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Achan The Man Whose Sin Brought Calamity │ Msg 514 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: I want to speak on a rather serious subject for
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Speaker 1: the next few minutes. It has to do with sin.
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Speaker 1: I've never been one to categorize sin and to too
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Speaker 1: many compartments, because sin is sin. It always grieves the
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Speaker 1: heart of God. It always takes its toll on us. Occasionally,
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Speaker 1: as we shall learn in this particular study, it takes
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Speaker 1: a toll on others as well. But sin is simply
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Speaker 1: missing the mark. It is acting disobediently. It can even
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Speaker 1: occur in one's thought life, in the realm of the
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Speaker 1: unknown to other people. But nevertheless, it takes its toll.
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Speaker 1: My Bible is open right now to First John chapter one,
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Speaker 1: verses five through nine, which, like few other passages of Scripture,
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Speaker 1: sort of puts sin in a series of categories that
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Speaker 1: help us get a handle on it. Let me read
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Speaker 1: these verses of First John one five through nine, and
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Speaker 1: then let me make a few opening comments before we
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Speaker 1: get specific about what I have on my mind today.
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Speaker 1: And this is the message we have heard from him
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Speaker 1: and announce to you that God is light and in
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Speaker 1: him there is no darkness at all. If we say
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Speaker 1: that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness,
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Speaker 1: we lie and do not practice the truth. But if
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Speaker 1: we walk in the light, as he himself is in
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Speaker 1: the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
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Speaker 1: blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin.
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Speaker 1: If we say that we have no sin, we are
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Speaker 1: deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If
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Speaker 1: we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to
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Speaker 1: forgive us our sins sins, and to cleanse us from
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Speaker 1: all unrighteousness. And then the final tenth verse, if we
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Speaker 1: say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar,
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Speaker 1: and his word is not in us. In those several verses,
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Speaker 1: three begin with the words if we say, and they
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Speaker 1: all represent things that we have said. Verse six. If
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Speaker 1: we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk
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Speaker 1: in darkness, we lie. Verse eight. If we say we
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Speaker 1: have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth isn't
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Speaker 1: in us. And verse ten, if we say we have
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Speaker 1: not sinned, we make him a liar. His word isn't
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Speaker 1: in us. The thought is denying the truth that he's revealed.
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Speaker 1: All three are very strong charges. And as I said,
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Speaker 1: all three have happened technically. All three are of a
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Speaker 1: personal nature. These are things we say to ourselves, or
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Speaker 1: we may on occasion say those things to someone else
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Speaker 1: who is a very close friend. But usually these this
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Speaker 1: is self talk. We are walking in the darkness, and
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Speaker 1: we rationalize by telling us we're really walking in the light.
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Speaker 1: When we do that, we verse six lie. We don't
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Speaker 1: practice the truth. If we say we have no sin
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Speaker 1: at all, we live under the delusions its self deception.
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Speaker 1: We're deceiving ourselves. And if we claim we have not
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Speaker 1: even sinned, we have so rationalized our way around the wrong.
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Speaker 1: We say he is a liar, which is even worse. Now.
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Speaker 1: There are times when our sin is committed, but it
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Speaker 1: impacts other lives, and that makes it all the more complicated.
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Speaker 1: That's what I have on my mind for this particular's study.
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Speaker 1: In fact, I want to talk about a man whose
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Speaker 1: sin brought calamity to many people, and as we shall see,
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Speaker 1: it brought defeat to an entire nation. But before we
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Speaker 1: look at that, let me say a couple of things here.
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Speaker 1: I remember, as a little boy hearing my mother say
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Speaker 1: about a particular church that was going through a dreadful time.
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Speaker 1: I was too little to even remember the particulars. I
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Speaker 1: just remember a phrase she used she said to my
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Speaker 1: dad one Sunday evening Earle She said, I think there's
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Speaker 1: sin in the camp. I think there's sin in the camp.
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Speaker 1: I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what
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Speaker 1: camp she had in mind. I didn't know the reference
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Speaker 1: she had. It was several years ago I heard that
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Speaker 1: phrase again, as it was said of a particular ministry
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Speaker 1: that had gone belly up. Someone said to me, the
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Speaker 1: problem with that ministry is that there has been sin
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Speaker 1: in the camp far too long. I knew nothing of
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Speaker 1: the of the ministry. I just had known of them,
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Speaker 1: of the tragedy of its failure. Some of the pastoral
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Speaker 1: staff from our church and a couple of our interns
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Speaker 1: took a trip recently, and part of our journey included
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Speaker 1: a church that, for a number of years was a
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Speaker 1: strong lighthouse. It was a beacon of hope, and it
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Speaker 1: was a pace setting ministry in every sense of the word.
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Speaker 1: It had grown in numbers, which is beside the fact
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Speaker 1: it was blessed of God. That's what is important. And
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Speaker 1: over the past several months it's now been better than
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Speaker 1: a year. In fact, several years there was a decline
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Speaker 1: in impact. There was a decline in morale. There was
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Speaker 1: a loss of some of the pastoral staff, and there
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Speaker 1: was discontentment, There was disunity. And while visiting this particular
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Speaker 1: church on our journey, we heard the whole story, and
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Speaker 1: the problem was that there had been sin in the camp.
