“What it really takes to worship” Joshua Ch. 8
In Joshua Ch. 7 God gave Joshua a mission. The mission was to remove sin and disobedience from within the camp. He brought everyone forward tribe by tribe, family by family, until he discovered the cheat. Achan was found to be the culprit. He was the chief reason for the defeat Israel suffered at a place called Ai. In Chapter 8 things have turned around for Joshua and his army. The plunder in Achan’s tent is removed, the sin is severely dealt with. With a renewed sense of obedience, the army heads out into battle. A rematch with the wicked people of the city Ai. And this is what happened...(Read 8:1 ff)
They won! You just might say, this was Israel’s moment for a comeback. Instead of conceding defeat after the first battle, they forged ahead and went right back into it. They fought a fierce battle and successfully apprehended the enemy. Instead of being defeated a second consecutive time, they regained their footing and won the match. They were successful, because they were following God instructions. They won the war because obedience was restored.
But can I tell you something about success? There are some dangers involved in having it. Success has it rewards, but it also has it‘s challenges. There are some things to beware of when victory is attained. Joshua, Israel’s commanding leader, knew what to look out for. After a huge victory in Jericho, a few things got away from him. He made some mistakes dealing with it. The first mistake he made was letting a group of untrained spies survey the next battle. He sent a group of amateurs to assess the need for combat. Turns out their assessment was woefully inadequate. And as a result, Israel’s first attempt to defeat Ai was unsuccessful. The spies underestimated the power of the enemy, and Joshua fell right into their hands. The second mistake He made was not being fully prepared both spiritually and strategically. When Israel took on Jericho and won. They spent considerable time getting spiritually prepared, and strategically tuned up. They waited for a word from God, & then proceeded into battle. When Israel first took on Ai, there was no record at all of God commanding them or giving them instructions. They just kinda went out ahead of themselves and pursued the enemy on their own. They did it in haste. And as a results were miserable and costly. You know what that tells us? Carelessness and overconfidence took over. They thought a repeat victory of Jericho was just turn around the corner. That’s the danger of success. It can foster a reliance upon self and not God. Joshua and his army found this out the hard way, God let them suffer a temporary defeat in order to get their attention and realign their priorities. And it worked. Things were different the second time around. Joshua learned a lesson the hard way. An altogether different strategy was adopted. Instead of rushing out into battle with an ill-equipped army. Joshua waited. Timing is everything. Joshua patiently waited for the marching orders to come from the Lord. And they came! verse 1 in Ch. 8 says, “The 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.” God said, now is the time that I want you to go out there and conquer. The Lord also instructed Joshua to take the whole army, not just a small part, right out to the front lines. God had a full proof strategy, He wanted Israel to succeed, so He commanded Joshua to pull out all the stops to use every resource and do the job right. And thats what they did, verse 3 says, Joshua took the whole army.. and went out into battle and the rest was history, you know the story they had slam dunk success.
But folks, you know what? The real defining moment of this event came afterwards. Something of huge importance took place after the fact. After all was said and done, Joshua called everybody together. Young and old, men and women, citizen, alien, they rounded em all up and got their attention. When he had everybodies attention, he took action. And you know what he did? Verse 30 tells us what happened, it says... “Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel....” Underline that phrase....Joshua built an altar. You know what it means to build an altar? That’s what I want to spend a few minutes discussing tis morning. Joshua built an altar to acknowledge God. It was a tangible expression of His loyalty to God. So I want talk to you tis morning about what happens at the altar.
The altar is primarily a place of doing business with God. Building an altar is a form of worship. You see Joshua built an altar because deep in His heart he wanted to pay tribute to God for all the success they had. Joshua had a desire to worship God and God alone. So he built the altar to acknowledge and celebrate God as the giver and sustainer of victory. You see, he learned a hard lesson from suffering defeat. He found out just how quickly success can be taken for granted. He discovered the dangers of success. After rebounding from the defeat he was determined to realign himself and all of Israel for that matter with the sovereign will of God. So he built the altar.
Equally important is what they did at the altar. The Bible says, they spent a lot of time bringing offerings and sacrifices to the altar. You know what that tells us? Worship is a serious commitment. It requires a sacrifice of our time and energy. In the midst, of a very busy time, Israel under Joshua’s leadership stopped everything to worship and acknowledge God. This whole worship scene in Joshua 8, is sorta of an interruption if you will. But isn’t that just like worship? It’s not always convenient. Worship makes claims on our life that are inconvenient and intrusive. I’m speaking from experience, because sometimes I don’t always feel like doing what Joshua did: building an altar to God and acknowledging Him. It’s a lot easier to just focus on myself and do what I please. Even as Pastor, there have been times in my life, when I have found it hard to submit to the discipline of worship. When Joshua built his altar he sacrificed. As did all of Israel. And sometimes thats what we need to do. Submit to the discipline of worship even when we don’t feel like. You know what else they did?
