Latest / Crosswalk / When Victory Turns to Defeat — Joshua 7:1–10

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When Victory Turns to Defeat — Joshua 7:1–10 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. I'm really surprised that more
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archaeologists haven't gone treasure hunting.
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We need a guy like, what's his name? Indiana
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Jones, thank you, to go and do that. Okay, AI
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in chapter seven. Let's look at chapter six,
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verse 26. Then Joshua charged them at the time,
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this is at the end of the battle, saying, cursed
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be the man. before the Lord who rises up and
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builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation
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with his firstborn and with his youngest he shall
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set up its gates." So the Lord was with Joshua
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and his fame spread throughout all the country,
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but, and that's where things get scary when you
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get to chapter seven, but. You don't want to
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have that after a great victory. You don't want
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to have God going, yeah, it was awesome. It was
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great. It was wonderful. Fame was spread around,
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but. And that's what you have in chapter seven,
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verse one. But the children of Israel committed
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a trespass regarding the accursed things. For
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Achan, the son of Carmy, the son of Zabdi, the
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son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the
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accursed things so the anger of the Lord burned
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against the children of Israel. And you remember
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that when Jericho was about to be taken, God
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told them, everything in Jericho is mine. You
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don't take any of it. You will leave it there.
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It's to be destroyed with the city. Don't touch
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it, don't take it, it's mine. That makes it a
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curse for the people of Israel. If something
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is God's and God's only, if I take it, it brings
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a curse on me. And so God is the only one who
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is all -knowing. If I claim the ability to know
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everything, if I am a know -it -all, I'm taking
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glory from God, right? If I really think that.
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I'm taking glory from God. If I take glory from
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God, if God does something in our midst, if God
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does something in my life, and I take the glory
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from him, I've stolen from God, and it becomes
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a curse to me, that is God's, it's God's alone.
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If I pretend to take on God's nature, if I tell
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you that I'm God, look at me, I'm a God. You
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know, I live forever. I'm a god -like being.
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That kind of thing. What I'm doing is I'm taking,
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again, glory from God. I'm taking something that
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belongs to God alone. It is not mine. It is His.
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And because I've taken it on myself, I become
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accursed. And so there's things that you don't
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touch when you're talking about your relationship
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with God. You don't touch the glory. You don't
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touch the money. Don't touch the money. And so
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when people give money to a church, they're giving
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it to whom? God. And no one else. They're giving
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it to God. And so God's put people in charge
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of churches. I'm one of those guys. And you have
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to take that seriously. It's not my money. It's
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not my stuff just to do things with. And when
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you start messing around with the things that
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belong to God, God comes after you. I've had
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friends, actually one friend. Well, I kind of
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don't want to say he's my friend. He's a guy
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that I knew. I knew him pretty well. But he became
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a pastor and he started taking money from church
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and buying cars. Gosh, what kind of car did he
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buy? I think it was like a Toyota 4Runner. I
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can't remember what kind of car it was, but he
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went out and he just ran it into the dirt. Didn't
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change the oil, just wrecked the engine. And
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when it died, he had the church buy him a new
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car. I've never had the church buy me a car.
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You know, that's not something that you do. And
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so this guy did this and he was being fishy with
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the money in a number of different areas. And
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then on top of that, he was having relationships
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with some of the women in the fellowship. He
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was married and that kind of thing. And when
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you do those things, God comes after you. And
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so you have to watch out. So when God tells them,
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don't you touch. the things in ai as soon as
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god says that it becomes a curse to anybody who
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touches the thing i said ai the things in jericho
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it becomes a curse to anybody who takes them
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up and that's what god's talking about in verse
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one israel committed a trespass regarding the
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accursed things and caused the anger of the Lord
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to burn against the children of Israel. Now Joshua
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sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside
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Beth -Aven on the east side of Bethel, and spoke
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to them saying, go up and spy out the country.
