Joshua Series Pt. 7 - Associate Pastor Matt Passmore - June 15, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Woo!

Amen.

Thank you, Aaron.

Thank you, choir, Jacob.

Thank you so much.

Uh surprise.

Pastor Greg is not here today.

We keep it a secret as long as we can.

So this is what you got today.

Okay?

Now, seriously, I'm grateful to be here, Father's Day.

We do want to start this service a little different.

If you don't mind, I would like the men of the church.

The men of the church, right now, quickly, if you would come join me here at the altar.

We are going to pray together.

We're going to give the service to the Lord, but we're also going to commit our lives to the Lord.

Here's, here's, as they're coming forward, here's what we thought about.

What little gadget could we get fathers for Father's Day that they would lose before they got home?

We thought, well, that's not going to be very good.

So we thought today we're going to bring the men of the church.

We would like to come together and pray together.

Bless you guys, but cry out to the Lord for us to be the men that the Lord's called us to be.

Would you join me as we pray that prayer together, please?

Let's pray.

Dear God, I come before you now.

Thankful for these men.

Thankful for these men in the church.

And Lord, what they do in the church.

And Lord, I ask today that you will help us.

Be men that love our kids better.

Be men that love our wives better.

Be men that love the church better.

And be men that love you with all of our hearts.

Lord, I cry out to you for these men today to be the man that you've called them to be.

And as they have things in our life, distractions in their lives, Lord, I ask you today to use them, pull them to you.

And Lord, help it start today.

Lord, we cry out a blessing over them.

Bless them today in a way that they've never been blessed before.

And Lord, help us come together to be men that love you.

Lord, bless them today, and the day is Father's Day.

And Lord, I know there are many that are probably even struggling that it is Father's Day.

Lord, bless.

And Lord, thank you for the picture of how you loved your bride, the church.

Lord, thank you for your word.

And as we get into your word today, bless it.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you, man.

And as you head back to your seat, I do want to say thank you for being here.

And I do want to say happy Father's Day.

Grateful for fathers.

I look down on the first row.

I have a family.

I have a couple daughters here today to be here for Father's Day.

And what a great joy that is.

Today, if you have your Bibles, will you open it to the book of Joshua?

And as the men are going back, I'm just going to kind of catch you up where we're at.

We're in the middle of Joshua.

We're studying the man Joshua.

What a picture of a faithful leader.

Here's what I like about Joshua so much.

So many times as a leader, we want to be in charge and we want everyone to get behind us and we want to lead on.

And many times we think that is a real leader.

And I would agree with you.

But what I love about Joshua is the idea of I will lead, Lord, when you want me to lead, but Lord, I can also let you lead.

I can follow you and let you lead, and I can lead following you.

And that's the picture of who Joshua is and what we've been studying this whole time, and what a great picture of faithfulness.

And so today we're going to dive into Joshua.

The part of Joshua we're at right now is that they're at the battle of Ai.

We're going to dive into that.

So we're in Joshua 7.

But before we dive into that, can we start just to get situated, get bright, get just get focused here?

Would you join me in prayer so that we can give this part to the Lord right now?

Will you pray with me?

Dear God, just as distractions or as things, Lord, today we are going to open your word.

And we are going to talk about a tough topic that many people do not like to talk about.

And Lord, I ask you today to not make it doom and gloom, but Lord, we want to look with this word that it can bring blessing.

Lord, we do want to be a blessed people.

And Lord, we give you this lesson.

Lord, shut my mouth.

You speak your words.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So as we think, there's a word here that we look at, and as soon as I say it, many of you are going to be turned off.

In fact, I had a person come to me one time and say, You spend too much time talking about this word.

And so I want to be careful.

This word that I'm about to show, it's going to go on the screen.

We're going to give a definition.

Bear with me.

Because this word is really the situation.

It shows us the situation that we're really in as a world.

As an individual.

