 Joshua chapter 7, what we're going to be looking at today is defeat. Defeat in a small city called, we call it AI, archaeologists refer to this small city as just I, and if there were three cities it would be III, but anyway I don't know where they come from I'm sorry I apologize I'm just old. But here we but I call it AI just just because that's how I've heard it all my spiritual life. Verse one I'm only going to read verse one get into an introduction we're looking at a defeat at AI. In Joshua chapters 7 verse one it says the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things forache and the son of Karmie the son of Zabdi the son of Zirah of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed things so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Now God had made promises to the nation of Israel as we know concerning the entering in and the possessing of what has been referred to and what is referred to as the land of promise or the promised land. And as I've been mentioning to you this particular promise concerning entering in and possessing the land was first given to a man by the name of Abraham. In Genesis take notes chapter 12 verse 7 it says the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring I will give this land. In Genesis 15 18 through 21 it says on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river of the Euphrates the land of the Kenites, Kenozites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Parazites, Refiites, Amorites, Canaanites, Gershites, Jebusites and you know the other tribes. Well that promise that God gave began to be fulfilled when Joshua and and his men took the city of Jericho as we saw recently God had said I'm going to be with you I'm going to give you victory. Now Moses had instructed the people and the priests concerning this and it's recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 20 what he had said in Deuteronomy 20 verses 3 and 4 it says he speaking of the priest shall say to them here oh Israel today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies do not let your heart faint do not be afraid do not tremble or be terrified because of them the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you and so God had given his guaranteed that they would be victorious that he would not leave them alone but he would be with them and actually the one who would fight against the enemies so as we've seen they marched around the city they blew trumpets and God tore the walls down we noticed that when when this happened the people went into the city and they took the city so what that was to do was to to cause Israel and cause Joshua to have confidence in the word of God because God could be trusted God had said in Joshua chapter 1 verse 3 every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon I have given you as I said to Moses and so they have these promises from God that they can hold fast to God has said it will he not do it and so they went in and they they took that they possess that city so after the victory over Jericho Joshua pronounced a curse and and we saw that in chapter 6 verse 26 where it says Joshua charged them at that time saying curse be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn and with his youngest he shall set up its gates and so Joshua actually pronounced a curse against the city of Jericho interestingly enough and I didn't mention it last time we're together that curse was literally fulfilled right around 500 or so years later when there was a king in the northern tribes by the name of Ahab during his reign Jericho was rebuilt and it says in first king 16 verse 34 in his in Ahab's days Yal of Bethel built Jericho he laid its foundation with a serum his firstborn and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken through Joshua the son of none and so even though a curse had been pronounced against Jericho they went about to restore it and that curse was fulfilled in the lives of these individuals went about to rebuild that city now in their victory God had made it clear that he would keep his word for their good and so in this chapter he's going to make it clear that he will also deal with them if they disobey as a believer I really enjoy the promises of God for my good but not only does God give promises but God also gives warnings and we need to take the whole council of God in and so on the one hand God had made a promise I will give you the city I will be with you I will fight on your behalf it's as good as yours that's his promise but he also has set conditions when you study the Old Testament and you go through the book Deuteronomy chapter 28 in the book of Deuteronomy has a portion of Scripture that speaks of the blessings God promises Israel but it also has a portion for God says if you don't keep my word these are the things that will occur to you and these are not blessings they are actually curses that will fall on the nation in Deuteronomy for example chapter 28 verse 7 it says the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways and so that's what the Lord was fulfilling through their obedience as they entered into and take that city of Jericho they were in the center of his will they were doing what God had said to do and thus the enemies fled before them but he also says in the same chapter at verse 25 if you are disobedient then other things will happen the things that that are really called curses the Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth and so in this chapter we see how disobedience put them in the position of being chastised one of the things we need to remember as we go through this study and as we consider what the Word of God is saying in all to us what one of the things we need to continually keep in the forefront of our mind is that God does exist and God is personal and God takes disobedience extremely seriously and God does not ignore disobedience sometimes we may think that he ignores it but he doesn't and if God has said it he's going to fulfill it both for what we would call our good and also he will fulfill his word when it comes to having to chase and or chastise us some believers actually