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Speaker 1: The person in leadership had said to himself, I'm not
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Speaker 1: walking in the darkness, walking in the light. For all
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Speaker 1: the while he was walking in darkness, and he lied,
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Speaker 1: and instead of facing the truth and claiming the forgiveness
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Speaker 1: of verse nine, agreeing with God that it is sin
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Speaker 1: and claiming from God through confession and repentance that there
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Speaker 1: is forgiveness, he continued to walk in darkness, resulting in
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Speaker 1: enormous consequences that are still taking a toll in that
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Speaker 1: particular ministry. Sin in the camp. Turn from First John
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Speaker 1: in the New Testament back to the foundation for that
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Speaker 1: statement of sin in the camp, Joshua chapter seven. It
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Speaker 1: won't take us a long time to hear this story,
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Speaker 1: but I hope it is long enough for you not
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Speaker 1: to ever forget it, because it is possible to re live,
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Speaker 1: changing the details, to relive the events of Joshua chapter seven.
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Speaker 1: Even today, it is possible that someone hearing these words
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Speaker 1: right now is a part of a declining ministry. In
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Speaker 1: some realm. You may be the one who entertains a
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Speaker 1: walk in darkness and you have refused to face it.
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Speaker 1: Or you may know one who is in darkness and
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Speaker 1: telling himself or herself that that person is in the
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Speaker 1: light and they're living self deceived lives. I hope you
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Speaker 1: will see the impact that can have on a body
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Speaker 1: of people. Now understand, when we turn to Joshua seven,
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Speaker 1: we have just in the nation Israel been through the
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Speaker 1: greatest victory since we walked through the Red Sea. We
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Speaker 1: have witnessed the falling of the walls around Jericho. It's
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Speaker 1: a miracle. If you look up in chapter six, verse
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Speaker 1: fifteen and following, you'll read about it. It came about
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Speaker 1: on the seventh day that they rose early at the
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Speaker 1: dawning of the day and marched around the city in
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Speaker 1: the same manner seven times. Only on that day they
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Speaker 1: marched around the city seven times. All the other days
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Speaker 1: they had only marched around it once. Now this day
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Speaker 1: they marched seven times. Came about at the seventh time,
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Speaker 1: when the priest blew the trumpets, Joshua was said to
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Speaker 1: the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the
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Speaker 1: city verse twenty So the people shouted and priests blew
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Speaker 1: the trumpets, and it came about when the people heard
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Speaker 1: the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with
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Speaker 1: a great shout. And then we read the wall fell
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Speaker 1: down flat. I like the way it reads, just didn't
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Speaker 1: fall It fell down flat. The stones didn't even remain
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Speaker 1: on top of each other, so that they could simply
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Speaker 1: step over the result of the debris and march right
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Speaker 1: into the city and conquer it. If you look at
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Speaker 1: the land of Canaan and you study the invasion of Jericho,
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Speaker 1: you see that it was it was the wedge for
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Speaker 1: winning the whole finger of land called Canaan. It was
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Speaker 1: the decisive victory. It was the turning point in conquering
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Speaker 1: the land of Canaan. And they just walked into the
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Speaker 1: city and they took over incredible victory. The walls fell
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Speaker 1: down flat verse twenty one. They utterly destroyed everything in
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Speaker 1: the city, both man and woman, young and old, oxen,
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Speaker 1: sheep and donkey, with the edge of the soworld. It
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Speaker 1: was over, and they must have rejoiced. These days are
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Speaker 1: absolutely glorious days. Look at the first verse of first
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Speaker 1: word of chapter seven. But but that is an ominous word.
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Speaker 1: That one negative particle sets the stage for a chapter
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Speaker 1: of defeat in the Lives of the Hebrews. And this
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Speaker 1: is the story that we want to think about for
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Speaker 1: the next few minutes. In newspaper fashion, we read the
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Speaker 1: whole story in one verse in one opening paragraph, and
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Speaker 1: then the details are given in verses two through twenty six.
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Speaker 1: But here's the story in a nuts verse one. But
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Speaker 1: the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the
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Speaker 1: things under the ban. For Aiken, the son of Karmai,
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Speaker 1: the son of Zabdi, the son of Zia, from the
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Speaker 1: tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban.
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Speaker 1: Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons
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Speaker 1: of Israel. Now keep that in mind. We'll come back
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Speaker 1: to the matter of something being under the ban in
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Speaker 1: a moment. But get the feeling of the events of
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Speaker 1: verses two through five so that you can appreciate the
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Speaker 1: sudden shock of defeat. Verse two, this is after the
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Speaker 1: Battle of Jericho. This is after the walls fell down flat.
