October 5, 2025 • 44 mins
A single question threads through ancient battlefields and modern routines: who are we choosing today? We walk through Joshua 5–8 to trace a pattern that feels uncannily current—kneel before the Lord, experience the joy of obedience, face the wreckage of hidden sin, and return to renewal. Along the way, we hear Jesus’s clear, present-tense call from Luke 9: deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow. The contrasts are vivid: Joshua meets the commander of the Lord’s army and discovers that the point isn’t “Whose side is God on?” but “Are we aligned with Him?” Jericho’s walls fall through trust, not tactics. Achan’s secrecy shows how private choices fracture a public community. And on Mount Ebal, the whole nation—women, children, and sojourners—gathers to remember and recommit under God’s Word.
We connect these scenes to everyday discipleship. True assurance doesn’t rest on a dusty memory of a card or aisle; it shows up in today’s footsteps. Time, difficulty, and change test roots. When the wind rises, do we release the aroma of Christ? We lean into a practical, grace-filled framework for examining direction over perfection—habits in Scripture, prayer, community care, and humble celebration of others. The good news holds the center: Jesus is the better Joshua who stepped beneath the stones we deserve, so we can stand on rubble by grace. Repentance is not meant to end in despair but to lead to remembrance, reaffirmation, and recommitment—at the table and in our rhythms.
If you’re hungry for a faith that’s honest about failure and stubborn about hope, this conversation is for you. Join us as we choose today—at home, in conflict, in fatigue—to say yes to Jesus again.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Please turn to your Bibles to Luke 9, 18 through 20
and 23 through 25, which is onpage 867 in the pew Bibles, and
follow along as I read God'sWord.
(00:20):
Now it happened that as he waspraying alone, the disciples
were with him, and he askedthem, Who do the crowds say that
I am?
And they answered, John theBaptist, but others say Elijah,
and others that one of theprophets of old has risen.
Then he said to them, But who doyou say that I am?
And Peter answered, The Christof God.
(00:42):
And he said to all, If any onewould come after me, let him
deny himself and take up hiscross daily and follow me.
For whoever would save his lifewill lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will saveit.
For what does it profit a man ifhe gains the whole world and
loses or forfeits himself?
(01:02):
This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
Well, guys, we are going to mixit up just a little bit,
probably not as much as youwould imagine.
You'll notice you didn't turn tothe book of Joshua when Laura
came up here to read.
We will be in the book ofJoshua, but this morning we get
to do something that I'veactually been looking forward to
since we opened the book ofJoshua.
(01:25):
In fact, there is something thatI have wanted to talk with you
about since we began it, and Ihave tucked it in as a phrase
that I think God would have uswrestle with.
Certainly, I think we as achurch, a reader of the book of
Joshua, should be wrestlingwith, but I don't know if I have
made it abundantly clear.
In fact, I intentionally havenot.
(01:47):
So here is where we are.
We uh over the past few weeksread Joshua 5, 6, 7, and that is
where we would be right now.
However, I want to hit pausebecause there is something
uniquely special about thesefour chapters in the book of
Joshua.
Four things that if you were tomiss this, you would miss out on
(02:11):
what I think would be the mainpush and theme of the entirety,
not only of this book of theBible, but how it actually
connects with the New Testamentas a whole.
Also, let me hit a timeout realquick.
I'm looking for Will Chamblissbecause I was supposed to tell
y'all if we have gluten-free andif so, where it is right here
(02:34):
and right here.
Okay.
If you need thank you, Will,much appreciated.
If you need gluten-freecommunion, it'll be right there
and right there.
Gotcha.
All right.
All that being said, let's jumpback into Joshua.
Joshua 5, Joshua 6, Joshua 7,and Joshua 8.
Now, you don't have to rememberwhat happened in each of these
chapters.
We have been doing about achapter a week every Sunday, but
(02:56):
Joshua 5 would have lookedsomething like this.
Joshua sees a man with a sworddrawn, and he walks toward him
with all the confidence and allthe boldness in the world, and
he asks him a question.
He asks him, Are you for us orare you for our enemies?
And when this begins, what isbeing brought up is the
(03:17):
theological question throughoutthe entirety of the book of
Joshua.
This is what it would havelooked like in scripture.
When Joshua is by Jericho, thisis before Jericho falls, this is
before Achan's sin.
He's there, he sees it, God hascalled him, he lifts up his eyes
and he looks, and behold, a manwas standing before him with his
drawn sword in his hand.
(03:38):
And Joshua went to him and saidto him, Are you for us, option
one, or for our adversaries?
Option two.
And the commander of the Lord'sarmy says, Nope.
You have missed the main option.
The main option is not if I amfor you, it is not if I am for
your adversaries.
I am the commander of the armyof the Lord.
(03:59):
It almost comes across as, youlittle thing, what are you
asking?
I'm the commander of the army ofthe Lord, and I have come.
And Joshua falls on his face tothe earth and he worships and
said to him, What does the Lordsay to my servant?
Now I'm not going to re-preachthis entire thing, but don't
miss the word worship.
Nowhere in Scripture are humansallowed to worship angels.
(04:22):
This could come across as anangelic being.
But this is something biggerthan that.
This is the commander of theLord's army.
This is what many people believeis.
Starts with a TH.
It is a very theological word.
I said it once four weeks ago.
Let's see if anybody rememberedit.
This is what we would call atheophany, way to go.
(04:42):
If you didn't know that, youjust learned a new word, where
God kind of steps into the pageswhere we see potentially Jesus
walk into the Old Testament witha sword in his hand.
And in this moment, Joshuachapter five, we are given the
theological question for theentire book of Joshua.
Will God's people live byobedience and faith?
(05:05):
And what does Joshua do?
He falls on his knees and hecalls Jesus Lord.
Special thanks to Thomas forpresetting us up in the theology
of Jesus being both fully Godand fully man.
Now I just want you to put youreyes on the screen for a moment.
This is the question throughoutthe whole book of Joshua, but is
this also a question throughoutthe entire book of the Bible?
(05:28):
Is this not the biggest questionof the book that makes up the
pages and chapters of your life?
Will God's people live by faithand obedience?
And the great news is we turnthe page in chapter five and we
get to chapter six.
And they walk up on Jericho, andwhat is the answer?
(05:48):
Are they going to be faithful?
Are they going to be obedient?
Yes or no?
One, two, three.
Yes.
I could tell there was going tobe hesitance there because we're
so used to saying no.
We're so used to being like,we're not faithful, we're not
obedient.
Christians, heads up for aminute.
Sometimes you get it right.
Peter went fishing many timesand caught fish.
(06:09):
He happened not to catch it whenJesus was out there so Jesus
could prove a point.
But Christians, you do getthings right, okay?
Uh, this is one of my favoriteand biggest pet peeves of you as
a congregation.
Can I tell you what it is?
I knew I was going to getpositive feedback on the sermon
last week.
I had two things come through intext message more than anything
(06:32):
else after last week's sermon.
One of them you would guess, oneof them you would not, okay?
The first one, y'all know whatit was because we've talked
about it.
The first one was, brother, thatwas such a good sermon.
Just hit me right between theeyes.
Hidden sin.
And I just know y'all love toget beat up.
You guys are like Bruce Willisin every movie.
It doesn't count if you're notbloody by the time you make it
(06:53):
to the door.
If I taught you about victory inJesus and overcoming and the
delights of the life to come,y'all are right, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
But tell me how bad I am if youreally want it to count.
I just want you to know thatabout you.
Scripture is full of delight anddifficulty, of gravity and
gladness, okay?
There are good things that aregood things because they're
(07:15):
good.
The second thing was all ofthese text messages about the
young military guys who filledup the front two rows.
That was my second favoritething.
To include fathers with singledaughters, like, hook me up, let
me know what's going on overthere.
That was a secondary thing.
So when we turn to Joshuachapter six, this is a great
(07:35):
chapter.
This is a win.
Jericho comes tumbling downbecause God's people threw
stones at it.
No.
They win because they were thebest fighters?
No.
Why did they win?
Because God's people answeredthis question.
We'll be obedient, we'll befaithful.
You want me to do what now?
Walk around a city?
That's it?
(07:56):
Yeah, do that for six days.
Uh okay, sure.
Six times.
Day seven comes.
Do that, run it again, do itseven times.
Uh okay.
I mean, doesn't make any sense.
Nobody's ever won a battle thisway, but God, you did just rip
open a river to let us walkacross.
So sure.
Seven times they go around, theyshout, massive victory in
(08:20):
chapter six.
And then chapter seven.
Now, before we go there, enjoythe win.
I I try to tell people this inlife, in marriage, in parenting.
If you get a win, enjoy it.
Take the W.
Build on it.
Everything that is yet to comein the book of Joshua.
(08:40):
7, 8, and following, here's whatyou must know God will
accomplish his purposes.
He will.
Unchanging, unchallenged, alwaystrue.