So if you'll pull up the definition, the word here is look at look at this word here.

When I see it, sin.

And here's the world's definition of sin: an offense against a religious or moral law.

The other day, a deacon comes to me.

He's wanting to be baptized.

Praise the Lord.

And so the question, obviously, if someone comes forward, we did this with vacation in Bible school, the question that comes when people come forward and want to know about Jesus and wanting to be baptized and wanting to be saved, the question is, what is sin?

And Deacon looks right out without even hesitation.

Deacon goes, Sin is when I do wrong.

I'm like, well, I agree with that.

It's pretty close to the world's definition.

And so many times when we think about that definition, we're like, okay.

But if we're not careful, what's moral law?

Deacon said, even himself, he says, don't do anything bad.

Don't do anything wrong.

Well, if we're not careful when we say that, who's the judge of being wrong?

So then I want to read in my in my this is in my Bible uh dictionary.

Look at the Bible definition of it.

Action by which humans rebel against God.

You know, when we say the word sin, I think something we leave out, and I think the world has left out is the word God.

Because here, if we're not careful, we can come and we can talk about sin, and it's like this sin is when you do something that I don't like.

You see where I'm going with this a little bit?

If we're not careful, all of a sudden we as humans are the ones defining sin by what we don't like or what we should approve, what we don't approve, and we've got to get to the point of sin is when we rebel against the one holy, just, true God.

And so we can't talk about sin without talking about God.

And if we're not careful, so many times we think, oh God, when we talk about sin, God is that cosmic killjoy.

It's never any fun.

When I was growing up, we had a pond behind our house.

Not very often, but this time it got cold enough that the pond froze.

My parents told me, do not get on the pond.

So I put one foot on the pond.

It was okay.

I put two foots on two feet on the pond.

Before you know it, all my friends were out on the pond.

My mom's washing the dishes that looks over the pond.

And it wasn't good.

She calls, she says my entire name.

I have to come inside.

And I was punished.

And I thought it was severely.

I thought, what in the world?

I didn't fall in, everything's fine.

It was great.

And then honestly, I was a little upset.

Really, you're gonna punish me?

All my friends got to do it.

I don't think they got punished.

Then when I was in college, I was doing an interim at this I was a student interim at a at a church.

A little small church, and we were going through it, and I get a phone call one day.

And a girl in our ministry had been playing on a frozen pond.

She fell through and she drowned.

It was awful.

I'm like 21 years old, and I'm supposed to go over there and counsel somebody.

I mean, it was awful.

And at that time it did not hit me.

We're sitting in the funeral, and all of a sudden it hit me.

How much my dad loved me.

How much my mom loved me to the point of she would discipline me to protect me.

I said that whole funeral.

I wasn't, they were like, man, you must have been really in touch with that girl.

And I really didn't even know the girl.

I just got there.

But I was broken because that whole time I was angry that my parents were disciplined me.

And I thought, why?

And it just hit me.

They were disciplined me.

They had, they loved me so much, they did not want that to happen to me or take any chances to do that.

You know, honestly, God does not want to be the killjoy.

He loves us so much, he doesn't want us to dabble in sin.

So today, as we're looking at the word sin and we are looking at diving in to this story in Joshua, I want you to think about the definition of sin and how much God loves you.

Okay, so here we go.

Let's dive in.

We're in Joshua 7.

Let's start reading in verse 1.

The Israelites, however, were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction.

Achan, son of Karmi, son of Zebdi, and son of Zarai of the tribes of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lord's anger burned against Israel.

Okay, just to catch up where we're at.

At this point here, Moses had died, Joshua took over.

Remember?

We've been talking about this.

They came up to the Jordan River, they crossed the Jordan River, Jericho's right there, the walls around it.

How are we going to defeat it?

And they just defeated Jericho.

Things are going really well.

You know what?

The picture here, things are going well.

What happens when things start going really well?

They start getting a little self-reliant.

