Breakdown

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Morning, CCW.

Amen.

Well, if you're looking at me and you think I look a little red, and uh, as some said, it's not because I'm still embarrassed that I messed up my wedding date last week.

Okay, I'm not embarrassed anymore.

I did go to a track meet for several hours yesterday.

And uh, you know, in Alabama, if February just ended, it doesn't matter that it's supposed to be cold.

It's not, and it will burn you.

So, anyways, if you catch this side of me, I'm very red over here.

But anyway, we had a good time.

Proud of my girl.

Oh my goodness, I'll tell you about that later because all y'all, if we gave everybody time to brag on their kids, we'd all be going, wouldn't we?

Uh, but it was an awesome day for her.

So, anyway, Joshua chapter 7, we're continuing our forward series.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

And last week I was so excited.

We finally made it through the walls of Jericho.

We're getting somewhere.

It felt like preparation, preparation, preparation.

Well, God broke through them walls for a big breakthrough.

And now this week, right after breakthrough, we have breakdown.

Breakdown, Joshua chapter 7.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

And uh, I've got a photo I want you to see of Len Baez.

Len Baez was one of the greatest basketball players that never played professional basketball.

Grew up to James and Laniz Baez and was the second-round draft pick in 1986 to the Boston Celtics, would have played with Larry Bird.

And maybe the closest thing they said to Michael Jordan that anybody had ever seen was larger than Jordan, a little more explosive.

He was the LeBron before LeBron 10 years before.

And the night after the draft, uh, Len Bias went to a friend's house, and his friend asked him a fatal question, Church.

He said, Are you ready to celebrate?

Thirty minutes after that, Len Baez snorted a line of cocaine, went into uh what they call cardiac arrhythmia, and 30 minutes after that, Len Baeas lost his life.

Considered by many sports writers to be the greatest player to never play, Len made a horrific choice after a huge victory that had eternal ramifications.

Let's pray together this morning.

Father, we love you, and we are so thankful for your presence.

God, it is to start this service in worship and baptizing people.

God, you have been among us, and there is no doubt, God, your presence is filling this place.

The things you're doing, God, allowing us to see people uh in droves come to this place and building these buildings.

But God, we have to understand today, none of this, none of this matters without you.

So, God, let us not get so high on victory that we are not aware that the enemy is right at our doorstep.

God, help us, protect us, keep us focused, like you told the Israelites, not left, not right, keep focused on my presence and help us today to break that down and give us some tools to understand how to do that.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Joshua chapter 7, we're gonna see the first thing this morning is right after that victory, we see an agonizing defeat.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

Israel just celebrated a truly amazing work of God.

God spoke, Joshua commanded, and it was a bona fide miracle, this thing that happened.

It was legitimate, more than just a wall tumbling for the Israelites.

They could say, Yahweh, Yahweh is Jehovah God.

We've heard about this reputation for 700 years.

This promise, they said to each other, Israel.

Dad joke there.

Did you see that?

Is real.

Henry said this: nothing can more raise a man's reputation, nor make him appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God's presence with him.

God's presence was evident on this happening.

And understand that this, the walls coming down, was a step in a conquest.

It was one step.

If you go through chapters 11 and 22, the conquest continues and continues.

So this was a great big step, but it was a step in dividing up of the land that God had promised.

But then, chapter 7.

So go with me to verses 1 through 5 this morning.

It says, and it starts this way, let's read the end of chapter 6.

It says, So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout all the country.

But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

For Achan, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zirah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things.

So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country.

So the men went up and spied out Ai.

And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai.

Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.

So about three thousand men went up before them from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them before the gate as far as Shaberim and struck them down on the descent.

Therefore the hearts of the people, Israel, melted and became like water.

I want you to see this agonizing defeat that takes place.

And I want to say something to you, church, and hear this.

The time just after a great spiritual victory is a dangerous time.

Right after a great victory can be a very dangerous time.

And we see letter A this morning, this that Israel's fight was absolutely paralyzed.

It was paralyzed.

But why?

I want you to see some things that are maybe unsaid.

