I, I'm going to be preaching to you guys today from Joshua, chapter 7, predominantly. It's a. It's a. It's a weighty one for me. I think I'm going to try to do it as if I'm in a good mood, cuz I am, but weighty messages are always nerve-wracking for me.

That's probably why I was slurring over my words a little bit earlier. Just, I'm just thinking about the concept in this message. We've been in the series. I mean just, I guess tentatively titled- I don't even know what the series is called, but we called it AI and the Christian Witness, just for kicks And the. The general theme of the series has been this: that God created us to live in proper order: Him first.

We submit our entire lives to him, And when we do that, he has given us authority over all of creation, All of it. Everything that was created is under our feet, based on Genesis, chapter 1. And the struggle that we run into we see in Genesis, chapter 3, Romans, chapter 1, . Paul describes it really well that we worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. We took things that God created to be beneath our feet and lifted it above our heads.

That's the problem in our world. This is why we stress, This is why we fear, And the remedy for that is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness To in whatever we do, whatever we think about, whatever we ponder and whatever we look toward in our future, we are to start with God. In that conversation We say at the church, we want to help people find the peace they're looking for. We want to help people find the person purpose that they're searching for with one specific method: By revolving everything around Jesus, Whether eating, drinking, Netflixing, chilling, sitting, serving, husbanding, wifing, working, driving, commuting, all to the glory of God. Everything.

And we talked last week about this idea that so often we give God a part of ourselves but not our whole self. God wants everything: Head, hands, heart, Heart, mind, soul- To remind you of the great commandment. And so this week, what I want to do is I want to talk to you in Joshua chapter [sighs], about how we can become the adequate representatives of who God is in this world by getting rid of some of these encumbrances that keep us from being who God genuinely called us to be. And next week I want to talk to you, on Palm Sunday, about what it looks like to truly worship and serve our creator rather than the creature, To truly be a representative of Christ Jesus in this world and to live a life that, whether we say it or not- which we should totally say it- is invitational. Everything that we do should point back to Jesus.

That's the point of this series. The point of this series is that we would love God and love others by telling them about God. It's about not AI, but witness. And week one we learned we're called to rule. Week two, we learned that we need to fear God, not creation.

Week three, we're commanded to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, mind and our strength. And we've learned this: that when we listen to God, creation falls at our feet. When we ignore God, creation tends to make us live beneath our calling. And in Joshua, chapter 7, there's just an amazing story And it's a fun story. I think it's a pretty clever story to utilize in this series, And I don't want you to get too stressed out when I talk about certain components of it, but I do want you to start pondering right now what within your household, within your life, is preventing you from being who God called you to be.

There's always something, An encumbrance that we need to shake off, And by the end of today I hope that you leave here starting to shake off some encumbrances. But I want to. I want to want to dive into the, the context and then the text for you. So in Joshua. Anyone ever read Joshua in the room?

Good, That's good stuff. I talked to a lot of people this week hadn't read Joshua, so I got to give you plenty of context. I'm not going to take too long with it, though. So essentially, in the Old Testament, what happens is there's a people group called Israel. That's the majority of the Old Testament.

That's what. What it's about? The first five books of the Bible- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy or Numbers and Deuteronomy- are the founding documents for this people group called Israel. Joshua is the next book after Moses dies in Deuteronomy. Joshua is Moses's- Moses's - follower.

He's the guy who follows after Moses. He takes leadership and he is the one who is going to lead Israel from the wilderness into the promised land. And he starts doing it. Joshua is a faithful follower of God. He's killing it.

He's doing a good job. He leads them through the Jordan on dry ground. They set up some stones to remember what God did there. They had good preparation and a plan And then they go to the city called Jericho. Many of you have heard of this story And in Joshua, chapter 6, God gives Joshua and Israel an instruction: Walk around Jericho several times And when they walk around it they're to blow a trumpet.

And eventually, as they continue to walk around it and they blow their trumpet for that final time, the walls fall down. God gives them the victory. They go in and they steal all their stuff. That's, That's kind of what happened in the ancient world. It's a very cool victory.