So as we look at the story today, we're about to go in this next passage.

We see self-reliance.

We see a picture here, self-reliance, and so let's continue.

We're going to see it.

In verse 2, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Bethaven, east of Bethel, and told them, Go up and scout out the land.

So the men went up, scouted out Ai.

After returning to Joshua, they reported to him.

Since the people of Ai are so few, don't wear out our people there.

Self-reliant.

How did they cross the Jordan?

The Lord told them what to do, right?

How did they defeat Jericho?

The Lord told them exactly what to do.

So now all of a sudden it's like, oh, AI is so small.

We can come up with our own plan.

See where all of a sudden it's like, well, we'll come up with our own plan.

We got this.

So self-reliant, okay, and if we're not careful, from self-reliant it leads to defeat.

Let's continue.

Looking in verse 4.

So about 3,000 men went up there, but they fled the men of Ai.

The men of Ai struck down about 36 of them and chased them from outside the city gate to the quarries, striking them down on the descent.

As a result, the people lost heart.

Okay, we see here, self-reliance.

Then it leads to defeat.

And here's the problem with it if we're not careful.

Defeat.

What a picture of defeat.

Defeat, not only did they lose, which is horrible, 36 men.

What does it say at the very end?

It says, as a result, the people lost heart.

Isn't that a scary place to be?

No confidence.

Self-reliance led to defeat.

Which the defeat then leads to sin.

It reveals our sin.

It shows us sin.

So continue in verse 6.

Then Joshua tore his clothes, fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening, as did the elders of Israel.

They all put dust on their heads.

Oh Lord God, Joshua cried out.

Why did you ever bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites for our destruction?

Have you ever heard that statement before by the Israelites?

They've come to the Red River.

The Red River.

The Red Sea.

They've come up to the Red Sea.

Lord, if you'd have just left us in Egypt, we'd have been okay.

Even Joshua now is like, Lord, if we would have just stayed, but that's not where God wanted them.

If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan.

What can I say, Lord, now that Israel has turned its back and ran run from its enemies?

When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth.

Then what will you do about your great name?

Really?

Here's the picture.

Think about it.

Joshua being self-reliant.

Went and was defeated.

And now it's like, well, God, where have you been?

Isn't that sometimes we get going so fast and it's like, God, where have you been?

Are you gonna come?

And then continue with me in 10.

The Lord then said to Joshua, get this picture here.

Stand up.

Why have you fallen face down?

Israel has sinned.

They have violated my covenant that I appointed for them.

They have taken some of what was set apart.

They have stolen, deceived, and put those things with their own belongings.

This is why Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.

They will turn their back and run from their enemies because they have been set apart for destruction.

I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you what is set apart.

Now you say, what in the world is he talking about?

What is set apart?

Man, God, this is awful harsh.

Before they went and fought Jericho.

God told them, we're wiping Jericho completely out.

Jericho was so evil, and the first part of what they were doing that God had to show them to rely on him, and so he tells them to do what?

Wipe them out.

Listen, I'm gonna go back just a second and read.

This is before they went into Jericho.

Listen to what the Lord commanded them.

But the city and everything in it is set apart to the Lord for destruction.

Only Rahab, you remember we read this last week, only Rahab, the prostitute, and everyone with her in her house will live, because she hid the messengers we sent.

But keep yourselves, okay, here's the warning, but keep yourself from the things set apart, or you will be set apart for destruction.

If you take any of those things, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and make trouble for it.

For all the silver and the gold and the articles of bronze and iron are dedicated to the Lord and must go into the Lord's treasury.

He told them.

If you go back and read that, now you get back to our story we're at right now, there's no surprise.

The Lord said this is what's going to happen if you do what?

You take something that I told you not to take.

And I'm jumping around a little bit.

Bear with me.

I tell you this: when you get home today, read this story.

It's a phenomenal just a read.

This is now.

Achan has been brought in because of the things he had.

