July 8, 2012
Morning Worship
Text: Joshua 8:1-26
Subject: Sin
Title: Sin Blocks Revival
As this church moves into the promise that God has given us I want to continue to teach about things that are beneficial to us if we want to see the revival He has promised. I believe that the season that God is leading us into is a season of pronounced holiness where the Holy Spirit will minister to each one about the weaknesses in our lives and show us things that we need to change – and that not in our own power but with His power. What I am talking about is sin in your life. You know we try to sugar – coat sin by calling it a mistake or weaknesses. We try to blame sin on the devil or other people. The truth is the only person responsible for sin in your life is you. The early church father Augustine wrote this, Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.
The ultimate root of sin is pride. Sin tells God, “I think I know what is better for me in this area.” Now I am saying this not only for your benefit, but also for the benefit of the whole church, because sin in an individual can keep the whole church from receiving what God has promised.
I want to preface what I am going to say today by giving some background to our text. Moses has died. Joshua has miraculously brought Israel into the Promised Land and has supernaturally captured the city of Jericho. God’s plan was to dedicate everything in the city as a sacrifice. Every living thing in Jericho was to be destroyed as a reminder of that supernatural power that was at work for them. Joshua 6:24, Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’S house. Do you see that? The valuables were supposed to be dedicated to God. That was the whole plan.
The purpose for the sermon today is to bring you to the understanding that sin does not only affect the sinner, but others will be touched by your sin as well. I want you to listen carefully today and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you as we share these scriptural principles with you.
Read Joshua 7:1-26
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
And I appropriate it to my life today…
1. The sin of one man… 1But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’S anger burned against Israel. How does sin happen? Did Achan just go into Jericho and start picking stuff up and carrying it away? No, according to James 1:13-15, 13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. It was premeditated. It was greed. I can imagine that Achan couldn’t wait for Jericho to fall so he could help himself to the goods. But, you see, it wasn’t just that he took the things. It was what he took that was important. He took the things that were supposed to go into the sanctuary treasury. It was devoted to God. Now, here is the really important thing I want you to get. God did not look at this as just the sin of one man. 1But the Israelites acted unfaithfully… So the LORD’S anger burned against Israel. Achan’s sin was held against the nation. You can look at sin and call it what you want. Sin is disobedience. Sin encompasses many things. As I said before, maybe it is greed. It really is a lack of faith. God promised that He would give everything into Israel’s hands but Achan wanted to make sure he got his share. OK. Let’s stop a minute and evaluate what I’m talking about. The sin of one man was held against a nation. How does that apply to the church? God has told us that His intention is to bring the greatest revival we have ever seen in this church. 1 Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Is your praise of God contrary to your life? If you have sin in your life how can you praise Him? If there is unrepentant sin in the church, how can we expect God to take us into the holy land? If there is, how can we expect God to heal? If there is sin (rebellion) how can we call ourselves a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…?
2. Taking God for granted… we see Achan’s sin revealed, but the attitude of the nation is exposed in this passage as well – from the top to the bottom. In verses 2-5 we see that Israel sent spies into the land to check out Ai and their report was pretty confident. We don’t need the whole army. Just send up about 3,000 men. You see, in the story it all looks so innocent. It all looks as though it falls back on Achan. But it is the attitude of the people that got them into trouble. They chose to walk by sight and not by faith. Well wait a minute, wasn’t that faith? I mean, weren’t they just trusting God for victory? No, they were doing and say8ing what looked right in their own eyes. They didn’t even ask God. Psalm 34:10, …those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Does the church do that? Do we think that we can just expect God to give us this great harvest of souls without doing our part? Oh, let’s just send out a couple of people once in a while… God will send the harvest.
3. Blaming God for our troubles… 7And Joshua said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! 8O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? Why do people do that? I mean blame God for everything? If God is in control then why did He let this happen? The truth is that people blame God so they don’t have to face the truth. Listen, are you or are you not a blood bought, Spirit – filled child of the living God? Do you or do you not have power and authority over the enemy – the prince of the power of the air? Do the words you speak carry any weight in this life? Does that mean that you will never have any difficulty in life? NO! but it does mean that you have everything you need to take control of your circumstances and see victory over them through the power and authority you have and the words you speak. In this case Joshua was blaming God when he should have been repenting for not asking God. Look at verse 9, Joshua goes on to say, The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?” “God if You allow us to be defeated, then who is going to do Your work?” It kind of sounds like Joshua thought he was doing God a favor. God is God and He is sovereign. He can do anything He wants and wills to do. But He has established you as the church to carry out His work on earth. He works through the body of Christ. But even if you refuse to do His work, His plan will find fulfillment on the earth. If this church refuses to do what God is demanding from it He will just find another church. You can blame God but it is up to you. Your life can be a life of power and victory or it can be one of doubt and fear. But you can’t blame God. He has given you all you need.
