Taking Back

Eric Barton

taking ground • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Intro

After Christy and I got married her parents were going to give us 2 recliners.

As a young married couple, hang me down furniture is what you live for!!

Matching and all that comes later in life.

When were picking them up, they said “Do you think you should tie these down”

No they will be fine, I was confident. I was 20 so I knew things...

Fast forward about 1 mile down the road… in the rearview mirror I saw my confidently secured chair flying out of the truck and breaking into pieces on the side of the road.

Along with it all of my pride and arrogance. So we had 1 good recliner.

It most definitely didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.

You know, so much in life feels like that.

What I thought or hoped for doesn’t always look like what happens

What do we do with that sense of defeat.

A SETBACK DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A KNOCK OUT.

it can feel that way.

How do we recover and keep moving on the other-side of something that knocks us down?

This is how the Hebrew people experienced.

We’ve been talking about taking ground as God is leading his people into a land that he had promised them.

They just came off a couple wins, Jordan river parted for them

The fortified walled city of Jericho walls came crashing down as they obeyed God.

Imagine how good that must feel!!

And then, Chapter 7 of Joshua.

Joshua 7:1-5

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

Joshua 7:6-9

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

They feel utterly defeated.

All is lost!

This should have been an easy fight.

There went the positive momentum.

A major setback they didn’t expect.

They are supposed to take the land, not get beaten.

Joshua 7:10-11

The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.

Joshua I haven’t failed you! I couldn’t fight for you.

This defeat doesn’t have to define you.

Same is true for us, what ever you feel is defeating you doesn’t have to define you.

Doesn’t have to be how the story ends.

The Israelites suffered a major loss, but it wasn’t the end.

Let’s learn how to defeat defeat.

Joshua 7:12-13

That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

They discovered the stolen devoted items in the of Achan, they removed them items and stoned Achan… I know extreme but remember the different times and the sin he had inflicted on the entire people… (he was really Achan…)

1. CHECK AND CORRECT

They figured out that on their own, they couldn’t win. Even what seemed easy.

And they had allowed something in that had tied God’s hands and pushed him out.

They had to search and find and remove anything that separated them from God and his hand.

We need to do the same.

Sometimes the battles we lose, the set backs we face and the defeat we feel could be because we have allowed things to take residence in our lives that don’t belong and push God out.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

David, a man after God’s own heart, had to make a habit of this.

We have to be bold enough to look inside and ask hard questions about us, not others.

Search, take a look at your heart and life. Ask God to reveal.

Is there anything in me offensive to you??

Like Achan, what we hold onto we think is valuable.

Our pain, unforgiveness, sin, thoughts.

But nothing is more valuable than God’s presence.

It’s either it or God...

Joshua 8:1a

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged...

2. CONQUER FEAR FIRST

When you feel defeated fear likes to flood in.

after a failure or set back fear can feel deafening!!

See you weren’t good enough.

God doesn’t love you.

Don’t try anymore it’ll just fail again.

And fear will cripple you into never moving forward.

Fear is a liar and the enemy to your faith.

It is one of the greatest tactics of the Devil.

First thing God told Joshua, Don’t be afraid! Do not be discouraged.

Discouraged in the hebrew means to be shattered...

There are too many shattered and broken people all around that have submitted to fear.

God is greater than your biggest phobias!!!

Feeling afraid isn’t a sin. we all feel it sometimes. Especially when we are stepping out in a life for God.

Faith isn’t the absence of fear, it’s trust even in the face of it!

We are afraid because of the unknowns and what ifs, but God knows the outcome of your story.

Keep moving!!

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

We come against whatever has you griped in fear today.

Joshua 8:1b

...Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land.”

Go said I want you to get up, go back and try again.

this time all in fully devoted

3. DECIDE WHAT VOICE

When you feel defeated there are a thousand voices competing for your attention.

In my own head, from other people that think they know what you should do...

You will hear a lot of voices, but you can only follow one.

Too often the voice that matters gets drown out and ignored.

Joshua was still listening to God’s voice.

Does God have a voice in your life?

If he never has space to speak, his voice can’t be heard.

Worship, Word, Prayer, Meditation. (tune in, turn up)

I won’t listen to my crazy thoughts, I won’t listen to fear, I won’t listen to opinion.

God I’m listening to you!!!

Joshua 8:3-8

So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”

Joshua got back to it. Put a plan in motion. and God back to the mission at hand.

4. FACE AND FIGHT

When we feel defeated the first thing we want to do is avoid and ignore, instead of dealing with it and overcoming.

I’m sure it was have been tempting for Joshua to say, God let’s just go around it!!!

It’ll take facing some things.

It’s time to get up and get busy again. move again. Face whatever it is.

Defeat doesn’t define you. Let it refine you.

God what do you want to teach me and do in me through this.

They went and took back the place they lost.

Come on it’s time for us to do the same.

Take back the lost passions, dreams, purpose, hope, relationships.

Joshua 8:9

Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

This is the place so many of us camp and live.

AI - a place of ruins

Bethel - House of God

Caught between ruin and life.

God’s not finished with you.

Don’t dare set back and settle into defeat.

Don’t let shattered be your story.

Isaiah 61:3 (NLT)

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

CONCLUSION

When I was about 6 I was riding a horse with a family friend. We got threw off. I broke my arm through.

The old saying is, get back on the horse.

I did not.

Because What if I fall again, what if it breaks another bone, what it its worse this time....

You know, too many of us are living life just like that.

But your defeat does not have to define you, that’s what God does.

We’re taking ground, moving forward into all God has for us.

Where you need to get back up again?

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