The Lord pointed Achan out, so Achan's come into him.

Listen to what Achan said.

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, five pounds of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter, I coveted them and I took them.

Achan's sin was serious offense because it was a direct violation, the defiance of what God said.

God needed the entire nation to be committed to the job that God had put in front of them.

And that was to go conquer the land.

Can you imagine?

Weeks later, Achan comes out in his Egyptian robe and everyone's like, Where'd you get that at?

And he said, Oh, I took it from Jericho?

Can you imagine?

Here's the thing, guys, and we discussed this with kids, how perfect our God is.

God's not sitting up there and saying, okay, that sin passes, that sin doesn't pass.

Listen, God is a holy just God that listen, He can't be around or sin.

Small or big.

So he has to do something about the sin.

Listen, God is not content with our obedience sometimes.

Think about that just for a second.

God's not looking and saying, Well, Matt, you did pretty good.

Look at so-and-so over there, he's really bad.

You did pretty good today.

Well, you know, Matt.

You know, I'll give you that one.

You know, you were in a tough situation.

No.

God's not content with our obedience sometimes.

He wants our obedience all the time.

We as Christians are under his order, listen, through scripture, to eliminate Thoughts, practices, possessions that hinder us from devotion to Him.

Think about this for a second.

Sin has a drastic consequence.

Or sin has drastic consequences.

So we should take drastic measures to avoid it.

When I was in high school, I was in an English class, and every Tuesday we did a vocabulary test.

So one day I come in and I didn't study, I didn't do very good, and I was just, I'm cramming.

And the guy next to me says this, hey, just look at my paper.

I got the answers from first hour.

And I've been doing this and I've made straight A's.

I'm like, nah, I shouldn't do that.

So the paper comes out, so it's 10 vocabulary words.

Should be easy, but I wasn't prepared.

So I wrote the answers down next to me.

Guess what?

I made a hundred.

The next week, the vocabulary test came.

I didn't even study.

I looked right away.

Hundred.

I'm like, man, this is easy.

The third week.

I come in, I don't even read the words.

I look over, write the letters down, turn my paper in, start my next assignment.

By about fourth hour, I get called into the office.

I was reported for cheating.

The lady started sensing it.

She changed the entire test from first hour to second hour, and I had the answers to first hour.

Not second hour.

It's a big deal.

This is they went in and took all my quizzes and made every one of them all year long a zero.

It took my grade, which I was in decent grades, I'm flunking now.

I'm panicked.

More importantly, my dad was going to find out.

And I'll never forget.

My dad, you know, I'm in this cycle of sin.

And my dad comes in and he says, Is this who you really want to be?

Think about that just for a second.

Matt, you're headed down the wrong path.

You cheat your way here.

What's next?

Sin has drastic consequences, so we have to take drastic measures to avoid it.

I had to take drastic measures to get out of that cycle of cheating the next to me.

You see what the idea of I've got to get out of that cycle because here's the problem with the cycle.

Just what we're talking about here.

Self-reliance leads to defeat, leads to sin.

And then what do we do most of the time we sin?

We try to figure it out, it takes us back to what?

Self-reliance.

And we get inside this circle, the circle the Lord doesn't want us to have, and we're right here just going round and around and around, defeating ourselves because of our sin.

And our self-reliance.

Honestly, not in here in the service, but why am I who I am, you who you are?

Why would God even create us in the first place?

You know, the world would probably say, well, it was a big mistake.

Or it was an accident.

You know, it reminds me of in the garden.

Remember, Jesus, or God created the heavens, the earth, created the whole world, created man, and then when he was done, what did he say?

This is good.

God didn't make a mistake.

He said what?

It is good.

And then can you imagine?

You see it in Scripture.

In the cool of the day, Adam and Eve would get to walk with who?

God created us for a relationship with him.

To bring glory to his name.

And here's the deal: in bringing glory to his name.