seem surprised when things aren't going well for them but I've discovered that sometimes things aren't going well for me or sometimes things aren't going well for others because we're actually in a state of unrepentant sin and God is simply chastening us and and we don't even realize that because we think well everything's supposed to work out to be really good for me but we fail to realize that sometimes we're simply going to reap what we sow and if we're sowing to the flesh from the flesh we will indeed reap corruption that's something that you find in both the old and the New Testament that that sense that God gives to us of saying if you do wrong I will deal with you in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 5 it says you should know in your heart that as as a man chastens his son so the Lord your God chastens you and so there are times when God actually brings a chastisement a chastening to us for disobedience and that's the Old Testament somebody says but it's also in the new Revelation 3 19 says it like this as a as many as I love I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent and so what we see here in chapter 7 is the chastening hand of the Lord because of sin that has been found in the camp of Israel it says in verse 1 and Joshua 7 the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things now God had made it very clear what the Israelites were to do we had seen that already in chapter 6 but let me refresh your memory in chapter 6 verse 17 through 19 there he had said the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction it and all who are in it only rehab the harlot shall live she and all who are with her in the house because she had the messengers that we sent and you by all means keep yourselves from the accursed things lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it but all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord they shall come into the treasury of the Lord so God had already given them specific commandments related to the things that they would find there in the city of Jericho the silver and gold belong to the Lord and there to be consecrated unto him as a kind of first fruits of the land a kind of offering in that way but instead of obeying there's a man by the name of Achan and Achan took the accursed things and when he did that and you'll see this in some detail in a moment when he did that it provokes the Lord to anger now what's interesting is though is Achan who sinned in this way Achan sin affects the entire nation I want you to notice this as the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed thing and yet when we get into this chapter we're going to see that it wasn't all of them it was one of them a man by the name of Achan and yet the entire nation is going to be dealt with because of his sin his sin affects everybody you see his impurity affects the purity of the entire nation there's a principle you find it in more than one scripture Galatians 5 verse 9 says a little leaven leavens the whole lump and so this sin that Achan has committed and it would seem that there was a knowledge of his sin that was shared in the family undoubtedly Mrs. Achan knew about it and the kids probably did too but that that impurity that came about through the through the sinfulness of Achan actually is affected the whole nation so God is not looking at it as simply the sin of Achan God is going to deal with an entire nation because of one man's sin you see Israel was to be one nation Israel together was to follow and obey God so Achan sin affects the entire nation and God is angry with them all over it now in New Testament terms we need to remember and realize really that individual Christians lives most definitely affect the entire witness of the church in the world just because people may not realize it doesn't mean that it's not true an individual Christians sin when found out affects everybody it affects the body of Christ how does it do that well it weakens us it makes us impure but it also affects our testimony and witness to the world because there are numbers of people who are not Christians who look at Christians and will say I don't want to be a Christian and then you say why not and all of us I think I've heard this in our lifetime as a believer they'll say something like because I've known too many hypocrites who claim to be Christians and don't live for Jesus Christ and though we will say you know all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God there's not a single person who's perfect not one of us is going to be able to live spotless lives we're all going to stumble and fall we get up and we seek the Lord and we repent and ask for forgiveness and move on that's not sufficient for a lot of people because they're blaming the entire message of the gospel and saying that it's really not valid based on the life of one or two or three people that they've met over a lifetime that they considered to be hypocritical so sin does affect and it does have a very bad effect on on our witness and and the Lord does bring chastening because of it the sin that individual Christians harbor and the sins that individual Christians practice also affects the entire church and so that's what's taking place here the children of Israel committed a trespass well verse Joshua sent men from Jericho to AI which is beside Beth of N on the east side of Bethel and spoke to them saying go up and spy out the country so the men went up and spied out AI and they returned to Joshua and said to him do not let all the people go up but let about two or three thousand men go up and and attack I do not worry all the people there for the people of AI are few and so they're in a place called AI that word AI or I literally is translated ruins or a heap it was a small town it's just west of the Jordan it's close by Jericho it's within about 10 miles of Jericho the city of Jericho and it is a small town shouldn't oppose a great problem to to the israelis because it only numbers and we'll see this in chapter 8 verse 25 in total population it only numbers 12 000 and that's why they say it's a small town we can go in