The Lie of Self Sufficiency

Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.

Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.

We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.

To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.

Morning, CCW.

Amen.

We're moving forward still.

Well, I have the high honor this morning of introducing to you.

If you don't have children and you haven't been upstairs in the organized melee, you might not have met yet, Pastor Eli.

And this is Pastor Eli Alexander.

And this today, today is one year since Eli accepted the offer to come and be the family and children's pastor at CCW.

So you made it a year?

Can we comply for that?

I'm going to tell you.

Praise God.

He has a large job.

And this building that's beckoning over here, I'm going to tell you, he may even preach to you a little about it.

It can't get here soon enough.

So anyway, Eli has done a fantastic job, and I mean that.

He's a hardworking young man.

A credit to his family.

I know his mama's over here, but uh I know you're proud.

We are very proud too.

And uh, Eli, it is our privilege today.

Open up the word of God.

We can't wait to hear what you have to say.

All right.

Well, greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is a total honor to be here today.

Like Rick said, it's one year to the day that I accepted to be here.

Um I know that we don't have a track record at this church of successfully remembering anniversary dates.

Is that right, Miss Heather?

But today is today is two years to the day that I married my wife, Kirby, and she couldn't be here today because she's celebrating her best friend's uh wedding.

She has a bat soret weekend, so she's not here today.

So if you're listening across the airwaves or the live stream, babe, I love you, I miss you, and I'll see you soon.

Happy anniversary.

Um but I think it's cool that as we are here worshiping the Lord together in our home church, that in Costa Rica, a group of men that we've sent from our church are also getting to worship and serve the Lord together there.

So all of Pastor Ick's talk about unity really had me thinking about that group of men that we got the opportunity to send to Costa Rica.

So um if you wouldn't mind joining me in turning to Joshua chapter 9.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

Now I'm gonna be reading out of the ESV.

Uh so if what I'm reading doesn't sound familiar, it's because it's not.

I'm a I'm an Eli's standard version kind of guy.

That's a joke.

It's English Standard Version, I'm not making this up.

Um but the title of our text is The Gibeonite Deception.

The Gibeonite Deception.

So, Joshua chapter 9, the Gibeonite Deception.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

Now, if you wouldn't mind joining me in prayer, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that your word would go forth today, that I would be made empty, and that you would be made full through your Holy Spirit in this room and in our hearts.

Father, I pray that your word would cut through to our heart and to our soul so that we may learn fresh and anew of your goodness and grace towards us.

I pray that you would be with us as we continue throughout our week, that this wouldn't just be an impact for today and maybe linger into tomorrow, but Father, I pray that you would impact our lives so that there is transformational, lasting change.

We pray all of this in your crucified and resurrected Son Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, Joshua chapter 9, the Gibeonite deception.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

I think of the word deception, and my mind immediately goes back to my little brother.

My little brother's over there, and one thing you need to know about my brother Luke is that he cannot tell a lie.

He cannot tell a lie.

He would try to lie as a kid.

He'd go to mom and he'd try to lie, and he'd think he got away with it, and he'd start walking away, and he'd turn back to mom and say, Mom, that was a lie.

I was trying to lie to you right there.

But one time, one time, the lust of lying was so great in my brother's heart, and it made me think of this story.

When he was two years old, and if you don't know, two years old is the Alexander cutoff date for being allowed to have a pacifier.

When Luke was two years old, he started going on these mysterious ventures, and he'd disappear for long spans of time.

And mom would go to look for Luke, and she would go to his room and she'd knock on the door because the door was closed, and Luke would come to the door and he'd crack it open and he'd look out and he'd say, Don't come in here, mom.

They're bad guys.

And mom was like, Oh, this is so cute.

He's playing with his imagination, he's got bad guys that he's fighting in there.

I'll let him have it.

Well, one day, mom went up to organize Luke's room, clean out the closet, whatever, you know, mom stuff.

And she went to his closet, and what did you know?

But in the bottom corner of his closet was a stash.

It was his treasure trove of pacifiers.

He was not fighting bad guys.

He would go and he would hide in his closet and get his hit of his pacifier, and then he would rejoin the family like nothing ever happened.

That is deceptive.

That is deceptive.