That's that walk in the coolness of the day.

Philippians 2.13 says this for it is God who is working in both to will and to work according to his purpose.

Listen, God's working in us so that we can work his will and his purpose.

We see in Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us, whatever we do, whatever we eat, whatever we drink, whatever we do, we are to bring glory to God.

When I was in call in college, we had a bunch of pitchers get hurt.

So the coach said, Hey, you pitched in high school, can you pitch some college?

We were desperate, so I was like, I give it a shot.

So I go out to pitch, and I'm pitching one game, and all of a sudden, the catcher gives me a sign, and I'm like, nah, I don't want that.

I want to throw something else.

So I shake him off and I throw the next pitch, and I do not know if the ball has still landed.

It was hit so far over the fence that it was embarrassing.

But I'll never forget this.

The coach calls timeout.

He walks to the mound, and he said, Do me a favor.

You let me call the pitches.

You just throw the ball.

If they hit over the fence, it's my fault.

Don't worry about it.

You just throw the pitch that I tell you to throw.

Think about that just for a second.

It takes a lot of pressure off.

Now all of a sudden I don't have to think.

I just look, tell me what to throw, and I throw it.

It's almost a little bit like our Christian life that we're talking about right here.

The idea of bringing glory to God, it's not about what's I'm thinking what's best for me.

It's my eyes are so much on God that I don't have to think anything but what?

About who he is and bringing glory to him by just living my day, my life out like he's called me to live out.

In his holiness, God won't tolerate sin among his people.

But in his love, he calls us to repentance and forgiveness so that our relationship with him can be restored.

Now, in the process of getting to the point of restoration with the Lord, the Lord calls them, and we see in our story, to consecrate themselves.

And you say, What does the word consecrate concentrate consecrate mean?

It means approaching God with a pure heart.

Approaching God with a pure heart.

Look in verse 13.

God says to Joshua, go consecrate the people, tell them to consecrate themselves for tomorrow.

For this is what the Lord says.

The God of Israel says, There are things that are set apart among you, Israel.

You will not be able to stand against your enemy until you remove what is set apart.

In the morning, present yourself, tribe by tribe.

The tribe that the Lord selects will come forward clan by clan.

The clan that the Lord selects will come forward family by family.

The family the Lord selects is to come forward man by man.

The one who is caught with the things set apart must be burned along with everything he has, because he has violated the Lord's covenant and committed an outrageous, has committed an outrage in Israel.

Over the years I've had many people come into my office with problems.

Deep in sin, addictions.

You know, early in my ministry, it was like, well, just do better.

Pray about it and do better.

But as I've got into different areas in my own life of issues and different things, the Lord's revealed to me it's not as easy as just do better.

And so I think there's a time.

Well, the Bible shows us, it gives us some resources as how to consecrate ourselves.

I think the four resources that the Lord gives us, and as soon as these pop up, you're gonna be like, okay, this is Sunday school answers.

But honestly, I want you to think about this just for a second.

How many times do we really do these things?

Dive into these things.

So let's look at these real quick.

Four resources the Bible mentions in our effect to overcome sin, to consecrate ourselves.

The first one is the Holy Spirit.

God has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can be victorious.

The Holy Spirit comes when we accept Christ.

But the Bible says, what grieves the Holy Spirit?

And that is sin.

Do you know there's a war going on inside of us?

The Bible says in Galatians.

The flesh and the spirit.

How do you let the spirit have control?

By removing sin.

The Bible says the Lord or the Spirit is grieved by sin.

Letting the Holy Spirit have control of your life.

Number two, the Word of God.

Reading the Bible.

The Bible says that God has given us His Word to equip us for every good work.

The Lord gives us what we need in His Word.

And how many times do we take it for granted?

I'm not talking about just reading it, I'm talking about meditating on it, memorizing it, reading it so that I can look at it to do what?

Call out sin in my life so that I can repent of it.