Nowhere in verses 1 through 5 does it hint that Joshua, the leader of this army, the leader of these people, sought out God's will for the next step.

You don't see that anywhere.

They didn't take the Ark of the Covenant before them, which is what they had done previously.

So they didn't look at this, it was a symbol of God's presence.

They didn't take it before them.

And they just went into battle in their own strength.

And I'm going to give that word here, two words that we're going to define.

We call that self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness defined one who is confident in his or her own merit to accomplish things.

And so Israel has this great big victory.

The walls came down, and all of a sudden, Satan's always looking proud, and he sees here is an opportunity in self-righteousness.

It's deceptive and it's menacing.

Dividian said this about self-righteousness.

It is the premier enemy to the gospel.

Hear that.

And I want to tell you something, church.

Most people that struggle with self-righteousness are unaware.

They don't realize.

Self-righteousness.

Spurgeon said it's the greatest enemy to human souls.

The self-righteous.

Moody said, God sends no one away from him except those that are full of themselves.

Romans said this, there is none righteous.

No, not one.

Romans 3.20.

Nobody righteous.

So God brings the plan for Israel, God enforces the outcome.

God brings the walls to crash, and immediately Israel goes, Look at we have done.

And self-righteousness strikes Israel.

We got this.

Hey, it's just a little bitty town.

Send just a few in there.

We don't need many.

We got this.

God had done this step and that step and this step, and we get so guilty.

Look at what I did.

Look at what the church at Chelsea Westover is doing.

Let me tell you something, God was doing any of this way before we ever came into the picture.

We exist today, church.

You and I exist to bring God glory.

That is the sole purpose of our existence.

We are image bearers, Genesis 1.27 says, God made man in his own image.

We bear the image of God.

And Matthew 5.16 says that, and then we're light bearers.

Let your light so shine that men may glorify your Father which is in heaven.

They'll see your good works, but glorify him.

It's about him.

How are you pointing people to him?

I have a question for you.

I want you to think on who killed Goliath?

Alright, we got some cheaters in the class.

Supposed to say something else, right?

Who killed Goliath?

David, most people would say.

But I want you to see 1 Samuel 17, 47 says, Then all this assembly should know, hear this, that the Lord does not save with sword and spear.

For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into your hands.

David didn't kill Goliath.

You see, God did.

It wasn't David.

It wasn't Israel who went out and battering ram them walls till they came down.

That was God.

You know, John 15, church says this I am the vine, you are the branches.

Abide in me, and I with you, and you will bear much fruit.

But then it says this, but apart from me, you will do nothing.

Apart from me, nothing.

I don't know what the end of your life, what you want your legacy to be down to your kids, your grandkids, but that's pretty sobering when God says, if you do anything apart from, you can build great skyscrapers, you can build a great bank account, you can build a whole lot with your life, but apart from me, it is not gonna matter in the history of the world.

It's nothing.

The self-righteous say, look at my gift.

We'll go in and win this battle.

The self-righteous said, Look at what I can do.

Look at what I can bring.

You are not your gift.

Whatever that it is that you can do that God gave you to do, that's not you.

When somebody asks you what you do, man, we're we're guilty of this.

It's like one, you know, four seconds in the conversation.

This is my name.

Well, what do you do?

I am, right?

And that's not true.

That's something you do, but you are not that thing.

That's not you.

He says, Apart from me, you can do nothing.

And we get all in this.

I am, I am.

The concept of the self-made man, that's a vile fabrication.

You don't get your next breath unless God says, All right, he can have this one.

Colossians 1:16, 17.

Colossians 1:16

I quoted last week, but it says that it is through him and for him and to him that everything that was made was made.

It's for him, by him, and through him that everything has breath.

You're not your family name, you're not your bank account balance.

Louis Giglio wrote a book.

I love the title.

It's called this I am not, but I know I am.

You see, God, Jesus, in the Old Testament is called the great I am.

He says, I am not, but I know I am, and I know I am.

I hope you know I am today.

Every day right now, people are asking me about CCW.

Benji, all the time.

They're always asking.

And I I don't have some eloquent great answer.

