WHEN TO STOP PRAYING
Joshua 7
I want us to go on an imaginary expedition together... an archeological expedition. You ready? We are in a God-forsaken valley. The sun is beating down on us. There’s nowhere to hide. We are looking for some lost bones, hidden cities and broken pots of civilizations of previous centuries. We are in the Middle East. Not far from the ancient city of Ai. There’s a good chance we will run into a tell (that’s a fancy name archeologist’s use for a mound of dirt).
One of us calls us over with a loud yell. Together we investigate what we have found. A strange sight! We find later as we carefully investigate the site that we come across a huge pile of rocks. And it looks like the rocks are covering up something that had burned. We don’t dare disturb the rocks because it looks like it has some sort of important message to convey. But what do these rocks mean? This is so strange! What happened here?
This valley we’re in is known as the valley of Achor which literally means "trouble." Maybe these stones spelled trouble for someone. Is this huge pile of rocks related to the bones we discovered recently? We determined that they were the bones of 36 Israelite soldiers who were killed in battle...the battle of Ai, the battle after the battle of Jericho.
We all remember the battle of Jericho don’t we? The people of Israel showed victorious faith in trusting God, being obedient to His word. Result? The walls came a tumblin’ down and Israel conquered the whole city.
Now, the city of Ai was just a two-bit cow town just a few miles west of Jericho. (Murphy---Boise?) This would be no problem for the people of Israel (so they thought!). Instead, they were routed in an unexpected turn of events. And like a whipped puppy with its tail between its legs, the Israelites retreated.
Why this defeat? And why this defeat right on the heels of such a tremendous victory in Jericho?
Well, have you experienced a victory recently in your Christian life? Maybe you’ve been able to conquer a controlling habit. Maybe you’ve been able to see God work in your life by being able to control your tongue when someone criticized you. Maybe you’ve been able to conquer worry by giving that thing you’ve been worrying about over to the Lord. What a blessing! What joy! What contentment!
What peace! What rest!
But... get ready! Get ready for a pitfall ahead. Get ready for a roadblock. Satan will do all he can to see you fall.
The Israelites fell, they faced defeat. And if we can learn why they were defeated at Ai, we can learn something of how Satan operates and learn to be on guard against his strategy when we experience victory and are set up for a defeat.
Please turn in your Bibles to Joshua 7...
I. THE SHOCKING DEFEAT (7:1-5)
There are 2 basic reasons for this shocking defeat:
Secondary reason: OVERCONFIDENCE IN SELF (vv. 2-3)
There’s no reliance on God here. "This is a snap!" (cp. 2:24)
They were overconfident...confident in themselves.
Isn’t interesting to see the varied attacks of Satan?
40 yrs ago the Israelites overestimated the enemy. Here, they underestimated the enemy. Either way=failure and defeat.
Lesson for us: don’t overestimate or underestimate Satan and his power.
Another important lesson for us: Where’s your confidence?
Is it in yourself or in God? Don’t get me wrong, confidence is not bad. But misdirected confidence is.
Misdirected confidence=defeat. Every time.
So, the secondary reason for their defeat=
overconfidence in self.
But, PRIMARY REASON for their defeat=
UNCONFESSED SIN (7:1 cp. 6:18)
Israel suffered a shocking defeat because of one man’s sin. What was his sin? Look ahead to vv. 20-21. Notice the 3 crucial steps in Achan’s sin:
1) He saw
2) He coveted
3) He took
And that’s been the tragic steps to sin from the beginning. Look with me in Genesis 3:6 to see these very same steps. The steps are repeated in David’s sin with Bathsheba. Let’s look at that in 2 Samuel 11:2-4.
And so it was with Achan. He saw, he coveted, and then he took.
I want you to notice something else in verse 1. Notice it says, "But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things..." Boy, if I was one of the Israelites, I would have thought, "That’s unfair!" But, whether we like it or not, God has instituted solidarity in His people. We are one unit!
There is a principle of shared guilt.
1 Corinthians 12:26:
"When one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it."
ILLUS: Pour cold water into hot water & temp of water will lower. Similar to if you put hot water in cold water, the temp will rise. What we do as individuals affects the whole body. Either you are a help or a burden. Which are you?
Well, let’s move on, this is getting too convicting...
What happened after the shocking defeat?
II. THE SAD RESPONSE (7:6-9)
This is a sad response because Joshua is really blaming God for the defeat. There’s nothing of "Why did we fail?" or "How can we solve this problem, Lord?"
After a defeat, don’t blame God, don’t throw in the towel. Instead, correct your mistake.
ILLUS: If a football team suffers a loss, what does the coach do? Does he throw in the towel? No, he reviews the films, makes the necessary corrections for the next game.
Maybe we are hoping and expecting victory in our lives, but have never bothered to make the necessary corrections yet.
What do I mean? Maybe we spend a lot of time in prayer over a particular problem in our lives. And we pray a prayer something like this: "Lord, please take care of this problem in my life." Well, could it just be (I know this is going to sound heretical) that there comes a time when God wants us to actually stop praying? Yes, stop praying! When is that?