God will accomplish hispurposes.
He's gonna do it in Joshua'slife, he's gonna do it in yours.
He will do these things.
(09:03):
The question is will God'speople align with him in
obedience?
And as that question is beingasked, this is my favorite
picture, but you have to lookclosely to really appreciate it.
We get to chapter 8.
And in chapter 8, we have morestones falling, but instead of
God's people standing upon themin victory, somebody stands
(09:27):
below them in defeat.
Christian, this is your life.
This is it.
Your life displayed in fourchapters of the Old Testament
millennia before you learned howto read these very pages.
And when we get to Joshuachapter 7, we are jolted awake.
(09:51):
Why?
Because Achan outwardly lookedlike every other Israelite
warrior.
Two thousand people, two millionpeople made up God's people,
tens of thousands of soldiers,and he looked just like them.
Looked probably just like youwould on a Sunday morning if he
had lived thousands of yearslater.
(10:13):
But inwardly, his allegiance waselsewhere.
He chose to serve himself, hechose to serve his desires, he
chose to serve his cravings.
Now, his particular craving,security, and wealth.
Spoiler alert, many of usstruggle with those same two
things.
And here is what it would havelooked like in the pages of
(10:36):
Scripture.
Oh, where is it?
But the people of Israel brokefaith in regard to the devoted
things.
Watch this.
For Achan, this is the guy'sname, son of Carmi, son of
Zabbi, son of Zara of the tribeof Judah, all of those things
are listed because of how Godselected him and made it on
display.
Took some of the devoted things,and the anger of the Lord burned
(11:00):
against, watch carefully, thepeople of Israel.
Right in the midst of the peopleof Israel is this one man who
sins, and it costs the entirenation, because sin does not
stay contained.
Sin always spreads, usually tothe people that you love or say
(11:20):
that you love the most.
And in the midst of this sin,God's word would ask us this
question (11:26):
Do you realize that you can be standing in the camp
of God's people?
Do you realize you can besinging the same songs?
You can be attending the samegatherings and be an absolute
fraud.
And your fraudulence of souldoes not just affect you.
I think that last part is verypertinent for us because we have
(11:50):
such an individualistic view ofour faith.
We think if I'm faking it withGod, that's just between me and
God.
But the reality of it iseverybody around us, before,
behind, those we are goingtoward and those we are walking
from, our sin affects all of it.
And so what we find is that ourallegiance is not really about
(12:14):
appearance, but about an inwardreality expressed in outward
action.
I know that's a bit wordy, soI'll leave it up there for a
minute.
What your allegiance to God isabout, well, your allegiance to
uh a sacrifice savior whoovercome death, what it's really
about is not appearance, butthis inward reality expressed in
(12:36):
outward action.
If I were to put it differently,I would probably say, in calm
weather, every tree looksstrong.
In calm weather, every singletree looks strong.
And then a storm comes.
And I apologize if I've repeatedthis story.
And a storm comes through and itknocks over the one tree on your
(13:01):
property amidst the many thatyour deer stand is in, and it
blows it to the one side of thetree that your deer stand is on,
and it absolutely demolishes it.
Now, did God need to do that forthe purposes of illustration?
I hope not, but I am stilltrying to learn from whatever it
(13:22):
is that the Lord was trying toteach me in that moment.
Every one of us looks stronguntil the wind blows.
And this is how we would see itin the New Testament.
Now, this is John looking backmany years later in his life,
and he's looking at the church.
He's looking at something muchmore like this than what Achan
would have seen, but the samereality that Achan lived, John
(13:45):
sees thousands of years ago.
And he writes this sort ofcryptic phrase.
They went out from us.
When it says us, this would meanthe church.
They went out from the church,but they were not of us.
So they were here, they lookedlike us, they sang the same
songs, they went to the samesmall groups, they wore the same
(14:07):
Bible memory bracelets, theylooked just like us, but they
weren't of us because if theyhad been of us, they would have
continued with us, but they wentout that it, please don't miss
this, might become plain thatthey all are not of us.
(14:30):
All right, if you like gettingbeat up, let me beat you up a
little bit.
Some of you are faking it.
Some of you are faking it in away that you have been faking it
for a very, very long time.
You're not just faking it todayto try to get through a Sunday.
You fake it every time you walkin.
You fake it every time you part,you fake it every time you walk
(14:51):
into a small group.
Could be hidden sin like Achan,could be pride that you don't
want to kneel like we see inJoshua 5 to the commander of the
army of the Lord, to the one whosays, It is not your way or
their way, it is my way or thehighway, there is no other way,
except for the way of hell.
So walk away from that way.
That's what would be said.
But please notice these threewords.
(15:13):
John wants you to know this willbecome plain.
How does it become plain?
I'll give you three ways time,difficulty, and change.
Every tree looks strong untilthe winds begin to blow.
What is it that shakes us?
Time.
Faking it for too long when wecan't keep up with the lies,
(15:33):
whether it's inside or outside,change, because it is difficult.
And we want security.
We want to know what tomorrowbrings.
Difficulty because we do notwant it, and we are like
sponges.
For the good and for the bad, bythe way.
Christian, when you getsqueezed, the aroma of Christ
comes out.
This is the sacrifice of thesaints of God.
(15:54):
Martyrs are a beautifulfragrance to the Lord, as
gruesome as it sounds to us.
Christian, when difficultysqueezes you, when the
brokenness of the world, whenthe people around you, when
those who are opposed to yousqueeze you, the expectation of
Scripture is the aroma of Christcomes out.
(16:15):
But when we are squeezed andother things come out, it is God
making it plain that we have notyet arrived.
For some of us, it's, hey, Ijust need to make plain there's
some more sanctification thatneeds to happen.
You've trusted in God as yourSavior, but you're not done yet.
By the grace of God, he isn'tfinished with you.
(16:35):
That is a good thing.
That is a good time, difficultyand change he has brought.
But for some of us, he brings itto squeeze us to show us there
really is no life inside of us.
We can put it on like Achan, buteventually it will become plain.
This is one of the best timesfor you to assess it.
Over time, through change, andwith difficulty.
(16:59):
And this theological questionthrough the whole book of
Joshua, will God's people liveby faith, is putting something
in front of us.
It isn't just this question,it's also this one.
Are you gonna live by obedienceand faith, or are you gonna
drift into rebellion andself-will?
(17:22):
This is why chapter six andchapter seven are side by side.
Do you want to know whatobedience looks like and what
the rewards of obedience are?
It is you standing upon therubble of the brokenness of this
world victorious.
But do you want to know whatrebellion and going about life
your own way looks like?
It is not you standing upon thestones, but being held beneath
(17:46):
them.
Now, typically I would point toJesus later in the sermon,
especially on a communionSunday, but I can't not do it
right now.
This in Joshua 6 is a promise.
In Joshua 7, what we have is awarning.
This is the gospel in shortform.
(18:07):
Do you want to trust God's way?
Do you want to recognize thatChrist has obtained the victory?
Do you want to even go one stepfurther and realize that the
person on display here is Joshuaand here is Achan?
And do you want to realize thatJesus is very much like Joshua
and Joshua, like Jesus?
Their names are literally thesame.
(18:27):
You see Jesus written in theGreek and Joshua written in the
Hebrew, but it is the samething.
Joshua is somebody who isobedient, who is faithful, who
is a leader, who is sacrificial.
And what do we see when we livelife that way, standing upon the
rubble?
But what do we see with our ownselfishness and self-will?
We stand beneath the pile.
(18:49):
And what does Jesus do?
Achen, meaning trouble, troublelike you and me, those of us who
live in it and many times createit.
Jesus steps under the stones.
He says, I love you enough tosee that these stones are
coming.
They will crush you.
Your sin is real, yourbrokenness is real.
So you get to decide.
(19:10):
Do you want me to stand beneathit and take the wrath of God so
you can stand on top of it?
Or do you just want to take theblows as they come?
This is why Isaiah points toJesus as one being crushed.
He was pierced for ourtransgressions.
Every sin that we commit, notjust the biggies, the little
(19:33):
ones too.
Isaiah is prophesying everypiercing, hand, hand, thorns
coming down, spear in his side.
He was pierced for yourtransgressions.
What Isaiah wants you to feel ishey, I love you, but you did
this.
(19:53):
You're the reason stones arebeing thrown.
And Jesus was pierced for ourtransgressions.
He was crushed beneath theweight of our iniquity.
Upon him was the chastisementthat brings us peace, but only
if we will receive it.
The craziest thing to me in theentirety of the Bible is how
(20:18):
simple it is for your entireeternity to be changed.
It's the simplicity of not justsaying magical pixie dust words,
Lord, I pray that you wouldforgive me of my sins, but you
realizing I need a Joshua 5reality.
I need to bow down to the Lordof all creation.
I need to know that He hassecured the victory.
(20:40):
Chapter 6.