So, before we read, I think it's important to provide context for this chapter.

Joshua and the Israelites are on the heels of numerous successful military conquests, right?

Their conquest was ultimately to take the promised land.

And in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 and 2, we know that that is to take over the land, not make covenant, not make friends with anybody there, but to utterly destroy the current inhabitants of that land and to take it for themselves.

Deuteronomy 7:1

And Joshua and the Israelites had been feeling a lot of success in this way.

The most notable recent successes were, of course, at Jericho and at Ai, and that was some pretty substantial victory, right?

Kids these days call it clout.

Like the word had spread that Joshua and the Israelites meant business, right?

It was not just a little secret anymore.

Everybody had heard that Joshua and the Israelites' power was legit.

It was legit.

And we're gonna see here in a minute that there are two different responses to that power.

So if you would read along with me, beginning in verse one, and we'll read through verse six.

The word of God says this in Joshua chapter 9, verse 1.

Joshua 9:1

It says, As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland, all along the coast of the Great Sea, toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this, they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning, and went and made ready provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins worn out and torn and mended, with worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn out clothes, and all their provisions were dry and crumbly.

And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.

So, notice the two camps of thought, right?

First we see all the ites at the beginning, right?

Those first ites.

I won't bore you with going through that list again, but the collection of ites at the beginning of the chapter say, Hey, Joshua and the Israelites are legit.

Let's gang up, let's join forces and give it the old college try, because we can beat them together.

We'll outnumber them.

They're just Israel.

We're all these collective tribes, we can get them.

But the Gibeonites had a different approach.

They said, you guys can go on and mess around with your war stuff.

We're gonna try and be a little bit sneaky.

We're gonna try and deceive our way into the flock.

So, the first part of our text highlights sin outside the camp.

Sin outside the camp.

Now, what takes place in the verses following verse 6 is an interrogation scene on behalf of the nation of Israel.

And then there is Grammy award-winning acting on the part of the Gibeonites, right?

So, let's see what takes place.

They say, Joshua and the Israelites, they say, Well, what if you live among us?

And the Gibeonites just say to themselves, We prepared for such a time as this.

We did.

We did.

Look at all our worn-out stuff, right?

They ticked every box of their preparation, and then in the verses to follow, they recount all of it.

They say, Hey, look at our wineskins.

These were fresh.

These were fresh full of wine when we left.

We're from so far away.

We are now wineless, and these are dry and cracked.

Our bread, this was fresh out the oven when we left, man.

This was fresh out the oven.

And now look at it.

It's not even good for fish food, right?

They go down the list and tick every box.

They say our sandals are worn out, our clothes are worn out, our food is worn out.

They invested in this deception, right?

That brings us to point A, which is that sin seeks to deceive.

Sin seeks to deceive because sin itself is deceitful.

It seems appealing, right?

No one sins because, man, I really don't want to sin.

Nothing that I think in my head is going to come out of this, but I just am gonna sin for the sake of it.

No, nobody says that.

Everybody sins because they think that it looks good to their eyes, it sounds good to their ears, and they think that they'll get something that they want on the other side of it, right?

But the reality is that sin seems like it'll meet our every need, but it never delivers in the long term.

The Gibeonites actively sought to deceive.

They didn't just stumble into this grandiose story or this ornate lie, right?

This is Luke and the pacifiers, right?

This is there are bad guys, all right?

We came from far away, and I have the stuff to prove it, right?

My clothes are worn out, man.

These were nice when I left, and now look at us, we're from so far away.

They invested, they actively sought to deceive the nation of Israel.

Which brings us to point B, which is that sin is never a victimless crime.

Sin is never a victimless crime.

We're gonna read in a moment that the Gibeonite deception does not last very long at all.

If you're wanting specifics, it lasts three days before the Israelites start sniffing something fishy and say, hey, wait a minute.

Turns out you are our next door neighbors.

This was all a big farce, right?

But we're gonna read in a moment that it doesn't last long, but even if their lie was never figured out, even if the nation of Israel never caught on that the Gibeonites were lying, this was still not a victimless crime.

Foremost, sin is a crime against God.

It can be so simply put that if God says, Thou shalt not lie, then to do so is a crime against God.

But furthermore, it's a crime against others.

