Disobedience And Defeat Series

The Terrible Consequence - 7:14, 18-21; 24-26

Achan’s sin was so costly. Let me outline what taking a robe, a wedge of gold, and a bar silver really cost!

It cost his own life, the lives of his family, and the lives of 36 Israelite soldiers.

It cost time from the conquest,

anguish in the heart of Joshua,

discouragement of the people at a critical time in their history, and the

disgrace of a defeat that reflected on Israel’s God!

Please hear me this morning. Sin is a serious thing.

Deliberate disobedience to the will of God is no trifling matter. Let’s get serious with ourselves and stop excusing away our disobedience as no big deal! That’s not to say that your choices about life are un-important. They are! Today’s actions become tomorrow’s habit. Tomorrow’s habit becomes a way of life. God calls us this principle of sowing and reaping, and makes this promise which is both positive and negative:

No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Let’s tell ourselves the truth - acknowledging that today’s actions are NOT neutral. We are either actively moving towards the Lord or we are moving away from Him. Nothing is static, nothing is without some significance in that process.

The question I am asked so often with regard to disobedience is “if I do it, will I go to Hell?” Can you understand that is totally the wrong question. That’s a little like asking, “If I eat this extra donut will become morbidly obese? Or if I smoke this one cigarette will I die of lung cancer?” Of course not, but you’re taking a step that could become a pattern. Better not to even start!

One sin will not cost you your life or your salvation, but it rob you of close fellowship with the Holy Spirit! That’s the meaning of being ‘saved by grace, not by works.’ It is better to look at today as part of a continuum, part of a life that is always moving towards or away from God.

Will sin cost your life? Probably not! But remember this, it did cost Jesus his!

That’s right, your sin, my sin- they cost Jesus the anguish of Calvary, the separation from his father, the agony of crucifixion. The Devil jumped with glee that day that Jesus died, thinking that he had defeated the holy one of heaven. But his victory celebration was short-lived.

When Jesus burst from the grave, he was the living testimony that sin’s power to kill us was broken. Because he lives, you and I will live also. Physical life, no! Spiritual life, lived as unto the Lord.

Close-

What really concerns me, friend, is the frog in the frying pan syndrome! I am told if you put a frog in a pan with cool water and then turn the heat on real low, the water will heat up so slowly that the frog will cook to death, without ever realizing his danger. If he did, he would easily jump out, but he does not sense the growing heat that is destroying his life.