IT’S NOBODY’S BUSINESS BUT MINE.
JOSHUA 7: 1-26.
I have noticed that sometimes we like to use short phrases to give people a quick answer to their question. I was talking to a young man at work and I said you have big shoulders, meaning that he could deal with his problem.
A couple other saying are you don’t have a leg to stand on. Sometime we may have said not much we can do about that. Sometime the phrase we say may actually make a statement about whether or not we believe in Jesus Christ. You may have said it or you may have heard someone say it to you or someone else, just have faith in the Lord. I wonder if sometimes when we say just have faith in the Lord if we believe the people we are saying that to actually can conquer their difficult with a little faith in the Lord. When someone makes a statement like that does their lifestyle say that they are living their Christian life by faith in Jesus Christ? The thing about our faith is that one has to use their faith consistently for their faith to grow. I Wonder how many Christians don’t have faith in the Lord that they should have simply because they aren’t exercising their faith.
You may remember the situation that got President Bill Clinton in trouble. Do you remember what the president answer was? What the president said soon became the number one saying in the nation. The president said: It is nobody’s business but mine.
What is interesting is that before the president made that statement the White House wanted to know if the American public would accept it. So they took a poll of the people to find out. The answers to their pole surprised everyone because it showed the White House two things.
1. That the American people believed that what the president did personally was nobody’s business but his own.
2. The people also believed that what the president believe or how he acted would have no impact on his performance as a leader.
In order words they felt that it didn’t matter if the president lied or if he was having an affair.
I personally believe that the Bible teaches that our actions do have an affect upon us and I believe that our actions also affects what people see and think about the larger Christian community.
According to Joshua 6:19. There were some items that the Lord has put under a band. The people were told that they couldn’t take them. As one reads the instructions from the Lord, one could ask the question what is the problem. The instructions are very clear and nobody should have any problem understanding them yet someone did.
TRUTH # 1. The simplest of things can cause the most problems.
Have you noticed that sometimes it is the simplest of things that seems to give us the most difficulties?
The reason for this is because we look at as being so small that there is no way it can affect our lives.
God knows that sometimes those simple things can contaminate the lives of his people and they can cause his people to compromise the Standard of God.
There have been times when people have said to me, I didn’t think anybody would find out. So I ask them to tell me what happened. What happens was that they had compromise the standard of the Lord by lying or doing something that they shouldn’t off. At the time they felt that no one was watching or they wouldn’t get caught. I know I have told you about the treasurer who stole over $10,000. When I talked to her she told me that she didn’t think I would ever find out.
Numbers 32:23. But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
There was a evangelist who was asked to speak in a small country church. His first secession was on Saturday Morning, so on Friday evening he borrowed the pastor’s car and drove to the mall in the city to spend a couple of hours. Here he was in a strange city and the only person he knew was the pastor of the small church where he was staying which just happen to be hours away from the mall and who didn’t have a car. Now you would think that he would be pretty safe. Well as he was buying a cone ice cream someone comes up behind him and taps him on the shoulder. When he turns around and there is a woman that he had gone to school with 11 years before. I remember someone who made a comment about something that happen; they said I can’t believe they did that in front of God and everybody. What I find interesting is that a lot of people seem to think that the Lord can’t see them when they are doing something wrong.
The difference between a man of morals and a man of honour is that the man of honour regrets any discreditable act, even when the act worked and he wasn’t caught. The Lord Jesus wants his followers to be men and women of honour.
The bible tells us that Gods plan works and they capture the city of Jericho. As a military leader Joshua would want to use the momentum so he sends out some spies to check out the city of Ai. The spies come back and advise that they believe that by using about 3000 men of war they can capture the city of Ai.
SIDE ROAD. There are a number of Biblical writers who believe that this whole mess in chapter 7; happen simply because Joshua didn’t ask the Lord for guidance. I don’t believe that. I also believe that if we completely focus on the spies that we will miss the lessons that the Lord wants to teach us.
TRUTH # 2. Living totally for the Lord will give one great confidence in the Lords ability.
What a difference 38 years of living and obeying the Lord made. Moses sent out 10 spies. When they came back the told the people that the land was great but that they would never be able to conquer it. They gave the impression that they would lose even with the Lord help. Now Joshua sends out TWO spies and when they come back they believe that the Israelites will have no problem taking the city of Ai. As a matter of record these two spies figure that they can take the city with 3000 men. The difference between the two set of spies has to do with who they have places their faith in. The People had wandered in the wilderness for 38 years until they learned to follow and completely trust in the care of the Lord. The thing is they got whipped.
TRUTH # 3. The Lord shows us the sin/ stuff in our lives that is interfering with our relationship with Him.