you don't have to send all of our military there we can take care of it pretty easily and so we should be able to take with no problem well the problem is that Israel is still rejoicing in their victory at Jericho and though that victory is gods it didn't take long for them to think that it was their victory and so they're beginning to think now that they did it and so they're thinking if we took the fortified city how difficult will it be to take this one this is going to be very easy we don't have to worry the people there we can go in and take it and so they're they're failing to realize that no matter how small the challenge may be it's still an impossibility without god on your side it's the small foxes that ruin the vines it's not the large battles guys that we go into that necessarily become our downfall it's the small ones that we take for granted thinking that it's okay we can get through this it's not going to be a problem the big problems we fall on our face before god don't we and we pray and say god help me how am i going to do this it's impossible but the smaller things the things that don't seem to be that consequential are things that we we don't really pray that much about somebody has a cold and how often do you really pray god would you heal me of this cold oh i have a terrible very seldom do we really do that but somebody hears that they might have cancer do our prayers get more serious at that point absolutely oh god it's the big c it's going to take my life in jesus name and we pray with all of this passion it's the small things that we have a tendency of disregarding the larger things we know we need god in and so here they are they're about to go into this small city and so these uh these messengers return and say you know it's a it's a small place not going to be a lot uh very difficult so just send a small group of men there and and that's all we need to do well in verse four so about 3 000 men went up there from the people but they fled before the men of ai and the men of ai struck down about 36 men for they chased them from before the gate as far as shabarim and struck them down on the descent therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water it wasn't a complete slaughter they lost 36 fighting men but the defeat the defeat to such a small city staggered them because they now realize god's hand isn't with us he's withdrawn his help they had crossed over the jordan river they ransacked jericho and now this how could this have happened again in the new testament paul would say it like this is found in first Corinthians 10 12 therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall it's this mentality of not being prepared but also it's it's a lack of awareness of what's really taking place behind the scenes well when this happens verse six joshua tore his clothes and felted the earth on his face before the ark of the lord until evening both he and the elders of israel they put dust on their heads and joshua said alas lord god why have you brought this people over the jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the amorites to destroy us oh that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the jordan oh lord what shall i say when israel turns its back before its enemies for the canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and surround us and cut off your name from the earth then what will you do for your great name well he tore his clothes put dust on his head that's a symbol of grief a symbol of mourning and he begins to pray why did we come here in the first place now he's not aware of the secret sin in the camp so it's interesting to me how he begins is for at least as it's recorded here because notice what he says verse seven alas lord god why have you brought this people over the jordan to deliver us into the hand of the amorites to destroy us and blaming god and none of us would ever do something like that right we would never say it's your fault lord but that's how he begins and i find that very interesting how he does that he's not aware of the secret sin so immediately he blames god he's saying why did you do this did you bring us here to destroy us or he goes on or did we presume upon you that you were leading us here and did that did that result in our judgment i'm not quite sure what you've got going here lord i i need your help you're going to need to make this clear and then he goes on in verses eight and nine what shall we say what shall i say when israel turns his back towards enemies and so on the one hand i'm really confused i don't know what's going on but on the other hand i i want to protect the glory of the lord i'm concerned for your reputation the heathen are going to mock you they're not going to fear you it's kind of like moses's prayer in deuteronomy nine twenty seven and twenty eight where you prayed remember your servants abraham isek and jacob do not look on the stubbornness of this people or on their wickedness or their sin lest the land from which you brought us should save because the lord was not able to bring them to the land which he promised them because he hated them he's brought them out to kill them in the wilderness so he's trying to protect the glory of the lord but he doesn't understand what has taken place lord how come things aren't going the way that you said they would you had said everywhere the soul of my my foot shall shall step will be ours and so we took jericho and it was under your guidance provision you're the one who did it we go to this small city with twelve thousand population total and i send a small band of men their three thousand should have been sufficient and they end up losing thirty six and they chased us what's going on here well verse ten the lord said to joshua get up why do you lie thus on your face sissy boy actually that's a sarcastic thing the lord is actually saying literally stop whining that's what he's saying israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which i commanded them for they have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived and they have they have also put it among their own stuff therefore the