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Speaker 1: They came to the next little city, which was nothing
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Speaker 1: compared to Jericho. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,
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Speaker 1: which is near beth Aven, east of Bethel, and said
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Speaker 1: to them, go up and spy out the land. So
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Speaker 1: the men went up and spot out Ai. They returned
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Speaker 1: to Joshua, and they said to him, don't let all
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Speaker 1: the people go up. Only about two or three thousand
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Speaker 1: men need to go up to Ai. Don't make all
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Speaker 1: the people toil up there for their few it's no
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Speaker 1: big thing. A lot of people are weary from the battle.
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Speaker 1: They have been through a lot in this whole Jericho campaign.
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Speaker 1: We don't need more than two, maybe three thousand troops.
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Speaker 1: It's sort of a random figure. Two or three thousand
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Speaker 1: of the plenty. This is nothing. It's like it's like,
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Speaker 1: you know, Notre Dame playing South Made Elementary. That's no
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Speaker 1: problem at all. It's like Pop Warner teams playing the
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Speaker 1: Cowboys of eighty nine. Any Pop Warner team could beat
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Speaker 1: the Cowboys of nine. You can't imagine how hard it
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Speaker 1: is for me to say that, but you know it's true.
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Speaker 1: There's just two or three thousand people. We've got it.
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Speaker 1: We've beat Jerry, we beat we can beat Ai. There's
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Speaker 1: nothing to it. Just send a few men up there.
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Speaker 1: So Joshua did it. About three thousand men from the
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Speaker 1: people went up from there, but they fled from the
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Speaker 1: men of Ai. And to make it worse, the men
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Speaker 1: of Ai struck down about thirty six of the finest
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Speaker 1: warriors of the Hebrews. Thirty six men died in the battle.
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Speaker 1: And to make it worse, they were shot in the
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Speaker 1: back because they were running out of the city. They
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Speaker 1: were retreating. Israel was on a retreat. Israel doesn't retreat.
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Speaker 1: Israel attacks, not now, not in this battle. It's unbelievable.
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Speaker 1: They pursued them from the gate as far as Shivarim
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Speaker 1: and struck them down on the descent. So the hearts
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Speaker 1: of the people melted and became as water. That always
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Speaker 1: happens when a body of people goes through a time
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Speaker 1: of defeat. The heart of the people melt. It's called
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Speaker 1: a demoralization. There's a demoralization that comes over you. You've
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Speaker 1: been in companies where the morale is low, the feeling
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Speaker 1: is defeat. You've been on teams that haven't won and
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Speaker 1: the morale is at the bottom. That's the way it
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Speaker 1: was in Israel. But what is so amazing is it
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Speaker 1: such a contrast with what they had at Jericho seven
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Speaker 1: times around the last day, seven times in that one day,
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Speaker 1: and the walls fell down flat, and they took the
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Speaker 1: huge city of Jericho. And here's this little pipsqueak city
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Speaker 1: of Ai, and they run for their lives. When that
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Speaker 1: kind of thing happens, spiritually speaking, as it happens today,
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Speaker 1: we need to perk up our ears. There's a reason
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Speaker 1: for such illogic. Joshua, confounded by the defeat we read
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Speaker 1: in verse six, tore his clothes and fell to the
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Speaker 1: earth on his face before the ark of the Lord
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Speaker 1: until the evening. He's serious, He and the elders of Israel,
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Speaker 1: and they put dust on their heads. Can you picture that?
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Speaker 1: I mean, is it is disillusioning, it is defeating. And
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Speaker 1: Joshua's prayer is recorded alas o, Lord God, why didst
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Speaker 1: Thou ever bring this people over the Jordan only to
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Speaker 1: deliver us into the hands and the Amorites to destroy us?
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Speaker 1: If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan?
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Speaker 1: Oh Lord, what can I say? Since Israel has turned
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Speaker 1: their back before their enemies. Now, Joshua's not worried about
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Speaker 1: his image. He's worried about God's name. I mean the
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Speaker 1: word is out, Lord, that Israelites are invading. Now wait
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Speaker 1: till they hear that Ai ran us out of town.
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Speaker 1: The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will
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Speaker 1: hear of it, and they will surround us and cut
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Speaker 1: off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou
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Speaker 1: do for vibrate name? I love that kind of reasoning. Lord.
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Speaker 1: I'm not worried about what I'm going to say regarding
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Speaker 1: Joshua's a battle. This isn't Joshua's battle. This is your battle.
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Speaker 1: And we went up in good faith to win this battle,
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Speaker 1: and we've been turned and defeated. What am I going
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Speaker 1: to say? Your name is at stake? The man at
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Speaker 1: the top, Joshua, the commander in chief, pours out his
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Speaker 1: heart before the Lord because he has come upon a mystery,
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Speaker 1: humanly inexplicable, unexplainable, totally illogical. By the way, it's a
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Speaker 1: good time to draw a lesson from it. When we
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Speaker 1: in leadership experience a time of mysterious defeat, it's time
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Speaker 1: to put the brakes on and wait on the Lord
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Speaker 1: and find out why. I've gone through periods in my
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Speaker 1: own life where out of the blue there were there.
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Speaker 1: There were back to back defeats that didn't make sense.
