Train Wreck at Ai Station - Uncommon Courage

So um I'm going, uh I had to go back to Moody Bible Institute uh this is a number of years ago now.

I was going back to the radio programs and they had reserved a guest room for me and they got there late that night And uh I will tell you when I was at Moody, there was this old Southern boy who never talked very much.

He just kind of mumbled, uh, and his name was Willard.

And uh and uh so you know I graduated and I thought it was just a distant memory.

Well that night I got uh my plane was lit and I didn't get to Moody till about 1 a. m.

Everything's locked up.

It's downtown Chicago.

And I'm going into Crow Hall, which is the main building, to check in to get my guest room.

And the door is locked.

And um And I'm pounding on the door and finally the guy behind the desk who's just staring down at the desk and at some book, he he shuffles over there and opens the door, doesn't say anything, turns around, walks back to the desk And uh he's got this big book of the rooms, I guess, you know.

And uh I said, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, uh radio department.

I'm here to check into a guest room.

I I think you're expecting me.

Now here it's Willard He is he is now he isn't talking anymore at all no more talkative and he barely looks up and he finds my room number And remembering me as a student, he just simply said, hadn't even said hello, he just said, Ron Hutchcraft.

We thought you'd just about be getting out of the penitentiary by now I could have been in your ministry.

Right there, John L.

Now you're saying, well, why did he say that?

I mean, I was a good student I I I tried to be involved in student leadership.

Why would why would he make a why would he even make a statement like that?

Well, there are reasons.

When I went to school, I organized a um social action group.

We called ourselves the vigilantes.

I looked for ten good men who uh were fast, strong, and didn't have to talk about what they did New Jersey influence.

And um so um and they were very skilled at the things that they did.

And One of the things that we did, I don't know why the dean said, I was sitting at his table because uh I'm class speaker and stuff like that the week before we graduated, and he said, Ron, we know all the things you've done, we just haven't been able to prove any of them yet which is really accusative.

They have no evidence.

They still have no evidence there.

But there was one night we we did celebrate guys' engagements for one thing.

When guys got engaged, well it was a celebration for us What we did was not particularly a celebration for them and what we did will remain in a sealed envelope in a CIA vault, so you're not gonna know.

But we did go in and celebrate their their uh their engagement.

And but the problem was one of the guys Was in dorm the freshman dorm he was the RA He had 40 guys there freshman guys He said you better not come over there to Houston Row and come after me He said I got 40 freshmen that'll take care of you.

That doesn't stop us.

So we have got our little core group.

We've got probably eight or ten of us and we go up there, just so happened, uh one of my guys skillfully selected was the dean's son And he had keys to everything.

And so we were able to enter uh w with having the not getting admitted at all.

And we start to head up to the top floor to to Ron's room.

Ronnie was his n his name.

And We're going to head to Ronnie's room.

All of a sudden, man, it was like an alarm sounded, and we were swarmed by 40 freshmen.

It was a massacre.

It was, I mean, I felt like Custer and it was our last stand, believe me.

And I remember still remember my friend Don Landis, who today is Ken Ham's uh board chairman uh and answers in Genesis and a pastor.

You see, see, criminals can go straight.

And I still remember him specifically hanging onto a the second floor railing like this, going up the stairs, and a freshman had him by the feet.

And I don't was parallel to the stairs.

He grew two inches right that day as the guy is trying to pull him off the railing.

I never saw a guy, you know, this way horizontal with the with the s re well we were we were m we were we were destroyed.

We got out of the Army, we were licked dogs, we really were.

Is that the end of the story?

Oh but wait there's more No, I went back to the dorm and summoned the upperclassmen to a lounge.

This is leadership, folks.

And uh about 50 upperclassmen came together real quick.

I said, guys, our honor is at stake.

Freshmen did this to us.

Anybody have any ideas what we may be ought to do?

Go, go, go, huh, huh?

So we did And this time we sent the same eight guys in in first.

And the freshmen are like, yeah, they're back.

I can't believe it.

Except we kept coming You can figure the rest of the story.

We won.

Ronnie really lost big time when we got to his room.

So here's what happened.

I was thinking back over that.

It's kind of a military maneuver.

And I thought.

We were thoroughly expecting, because we've been successful other times, we were thoroughly expecting a major triumph for our little vigilante group, and it turned into a major route.

Jericho everybody knows about.

Major triumph.

The Israeli army's on a roll.

They are feeling their oats.

They've watched Jericho collapse.

They've stormed in that that city And the major fortress of of the center of the nation is gone.

Now they're moving on to a much smaller town, the town of Ai.

They're expecting a major victory.

It turns into a humiliating defeat.

The train wreck.

An AI station, I call it.

What in the world derailed this express that was rolling into the Promised Land?

Well, let's look first of all at what was on the tracks that derailed the train.

Joshua chapter 6 is this is the Jericho chapter.

And we're going to be looking at this more specifically tonight.

This is going to be a lot of fun tonight.

But let's look at this.