children of israel could not stand before their enemy enemies but turned their back before their enemies because they have become doomed to destruction neither will i be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you stop whining and start acting there is a reason that this has happened and there's something that needs to be dealt with god is is literally saying i haven't changed but the people have sinned you see through akon they broke their vow they stole what was not theirs they acted deceitfully and they took for themselves who belong to god and god is saying this is why you fell before your enemies and will continue doing so until you deal with this you cannot let sin remain you can't when paul was writing to the carinthians in the new testament paul was writing concerning the fact that they had a sin that they had allowed to continue in their congregation that had not been dealt with paul said it's a serious sin it's a sin that isn't even mentioned among the Gentiles that a man should have his father's wife in other words you have a member of the church who is committing sexual sin with his father's wife not his biological mother but the woman married to his father which is incestuous and he's saying and you haven't repented as a matter of fact you're actually glorying in it and the reason it would appear that they were glorying in it was because they may have been exalting grace that was they believed present in their midst and thus they were tolerating a sin that god had strictly dealt with and forbidden in his scriptures and that sin that was being committed in the Corinthian church is referred to as leaven that leavens the lump when you allow sin to continue unchecked it destroys the holiness of the body of christ and the lord begins to remove his hand of blessing from the people and paul is saying instead of just glorying in this sin you need to deal with this severely that individual needs to be excommunicated needs to be removed from the body of christ because he's infecting it because your lack of action on this sin is given the impression that god is good with that sin he's all right with it but god isn't good with that sin it is something that god sent his son jesus christ to die on the cross to set us free from and to keep in sin like that and not deal with it is to cause impurity to find a home in the church and so you see that mentality in the old testament in the nation of israel but you see a similar mentality in the new testament sin needs to be dealt with and the bottom line was it needs to be dealt with now or else god says i'm going to take my hand of blessing from you and so he's saying there is a sin here some of uh someone has taken of the the accursed things the things that were to be dedicated to god they stole they deceived and they put it among their own things so this individual thought that they could get away with it they thought that they were able to to hide that from the lord but but god is revealing to joshua the reason that they fell because their sin in the camp listen joshua and the leaders could not detect it but god still had i can speak from a leadership perspective in this i can speak as a christian but i can speak as a christian leader and i can tell you this i can tell you that i've met many people over the years who upon first meeting them can be impressed with them because they have a sense about them maybe of gentleness or a loving spirit or kind but i don't really know them i i don't live in their home i don't see how they really act i don't travel with them to work i'm not with them on the job site i don't really know them i just they'll walk up and say hi how are you and i'll say i'm fine and and i'll tell marie i'll say what a nice guy but but i don't know them it's not that i should judge them or anything but i don't know them right and and and because i don't know them i don't know what they're really all about how can i i remember a fella he used to be in our church when church first began over 30 years ago now and we went to his house and he was a real gentle spoken man real kind to us very hospitable his wife was a real sweet young lady very nice and and marie and i went to their house and uh on on a few occasions you know spend some time with them we liked them church was new they were we were friendly with them and all and i thought that they were were real sweet people and i thought he was just a nice guy until one day we had a council the wife because he was a an abuser because he beat his wife and i you could you could knock me over with a feather this he beats his wife but there she is all bruised and battered and it's a habit that he has real quiet real gentle real nice but when nobody is around he's what he really is right how do you know how can we know how would joshua know i mean you have this entire nation how would i know that somebody went in to jericho and took what doesn't belong to him stole the accursed thing how would joshua know that's why joshua joshua couldn't and yet god is still still revealing it and god is saying just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there in psalm 90 verse 8 it says you have set our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your countenance our secret sins the things that we think nobody knows about the things that we think we get away with the things that we think that we can hide and guess what of course we can hide them from one another there there are married couples that that that have experienced one one member of that of that marriage one spouse hiding living a secret life and and they're not even aware of it because they're so good at it we had somebody in this church it's going to make this church look real bad huh there's a church i'm a i'm familiar with i know we had somebody in this church who uh wanted wanted to move into a leadership position here this is again about 28 years ago it's a long time ago and uh we had a leadership retreat and i invited this person to come wanted to share he was involved in christian ministry outside of the four walls of this fellowship had a good reputation and all of that and uh it was an