4. Hearing from God … When Joshua asked God all these questions and brought the situation before Him, what happened? God answered him. Does He still do that? Only if you take time to listen. Too often believers don’t take time to listen for God’s answer. Too often, believers want to do all the talking during prayer. Too often prayer then, becomes just a ritual and not a conversation. 10The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. When you read from the bible that God is talking to someone how do you understand it? Do you get a picture in your mind that God is physically standing before someone and having a conversation? Since the days of Adam and Eve that isn’t the way it happens. Today God speaks to His people in a variety of ways. 1) through His word… 2) through other people… 3) through circumstances… 4) in your inner man or your spirit… The point is that when God speaks you need to shut up and listen. This is really important when your plans have gone wrong and God is trying to move you back to Him. Look in verse 11 again, … Israel has sinned… God didn’t see Achan’s sin as the sin of one. He accused the whole nation. Why? Because the whole nation was guilty. We’ve already seen that. Achan for taking the “stuff”, the spies for taking God for granted, and Joshua for not praying before he set his battle plan. You see here we have two types of sin. The first, the sin of Achan is a sin of commission. He did something that offend God – was contrary to His plan for their lives. The second, the sin of Joshua and Israel was the sin of omission. It wasn’t what they did, it is what they didn’t do. They did not seek God’s will for an important task. They deemed the task as small, something they could take care of on their own. God saw it as rebellion against His word. I found an article by Karen Wolf in Christianity Magazine and I just want to share an excerpt with you. A couple years ago I signed up to become a hospital visitor for my church. When I first saw the notice in our church bulletin, I immediately felt that I should respond. But, I let it pass. Over the next couple of weeks, the thought occurred to me off and on so I said to myself, "If I see the notice in the bulletin this coming Sunday, I'll sign up." Of course, it was in there. But this time when I saw it, there was no getting away from it. I finally had to say, "Okay, okay God, I'm going!" So there I was doing hospital visits for the first time. I was nervous, but I prayed a lot before I went, and I was doing okay. But on my way to the second hospital, I prayed again that God would use me to represent Him to all the sick people, giving comfort, etc. Right in front of the hospital was a crosswalk with a traffic light. As I stood at the corner I kept praying, starting to cross, even though the light was red. I mean, I was in a hurry trying to get to all those sick people!Right in the middle of the street I heard, "So you want to represent Me, and you can't even make it across the street without breaking the law?" I was so shocked by this, I said the most spiritual thing I could think of, "Oops." God uses lots of things to talk to us. But actually hearing from God isn't so much a matter of if he's talking, but rather, whether we're listening.
5. Making things right with God… 13“Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it. This is the hard part for most people. It is relatively easy to claim God’s promises for your life. It is easy for me to stand before the congregation and say revival is coming. It seems so simple to just come to church and worship and fellowship and hear the word of God proclaimed and then to go home and think all is well. But all is not well. The promises can’t be yours if there is sin in your life. The word “consecrate” in the NIV or “sanctify” in the KJV is the Hebrew word qadash and it means “to be pronounced clean”. If you are born again then you have been made clean or have been sanctified or consecrated. But, even after you are saved you sin, you have a responsibility to repent and ask for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If you can’t seem to get an answer in your life about a promise, it is time to look at your life through the eyes of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to reveal what is hindering your receiving that promise.
6. Answering to God… Go to verse 14. 14“‘In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe that the LORD takes shall come forward clan by clan; the clan that the LORD takes shall come forward family by family; and the family that the LORD takes shall come forward man by man. 15He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!’” Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t ask us to deal with sinners in the church that way? But now, because He has made a way for us to enter into His presence through the blood of the Sinless Lamb, He himself deals with individuals through the Spirit. If one who has sinned rejects correction from the Lord and continues to live in their sin they are essentially rejecting the saving power of God through Jesus. Hebrews 6, starting in verse 4, It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. You know, the evil that I did before I was saved was too much for me to remember, but when I repented of “sin” and turned to Christ it was all washed away. But after you are saved you are responsible to respond to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and to ask forgiveness. Those who refuse and think they can live in a sinful lifestyle and somehow still please God are playing a dangerous game. I’m glad that I am not the judge. Luke 12:4-5, 4“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Upon Achan’s confession of his wrongdoing the nation had to issue the punishment that God had instructed. It was severe and many see it as harsh. Why did it have to happen? That is another sermon, but God used it as a lesson to others to be obedient to His word.
Here is where we have been moving to all morning. Once the sin in the camp had been taken care of we read in chapter 8, 1Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land.
I’ve talked about different types of sin this morning; Disobedience, pride, complacency, faithlessness… These are things we have to deal with as a church if we are going to enter in to what God has promised this church. Here is a segment of the prophetic word given three weeks ago… I declare this day that I the LORD will give you a greater harvest than you could ever imagine if you heed My words and are willing to answer My call to evangelism. If you will bring the unsaved to church – compel them to come in – I the LORD will change the face of the congregation so that one year from today you will not recognize (if you could see it now) the church.
Get sin out of the camp…
Don’t look at others and their sin, but what is it in your life that is keeping you from a personal revival? What keeps you from receiving His promises? That one thing may be the thing that is keeping revival out of this church.
It is time to stand before God cleansed and consecrated to receive His promise.