I'll tell you what I say.

Folks, I don't know what God is doing.

But I'm so happy that I get to be a part of what God is doing.

You see, it's not about me, it's not about Dave, it's not about Benji or Pastor Joe or Pastor Eli or the council, it's not about these people, it's about God.

We are so blessed that He has decided to show up in this place.

God, we want this to be your resting place.

We work and we try, but hear me, CCW.

The blessing of God is not because of the process.

We are not Nick Saban, okay?

Some of you said, All right now, preacher, poor eagle, okay?

We're not Nick Saban.

Look, we have a process and we work with a process, but it is not the process of the church here that brings people, that brings salvation, that brings changed life.

It is Almighty God.

And if he decided to leave for one second, we're done.

He can get rid of me in a second.

I'm telling you.

There can be somebody else right here.

It's not about this guy.

And it's not about some people.

It's about God deciding to bring his presence.

Israel just conquered these mighty walls, had 40,000 troops at their employee, sent 3,000 without God's word, his blessing, and 36 men lost their life.

And self-righteousness took it.

Their wives would wake up tomorrow, no husbands.

Their kids would wake up tomorrow, no daddy.

Look at verse 5.

It wasn't even like Ai was a formidable opponent, verse 5.

And the men of Ai struck down about 36 men.

It says previously that they were talking about the people of Ai were few.

And in comparison to the people of Jericho, it says in chapter 8, verse 25 that there was a population of 12,000.

I want to tell you something.

That day, it didn't matter about size, it mattered about the heart.

And it says that Israel wants to have their hearts melted like water.

James says, church, God opposes the proud, but he gives more grace to the humble.

God doesn't work with pride.

God doesn't say, Oh, you you've got this, right?

I'm gonna bless it because you've got it.

God opposes that.

Job said it this way: the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

It's about him.

Well, let me tell you what happens in return.

Uh turn down to verse number six down there.

Joshua, let it be, fights in prayer.

And we're gonna look at this prayer.

It says, verse six, then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening.

He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads.

And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?

Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan.

O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its backs before its enemies?

For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth.

Then what will you do for your great name?

I want you to hear this, and we'll put some context to it in a second.

I think Joshua takes the right step.

The right step here after a major victory, then a major defeat.

Joshua goes to prayer.

So I think as his leadership goes, this is the right step.

But as he begins to vomit out of his mouth, I'm going to say right step, sort of.

Okay, he rends his clothes and he falls before the ark.

He wants to get in the presence of God.

And for the child of God, let me tell you, if you have had a defeat in life, this is the right pathway.

This is the right path of recovery.

Hebrews 4 16 says, Let us come therefore boldly into the throne of grace, so that we can have help in our time of need and find mercy in our time of need.

Right step.

I think Joshua takes the right step.

Go to him in prayer.

Wrong questions.

I love Joshua.

Joshua probably, I said the other week, my favorite character in the Bible, not named Jesus.

And people wonder, did Joshua ever commit a sin when you read through a story?

I think if Joshua commits a sin, here's Joshua's flaw here.

All right, he has a few, I love him, but he has a few bad moments.

He says, Why have you done this, God?

Fair.

Fair question.

You can ask God.

God's not concerned about your questioning.

Why have you done this, God?

Next line, never need to say.

Husbands, have you ever said that next line that you never needed to say?

And you were wishing you could go back into DeLorean in history and tape that line and that foot right out of your face?

Oh, I thought it.

I meant it up here, but it never was supposed to get there.

Mmm, there it went.

And you saw as soon as she turned over, I did say it.

No.

Never needed to say this next line.

Look at what he says.

Would we have been content to stay in Acacia Grove?

We could have made a place to stay right there before Jericho.

We could have lived there, God.

What?

God just throw down these major walls that you've seen him, and Joshua just goes off.

His mouth starts running, and he doesn't know what to do after this.

He just starts blurbing out stuff that he should never say.

Ever felt like this?

Right?

He says, What?

God, he says, Israel's gonna turn its back.

Everyone's gonna hear about it, and then it's gonna be your name.

What are you gonna do, God?

