain behind the worship that they have, that part of their song, part of their approach to God, isn't a way that we don't deserve to be good

[SPEAKER_01]: You could always see the, like, I'll take it in a more personal way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, some of my favorite couples to sit down with and talk to or couples with stories, like how they, like, they weren't sure that they were going to still be together because there's pain there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody did something terrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody embarrassed their spouse.

[SPEAKER_01]: and they worked through it, like against all the odds, against everything, like there's just pain in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's just like this new, like what was fractured, what was broken, God has mended, God has mended, and like, you know what, like, I don't know give me that.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's done the work, he's restored things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you can tell there's a new approach to that because of the restoration that's happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's probably some version of, like, you never know what you're having until it's gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, like, if you're ever able to get it back again, you hold it closer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that we worship because of restoration.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it has something to do with we've been able to experience what we lost in the first place.

[SPEAKER_01]: I bet you when you've been stuck in sin before, you've gotten the glimpse of what it means to be a

[SPEAKER_01]: So when you restored to him, then make sure you want to worship in a new way.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's changed the way that you interact with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We never get to hear the story about the practical son, like a year or two later after he's been home.

[SPEAKER_01]: After being gone from his father for so long.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we know he went into the party, I wonder if he'd leave again.

[SPEAKER_01]: having experience, what it means to be a part from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The worship happens because of the restoration.

[SPEAKER_01]: After victory, they don't celebrate first.

[SPEAKER_01]: They built an altar.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I've never been more challenged than we played this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: We played this Christian school.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was coaching J.V.

[SPEAKER_01]: basketball back at home.

[SPEAKER_01]: We played this Christian school.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like Perry, I had like the kitchen tile, gym floor, and you just walk into the gym and you're like, we're about to beat these kids by 50.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was, it was, they had every bit of like Christian school, you know, stereotypes.

[SPEAKER_01]: We walk in and Chris Tomlins playing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, my guys are trying to get shots up and how great us our God is in the background.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, while my goons got like Drake and DMX playing, you know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, and they're, and they're, and they're headphones.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we do, we beat them bad, like, 40 points.

[SPEAKER_01]: That after the game, these kids all go over to their fans and they sing on the boxology.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then those kids literally left, like, they're in front of their parents saying in the boxology, they came over and they started sharing the gospel with my kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think they literally walked over and started sharing the gospel with the students that I brought.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the kids said, Coach, can I tell you about Jesus?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, but I already, you know what, go ahead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because this is a say, this is a say, I'm not a say.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need to, I need to, I need whatever you got.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we just beach all by 40.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're chairing the gospel with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, let's get saved, buddy, come on, let's get it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't know, I just feel like, like, there is a difference, like, after, like, God's brought through something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no self-selebration.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason to celebrate outside of celebrating the God who gave the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's not even a focus on the stuff that God let them take yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: What if, what if old Christmas morning?

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe you think about the care ways in the dating kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do I have for us guys?

[SPEAKER_01]: Christmas morning, all of our kids opened their toys and instead of playing with what they got, Ian has to bring up the guitar and start a worship song to give God praise for what we've gotten.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, we celebrate the things that we got.

[SPEAKER_01]: These folks, God built an altar.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, they built an altar to worship God.

[SPEAKER_01]: They offer sacrifices and they read the law publicly.

[SPEAKER_01]: They read what God wanted them to know because their victory didn't make them independent.

[SPEAKER_01]: It made them realigned with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a realignment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like coming from a point where they ascend against God, they experience the depravity of their own sin and what it led to with the consequences of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now they got a second chance.

[SPEAKER_01]: to obey God, and it happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now the approach is not, we obey God this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at me, I'm so good and not being a sinner.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, no, give praise to the God who gave us the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: When God restores you, you don't just move forward, you gotta re-anker yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta remember who you belong to.

[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta bad habit that you had a victory and not succumbing to again, the next time it came up.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just your victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll allow that to realign you with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll allow that to re-enker you to God, victory is not the finish line.

[SPEAKER_01]: Worship is.

[SPEAKER_01]: The idea, think about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not just being broken free from sin just so that we can be good people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe it was just like you do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, let's do good work so we can glorify our heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: So people can see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then I believe in that too.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, God is making us into what we will ultimately be is worshipers.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to heaven one day to just be somebody who doesn't do bad stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be in heaven with a worshiper.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to worship the battles, the victors from the battles that we had here on earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Victor's not the finish line worship is.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, tertiary only would be absolutely insane and ridiculous to recognize this amazing gift of grace all for to us from God and do nothing with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't just sit and stare at it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we can't just have like a moment like the first moment of AI,

[SPEAKER_01]: where there's defeat, where there's embarrassment, where there's tragedy, and then recognize, we messed up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then to have a second moment that they had a day eye, and we gotta do different.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm gonna give you three questions as we close.

[SPEAKER_01]: One is, what's your AI?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't mean chat, GBT, or that joke how to happen some way in these two weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you proud of me that it made almost to the second, the end of the second week that it did not come up?

[SPEAKER_01]: boom.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, our church is moving to cloud.

[SPEAKER_01]: If anybody asks, we're not, we're not, we're not using Chad GPT, moving to cloud.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Responsible.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your AI?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the place where you failed?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have one.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the place where you, you missed the mark?