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Speaker 1: And we had planned so carefully, and we had prayed
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Speaker 1: through those times in preparation, and we came up on
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Speaker 1: an ai situation and back to way, and to my amazement,
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Speaker 1: we uncovered sin in the camp. And if you have
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Speaker 1: ever had a colleague that you thought was loyal and
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Speaker 1: found out later that there was disloyalty, then you know
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Speaker 1: the disillusionment of that. You know the horror that comes
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Speaker 1: over you, the disbelief. And Joshua is before the Lord saying,
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Speaker 1: what in the world has occurred? Doesn't make sense? The
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Speaker 1: Lord answers him in ten to fifteen in no uncertain terms.
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Speaker 1: Rise up, Joshua, why is it you fallen on your face?
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Speaker 1: Israel has sinned. Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant,
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Speaker 1: which I commanded them. They have even taken some of
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Speaker 1: the things under the band had both stolen and deceived. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: they've put them among their own things. It's not that
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Speaker 1: they took them and tossed them aside. They're hiding those things.
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Speaker 1: You've got sin in the camp, very serious charge. The
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Speaker 1: sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies they turn
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Speaker 1: their backs before their enemies, for they have become a
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Speaker 1: cursed I will not be with you anymore unless you
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Speaker 1: destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Rise up,
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Speaker 1: he says, again, set your people apart. Set them apart tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said,
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Speaker 1: these are things under the ban in your midst. A wa.
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Speaker 1: You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed
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Speaker 1: the things under the band from your midst. Well, we've
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Speaker 1: read it enough to hear that this under the ban
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Speaker 1: is critical. I deliberately left out a few verses from
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Speaker 1: the reading of chapter six of Joshua. I want to
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Speaker 1: go back there, because even before the walls fell around Jericho,
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Speaker 1: God had warned him of doing something regarding this band.
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Speaker 1: Look at verse seventeen of chapter six. Back to Joshua,
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Speaker 1: or back to Jericho. The city shall be under the ban.
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Speaker 1: It and all that is in it belongs to the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Only Rahab, the harlot, and all who are with her
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Speaker 1: in the house shall live because she hid the messengers
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Speaker 1: whom we sent. But as for you, meaning Joshua, you
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Speaker 1: and your troops only keep yourselves from the things under
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Speaker 1: the ban, lest you covet them and take some of
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Speaker 1: the things under the band, so you would make the
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Speaker 1: camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But
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Speaker 1: all the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and
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Speaker 1: iron are holy to the Lord. It means set apart
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Speaker 1: to him, they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.
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Speaker 1: That's the warning. Everything living was to have been put
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Speaker 1: to death. Everything valuable was to have been taken and
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Speaker 1: put in the treasury of the Lord. No soldier was
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Speaker 1: to help himself to any of the spoils of victory.
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Speaker 1: All of it was set apart to the Lord. It's
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Speaker 1: the same thing as receiving an offering in a church.
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Speaker 1: The pastor at ten thirty on Sunday night doesn't go
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Speaker 1: back to the treasury and take out the part he
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Speaker 1: wants and then turns the rest over to the dept
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Speaker 1: for the bank. All that is received is set apart
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Speaker 1: to the Lord. All of it is to be protected
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Speaker 1: and guarded and maintained for God's glory and for God's work.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't have the privilege of slipping his hand into
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Speaker 1: the treasury and taking what he wishes. It's the same
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Speaker 1: thing in a battle at Jericho. So right here though
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Speaker 1: Joshua had done nothing wrong. In fact, only one soldier
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Speaker 1: in the whole of the army of Israel had done
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Speaker 1: something wrong, but the entire nation had suffered defeat. That's
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Speaker 1: what it means when referred to sin being in the camp.
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Speaker 1: There was defeat by association. Jasidloe Baxter, in his Great
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Speaker 1: Books on a Survey of the Whole Bible, writes this,
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Speaker 1: the electric wire of fellowship between God and Israel had
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Speaker 1: been cut, and the current of power therefore ceased to flow.
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Speaker 1: That's the way it is. That's the way it is
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Speaker 1: when there is sin in the camp. This is a
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Speaker 1: good time to return to Joshua seven again and to
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Speaker 1: put ourselves in the sandals of the man who is
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Speaker 1: in charge. It's one of the most confusing parts of
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Speaker 1: all the experience of leadership, that something doesn't make sense
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Speaker 1: and you can't understand why. You can't put together the
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Speaker 1: results of that which has occurred, Comparing it to the preparation.
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Speaker 1: Having endured horrible times like that, as many of us have,
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Speaker 1: we can only recall the difficulties of trying to work
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Speaker 1: through it. I call it madness. Madness. Later, when years
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Speaker 1: have passed and you're able to look back on those events.