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So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they
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returned to Joshua and said to him, do not let
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all the people go up, but let about two or three
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thousand people go up. Against AI do not weary
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all the people there for the people of AI are
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few So about 3 ,000 men went up there from the
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people but they fled before the men of AI And
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the men of AI struck down about 36 men for they
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chased them from before the gate as far as Sheberim
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And struck them down on the descent therefore
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the hearts of the people melted and became like
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water You know when you look at the first five
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verses of AI what you have here is groundwork
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for defeat And I titled it preparation for a
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pounding. And that's what they get. And the problem
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is that there's sin in the camp. The Bible says
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the Lord was with Joshua. But in verse one, God's
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anger is burning against Israel because of the
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failure of Achan in the situation with what's
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happened at Jericho. We'll see what he does at
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the end of the chapter. But in any case, the
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situation with Achan, his failure, ends up bringing
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humiliation on Joshua. And he pilfered from God.
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He took from the accursed things. He pilfered
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from God. That's the first problem in this passage.
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He stole from God. The second problem that you
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have in the passage is the pride of the people.
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These are things that lead to defeat. It's the
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pride of the people. Not only did they take of
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the accursed things, the glory, and Achan doing
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his stuff, Achan stole literally from God. The
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people stole from God and taking the glory. And
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they did it subtly because what they did was
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they came off a victory at Jericho and they decided
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that the next city was no big deal because Jericho
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was highly fortified. Jericho was something that
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was daunting as far as the Israelis were concerned.
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And when they looked out, when they spied out
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the city of Ai, they just minimized these people.
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And they thought that it was no big deal that
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they could take them. Well, they didn't take
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Jericho. It was the Lord that took Jericho. So
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they don't have any business thinking that they're
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hot stuff because they went up against Jericho
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and saw the walls fall down. All they did was
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shout and blow trumpets. That's all they did.
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And then they walked up and burnt the place.
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That's all that took place. So they didn't fight
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the battle of Jericho, the Lord fought the battle
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of Jericho, and then they go to Ai thinking they're
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gonna fight Ai, and since they wanted Jericho,
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Ai is a smaller place, no big deal, we can take
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it, don't send any more than two or three thousand
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men. And so what they're doing is taking glory
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from God. God was the one who wanted Jericho,
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not them. There's a passage in Isaiah 42 -8 that
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says, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my
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glory I will not give to another. And what ends
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up happening is the great victory at Jericho
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ends up bringing a haughty spirit to the people
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of Israel, right? And you know what happens with
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a haughty spirit, right? Pride goes before destruction
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and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs
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18 -12 says, before destruction the heart of
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a man is haughty and before honor is humility.
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And so where do we want to be walking? Obviously,
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we want to be walking in humility. There's going
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to be a penumbral eclipse of the moon tonight.
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What time, Bobby? 1 .43 or 1 .45. Bobby knows
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all these things. There's going to be a penumbral
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eclipse of the moon. The moon is never eclipsed
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unless it's full. It's never eclipsed unless
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it's full. One of the things that you have to
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understand about the fall of a godly man or godly
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woman is usually the fall never takes place unless
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they're full. Unless awesome things have just
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happened with them. Whenever God does an awesome
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thing in my life, whenever God does an awesome
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thing in the fellowship, I start watching out
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for my attitude. specifically. I start watching
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out for my attitude. I start watching out for
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the attitude that takes glory from God. I start
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watching out for the attitude that wants to take
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those things and point them to myself instead
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of to the Lord. What I find, you know, it's like
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I've got brains. I do. I have brains and I use
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them. I do. And usually when I'm using my brains,
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I find out that somewhere in the mix I've missed
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something. and God has supernaturally set me
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up in a situation where even though I miss something,
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I look really great in the end. Because the missing
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of the issue, if I'd had everything straight
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when I went in and did the thing, then what would
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have happened is it wouldn't have turned out
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as well as it did if I missed the issue. And
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I can see the hand of God all through this. We
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did a bridge up at the ranch, and one of the
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things that happened was the towers were not
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built according to specs. So they sent me the
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specs and told me how they were going to build
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the towers. And they actually ended up being
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higher than what I expected, which put the bridge
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higher than what I expected. And after I did
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all the calcs and put all that stuff together,
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you can't really lower it. You're just stuck
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with it higher. And one of the points that we
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came away with is that the last time that we
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had a big flood, what happens is large trees
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go floating down the Umatilla River. And they
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have the bowls on the end of the trees. And the
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bridge is high enough that it's not. very likely
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that it's ever going to be taken out. It's higher
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than it was before. And so we got done with the
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whole thing, and I wasn't really satisfied with
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it because I wanted it a little bit lower. But
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then I started thinking about it, and I was like,
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you know what, that's actually pretty good. I
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like it this way. I'm glad that that happened
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and it had nothing to do with me. It was all
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about my mistake. I should have gone up and measured
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the thing before I started building anything.