What will you do?

And the next verse it says, and God scurried across the heavens.

He called for Jesus, the Holy Spirit.

He said, We need a board meeting, red alert.

No, that is not what the next verse says.

It's a blessing that God didn't take a wall from heaven and drop it on Joshua in that moment.

What am I gonna do, Joshua?

Joshua says, Our name is ruined.

God, though, this is something I love about his nature.

God is eternally patient with our humanity.

God is not surprised, brothers and sisters, that you're human.

The Bible says his mercies are new every morning.

Great is his faithfulness.

I'm so glad that God has been patient with me.

But the questioning is kind of funny.

Teen parents for years, I haven't missed that part.

Teen parents, I'm sorry, I haven't missed the questioning about certain things.

But I used to take teens on a winter retreat.

One parent, one year, winter retreat, on the brochure.

It had pictures of teens playfully in the snow.

And a teen parent called me and said, Pastor Rick, there's snow in the forecast.

What are you gonna do?

I said, For the winter retreat, yes, what are you gonna do?

There's snow coming in the forecast, and you're taking these teens down to this retreat.

I said, Well, I think we're gonna fled and build some snowmen and throw snowballs at each other.

I said, Did you see the brochure?

There is an inner tube with students on it in the snow.

Like, why would snow change the winter retreat that we're going to snow for?

Joshua said, God, people want to fight us.

What on earth will you do?

The Bible is fun, y'all.

Okay.

I don't know if you read this book, but it it's fun.

And we're gonna get in a second to God's awesome response.

But the saving grace here, at least Joshua, even with his wrong ideas, at least in his leadership, he turned immediately to God.

He went to God.

And so I want to tell you the point this morning.

When things go rough, when you've had a victory and then there's a fall, immediately turn to God.

Because God didn't send a wall down and crush Joshua.

He saw his servant on his knees before him.

Wrong questions.

But he saw him and he had compassion upon him.

Secondly, I want you to see this morning is this an achen deception.

I almost entitled the message, How to Fix Your Aching Heart.

Or Billy Ray.

I could have went Billy Ray, your Achen, breaking heart.

Aiken means troubler.

Isn't that a great definition of your name?

Aiken means troubler.

In English, the only.

The only troubler.

That's who Aiken is.

It's seriously what it is in this story.

And I talked about for weeks how everybody else lined up, they were all on board, and there was unity.

And I want you to Understand, church, it only takes one.

It only took one to mess things up.

I thought I'd show you a little something here this morning.

I got some water.

How much mustard do you think it would take in the water before you didn't want to drink it?

How many squirts?

I mean a lot?

One squirt?

How many would it take for you before you had this water and you said, hmm, you still good on one?

If I do that twice, is that gonna be too much or was one too much?

Like, I don't even want to keep this here so y'all have to see it the rest of the sermon.

Somebody wants some water.

There you go, that'll be a reminder.

It just took one.

It only took one.

I used to do it with garlic and milk.

How much garlic would it take for you to not eat the cereal?

One scoop, right?

I need you to understand it only took one.

And Achan was that one.

Galatians 6, 7 through 8 says, Whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap.

He said, Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatever a man sows, that will he reap.

And so Achan got in, and we're gonna find out what was wrong with his heart.

Letter A, we see the sin in the camp.

I want you to look down at verse 10 through 15.

I love this response.

So the Lord said to Joshua, Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have taken some of the accursed things, and they have both stolen and deceived, and they have also put it among their own stuff.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction.

Neither will I be with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

Get up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst.

O Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until that you take away the accursed thing from among you.

In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to the families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man.

Then it shall be that he who has taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire.

So we see God's response.

And I love this.

Joshua's there, he's praying, right posture, wrong questions, and God doesn't fool around.

Now he is tenderhearted, but look at what he says.

He says, Get up.

If there could have been a heavenly eye roll in this moment, maybe this is where God does it.

Like, are you kidding me?

This kid.

Have you ever seen your child get real pouty and throw themselves on the floor in their pouting?

It was so serious that they just hit the floor, hands started stamping on the floor, feet started.

Anybody?