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Speaker 1: A lot of the things are clear hindsight. You know,
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Speaker 1: it's the old story has twenty twenty vision. You look
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Speaker 1: back and you see it clearly. But at the time
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Speaker 1: you are pulling your hair out wondering what occurred because
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Speaker 1: it was done in secret. As we're going to read
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Speaker 1: in a moment Aiken, and we read it in the
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Speaker 1: first verse of chapter seven, Aichen in a moment tasted
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Speaker 1: the sweetness of stolen waters, and intoxicated in the ecstasy
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Speaker 1: of the robbery, he told himself it was okay, and
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Speaker 1: he sinned. Reasoning and logic were put on hold. Can
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Speaker 1: you imagine the build up of the pressure in the
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Speaker 1: heart of Achin. Can you imagine his staying after hearing
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Speaker 1: thirty six were killed in battle? He had heard of
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Speaker 1: the band. Everybody had been told that it was like
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Speaker 1: living death. If you have ever been responsible for the
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Speaker 1: heartache of another person, especially an innocent person, you know
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Speaker 1: what it is to live with that pressure. It's in
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Speaker 1: the words of Romans, the wages of sin is death.
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Speaker 1: It's like living death. Now, some consequences are personal, but
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Speaker 1: others are public, and that's what we're going to see
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Speaker 1: in the last part of this story. Remember, as what
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Speaker 1: I said earlier, many sins are personal in private, most
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Speaker 1: of them, I think, known only to you and your God,
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Speaker 1: or to me and my God. And we deal with
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Speaker 1: them in the privacy of our lives. And there is
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Speaker 1: no consequence to anyone else. There is no scandal. There
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Speaker 1: is simply dealing with the wrong thought or wrong word
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Speaker 1: or wrong action that impacted no one else. But this
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Speaker 1: is not that case. These consequences are now public, and
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Speaker 1: Joshua was told, you've got to do something about it.
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Speaker 1: So he's told to rise up to face the fact
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Speaker 1: verse fourteen, and to deal with it early in the morning.
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Speaker 1: In the morning, you shall come near by your tribes.
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Speaker 1: Underline the word tribes. We're going to get into concentric
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Speaker 1: circles here, and it shall be that the tribe which
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Speaker 1: the Lord takes by lot shall come nearby families underline families.
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Speaker 1: From tribes, you will come down to families, and the
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Speaker 1: family which the Lord takes shall come near by households.
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Speaker 1: Underline that first tribes, then families, then households, and the
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Speaker 1: household which the Lord takes shall come near man by man.
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Speaker 1: Underlying that, we've got four circles concentric. We'll first start
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Speaker 1: with all the tribes, and then through a process of
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Speaker 1: casting lots, which in the days of the Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: a process used for determining God's will, you will come
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Speaker 1: in next to the families, and not all the tribes
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Speaker 1: will be involved, only a certain number of families. And
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Speaker 1: from the families you will center on households. And then
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Speaker 1: finally you will come to one household. In fact, I'll
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Speaker 1: assist you in finding the man. If aken wasn't under
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Speaker 1: the gun before, now he certainly was. Now it shall come.
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Speaker 1: It shall be that the one who is taken with
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Speaker 1: the things under the ban shall be burned with fire,
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Speaker 1: he and all that belongs to him, because he has
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Speaker 1: transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he's committed
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Speaker 1: a disgraceful thing in Israel. So Joshua rose early in
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Speaker 1: the morning. If you are in leadership, may I intercept
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Speaker 1: your thought here for a moment. Interrupt your thought. If
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Speaker 1: you are in leadership, you know that this is the
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Speaker 1: kind of day you dread like no other. The day
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Speaker 1: of confrontation is a day of dread the words of
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Speaker 1: Galatians six. If anyone is overtaken in a fault you
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Speaker 1: who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit
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Speaker 1: of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. If
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Speaker 1: it has ever been your lot to sit in on
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Speaker 1: a meeting where wrong is confronted, or where sin is
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Speaker 1: pointed out, or where an individual's lie or secret is exposed,
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Speaker 1: you know it's a dreadful thing. Joshua rose that morning,
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Speaker 1: and I'm sure before he did anything else, he fell
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Speaker 1: to his knees and asked for strength to do what
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Speaker 1: he had to do. That day, he brought Israel nearby tribes.
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Speaker 1: The tribe of Judah was taken, so all the other
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Speaker 1: tribes were left. Whoever the problem was rested within the
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Speaker 1: tribe of Judah. And he brought the family of Judah near,
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Speaker 1: and he took the family of the Zara Heights. And
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Speaker 1: he brought the family of the Zara Heights near man
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Speaker 1: by man and Zabdai was taken. And he brought his
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Speaker 1: household near man by Man and Achin was taken. That's
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Speaker 1: the man Joshua said to Aichin, my son, I implore
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Speaker 1: you give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel.
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Speaker 1: Give praise to him, and tell me now what you
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Speaker 1: have done. Do not hide it from me. This is
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Speaker 1: an epical moment in the history of Israel. This is
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Speaker 1: a dreadful hour. I'm reliving those few occasions in my
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Speaker 1: life when it's been my sad experience to be sitting
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Speaker 1: face to face with someone who has kept a secret,
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Speaker 1: told a lie, and hurt a ministry and hurt a family.