Israel didn't really do much at all. They just walked and blew some trumpets. It's a bunch of dudes with hot air. Literally is what happens, And God blessed them from it. Now, typically in the ancient world, you would go, steal all their stuff and you would divide it amongst yourselves and you would keep it.

It's called the spoils of war. But in this case, because they didn't win anything, it was God who delivered Jericho to them. God wanted to keep the items devoted to himself. They were either going to go to destruction or they were going to be utilized for the Lord's purposes. Some of your translations may have said in Joshua, chapter 6, that these items would be under ban.

Some other translations would say that these are the devoted items Devoted for destruction or devoted for the purpose of God, because God won the victory, not them. [clears throat]. And in Joshua chapter 7, Israel gets a little cocky and they forgot about the fact that it was the Lord who won the battle, That it was the Lord who caused the hearts of the people in this land to melt with fear, And they thought they could do it. And so in Joshua, chapter 7, verse 1, it says this right after this battle.

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things. Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord's anger burned against Israel. And there's a lot of reading I could do. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit.

I'm going to jump to verse 3. Not all the army will have to go up against this other group of people called Ai. Here's what's happening: They're about to go and tackle more of the land, And they went from Jericho, which was a. It's a big city, strong city, with walls that couldn't fall unless the Lord did something about it. And they go up to this, another group of people And Ai- if you translate, it means heap or ruins, It's kind of a, It's kind of a little hill with some people on it, And they go and they're going to do the same thing, But they didn't consult the Lord.

Now, it's a small town, It's a, a ruin, It's a heap. And so Joshua sends a group of people to spy on it. They come back and they say, "Hey, we can tackle this with a couple thousand people" And they say, "Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or 3,000 men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there". Verse 4.

So about 3,000 went up, but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about 36 of them. Now, keep in mind, we didn't hear anything about casualties when it came to this big city called Jericho cuz. The Lord delivered Jericho over to them, But in this case they sent a couple thousand people, which is not the entire army. They go up to Ai and 36 people are killed. Now, in verse 5, it says this: They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes.

At this, the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. Now, you don't know this, but the term or phrase melted like fear or becoming like water was referred to in Joshua chapter 2, when they were about to go into Jericho, That the people were scared of the people in the wilderness who were going to come conquer, In other words, the people in the land. In the city of Jericho, their hearts melted in fear at the people of God coming in to do something. Now they go to this small town. 36 people are killed and on the way down the slopes they're chased away.

And it says the people of Israel are melting in fear. Now, we talked about this in week 2, but what happens is when you forget about God and start trying to live your life in the way that you want to, rather than the way God's designed for you, you start to fear created things. The group of people here in Israel went from walking around and blowing trumpets and taking the spoils of an entire city to their hearts being melted with fear at a heap and a ruin, All because they did it in a way that was not the way God would have chosen. And for us in our life- I don't want to just talk about history for you, For us in our life- this is very similar to our pattern. We see the Lord do something for us.

We go back to our life and forget about what God did And we start doing it our way. And when we do it our way, we arrive in the same position. And I'm here to tell you that a life that follows Jesus consistently is a life that feels victorious. Regardless of what happens in your life- Not everything's perfect when you follow Jesus, Not everything's perfect when God is the center of your life, but you do feel victorious- I can tell you personally that my life, I mean, it's not a terrible life, It's a really good life. I think I follow Jesus, I get to open God's word, I get to breathe.

Every single morning, I'm standing here in front of you. There are a lot of amazing things that occur, but there's a lot of things that are happening right now, Like just small examples. Small example: my washing machine's not working, I know. [clears throat].

Crazy. I hope no one overseas is watching this sermon right now. They're going to be like: "A washing machine, What's that"? And I, I've got some other things happening. My life is not perfect, but for some reason, in the midst of trials and tribulations, I still have joy.