This happened?

Okay, there's two of us that have children like this.

I'm sorry.

We gotta get parenting classes, Pastor Dave.

Um you've seen this kind of pouting, right?

And you're like, what in the world has happened?

All I said was, you can't have candy.

Like they have lost their life in that moment.

Real, real tears.

And that's what God, I feel like, has experienced.

He says, get up! Quit this.

Get up.

This is ridiculous.

What am I gonna do?

Do you hear this?

Get up.

I love it.

I love God's response.

Well, I want you to see verse 20 through 21.

And so they go through this process.

And Achan answered Joshua and says, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done.

When I saw among the spoils of a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.

And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver underneath of it.

Achan says, Indeed, I have sinned.

I stole silver, gold, and it says a Babylonian garment, literally a robe of shinar.

And this is when I went to studying this week.

What did this, what was this like?

What took a man's heart after he just saw the power of God in a major way?

If God showed himself right in here, I mean, if a wall just shot down this week and you said, God was right there, and God said, This is what you don't do.

Don't take any of the accursed thing.

What was it about this stuff after you knew, you knew God did a change in your heart?

You knew when God did something in your life, you knew when God called you to an altar.

You remember the place and time where God said something to you, but something, some job, some something, some pool, some relationship, some status, something got a hold of you.

What was it about this stuff that caused Achan to go, oh, it says I was full of covetousness.

I had to have it.

So the robe of Shinar, a little bit of research this week, it would have been a skin of an animal, fur, and ornamented.

It took a lot of research, but I think I found an actual picture, if you guys see it coming up here, of the robe of Shinar.

And so uh look at this robe here.

We got the picture of the robe.

It's coming.

I feel it.

Took a lot of research to find the robe of Shinar.

I think Achan was picturing Strutton when he put it on and yelling, woo! Y'all listen, Achan sinned against the God who rose Jordan in a heap.

He sinned against the God that threw down walls over a bedazzled fur lady's bathrobe.

I hope it wasn't for him.

I hope he had a sister.

But in Joshua 6, I want you to see this for context.

Look at what Joshua 6, 18 through 19 says.

It's not like Achan didn't have it spelled out before him.

And I think sometimes we've heard what God says, but it's like something pulls us.

Look at what it said.

6, 18, and 19.

And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed.

When you take the accursed things and make the camp of Israel curse and trouble it, but all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord.

They shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

He says, if you touch it, it will bring a curse.

Do you not believe the God who just brought down the walls?

Do you not believe in this promises, church, when he says, it's crazy?

People will see God work and then they'll go, I don't know what, Pastor, I don't know what to do.

I have no idea what I should do about this.

Have you sought God?

Have you got before him?

Have you gotten in his word?

I don't know what to do.

Have you sought out the Lord?

And so He tells them exactly what's going to happen.

If you touch it, not if you take it, if you touch it, you'll be accursed.

And we sin often, church, because there's a moment we want to feel.

And we will sacrifice that walk with Almighty God for a moment.

For a second, and we know, we'll know.

We'll know that it's wrong.

We'll know what this book says, but for a moment, we'll turn our back on the God of the miraculous.

For a moment.

We could see miracles, but for a moment of a shiny robe.

For a moment of greedy goods.

For a moment of being whatever the world calls valuable, we'll walk away from Almighty God.

You will grind away at a job, not caring what the Lord says, because the world says you'll be set.

Oh, I used to hate when teenagers, oh, all the time teenagers say, I'm going to college for this, because my mom and dad say, I'll be set if I do that.

What is set?

Will you always have God's blessing in your life if you do that thing?

Look, I'm not saying you need money.

We need it to live.

But that's the idea in American culture.

Just go to college and make sure you have a job that you'll be set.

Man, I hope your kid will be happy one day of their life at their job.

I hope they'll feel fulfilled.

I hope that they'll have some purpose.

Maybe, maybe you should tell them if you do that, you'll find God's purpose.

Money will come.

We're survivors.

What about God's purpose?

Wreaking havoc on the unified pursuit of his country because of divergent desires.

Church, you matter.

