This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're looking at Joshua chapter 7 today. This is week 3, day 4 of our look
through the book of Joshua, and things take quite a turn in Joshua 7. We're
looking at Joshua's army and the great victory that they had yesterday as we
looked at what happened at Jericho.

Just last chapter they seemed invincible. They needed only to blow trumpets and
walls fell down. They destroyed an entire city without losing one life in this
army.

Nothing could stop them now. But in their very next battle, in a little out of
the way town called Ai, those two letters, they give us a lesson in how defeat
is accomplished. They literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Listen to what happened, Joshua chapter 7, verses 1 to 5. But Israel was
unfaithful concerning the things set apart for the Lord. A man named Achan had
stolen some of these things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites.

Achan was the son of Carmy, of the family of Zimri, of the clan of Zerah, of the
tribe of Judah. Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the city of
Ai, east of Bethel, near Bethhaven. When they returned, they told Joshua, "It's
a small town.

It won't take more than two or three thousand of us to destroy it. There's no
need for all of us to go there. " So approximately three thousand warriors were
sent, and they were soundly defeated.

The men of Ai chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the quarries,
and they killed about thirty-six who were retreating down the slope. The
Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events, and their courage
melted away. Now this isn't just a story about Joshua's army.

This is a story about your life, my life. Do not be too quick to judge them. A
look at ourselves shows that sometimes we too should think we could be
invincible.

I mean, we're God's creation. We're living the blessing of the life that he's
given. We're forgiven.

We're directed by grace. We've got God's Spirit in our lives. We've got a love
in our lives through which you'd think, "Oh, we could never be defeated.

" Yet so many believers, we often live defeated, depressed, downtrodden lives.
It's God's intention for us to live in victory, not without the battles, but
victorious over the battles. But so often we live in defeat.

Defeat in discouragement. Defeat in temptation. Defeat in faith in our daily
lives.

Why the defeat? To understand it, you look at a little place called Ai. That's
where you always have to start, at a place called Ai.

I'm praying right now, as we look at this place, I'm praying that God will do
something in my heart, in your heart, when it comes to why the defeats come in
our lives, that he'll enable us, through his Spirit, to take an honest look at
the defeats that come. What defeated Israel at Ai? And what makes out of our
lives a defeat?

I'm not saying what brings problems. That's not what I'm talking about. We all
have problems.

I'm not saying what brings those times when things don't go as we think they
should. That happens to all of us. I'm talking about the defeated spirit.

I'm talking about the loss of joy. I'm talking about these long periods of time
where there's no connection with God any longer. What makes of our lives of a
defeat?

A defeat like that. In a word, a single word, same thing at Ai as in our lives,
the word is sin. It's Satan's super weapon.

Sin will immediately turn a victorious Christian into a defeated saint. Now,
what is sin? What am I talking about?

People have all kinds of definitions, especially church people. Oftentimes it's
this. Sin is this list of actions that you shouldn't do.

And everyone's list, by the way, is different. And everyone, by the way, makes
sure that they include more things on their list that they're not doing than
things that they are doing so they can feel more comfortable about themselves.
It's a lot better to talk about other people's sins than my sins.

But you cannot define sins by your list of do's and don'ts. Some people define
sin as feeling bad about what you're doing. But you can't define sin by human
emotions, human feelings.

What if you don't feel bad about doing the worst of things? What if you feel bad
about doing a good thing? In Joshua 7, we see it's an interesting study.

We see in God's word a solid description of what sin actually is. God, as he
talks to Joshua about what happened at Ai, actually uses three different
phrases, words that are the classic descriptions of what sin is. He says, "You
acted unfaithfully, you sinned," number two, and number three, "you
transgressed.

" You acted unfaithfully. Chapter seven, verse one, we just read, that means
literally to break the contract with God. Now, this is a word that sometimes we
also translate as to trespass.

To sin is to trespass, to break the contract. It's a conscious act of treachery.
It has the idea of God being the victim of a crime, and we're breaking this
contract that we have with God.

God created you for a purpose, and to sin is to live outside of that purpose for
which God has created you, to act unfaithfully. In verse 11, there's a second
picture of what sin is. In the word sinned, that word literally means to miss
the mark.

Verse 11, "Israel has sinned and broken my covenant. They've stolen the things
that I commanded to be set apart from me. " To sin is to miss the mark, to miss
the way.

Sin, it pictured a sling when you cast the stone missing an animal or a person
taking the wrong path. Today, we picture it as an Olympic shooter missing the
bullseye, a driver missing the off-ramp. The word points to anything less than
the total perfection of life.

Sin is not a matter of comparing ourselves to others and seeing if I come up
better or come up short. It's a matter of falling short of God's perfect
standard. Sin is not a matter of seeing if I'm a little bit ahead of you in the
race.

Sin is a matter of recognizing that we have this gap between us and God that's
Grand Canyon-sized, and to think I can jump it myself is as foolish as thinking
I can jump across the Grand Canyon. I've missed the mark. I've broken the
contract, transgressed.

That's a word that means, in verse 11, "Hear, broken my covenant," or
transgress, the third word. It literally means to cross the line. It's an
interesting word.