The orders were, the Jericho orders, the city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord Only Rahab and the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she had despised we sent.

But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction.

By taking any of them.

Otherwise, you will make the camp of Israel, look at these words, libel to destruction.

Yeah, one guy could do this.

You could make us liable to destruction and bring trouble on all of Israel All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.

So the orders are very clear.

Chapter 7, verse 1, we go from the Jericho rule to the AI disaster.

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things.

Achan, and we give his little of his heritage here, took some of them.

So the Lord's anger burned against Israel.

When they returned to Joshua, they said, not all the army will have to go up against Ai.

Send two or three thousand men to take it.

Do not weary the whole army.

Why, only a few people live there.

So about 3,000 went up, but they were routed by the men of Ai. who killed about thirty-six of them.

They didn't lose anybody going into Jericho, the much bigger chip place.

They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes.

This is a slaughter.

At this, the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

Now Let me just, this is kind of a sub point before we get to what really causes the train wreck.

Beware the danger of sinning after winning.

Beware the danger of sinning after winning.

Um here 's a pretty salient quote about King David.

If any of you , and I'm sure all of you have read his story in 2 Samuel, I love to read the first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel.

Because it's like victory, victory, victory, David's life.

He is a human juggernaut spiritually.

He is unstoppable.

And I always, I never want to turn the page to 2 Samuel 11.

I literally I think there was a time if I didn't do it I really thought seriously I want to talk to the page in the Bible and go don't do this Look in your Bible how the chapter headings change after one night.

Of course, Bathsheba.

Listen, it says David tarried at Jerusalem.

What was he supposed to be doing?

Anybody remember?

At a time when kings go off to war.

He was supposed to be in the battle, so are you.

He decides to take the weekend off and send his army out without their general, without their king.

So it's David tarried at Jerusalem.

Here's the comment.

How often is this the history of Christian failure?

The time comes for forward marching and Christians are lying on beds of self-interest.

In such a context, Satan sees to it that a Bathsheba is never far away.

There will be a temptation.

He's on a roll.

He's laying back.

He's careless.

He doesn't stay back there to try to sin But he really is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And after gaining all those yards, he gets royally thrown for a loss for the rest of his life.

There's a danger when you're winning in life, and there's a danger when you're losing.

The danger of winning is carelessness.

You get careless because you're on a roll and you're sort of when you're when you're really struggling, when you're going into the battle, you're desperately hanging on to the Lord You're like, I need you so bad.

Once you've won, it's and we warn our team members after the summer of hope Do not let your shields up they used to say on Star Trek Shields up because that's when you're going to be the most vulnerable is sinning after winning.

Now the danger of losing is discouragement and I want to quit So both winning and losing have their , but here we see they were a little cocky, they were a little underestimating their task and overestimating themselves.

Beware of sinning after winning.

Now We're never going to make any serious spiritual progress until we deal with what is holding back the blessing of God.

That's what happened at AI.

It was this was not military They weren't outfought.

God took his hand off of them.

And the same army.

That had swamped Jericho is swamped an AI.

Um When Lisa was five, I think, she came in one day and she said, Daddy, I'm going to bake the cake And um anybody here firstborn?

Or okay, good.

And then the normal folks, are there other normal folks there?

Okay, there are a few firstborns here.

Um, and uh uh I am one and uh you know what they have to do.

I did it my way.

Right?

That's the firstborn, okay?

So she's gonna be, is mommy gonna help you?

No, no, I can do it, Daddy.

I know how to do it So she's out there in the pots, I hear things banging out there, I'm in the living room and and um eventually I I start to smell something and it smells like it might. end up being a cake.

And so she comes in and I'm expecting her to present her trophy to me.

And she comes in and she's looking like this.

I said, honey, you're stepping on your lip.

What is what's going on?

She said, Daddy, here it is.

Well, it may have been a cake if it was it was a pan cake.

It was this big.

And that wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

Um And uh and I said, honey, I, you know, oh that's okay.

I'm sure daddy will love it.

Yeah, that's very nice, yeah.

And um And I said, what happened?

And so mom got into the act.

What we found out was that she had baked a cake without baking powder and apparently that is something you need in a cake.

Is that right?

And is that what makes a a cake into a cake?

I have no idea, right?

Yeah, that's what makes it rise.

So she simply had one missing ingredient.

She'd done everything right, but there was one missing ingredient, and what she had hoped would be a masterpiece came out all flat.

It only takes one missing ingredient in the recipe of your life to make everything else you've baked into your cake come out wrong and come out flat.

And that is the blessing of God, the essential ingredient that is the determining factor between success and failure, happiness, peace, stress, it is the deciding factor, is the blessing of Almighty God.

And your cake's not going to come out right unless his blessing is the first ingredient in the recipe.

Now let me just review.

I'm going to give you bold choice number four.

These six bold choices that are what make up uncommon courage.

Remember, I will embrace each new season.

I will embrace, though it is new, though I'm going into the unknown, though I don't have any practice for this, I've never done this, been this way before, still I will embrace this new season.