older guy you know at that time i was probably in my early 30s and so he was an older guy he was in his 40s some old geezer and uh nice enough guy and then i find out he's a bigamist he's got two separate families married to two different women two different women how can you do that it's hard enough to be married to one but that's another that's another story how do we know these things how can i know these things they're hidden sins they're found out he was found out he was found out they're found out god does not allow these things to remain he has a love for us that is so great he just exposes them our secret sins he exposes in the light of accountants he was 413 says there's no creature hidden from his sight all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account you can't hide anything from god he sees everything and even when we think they're a secret in reality god sees it very clearly and so he says to him in verse 13 get up sanctify the people say sanctify yourselves for tomorrow because thus says the lord god of israel there's an accursed thing in your midst oh israel you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you verse 14 in the morning therefore you shall be brought before you shall be brought according to your tribes and shall be that the tribe which the lord takes shall come according to families and the family which the lord takes shall come by households and the household which the lord takes shall come man by man then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire he and all that he has because he's transgressed the covenant of the lord and because he has done a disgraceful thing in israel so in a nutshell god tells him go through israel literally you're going to be going house by house until the guilty party is discovered and after that guilty party is discovered you will enact capital punishment well it says that uh this individual is discovered you see what happens in verse 16 joshua rose early in the morning and brought israel by their tribes and the tribe of judo was taken and he brought the clan of juda and he took the family of the xarites and he brought the family of the xarites man by man and zabdi was taken then he brought his household man by man and akon the son of karmid the son of zabdi the son of zirah of the tribe of juda was taken so there's a slow process process of elimination each tribe is dealt with they come to the tribe of juda from the tribe of juda there's a man there who is found to be guilty his name is akon he is the perpetrator so verse 19 joshua said to akon your dead meat buddy no joshua said to akon my son i beg you give glory to the lord god of israel make confession to him tell me now what you've done do not hide it from me give glory to god god is the one who has seen god is the one who has revealed his sin you need to openly admit and confess your sin i'm trying to think of how to say what i'm about to say in a way that makes it clear and understandable you know when i say we've seen this in the past you know for you who just started coming to this fellowship you may not realize that this church has been going for since 81 so we're in our 32nd year i've been in ministry for 39 years so if you take that into consideration when you hear the things that i say maybe it'll give you some balance or perspective because if you've been doing something like this for a long time then you gain something called experience you've had opportunity to see quite a number of things over the years and that's just the way it is so i really want to be careful when i speak of our own fellowship here because i don't want to give the impression that right now you're sitting next to somebody that you should be careful with because they're sticking their hand in your purse right now and taking your wallet i want to i don't want you to you know be all paranoid like that though we have had purses stolen from this church it's true we've had cars stolen out of the parking lot radios and cds and dvds we've had palm trees stolen off the lot we had somebody come and steal windows once and one of my had my assistants helped him load the truck a former assistant he's now installing windows somewhere else we've had people come into the bookstore and steal they do it every year we've had bible stolen one of the most popular stolen items in the church next to uh next to the music um you'll be surprised i'll just put it that way i was i was when we caught the first guy we ever caught shoplifting in a church bookstore stealing a bible turn on dex it is 20 thou shan't not steal i said rawl go steal from your own bookstore steal one of your books nobody buys them anyway sin you catch him and like josh was saying my son there's compassion my son is is a kind he's treating him kindly even though he knows judgments coming he's treating him kindly you don't see him as all angry and vindictive here do you you see him as as actually pleading with him in a kind fashion my son give glory to god confess your sin sitting in my office with the guy we caught stealing in the bookstore that's how i treated him you're stealing from god you're taking from the lord think about it it's wrong but you want to know something achin is going to be judged we'll see this in a moment we already know what happens but i can tell you through experience that one of the number one things that i see is when people get caught they still don't cop to it they still don't admit it they can be caught with with with the bible in their hand or with the music in their in in their back they're caught with it and they don't admit it and and to me it is one of the amazing realities it's absolutely amazing how deceived and self deceived we can be where we're caught and the first thing we do is is we blame somebody else or we'll we'll try and weasel our way out somehow it's somebody else's fault it's not mine joshua says give glory to god he saw you he's exposed this you saw how it came down to you is no doubt about it you're the man now confess confess admit that you were wrong admit what you've done you see again god's desire isn't that people should perish god really has the