I need to realize that chapter7, what I deserve is to be
beneath a pile of rubble, whichis why I bring us to Joshua 8.
What happens in Joshua 8?
When we have this incrediblepromise and then this victory
and then this failure, what isit that comes next in Scripture?
Well, Mount Abal comes inScripture.
(21:01):
I'm not going to do the entiretyof chapter 8, but I would like
to give you four verses from it.
At that time, Joshua built analtar to the Lord.
There are rocks everywhere inthese four chapters.
And they offered on it burntofferings to the Lord and they
sacrificed peace offerings.
We have sinned.
We have failed.
And that means we need to dosomething.
(21:22):
For us, it isn't building analtar or slaying an animal.
It is us slaying our ownself-will and our own rebellion
and bowing to the King of Kingsand Lord of Lords.
And afterward, I want you toimagine this.
Okay.
There are two million people inGod's nation at this point, and
children get invited to thechurch service on this Sunday.
(21:45):
I'm using our vernacular.
It wasn't Sunday, most likely.
But I just want you to imaginechurch today on this Sunday in
verse 34.
And afterward, some of you guysare like, y'all cover a lot of
scripture in a week.
Challenge accepted.
And afterward, he read all thewords of the law.
(22:07):
Please show up to that churchservice and leave with a good
response.
Five stars would recommendagain.
We read Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy.
It was a banger.
That's what this is playing out.
They read the blessings, thechapter sixes, and the curses,
the chapter sevens.
(22:27):
Midree, did you see what justhappened?
They were celebrating both thegood and the bad.
The two by fours that buildthings, and the two by fours
that hit you between the eyes.
Both good, both very good.
Today, hopefully, is building.
According to all that is writtenin the book of the law.
There was not a word of all thatMoses commanded.
(22:47):
And Moses could talk.
He stuttered a bit, but once hegot going, he had some things to
say.
There was not a word of all thatMoses commanded that Joshua did
not read before all the assemblyof Israel, in the event that you
need to know what that means.
It goes into more detail toinclude all of Israel, including
the women and the little onesand the sojourners.
(23:10):
Okay?
This is amazing to me.
Like we have a cry room rightback there through those plated
uh glass windows.
In case you don't know, if youhave a kid who starts crying, we
did what we could to help.
You can walk out on the back.
You can still see what's goingon in here.
We have music playing.
We also have like a room that'sladies only, by the way.
Don't be the creepy guy who hasa six-month-old and just bebops
(23:31):
on in there.
It's a nursing room, too.
But we have it to make this sortof functional.
Can you imagine an entire nationwith all of the children
gathering to listen to this?
Why?
Because God's word really,really mattered to them.
It mattered enough to deal withthe distraction.
It mattered enough to deal withthe difficulty.
It mattered enough to lean intothe time.
(23:52):
It mattered enough to desire thechange.
And by the way, I love the factthat it says the sojourners and
not just Rahab.
It could, it could, I mean, keepin mind we're only two chapters
away.
Why doesn't it say, and thelittle ones and Rahab and her
family?
Because it's probably grownsince then.
Because there are probably morepeople in the family of God that
(24:13):
were not born as ethnic Jews whoare now gathering around.
And so this is the picture.
This is Joshua 5 through 8.
And the reason that I want youto see this is because we are
called to do what they did atMount Abel.
We are called to do this.
(24:36):
Why?
Because if you're a Christian,you have submitted to the
Lordship of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, you haveseen victory.
If you've been a Christian forfive minutes, you have also
recognized your own failure.
And as a result, chapter 8 isincredibly necessary, where we
gather together and we remindourselves of the law of God,
(25:00):
even if you have heard it for 50years.
We remind ourselves of this.
How do we do this?
Well, we do it many timesthrough communion.
Remember these things.
Remember the body that wasbroken, remember the blood that
was shed.
This reminding, this movement isshowing us that repentance isn't
(25:23):
supposed to end in despair,Christian.
Chapter 8 is not about sadness.
It is about recognizing ourbrokenness, giving it to the
King of kings and the Lord ofLords, and realizing that he is
going to bring about the winningof the battles of life and
ultimately the war over sin anddarkness.
(25:44):
In other words, when you seethis, what you ought to see is
an upward trajectory of lovingJesus.
That's what you ought to see.
To put it differently, truediscipleship, a word for
following Christ, is notperfection but direction.
If it was perfection, we'd getrid of this one and we'd
(26:07):
probably get rid of this one.
Except that's not true life.
That's not your flesh, that'snot your soul, it's not the way
you make decisions.
And so instead, we are called totrue discipleship, true
following of the Lord.
And it is not about yourperfection, but it is about your
direction.
So I will ask you this.
(26:27):
Are you, specifically you,remembering, reaffirming, and
recommitting yourself to theLord?
We're called to do this throughcommunion.
We're called to do this in ourmarriages, we're called to do
this with our children.
We are called to do thisthroughout many, many portions
of our life.
Are you constantly doing this?
(26:50):
When is the last time that youpause to remember?
You pause to reaffirm, God, youare Lord of my life.
You can recommitted yourself tobeing a Christian who walks with
the Lord.
This is why we stop here inJoshua 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Because what Joshua is wantingyou to do is the same thing
(27:12):
Jesus wants you to do.
And I've put it up there fromweek one.
Choose this day.
Choose this day.
We often think I chose Christonce, so I'm good.
I went down at an altar call atsummer camp.
I was baptized many years ago.
(27:32):
I prayed a prayer on my dormroom floor many years ago.
But Joshua ends the book likethis.
Choose, this is uh chapter 24,the last chapter.
Choose this day whom you willserve.
Whether the gods of your father,the gods your fathers served in
the region beyond the river, orthe gods of the Amorites in
(27:54):
whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, wewill serve the Lord.
Quick question.
Do any of you guys have this onlike a doily in your house?
I just want, show of hands, thisexists somewhere in your home
right now.
Like the most coffee cup versefor something that's gonna end
up in a picture frame, it's thisone.
And some of you grew up walkingpast it in the kitchen or
(28:17):
looking at it in the restroom oron a frame next to your parents'
bed.
For me and my house, we willserve the Lord.
And we made it a declaration.
I'm putting this four by sixthing up, and none of my kids
are gonna stray.
All right, now time out.
Do you realize that there is apredicate to the part we all
like?
For me and my house, we willserve the Lord.
(28:39):
How do you get there?
You pick it every single day.
That's how you get there.
If I were to read this, this isthe exact same text, but I'll
tell you how it pops when Will'seyes hit the page.
This is what I see.
Choose today who you're gonnaserve.
For me and my house, it's gonnabe the Lord.
Now notice the options thatJoshua tucks into the middle.
(29:02):
Lowercase G gods of your fathersbefore, lowercase g gods of the
Amorites in front of them.
What is he saying?
All of the things in your pastand all of the things in your
future, all of the little ggods, all of those things that
your heart used to go to, areyou gonna go back to them?
Are you going back to alcoholand drunkenness?
(29:23):
Are you going back to looseliving?
Are you going back to a wastedlife in front of a screen?
Or are you going back tofoolishness?
Or is your antenna up so thatyou don't go towards the little
gigs you don't even know arecoming?
The winds that are gonna blow inthe days ahead to show if you
are strong, the squeezing thatis going to come so that the
(29:45):
sponge of your soul would exudewhat?
The aroma of Christ.
And Joshua says, Me, me, and mypeople, it's Jesus, it's the
Lord, it's the all caps L O R D.
This is The King of kings andthe Lord of Lords.
For me, for my house.
Why?
Because the life we live affectsthe people around us.
(30:07):
It is Jesus.
It is Him.
But you don't get there with onedecision.
It is choosing this day who weare going to serve.
The reason I've wanted to pausehere, the reason I've been
looking forward to this sermonthe entire time we've been in
(30:28):
the book of Joshua for twomonths is because this is the
Christian life.
It's the Christian life 2,000years before Jesus asked
somebody to follow it.
It's the Christian life beforeyou even understood the words of
justification andsanctification.
It is the Christian life ofpromise leading to victory, you
being warned of your sin so thatyou wouldn't end up beneath it,
(30:50):
but then knowing that when youdo, there is an invitation to
come to the Lord, to recommit,and to draw near to him.
Kneel, chapter 5.
Let God be God and the Lord ofyour life.
Celebrate, chapter 6, thevictories that he has already
accomplished in your life, andthe ones that you're doubting,
(31:12):
that he wants to see victoryend.
Be warned.
There are gods behind you andgods before you who want to put
you under a pile of stones.
Jesus already got under them.
There's no need for you to bethere and be invited back.
That when you do fail, there ishope.
You see, Joshua is not a bookabout choose this day.
(31:36):
Jesus would be the one who says,Choose this day.
And if you need me to prove it,I'll give you some of his words.
And Jesus said to everybody.
Sorry.
If anyone, this is what youwould call a universal claim.