Why? Because victory follows somebody who follows Jesus. But the moment that I try to do things my own way, it may sound a little hyper- hyperbolic for me to say: the moment I try to do things my own way, there's a there's a little bit of time in between the moment I start to do it and then the moment I feel that the Lord is not really with me in it. There's a there's a little time time gap there. But I'm telling you, the moment you start doing it your own way, the Lord is still there, He's still present, but there's something that feels It induces anxiety for me when I try to do it my own way, cuz then I think I have to control the outcomes, And then I'm not good at controlling outcomes And so, just like these people here.

So, all right, well, you know, we, we looked at them, We just got Jericho, Let's go to AI, Let's spend some time here. We don't have to prepare, We don't have to really pray about this, We don't have to wait on the Lord's instruction: Let's just send 2 to 3,000 people over here. Let's knock it out, call it a day, then come back and hang out. But what happened is someone named Achan actually jumped in a little bit earlier and said: "You know what The Lord actually gave us victory over this. What a cool moment.

There's tons of spoils of this, this battle with Jericho here, So let's just a couple things". So he takes it and the Lord's anger burns against them. And then Israel: maybe they're not sinning like Achan, They're not stealing stuff from the devoted items, but they're not preparing as effectively as they could. They don't. They don't seek the Lord in this.

They make their own strategic determination and they say: "Let's send some people". And look what happens. Something that should have been an easy victory became something that caused them to flee, Something that caused their hearts to melt in fear. It's not just give you my sermon title today. It's kind of clever, but also super corny and campy at the same time.

I want to tell you this: This is for your life. It's juxtaposed against the situation that Israel's dealing with with AI. So I want to tell you: don't lose to AI. So proud of myself. You're not laughing, That's okay.

I don't care, You may not be smart enough to get that joke, cuz this is an AI series and I'm I'm using it as a metaphor to discuss every single issue in your life where you forget about God. I don't you just, whatever you know, go to some other church that's less smart, if you want to. I don't care, Just kidding, Just kidding with you. I want to talk to you about the two problems that we run into in every area of our life. The first problem, that Israel had was that it was unfaithful.

It was unfaithful. The second problem it had was that it was unprepared. It was unfaithful and it was unprepared. It tells us in verse 1, that Achan was unfaithful. It tells us, as they strategically go into AI to try to win this battle, that they were actually unprepared.

They sent too few people. They did it too quickly. They didn't seek the Lord first. They sent a couple spies, and those spies made a determination based on their own wisdom and knowledge, rather than remembering the fact that they didn't win the first battle in the first place, It was the Lord who won the battle. They forgot how they got to where they are.

And then there's a bigger problem Ultimately, whether it's unfaithfulness, whether it's a lack of preparation, whether it's any other issue, when you ignore God, you have an issue Because God wants something for you. And if you ignore that, then the very thing that maybe gave you victory in the first place, the very thing that maybe worked a couple of times, may not work every single time, Because the solution to your problem spiritually, [snorts], . Eternally, even when it comes to the natural dysfunctions that you have in your family, in your own personal mindset, those things, they require the Lord to help you resolve them. And so I want to talk about these problems by looking at this passage. So let's jump into verse 10.

What happens up to verse 10 is, after this moment where they lose to AI, the people's hearts are gripped with fear. And when their hearts are gripped with fear, Joshua's like "Lord, what happened". You ever been in that moment where you thought the Lord was on your side? And then you go do something in your own power and then you come back and you're praying to the Lord and you're like: "Lord, why'd you do this to me". You know, you know I'm talking about.

It's like it's hap- this happens. I don't see any head shaking. It's okay, Let me make you aware of a situation in your life, Cuz I see this constantly. It's it's interesting, and I'm not just going to try to utilize this pulpit as as a as an opportunity to have power over you and to persuade you in a direction that's not helpful for you. I just want to tell you what I see so that you can become aware of it.

What happens is, people will connect with God, Or maybe they will claim that Jesus is their Lord. Or maybe you know, when they were younger, they had a connection with God, and now that you're older, you don't have a connection with God. But you know, maybe when you're trying to make a shot, when you're playing basketball or something, you're like: "Lord, if I make this shot, if you help me make this shot, I'll do this or I'll do that". Maybe you test God in this way. "Lord, if you reveal this to me, I'll show up at church one of these days".