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Speaker 1: Tell the truth. Sometime it takes a person hours to
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Speaker 1: come out with the truth. Sometime it takes seconds, as
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Speaker 1: with Nathan said, thou art the man, and David said,
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Speaker 1: I have sinned. But some will lie, some will deny,
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Speaker 1: some will claw and fight and resist. Some will do
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Speaker 1: that for months, some for years. But God is going
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Speaker 1: to get the glory in his work, and he stays honest,
30:45
Speaker 1: He stays after it. And I appreciate Joshua's frontal confrontation.
30:52
Speaker 1: He says, don't hide it from me, and look at Achan.
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Speaker 1: Instantaneously he says to Joshua, truly, I have sinned them
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Speaker 1: against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what
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Speaker 1: I did. Take a moment to analyze the process of
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Speaker 1: sin when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle
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Speaker 1: from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a
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Speaker 1: bar of gold fifty shekels in weight. Then I coveted them,
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Speaker 1: and I took them, and I concealed them beneath my tent.
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Speaker 1: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. That's the
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Speaker 1: way it happens. Now, suddenly, I'm reminded of a couple
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Speaker 1: of verses out of the Old Testament. One is numbers
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Speaker 1: thirty two to twenty three. Be sure your sin will
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Speaker 1: find you out numbers thirty two. The other is Galatians
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Speaker 1: six seven. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever
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Speaker 1: one sows that shall he also reap. But you don't
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Speaker 1: think about those verses at a time like this. Achin
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Speaker 1: didn't think about my sin will find me out. Achin thought,
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Speaker 1: after all, my family and I have been deprived of
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Speaker 1: many good things in life for years, in this wilderness
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Speaker 1: living here is this beautiful, new stylish garment, a little
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Speaker 1: bit of silver and a handful of gold. It's not
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Speaker 1: that big a deal. This will never be missed. In
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Speaker 1: light of all the treasury that we'll get from Jericho.
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Speaker 1: I'm entitled to some enjoyable things in life. After all.
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Speaker 1: The human mind, you see, is incredibly creative when it
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Speaker 1: comes to the desire for wrong things, and in the
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Speaker 1: heady moment the excitement of hidden sin, the adventure drives
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Speaker 1: us on. See we cove it, we take, and we hide.
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Speaker 1: One of the older writers of character studies in the
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Speaker 1: Bible is a man named Alexander White. His comments are
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Speaker 1: rich and worth hearing. Let me quote from him on
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Speaker 1: his piece on Achin. Everybody who reads the best books
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Speaker 1: will have long had by heart. Thomas A. Kempiss's famous
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Speaker 1: description of the successive steps of a successful temptation. This
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Speaker 1: is first the bare thought of the sin. Then upon
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Speaker 1: that there is a picture of the sin, formed and
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Speaker 1: hung up on the secret screen of the imagination. I
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Speaker 1: picture this. A strange sweetness from that picture is then
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Speaker 1: let down, drop by drop into the heart. And then
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Speaker 1: that secret sweetness soon cures the consent of the whole soul,
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Speaker 1: and the thing is done. That is true, and it
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Speaker 1: is powerful enough. Aikin's confession to Joshua is much simpler
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Speaker 1: and much closer to the truth. I saw the garment
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Speaker 1: I coveted, I took, I hid it in my tent.
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Speaker 1: Had Joshua happened to post the ensign of Judah opposite
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Speaker 1: the poor men's part of the city, than this sad
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Speaker 1: story would never have been told. But even as it was,
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Speaker 1: had Aiken only happened to stand a little to the
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Speaker 1: one side or a little to the other side of
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Speaker 1: where he did stand, in that case, he would not
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Speaker 1: have seen that beautiful peace, and not seeing it, he
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Speaker 1: would not have coveted it, and would have gone home
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Speaker 1: to his tent that night a good soldier and an
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Speaker 1: honest man. But when once Aikin's eyes lighted on that
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Speaker 1: rich garment, he could not get his eyes off it again.
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Speaker 1: As a Kempis says, that this seductive thing got into
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Speaker 1: Aien's imagination and the devil's work was done. Just one
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Speaker 1: more quote, Oh, sons and daughters have discovered achin, Oh
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Speaker 1: guilty and dissembling sinners, It is all in vain. It
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Speaker 1: is all utterly and absolutely in vain. Be sure, as
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Speaker 1: God is in heaven, that he has his eyes upon you,
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Speaker 1: and that your sin will find you out. You think
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Speaker 1: that the darkness will cover you, wait till you see.
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Speaker 1: Go on sewing as you have begun, and come and
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Speaker 1: tell us when the harvest is reaped, how it threshes out,
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Speaker 1: and how it tastes. Listen to this word. Picture the
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Speaker 1: eagle that stole a piece of sacred flesh from the altar,
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Speaker 1: brought home a smoldering cold with it that kindled up
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Speaker 1: afterwards and burned up both her whole nest and all
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Speaker 1: her young ones. Once a son, always a son, even
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Speaker 1: when a prodigal son. Every son has his father's gray
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Speaker 1: hairs and his mother's anxious heart in his hands. And
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Speaker 1: no possible power can alter that drop, that stolen flesh.