(31:57):
This is Jesus opening the doorsas wide as he can open them and
saying, hey, if you've got earsto hear, can you hear me right
now?
I'm talking to anyone andeveryone.
If you want to come after me,deny himself and take up his
cross every single day andfollow me.
When you wake up in the morning,I want you to follow Jesus.
(32:19):
When you are tired and worn out,I don't want you to go to
coffee.
I want you to follow Jesus.
When you are getting in your caron your way to work or on your
way home, I want you to chooseJesus.
When you're in the midst of anargument with a friend or a
spouse, I want you on that day,in that moment, to choose Jesus.
When you're overwhelmed to theplace that you just want to
(32:41):
scream or drive your car into aditch, I want you to choose
Jesus.
When you are crumbled indepression and anxiety, I want
you to choose Jesus.
Why?
Because God wants you to chooseJesus.
When daily by this we may knowthat we are in Him.
(33:10):
How do I know that I'm aChristian?
How far can I go with mygirlfriend?
Has it changed?
No.
Same three questions.
I didn't get asked about theboyfriend.
They would talk to my wife aboutthat.
I would have had theconversation.
Here is one of the threequestions I've been asked more
in ministry than anything else.
Well, how do I know that I'm inJesus?
(33:31):
I'll be honest with you, thereare some times when I doubt my
salvation.
I doubt my faith.
Do you realize Jesus hasn't hasanswered that question
definitively?
And he doesn't answer it the waywe do.
Do you know how we answer it?
We say, Yeah, well, you rememberI filled out that card.
I talked to the pastor.
(33:52):
Hey, well, how can I know thatI'm a Christian?
Well, I walked down the aisle.
How can I know that I'm aChristian?
I prayed that prayer with tearswith my mom and with my dad.
How can I know that I'm aChristian?
You're not gonna see that here.
Do you know what you're gonnasee?
Whoever says he abides in him,in Jesus, ought to walk in the
same way in which he walked.
Do you know what Jesus issaying?
(34:12):
What Jesus is saying is, if youwant to know if you're in me,
does it look like you're walkingwith me today?
Now, yes, you respond to thegospel once, and it does cover
you for all time.
But how do we know if what wedid was a true response to the
gospel?
We walk with him over time,through difficulty, amidst
change.
(34:33):
Christian, I can't tell you howoften I get this question, and
the answer is simple.
I know that I'm a Christianbecause I repented of my sins
when I was nine years old and Igot baptized, and I'm still
repenting.
And if you leave out those lastfour words, you're trying to
live the Bible without actuallyliving the Bible.
You're trying to live one pieceof it.
(34:54):
This is how we know that we arein him.
I am walking with him becausetrue discipleship is not
perfection but direction.
Now, this whole thing has beenset up because I kept having the
same conversation with people.
People at the church who hadbeen walking with the Lord for
(35:16):
50 years, people who were new toJesus, and I would ask them this
question.
Are you a disciple of Jesus?
And almost without thinking,every response I got was, Yes,
it's okay.
I can tell y'all are a littletimid now.
You're like, you're gonna pull,you're gonna pull the rug out
from under us, aren't you?
(35:36):
We can tell.
You're gonna do it, aren't you?
I'm not.
I'm not.
The question was, am I?
I would say, hey, are you adisciple of Jesus?
Yeah, of course I'm a discipleof Jesus.
I've grown up in the church, sodid Aiken.
I've sang the songs and donePhoebe.
Yes, I've I've memorizedscripture, so did Achan.
Will I I okay, okay.
(35:57):
So, yes, I'm a disciple.
And then I would say this, howdo you know?
And that was the best momentbecause they would go, and if
their answer pointed to onething, it means we are not
understanding our Bibles.
Am I a disciple of Jesus?
Yes.
How do you know?
Uh, let me point to this onething I did this one time.
(36:20):
That's not what the Bible wouldsay.
And I looked at so many peoplethat I knew were Christians as
much as one can, and theycouldn't answer the question.
So as we started going throughJoshua and I wanted to put in
front of you this concept ofchoose this day, we decided to
start working on it as a staff.
I'm not gonna send you therenow, but if you wanted to go to
(36:41):
our church website, we just putsomething up.
This little question, it'll beon the top header if you want to
check it out, called What is aDisciple?
If you want to go there now, youcan, but don't worry, I've
already got you covered becauseI printed not the article.
There's an article for you toread, but a little checklist, a
little rubric for you to lookat.
Additionally, I now need thehelp of everybody who is sitting
(37:03):
on the left side of their pew.
If you look under your pew, youwill find a brand new card.
Now you'll find a little stackof papers.
I just want you to take thoseand pass them to your right.
Why?
Because we're trying to get youguys to practice so that we can
do offering in the future?
No, because I want you to beable to have this piece of paper
(37:23):
in front of you.
Now, look, if you do not know meand if you do not know Midtree,
your antenna is going to be upfor can I trust this?
It is important that you hearthis from me.
I am not giving you a religiouschecklist.
I don't want you guys to looklike Akins.
But what I do want is for you tohave some way of knowing, am I a
(37:44):
disciple of Jesus?
By the way, let me get youreyes.
I can tell you're already on thepaper.
I'll get there in a minute.
Let me get your eyes.
I said it too soon.
All right.
The elders meet once a month andwe answer questions similar to
this, but a little bit moreintimate, if I can be quite
honest, okay?
It is not because we're tryingto look good or be religious.
(38:04):
It's because we want to makesure we are being the thing that
we are claiming to be andbelieve we are called to be.
If you are a Christian, I submitto you that the three things
that we have designed from theearly days of the church, that
we want to be a church that issolid theology and warm
community, members who shepherdone another through the delights
and difficulties of life andfamilies where everybody has a
(38:27):
place and pitches in.
Tucked into those three thingsare ways for you to know if you
are a disciple.
We are handing these things toyou so that you can realize this
is the Christian life and beginto answer this question.
Will we choose this day to bediscipled by Jesus?
(38:48):
This is what I've been wantingto get to since we got into
chapter seven.
Hey, can I borrow one?
Gina, will you let me borrowyours?
I forgot to bring one up.
Thank you.
The goal is not for you to getall A's, you A-type people who
forget how much grace you need.
The goal is honesty.
By the way, we're not takingthese up.
(39:09):
We're not giving out grades.
Like, don't come up and be like,here you go, Will, here's mine.
Like, I if you're giving it tome, I already know you did well.
All right, whatever.
The reason we put never andalways is so that it would be a
scale.
The concept here is you wouldkind of grab your pen and maybe
you do this once a month.
Maybe you do this a quiet timeevery Sunday after communion.
(39:32):
That's why we made it anarticle, because I know half of
these are gonna get lost.
But the thought was you wouldlook and say, Am I regularly in
God's Word?
Well, between never and always,where am I?
Why?
Because the goal is notperfection, it is direction.
Christian, make sure that youunderstand this.
So we hand this to you so thatwhen someone walks up to you and
(39:53):
says, Are you a disciple ofChrist?
You can joyfully say, Yes.
Well, how do you know?
Well, because I'm more in theword than I used to be.
And I sit and I listen under it.
How do I know I'm a disciple?
Because part three, number one,at Sunday, I'm not just seeking
personally to connect.
(40:13):
I want to help people in thebody connect as well.
When I sit down in a pew, I'mnot just thinking about me and
Jesus, though I need to.
I'm wondering about the peoplearound me.
I'm praying silently for theperson that I don't know that is
sitting near me.
That's one way that I know thatI'm a disciple.
How do I know part two, numbertwo?
I'm celebrating other successesinstead of selfishly only
(40:35):
looking for my own.
I submit this to you not assomething that is supposed to be
a wait, but something that issupposed to be an encouragement.
This is a toolbox Sunday.
We as pastors and as a staff aretrying to equip you for the
Christian life.
So I wanted to end it on thepositive.
Will we choose this day to bediscipled by Jesus?
(40:59):
I hope your answer is yes.
And if you have not chosen totrust in Jesus, I hope today
will be the day that you do.
Where you go back to Joshua 5and you say, the first thing I
need to do before I find victoryor overcome difficulty is I need
to bow the knee to Jesus.
And here is the great news.
(41:20):
Are we going to choose this dayto be discipled by Jesus?
Well, I'll tell you this, I'msure of it.
I am confident that the vastmajority of the answers will be
yes.
And I am confident that many ofyou are going to literally walk
this out.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit isconfident.
(41:41):
He's confident in himself and inhis ability to sanctify you and
make you like Christ.
I am sure of this (41:46):
that he who began a good work in you is
going to complete that work inyou.
He's going to complete it at theday of Jesus Christ because he's
completing it every day untilthe day of Jesus Christ.
(42:07):
So I give you two things toponder on and think on as we get
ready for communion.
But I want you to know I ambanking on the surety of God
that this is going to happen.
And that is encouraging to me.
So I give you two things toponder on.
One of them is in your hands andone of them is on the screen.
I don't know which one you needto look at, maybe both.
(42:31):
Do you need to remember whatChrist did to bring you into his
family?
Do you need to reaffirmyourself?
Do you need to recommityourself?
Because that is not only Joshua,it is the Christian life.
Do you need to navigate thatlittle handout?
Am I being a disciple today?
Whichever it is, I am sure ofthis.
(42:53):
He who began a good work in youis going to complete it.
So let's choose today to takesteps toward him this morning.
If you need to talk with thepastor, there will be a couple
of us on the back porch.
If you want to sit, sit.
We told you where to findcommunion, but you don't have to
rush to it.
(43:14):
But let's respond as the Spiritleads and pursue the Lord
together.
Please turn to your Bibles to Luke 9, 18 through 20
and 23 through 25, which is onpage 867 in the pew Bibles, and
follow along as I read God'sWord.
(00:20):
Now it happened that as he waspraying alone, the disciples
were with him, and he askedthem, Who do the crowds say that
I am?
And they answered, John theBaptist, but others say Elijah,
and others that one of theprophets of old has risen.
Then he said to them, But who doyou say that I am?
And Peter answered, The Christof God.
(00:42):
And he said to all, If any onewould come after me, let him
deny himself and take up hiscross daily and follow me.
For whoever would save his lifewill lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will saveit.
For what does it profit a man ifhe gains the whole world and
loses or forfeits himself?
(01:02):
This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
Well, guys, we are going to mixit up just a little bit,
probably not as much as youwould imagine.
You'll notice you didn't turn tothe book of Joshua when Laura
came up here to read.
We will be in the book ofJoshua, but this morning we get
to do something that I'veactually been looking forward to
since we opened the book ofJoshua.
(01:25):
In fact, there is something thatI have wanted to talk with you
about since we began it, and Ihave tucked it in as a phrase
that I think God would have uswrestle with.
Certainly, I think we as achurch, a reader of the book of
Joshua, should be wrestlingwith, but I don't know if I have
made it abundantly clear.
In fact, I intentionally havenot.
(01:47):
So here is where we are.
We uh over the past few weeksread Joshua 5, 6, 7, and that is
where we would be right now.
However, I want to hit pausebecause there is something
uniquely special about thesefour chapters in the book of
Joshua.
Four things that if you were tomiss this, you would miss out on
(02:11):
what I think would be the mainpush and theme of the entirety,
not only of this book of theBible, but how it actually
connects with the New Testamentas a whole.
Also, let me hit a timeout realquick.
I'm looking for Will Chamblissbecause I was supposed to tell
y'all if we have gluten-free andif so, where it is right here
(02:34):
and right here.
Okay.
If you need thank you, Will,much appreciated.
If you need gluten-freecommunion, it'll be right there
and right there.
Gotcha.
All right.
All that being said, let's jumpback into Joshua.
Joshua 5, Joshua 6, Joshua 7,and Joshua 8.
Now, you don't have to rememberwhat happened in each of these
chapters.
We have been doing about achapter a week every Sunday, but
(02:56):
Joshua 5 would have lookedsomething like this.
Joshua sees a man with a sworddrawn, and he walks toward him
with all the confidence and allthe boldness in the world, and
he asks him a question.
He asks him, Are you for us orare you for our enemies?
And when this begins, what isbeing brought up is the
(03:17):
theological question throughoutthe entirety of the book of
Joshua.
This is what it would havelooked like in scripture.
When Joshua is by Jericho, thisis before Jericho falls, this is
before Achan's sin.
He's there, he sees it, God hascalled him, he lifts up his eyes
and he looks, and behold, a manwas standing before him with his
drawn sword in his hand.
(03:38):
And Joshua went to him and saidto him, Are you for us, option
one, or for our adversaries?
Option two.
And the commander of the Lord'sarmy says, Nope.
You have missed the main option.
The main option is not if I amfor you, it is not if I am for
your adversaries.
I am the commander of the armyof the Lord.
(03:59):
It almost comes across as, youlittle thing, what are you
asking?
I'm the commander of the army ofthe Lord, and I have come.
And Joshua falls on his face tothe earth and he worships and
said to him, What does the Lordsay to my servant?
Now I'm not going to re-preachthis entire thing, but don't
miss the word worship.
Nowhere in Scripture are humansallowed to worship angels.
(04:22):
This could come across as anangelic being.
But this is something biggerthan that.
This is the commander of theLord's army.
This is what many people believeis.
Starts with a TH.
It is a very theological word.
I said it once four weeks ago.
Let's see if anybody rememberedit.
This is what we would call atheophany, way to go.
(04:42):
If you didn't know that, youjust learned a new word, where
God kind of steps into the pageswhere we see potentially Jesus
walk into the Old Testament witha sword in his hand.
And in this moment, Joshuachapter five, we are given the
theological question for theentire book of Joshua.
Will God's people live byobedience and faith?
(05:05):
And what does Joshua do?
He falls on his knees and hecalls Jesus Lord.
Special thanks to Thomas forpresetting us up in the theology
of Jesus being both fully Godand fully man.
Now I just want you to put youreyes on the screen for a moment.
This is the question throughoutthe whole book of Joshua, but is
this also a question throughoutthe entire book of the Bible?
(05:28):
Is this not the biggest questionof the book that makes up the
pages and chapters of your life?
Will God's people live by faithand obedience?
And the great news is we turnthe page in chapter five and we
get to chapter six.
And they walk up on Jericho, andwhat is the answer?
(05:48):
Are they going to be faithful?
Are they going to be obedient?
Yes or no?
One, two, three.
Yes.
I could tell there was going tobe hesitance there because we're
so used to saying no.
We're so used to being like,we're not faithful, we're not
obedient.
Christians, heads up for aminute.
Sometimes you get it right.
Peter went fishing many timesand caught fish.
(06:09):
He happened not to catch it whenJesus was out there so Jesus
could prove a point.
But Christians, you do getthings right, okay?
Uh, this is one of my favoriteand biggest pet peeves of you as
a congregation.
Can I tell you what it is?
I knew I was going to getpositive feedback on the sermon
last week.
I had two things come through intext message more than anything
(06:32):
else after last week's sermon.
One of them you would guess, oneof them you would not, okay?
The first one, y'all know whatit was because we've talked
about it.
The first one was, brother, thatwas such a good sermon.
Just hit me right between theeyes.
Hidden sin.
And I just know y'all love toget beat up.
You guys are like Bruce Willisin every movie.
It doesn't count if you're notbloody by the time you make it
(06:53):
to the door.
If I taught you about victory inJesus and overcoming and the
delights of the life to come,y'all are right, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
But tell me how bad I am if youreally want it to count.
I just want you to know thatabout you.
Scripture is full of delight anddifficulty, of gravity and
gladness, okay?
There are good things that aregood things because they're
(07:15):
good.
The second thing was all ofthese text messages about the
young military guys who filledup the front two rows.
That was my second favoritething.
To include fathers with singledaughters, like, hook me up, let
me know what's going on overthere.
That was a secondary thing.
So when we turn to Joshuachapter six, this is a great
(07:35):
chapter.
This is a win.
Jericho comes tumbling downbecause God's people threw
stones at it.
No.
They win because they were thebest fighters?
No.
Why did they win?
Because God's people answeredthis question.
We'll be obedient, we'll befaithful.
You want me to do what now?
Walk around a city?
That's it?
(07:56):
Yeah, do that for six days.
Uh okay, sure.
Six times.
Day seven comes.
Do that, run it again, do itseven times.
Uh okay.
I mean, doesn't make any sense.
Nobody's ever won a battle thisway, but God, you did just rip
open a river to let us walkacross.
So sure.
Seven times they go around, theyshout, massive victory in
(08:20):
chapter six.
And then chapter seven.
Now, before we go there, enjoythe win.
I I try to tell people this inlife, in marriage, in parenting.
If you get a win, enjoy it.
Take the W.
Build on it.
Everything that is yet to comein the book of Joshua.
(08:40):
7, 8, and following, here's whatyou must know God will
accomplish his purposes.
He will.
Unchanging, unchallenged, alwaystrue.
God will accomplish hispurposes.
He's gonna do it in Joshua'slife, he's gonna do it in yours.
He will do these things.
(09:03):
The question is will God'speople align with him in
obedience?
And as that question is beingasked, this is my favorite
picture, but you have to lookclosely to really appreciate it.
We get to chapter 8.
And in chapter 8, we have morestones falling, but instead of
God's people standing upon themin victory, somebody stands
(09:27):
below them in defeat.
Christian, this is your life.
This is it.
Your life displayed in fourchapters of the Old Testament
millennia before you learned howto read these very pages.
And when we get to Joshuachapter 7, we are jolted awake.
(09:51):
Why?
Because Achan outwardly lookedlike every other Israelite
warrior.