Well Why?

Well the second one has a lot to do with that do with that.

I will follow him by faith.

I will follow him by faith alone.

Why will I where will I get the courage to go into the unknown?

Very simple You have a promise keeping God.

That's how you do it.

Because you are going into your unknown with the ultimate known, and that is the uninviolable promise of Almighty God that has sustained generation after generation of believers that have stood on that same verse when they have gone into the unknown.

You have his promise, you go only by the promise What was it that made Caleb 40 years I would have been so bitter when it wasn't my fault?

These guys didn't believe 40 years ago.

I tried to tell you we can go in.

Yes, we can do this.

They won, I lost.

If I were Caleb, I'd have been so bitter, I would have been, I would have, wouldn't I, wouldn't you want to give up?

It's like, here we go, walking, going, my life is going in circles for 40 years Since the promise.

The one thing that sustained him, and he says it in Joshua 14, as God has promised me, and for 40 years when it looked like Everything he was counting on would never happen.

He simply lived by a promise.

It was his his his internal guidance system.

Was his promise.

So, encouraged and emboldened by his promise, I will embrace this new season and I will live to rescue.

I will not have my eyes on myself.

I'm going to understand that wherever God is taking me, however uncertain our times may be, by the way, if um you've you've can think that you get a little disillusioned and disappointed with the direction of the country.

Let me tell you God only uses that to disillusion people so that they are more ripe for the gospel and his people will get tired of depending on human solutions and depend on him instead.

We got really enamored with human solutions, haven't we?

We love political solutions and all these things we can organize and he says I want you to trust in me.

Well, there's no extra charge for that.

There's a little bonus feature Here's the fourth bold choice.

I will confront the blessing robbers.

I'm going to find if there's any blessing robber in my life and I will confront that which could discount or cost me the blessing of Almighty God.

There is a flip side to God's promises.

You know that.

Let me give you an example from Joshua 23.

But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations.

In other words, if you compromise that remain among you, if you intermarry with them and associate with them, Here's a promise.

Here's a promise.

Then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you.

Instead, they'll become snares and traps for you.

There'll be whips on your backs.

There'll be thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land.

And a good land becomes an awful land, which the Lord your God has given you.

Those promises are based on one word, which Both sides of the promise, the happy side and the scary side, are based on one word, which we'll get to in a moment.

I just have a little side question here along the way.

Did you notice what God said to do with the blessings of their victory?

He said, bring them to the Lord's treasury.

Achan brought them to his tent.

What was supposed to be.

Devoted to the Lord, ended up being for Him.

I think it's a fair question for all of us to ask.

Are there any blessings of victory that God's given to us that we are hoarding in our tent?

That should be in his treasury.

They made a big mistake.

Aiken made a big mistake with that You probably don't know the name Frances Havergale, unless you're a real hymn hymn person, but uh you've seen her name in your hymn book a lot.

She wrote a song you've probably sung a number of times, Take My Life and Let It Be, Consecrated Lord to Thee.

Great, great hymn.

It has four verses, but it didn't when she published it.

Had three Yeah, it had three verses initially.

And uh four years went by, and uh God began to speak to her about her greatest material treasure, which was this collection of heirloom jewelry, much of it family, highly valuable.

And she felt like she is the author of Take My Life, Let It Be Consecrated Lord to Thee.

There was something that hadn't been consecrated to him that was in her treasury instead of his.

And that was this jewelry collection.

And it really got to her eventually.

And she finally decided that she would sell that jewelry and donate, she donated the collection in essence to the Christian Missionary Society in London And then she wrote actually actually wrote a check for its amount and she said, Never have I had greater pleasure writing any check in my life.

Then she wrote the other verse.

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for thee.

Take my silver and my gold, not a mite.

Would I withhold?

Wow.

And she loved her life after that.

Well Let's look at Joshua chapter 7.

Let's get to the meat of this.

The high price of hidden sin.

The high price of hidden sin.

Then Joshua tore his clothes.

Now, I'm going to suggest to you that in this particular moment, Joshua, to me, seems like he's almost coming unhinged.

This has devastated him.

He's got body bags coming back with his guys in them.

He's the undefeated general.

What?

He's never had experience anything like this.

Whatever happened to the promised land And we're about to hear him agonize over this.

Joshua tore his clothes, fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening.

The elders of Israel, they're like they take the cue from their leader.

They did the same.

And you know, this is the the Middle Eastern Israeli form of grief and repentance, sprinkle dust on their heads.

And Joshua said, Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people up be strong and courageous?

Why did you ever Bring this people across the Jordan.

Go and take possession of the land I will give you.

Why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?

Is this why we came?

If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the joint, really.

I doubt that it will part again the next time if you're going to go in reverse.

Pardon your servant Lord.

What can I say now?

That Israel has been routed by its enemies.

The Canaanites, here's another thing, Lord.

Did you think about this?

The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and they're going to wipe out your name from the earth or wipe out our name from the earth.

What then will you do?