That one, you matter.

Don't think that you don't matter.

And when God starts beckoning in your heart in a service, you matter.

Don't think for one second the gift that you have doesn't matter.

It matters.

The sin in the camp, it wreaked havoc.

36 men lost their life.

36 children lost their father.

Well, let's see what happens.

Let her be as this the supervisor's compassion.

I want you to look at verse 19.

I kind of skipped to the end of it there, but verse 19, we go back to Joshua.

He went through that process that God labeled out.

He said, After the evening, the next morning, you're going to go and you're going to walk through camp by camp, family by family, man by man.

Now Joshua came to Achan, verse 19.

And he said, My son, I beg you, give God, give glory to the Lord, God of Israel, and make confession to him.

And tell me now from what you have done.

Do not hide it from me.

So Joshua here, this is a good on Joshua.

Joshua recovered quickly as a leader.

He heard God's command and he didn't pout some more.

He got up and did exactly what God needed.

So one of the things I think about Joshua, Joshua just sort of needed a script.

God, I'll go step by step with you if you tell me exactly what.

But when Joshua went off for just a moment, right?

Man, God, I just want daily, just want your script.

God, today is the day.

Let me do what you'll have for me today.

Daily, don't you need that?

And so Joshua recovers quickly.

And I believe Joshua has a tender spirit toward Achan.

I believe he comes to him and he says, he says, won't you give God glory?

A good leader with a tender spirit.

By the way, this is good leadership.

He confronts a problem with a tender heart.

He says, I beg you, give God glory.

I think he cares for him.

I found something this week on the internet, so it must be true.

Seven qualities of a good leader.

Okay, these are random, these are not written out in scripture, but I thought it was good and I'll share it as I think about good leadership.

One, a good leader has to get up earlier than you want to be.

Okay?

Leadership, you get up.

Two, you care for others even when they might not care for you.

Three, you have to be accountable for your actions.

Four, you have to make the call.

It's on the leader.

Then you have to feel fear, but take the risk.

You have to challenge people with your example.

And lastly, in what we see here with Joshua number seven, you have to deliver hard truths.

Bible says the truth will set you free.

Now listen, Joshua was Moses' assistant.

Joshua was no novice to life.

Joshua was not young, but he was just seven chapters on the job.

And I believe he loved Achan.

But we're gonna see what happens.

Point number three this morning is this we see an adversary dismissed.

After he goes through that, Joshua sent messengers.

Verse 22.

They ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in the tent with silver under it.

And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.

Joshua, verse 25, Joshua said, Why have you troubled us?

The Lord will trouble you this day.

So all Israel stoned aching with stones, and they burned them with fire.

Why did this have to happen?

Letter A.

I want to take you into something, because some people will look at this and go, Man, this seems harsh.

Number one, I don't have this note, but number one, God said something, he spelled it out very clearly for victory to happen, for walls to come down, and he spelled out exactly what should happen next.

And Achan directly disobeyed the words of God.

So I think letter A, what we see, what we'll see here is a disclosure without repentance.

I want to tell you what you do not see.

Look at verses 13 and 14.

This is important.

This is something you might miss.

He told Joshua, get up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.

Because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst.

Oh, Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies with that.

And in the morning, therefore, you shall be brought tribes, families, and so on.

So if you'd missed this, you would miss that God gives Achan the night.

He comes before Joshua.

They know that they have lost 36 men.

Everyone is aware that something's happened.

And he gives Achan the night to make an admission and repentance.

Now, Achan, if you looked at the scripture, once Joshua comes looking, then Achan does, in fact, admit his sin.

But I want you to know even further, okay?

The Bible, oftentimes you see some confession here and there.

Confession and repentance have to be married.

Hear me.

Confession and there's one thing to have an admission of sin.

Yes, this is who I am, this is what I've done, this is a problem, but we don't see further.

Proverbs 28, 13 says it this way He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.

But whoso confesseth and forsaketh, them shall have mercy.

Confesseth and forsaketh.

See, we shirk repentance when we agree with the truth of our sin, our confession, without having a response.

