Oops!

Praise the Lord!

Let me ask you, are you still on course for VICTORY!?

It is a...

NEW DAY WITH NEW DIRECTION!!!

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Now, we left off last week talking about how we tend to take life into our own hands.

-And, instead of seeking the Lord’s complete will for our lives...

-We actually do what SEEMS RIGHT IN OUR OWN EYES, which is not advisable.

When we talked about that last time, you will remember that I made a specific reference to Joshua doing that himself...doing WHAT SEEMED RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES.

-He did that when he received the Gibeonites (after being deceived by them) as servants for Israel; when they were actually enemies running scared for their lives.

-At this point, Joshua made a MISTAKE!

How many know that when we do WHAT SEEMS RIGHT

IN OUR OWN EYES, we tend to MAKE MISTAKES???

Well, let’s read our text...Joshua 9:14-15 & Joshua 9:18b-21

Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

PRAYER

INTRODUCTION:

"The way that seems right unto man..." will at times lead to certain...

Mistakes...

Boo-boos...

Accidents...

Blunders...

Slip-ups...

Oversights...

Mis-steps...

Faux pas...

Errors...

Blooper...

Mishaps...

Flub-ups...

Church, no matter what you call them, the truth is that we are all subject to make them.

Then, we are prone to want to cover them up and not own up to them.

Why?

Because we all want to be right.

And, we want others to think that we are always right too.

ILLUSTRATION:

The intent is found in this saying I am sure we have all heard, "I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken."

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But, that was not the case here in Joshua...

In fact, Joshua actually...

POINT ONE: ENLISTED THE ENEMY

Israel actually made a pact with the Gibeonites.

And now, they were (what we could call) "sleeping with the enemy."

And, it doesn’t really matter just HOW they came to realize that they were duped; but the truth is that they had enlisted the enemy into their camp by making a pact with them!

-Unbelievable!

-Can anyone say, "Oops!"

Have you ever had an "oops" experience in your life?

If you have, then you have learned that it really doesn’t matter HOW it happened.

-But what matters, is that you learn something from it, and safeguard against it happening again.

Because the fact is that YOU CAN’T CHANGE IT!

It is what it is, right?

And, no matter HOW it happened (like Joshua

discovered) there was certainly a new humility now, as well as maybe some embarrassment that came with it.

-How many have been there, and done that?

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Now, something that we must do if we find ourselves in a situation like this is...

Live up to it, and own it.

And, we must give the leaders credit for being men of their word.

They did this.

Unlike most today...

When we make mistakes we immediately want to blame others for it, and try to find a way out of complete blame for the blunder.

We say things like,

-"I was mis-led!"

-"If I only knew..."

-Sound familiar?

ILLUSTRATION:

Remember Adam & Eve in the garden?

Eve took the fruit and ate it, then gave it to her husband, and he ate it. Sin had begun, and the earth is now cursed!

God comes to meet with them, as was common, and they are nowhere to be found. God asks where they were, and why have they hidden?

Genesis 3:12-13, "And the man said, ’The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’ [13] Then the Lord God said to the woman, ’What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ’The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’"

Can anyone say, "Blame Game?"

That is what we do, isn’t it?

When instead, we should do what Joshua and the leaders did...LIVE UP TO IT, OWN IT, & TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT!

-That is such a problem for people today.

-Ellaborate on the example that the students in Teen Challenge gave us in their testimonies.

Joshua owned up to his blunder, and he deserves a little credit for being a man of his word.

In fact, he upheld the name of the Lord too!

And guess what...so do you!!!! (at least, you should!)

If Joshua was God’s man, who was making decisions on the Lord’s behalf, then it was as if God were making those promises too.

-He represented the Lord!

-And, so do you. THEREFORE, we should be men and women of our word!

James 5:12, "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment."