Latest / Crosswalk / Your Sin Will Find You Out — Joshua 7:6–26

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Your Sin Will Find You Out — Joshua 7:6–26 · 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. Book of Joshua We are in Joshua
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Actually, we're finishing up chapter 7. So let's
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open up there. I can find it and We've been talking
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about the battle at AI Let's pray before we get
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started and then I'm just gonna do a quick overview
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and then we'll finish up the chapter father We
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just thank you for the time together. Thank you
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Lord for your word God, I just thank you for
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people who love you and who love to hear from
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you. And just a lot of really good lessons in
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this chapter and the things we need to be paying
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attention to. And so, Lord, as we're going through
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it and especially as we're wrapping this whole
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thing up, Lord, I just pray that you give me
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wisdom and, God, that you would just be speaking
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through your word. We're thankful, Jesus, that
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every time we show up, you show up and you just
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do a work in our hearts. We're looking for that
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again tonight. I just pray that you'd do this
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all in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, remember Defeated
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AI was all about the fact that there was sin
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in the camp. You know what, let's go through,
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pick it up in verse six. Then Joshua tore his
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clothes, fell to the earth on his face before
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the ark of the Lord until evening. And he and
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the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their
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heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have
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you brought this people over the Jordan at all?
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to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to
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destroy us. Oh, that we had been content and
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dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh Lord,
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what shall I say when Israel turns its back before
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its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants
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of the land will hear it and surround us and
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cut off our name from the earth. Then what will
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you do for your great name? And so the Lord said
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to Joshua, get up. Why do you lie thus on your
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face? Israel has sinned. and they've also transgressed
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my covenant which I commanded them for they have
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even taken some of the accursed things and have
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both stolen and deceived and they've also put
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it among their own stuff. Therefore the children
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of Israel could not stand before their enemies
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but turned their backs before their enemies because
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they have become doomed to destruction. Neither
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will I be with you anymore unless you destroy
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the accursed from among you. Get up. sanctify
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the people and say sanctify yourselves for tomorrow
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because thus says the Lord God of Israel there's
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an accursed thing in your midst oh Israel you
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cannot stand before your enemies until you take
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away the accursed thing from among you in the
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morning therefore you shall be brought according
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to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe
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which the Lord takes shall come according to
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families, and the family which the Lord takes
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shall come by households, and the household which
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the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it
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shall be that he who is taken with the accursed
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thing shall be burned with fire, he into all
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that he has because he has transgressed the covenant
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of the Lord and because he's done a disgraceful
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thing in Israel." So Joshua rose early in the
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morning and brought Israel by their tribes. And
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then the passage goes on. Again, what's taking
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place is Joshua fought the battle of Jericho.
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God gave them Jericho God had said about the
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city of Jericho that nothing was to be taken
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as plunder that it was all to be given over the
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Lord it was to be burnt with fire and so Jericho
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God wanted completely destroyed we talked about
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that when we were in chapter 6 and some of the
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reasons for that there were situations where
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God When they were going through Canaan, destroyed
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everything in a city. And there were other situations
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where God drove people out of the land of Canaan.
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There were other situations where God destroyed
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the people that kept the plunder. Last, a couple
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weeks ago we were talking about the fact that
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this may have had to do with the sin of the Canaanites
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specifically. They'd have over 600 years of sexual
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immorality in the land of Canaan. Unrepentant,
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full -on human sacrifice. Babies being burned
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and buried in the foundations of walls of cities
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and walls of houses. It was a completely corrupt
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society. And with that corruption comes all kinds
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of consequences. The Bible in Romans chapter
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1 talks about the consequences of somebody turning
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away from the Lord. And the first consequence
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is sexual immorality and all the results of that.
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And then after that comes homosexuality. And
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God says that with the whole sin of homosexuality
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that you will receive in your bodies the judgment
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thereof. And so there are things that go along
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with sexual immorality that cause us real problems.
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And we know about this stuff. And we call them
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STDs. Back when I was a kid, it was called VD,
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venereal disease. And so we have AIDS and we
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have... gonorrhea, and we have syphilis, and
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we're living in an age where we've got medicine
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and we can take care of some of these problems.
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This is not the time that this was going on.