Now don't hear me wrong, to be sure, confession is a jump start to repentance.

We have to start there, but it has to go further.

Repentance requires that there not be feet dragging, not be blame shifting, not be excuse hiding, not be compliance that bends under someone else's forced demands.

So what I believe had Achan came with confession and repentance previous to Joshua getting to his tent, I do believe that the story might look different.

Confession is a step.

Let me explain this to you.

Confession is me seated in my chair.

God gets a hold of my heart, reminds me of what I did, and I get out of the chair and I take a step.

Okay?

Confession is a step.

Repentance is God getting out hold of my heart.

I realize my sin.

I say, this is what I've done.

And I'm having a response of godly sorrow, Scripture calls it, to my sin.

And because of the godly sorrow that hits my heart, because I lied, because I stole, because I had an attitude, I quit doing the thing that I confessed.

That's repentance.

It's a change of attitude about my sin.

It's not just saying, yeah, I did that.

Is it done, God?

It's many steps.

When God says in 2 Chronicles 7, 14 about the secret to revival, he says, If my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.

You see, the secret to revival is that turn.

Turn in 2 Corinthians 7.10.

It says, Godly sorrow worketh repentance that causes chains.

Sin should bring emotional sorrow.

So what keeps people from repenting?

You know the things that are wrong, right?

We know.

We wake up with us every morning.

We wake up with the same mirror every morning.

We know who we are.

And yes, we can even admit that before God, and that's a step.

But change doesn't happen until repentance.

Well, let me tell you a few things about repentance.

Number one, repentance is God granted.

So what does that mean, Pastor?

Repentance means God is at work in your heart.

God has to be involved.

You don't drum up repentance on your own.

Let me set it there.

God grants repentance.

And so Acts 11, 18 is an example.

It says, when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance.

If you're lost today, there is one thing that's needed for you.

If you're here without a relationship with Christ, there is repentance that leads to salvation.

If you can't change from sin today, if you've confessed, but you haven't been able to change your lifestyle, your life way, maybe you haven't had a repentance that led to salvation.

You haven't confessed all of your sins saying, God, you are now Lord.

I'm changing that life.

That old man is done.

And so you cannot have a confession that changes other things until the first thing is set.

And it's God granted.

He has to be working on your heart.

I can't make you come to Jesus as your Savior.

I can't drum you up.

It is God drawing you through the Holy Spirit to confession and repentance.

So it's God granted.

Secondly, why do people struggle with repentance?

Fear of the consequences.

Many people struggle with if I admit this and try to begin changing, what's somebody gonna think about me?

If I tell my wife this, if I tell my husband this, we have fear of the consequences.

If I tell my boss this, if I tell my kids this, and so immediately the first thing that strikes our heart is the fear of the consequences.

And let me tell you what repentance is not.

Repentance is not, I am going to face all the consequences or write the pros and cons down.

Repentance, godly sorrow, says it doesn't matter what this does to my life, I'm gonna manage it because I'm so sorrowful for what I've become.

And I want to change no matter what it takes.

That's repentance.

That's repentance.

Not fear of the consequences.

The third thing is this we love our sin.

And the truth be told, a lot of times, I'm not I'm not some things are really hard.

Some things are really hard, and I know that people get addicted and stuck in a life and for many, many years fight and battle, and I know that mentally you say, I want so badly to be able to give this thing up.

And I understand that there are situations like that, but I want you to know there's a point where you gotta face the mirror.

A gentleman shared with me last week after we talked about the walls coming down.

I was so excited about this.

Share with me in the lobby.

He said, I've been thinking it's gotten all in me since you've been talking about burning the boats.

And he shared with me, for eight days, God has taken a sin out of his life that had him for 20 years.

He was eight days in the journey on that day, and God had gotten to his heart and said, Listen, this thing has got to be shedded.

See, we we can become dependent on our sin.

I don't believe Achan ever repented.

Letter be, we see a devastation as a result.

I shared those verses.

Achan lost his life.

And here's something that I understand.

We love God's mercy, right?

We say, amen, his mercies are new.

Yes, he's faithful.

Yes, I love God's mercy.