For your own great name.

And so the brave, courageous, strong, and goal, Hazak Hamaz Whatever happened to Hazaka Matz?

Courage has left the building.

Um Because of one man's secret sin and how Joshua initially handles it.

See, Joshua's asking the wrong questions First of all, did you notice he said, let's get those verses back up there where he's talking to the Lord, the first one.

Why did you?

You've done that with the Lord.

Come on.

Oh Joshua, what's wrong with you?

Come on, it's been wrong with all of us.

What are you gonna- what's going on, Lord?

What's why are you doing this?

Why did you okay no Joshua?

That's the wrong question Then look at later on.

Now he says, if only we.

Now he is second guessing.

Maybe we miss the will of God.

Something went wrong.

We probably missed we thought this was your will.

I think we are on the wrong track.

Who hasn't done that?

We made a mistake in discerning your will, Lord Now let's get to the right question.

And I have to show you the incredible thing that God says And I don't know if if you guys have it or not, so let me uh I'm actually going to use my Bible here.

Um Joshua chapter 7, and when we get to um verse 10 This is a singular occasion in the Bible.

Now remember, he's face down on the Lord on the ground crying out to the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, stand up.

As far as I know, this is the only time in biblical history that God ever told the man to stop praying.

He's like, don't pray anymore.

Get up!

I don't want now Normally, people face down in reverence before the Lord is a very positive thing in the Bible.

But this time God says, you're not supposed to get off the ground.

What are you doing on your face?

Three words.

Israel has sinned You've looked everywhere but the right place.

You said why aren't things working?

Why is it so hard?

God, why did you, if only we, no, no, let me give you, Dr.

God will give you the diagnosis.

Israel has sinned.

Here's your diagnosis.

They have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep.

They have taken some of the devoted things.

They have stolen.

They have lied.

They have put them with their own possessions.

So um the diagnosis is in.

So here's here's uh the question to be asking Not why why did you do this, God?

Not did we miss your will, God?

The real question they ask is this What have we done that is costing us your blessing?

What have we done or what are we doing that is costing us your blessing?

And I'll show you scripturally why I keep coming back to that shortly.

When Doug went to the Hopi Reservation Really pioneering a youth ministry, such hard ground.

Um here a little trailer and it gets it gets kind of cold and the wind, there you're on these high mesas, and so the wind gets very biting in the winter time And uh his hot wa he wasn't getting any hot water in the shower, which was really discouraging him from showering, which meant he had lost the two friends he had.

So uh he He he called and he said, Dad, I don't know what to do.

I mean uh he said the cold shower in here in this in this trailer it's already cold is pretty tough and and so to save his social life uh and his self-respect, I uh I reviewed with him. all of the uh handyman kind of stuff that I've taught him in his life.

And after those ten seconds I said, Doug, I will pray for you.

He is um He has inherited certain things from me, including uh my uh lack of manual aptitude.

My brain can get to my mouth, but it can't go south of there for some reason.

There doesn't nothing happens with the hands, you know.

So um In any case, he said, Dad, I'm going to call the local handyman guy.

You know, he'll if we can get him over here.

So he goes over and he had a trick, he had going about five or ten Because he went out and uh he he came back in and he all he had was a screwdriver.

He said, I fixed it, Doug.

What happened?

Well He said he said the the the hose that runs from uh the hot water heater, uh from the from the propane to the hot water heater is got some soot in it.

So all I had to do was use my screwdriver and get the soot out of the line, and now it can get through, and now you can be warm again.

I thought, I wonder how many times God is saying when we're like, God, what are we, what should we do?

I need a plan.

I need a I need to fix this.

And He's going, they're shooting in the line.

I have so much I want to do for you.

I want to answer your prayer.

There's so much I want to give you.

But I can't send it through soot in the line.

A holy God cannot send his good stuff past sin in the line So the first the place to start, Joshua, the place to start It's to say, Lord, the first question I'm going to ask is, is there anything we are doing or I have done that could be costing me or us your blessing?

Now When there are is trouble, does that always the reason?

No.

Let me make that clear.

God has several reasons why things happen Always to glorify him one way or another.

Bad things might be happening to you because he's trying to increase your bench press and make you a stronger warrior for him.

Because we know that we hear that trials give us patience and give us character and give us perseverance.

And so he may just be making you stronger through it He may actually be having you go through this because it will put you in a position to tell people about Jesus That i he's like, yeah, I'm I'm not gonna actually keep you out of this right now because people are gonna listen to you about your Jesus because of what you're going through right now.

So it may be to give you a a wonderful platform, wonderful for them, not for you, but a platform from which to proclaim Jesus.

So there could be other reasons.

It's not always the reason, but it often is.

Now, let's compare Jericho and AI.

Jericho was in possible odds They consecrated themselves.

There was complete obedience to everything God said to do.

And they had a smashing victory.

Same army.

Same basic enemy, easy victory, they got compromised, there was hidden sin, and there was a crushing defeat.

Those two equations. are fairly inviolable.