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And so when these diseases would come around,
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they'd become rampant in the society and kill
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off people. If you know anything about STDs,
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you know that these get passed on to babies through
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the birth canal and different situations like
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that. And it can just be awful. In our country,
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when AIDS came along, a natural deterrent to
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homosexual practices. It's a natural deterrent
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to homosexual practices because you die if you
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do these things. And it didn't happen in the
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United States because we've got the technology
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to come along with medications and ameliorate
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that, keep that from taking place basically.
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In Africa, they did not. And so a third of Africa
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died. When you go over to Africa, most of the
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people that you run into in African nations are
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relatively young. They're getting older now because
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AIDS wiped out all the adults. And so now most
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of the population in Africa is relatively young.
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You don't see a lot of old people over there.
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And again, it's because of the natural consequences
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of sexual immorality. God says no to certain
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things, and he's got good reasons for it. And
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so there's a good chance, and the Bible doesn't
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state this specifically. What the Bible says
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is that God took them because of their wickedness.
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But there's a good chance that what God was doing
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was preserving the rest of the human race. If
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there was anything like AIDS happening in Sodom
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and Gomorrah or in Canaan. or later on in other
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areas where God brings down judgment. If there
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was anything like that going on, it could spread
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throughout the human race and cause real problems
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before God was done with us. We're getting into
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issues now in the last days where not only are
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we having problems with viruses that come up,
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we just went through coronavirus, and there's
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some question as to whether or not that came
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from animals, from bats in China, or whether
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it was... a virus that was manipulated by the
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Chinese and a good chance that's the case from
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everything that we can see. It might be a dry
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run for other things that are going to be coming
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later. The Bible talks about during the last
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days there are going to be plagues that come
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and specifically the battle that brings about
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the rise of the Antichrist kills off a quarter
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of the population of the earth. And it's not
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usually we think of nuclear weapons and that
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kind of thing, but the arsenals that we have
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are nuclear, biological, and chemical. And so
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if a country wanted to do a dry run on how to
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spread a virus that wasn't so nasty that it would
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actually kill off large portions of the population
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just to see what would happen, this would be
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a good dry run. And so, don't want to, you know,
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start a conspiracy or anything, but we need to
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be wise about what's going on. This stuff came
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from China and they are the major threat to the
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United States and actually to the world according
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to geopolitics right now and according to the
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Bible. These guys are the kings of the East most
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likely in the book of Revelation. And so, what
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we're seeing in different areas in the Middle
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East and on the Far East are precursors of what
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the Bible says is going to take place during...
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the tribulation period specifically. The Bible
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says there's going to be a 200 million man army
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that comes from the Far East of Israel and comes
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to attack Israel at the Battle of Armageddon.
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200 million man army. And there are only a few
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nations that can supply the populace to be able
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to pull that off. And one of them is Communist
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China. Another one is India. India has a possibility
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of doing that also because of the large population
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there. In any case, We've got stuff that goes
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on in our world right now because of specifically
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the consequences of sin that again gets taken
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care of with antibiotics and antivirals and medications
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and that kind of stuff that were not the case
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in these times. God told these people I want
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the whole city burnt and it's all mine is what
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God said. If I take what is God's it becomes
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a curse to me and that's In the Bible, this is
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something that's called the band. Anything that's
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given over to God, if I take from that, that
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becomes a curse to me. It is banned to me. And
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so it becomes the accursed thing. And that's
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what God's talking about when he's talking to
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Joshua in this passage. What had happened with
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Joshua is when he went in to fight AI, and again,
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this is overview of the chapter, when he went
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in to fight AI, he didn't bother praying about
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it. That's one of the things that you have. that
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is actually a distinction between Joshua and
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Moses. Moses was a guy who was introverted and
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he was a guy who was retiring as far as his personality
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went. You remember that he started off wanting
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to be something for the Lord and something before
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the people of Israel and when he stepped out
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the first time he went overboard, killed an Egyptian,
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and then when it was made known by the Israelis.
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They let him know, we know what you did. There
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was a fight between two Israelis, and Moses came
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up and tried to stop the fight, and these guys
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said, we know what you did to the Egyptian. You
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gonna do that to me? And when Moses knew that
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it was known, he took off from Egypt, and he
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spent 40 years in the wilderness as a shepherd,
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and didn't bother him. Went out for 40 years.