When we want to talk about God's wrath, we go, do we have to talk about this?

Pastor, go back to mercy.

I love his mercy.

God's wrath, his indignant fire against sin is strong.

So we struggle with his wrath until we are wronged.

Now, if I steal some of Adam's money, Adam's gonna say, Pastor Rick needs justice.

Never steal my$20 bill.

I want justice and I want my 20 back.

And I say, God, can you just grant me mercy?

You know I needed the 20.

And Adam, he's got all them nice clothes, and I don't.

Can I just, but God, right?

Like when we do wrong.

Or we're wrong, we say, I want justice.

If Aiken had stolen your car, you'd march right down to the court, you'd file the file.

I want justice.

And Aiken's mama said, Well, that's not who he really is.

Aiken's a sweet little boy, and it's real hard deep down.

He just came upon hard times.

Oh, Judge, can we just have mercy?

And if Aiken hurts your family member, you'd say, We just want justice.

Here's the hard thing.

This is the hard pill for many of us.

God's justice is based on God being holy.

And when we look at justice, it's entirely skewed by our view of ourselves and what we want and need.

God said, do not touch of the accorded thing.

But all goes into the treasury.

Listen, listen to this.

Good heavens.

I mean, you're gonna steal, fine, steal something.

Not only did it achieve steal, but he stole from the treasury of God.

One time in my previous church, I came in on a Monday and the church was flipped upside down.

There was stuff in the hallway, there was stuff dragged out of rooms and offices.

Somebody got in over the weekend and they stole from the church.

I thought, good heavens, what kind of criminal comes to a church?

Churches usually don't have that much money and steals from God's money.

Like, are you kidding me?

Like, I would be afraid every thunderstorm, every time I got in a vehicle with wheels, God is coming.

You don't stole from God, dummy.

That is not a smart thing to do.

Good heavens.

Have you lost your mind, Aiken?

Now listen.

So that's I hear you, preacher.

I don't get up here and preach a sermon during our offerings weekly.

I will never get up and do that.

But hear me.

You better listen to God when it comes to giving.

The Bible says plenty on stewarding.

It says it's more blessed to give than to receive.

Aiken tried to keep from God's treasury.

Are you kidding me?

What a devastating choice he made.

It's pretty sobering, but this choice impacted Aiken, his family, his livestock.

And obviously, we saw that it impacted his leader.

I said, Pastor, I'm not that big a deal.

You're a very big deal.

You matter.

At the end of the day, it was time to go into a new land.

And the truth of the matter is this Achan was not all in.

Before they ever got to Jericho, God made sure through their leader Joshua, he said, I need you to go through confession and consecration and cleansing your people.

Tell them to get with me in a meeting of prayer and check deep into their soul and their vices and get it all right.

And then he made them get circumcised, reminding them of the covenant they had with him.

This was a promise between them and God, and he would show up.

But you just watch and lean into me, you're gonna watch towers fall.

But don't you do this one thing, just like Eve in the garden.

There's one thing.

Don't touch the accursed, and what do we do?

He coveted.

And I want to tell you, church, Satan is always looking for a way to disrupt.

If he can get your eyes off this, and he can get you thinking about you, if he can get you thinking out here about what you should have, if he can get you off anything with this, he'll take you.

God's laid out a plan of success.

You see, the CEO and president of Bee Speaks.

It's a nonprofit foundation.

Lady goes by the name of Bee brings messages of hope and inspiration to help empower many listeners to move forward against odds, expecting that the best is yet to come.

Well, Bee Speaks, she's appeared on TV shows and radio programs, and has been honored in her city as Woman of the Year, received awards.

She's got keys to many cities.

I guess you'd like to know who Bee is.

Bee's name is Lanise Baez, mother of Len Baez.

She's a fanatic for Jesus Christ.

She took a burden that should have taken a mother down and out, and she took that burden and she takes it to city after city, school after school, and she goes everywhere to help people, everywhere saying, My son made a choice.

It was a bad choice, but through it she's carried a message of Jesus Christ all over the country so that there could be a bridge that people could cross.

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

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