Two thousand people, two millionpeople made up God's people,
tens of thousands of soldiers,and he looked just like them.
Looked probably just like youwould on a Sunday morning if he
had lived thousands of yearslater.
(10:13):
But inwardly, his allegiance waselsewhere.
He chose to serve himself, hechose to serve his desires, he
chose to serve his cravings.
Now, his particular craving,security, and wealth.
Spoiler alert, many of usstruggle with those same two
things.
And here is what it would havelooked like in the pages of
(10:36):
Scripture.
Oh, where is it?
But the people of Israel brokefaith in regard to the devoted
things.
Watch this.
For Achan, this is the guy'sname, son of Carmi, son of
Zabbi, son of Zara of the tribeof Judah, all of those things
are listed because of how Godselected him and made it on
display.
Took some of the devoted things,and the anger of the Lord burned
(11:00):
against, watch carefully, thepeople of Israel.
Right in the midst of the peopleof Israel is this one man who
sins, and it costs the entirenation, because sin does not
stay contained.
Sin always spreads, usually tothe people that you love or say
(11:20):
that you love the most.
And in the midst of this sin,God's word would ask us this
question (11:26):
Do you realize that you can be standing in the camp
of God's people?
Do you realize you can besinging the same songs?
You can be attending the samegatherings and be an absolute
fraud.
And your fraudulence of souldoes not just affect you.
I think that last part is verypertinent for us because we have
(11:50):
such an individualistic view ofour faith.
We think if I'm faking it withGod, that's just between me and
God.
But the reality of it iseverybody around us, before,
behind, those we are goingtoward and those we are walking
from, our sin affects all of it.
And so what we find is that ourallegiance is not really about
(12:14):
appearance, but about an inwardreality expressed in outward
action.
I know that's a bit wordy, soI'll leave it up there for a
minute.
What your allegiance to God isabout, well, your allegiance to
uh a sacrifice savior whoovercome death, what it's really
about is not appearance, butthis inward reality expressed in
(12:36):
outward action.
If I were to put it differently,I would probably say, in calm
weather, every tree looksstrong.
In calm weather, every singletree looks strong.
And then a storm comes.
And I apologize if I've repeatedthis story.
And a storm comes through and itknocks over the one tree on your
(13:01):
property amidst the many thatyour deer stand is in, and it
blows it to the one side of thetree that your deer stand is on,
and it absolutely demolishes it.
Now, did God need to do that forthe purposes of illustration?
I hope not, but I am stilltrying to learn from whatever it
(13:22):
is that the Lord was trying toteach me in that moment.
Every one of us looks stronguntil the wind blows.
And this is how we would see itin the New Testament.
Now, this is John looking backmany years later in his life,
and he's looking at the church.
He's looking at something muchmore like this than what Achan
would have seen, but the samereality that Achan lived, John
(13:45):
sees thousands of years ago.
And he writes this sort ofcryptic phrase.
They went out from us.
When it says us, this would meanthe church.
They went out from the church,but they were not of us.
So they were here, they lookedlike us, they sang the same
songs, they went to the samesmall groups, they wore the same
(14:07):
Bible memory bracelets, theylooked just like us, but they
weren't of us because if theyhad been of us, they would have
continued with us, but they wentout that it, please don't miss
this, might become plain thatthey all are not of us.
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All right, if you like gettingbeat up, let me beat you up a
little bit.
Some of you are faking it.
Some of you are faking it in away that you have been faking it
for a very, very long time.
You're not just faking it todayto try to get through a Sunday.
You fake it every time you walkin.
You fake it every time you part,you fake it every time you walk
(14:51):
into a small group.
Could be hidden sin like Achan,could be pride that you don't
want to kneel like we see inJoshua 5 to the commander of the
army of the Lord, to the one whosays, It is not your way or
their way, it is my way or thehighway, there is no other way,
except for the way of hell.
So walk away from that way.
That's what would be said.
But please notice these threewords.
(15:13):
John wants you to know this willbecome plain.
How does it become plain?
I'll give you three ways time,difficulty, and change.
Every tree looks strong untilthe winds begin to blow.
What is it that shakes us?
Time.
Faking it for too long when wecan't keep up with the lies,
(15:33):
whether it's inside or outside,change, because it is difficult.
And we want security.
We want to know what tomorrowbrings.
Difficulty because we do notwant it, and we are like
sponges.
For the good and for the bad, bythe way.
Christian, when you getsqueezed, the aroma of Christ
comes out.
This is the sacrifice of thesaints of God.
(15:54):
Martyrs are a beautifulfragrance to the Lord, as
gruesome as it sounds to us.
Christian, when difficultysqueezes you, when the
brokenness of the world, whenthe people around you, when
those who are opposed to yousqueeze you, the expectation of
Scripture is the aroma of Christcomes out.
(16:15):
But when we are squeezed andother things come out, it is God
making it plain that we have notyet arrived.
For some of us, it's, hey, Ijust need to make plain there's
some more sanctification thatneeds to happen.
You've trusted in God as yourSavior, but you're not done yet.
By the grace of God, he isn'tfinished with you.
(16:35):
That is a good thing.
That is a good time, difficultyand change he has brought.
But for some of us, he brings itto squeeze us to show us there
really is no life inside of us.
We can put it on like Achan, buteventually it will become plain.
This is one of the best timesfor you to assess it.
Over time, through change, andwith difficulty.
(16:59):
And this theological questionthrough the whole book of
Joshua, will God's people liveby faith, is putting something
in front of us.
It isn't just this question,it's also this one.
Are you gonna live by obedienceand faith, or are you gonna
drift into rebellion andself-will?
(17:22):
This is why chapter six andchapter seven are side by side.
Do you want to know whatobedience looks like and what
the rewards of obedience are?
It is you standing upon therubble of the brokenness of this
world victorious.
But do you want to know whatrebellion and going about life
your own way looks like?
It is not you standing upon thestones, but being held beneath
(17:46):
them.
Now, typically I would point toJesus later in the sermon,
especially on a communionSunday, but I can't not do it
right now.
This in Joshua 6 is a promise.
In Joshua 7, what we have is awarning.
This is the gospel in shortform.
(18:07):
Do you want to trust God's way?
Do you want to recognize thatChrist has obtained the victory?
Do you want to even go one stepfurther and realize that the
person on display here is Joshuaand here is Achan?
And do you want to realize thatJesus is very much like Joshua
and Joshua, like Jesus?
Their names are literally thesame.
(18:27):
You see Jesus written in theGreek and Joshua written in the
Hebrew, but it is the samething.
Joshua is somebody who isobedient, who is faithful, who
is a leader, who is sacrificial.
And what do we see when we livelife that way, standing upon the
rubble?
But what do we see with our ownselfishness and self-will?
We stand beneath the pile.
(18:49):
And what does Jesus do?
Achen, meaning trouble, troublelike you and me, those of us who
live in it and many times createit.
Jesus steps under the stones.
He says, I love you enough tosee that these stones are
coming.
They will crush you.
Your sin is real, yourbrokenness is real.
So you get to decide.
(19:10):
Do you want me to stand beneathit and take the wrath of God so
you can stand on top of it?
Or do you just want to take theblows as they come?
This is why Isaiah points toJesus as one being crushed.
He was pierced for ourtransgressions.
Every sin that we commit, notjust the biggies, the little
(19:33):
ones too.
Isaiah is prophesying everypiercing, hand, hand, thorns
coming down, spear in his side.
He was pierced for yourtransgressions.
What Isaiah wants you to feel ishey, I love you, but you did
this.
(19:53):
You're the reason stones arebeing thrown.
And Jesus was pierced for ourtransgressions.
He was crushed beneath theweight of our iniquity.
Upon him was the chastisementthat brings us peace, but only
if we will receive it.
The craziest thing to me in theentirety of the Bible is how
(20:18):
simple it is for your entireeternity to be changed.
It's the simplicity of not justsaying magical pixie dust words,
Lord, I pray that you wouldforgive me of my sins, but you
realizing I need a Joshua 5reality.
I need to bow down to the Lordof all creation.
I need to know that He hassecured the victory.
(20:40):
Chapter 6.
I need to realize that chapter7, what I deserve is to be
beneath a pile of rubble, whichis why I bring us to Joshua 8.
What happens in Joshua 8?
When we have this incrediblepromise and then this victory
and then this failure, what isit that comes next in Scripture?
Well, Mount Abal comes inScripture.
(21:01):
I'm not going to do the entiretyof chapter 8, but I would like
to give you four verses from it.
At that time, Joshua built analtar to the Lord.
There are rocks everywhere inthese four chapters.
And they offered on it burntofferings to the Lord and they
sacrificed peace offerings.
We have sinned.
We have failed.
And that means we need to dosomething.
(21:22):
For us, it isn't building analtar or slaying an animal.
It is us slaying our ownself-will and our own rebellion
and bowing to the King of Kingsand Lord of Lords.