If you went to high school or middle school, I don't remember when I read it, but if you're my age, you probably remember reading The Kite Runner, which is a really good book, but it's really, really sad.

But anyway, in the Kite Runner, there's this part that I think is so crucial in helping me illustrate this point, where the author describes all sin as being reduced to a form of stealing, right?

To lie is to steal someone's access to the truth.

Or to steal is to plainly steal, or to cheat is to steal someone's access to fairness, right?

All things like that can be reduced to stealing.

And I like that illustration because it really helps illustrate that there is a victim to the crime of sin, whether they are aware of it or not.

Now, part of the deception is that it indeed deceives us into believing that we'll never be caught, right?

No one actively jumps into sin believing and knowing full well that their sin will find them out, right?

Two-year-old Luke couldn't understand it, bless his heart, but he was going to get found out.

Now we're going to skip down to verses 14 and 15, because the reality is that the Gibeonites are not the only guilty party.

So let's skip down to verses 14 and read through verse 15 of chapter 9.

The word of God says, So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.

And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

After the deception and the interrogation, notice the ultimate decision made by Joshua and the Israelites, which it can horrifyingly be described in this sentence, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.

This leads us to the second part of our text, which is the sin inside the camp.

The Gibeonites were certainly not innocent with their sin outside the camp, but let's look at the sin inside the camp.

Now we need to back up and review the formula that we've seen so far in the book of Joshua and more broadly in the Old Testament as a whole.

So far, the formula for the nation of Israel's success has been that the Lord first speaks to Joshua.

Joshua obeys the Lord's commandments and commands the Israelites, and then the nation of Israel relishes in the success and providence that the Lord has given them.

Do you notice the difference between that formula and what we see here?

It stands out quite plainly, and that leads us to the first reality from this part of the text, which is that you are your own biggest problem.

You are your own biggest problem.

If you sit and think about that statement for a little bit, that you are your own biggest problem, you'll probably very quickly realize how little that that reality is preached to your heart in your day-to-day life, right?

The reality of the American dream and everything 2023 is that if you can have enough money, if you can have enough power, if you can have enough status, you can live on a plane of self-sufficiency where you need nothing from anyone or anything else.

That is the lure of the flesh of the world, right?

The reality is that this couldn't be farther from the truth.

Look at the example found in Joshua.

We don't see an explanation actually hashed out in the text, but I'm sure that Joshua and the congregation of Israel saw this problem, saw the Gibeonites coming forward, heard their story, and said, Look, this isn't that big of a problem.

It's not going to be that big of a problem to solve it, so let's just get on with it, right?

Their story checks out.

Let's move on.

But they were wrong and insufficient to the task.

And this notion of our insufficiency isn't exclusive to the Old Testament either.

It may seem tempting to want to sympathize with the Israelites because it is true they've been deceived.

It's not like they know everything.

The Gibeonites came with a really good story.

Like I said, it was Grammy Award-winning acting.

The first Grammy Award might have been right here.

We don't know.

It doesn't say in the text.

But if we look at the apostles' writing in the New Testament, you see that the apostles are far less concerned about warning about sin from outside the camp.

That is the sin of others and how it affects us.

But they're far more emphatic about warning about the sin on the inside of the camp, or that is our own sin.

You don't have to flip there, but Paul in Romans chapter 6, verse 12, said this: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Romans 6:12

He says again in Ephesians 4 22, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter says this Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of your flesh, which wages war against your soul.

You can turn here if you want.

That's always.

That's what that means.

Now, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Which leads us to our second reality from the text, which is that you cannot do it on your own.

If we think back to the 2023 American dream mindset that you can become self-sufficient, you can reach a plane where you no longer need the help of anyone or anything, then this point is completely and totally contradictory to that fact that you cannot do it on your own.

Because we are by nature completely insufficient to the task that God has given us, right?

The notion, the coffee mug, coffee mug quote that God won't give you more than you can handle is not true, right?

You can't handle anything in reality, right?

That's an idea that perpetuates the lie that you can somehow be self-sufficient.

You can't.

It's not true.

Look at the pattern of the Old Testament.

It isn't Adam who condemns the serpent in the garden, it's God.

It isn't Abraham's idea to become the father of many nations.