And it's a good word when applied to the Red Sea or the Jordan River, when they
crossed over. They'd seen the victory of crossing over the Jordan, but now
they're seeing the defeat of crossing over God's covenant, crossing the line.
Sin is crossing over the line of our responsibility to God.

God's made us to live in relationship to Him. And when I cross over away from
that, I've sinned. So the question is, how do I get back?

Whether you're dealing with this for the first time or you're dealing with it
for the millionth time in your life as a believer or follower in Christ, we have
to constantly remind ourselves, "How do I get back? What do I do about it? "
Well, you do two things, and we see it in this chapter.

You recognize and you repent. First you recognize. You recognize the truth about
sin.

And there are four truths about sin. We could talk about more truths than this,
but there are four truths about sin in this chapter that you need to recognize
if you're going to get back to the victorious life. You recognize, number one,
that sin angers God.

Chapter seven, verse one, "Israel was unfaithful concerning the things set apart
for the Lord. A man named Achan had stolen some of these things. " So the Lord
was very angry with the Israelites.

Sin angers God. The fact of God's grace does not preclude His anger at sin. Now,
why is He angry?

Because you're cheating the system? Because you're getting something you don't
deserve? Absolutely not.

It's because you're cheating yourself. You're turning your back on the God who
loves you because He's your Father, and He knows how much sin is hurting you.
Any time anyone does something to hurt your child if you're a parent, even if
they're the one that does it, you have an anger, a righteous anger.

Sin angers God. You just recognize that truth. Truth number two, there's no such
thing as a small sin.

Here's one man who took a few things. Couldn't God just, like, overlook that
one? One person sins and God punishes a whole nation?

There's no such thing as a small sin because all sin carries the seeds of
greater and deeper sin. And if that had been allowed in this case, then it would
have gone through the whole camp. Everybody would have known, "Oh, you can just
flaunt the law of God.

" By the way, by the same token, there's no such thing as a small faith because
every mustard seed of faith carries within it the seed of greater and greater
faith. There's no such thing as a small sin. Have you been allowing things into
your life because they're small, at least from your perspective, from others'
perspective?

Begin to look at it from God's perspective. If you're going to begin to live in
victory again, you begin to look at it from God's perspective. Satan always
tries to tell you, "Oh, it's not that big a deal.

" Tell you sin and then he says, "Oh, he should feel so guilty about that. God
will never love you again. " There's no such thing as a small sin.

Truth number three, sin separates us from God. They became separated from God
because of their sin. God and sin are like oil and water.

They do not mix. When you choose the presence of sin in your life, you're
choosing against the presence of God in your life, always. And then truth number
four, sin will be brought to light.

That's beginning in verse 16. 16 to 20, listen to what happens here. Early the
next morning, Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord and the tribe
of Judah was singled out.

And then the clans of Judah came forward and the clan of Zerah was singled out.
And the families of Zerah came before the Lord and the family of Zimri was
singled out. And every member of Zimri's family was brought forward person by
person and Achan was singled out.

And then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of
Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have
done. Don't hide it from me.

" Achan replied, "I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. " Sin will
always be brought to light. Now, not in the way that it was here.

This is a very unusual circumstance. They're brought forward clan by clan, then
person by person and God says, "That's the one. " And we all quake on our boots.

That kind of thing might happen to us someday. The truth is, sin is constantly
brought to light in different ways in our lives today. It's brought to light in
our actions.

It's brought to light in our emotions. It's brought to light in our character.
It's brought to light in our attitudes.

That which you think is so hidden, you're trying to hide your sin, we all try to
hide it, is constantly being brought to light in who you are in more ways than
you could possibly realize. Here's the basic truth. Sin will either be brought
to light through judgment or confession.

It's your choice. Sometimes God uses both, but many times it is your choice
through judgment or confession. You want it to be brought to light through
judgment, God judging you for what you're doing or through you going to him and
saying, "God, I bring it to light.

I'm sorry for what I've done. " You recognize and then you repent. The word
repent means to make a U-turn back to God, to return to God.

You throw yourself completely on the mercy of God. You remind yourself with the
complete mercy of God and then you say, "It's my only hope. I throw myself, God,
on your mercy.

" But in throwing yourself on God's mercy, you say to God, "Strengthen me to
live in a new way. I want to live not defined by this sin, but defined by your
grace. " Jesus gave his life for us, so he'd give a new life to us.

A new life is not defined by sin, but it's defined by the love that God has for
you. Let's just take a few moments as we end this study today, just to
personally talk to God about our lives and just say to them, "God, here it is.
Here's the sin I'm struggling with.

I'm tired of struggling, but I'm not going to give up on the struggle. So one
more time, I'm coming back to you and saying, "I'm going to trust you with this.
I admit that what I've done is wrong.

I'm grateful for the forgiveness of Christ that came because of the cross, and I
repent. I want to live in a new way because of who you are, Jesus. I repent of
the anger.

I repent of the unforgiveness. I repent of the lust. I repent of the hatred.

I repent of the greed. I repent, God. I return to you.

I thank you. Your arms are always wide open because of the love of Jesus. In
your name, I thank you.

Amen.