And afterward, I want you toimagine this.
Okay.
There are two million people inGod's nation at this point, and
children get invited to thechurch service on this Sunday.
(21:45):
I'm using our vernacular.
It wasn't Sunday, most likely.
But I just want you to imaginechurch today on this Sunday in
verse 34.
And afterward, some of you guysare like, y'all cover a lot of
scripture in a week.
Challenge accepted.
And afterward, he read all thewords of the law.
(22:07):
Please show up to that churchservice and leave with a good
response.
Five stars would recommendagain.
We read Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy.
It was a banger.
That's what this is playing out.
They read the blessings, thechapter sixes, and the curses,
the chapter sevens.
(22:27):
Midree, did you see what justhappened?
They were celebrating both thegood and the bad.
The two by fours that buildthings, and the two by fours
that hit you between the eyes.
Both good, both very good.
Today, hopefully, is building.
According to all that is writtenin the book of the law.
There was not a word of all thatMoses commanded.
(22:47):
And Moses could talk.
He stuttered a bit, but once hegot going, he had some things to
say.
There was not a word of all thatMoses commanded that Joshua did
not read before all the assemblyof Israel, in the event that you
need to know what that means.
It goes into more detail toinclude all of Israel, including
the women and the little onesand the sojourners.
(23:10):
Okay?
This is amazing to me.
Like we have a cry room rightback there through those plated
uh glass windows.
In case you don't know, if youhave a kid who starts crying, we
did what we could to help.
You can walk out on the back.
You can still see what's goingon in here.
We have music playing.
We also have like a room that'sladies only, by the way.
Don't be the creepy guy who hasa six-month-old and just bebops
(23:31):
on in there.
It's a nursing room, too.
But we have it to make this sortof functional.
Can you imagine an entire nationwith all of the children
gathering to listen to this?
Why?
Because God's word really,really mattered to them.
It mattered enough to deal withthe distraction.
It mattered enough to deal withthe difficulty.
It mattered enough to lean intothe time.
(23:52):
It mattered enough to desire thechange.
And by the way, I love the factthat it says the sojourners and
not just Rahab.
It could, it could, I mean, keepin mind we're only two chapters
away.
Why doesn't it say, and thelittle ones and Rahab and her
family?
Because it's probably grownsince then.
Because there are probably morepeople in the family of God that
(24:13):
were not born as ethnic Jews whoare now gathering around.
And so this is the picture.
This is Joshua 5 through 8.
And the reason that I want youto see this is because we are
called to do what they did atMount Abel.
We are called to do this.
(24:36):
Why?
Because if you're a Christian,you have submitted to the
Lordship of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, you haveseen victory.
If you've been a Christian forfive minutes, you have also
recognized your own failure.
And as a result, chapter 8 isincredibly necessary, where we
gather together and we remindourselves of the law of God,
(25:00):
even if you have heard it for 50years.
We remind ourselves of this.
How do we do this?
Well, we do it many timesthrough communion.
Remember these things.
Remember the body that wasbroken, remember the blood that
was shed.
This reminding, this movement isshowing us that repentance isn't
(25:23):
supposed to end in despair,Christian.
Chapter 8 is not about sadness.
It is about recognizing ourbrokenness, giving it to the
King of kings and the Lord ofLords, and realizing that he is
going to bring about the winningof the battles of life and
ultimately the war over sin anddarkness.
(25:44):
In other words, when you seethis, what you ought to see is
an upward trajectory of lovingJesus.
That's what you ought to see.
To put it differently, truediscipleship, a word for
following Christ, is notperfection but direction.
If it was perfection, we'd getrid of this one and we'd
(26:07):
probably get rid of this one.
Except that's not true life.
That's not your flesh, that'snot your soul, it's not the way
you make decisions.
And so instead, we are called totrue discipleship, true
following of the Lord.
And it is not about yourperfection, but it is about your
direction.
So I will ask you this.
(26:27):
Are you, specifically you,remembering, reaffirming, and
recommitting yourself to theLord?
We're called to do this throughcommunion.
We're called to do this in ourmarriages, we're called to do
this with our children.
We are called to do thisthroughout many, many portions
of our life.
Are you constantly doing this?
(26:50):
When is the last time that youpause to remember?
You pause to reaffirm, God, youare Lord of my life.
You can recommitted yourself tobeing a Christian who walks with
the Lord.
This is why we stop here inJoshua 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Because what Joshua is wantingyou to do is the same thing
(27:12):
Jesus wants you to do.
And I've put it up there fromweek one.
Choose this day.
Choose this day.
We often think I chose Christonce, so I'm good.
I went down at an altar call atsummer camp.
I was baptized many years ago.
(27:32):
I prayed a prayer on my dormroom floor many years ago.
But Joshua ends the book likethis.
Choose, this is uh chapter 24,the last chapter.
Choose this day whom you willserve.
Whether the gods of your father,the gods your fathers served in
the region beyond the river, orthe gods of the Amorites in
(27:54):
whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, wewill serve the Lord.
Quick question.
Do any of you guys have this onlike a doily in your house?
I just want, show of hands, thisexists somewhere in your home
right now.
Like the most coffee cup versefor something that's gonna end
up in a picture frame, it's thisone.
And some of you grew up walkingpast it in the kitchen or
(28:17):
looking at it in the restroom oron a frame next to your parents'
bed.
For me and my house, we willserve the Lord.
And we made it a declaration.
I'm putting this four by sixthing up, and none of my kids
are gonna stray.
All right, now time out.
Do you realize that there is apredicate to the part we all
like?
For me and my house, we willserve the Lord.
(28:39):
How do you get there?
You pick it every single day.
That's how you get there.
If I were to read this, this isthe exact same text, but I'll
tell you how it pops when Will'seyes hit the page.
This is what I see.
Choose today who you're gonnaserve.
For me and my house, it's gonnabe the Lord.
Now notice the options thatJoshua tucks into the middle.
(29:02):
Lowercase G gods of your fathersbefore, lowercase g gods of the
Amorites in front of them.
What is he saying?
All of the things in your pastand all of the things in your
future, all of the little ggods, all of those things that
your heart used to go to, areyou gonna go back to them?
Are you going back to alcoholand drunkenness?
(29:23):
Are you going back to looseliving?
Are you going back to a wastedlife in front of a screen?
Or are you going back tofoolishness?
Or is your antenna up so thatyou don't go towards the little
gigs you don't even know arecoming?
The winds that are gonna blow inthe days ahead to show if you
are strong, the squeezing thatis going to come so that the
(29:45):
sponge of your soul would exudewhat?
The aroma of Christ.
And Joshua says, Me, me, and mypeople, it's Jesus, it's the
Lord, it's the all caps L O R D.
This is The King of kings andthe Lord of Lords.
For me, for my house.
Why?
Because the life we live affectsthe people around us.
(30:07):
It is Jesus.
It is Him.
But you don't get there with onedecision.
It is choosing this day who weare going to serve.
The reason I've wanted to pausehere, the reason I've been
looking forward to this sermonthe entire time we've been in
(30:28):
the book of Joshua for twomonths is because this is the
Christian life.
It's the Christian life 2,000years before Jesus asked
somebody to follow it.
It's the Christian life beforeyou even understood the words of
justification andsanctification.
It is the Christian life ofpromise leading to victory, you
being warned of your sin so thatyou wouldn't end up beneath it,
(30:50):
but then knowing that when youdo, there is an invitation to
come to the Lord, to recommit,and to draw near to him.
Kneel, chapter 5.
Let God be God and the Lord ofyour life.
Celebrate, chapter 6, thevictories that he has already
accomplished in your life, andthe ones that you're doubting,
(31:12):
that he wants to see victoryend.
Be warned.
There are gods behind you andgods before you who want to put
you under a pile of stones.
Jesus already got under them.
There's no need for you to bethere and be invited back.
That when you do fail, there ishope.
You see, Joshua is not a bookabout choose this day.
(31:36):
Jesus would be the one who says,Choose this day.
And if you need me to prove it,I'll give you some of his words.
And Jesus said to everybody.
Sorry.
If anyone, this is what youwould call a universal claim.
(31:57):
This is Jesus opening the doorsas wide as he can open them and
saying, hey, if you've got earsto hear, can you hear me right
now?
I'm talking to anyone andeveryone.
If you want to come after me,deny himself and take up his
cross every single day andfollow me.
When you wake up in the morning,I want you to follow Jesus.
(32:19):
When you are tired and worn out,I don't want you to go to
coffee.
I want you to follow Jesus.
When you are getting in your caron your way to work or on your
way home, I want you to chooseJesus.
When you're in the midst of anargument with a friend or a
spouse, I want you on that day,in that moment, to choose Jesus.
When you're overwhelmed to theplace that you just want to
(32:41):
scream or drive your car into aditch, I want you to choose
Jesus.