Or even more than that, I can, when the Lord gives me something, it shows me that I need to praise Him for it.

So reading God's word.

The Bible is a tool that the Spirit uses.

The third resource is prayer.

Jesus went to his disciples.

Remember at the garden?

They kept falling asleep.

Jesus tells them right then, what is the key to not fall into temptation?

Pray.

And I want to challenge you this.

It's not just necessarily a prayer list of everybody that's sick.

When was the last time you prayed that the Lord would help you find areas in your life that you need to remove?

When was the last time you just spent time praying to God about the things, Lord, reveal to me what I need to work on?

Reveal to me different things.

Crying out to the Lord in prayer to give me wisdom.

And then I think a fourth resource to conquering sin is the fellowship with believers.

We see Jesus sent the disciples out two by two.

In James, we see it says, confess your faults among one another.

Proverbs, it says, iron sharpens iron, man sharpens one another.

Proverbs.

This is strength.

There is strength in numbers.

You know, this past year I've been a part of the men's discipleship.

So we would do the lesson and I would leave while they did small group.

One day Adam Wood comes to me and says, Hey, why don't you join our group?

I'm like, well, I'm pretty busy.

Then I got convicted and I was like, no, I need to be in that group.

So I joined the group.

The men in my group, Wendell Martin was in my group, Jim Fraley was in my group, Caleb Yardin, and Caleb was our leader.

Caleb would sit in our group and challenge us to memorize scripture.

Adam, many mornings, would send me a text, what he read and what the Lord said to him.

We sat in that group, and I'll just tell you this: we would not cry because we're men, but we would get misty-eyed praying for each other.

Praying for the things that were struggles in my life.

They were praying for me.

One day, here's the picture of it.

One day I was coming in and I was having a rough day.

Someone had said something about just something, and I was struggling.

I mean, I'm it was about as low as I've been in a long time.

I really didn't even want to go that night.

I was going to do my part and slip out.

Adam comes by and says, You are coming today.

And I mean, I'm like, Adam, of all days, the ass.

No.

He's like, Well, I think you need to come.

So I went and did something.

I felt convicted I show up.

I'm sitting there for a while, and you're my as we're in the group together, we start learning each other.

We start knowing each other.

And they realize that I was struggling.

And they're like, What's wrong?

I don't know that I'm good.

No, we can tell something's wrong.

And I'll tell you this that day I revealed where I was struggling.

And I'm going to tell you what, these guys in my group like loaded up and they were ready to go to battle for me.

I needed that.

Now I had to calm them down.

But there's something about knowing someone's in my corner that I could calm them down and say, hey, hey, thank you guys.

And then all that week I got, hey, I'm praying for you.

How are you doing today?

And you know what?

Through that, it challenged me to what?

That I need to be what?

In my Bible reading.

You see the power of that group.

So when we get to the point of consecrating our lives to the Lord with pure hearts, it then leads us to restitution.

What is restitution?

The act of being restored.

Skip with me, Joshua 8.

We're in Joshua 8 now, verse 1.

The Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Take all the troops with you and go attack Ai.

Look, I have handed over to you the king of Ai, his people, city, and land.

Treat Ai and its king as you did Jericho and its king, except that you may plunder its spoils and livestock for yourself.

Set an ambush behind the city.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, Hold out your javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the city over to you.

So Joshua held out his javelin toward it.

When he held his hand out, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position.

They ran, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

Joshua did not draw back his hand that was holding the javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai were completely destroyed.

Remember the first time they didn't even ask God.

This time Joshua is not moving his javelin until what?

Till the Lord is done.

See the difference?

This time he's like, no, no, no, no.

I'm going to do what God says till the end.

He's holding it up there.

And you know what?

So, this is the difference cycle here.

When we consecrate ourselves, it leads to restitution, which leads to a blessing.

And you know, if we're looking at this, many people would say the blessing in this picture here is the plunder that they got.