In fact, he sleeps with his wife's servant and creates a royal mess, and it's only upon his eventual obedience to the Lord that he became the father of sons as innumerable as the stars.

It wasn't Abraham's idea.

It isn't Moses who defeated the Egyptians by his own might.

Remember, he was self-conscious about the way he spoke.

But it was the power and mighty work of God on display for the whole world to see.

If you're looking for a modern application for today, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a marker of personal achievement, but instead it is a marker of the sufficiency of Christ, not ours.

I was reminded of this the other day in a prayer meeting, and Pastor Dave Roper said something along the lines of, God, we pray that we would be a part of your plans.

And we pray that we would stop asking you and begging you to come and be a part of our plans.

Right?

God, we want to go where you tell us to go.

We don't want to just, you know, kind of cajole you along with our own plans.

No, we want to go where you tell us to go.

Now we're gonna move on to this final part of our text today, and that is the Gibeonites' conclusion.

The Gibeonites' conclusion.

Go ahead and go down to verses 22.

And we're gonna read through verses 24.

The word of God says this: that Joshua summoned them, them being the Gibeonites.

They had found out the lie by the Gibbon.

Now.

Joshua summoned them the Gibeonites, and he said to them, Why did you deceive us, saying, We are very far from you when you dwell among us?

Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God.

They answered Joshua, Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

So we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and we did this thing.

The first thing that we can glean from this part of the passage is that there is a consequence for sin.

Right?

There is a consequence for sin.

You can see it plainly in the text.

We see Joshua ask them, Why did you do this?

Like, that wasn't very cool.

We even tried to check you out, vet your story, and you still doubled down and lied to us.

And what did they say?

They said, We feared greatly.

And then Joshua condemns.

Joshua said, You will be nothing but servants in the house of my God.

You will be drawers of water, which try saying drawers of water ten times fast, it's not easy.

And cutters of wood, and you will be punished for the sin that you have committed.

But we see the Gibeonites' reasoning, right?

We see what they said.

The one truth that they've said throughout this whole big lie, if you go back in verse 9, you can see it there as well.

But there has been one consistent little thread of truth throughout the Gibeonites' entire lie.

So let's read verse 9 and verse 24.

Verse 9 says this they said to him, From a very distant country your servants have come.

That's the lie.

That's the lie.

But it was because of the name of the Lord your God.

For we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt.

The same thing once more in verse 24.

They answered him, Joshua, because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

So we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and did this thing.

That brings me to the final point of our passage today, which is that the truth gets revealed.

Right?

The truth gets revealed.

The one truth told by a Gibeonite, by the Gibeonites throughout this entire story, throughout all of Joshua chapter 9, is that they had seen and heard all that God had done.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

They had seen and heard all that God has done.

Because remember, at this point in the story, word had spread.

Jericho was a super fortified city, and they marched around with horns, and one day it all fell down.

Word of something like that spreads quickly, right?

And if we remember back to the beginning, if we remember back to the beginning, the collection of the ites, remember?

The ones who decided to try to fight against the nation of Israel, the ones who tried to combine forces that they might defeat Israel.

Based on all the evidence that we have, the Gibeonites said, we don't want anything to do with that.

Because as long as their God is on their side, we could have as many ites as you want combined, and we aren't gonna touch them.

It isn't gonna happen.

So that's what leads them to conjure up this big lie.

They don't know any better, right?

They don't know any better.

They say, look, I'm just trying to save mine because I know these warriors aren't gonna get it done.

I know they're not gonna get it done.

As I bring this time to a close, I want to speak directly to what I believe the majority is two groups of people.

There is a third group, and that is the group that knows that you fully rely on the Lord.

That you know you are insufficient, and that He is the only one who is all sufficient in and of Himself.

But I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say that that's a pretty slender group.

And if you if you doubt my words, I want to challenge you to look at the words coming out of your mouth and reflect that with your actions and see exactly where you line up.

Because I believe that a majority of the people here today are gonna fall in two sort of silos, right?

Two sort of silos.

The first silo is somebody who probably believes that they are a committed and God-fearing member of this church family.

And you say with your lips that you fully rely on God, but if you look at your actions, if you look at how you treat your work, if you look at how you treat your finances, if you look at how you treat your family over the things of making everything look good, that you've got it in control, you know that there's an inconsistency with what you say and what you do.