When you are crumbled indepression and anxiety, I want
you to choose Jesus.
Why?
Because God wants you to chooseJesus.
When daily by this we may knowthat we are in Him.
(33:10):
How do I know that I'm aChristian?
How far can I go with mygirlfriend?
Has it changed?
No.
Same three questions.
I didn't get asked about theboyfriend.
They would talk to my wife aboutthat.
I would have had theconversation.
Here is one of the threequestions I've been asked more
in ministry than anything else.
Well, how do I know that I'm inJesus?
(33:31):
I'll be honest with you, thereare some times when I doubt my
salvation.
I doubt my faith.
Do you realize Jesus hasn't hasanswered that question
definitively?
And he doesn't answer it the waywe do.
Do you know how we answer it?
We say, Yeah, well, you rememberI filled out that card.
I talked to the pastor.
(33:52):
Hey, well, how can I know thatI'm a Christian?
Well, I walked down the aisle.
How can I know that I'm aChristian?
I prayed that prayer with tearswith my mom and with my dad.
How can I know that I'm aChristian?
You're not gonna see that here.
Do you know what you're gonnasee?
Whoever says he abides in him,in Jesus, ought to walk in the
same way in which he walked.
Do you know what Jesus issaying?
(34:12):
What Jesus is saying is, if youwant to know if you're in me,
does it look like you're walkingwith me today?
Now, yes, you respond to thegospel once, and it does cover
you for all time.
But how do we know if what wedid was a true response to the
gospel?
We walk with him over time,through difficulty, amidst
change.
(34:33):
Christian, I can't tell you howoften I get this question, and
the answer is simple.
I know that I'm a Christianbecause I repented of my sins
when I was nine years old and Igot baptized, and I'm still
repenting.
And if you leave out those lastfour words, you're trying to
live the Bible without actuallyliving the Bible.
You're trying to live one pieceof it.
(34:54):
This is how we know that we arein him.
I am walking with him becausetrue discipleship is not
perfection but direction.
Now, this whole thing has beenset up because I kept having the
same conversation with people.
People at the church who hadbeen walking with the Lord for
(35:16):
50 years, people who were new toJesus, and I would ask them this
question.
Are you a disciple of Jesus?
And almost without thinking,every response I got was, Yes,
it's okay.
I can tell y'all are a littletimid now.
You're like, you're gonna pull,you're gonna pull the rug out
from under us, aren't you?
(35:36):
We can tell.
You're gonna do it, aren't you?
I'm not.
I'm not.
The question was, am I?
I would say, hey, are you adisciple of Jesus?
Yeah, of course I'm a discipleof Jesus.
I've grown up in the church, sodid Aiken.
I've sang the songs and donePhoebe.
Yes, I've I've memorizedscripture, so did Achan.
Will I I okay, okay.
(35:57):
So, yes, I'm a disciple.
And then I would say this, howdo you know?
And that was the best momentbecause they would go, and if
their answer pointed to onething, it means we are not
understanding our Bibles.
Am I a disciple of Jesus?
Yes.
How do you know?
Uh, let me point to this onething I did this one time.
(36:20):
That's not what the Bible wouldsay.
And I looked at so many peoplethat I knew were Christians as
much as one can, and theycouldn't answer the question.
So as we started going throughJoshua and I wanted to put in
front of you this concept ofchoose this day, we decided to
start working on it as a staff.
I'm not gonna send you therenow, but if you wanted to go to
(36:41):
our church website, we just putsomething up.
This little question, it'll beon the top header if you want to
check it out, called What is aDisciple?
If you want to go there now, youcan, but don't worry, I've
already got you covered becauseI printed not the article.
There's an article for you toread, but a little checklist, a
little rubric for you to lookat.
Additionally, I now need thehelp of everybody who is sitting
(37:03):
on the left side of their pew.
If you look under your pew, youwill find a brand new card.
Now you'll find a little stackof papers.
I just want you to take thoseand pass them to your right.
Why?
Because we're trying to get youguys to practice so that we can
do offering in the future?
No, because I want you to beable to have this piece of paper
(37:23):
in front of you.
Now, look, if you do not know meand if you do not know Midtree,
your antenna is going to be upfor can I trust this?
It is important that you hearthis from me.
I am not giving you a religiouschecklist.
I don't want you guys to looklike Akins.
But what I do want is for you tohave some way of knowing, am I a
(37:44):
disciple of Jesus?
By the way, let me get youreyes.
I can tell you're already on thepaper.
I'll get there in a minute.
Let me get your eyes.
I said it too soon.
All right.
The elders meet once a month andwe answer questions similar to
this, but a little bit moreintimate, if I can be quite
honest, okay?
It is not because we're tryingto look good or be religious.
(38:04):
It's because we want to makesure we are being the thing that
we are claiming to be andbelieve we are called to be.
If you are a Christian, I submitto you that the three things
that we have designed from theearly days of the church, that
we want to be a church that issolid theology and warm
community, members who shepherdone another through the delights
and difficulties of life andfamilies where everybody has a
(38:27):
place and pitches in.
Tucked into those three thingsare ways for you to know if you
are a disciple.
We are handing these things toyou so that you can realize this
is the Christian life and beginto answer this question.
Will we choose this day to bediscipled by Jesus?
(38:48):
This is what I've been wantingto get to since we got into
chapter seven.
Hey, can I borrow one?
Gina, will you let me borrowyours?
I forgot to bring one up.
Thank you.
The goal is not for you to getall A's, you A-type people who
forget how much grace you need.
The goal is honesty.
By the way, we're not takingthese up.
(39:09):
We're not giving out grades.
Like, don't come up and be like,here you go, Will, here's mine.
Like, I if you're giving it tome, I already know you did well.
All right, whatever.
The reason we put never andalways is so that it would be a
scale.
The concept here is you wouldkind of grab your pen and maybe
you do this once a month.
Maybe you do this a quiet timeevery Sunday after communion.
(39:32):
That's why we made it anarticle, because I know half of
these are gonna get lost.
But the thought was you wouldlook and say, Am I regularly in
God's Word?
Well, between never and always,where am I?
Why?
Because the goal is notperfection, it is direction.
Christian, make sure that youunderstand this.
So we hand this to you so thatwhen someone walks up to you and
(39:53):
says, Are you a disciple ofChrist?
You can joyfully say, Yes.
Well, how do you know?
Well, because I'm more in theword than I used to be.
And I sit and I listen under it.
How do I know I'm a disciple?
Because part three, number one,at Sunday, I'm not just seeking
personally to connect.
(40:13):
I want to help people in thebody connect as well.
When I sit down in a pew, I'mnot just thinking about me and
Jesus, though I need to.
I'm wondering about the peoplearound me.
I'm praying silently for theperson that I don't know that is
sitting near me.
That's one way that I know thatI'm a disciple.
How do I know part two, numbertwo?
I'm celebrating other successesinstead of selfishly only
(40:35):
looking for my own.
I submit this to you not assomething that is supposed to be
a wait, but something that issupposed to be an encouragement.
This is a toolbox Sunday.
We as pastors and as a staff aretrying to equip you for the
Christian life.
So I wanted to end it on thepositive.
Will we choose this day to bediscipled by Jesus?
(40:59):
I hope your answer is yes.
And if you have not chosen totrust in Jesus, I hope today
will be the day that you do.
Where you go back to Joshua 5and you say, the first thing I
need to do before I find victoryor overcome difficulty is I need
to bow the knee to Jesus.
And here is the great news.
(41:20):
Are we going to choose this dayto be discipled by Jesus?
Well, I'll tell you this, I'msure of it.
I am confident that the vastmajority of the answers will be
yes.
And I am confident that many ofyou are going to literally walk
this out.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit isconfident.
(41:41):
He's confident in himself and inhis ability to sanctify you and
make you like Christ.
I am sure of this (41:46):
that he who began a good work in you is
going to complete that work inyou.
He's going to complete it at theday of Jesus Christ because he's
completing it every day untilthe day of Jesus Christ.
(42:07):
So I give you two things toponder on and think on as we get
ready for communion.
But I want you to know I ambanking on the surety of God
that this is going to happen.
And that is encouraging to me.
So I give you two things toponder on.
One of them is in your hands andone of them is on the screen.
I don't know which one you needto look at, maybe both.
(42:31):
Do you need to remember whatChrist did to bring you into his
family?
Do you need to reaffirmyourself?
Do you need to recommityourself?
Because that is not only Joshua,it is the Christian life.
Do you need to navigate thatlittle handout?
Am I being a disciple today?
Whichever it is, I am sure ofthis.
(42:53):
He who began a good work in youis going to complete it.
So let's choose today to takesteps toward him this morning.
If you need to talk with thepastor, there will be a couple
of us on the back porch.
If you want to sit, sit.
We told you where to findcommunion, but you don't have to
rush to it.
(43:14):
But let's respond as the Spiritleads and pursue the Lord
together.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.