I don't know where you're at in your walk with God, But many of us, we feel like we're good in our walk with God, and when we feel like we're good in our walk with God, we become confident, and sometimes that confidence takes us in the wrong direction. So we'll go back out into the world because we felt good about that one text we read 5 years ago. And then we'll live our life the way that we want to. I'll sleep with who I want to, I'll hang out with who I want to. I'll get a job without thinking about the Lord in it at all.

I'll let my boss dictate what I do with my life, regardless of whether it honors God or not. We'll make decisions about what our kids should do, ignoring God completely. And then one little bad thing happens to us. Lord, what did I do? Why are you being so mean to me?

What did I do so wrong? I'm a good person, God. Why? Why, if you love me, would you let this happen? And there are a lot of reasons for all those things.

This is just one scenario, but this is what Joshua does. Bro sends spies out. Now he's unaware of the unfaithfulness within the camp, But bro sends spies out. They come back and he listens to the spies. I don't know if you know Israel's history when it comes to listening to spies.

It happened earlier. I'm just going to tell you, if you don't know, It happened earlier. They sent 12 spies out to the promised land and 10 of them came back and they were like "Hey, those are giants in the land. We were as grasshoppers in their sight". And while the Lord's telling Moses to go into the promised land because he's delivered them over to him, these spies tell Moses: "It's probably not a good idea".

It's only Joshua and Caleb who are like "No, we can do it. The Lord can do it, Didn't you say he's going to deliver them into our hands? Who cares about giants when we've got God on our side". But the rest of the 10 were like "They're too big for us". Yeah, it's not a good history with spies.

And so Joshua makes the same mistake. He sends the spies out and he listens to the spies. So he only sends two or 3,000. 36 people get killed. They look like idiots running down a hill getting chased by people in a city.

That is translated heap or ruin. And so Joshua goes in and he's praying to the Lord. And then, in verse 10, the Lord says to Joshua: he's praying, He says: "Stand up, What are you doing down on your face". I don't, I don't know what you would do if the Lord told you to do that. A lot of times we tell you to go to the Lord in prayer and stop trying to do everything on your own.

This is one of those reverse moments where God goes to Joshua and says: "What are you praying to me about". He says, "Stand up" And he tells him that there's sin in the camp. Verse 11 says this: "Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things.

They have stolen, They have lied, They have put them with their own possessions". And what God is doing, Yahweh is doing to Joshua, is he's saying the first thing: "Israel has been unfaithful". Now you might think, "Well, no, The Bible says it was Achan who was unfaithful. Why are you saying now, Israel was unfaithful"? Well, they lived in a different society than us.

They lived in a society that was collective, that recognized the reality that if one person sins against God, that it has an impact on the entire covenant community. Now we live in a different world, where we all want to do our own thing, And when we do our own thing, we think it doesn't have an impact on other people. But all you got to do is look at your own household And you might not think what you just did yesterday has an impact on your kids. But if you look 10 years down the road, you're going to find that the very decisions you're making now will have a long-term, lasting impact on your kids- Depending on the decision- potentially their kids And their kids' kids. This stuff passes down for generations And the conversation Joshua and God are having right now is not just a one moment conversation.

It's a generational, a cultural, a covenant community level conversation. The reason that Joshua praying wasn't that big of a deal to God and he tells him to stand up, get off your face. "What in the world are you doing? There's some unfaithfulness that you got to go deal with" Is because Joshua can pray all day, but if there's sin in the camp, it's going to impact the impact. It's going to impact the long-term lasting effect that Israel's going to have in that nation or in that area.

And for you in the same way, you can pray all day, But if there's undealt with sin in your life that you're unaware of, that you haven't disclosed, that you haven't uncovered, that you haven't figured out what it is so you can shake it off, then you're going to struggle even in your prayer life. This is why, when the Lord's Prayer is spoken by Jesus, he says: "Forgive others as, or forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". What it's saying is, when there is sin in our hearts, it is something that needs to be dealt with, because that very sin is the thing that prevented us from a connection to God in the first place. Joshua says that, even when it comes to the community, that sin is going to impact your mentality and connection with me. And when I look at our community, guys, I, I, I, and I'll start out with the, the church-wide community, Not our church, just church, that claiming God, but they're essentially taking the devoted items, the things meant for God, and utilizing it for their own purposes.