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And so little things like that will happen when
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I'm putting things together and I know that God's
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right in the middle of everything that I'm doing.
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He's right in the middle of it and he blesses
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it all the time. You have to watch out when you
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have your fingers in the things that God's doing.
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Because you need to watch for the hand of God
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in whatever's going on and you need to give him
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the glory that's due. In fact, the fact that
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I've got any kind of brains and I've got any
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kind of ability to do things is something that
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the book of Deuteronomy says comes from God in
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the first place. So I don't need to be taken
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any credit for it. It's the Lord who does these
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things, right? And so I like getting done with
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things and looking at them and going, wow, that's
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a really good job. I like saving money. I like
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all these things I like to do. But I understand
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that God has done a lot of things in my life
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that were preparation for where I'm at right
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now. And in practical areas, when I'm putting
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things together, He's preparing things before
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I even know them. He's setting things up in all
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kinds of different ways. I should write all these
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things down. You know, you could write a book
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on this stuff. where God is just in the details
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and doing things that I never even thought of
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until after the fact. I'm like, oh wow, miss
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that totally glad the Lord was there, you know,
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because he took care of that puppy. And God's
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really good that way. Pride of the people. You
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walk in humility. I understand that you can do
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things and I understand that God can use you
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and that kind of stuff, but you better watch
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out because pride goes before destruction. The
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third thing that you see in the passage is prayerlessness.
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Before Joshua went and fought the battle of Jericho,
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Joshua was hanging out outside the city of Jericho
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at night, and presumptively what he was doing
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was going and seeking the Lord, and the Lord
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showed up and gave Joshua the battle plan. That's
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what we had in chapter five with the angel of
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the Lord, the captain of the Lord's host standing
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before him. Joshua got the battle plan not from
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the people, not from the spies. not from his
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intelligence agency, he got the battle plan from
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God. And what you see notably missing in Joshua
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chapter six is prayer. He doesn't go and talk
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to the Lord before he goes into the battle, and
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it's not until after he loses the battle that
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he goes in and talks to the Lord. All of a sudden
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he hits his knees after everything's fallen apart.
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And so that many times is how we run our lives.
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We go through thinking, OK, God, I know how to
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handle this. I've been doing this for years.
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I've been a Christian. I've been a Christian
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for five years. I can handle this stuff. Or I've
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been a Christian for 10 years, or 20 years, or
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40 years. I've been a pastor since 1983. So I
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know how to do pastor stuff. I've been doing
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it for a very long time. I don't get that attitude.
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There are things that I just do routinely, but
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I'm constantly in prayer over things because
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I know that I'm constantly missing things. I
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can't see everything. So I'm always talking to
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the Lord and saying, God, you've got to cover
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for me here. because this is happening, and that's
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happening, and I can't be in on that, and so
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I don't know what to do. So you gotta guide me,
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God, because this could go south really quickly.
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And that's the kind of attitude that you have
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to have, not only with the responsibilities that
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God gives to you, but with your life just in
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general. You're not all that smart, even if you
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are really smart. You're not all that smart.
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God is the one who knows the end from the beginning.
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And so it would be a good idea to talk to the
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one who knows the end from the beginning before
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you start making these major decisions in your
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life. They're going to be life altering. Maybe
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we ought to consult him. God, am I going to have
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a job in five years? This is something that I
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learned working in construction because construction
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was so on again, off again that I couldn't trust
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the fact that I was going to have work. And so
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before I made a purchase, I would pray. about
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the purchase because I don't want to be in a
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situation where I go and buy a couch or a washing
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machine or a car or those kinds of things and
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I get six months into the payment and all of
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a sudden I'm out of work and I can't make the
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payment anymore. It's not a good witness when
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the bank comes and repos your car and you got
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a Jesus sticker on the back side of it. Not a
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good witness, right? And so I would pray about
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those things and ask the Lord whether or not...