That's not the blessing in this picture.

Yeah, they got to go home with something.

Do you think Joshua wanted any of that plunder?

He was just excited to be back with who?

Holin Javelin.

You get what I'm saying?

The blessing was what?

The restitution of our relationship with the Lord.

Have you been there before?

I've told this story before.

I'm going to end with this story.

We used to play a game in my house called sockball.

When my parents were gone.

And all these boys come over.

I was in junior high one day, and we were playing this game, and we had the ceiling fan in our house.

It had the it's not fancy, but you know those that used to look kind of antique.

Well, I threw it and busted one side of it.

Okay?

And so we cleaned it all up.

All my friends left because they were scared.

I clean it all up and I take it and I twist it so it's pointing the other way.

I got it figured out.

I'm not going to be in trouble.

Until that night.

It's time to eat dinner.

Guess where we eat dinner at?

Underneath that ceiling fan.

My seat, the busted impart was right there.

Now on my dad's side, he couldn't see that.

But I'm going to tell you the guilt that I had the whole time I ate dinner was awful.

I mean, I can't even look up.

I was so glad dinner was done.

Guess where we had breakfast?

Guess where we had dinner that night?

It was bad.

Finally, I go into dad and I said, Dad, I can't do it anymore.

I busted the light.

I'm so sorry, I'll pay for it.

You can punish me however you want.

He said, I saw it the first day I walked in.

I was punished.

It did not matter.

My relationship had been restored.

There was a blessing.

That night I didn't even go anywhere.

I sat in the living room with my parents and watched TV.

You get it?

That's what we're talking about.

The blessing that we get when we are not in the sin cycle trying to do it ourselves, but when we consecrate ourselves, brings about restitution.

It brings about the blessing.

The blessing is what?

That restored relationship with God.

So today, as we close, I want you to think about something.

Kind of two characters in this story.

Today, when I mentioned the word sin, there's a sin in your life, and you know exactly what you're talking about when that word's mentioned.

Kind of like Achan.

Achan had a chance to come forth, he didn't.

But there might be a sin in your life, and we saw in this our sin doesn't just affect us.

So maybe there's a sin in your life that you need to get right with the Lord.

You need to get out of the cycle of sin into the restitution.

So today, if you if you know that's sin, today's the day.

Let's fix it.

But you might also be like Joshua.

My man, I'm doing pretty good.

Maybe today you need to just cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, is there something?

Is there an attitude?

Is there something in my life that I gotta get right?

A relationship, an attitude.

Lord, reveal that to me because, Lord, I want to be restored and my blessing be for who you are.

Will you pray with me?

As we pray, I want to read this passage of scripture.

This is Psalms 128.1.

It says this Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord and who walks in his ways.

In a moment, we're gonna sing a song, and we're gonna have pastors at the aisles to pray with you.

But today we have been talking about sin.

And I cannot leave here today without saying we're all sinful.

The Bible says all of sin have fallen short of the glory of God.

And it says the wages of our sin is death.

But the gift of a God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Maybe today you're dealing with knowing that you have no hope.

You need Jesus.

And today you need to ask Jesus to come be Lord of your life.

I cry to you today to come talk to someone.

Pray that you don't have to talk to me to do it.

You can do it right there.

But I want, please, today, deal with that.

Then you might be just dealing with sin.

Pray the Lord today to deal with that.

Let's be a church today that's willing to be consecrated to the Lord.

Not for us, but for a relationship with Him.

Dear God, we come before you now, just grateful for your word.

Grateful for the challenge.

Lord, I know in just the process of getting prepared for this message, what you've done in my life.

And Lord, I ask you to not let it go away.

And Lord, I just ask you today, if someone is struggling here today, help them have the courage and the gumption to come and just be able to pray.

Lord, come and give their sin to you.

Lord, thank you that you're a God that forgives us.

And you do want to restore a relationship with us.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.