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He's a hermit, that's a hermit. That's a guy
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who doesn't need to be around people. You're
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a shepherd out in the boonies. You don't need
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to be around people. And that's who Moses was.
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But Moses was also a guy that was a friend of
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God, and he was a guy who constantly sought the
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Lord. Joshua, on the other hand, is a different
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type of personality. Joshua is more outgoing.
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Joshua has been the general of the people of
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Israel under Moses. He was a good servant to
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Moses. He's one of the two witnesses that went
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into Canaan with the other ten spies. and he
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and Caleb came out and it was Joshua who was
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the spokesman and he said the land is good the
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land is everything that God told us and we can
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go in yeah there are giants yeah there's gonna
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be battles but we can go in we can conquer one
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of the problems with people who are out front
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like that is they have a tendency to step out
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before maybe they should they have a tendency
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to do the next thing because they assume that
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they know what God's going to do and that's what
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Joshua did in this passage. What you see here
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is prayerlessness. They didn't pray and find
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out what God's battle plan was. Joshua, before
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he started with Jericho, he went out by himself
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looking towards Jericho and the Lord met him
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there. and presumably what he was doing was seeking
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God, and God met him there, gave him the battle
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plan. But when it came to Ai, Joshua didn't do
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that. What you see in chapter seven that's notable
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is that there's prayerlessness there. If Joshua
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had prayed and asked the Lord what the battle
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plan was, God would have said, there is no battle
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plan. You've got some other things that you need
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to take care of before we go into this, and the
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thing that you need to take care of is Achan.
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And Achan is the guy who stole. out of Jericho,
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and we're going to meet him in a couple of minutes
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here. God would have told him, you've got a problem
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in the camp. There's sin in the camp. You need
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to take care of this before I'm going to be with
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you in battle. That's what he tells him in the
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end. Joshua sends the military in and they say,
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don't send in the whole camp. All we need to
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do is take in two or 3 ,000 people. Joshua sends
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in 3 ,000. They get there and they get whooped
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up. 36 guys died. Not a huge defeat, but 36 guys
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who were fathers. 36 guys who were sons, 36 guys
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who were brothers, and they all end up dying
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because one jerk goes in and disobeys the command
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of God and hides it from everybody. And so when
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Joshua, you know, we saw him coming before the
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Lord and praying. Finally, when he approaches
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God, he's like, God, what are you doing? I thought
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we were here to win. And it would have been better
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if we'd have stayed on the other side of the
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Jordan. And he comes in with an accusatory attitude
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towards God, because from Joshua's point of view,
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God is not measuring up to the things that he's
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promised to the people of Israel. And what God
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says to him is, get up. Why do you lie thus on
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your face? And I like that answer. I think that's
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cool. One of the things that I pointed out last
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time was you don't really see God doing this
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with Moses. And I think, again, it has to do
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with personality. I think that there are some
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guys who need a two -by -four upside the head
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and other people that God comes to more gently
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in situations. And I like Joshua because he's
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a two -by -four guy. And this isn't the only
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time that Joshua's gonna deal with this. It's
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gonna happen again in the next couple of chapters.
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And again, the issue is prayerlessness. And so
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if you're one of those people who's a go -getter,
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you're one of those people who just wants to
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get it done, you need to be paying attention
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to whether or not you are seeking the Lord and
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whether or not you're getting God's battle plan
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on an issue. Because a lot of times you can end
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up in places that God does not want you, and
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God would never have you there if you had come
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and talked to him about these things. And God
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answers when you pray. Like I said, when Joshua
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went out before Jericho, presumably what he was
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going to do was seek the Lord, and that's exactly
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who he got. He got the Lord. and an Old Testament
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appearance of Jesus. So, because of this, you
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have a situation where what should have been
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an easy victory becomes a humiliating defeat.
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And specifically, there are people who die at
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Sheberim, which means the place of smashing.