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He wanted me to do those things. And so having
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a prayerful attitude towards the Lord. In this
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instance, there's a lack of dependence on the
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Lord. And again, who's the one who won the battle
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of Jericho? And it was God himself who did it.
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It wasn't the people. And so AI, which means
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ruin, that's what AI means, ruin. The ruin became
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the ruin. So they go up and fight against it,
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and an easy victory ends up becoming a humiliating
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defeat. So you have sin in the camp, you have
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the problems that were taking place in the camp,
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somebody had pilfered from God, you had the pride
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of the people, and you had prayerlessness. And
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then you get the pounding. Notice all my P's
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there? Isn't that fancy? You have the pounding.
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And so what they do is they say, well, it's not
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a big city, just send two or three thousand.
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And so Joshua listens to the people. and he errs
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on the side of caution, and he sends 3 ,000.
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Not just 2 ,000, he sends 3 ,000, right? And
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so what happens is they go up against AI, and
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they get defeated, and 36 men end up dying. They
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flood before the men of AI verse four, and the
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men of AI struck down about 36 men, for they
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chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim.
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And Sheberim means the place of smashing. So
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it may be a reference to the loss of the battle
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of Ai or it may be a reference to a stone quarry.
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And so some translations there have stone quarry
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at that passage. In any case, if you've ever
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been around a stone quarry, it's a place that
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generally is like a box canyon and you can't
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get out. And so they would run into it, get surrounded,
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and then 36 men died there. Which isn't huge,
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it's not a huge defeat when you're talking about
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3 ,000 men, right? It's a little bit over 1%,
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almost 2 % of your forces that get taken out.
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But the 2 % are sons and husbands and fathers.
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and guys who should never have died. Nobody died
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during the Battle of Jericho, not on the Israeli
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side. Nobody died during the Battle of Jericho.
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And so what ends up happening is they get defeated
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at Ai, and it says down at the end of verse five,
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they struck them down on the descent, therefore
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the hearts of the people melted and became like
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water. So now we're not so hot anymore. Now we're
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not so awesome anymore because down deep inside
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they knew that the reason that they were winning
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is because the Lord was on their side, right?
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And that's something that is comforting in the
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sense that I know that God cares about me and
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that he's somebody who is on my side, but that's
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not really the question. If you remember what
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we talked about when we were in chapter five,
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what Joshua says to the Lord when he meets him
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is friend or foe. Are you on my side or are you
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on their side? And what God says is no, I've
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come as commander of the armies of the Lord.
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I'm not on anybody's side. It's not a question
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of whether I'm on your side or on their side.
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The question is are you on my side? And so am
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I on the Lord's side? And so these people were
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going into the battle thinking that God was on
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their side. And the thing that they needed to
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be thinking about was are they on God's side?
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and a little prayer would have gotten them a
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long way if they'd done that before they'd gone
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into the battle. Again, it's a great lesson to
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learn in this passage and it's something that
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we should be learning from them and not from
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practical experience. And way too often we go
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jump into things and then when it doesn't go
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through and then when it all falls apart, we're
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coming to God going, God, what happened? What
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did you do? I thought you were on my side. And
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God's going, you never talk to me about this.
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I'm the one who's supposed to be guiding you.
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I don't rubber stamp your plans. And that's basically,
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again, what they were expecting. It's a natural
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thing. We all do this stuff. But what we're supposed
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to be doing is not the natural. We're supposed
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to be doing the supernatural. And when it doesn't
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work out their way, they fold and they fold completely
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because now they realize that God's not on their
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side. and that something's wrong. And they're
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in the midst of a country that is radically fearful
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of them and would like them to be wiped out,
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destroyed, and they have no guarantee at this
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moment because they just got taken out by one
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of the smallest cities in the area. They have
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no guarantee at this moment that God's going
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to be with them or protect them. They don't have
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a country. They're just a bunch of nomads walking
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through town, basically. And if God's not with
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them, then they're going to have a real problem.
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And that's exactly where we all sit, isn't it?
