Finding Freedom From Your Secret Sin Series

“FINDING FREEDOM FROM YOUR SECRET SIN”

Joshua 7:1-26

FBCF – 2/5/23

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Dan Hall, Livingston Fellowship, sermon – “Where Is My Lord?” – Great sermon about Mary at the tomb after resurrection – John 20:13 – “They have taken away my Lord & I don’t know where they have put Him.” 5 things that can make us feel like someone has stolen the Lord from us.

Like me, Dan normally preaches through a book of the Bible or preaches a series of some sort. But on this particular Sunday, he felt strongly led of God to change his course & do a standalone sermon. God does that sometimes b/c He is sovereign & knows better what we need than we do.

Most of you know that I go away for a week or so each year to pray about & plan my sermons for the upcoming year. Always realize that the Lord has the right & authority to change those plans if He deems it necessary. And that’s what He’s done for the month of Feb. This series, “Finding Freedom,” is not what I had planned to preach in Feb. but feel strongly that God has redirected me to change course & preach these sermons on finding the spiritual freedom that we can have in Christ. Today’s sermon: “Finding Freedom from Your Secret Sin.”

EXPLANATION – Joshua 7:1-26 (p. 182)

ABC Wide World of Sport in 70’s – “The thrill of victory & the agony of defeat.” Vinko Bogotaj – Yugoslavian ski jumper

If Joshua 6 is the thrill of victory, Joshua 7 is the agony of defeat. Joshua 6 is a thrilling account of victory for God’s people. This victory was marked by their:

- Faith in God’s plan & in His leaders over them

- Obedience to what God had told them to do, even if it sounds a bit strange

- Courage to march around the walls of the city, putting themselves at danger from attack from people on top of the wall – sitting ducks out there

- Endurance to keep going for 7 days

- Trust that when they did what Joshua told them to do – which is what God told Joshua to tell them – then the promised victory would come.

- And that’s exactly how it all happened!

But when you flip the page to the next chapter in Joshua, you read the account of the only defeat that God’s people suffered in the conquest of the land of Canaan, & the only recorded loss of any of God’s people’s lives. It’s a crushing defeat.

Here's why it is such a horrible tragedy – 6:17-19. God made it abundantly clear through Joshua, the leader of the people, that the “devoted things” were to be completely destroyed & all the silver & gold, & vessels of bronze & iron were to be brought into God’s treasury.

- “devoted things” – items used in the depraved, demonic idol worship by the people of Canaan.

- All the valuables belong to God as a first-fruit offering to Him.

Achan completely ignored Joshua, God’s spokesman & leader over the people. Achan completely disobeyed God’s commands. Achan completely disregarded the warnings of the consequences. And when he did, it affected everybody – 7:1.

v. 21 – Achan “saw” – he “coveted” - & he “took.” Look at that pattern:

- “saw” – Eve saw the fruit – David saw Bathsheba

- “coveted” – Eve coveted the fruit – David coveted Bathsheba

- “took” – Eve took the fruit – David took Bathsheba

- And the results were all the same – Death, destruction, defeat

God did not take this sin lightly. It was a high-handed, willful defiance of His command – i.e., Achan KNEW what he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyway.

- It was serious

- It was selfish

- And the results were sickening – 7:2-5

o 36 men died – 36 families lost a father, a husband, a son, a brother

o 36 graves were dug

APPLICATION – Secret sin will wreak destruction in so many lives.

Luggage – All of us have some baggage in our lives. All of us deal w/ different temptations all the time. Most of us do pretty good on the “big” sins (large suitcases) – “I’m not going to kill anybody…steal anything…worship some weird idol.” Feel pretty good about those things.

But what about this one – that “hidden sin” – that thing that we keep to ourselves that we don’t want anyone to know about or find out about? Can be any number of things – a porn problem, a drinking/drug problem, a secret affair, an unethical or illegal business deal that’s going on. Whatever it is, it’s that thing we try to hide from view, that thing that we are getting away with, SO FAR.