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Speaker 1: There is a coal in it that shall never be quenched.
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Speaker 1: I looked, I coveted, I took, and I hid. Now
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Speaker 1: Joshua acts swiftly. Hold on as I read the rest
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Speaker 1: of the story. Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to
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Speaker 1: the tent, and behold, it was concealed in his tent,
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Speaker 1: with the silver underneath it. And they took them from
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Speaker 1: inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to
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Speaker 1: all the sons of Israel. And they poured them out
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Speaker 1: before the Lord Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan,
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Speaker 1: the son of Zarah, the silver, the mantle, the bar
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Speaker 1: of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, donkeys, sheep,
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Speaker 1: tent and all that belonged to him, and brought them
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Speaker 1: up to the valley of Akr. And Joshua said, why
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Speaker 1: have you troubled us? A can troubled, a core, a
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Speaker 1: place of trouble. Interesting the name Achan and Akor, both
37:27
Speaker 1: from the same root Hebrew term meaning to trouble. Why
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Speaker 1: have you lived up to your name? Achan? The Lord
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Speaker 1: will trouble you this day, and all Israel stone them
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Speaker 1: with stones, and they burned them with fire. After they
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Speaker 1: had stoned them with stones, and they raised up the strangest,
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Speaker 1: the strangest gravestone you could imagine, a pile of rocks
37:50
Speaker 1: that stands to this day, says the writer of Joshua.
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Speaker 1: And the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger.
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Speaker 1: But the name of that place has been called to
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Speaker 1: this day the valley of the corps, the place of trouble.
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Speaker 1: I thought as I read that, how different it would
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Speaker 1: be today. There'd be someone who would be there to
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Speaker 1: defend Akin and say he was temporarily insane, or someone
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Speaker 1: would say, no one read the rights to him, therefore
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Speaker 1: he doesn't have to stand trial, or somebody certainly would
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Speaker 1: do plea bargaining and say it isn't quite as bad.
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Speaker 1: After all, he confessed it. There was no selection of
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Speaker 1: a jury, there was not even the presence of a
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Speaker 1: defense attorney. There was death, instant death, and the whole
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Speaker 1: nation watched it, and the monument stood even through the
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Speaker 1: writing of the Great Book of Joshua. Yeah, we live
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Speaker 1: in a day of grace. Take that to mean you
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Speaker 1: can sin as you please, because it doesn't really matter
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Speaker 1: like it used to. You show me in scripture where
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Speaker 1: that is found. Point out in the Book of God,
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Speaker 1: where your sin doesn't impact the work of God. It does.
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Speaker 1: One individual who continues to walk against the way of
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Speaker 1: God can hurt and hinder an entire church. One judas
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Speaker 1: can color the entire body of disciples. It is serious,
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Speaker 1: even in the time of grace. I want to share
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Speaker 1: with you three lingering lessons that emerge from the story
39:54
Speaker 1: ancient that it is from the same story. I think
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Speaker 1: there are these lessons that can still apply. First is
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Speaker 1: this there is a unique stench connected with suspicion. I've
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Speaker 1: chosen those words carefully, and I know that they are
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Speaker 1: a little bit offensive, but they're appropriate. There is a
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Speaker 1: unique stench. There's a smell about suspicion. And let me
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Speaker 1: put it this way, the closer you and I walk
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Speaker 1: with God, the more quickly we can detect the stench.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. I don't even know
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Speaker 1: that it's a spiritual gift. I think there is a
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Speaker 1: perception that is given to some tender hearts. Sensitive spirits
40:48
Speaker 1: can't be ignored. You can feel it, you can smell it,
40:51
Speaker 1: as it were. It's absolutely detectable across An interesting piece
41:01
Speaker 1: out of the newspaper Listen. The soaring murder rate in
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles is creating a crisis at the County Morgue,
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Speaker 1: where workers are forced to wear military type gas masks
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Speaker 1: to ward off the stench of decomposing bodies. According to
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Speaker 1: this report, an audit of the Los Angeles County Coroner's
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Speaker 1: office and the morgue, the largest in the nation, showed
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Speaker 1: the facility was overcrowded to the point of a potential
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Speaker 1: health risk for the two hundred people who work there.
41:39
Speaker 1: The overwhelmed morgue handles about nine thousand bodies a year
41:46
Speaker 1: after suspicious or violent deaths, and the number is growing.
41:53
Speaker 1: About seven hundred and fifty bodies a month are retained
41:57
Speaker 1: in the morgue men and women and those who work
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Speaker 1: there are now forced to wear military type gas masks
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Speaker 1: to stand the stench. I share that with you because
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Speaker 1: it illustrates to me, this stench of suspicion that accompanies
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Speaker 1: this whole scene of sin in the camp. Don't be
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Speaker 1: thick as a spiritual leader. Have your ears perked up
42:30
Speaker 1: when something out of the blue creates defeat, or when
42:37
Speaker 1: a ministry is on the move and continuing to grow.