I don’t consider myself to know very much but I know that the response of Joshua and the leaders was the right one. They instantly turn to the Lord that was right. The thing is that the tone of their prayer and the content of their prayer was all wrong because they felt that everything was the Lords fault. Joshua never consider that the problem just be sin in the camp. I think that a lot of time we are like that. Something is wrong in our lives and we may think that it is someone else fault or it is the Lord fault, but the problem is that there is sin in our lives that we haven’t dealt with.
Joshua prayer.
Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?
If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies?
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
In verse 7 Joshua has already blamed the Lord for what has happen. Look again at his word in the latter part of
verse 7 If only we had been willing to stay on the other side of the Jordan.
To me that sounds like he has already given up. The least we can say is that Joshua sounds like he wishes they had stayed on the other side. The thing is the People of the Lord will never get what the Lord has for them unless they cross the Jordan. The promise land is across the Jordan and Ai was in the way. Isn’t that so much like Satan. Were following the Lord and all of a sudden we come up against something that Satan has put in our way to stop us from having all that the Lord Jesus wants us to have.
Joshua prayer is saying that he is willing to settle for second best. Well the Lord Jesus wants you and I to have the very best. I wonder how many times have we settled second best when Jesus wanted to give us the very best that the Lord has to offer.
I remember hearing about two missionaries who were praying for a vehicle. One missionary was praying dear Lord Jesus give us any old piece of junk. The other missionary heard his friend prayer and he stopped him and said the Lord doesn’t deal in junk, so stop praying for second best and start praying for the best.
TRUTH# 4. Losing a battle doesn’t mean that we have lost the war.
Not only does it sound like Joshua has settle for second best, but it also sound like Joshua figures they lost the whole war. They lost one little battle and Joshua figures that the nation is completely at the mercy of the enemy.
Verse 9. For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth.
Have you ever noticed that when we are involved in a battle with Satan that when we call out to the Lord for help that we always have in our mind what that help should look like. A lot of times when we call out to the Lord and the Lord doesn’t answer right away or the Lord answer in a way that we are not prepared for that we refuse the answer/help.
TRUTH # 5. Falling down doesn’t cancel the Lord care of His Children.
I want you to listen as I put what the Lord said in our language but I also want you to notice how the Lord address Joshua.
Get up. Why are you grovelling? Israel has sinned. I made a covenant with them. I commanded them to keep it. But they have broken it. They have taken forbidden plunder, stolen stuff and then covered up the theft by burring it with their own stuff.
That is why the men of Israel can't stand up against their enemies. You must destroy the things you took that had been set apart to me. If you do not, I will not be with you anymore.
A. Notice that the Lord consider that this sin is applied to the whole tribe. Today we live in a society where we think if one person messes up then only that person should pay the price. Here is the thing. The covenant that God had made was not made with one person it was made the people of Israel. John Donne wrote, No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. This is why Christians need to understand that what they do doesn’t just affect them. It affects every Christian.
B. Notice that the Lord tells us what the sin is. The Lord tells Joshua that they had a thief in the camp and that the thief stole items that were dedicated to the Lord. So this thief actually stole from the Lord God.
C. Notice that the Lord inform Joshua that the thief who stole the items buried it with their own personal property.
In the same way the Holy Spirit will bring to our mind things or actions that are contrary to the will of the Lord Jesus Christians sometimes bury them within their mind hopping that they will just go away. .
D. Notice that when a Christian sins there are more people affected than just that person.
Verse 12. That is why the men of Israel can't stand up against their enemies.
When we don’t keep up to date with the Lord Jesus it affect our personal walk, it affects our witness, and it makes us weak spiritually so that we can’t defeat Satan.
The spiritual principle is that God will not hear us if we are in a rebellious relationship with Him.
Someone wrote that sin will always take you further then you want to go, it will always keep you longer then you want to stay and it will always cost you more then you want to pay. God seems to find Joshua prayer almost offensive. God doesn’t want to hear us praying for His help when we are in rebellion with Him. Isaiah 59: 1-2. Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Sins cannot be undone but sin in a Christian can be forgiven if we are willing to ask.
One of the main reason why the Church of Jesus Christ is so weak in Canada is because the church has not only allowed sin but the church has said that what the Bible calls sin the church doesn’t. The thing is that it doesn’t matter how we see sin, what matter is how does the Lord Jesus see sin and what does he say about it. The attitude in a lot of organizations is that whatever people do is strictly between then and it is no body’s business but theirs. Some minister have told me that I am being judgmental and that if they as a church see nothing wrong with what people in their churches are doing then I shouldn’t see anything wrong with it. When I hear that I usually say that we must remember that not how we look at something. We must remember how the Lord Jesus sees things. God’s not concerned with our blessing as much as He is concerned with our holiness and obedience.