[SPEAKER_01]: So you're somewhere, like in your mind, you can drive past it pretty easily.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where your mind, like, normally operates in, you've tried to keep it away from where you spend most of your time, but you could get there pretty quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know where it is, what's your AI?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where's the place where you failed?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the habit you fell back into?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or you find yourself falling back into?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the area that you're avoiding now?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your AI?

[SPEAKER_01]: When you think about that, second question is what needs to change?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not your environment, it's not your personality.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably your obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the is relates, failed at AI the first time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Couldn't God have said, we're just gonna skip this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the Promised Land is everywhere, except here.

[SPEAKER_01]: No God, had him go back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Strategy.

[SPEAKER_01]: They changed their approach to it, but they had to obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was still something, we used like no Jericho has the fall, the walls in your life, we talked about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so does AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: The place, you have to confront the place that failed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me care for this is a message for a different day, but this part is for today.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe in the way to deal with the senior life as to avoid it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes you need to confront it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it's with confession.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about this last week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you're just gonna be somebody like, I send here before, I'm just gonna run away with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's still gonna be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still gonna be your AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still gonna be in your head.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, it's not gonna be where you operate most of the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you can spend adults are good at this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can spend the majority of your life ignoring and not dealing with that hidden sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: that you know you need to deal with, doesn't mean that it's falling, doesn't mean that it's gone, and God will find ways to remind you that it's there until you confront your AI, until you deal with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still going to be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, it's not your personality, it's not who you are, but your obedience has to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to confront it, you have to confess it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for some of us, the reason why we don't want to confront it is because we know that it's going to cause us to, like, in confronting it means supplementary things.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to go have a conversation with somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to go in a project, you have to go and deal with it in some way, but I'm telling you, the freedom from it is on the other side of AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's on the other side of dealing with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what needs to change.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't avoid it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to obey.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your AI, what needs to change, and finally?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your next step?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your next step?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think you can actually follow the example of what we've been reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in Chapter 7.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was about confessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 8, it's about obeying.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then towards the end of Chapter 8, it's about worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, in Chapter 7, they had

[SPEAKER_01]: It was to deal with the sin, they had to deal with it, and they had to deal with the consequences of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: People died.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had to own it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think about, like, do you remember when Paul was still saw on his first being called into the ministry?

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember the conversation that when they first came to the,

[SPEAKER_01]: They were just first hearing from the Lord about Paul coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have this right in down, sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they said to the disciples, yeah, that's the guy that we want to come to be a part of our ministry.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, really?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because this is a guy that's been killing Christians.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've had this whole thing like code that we're supposed to be living by when I'm supposed to do all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this guy, he got bodies.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he been killing people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God says, you don't know how he's going to suffer for my sake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's no excuse for Paul.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like God says, no, he's gonna suffer for his actions.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul talks about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, yeah, I am a slave to the gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul never paints it as a beautiful picture.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not Paul just walking around the earth sharing the gospel with everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, really, really, like, I think this, I think if you really read Philippians, it's like, oh, no, this guy is going through it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is literally going through hell to try to get people to heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the problem in it is that he's so filled with the joy the Lord compared to his own suffering that I may have mistaken it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to deal with it in chapter 7 on that we saw in Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then what we saw this in chapter 8, it's this new approach to obedience and the chapter closes with like,

[SPEAKER_01]: May God deserves the worship for all beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: God has given us the opportunity to obey, and it has led me to a new relationship, not just with my song, not just with reading my word, but now I am back in communion with God which is where I need to stay and where I need to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's worship by living.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna live out my worship with him because it's changing my approach towards him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so that's our next steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: So for some of us,

[SPEAKER_01]: We just got to be reminded this morning that even though we think our stories ended, where you failed, we got to listen to God saying, go back, not to relive it, but to redeem it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not telling you to go back and rehash your trauma.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not to rehash the things that you tried to hide.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not telling you to do that purposeless.

[SPEAKER_01]: The purpose of going back there is the same reason why they went back to AI to fight the battle in the way that God wants them to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're going back with strategy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're going back with a plan and a plan to redeem which should have not happened in the first place.

[SPEAKER_01]: The same place where you lost, the same place where you failed, kept me come to the place where God proves that you've changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: The God's prove that you're different.

[SPEAKER_01]: That He's redeemed you, that He's purchased you, that you're his.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that what we're gonna celebrate last week?

[SPEAKER_01]: And last week, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that gonna be what we celebrate next week?

[SPEAKER_01]: That God's sending his son to down the cross that he redeems us from our transgressions, that it's because of that, that we have a reason to worship and celebrate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friday is really sad.

[SPEAKER_01]: Saturday for a bunch of teenagers sit around and watch the passion of Christ, because we don't understand the complexity of like, like, why do we have to watch this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Guru some Hollywood production that we don't fully wrap our heads around.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make sense unless you think about it in light of what Sunday means.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of Sunday, we can worship, and we have joy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to just live in our consequences.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just listen to a message from Dane Care Away, the pastor of Church at the Well and Telsen, Maryland.

[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about our church and to support what we're doing in the greater Baltimore area, visit our website, thewellbaltimore.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to the Sermon Podcast from Church at the Well.

[SPEAKER_00]: May God bless you.