Sunday Morning September 16, 2001 Bel Aire Baptist Church, Hobbs, New Mexico
WAKE UP CALL
Joshua 7:1-13
Introduction:
1. We live in a great country of technology, government structure, wealth, military defense, military intelligence service, etc… Unfortunately, our country has learned this week that sometimes all of our power is not enough. Tuesday morning as I sat watching my television, I was stunned. You know we see things like this happening in other countries all the time, but it never has had much affect on me. But for me, all I could do Tuesday was sit with tears in my eyes and pray. Although I am sure you know this, I want to share with you the chronological order of events of Tuesday morning. Mike Small gave me this information. He took this off the Internet from CNN.
2. 8:45 a.m.: A large plane, possibly a hijacked airliner, crashes into one of the World Trade Center towers, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.
9:03 a.m.: A second plane, apparently a passenger jet, crashes into the second World Trade Center tower and explodes. Both buildings are burning.
9:17 a.m.: The FAA shuts down all New York City area airports.
9:21 a.m.: New York city Port Authority orders all bridges and tunnels in the New York City area closed.
9:30 a.m.: Bush, speaking in Florida, says the country has suffered an “apparent terrorist attack.”
9:40 a.m.: The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted.
9:43 a.m.: An aircraft crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately.
9:45 a.m.: The White House evacuates.
9:57 a.m.: Bush departs from Florida.
10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly drifts away from the building.
10:08 a.m.: Secret Service agents armed with automatic rifles are deployed into Lafayette Park across from the White House.
10:10 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.
3. I am going to stop here, but as we all know there were many more things that occurred Tuesday. I never imagined something like this would ever happen on U.S. soil, but it has. It is a time of sorrow and mourning, but I also believe it is a “wake up call” for a nation that once was a godly nation. Our nation, as a whole, has become complacent concerning the things of God. Sin is no longer a “big deal” to most people. We have rationalized and questioned sin so long that our children can’t even really distinguish what is sin and what is not. Our churches have become places of argument and politics instead of places of prayer and worship. Our leaders in our churches seek power and authority instead of humbleness and servitude to God. Our nation has become so powerful and smart that we decided to put God on the “back burner”. Without God, this is just a glimpse of what could happen. Let me assure you that I am not glad that this has happened, but we need to realize the spiritual aspect of what has happened and that we better turn back to God.
4. Many times in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel experienced attacks and great losses of life by the hand of their enemies. I want to share with you one of those times and what the Israelites and we today can learn from it.
5. Turn with me to Joshua 7:1-13.
I. Pride
Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
A. Powers
1. Israel had just won the battle of Jericho in a mighty way.
2. God led His people, they followed, and they were victorious.
3. The nation of Israel was extremely powerful and they became very prideful.
a) They were taking the credit for this victory.
b) They had forgot where the power had come from.
B. Prestige
1. The leader of Israel, Joshua, was becoming well known.
Joshua 6:27
“So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.”
2. Joshua is now becoming pretty confident in himself and we see in verse 2 that Joshua is sending out spies.
a) Did God tell him to do that? No!
b) Who made that decision? Joshua.
3. The leader of Israel was extremely prestigious and was becoming prideful.
a) Joshua was taking credit.
b) Joshua had forgot where the prestige belonged.
II. Pain
A. Preparation
1. We see the makings of a bad situation.
2. The devil was preparing the way of destruction for the Israelites.
a) One of the Israelites, Achan, took some treasures from Jericho although God told them to destroy everything and not take anything from Jericho.
b) God was angry at this disobedience.
3. The devil’s objective was being fulfilled.
a) The devil wants us to sin against God.
b) The devil wants there to be distance between God and us.
B. Punishment (Joshua 7:1-5)
1. We just read that God was angry at Israel because of the sin.
2. We see here that the Israelites decided they only needed to send out 300 men because Ai was no threat.
a) Notice that God is not part of this plan.
b) God is not a part of this battle.
3. What is the punishment for going to battle in a prideful, sinful state without God? Sure defeat!!!
III. Purpose
A. Plan (Joshua 7:6-9)
1. God does not do these things to us, but He will allow them to happen and He does have a plan and purpose for it.
2. We see that God’s purpose is being worked out in this story.
a) Joshua and the elders humbled themselves before God.
b) They were pleading for God’s presence, protection, and power.
3. God want His children to allow Him to be in charge and sometimes God has to get our attention.
B. Position (Joshua 7:10-13)
1. We must notice that we are to pray and seek God.
a) We must be humbled before God.
b) We must be cleansed to come into His presence.
2. But notice also when God says get up, He is saying, “The problem is sin and their needs to be more than talking about it, there needs to be action.
3. If you see nothing else see this: Read verse 13.
a) “You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove the sin.”
b) Sin stopped Israel regardless of how great they were and sin will do the same thing to our great nation.
Conclusion:
2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
1) What our nation needs right now is a healing and this verse tells us that the healing will come from God.
2) Our nation has experienced this week a similar situation as these Israelites did.
3) We have been a nation that has become prideful. We are a nation that is experiencing the pain of this tragedy. We are also a nation that needs to draw closer to God and I believe that would be God’s plan for us during this time.
4) The thing about this plan is we as Christians have to do as it says above and humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways.
5) As we have seen our nation have special times of prayer this week, I would pray that this seeking of God would not end after a couple of weeks and that our nation would be once again a godly nation.