They focused on the word of God. This is really incredible if you look at it in it’s context. Here’s what happen.... we don’t even know how long they were there, but I will tell you this...they spent a lot of time focusing on the word of God. Joshua read the entire Bible--out loud, publicly to everyone. Now what would happen on a given Sunday, if instead of speaking to you, I stood up here and started reading the Bible from cover to cover (applause would probably break out). Do you know how long that would take?
That’s exactly what Joshua did between two mountains and right before the altar. He read the entire law of Moses, all blessings and curses. He read the whole story that told about the covenant that God had with Israel. Verse 35 says, that there was not a single word that Joshua didn’t read. Talk about detail. Wow, Joshua read the word of God in it’s entirety, from cover to cover. Thats how important it was to him. He was serious about giving God all the credit, and letting God’s words fill the air.
One of the things that I’ve tried to do since coming here as Pastor, is cultivate strong commitment to the word of God like Joshua did. I’ve tried to give the written word a central place in our worship. You see, I believe the word of God needs to be read, I believe it’s need’s to be heard, and I believe it needs to be memorized. So the way we carry that out, is make sure that on a given Sunday this book is read both New Testament and Old. It’s refreshing to hear what God has to say. And if you want to know what God has to say...Listen, listen closely. God has already spoken. This book is love letter written by God addressed to you and me.
So they read the word of God that day in it‘s entirety. And we are still reading the word of God today. It’s was a huge part of their worship then, and it’s a huge part of our worship now.
Now let me try to wrap this all up for you, with a few concluding thoughts. This was truly a defining moment for Israel in their relationship with God. Instead of taking victory laps and handing out awards, they chose to build an altar and worship God. Instead of being overcome with the success and taking credit for the victory, they offered sacrifices to God. That’s what you call maturity!
So let me ask you? How do you handle success? Do you see yourself as the source of it, have you ever taken credit for accomplishing something that God made possible? I have to tell you, I had to do some real searching in my heart this week as I studied this. Because you just have to wonder what would happen if.. if we had unprecedented success here as a Church. What would be our attitude if we had real impact and influence in this community. Could we handle it? Are we ready for something like that? Could God trust us, to return glory to heaven for it? Are we capable of handling the kind of success that God wants to give us?
I know one thing that I hope never changes...And folks Church is going to change, it always has and it always will. But I know of one thing I hope never changes and that’s the depth of our worship. Without truly entering into heartfelt worship, we can easily prop ourselves up for defeat. You see, I believe God is calling us to worship Him in Spirit and truth at all times. During the good times and the bad, over the mountain tops, the valleys, through thick and thin, regardless of how we feel, and in spite of our preferences.
The only way to truly handle success and maintain victory is to stay committed to worship and maintain a Godly perspective. You see, the very act of worship itself involves self denial. It’s a decision on our part to elevate God instead of ourselves. Joshua understood this, he knew the dangers of carelessness and overconfidence. He remedied it by choosing to worship God and give Him credit for the victory. Great accomplishments begin and end with worship. And that’s what Joshua chose to do, He took swift action to bring all of Israel together for a spiritual celebration. I mean they could have went out and partied, but instead of partying they prayed. They could have taken a few victory laps and raised up flag to show the world their greatness. But instead they built an altar. Worship: it’s not always convenient, and not always pleasant, but the people of God are called to worship. It’s total act of self denial, it’s choosing to pay tribute to God instead of ourselves. Worship requires sacrifice and offerings. That’s what Joshua Ch. 8 is all about, it’s about a serious and intentional effort on the part of all of Israel to elevate God and exalt His position.
Verse 30 says, “Joshua built an altar....” So what about you have you ever built an altar? Do you know what it means to build an altar? Building an altar can happen anywhere, anytime. An altar is a place of doing business with God. It could be the pillow you lay your head on. It could be the car you drive to work. It could be the chair you’re sitting in or the Church you attend. I know some of you came forward last week and made these front steps an altar. That my friends is true worship. Joshua had a heartfelt commitment to worship, and so can you! Building an altar is the act of choosing God instead of ourselves. Worship my friends, is our chosen destiny as the people of God. Now lets practice it!