So let's get to the recovery conversation.

Let's find out how they got back on track.

Joshua 7, beginning verse 10.

Stand up, what are you doing down on your face?

That is why the Israelites cannot stand.

They turn their backs and run because they've been made exactly what he said.

Here come the words again, liable to destruction.

I will not be with you anymore.

Remember?

Be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you.

He said it will not be with you unless you destroy whatever among you is basically causing destruction.

Go consecrate the people.

Tell them, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow.

Now you've heard those words before, before they crossed the Jordan River.

In Joshua 3.

5 It was all good then.

He said, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.

Not this time.

He says, Consecrate yourselves For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says.

There are devoted things among you, Israel.

You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

Here are some key phrases I picked out.

Israel has sinned.

Consequently, I will not be with you.

Consequently, you cannot stand until you remove it.

Some years ago, I think back in the 1980s maybe, there was an up-and-coming very popular young artist named Aliyah.

And uh she was on her way to the Caribbean, uh about to land uh in the Caribbean uh for a concert.

And um there was a terrible plane crash and it was a celebrity death that was a big deal back then.

Um probably haven't heard of her unless you remember from back then, but it was quite it was a big headline Later they find out why the crash.

Like every small plane, there's a weight limit.

And they simply had loaded a lot of baggage on there.

And they simply died.

Because they had baggage that made them crash.

You know where I'm going with that, don't you?

Baggage that makes you crash.

And there might be some in someone's heart At this particular moment, maybe that's why God brought you here, to turn the light on that.

There are some liberating lessons.

In this train wreck at AI for all of us.

Let's learn from them.

And then there's some good news at the end.

You'll be glad to know.

Number one, everything depends on the blessing.

And now the word, the blessing depends on obedience.

It is so plain There there were two mountains.

And I talked about two mountains when I was saying we always something to praise them for, always something to trust them for.

But these are literal mountains in Israel.

Mount Gerizim on Mount Ebo.

And they they're at their base, they're only about 500 yards apart.

I mean there's this big mountain here and there's this big mountain here and there's a little valley in between hardly a valley What happens immediately after this defeat is that Joshua brings the people to line up half of them at the foot of Mount Ebal.

And half of them at the foot of Mount Gerizim, with the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, in essence the Lord, his presence, right between them And half of Israel facing the other half, and all facing the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

In other words, God in the middle of them.

And he puts on stone tablets a review of what Moses had done when 40 years before He had taken them, it wasn't 40 years before, but before his death, he took them to Mount to or told them that they would go to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and when they got into promised land, they were to read What was to for Mount Ebal and from Mount Gerizim.

On Mount Gerizim, a priest would read the blessings of God.

On Mount Ebal Another priest would read, The Curses of God.

In between are the people Really representing half of them saying it to the other half.

This is what God wants, and this is where Joshua goes after the AI debacle But we'll go to Deuteronomy 28 where this was introduced by Moses.

Let's go over to Deuteronomy 28.

Guys, this This ought to be to me this is one of the most central areas of the Old Testament.

Literally, Deuteronomy 28 and 29 is the history of the nation of Israel.

In in concentrated form.

It's the whole shooting match and us.

If you fully obey, not selective obedience.

Hey, I'm doing pretty good.

I'm doing better than most people.

No.

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow, because it's carelessness that makes us drift.

And carefully follow all his commands.

Fully obey, carefully follow.

Fully obey, carefully follow.

The Lord your God will set you high above the nations on earth.

All these blessings will come on you.

Now imagine this is being read from Mount Gerizim now with Joshua.

And accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

You will be blessed in the city, you'll be blessed in the country.

The fruit of your womb, it's your kids.

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land, this is your work.

And the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks, just put whatever is for your business.

Well calves wouldn't do all right for you, said right?

That worked. fits right in.

But you've got your own, whatever your thing is, that would be put in there.

You will be blessed when you come in, you'll be blessed when you go out.

Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.

The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated from before you.

They'll come at you from one direction, but they'll flee in seven.

The Lord will send a blessing on your barns, on everything you put your hand to.

The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land and season, to bless.

Isn't this what we all want?

Bless all the work of your hands.

If you touch it, I'll bless it.

Whew!

You will lend to many nations, but you will borrow from none.

Woo!

Did you get all those arenas that are going to be blessed?

If you carefully follow and fully obey, if I could summarize it, your children's lives will flourish.

The results of your work will be success.

Your travels coming and going will be protected.

Your provision will be plenty.

Now let's go on.

However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I'm giving you today.

All these, look, only one word's different.

All these, fill in the blank, you decide which goes in there.

All these curses.

Will come on you and overtake you.

The Lord will send you curses, confusion, rebuke, and everything you put your hand to until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you've done in forsaking him The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.

You will come at them from one direction, you will come in one direction, but you will flee in seven.

Remember?

That's the flip, right?

You're gonna flee in seven And you'll become a thing of horror.

You won't be on the high place.

You will be a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.

At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark.