It's like we, you know, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll- take your money, Lord, And we'll use it for ourselves And forget about what's donated to you, What's devoted to him. God will take these kids that you blessed us with And we'll utilize them to fulfill our own selfish desires rather than thinking about what you want for them. This is why child dedication is so important to me. It's because this is us saying consciously: "They're yours, Lord, not mine". We, we're taking God's devoted items all the time We utilize them for our own purposes and then we get sad and frustrated and we fall on our face before the Lord when it gets bad enough.

But the Lord's telling Joshua is like: "No, you got to deal with the unfaithfulness in your camp". When it comes to your household, what are the things in your household that need to be dealt with? The sins in your camp? The first time I ever preached this text- and this is the second time I've ever preached this text, by the way- The first time I ever preached this text it was because my pastor told me that it was. It was October and it was life month.

I didn't know that It was life month in October and he said: "I want you to preach on abortion". I said: "This is my second time preaching. Do you really want me to preach on abortion". And, the text that the Lord drew brought me to was this text, Because I recognized that even within the church, there was a mentality that is so disjointed from God's will that it was preventing us, as a church, from actually doing what the Lord called us to do. Sin will separate you from God.

Now don't just hear me talking about all the bad stuff. It's the good stuff that manifests itself as bad stuff eventually because God's not involved. Like, sports is great. It makes your kid more disciplined, It gives you a break for a couple hours. It has somebody else disciplining your kid rather than you disciplining your kid.

They tend to be better at it because your kids listen to them. Now, sports is so cool, But sports without the Lord separates you from the Lord. It's a good thing. It manifests itself as a bad thing over time. Cleaning up your house is a good thing, But then you work 6 days a week and the only day that you can clean your house or you don't mow your yard.

Do you Most of y'all, don't? I have to mow my yard still. It's terrible, but it takes like 5 minutes cuz it's small. I like that Sunday morning to do it. It's too hot in the afternoon But then you skip in community.

What? What I'm trying to say is that, like man, there are so many things within our own camp that we've got to deal with and we're wondering why God hasn't unlocked doors in our future. And, and maybe, maybe you need to consider what within your present household is preventing you from seeing what God wants for your future. Verse 11 again, Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.

They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen, They have lied, They have put them with their own possessions. Verse 12, : "That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They turn their backs and run because they have made, been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction".

Verse 13, "Go, consecrate the people, Tell them, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow". So, if you remember, the first problem I told you about is that Israel was unfaithful, And one of your first problems is that, though you have Christ Jesus, you're still operating without faith. And he says right here: "I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction". Destroy it. Anything that does not bring you close to God.

Say it, Destroy it. Oh, that's harsh, Pastor Matt. It's a good thing. It's a good thing Because when you destroy the thing that is actually giving you fear and causing you to melt before created things, it gives you this victorious mindset again, because now you can connect with God, who gives you an adequate perspective to view the world When you destroy the bad things. It takes you to this place where you can actually have faith.

You've got to destroy it, though. The problem with the Israelites in the land was that they didn't destroy the things that God called them to destroy, And then, for another several hundred years, they were constantly dealing with the things that they neglected to destroy when God called them to destroy it. It's like you sitting here listening to the same music you listened to before you became a Christian. I'm not saying your music's bad, but I'm telling you, if it doesn't take you closer to God, you might need to sidestep that stuff for a second so you can put something good in your brain. Some of you: you don't need to quit sports because you prioritized it properly.

Some of you, you need to stop everything and reorient your entire life to follow Jesus. Everything We say revolve everything around Jesus. This isn't us saying quit everything. This is us saying: take everything in your life and reorient it, But there's some things that are really difficult to reorient. So what do you got to do?