For you today, I'd challenge you to remember back to Hebrews chapter 3, which instructs us to not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

To not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Because that's a pattern.

To be hardened isn't immediate, right?

It's not a flash into stone.

To be hardened is over a progression of time.

We need to not be hardened to the sin or the idea that we can provide for ourselves, because the reality is, church, if you are here and you say that you believe in Christ as Lord, you should be the first one to raise your hand, knowing that you cannot provide anything for yourself.

If your greatest need is to escape sin and death, and you can't even do that for yourself, then guess what?

There is one who is greater in the form of Jesus Christ, and we need to act like it.

We need to act like it.

You may be here, and this is the second silo, second category of person.

You may be here and you may truly have no idea why.

I was joking saying that Pastor Rick tried to joke me by giving me the time change sermon because he wanted an extra hour of sleep.

That's not true.

That's not true.

But you might have no idea why you're here.

You might be here saying, look, there was this time change.

I'd have liked more sleep.

This weather is gross.

You might not profess to be a Christian, you may be ashamed of sin in your life, and you may just plain have a lot of questions and confusion.

For you today, I want to encourage you to see the Gibeonites' example.

Yes, the Gibeonites sinned.

We can all acknowledge that.

If you go back to the sin outside the camp, we acknowledge that the Gibeonites sinned.

They lied, they deceived.

Yes, they faced consequences, right?

They were to be servants, they were to be drawers of water and cutters of wood.

But if you look back to the text, there's something unique about their condemnation.

And that they were to be drawers of water and cutters of wood in the house of God.

In the house of God.

Why was this servant act bestowed upon the Gibeonites a punishment, but why was it bestowed upon them in such a high and what would see as reverential holy place?

Think back to their revelation in verse 9.

It was because of the name of the Lord your God.

For we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt.

They feared the God of Israel and all he had done.

And because of this, yes, they would face punishment for their sin.

This is not a sermon that's saying that you can go scot-free just because you come to the Lord.

No, there are real repercussions for sin.

It's the fall.

It starts in Genesis chapter 3 and it goes on from there.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It says, the whole earth is groaning because of this sin.

But the reality is that they would become servants in the house of God, which is seen as a great honor.

The invitation to you today is to look and see all that God has done.

Right?

Like the Gibeonites looked and saw all that God had done in Egypt and since Egypt, that same invitation is extended to you today.

The person who is asking questions, the person who is ashamed of sin, the person who doesn't know what they're doing here, right?

That invitation says, look at what God has done since Egypt, but guess what?

God is still working now.

He is still working now.

See his love that has been displayed in sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for you.

See his power displayed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

You don't have to approach the throne of grace shamefully or deceitfully in order to try to con your way into the kingdom of heaven, right?

We don't have to approach like the Gibeonites and say, I've got this good story, it looks like I'm all put together, right?

I was self-sufficient, I made this for myself.

No.

We can go, as the word of God says in Hebrews chapter 4, that we can approach the throne of grace boldly.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

We can approach with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy.

Right?

The lure that sin will somehow provide something for you is not true.

It won't.

But to approach the throne of grace boldly, with confidence, guess what?

That will provide the answer that you need.

That will provide satisfaction to your thirsty soul.

Now, as we move forward, just partly because it's how I was raised and it's what I'm comfortable with, but partly in motivation by this text, that we can approach boldly toward the throne of grace.

I'm not going to have people raise hands at an invitation.

But this altar at the front is going to be open, and Pastor Rick will be on one side of the aisle, and I'll be on the other, in case you like him more than me.

I'm not offended.

I'm normally up there.

It's okay.

Your kid might come to me.

But I want to challenge you to approach boldly.

We don't want to have a hand raised and a slip out the back and never know, right?

We want to see you come boldly to the throne of grace and say, Yes, I am a sinner, and guess what?

I know I can't do this on my own.

I am completely and totally insufficient.

Do you know what God does with completely and totally insufficient sinners?

He saves them completely and totally to the uttermost.

So that is your invitation to you today.

The altar will be open.

Pastor Rick and I will be at the front.

Let's pray.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.

Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.