You will be unsuccessful in everything you do.

Day after day you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.

And earlier, if you read it, we I I don't have time to go through all the verses, but as you go through Deuteronomy 28, it says, Your barn will be your the curse, your barn will be cursed, the kneading trough will be cursed.

Your children, they're not going to flourish.

It's the flip side.

It's amazing.

All the words are almost all the words are the same.

Except for bless and curse.

And it all depends on obey.

He says that's all I'm looking for.

You do it my way, you follow the instructions, it'll work.

Follow the manufacturer's instructions.

You throw out the manufacturer's instructions, nothing's gonna work.

Your kids won't flourish.

They'll struggle.

Your work won't be successful.

It'll be failure and struggle.

Your travels, you're on your own.

Instead of plenty, there'll be struggle.

Pretty clear, isn't it?

A holy God.

Here's an interesting sentence for you to complete.

Write it in your book, and please don't say anything out loud.

A holy God cannot bless the way I I just want to plant that seed.

I need to be thinking about that too.

Is there anything in your life?

Is there anything in your life that might go in that blank?

A holy God cannot bless the way I.

Everything depends on the blessing.

The blessing depends on obedience.

You know what's fascinating me about this passage?

It is the same farmer Doing the same amount of work with the same barns and the same crops and the same livestock to opposite outcomes It's the same army, fighting with the same strategy, fighting with the same weapons, getting two opposite outcomes It's a family, same same mother, same father, same kids, same house.

Two opposite outcomes.

Isn't it stunning?

This is the, as far as I'm concerned, this is the fulcrum, this is the pivot of the Old Testament.

This is the story, the rest of the story of Israel, isn't it?

Even before they were in the promised land, and not just Israel Noelle, being a firstborn, is uh uh has always been a really well-behaved child.

I'm serious about that.

She's uh been a tremendous help at home.

But I was in the car when she was probably, I don't know, four, five, I don't know how old she was exactly.

Um I remember this and I remember whenever we had to in any way discipline little Lisa, my father had to leave the room.

He couldn't stand any grandparents like that?

You can't You know, I mean you had no problem with your kids, but you can't you can't stand to see them discipline their kids, you know.

And uh so that's what happened.

Um that's how I felt.

I'm like I don't really want to be in the car right now.

All of the it was all about a stick of gum.

Noelle was in the backseat, they're on a trip somewhere, uh, and Noelle is in the backseat chewing gum.

And she's starting to doze off.

Well simple thing.

You don't want her to choke on it And a simple thing.

And Anna says, honey, please give me your gum.

Take your gum out.

No.

She just kept chewing.

And asked again.

No.

I did it my anyway, so.

Debs says, Noelle, your mother told you something.

Now you you take our gum out right now.

No.

Just kept chewing.

It couldn't have been the flavor.

By now it has got to be absolutely totally flat It's just a power struggle at this point.

It's just about winning apparently, you know.

So um so Doug says I um he said you're not gonna get any chewing gum for a month If you don't you gonna stop?

No.

I'm coming back there.

No, I just said it's Ken David.

I'm gonna go you want me to come back there He did say, do I have to pull the car over?

Does this have to do we have to do a spanking here?

Just do what your mom said.

This isn't hard.

No This is about when I wanted to disappear.

And uh so Doug pulled over and he's not a brutal spanker, but there was it's always been a last recourse.

So she got a little spanking After which she relinquished the gum.

And all I wanted to say to her, I don't know, you can't reason with a little child that young, but I was I was like Is the gum really that good?

Is it really that important to you to go through all of this?

And I wonder if God says that to us.

Stop that.

Stop talking like that.

Stop watching that.

Stop listening to that.

Stop treating her like that.

Stop treating him like that.

Stop the ego trip.

Stop it.

No, no, no.

And he keeps turning up the heat because he loves you.

Is it really that worth hanging on to?

Is it that good?

Second liberating lesson is that secret sin poisons everything.

Secret sin poisons everything.

Jenny Sanford is the wife of Governor Terry Sanford.

You might remember the Governor of South Carolina, who said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

He just vanished one time.

Somehow the Appalachian Trail went to Venezuela.

We're not sure how you get to Venezuela on the Appalachian Trail, but He had a mistress down there, and you remember that all came out.

It was messy.

You know what she said?

I've never forgotten she said in an interview.

You can pick your sin.

You can't pick your consequences.

Ain't that the truth?

Achan picked his sin.

Hey, who's gonna miss?

Who's gonna, with all the loot we got out of out of out of uh Jericho, who's gonna miss?

A little silver and gold and hidden under my tent.

Well Secrecy is actually what empowers sin.

Do you know that?

It's what's hiding in the dark in the closet that gives sin its power.

When it's brought out into the light, it loses its power.

I want you to remember this, and you've seen it happen.

What for you is just a person might be a personal sin One little dark corner of your life has huge collateral damage.

Innocent people suffered Because of Aiken's selfish sin.

Innocent people always suffer From my sin.

It always has ripple effects.