desire that people would be treated with mercy ezekiel 33 11 reads say to them as i live says the lord god i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live and then the lord says turn turn from your evil ways for why should you die oh house of israel god is a holy god and he doesn't take sin lightly and he deals with it and the whole the whole nation was was being penalized 36 innocent men innocent at least in sense of knowing what had happened they didn't know 36 men died because of akon because of his sin because of what he did and so god is going to deal with this and so he's told you need to confess well in verse 20 akon answered and answered josh went said indeed i have sinned against the lord god of israel and this is what i've done when i saw among the spoils a beautiful babelonian garment 200 shekels of silver a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels i coveted them took them there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it you know guys when you think of ancient cities don't fall into the trap of thinking that they were just a bunch of like just just some cheesy looking dwelling places maybe made of some small bricks and just open windows and dirt floors that's not how they were we've been to some of the ruins and in israel betshan and others when you go and you see these cities the cities were were modern they were they had unbelievable they had running water they had they had shop after shop after shop like a like a mall they had they had tile floors they had paved roads they had it's like it was unbelievable and so what are you speaking about here in jericho is jericho was obviously a fortified city it was well populated and jericho had its own rodeo drive so if you if you can think like that for a moment we're not talking about walking into a cosco and i saw you know 50 pound sacks of potatoes and i took them it's not that it's like if you walked in to one of the high dollar stores in in paris or in rome or london beverly hills and you and you walk in and you're amazed at at how opulent this thing is one of the guys in our fellowship was speaking to me just last week and he was saying how he was doing some work in a home that i believe i may be wrong in this figure i i believe i remember it rightly that he said the home that he was working in we're talking about a home that he was working in that had was 70 million dollars a house see i i can't get my i can't get my head around that 70 million dollars with like 25 plus bedrooms and huge acreage in out there in by westwood some sheik owns it and he says yeah i was in there he said they have a prayer room the guys in muslim he has a prayer room he said that's huge that he goes in in praise he only goes there uh four months out of the year of the rest of the year it's empty this guy has so much money see i can't get my mind around that kind of thing i can't but there are some who do and some who understand and achin came into jericho a walled city fortified city powerful city and it isn't just a bunch of little small shacks this is a place that had shopping center it had everything and it's equivalent to walking in to one of these places that imports and he said and there was a babelonian garment there which is a high dollar item and i saw it and i wanted it it's like if you walked into and i can't even think i don't know the names of some of the nicest places some of you could probably help me with that because i really don't know the names of these places because we're never going to go into any of them we'll look at them maybe we drive by fast so i'm unable to i really don't i wish i could say i magden or something i don't know northstroms is expensive to me i don't get it but if you're there on rodeo drive nobody's around you walk into the business there's these imported suits from italy and that one oh that's nice i'm going to take it you go to the cash register and you open it up and all of this money's in there in the back of your mind you're thinking they're never going to use this who's going to miss it and that's what happens the tempi i coveted it i saw it i wanted it it had a grip on my heart i walked in there and i i just i really wanted that i saw i coveted it i took it and i hit it that's what i did steps to failure i saw it it had an appeal to my eye i coveted it it got it got a uh a toehold in my heart and so i i picked it up and once i finally had in my possession i couldn't let it go so i hit it that's that's how he failed they knew god had already said the silver and the gold belonged to me everything else is to be destroyed where is he going to wear this beautiful babelonian garment is he going to put it on in his tent kind of walk around hey baby look at me i mean what where are you going to wear it and why do you need it so bad but he did he wanted it so badly that he was willing to do anything for it that's where seeing something and coveting something very dangerous and paul said that he has learned to be content in whatever state he's in why could he say that he said look at i've had much and i've had little and i've learned to be content in whatever state i am i can do all things through christ who strengthens me i've had much and i've had very little but the thing that's the key to my contentment this a lot of christians have missed this is my fellowship with god this is eternal life that they may know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou has sent give us this day our daily bread lord teach us to be content with what you've given to us and to use what you've given to us for your glory and if you give him much then i'll give you back much but whatever you give me i'm going to give back to you because i know from your hand i've received all these blessings and my contentment comes from my relationship with you akon he walks in and he sees this unbelievable beautiful garment imported from babelan he sees the silver he sees the gold he conceives a thought in his heart takes it there is it nobody even knows i have this he thinks but the lord knows well the problem is somebody's watching and the one who was being robbed was god himself