Destroy it, Get rid of it. Now you can sit here, like most of us do, week in, week out at church, and you hear the same message and say: "But I don't want to get rid of this". You don't even say it, You just passively don't do it. But if you don't destroy the things that are keeping you from God, then you're going to wake up one day and realize you don't really know God. I was in tears- and I don't say this often, guys- And I don't even know what.

Nothing happened. I Like I remembered some situations, But I started to think: "What in my life- And then this is when I got really emotional- was when I started to expound that or expand that beyond me and started to think about our church. I started to think about our leadership. I started to think about, volunteer teams. I started to think about the people who are in here week in, week out, And I was like with the sin in our midst".

It was like "You, you, you can pray for these people who are living together but aren't married. But there's a lot of that in this camp you got to deal with". So I mean, you can deal with with some of these people who are chasing some of the wrong things and pursuing things that are are superficial in nature rather than spiritual. But you can pray about those people. But you, you can deal with it too.

And you could be praying about the, the family members that are causing pain for you guys as you're trying to apprehend Jesus, You, you should, You should totally pray to God about this stuff. But if you're Joshua in that moment, when he says to the family members who are leading the households and he says, "Choose this day who you're going to serve", He's not saying "Just pray about it", He's saying "Choose who you're going to serve" And you got to. You got to destroy the other aspects of your life. Now, just to be clear, cuz some people take me too literally, I'm not saying go hurt somebody, But when you choose who you're going to serve, you've got to choose to serve him and some of the stuff's going to fall off. The New Testament's really nice about it.

It says "Shake off the encumbrances". He says "You got to shake it off, You got to do this stuff". But the Old Testament's so abundantly clear: Get rid of it any way that you can Destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Some of you need to take that Netflix account and just destroy it. It's actually going to repair your, your, your budget, Cuz you've spent $100 on all these different things and you're watching all the wrong stuff.

Some of you need to destroy your laptop. Yeah, yeah, I mean, or just get rid of the internet. I don't know what you got to do, But, like some of y'all, I mean, if you serve on a team, I need you to use your laptop to upload photos and such, But, but, hey, you need to destroy it. I don't know what it is for you, but, but there's something that is keeping you from God and then, unless you're honest with yourself about it, you're going to be, you're going to be missing out on the life that he has for you. And praise God that it's his loving kindness that leads us to repentance, that he was kind enough to stay with Israel and go to Joshua and tell him about the sin in the camp so that he could deal with it.

Let's not act like God's not going to remain with us through difficult scenarios, But over time, as he continues to make you aware. If you never do anything about it, why would God continue to come to you about it? I wouldn't. God's better than me, So he does it way longer than I would. But eventually the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Romans, chapter 1 tells us that eventually, if, if, as he keeps coming to you and making you aware of the things that are preventing you from following him, be it moral law or be it Jesus himself, As he keeps coming to you, if you keep rejecting it, eventually the wrath of God isn't manifested through fireballs and hell and damnation. The wrath of God is revealed that he lets you do your own thing, Man. The ultimate wrath [clears throat] of God is that that he lets me- And this is what he's trying to tell Joshua- like: do deal with the unfaithfulness in your camp so that I can remain with you. Verse 19, . I'm going to jump ahead to when they're dealing with Achan.

They narrow it down through lot. I don't even know exactly how they narrowed it down, but they get to this family within Judah, within the Zerahites, And then they find Achan. I'd love to have been there for that moment, or hated it, if I was in Achan's family. I don't know, but he says this. This is what Joshua says to Achan when they discover the sin in the camp: "My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him.

Tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me". Verse 21, . Jumping ahead, Here's what Achan says: "When I saw plunder, a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels"- This is a lot of money, by the way- "I coveted them and I took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath".

And I'm not prescribing this for your life, but I'm just going to tell you what they did. They stoned him and his family to death and then they burned them with fire. Y'all got it good. I'm just going to say: praise God that that Jesus has has come and offered us grace beyond measure. Because if I lived back, then we would all, we would all be in Achan's family and we'd be in trouble because all of us fail in various ways in our unfaithfulness to God.

But God has called us to greater. God has called us to destroy the things in our lives, and he called us not just to destroy, but he called us to the second step. That helps us when it comes to preparation. He says in verse 13, : "Go, consecrate the people. Tell them: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow'".