There's always collateral damage.

Remember Jonah?

Disobeying God Those poor sailors, what did they do?

They're just doing their job.

They're on a storm toss going down ship.

Thank you, Jonah.

There's always innocent people who are hurt.

It's not a personal sin.

It always has ripple effects.

Thirdly, sin fascinates and then it assassinates.

Count on it.

It's it it fascinates and then it assassinates.

I want you to watch the verbs of what how Achan ended up bringing all this trouble on him, his family, and his nation.

Achan replied, because Joshua brings out the people from the tribes and so on and so forth, and he has an out, there's an outing time, and this is when.

Achan is outed.

I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.

This is what I have done.

When I saw.

Notice the verbs.

All I did was look at it.

When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, I covered it.

I saw, I won it.

And took them.

This started with scene.

I saw it.

That made me want it So I wanted it, so I took it.

Then I hid it.

I did what I shouldn't have done.

I disobeyed God.

I went against what how I knew I should do it.

And I've covered it up and nobody really knows about it anyway.

Let's go back to a second.

I've hidden it in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath Nobody knows.

Apparently somebody does.

Let's go.

Next verse.

Joshua said, why have you brought this trouble on us?

The Lord will bring trouble on you today.

Then all Israel stoned him.

And after they'd stoned the rest, they burned them.

And by the way, to this day, you know what that place is called?

That valley is called the Valley of Acor, which means the valley of trouble.

It is still known as the Valley of Trouble.

Notice the slippery slope to sin delivering its price tag.

How many men?

Apparently as many as a majority of Christian men saw on the internet something That was the critical moment.

What did you do when you saw it?

Might have been intentional?

Might not have been.

Did you click and want?

And then did you take?

Then hid and then pay for it.

First sin sat fascinates you, then it assassinates you.

Look at James 1.

15.

This is an anchor verse to make decisions by After desire has conceived.

This is like pregnancy.

Desire, it starts out just a want, conceives something.

It gives birth And what is what is the desire?

What's the baby that's born?

Sin.

And that baby grows up.

And when sin it is full grown, gives birth to death.

Sin always kills pride.

Deceit, lack of integrity, pornography, lust, all of this, bitterness Sin kills relationships, it kills your reputation, it kills people's trust in you, it kills your closeness to God.

Sin always, always kills.

It is an inevitable.

Bill you pay of something will die because of it.

There's a fourth liberating, and I'm going to get to the good news in just a minute.

Repentance.

There is repentance in Israel.

They heaped up a pile of rocks which remains to this day.

Then the Lord turned from his anger, and therefore that place has been called the Valley of Acor. ever since.

And essentially, and when they end up conquering AI, they burn it so there is no remembrance of it.

Repentance, people, when they repent, isn't just saying, God, I'm sorry.

It means that you set up your life so you can't do it again.

You make yourself accountable.

You ask somebody to call you on it.

The first time, many a husband, many a wife should be saying to their spouse.

Honey, I really feel like I have been failing in this area and I need you to please help me change.

Tell me when I'm starting to be like that.

Tell me when I'm hurting you.

Please.

You set up your life so you won't do it again.

That's repentance.

You can't be around the people who influence you to be that way.

You can't go to the places that that provide fuel to the dark side.

I just stop and ask you a question.

You know that commercial what's in your wallet?

I'm not asking you that.

What's in your tent?

What's in your tent?

Let's drag it out right now and get the blessing machine back on again, huh?

Here's the good news.

Failure isn't final.

Hallelujah!

Failure isn't final.

This was a terrible defeat But look at Joshua 8.

Let's go to 1 and then 18 and 19.

The Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid.

Here we go.

We're back on track.

The train derailed, but it isn't, it didn't blow up.

It's back.

Set up going again.

Do not be afraid.

Do not be discouraged.

Take the whole army with you.

This time don't just take a little of the army.

Don't be a little overconfident.

Take the whole army.

Go up and attack AI.

I've delivered it into your hands.

Everything's changed now The king of Ai, his people, his city, his land.

It's a done deal.

The Lord said to Joshua, here we go.

Remember this?

Hold out toward Jai.

I'm not going to do the mic stand again the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.

So Joshua's like, we're going to win this time.

He holds out the javelin.

Let's go on.

As soon as he did this, this is a little later, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position.

Pretty ingenious thing.

Try to uh have a decoy force out here, lure the guys in the city out here, and you attack them while they're out of the city, and the other part of your force goes in and conquers the city.

This is why they study Joshua at West Point.

God gave them the strategy.

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

All of a sudden, defeat has turned to victory.

Henry Ford had an interesting definition of mistake.

His definition of a mistake is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

I was talking to an investment banker friend in New Jersey.

At the time, I think he was a partner in Goldman Sachs.

And uh and I would I was in his office one time and he said, oh excuse me, Ron, he took like a 60-second phone call, and he like transacted millions of dollars.

Like he hadn't missed a beat, like he just stole his wife he'd bring home some milk or something.