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That's what they titled the place, the place
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of smashing. And so Joshua gets schooled in this
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whole thing, and God speaks to him about what
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needs to happen. You know, it's really important
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that when we're following the Lord and especially
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when God is doing a cool work that we don't pollute
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it. You know, one of the things that I like to
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point out when I'm going through passages like
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this is that there are times when God gets more
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intense and a lot of times it has to do with
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the purity of what he's doing. And that's the
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case with this situation. You have a whole generation
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of people that have been wandering around in
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the wilderness for 40 years through no fault
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of their own. It was their parents' fault. When
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they go into the land of Canaan in Joshua chapter
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1, when they go into the land of Canaan, they
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are all in. They're excited about going in. They're
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totally willing to follow Joshua. They'll do
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whatever he wants them to do. And the biggest
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evidence of that is before they went to Jericho,
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they circumcised every man in the whole company
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of the people of Israel, which that's a pretty
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big commitment. Somebody comes up and says, OK,
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we're going to do circumcision here. Drop your
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pants, and off we go. And then you're going to
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be down for three days. That's a pretty big commitment,
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and they did it without bucking at all. There
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was no kickback on that whole thing. You can
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see that you have a group of people that are
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going for it with the Lord, and then you get
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one guy. They have this overwhelming victory,
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and one guy wrecks it. Like I said, 36 guys end
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up dying because of his nonsense. You get to
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the New Testament, you have the same thing. When
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the church first started in Jerusalem, it was
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an awesome thing. You had a group of people who
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loved the Lord and who were following God. There
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were the disciples of Jesus who were there in
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the first place, over 120 of them, probably up
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to 500 who were in the church at Jerusalem, at
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least 120 of them. That went from 120 to over
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3 ,000. in just a day. Three thousand people
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got saved in a day, guys specifically got saved.
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So there's probably more women and possibly children
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there. And so overnight they have a megachurch.
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And the three thousand people that got saved,
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a lot of them were from out of town. It was during
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the feast days. And so these guys would be coming
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from Greece and they would be coming from the
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area of Syria. They would be coming from Egypt.
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One of the guys that was there during that time
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was from Libya. The guy who carried Jesus's cross,
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Simon of Cyrene. He's from Libya and so he'd
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come from that far to the city of Jerusalem and
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so he presumably was still there when all this
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stuff was taking place in the book of Acts and
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so because they were still there they had no
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place to stay you would bring enough provisions
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to take care of yourself for a month or two when
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you went through the feast days and they were
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at the end of that whole thing and so what happened
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was a bunch of the believers in the Church of
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Jerusalem began selling property, selling stuff,
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and bringing in the money to give to the apostles
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to take care of the people's needs who were from
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out of town. They didn't want them to go off
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without being disciples, for example. That's
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what was going on. And so it was a really cool
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thing. And then this couple, Ananias and Sapphira,
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they want to do the same thing, but they want
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to look like they're doing exactly what everybody
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else is doing and giving it all to the Lord,
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but they don't want to give it all to the Lord.
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And so what they do is they give part of it to
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the Lord and part of it they kept back. But they
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came and said, this is the price of the land
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we sold. We're giving it all to God. And they
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were lying through their teeth. And so First
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Ananias did it. He's the guy. He does it. Peter
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calls him out on it and says, you know what?
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You've lied to the Holy Spirit. You haven't lied
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to men. You've lied to God. And so judgment of
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God came down on him and he falls over dead.
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How'd you like that to happen at church? You
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know, it's like somebody comes in and I'm sitting
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there and they stand up and they're sharing about
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some awesome thing that they've done and God
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tells me, no, they didn't. And I call them out
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on it and say, you know, and because of that,
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here's your punishment. Boom, you fall over dead.
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Hey, you know, some of the ushers, can you carry
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this dude out? That's what happened. And so they're
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carrying the guy out and they go out to bury
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him. And then his wife comes in and Peter goes.