So step two: consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, for the future, for the life that God's called you to. So shake off the sin, get rid of it, destroy it and now separate yourself, consecrate yourself, devote yourself to the Lord. You don't have to worry about the devoted items when you're devoted yourself to the Lord. Consecrate yourself. And what happens when you consecrate yourself to the Lord is you stop caring, And this happens over time.

You're not going to be perfect this next week, But over the years, God's going to continue to reveal to you who he is, and he will be so much more attractive than your friends. He'll be so much more attractive than your finances. He'll be so much more attractive than everything else in your life. So, once you root out the sin and start separating yourself for him, This is, This is what the church is, The ecclesia, the called out ones of God, The ones who are consecrated to God, Don't just dedicate your kids. Consecrate yourselves.

Be separate, Be different, Be holy as he is holy, Because when you follow God that closely, he sets you up for a victorious life. And so, while at the beginning of Joshua they lost to an Ai sheep a ruin, In Joshua 8:1, the Lord gives them a little more clarity so that they're able to prepare Now that they've dealt with the sin and they've consecrated themselves. Here's what the Lord says in Joshua 8:1. Then the Lord said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, Do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you and go up and attack Ai, For I've delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land".

I'll remind you of the big idea that I said already: When you listen to God, when you go to him first, when you destroy the things devoted to destruction anyways- and when you consecrate yourself for the Lord, when you listen to God, creation falls at your feet. And as we go into next week, here's what I want to set you up for. What does a life of consecration actually look like? We talked about consecrating our kids to the Lord. It's not just a symbolic gesture, It's a choose this day moment And for many of you.

I want to encourage you to think through. What does it look like for me to live a life that's consecrated to God, that has shaken off the encumbrances, the sin, the difficulty, the dysfunction, that has shaken off these things so that I can cling at a deeper level to God? I know there's some people in this room you're like: "Yep, that was a good, encouraging moral message for the Christians in the room. What about those of you who don't even have a relationship with Jesus". I, I want to tell you that that was for you too.

Your base level understanding of Jesus is going to be determined, by your willingness to seek him for the forgiveness of your sin and to seek him for the life of abundance. To start this faith, the Bible says you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is the most important being in my life. That's what a Lord is. You are choosing now to not let your spouse be Lord, to not let your kids be Lord, to not let your boss be Lord, to not let the government be Lord, to not let this city be Lord, to not let the culture be Lord, to not let anything else be Lord.

You're saying Jesus is Lord. That confession isn't some little frilly thing that you say to fit when you feel good in a worship service. It is a. It is a statement that immediately shakes off the things that were leading you to destruction and consecrates yourself to a life of abundance. Like: confess that Jesus is Lord.

Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead Cuz. Without the resurrection, everything he said would probably be invalid, But since he did, we can count on it. So, wherever you are in this room, I want to encourage you: Consecrate yourself to God. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today. I thank you for the people in this room.

I had so many other things that I wanted to say, but, but, God, I want your spirit to impact somebody today, Convict them of their sin. It's got to be dealt with. [clears throat], . And thank you for your son who dealt with it.

When we receive him, How we don't talk about sin, . Too busy trying to attract new people to the church, Too busy trying not to be perceived as judgmental. I don't want to be perceived as judgmental, But also don't want to lose the little things. I. I don't want to lose my connection with you, to Claude or ChatGPT, or to friends or family members or to anybody else.

God, I want you, And if to get you, I got to destroy some stuff in my life, I'm willing to do it And, God, I pray that that's the cry of everyone's heart in this room- that we're willing to do whatever it takes to make ourselves available to your will and calling on our lives. So, God, be with the people in this room right now, For those you're falling upon right now and you're convicting them to trust you for the first time. God, I pray that you would convict them to shake off some of that sin and maybe fill out a box so that we know how we can encourage them. For those who have done that, check those boxes before. I want God, I want you to consecrate them further into your kingdom so that they don't look like the very thing that they fled from.

I pray these things in Jesus's name and all God's people.