And he hangs up and goes, okay, Ron, now uh and you we just like you just did like ten million dollars just now I said, what makes a good investment banker?

What does it take to be a great investment banker?

And he said, well, Romani said it takes good judgment.

So how do you get good judgment?

He said bad judgment.

How many parents?

Any of us know?

That's how you get good judgment is bad judgment.

Well, Joshua says, I get it, I see where we missed it And um he's about to turn this thing around.

Uh in the uh in a I think it was the 2006 Winter Games, you know the most watched event in the Winter Games It wouldn't have been six, it would have been eight.

There's got to be a four, doesn't it?

I think.

And um or it could be I'm not sure.

Anyways, back there.

Sasha Cohen was our best hope in the most watched event, the women's w the women's uh skating And um she won by slightly, she won the short program.

And uh she was favored uh to uh to win the gold.

Until, in the long program, at the very beginning of it, she had a terrible fall.

The commentator said, it's going to be a long road to the podium now.

She got right back up and skated the rest of the program, the program of her life.

And she was on the podium with the silver medal.

She had fallen But all that made her do was come back more fiercely to do it right.

That's how sin backfires on Satan.

Micah chapter 7.

I have shared this with more young people and they're like, where are those verses?

Micah 7.

I watch and hope for the Lord.

I wait for God, my Savior.

My God will hear me.

Do not gloat over me, my enemy.

Have there not been some times when you think the devil is gone?

And you're the big Christian, are you?

Did you hear what you just said to your wife?

Hey, big Christian boy Oh yeah.

Yeah.

He's gloating.

Do not gloat over me, my enemy.

Though I have fallen, I'm down.

I will rise.

This is not the end.

Though I sit in darkness, there's a light in this darkness.

The Lord will be my light.

Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord's wrath.

I know there will be consequences.

Until he pleads my case, that's Jesus at his right hand Until he pleads my case and upholds my cause.

He will bring me out into the light.

I will see his righteousness.

I love this.

Then the enemy will see it and will be covered with shame.

I'm going to stop there.

He covered you with shame, thinking that would set you back and keep you derailed.

Instead you said, no I will pay for my sin, but I am going to seek the forgiveness of God.

I'm turning from that sin, and I'm going to do damage to my enemy.

I'm going to fight back.

I'm going to be more fiercely devoted to Jesus than I have ever been, and I'm going to take some prisoners away from him.

That's what this team does, man.

I watch them say to the devil, yeah, I fell, but I will rise again, and you're going to be the one covered with shame when I'm done.

Isn't that awesome?

See why I love those verses?

Failure is not final.

Not with a savior like Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Acts 3. 19 is the promise I have for you today.

Repent.

Turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and listen to this, the suts out of the line, and the times of refreshing.

The prayer answers start coming.

The blessings start coming back.

Times of refreshing.

Coming from the Lord.

So I just want to suggest to you that we're exactly where God's ancient people were.

We live between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebao.

Picture we live between those two mountains.

Every time an Israelite would pass through that valley There were permanent reminders.

You can't be more permanent than these mountains.

They would remember that I can either be blessed or I can be cursed.

I remember what was said from that mountain and from that mountain.

And it is not long after that that Joshua will say, so choose this day.

Whom you will serve.

Which mountain will it be?

Everything depends on the blessing of God, and the blessing of God depends on one simple thing.

Obedience.

Trust and obey.

For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

But to trust and obey.

Hard stuff, but good stuff, isn't it?

This is a sad but important chapter in Joshua.

So, so revealing.

Tonight we'll have a little more fun because it's Jericho tonight.

But we had to get rid of the train wreck first today, guy.

Let's pray.

I feel like I should just let let be quiet for a minute and um if the the light of the Holy Spirit is shined on anything in a dark corner Why don't you at least speak the opening sentences of conversation you will continue this afternoon with the Lord?

Lord, your word. so powerfully says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

And if we walk in the light as he is in the light, in other words no darkness, We'll have fellowship with one another.

It'll make our relationships work again And the blood of Jesus, your son, will purify us from all sin.

So vertically and horizontally, we can be fixed.

If we'll drag what's in the dark out into the light, kicking and screaming.

Lord, I would ask you if there's a dark corner of my heart that I need to see, that I'll be the first to act on what I've preached.

You've already done some of that.

Help us on a daily basis.

To try to make sure we're blessable.

Because the greatest, the greatest key to success in life, in anything.

Is blessability.

Your favor.

Your smile.

We want to make you smile.

Make our father smile.

So Lord, I pray that where cleansing is needed, cleansing will happen If that involves an action step of seeking forgiveness from someone or apologizing or seeking accountability to say, help me change, help me be the man or woman I want to be.

May we be strong and courageous and face into it and get this done so that the times of refreshing can come from the Lord.

That's what you wanted to do all along.

Lord, thank you for the mirror that your word is.

Old stories?

Very centuries old history as real as today And I pray, Lord, that we might deal with what might be defeating us at AI so we can conquer our Jericho.

In Jesus' name, Amen.