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Doesn't such happen did you sell it for so much
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and that kind of thing and Peter says when you
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had it in your own hands You could do with it
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what you wanted But what you did was you came
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in here and lied about it and he says look there's
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the guys who carried your husband out They're
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gonna be carrying you out, too And she falls
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over dead and they went buried her with her husband
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and Anais God did not appreciate the polluting
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of a new thing that he was doing He didn't appreciate
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the polluting of something that was pure You
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watch out when God's doing a new work Because
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he's not going to put up with the pollution of
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something that's sweet to him and so Joshua gets
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told by the Lord what needs to happen and the
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point that God makes to him is that there has
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been things that were his that were stolen and
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that this man had deceived the people and That
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he had hidden the goods and that kind of action
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brings defeat personally and it brings defeat
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corporately you know when we've done something
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wrong specifically what we're supposed to be
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doing is confessing our sin and if we confess
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our sin God is faithful and just and he'll forgive
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us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
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and that's the case individually it's the case
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corporately too we need to be people who are
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real before the Lord otherwise it just becomes
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something that's polluted. Paul in the New Testament
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said a little leaven leavens the whole lump and
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so the leaven needs to be taken out. That's in
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1 Corinthians chapter 5. So God gives the answer
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and the answer is that these people need to be
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set apart. The answer is that they need to be
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a holy people for the Lord. There's a passage
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in the book of Jeremiah that says this go and
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proclaim these words toward the north and say
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return backsliding israel says the lord i will
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not cause my anger to fall on you for i am merciful
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says lord i will not remain angry forever only
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acknowledge your iniquity that you've transgressed
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against the lord your god and have scattered
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your charms to alien deities under every green
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tree and you've not obeyed my voice says the
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lord and the promise there is that god's going
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to restore them god's going to bless them If
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there's confession, if there's not confession,
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then God's gonna deal with the sin. And when
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the sin is bad enough and hidden enough, God's
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going to bring it out. You know, Moses at one
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point said to the people, you know your sin is
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gonna find you out. And that's the case all the
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time. God doesn't let Christians just go on doing
22:11
what they do without repercussions. And the reason
22:14
is because he's a father and fathers don't do
22:16
that. The fathers deal with the sin in their
22:19
children's lives so that they can actually be
22:21
somebody that everybody actually likes. That's
22:25
the way that it's supposed to go. And God is
22:27
in the business of turning us into people who
22:30
act like Jesus. So he's not gonna let you go
22:33
with your stuff. If he is, actually that's an
22:36
indication that you're not a follower of God.
22:38
There's a passage in Hebrews chapter 12 that
22:40
talks about the fact that God spanks his kids,
22:43
talks about God chastens. His sons, the word
22:46
chasin' there is whip. Gives him a whippin',
22:49
like my grandma did to me with a switch one time.
22:52
Very effective. The rod and correction will drive
22:55
foolishness far from the heart of a child. That's
22:58
exactly what my grandma, I only got spanked by
23:00
my grandma one time. It was effective, man. And
23:03
she didn't, you know, it wasn't a real long thing.
23:05
Switches are good. In any case, God talks about
23:10
spanking, but he only spanks his own kids. And
23:12
if you're not getting spanked, you're in sin.
23:15
There's no situation where God is dealing with
23:18
you on your sin. That's not a good thing. That's
23:21
a bad thing. That's an indication that you're
23:24
not walking with God. That's an indication that
23:26
you're not His child. And so any time that God's
23:29
going to deal with somebody, He deals with His
23:32
own and He starts with them. There's a passage
23:36
in Joel 2 .25 where it talks about the fact that
23:40
God will restore. When we confess, it says, so
23:43
I will restore to you the years that the swarming
23:46
locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming
23:49
locust, and the chewing locust, my great army
23:52
which I sent among you. And so we have a promise
23:55
from God that not only is God going to forgive
23:57
us for our sin, but a lot of times what He's
24:00
going to do is He's going to restore to us the
24:02
things that we've lost. You've been listening
24:05
to Crosswalk with Pastor Steve Wintory. Crosswalk
24:08
is the radio ministry of Cowrie Chapel Tri -Cities
24:10
in Kinoent, Washington. If you're wanting to
24:12
know more about what it means to follow Christ,
24:15
then please contact our church office by phone
24:17
at 509 -736 -2086. You can also look us up online
24:22
at calvary -tricities .org. Calvary Chapel Tri
24:26
-Cities is offering two in -person training courses
24:29
for those seeking to serve in missions or ministry.
24:32
The School of Missions starts with 12 weeks of
24:35
classroom -style learning and local outreach
24:37
in the Tri -Cities, Washington, followed by a
24:39
10 -week cross -cultural mission outreach. The
24:42
School of Ministry, this course is 18 weeks of
24:44
in -person learning environment, followed by
24:46
a four -week mission trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
24:51
.com.