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We're strangers in a strange land and the Bible
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says that this world is not our home. Our home
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is heaven That's where we live. This is not where
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we live. And so I need God with me at every moment
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That's gonna get more and more obvious as time
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goes on and as the world gets closer and closer
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to the book of Revelation and The people around
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us get more and more antithetical towards Christianity,
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they start hassling you for being a Christian.
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You're gonna start realizing that this world
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is not your home and that you are not safe here.
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And we need to have God with us in this whole
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thing. And ultimately, that happens because God's
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on my side, or excuse me, because I'm on God's
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side. And at that point, then God's with me.
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So starting in verse six, you have the groundwork,
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you know, in verses one through five, you have
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the groundwork for defeat. preparation for a
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pounding and starting in verse 6 you have the
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groundwork for victory and what you see is in
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verse 6 is then Joshua tore his clothes and fell
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to the earth on his face before the ark of the
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Lord until evening he and the elders of Israel
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and they put dust on their heads and Joshua said
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alas Lord God why have you brought this people
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over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the
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hand of the Amorites to destroy us they know
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the implications or that we had been content
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and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. O
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Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its
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back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and
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all the inhabitants of the land will hear it
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and surround us and cut off our name from the
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earth. Then what will you do for your great name?
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And so Joshua hits his knees, and that's commendable,
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but he hits his knees with an attitude. And the
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attitude assumes that God is at fault, that he's
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failed in his promise, that he's abandoned his
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people, that he's not concerned about his great
22:19
name. That's what Joshua accuses God of. In the
22:23
passage, Joshua gets schooled at this point,
22:25
and God says, get up. Look at that in verse 10.
22:28
So the Lord said to Joshua, get up. Why do you
22:32
lie thus on your face? Joshua's a different guy
22:35
than Moses. God didn't treat Moses that way.
22:39
Generally speaking, when God's speaking with
22:42
Moses, he's pretty gentle with the guy. He's
22:44
encouraging with him, and part of the reason
22:46
for that is because of Moses' personality. Moses'
22:50
personality was more retiring and more introspective
22:53
and that kind of thing. He had that kind of personality.
22:55
Joshua's a go -getter. Joshua was a guy who goes
22:58
in the land of Canaan and he spies it out and
23:00
everybody else is, you know, this is a bad deal.
23:03
We're gonna get wiped out if we go in there.
23:05
And Joshua was like, no, we're not. God's with
23:08
us. And he's trying to encourage the people and
23:10
he's kind of a type A guy. And when he comes
23:13
before the Lord, he comes before the Lord and
23:15
he says stupid things. These are stupid things
23:17
that he's saying here because he doesn't know
23:19
what he's talking about. But he comes before
23:22
the Lord, he's real before God and God's real
23:24
before him. And he says, get up. Why are you
23:27
lying on your face? And I like that because that's
23:31
what God does with us. If you're more of a retiring
23:35
personality and more introspective and you're
23:38
kind of more soft in the area of, I don't want
23:41
to say soft, but you know what I mean. You have
23:44
that kind of personality where you're not really
23:46
aggressive and that kind of thing. God many times
23:48
is not going to come after you and say things
23:50
like get up, get off your face. You know, most
23:53
times he's going to be a lot more kind to you.
23:56
But then you have people like me, and God just
23:59
comes up and blasts me with a two by four or
24:01
something. And I think it literally has to do
24:03
with personality. You've been listening to Crosswalk
24:06
with Pastor Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio
24:08
ministry of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities in Kennewick,
24:11
Washington. If you're wanting to know more about
24:13
what it means to follow Christ, then please contact
24:15
our church office by phone at 509 -736 -2086.
24:21
You can also look us up online at calvary -tricities
24:24
.org. Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities is offering
24:27
two in -person training courses for those seeking
24:30
to serve in missions or ministry. The School
24:33
of Missions starts with 12 weeks of classroom
24:35
-style learning and local outreach in the Tri
24:37
-Cities, Washington, followed by a 10 -week cross
24:40
-cultural mission outreach. The School of Ministry,
24:42
this course is 18 weeks of in -person learning
24:45
environment, followed by a four -week mission
24:48
trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
24:51
.com.