you see the silver and the gold was to be consecrated to the lord the garment was to have been destroyed so verse 22 so joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and there it was hidden in the tent with the silver under it and they took them from the midst of the tent brought them to joshua and to all the children of israel and laid them out before the lord then joshua and all this real with him took akon the son of zehra the silver the garment the wedge of gold his sons his daughters his oxen his donkeys his sheep his tent and all that he had and they brought them to the valley of akor joshua said why have you troubled us the lord will trouble you this day so all israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones then they raised over him a great heap of stones still there to this day so the lord turned from the fierceness of his anger therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of akor to this day the valley of akor the word akor means trouble the valley of trouble i've said this before i'll just say it briefly your sin my sin doesn't just affect me doesn't just affect me i had a dream many years ago now probably 20 years or more and in my dream and i've said this before to you and i actually repeat this in my dream so i want to make sure the word dream in my dream i had a dream there's a reason why i keep repeating the word dream because somebody's not hearing it that's why i'm saying it again in my dream i committed adultery and it felt real that i had really done that because dreams for me are very real i i have the most realistic dreams and in this industry i i had committed adultery but i saw the ramifications of that because as i was dreaming i had to confess my sin to marie and my wife and when i when i confessed my sin to marie i saw the look in her eyes that she would actually have if i were to actually commit such a sin it was a broken heart it was so broken her whole count and it's changed in front of me it was her shoulders i still remember her her eyes were filled with tears and her little lips began to quiver and tears began to flow and and it was such a pain and and i felt that pain i felt the pain of saying honey i have been unfaithful to you and then in my dream i'm transported to speak to my four children who were small at that time and i looked at karin and david and joseph and anna and i said daddy has been unfaithful to your mama and i watched their faces as they broke it was so real i saw the tears form in david's eyes and karin i saw it and their little heads bowed down and the tears that they suffered i felt it and then i had to tell my church and at all dreams are so quick you just have i mean it's over but it felt like a prolonged dream where i stood in the pulpit and i looked at the congregation at that time and i said i have failed god i have failed my family i have failed you it was so real and i saw the brokenness of my congregation and then i woke up and i turned and looked at marie and i thought i will never do that to this family to this woman to my church i will never do that sin has repercussion it isn't just you i have the people want to argue oh it's just me it's not hurting anybody it hurts everybody it's not just you and it's not just your small family it is everybody who knows you it is your parents should they still be alive it's your brothers your sisters should you have them it's your cousins it's your friends it's every person that is part of your web of friendships everybody's affected by one sin we all are and the body of christ suffers because of it and those who would argue and say it's just me those who would argue that do not read their bibles i guarantee you they don't read the bible because you cannot believe that and read the bible at the same time you can't you read your bible in first Corinthians chapter 12 says though we are many yet we are the one body hands and feet eyes ears we all belong to one another we're connected we are the body of christ and when a sin is committed it affects us all so when somebody takes their liberty in the name of jesus and goes out and does what they do it affects the reputation of the church they attend it affects the name of christ whom they profess to be their savior it affects the church at large because that person seeing them committing this kind of sin is saying within themselves what a hypocrite and it isn't something that god ignores you know the one thing that we we have to understand is god is long suffering he's patient to us he's not willing that we should perish but that doesn't mean that he won't deal with our sin and and and what i'm trying to share with you as i'm closing this he has a very simple thing you find in scripture both old and new and that is having a healthy fear of the lord god loves you enough to not let you get away with it he loves you enough to not let you get away with it he's not the kind of dad who kind of ignores things and says oh it's just he's not that way he says no if you're mine i will chasten you if you belong to me i will spank you because you're my child and a good parent always chastens it the child if a child is not chastened it's because that child doesn't have parent but because i belong to the lord he will deal with it in the old testament achon his sin affected the whole nation of israel but the punishment came upon his family his children his wife it would seem by the way that uh the wife very well may have been complicit in this aware of it just kept it to herself but she was judged along with her husband nonetheless this is one of those passages where god is saying i am the lord i will not be mocked and maybe we the church even in the new testament grace period that we're in should remember what a holy god we serve and what he expects from us which is simply to love him and obey him demonstrating that we really do trust him and that we really do know him achon achon was dealt with what a severe punishment to see that was placed on him but what a warning to us may we live in such a way that we really seriously believe there's a personal god who sees all things may we do those things that please him