42:40
Speaker 1: But you can. You can put it on a graph
42:44
Speaker 1: and the watch the chart as it, without much hesitation,
42:51
Speaker 1: turns downward. And there's a reason for that turn. It
42:58
Speaker 1: does not always mean there's sin in the camp, but
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Speaker 1: sometimes it does, maybe in your family, maybe in your life. Second,
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Speaker 1: an absence of peace accompanies hidden sin. Try all you like.
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Speaker 1: The heart isn't equipped to handle hidden sin. The heart
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Speaker 1: is equipped to handle peace that comes when the sin
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Speaker 1: is confessed. We will not live lives that are sinless,
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Speaker 1: free of interruption by sin, but we can live lives
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Speaker 1: that are clean. An absence of peace accompanies hidden sin.
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Speaker 1: Here's a third thought. You won't like this, and I
43:50
Speaker 1: may not either, but it's good. It's true when wrong
43:56
Speaker 1: is uncovered God honors swift and thorough action. When wrong
44:04
Speaker 1: is uncovered, God honors swift and thorough action. I cannot
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Speaker 1: remember a time when I waited to confront wrong that
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Speaker 1: I was later glad I waited. I can't remember a
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Speaker 1: time when I immediately dealt with it that I wasn't
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Speaker 1: grateful that I had immediately dealt with it the wrong.
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Speaker 1: When wrong is uncovered, God honors swift and thorough action.
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Speaker 1: This is the story of a man whose sin brought calamity.
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Speaker 1: I am not suggesting that every calamitous event in a ministry,
44:48
Speaker 1: or every decline comes because there is sin in the camp.
44:52
Speaker 1: I am simply saying, on occasion that is the reason.
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Speaker 1: And when it is to deal with it for a moment,
45:03
Speaker 1: would you bow your head and just close your eyes.
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Speaker 1: Scripture tells us that if we would judge ourselves, we
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Speaker 1: would not be judged. The simplest way of dealing with wrong,
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Speaker 1: and the swiftest manner, is to deal with it personally.
45:24
Speaker 1: If you find yourself living with rationalized standards, stop it,
45:30
Speaker 1: deal with it. If you can't do it alone, get
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Speaker 1: some help, face it, get out of the situation that
45:39
Speaker 1: is compromising your walk and the health of this ministry,
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Speaker 1: or your church wherever you may be from, or your family.
45:53
Speaker 1: Don't force someone else to finally go through the painstaking
45:56
Speaker 1: process of narrowing it down to tribes and families and households,
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Speaker 1: and then you. All the while there will be the
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Speaker 1: litter of the fallout from your sin. Just deal with it.
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Speaker 1: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
46:15
Speaker 1: to forgive us. He that confesses and forsakes his sins
46:19
Speaker 1: shall have mercy. But whoso covers a transgression, Ah, that's
46:26
Speaker 1: what lingers. It may be that in the process of
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Speaker 1: your search, you discover that you really don't know the
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ. You've never met the Savior, the forgiver
46:40
Speaker 1: of sins, the one who can put reason and purpose
46:44
Speaker 1: back to a life that's marked by confusion and compromise.
46:51
Speaker 1: I invite you, at this quiet moment, to turn your
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Speaker 1: life to him who died for you. These have been
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Speaker 1: serious words, we acknowledge, our Father. These are serious times
47:08
Speaker 1: in which we live. The work of a Joshua takes courage,
47:15
Speaker 1: and it takes faith, and somehow it requires our leaving
47:22
Speaker 1: the desire to be liked and embracing the desire to obey.
47:32
Speaker 1: I pray at this moment, right now, for our ministries
47:35
Speaker 1: being hurt because of compromising situations, secret sins, hidden wrong.
47:42
Speaker 1: I pray for any who might be the reasons for that,
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Speaker 1: that you would bring them to their knees before you,
47:50
Speaker 1: that they might acknowledge the wrongness of their actions. And
47:55
Speaker 1: I pray that as a result, there might be cleansing, forgiveness, restoration,
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Speaker 1: and recovery even within our circle this very day, of
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Speaker 1: those of us who have heard this message, deal directly
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Speaker 1: with us, our Father, and stop us in the process
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Speaker 1: of rationalization, Stop us at this moment, and cause us
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Speaker 1: to confront the truth and never return to this lifestyle again.
48:30
Speaker 1: Dismiss us, our Father, with the blessing of your presence,
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Speaker 1: and into the cool night air of this spring night,
48:38
Speaker 1: I pray that you would encourage us with the hope
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Speaker 1: of a soon returning Lord who will take the heart
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Speaker 1: ache and sin and brokenness of this world and give
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Speaker 1: us the joy of peace, relief, and delight in his presence.
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Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message Aiken The Man whose Sin Brought Calamity
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Speaker 2: was copyrighted in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety two, two thousand six,
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Speaker 2: twenty twelve and twenty twenty four, and the sound recording
49:13
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated.
49:18
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. The duplication of copyrighted material
49:22
Speaker 2: for commercial use is strictly prohibited.