It’s time to stop praying when there is unconfessed sin in your life that needs to be dealt with! (REPEAT)
ILLUS: Prayer meeting week after week with a woman praying every week this prayer: "Lord, please get rid of the cobwebs in my life." Every week, the same prayer, without fail. Over and over again. Finally, one of the men in the prayer meeting got so fed up, he offered up his own prayer:
"Lord, forget the cobwebs! KILL THE SPIDER!"
Joshua was bemoaning the cobwebs when he should have been dealing with the spider. The Lord, therefore, has some words to say to Joshua...
III. THE SERIOUS COMMAND (7:10-15)
Look at v. 10 again. See what I mean by "When it’s time to stop praying?" I know that we are to pray without ceasing, Scriptures teach us that. But we dare not use our prayers as a way to hide from dealing with our sin.
What was God’s command?
"GET RID OF THE SIN IN YOUR MIDST!"
God tells Joshua to stop praying, stand up, and deal with the sin in his midst!
We all want to enjoy peace don’t we? Well, there’s no way you will enjoy peace if you harbor sin in your life.
"THE ONLY WAY TO BE HAPPY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
IS TO BE HOLY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE!"
2 Corinthians 7:1 "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."
Hebrews 12:14 "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."
You want to be happy?
GET RID OF SIN! IT’S GOT TO GO!
I’m sure that most of us truly want to trust God. But, you know what? The problem is that you can’t trust someone you’re not on speaking terms with!
You see, when we sin, a cloud of guilt clouds our relationship with God. Psalm 66:18 "If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us."
ILLUS: Husband and wife not on speaking terms don’t have much fellowship. Oh, yes, there are still married, but the fellowship, the intimacy is gone. So it is with God. When we sin, we cut ourselves off from enjoying fellowship with God.
God’s Word for us this morning:
GET RID OF ANY SIN IN YOUR LIFE! (Confess it to Him, thank Him for His gracious forgiveness)
The problem for many of us is that it takes so long before we admit our sin. We like to cover it up, make excuses for it, anything be acknowledge it as sin and confess it to God.
This was true for Achan. His sin finally caught up with him. And there was a solemn consequence to that sin...
IV. THE SOLEMN CONSEQUENCE (7:16-26)
Why didn’t Achan speak up earlier? Joshua seems to have to pry the confession out of him. What is it with Achan anyway? Did he sleep through the earlier church service?
He knew better! The preacher didn’t stutter when he called Israel to holiness, obedience, and submission to God.
What was at the root of Achan’s sin? It starts with a weak view of God. Achan had a distorted view of God. He somehow had the idea that God would sort of, you know, wink at his sin. Just look the other way.
Achan was also absorbed in materialism. Ah, materialism! That inordinate love of things had found fertile soil in Achan’s heart. There’s no way that anybody would be tempted to steal unless their hearts were already predisposed to "the good life." His judgment was marred by his materialistic value system. Achan had a dislocated heart.
His treasure was things, and that’s where his heart was.
I am reminded here of Christ’s words on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:19-21) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Achan’s craving was so strong that it overruled common sense. It downplayed God’s role in human life.
How often that is true with us. How often do we sin, and in our sin, enjoy it?! Yes, sin can be enjoyable, for a moment.
And we have this enslaving habit, we know we should deal with it, but, you know what? We enjoy it too much!
We know we shouldn’t gossip, but we enjoy it!
We know we shouldn’t put other people down,
but we enjoy it! We enjoy it because when we put other people down that somehow makes us feel so much bigger.
We know that we shouldn’t tell those little "white lies" but we do it anyway.
By the way, is there any such thing as a "little sin?" What do you think? I mean, look at Achan here. It’s not that big of a deal here really, is it? It was just a little thing. A "little" sin among all the Israelites. But God took it seriously. He takes all sin seriously!
And the problem for us is that we will
never experience true happiness,
never know true peace,
never know satisfaction,
never know contentment...
until we deal with our sin.
Israel finally got to the point where they dealt with their sin. Achan and his sons & daughters suffered a violent death. Notice no mention of his wife. And to include his sons & daughters suggest they knew about this and were involved somehow. Deuteronomy 24:6 tells us that children were not to be executed for their father’s sins.
Someone once said that Achan is still achin’ No! Achan quit achin’! He died! And finally, sin was removed from the camp.
Now, God gave the victory! See 8:1, 7, 18-19
The people of Israel had to learn an important lesson the hard way.
THE LESSON:
Self-confidence and sin eliminates any possibility of victory and rest!
Sin had to go!
Sin HAS to go!
I wonder what would happen to our church if we were willing to expose the Achans among us. To be sure, God deals with different churches in different ways than He did with Israel (THANK GOD!) But there is no excuse to take sin lightly!
Don’t let the weight of sin weigh you down!
Deal with it!
Do it today!
Do it NOW!
This very minute... For your sake, for the sake of this congregation, for the glory of God, take care of it now!
