Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning — We are in series of sermons in the book of Joshua.. and we have been looking at the battles that Israel fought… Warfare is a big part of Christian life ... -the

Apostle Paul frequently used the metaphor of a soldier to reflect the Christian life.

The imagery of warfare is common place in the Scriptures… Many of the O.T. battles were recorded for the benefit of coming Generations to remember and to learn how battles are won and lost..

Memorials like the 12 Stones that were taken out of the Jordan… were placed at key places of worship like Gilgal as memorials for generations that followed… lest they forget..

The book of Joshua is about entering into the promises and rest that God has prepared for his people…

But like every Battle it is not without conflict… The battle for Canaan is a series of battles that are apart of a bigger conflict…… between Good and Evil… that still at work in our world.

In the Conflict we are going to face resistance and Setbacks…and we will get down but we won’t get knocked out.

All of us have faced setback at some point in our lives… maybe we got our hopes up - we had high expectations and for some reason it didn’t work out…We experienced disappointment, frustration and even anger…

This morning message we going to be looking at - HOW TO CHANGE A SETBACK INTO A COMEBACK.

Now the first thing we need to realize is that.... Setbacks are common place in life…

You are not the only one in the room whose experienced a setback… … What is important however… is not the Setback need not be fatal…

We can either allow setback to define us or we can leverage a set back to our advantage …

For over two decades Mark Hansen and Jack Canfield shared “stories of hope, inspiration, and encouragement,”

As they began to share these stories of Hope and they saw how it touched their audiences, they tried to find a publisher to put them into print.

Some publishers thought the stories were too “nice.”

Others said “Nobody wants to read a book of little stories.”

Others said just plain “No!“After three years and 33 rejections, they finally found someone who would publish Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Chicken soup sols over 8 million copies.

Most people wouldn’t have pressed on past 33 rejections, but Hansen and Canfield did, and millions of readers are glad they did.

Another example of a Comeback was a guy called

Jack Kilby could have let a set back stop him, but he didn’t.

MIT turned down Jack Kilby’s application for admission because his Math scores were too low.

As a result, Kilby never received much training in physics and didn’t get the education he desired.

But on December 10, 2000 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences gave him the Nobel Prize in physics.

Why? Well he only invented something that has probably changed your life and has definitely changed history—the microchip.

Kilby is also the co-inventor of the handheld calculator and has patents for several other inventions.

Too often we let one set back or failure define our lives…

In our text Israel has crossed the Jordan and defeated Jericho a major city… and they are moving forward… towards a small city called AI.. Which is going to prove a little more challenging than expected…

T/s The first thing we need to do to change a Setback into a come back… is too.

1. Pay attention to areas of your life that we are prone to Neglect.

The battle of Jericho was major victory for Israel and would have sent shock waves through the land of Canaan… if Israel could take Jericho… they could easily take every other city in Canaan… Joshua Chapter 6 ends on this High of success with the unbelievable victory over Jericho…

the last verse says.

So, God has given Joshua and Israel huge favor…Israel seem to be unstoppable..…-It is easy to imagine Israel surging forward from one city to the next — having one victory after another…but that is not what happens...

Chapter 7.. begins with the significant and pivotal word ‘But’…the people broke faith in regards to the devoted things...

Before we have any details of what was to follow we are introduced to a problem within Israel..

… ISRAEL had broken faith.. in regards to the Devoted things… because Achan from the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things and the Lords anger burned towards the people of Israel...

You see… God had commanded Joshua and the people to destroy everything in Jericho…everything was to be given to destruction..

There is a good reason for this..

… Tim Keller tells that God wanted to be distinguished from the other nations..

He didn’t want them to them to a pirate nation and satisfy their desire for increase of national power and for private wealth… God says I will be with you as long as you don’t behave like that… as long as they listen to God they would experience success...

but Achan who ignored this command…And one man disobedience affect the whole Israel… Sin has a ripple affect… we often think that its just impacting us — but it can affect other relationship …

This scene is reminiscent of the Fall…In Romans it tells us

Adams sin impacted Humanity but on the same hand one mans obedience brought many sons and daughters to himself… One of act of righteousness leads to righteousness and life for all men..

One mans sin impacts the whole community and this is going to be a major Setback...

The problem here is Neglect… and it is not only neglect of Achan but also Joshua.

Joshua is incredible leader… He leads Israel from the Jordan…to victory against 5 kings of Canaan.

Then he settles the Tribes in the New World…

But Joshua… has some of the same infirmities and weakness common to our own humanity.

Up until this point… Joshua has been very intentional… setting aside time to Seek the Lord..

Before crossing the Jordan - took three days to prepare, emotionally, physically and spiritually…

Before taking Jericho… Israel the new generation renewed covenant before the battle of Jericho… and Joshua spent time prostrate before the presence of the Lord…on Holy Ground...

Sometimes heights are dangerous places — success is a wonderful thing but it can also make us vulnerable because we can become overconfident and have the mistaken notion that we can handle things in our own strength.

There are those who have been greatly used of God who have, in the flush of spiritual success, fallen badly

Every battle is going to need fresh grace.. fresh word… but Joshua neglected this vital step..

lets unpack this text a little bit.. Joshua starts with a familiar strategy ... Joshua sends spies into AI… the same strategy used in Jericho…the same strategy that Moses had used 40 years previously ---

But there are also some noticeable differences --- The first is in the attitude of these spies…

These spies, were brimming over with self-confidence and were inflated with pride at the victory at Jericho.

They contemptuously regarded Ai as a soft target .

‘The people of Ai are few,’ they said.

They sized them up and thought we could easily take them...

Ai had about 12,000 inhabitants, which would probably have given them a fighting force of about 2,000 men.

So, the assumption was that 3000 against 2000 troops should bring about an easy win…

Why expend all your resources on a smaller city …rather let the majority of your troops rest and recuperate and have the reserves for the bigger battles ahead.

Sounds like a “Smart” idea..

The problem is that there is a huge difference between Faith and presumption… Depending on God and making human assumptions.

Here lies the problem between faith and presumption… Presumption is faith in faith… ...

rather than faith in God… is presuming that believing is enough… If we have faith we will overcome this obstacle… Faith is not just believing it’s hearing…the world of God… it’s Romans 10:17

Another difference is that there is no mention of divine promises or God’s ability to fight their battles..

This very different from the spies who were sent to look over Jericho!

They came back with the report that, ‘Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands’

There is also a neglect of leadership…

As readers we know that there is a problem in the camp… We have the knowledge that God’s Anger is burning towards Israel..

Joshua is kind of oblivious to what is happening around him and is all about business as normal —not knowing that disasters about to strike...

Joshua has neglected Prayer and Consecration --

Instead of Devoting himself and the people so they can prepare them selves Spiritually, emotionally, physically… He just goes with the advice of the spies…

… If Joshua had taken the time to seek God.. it wouldn't have taken very long to discover that God was not very pleased with Israel ..and that there was sin in the camp..

One of our Biggest setback is in our lives can be in the area of neglect.

And the things we neglect always lead us to the place of regret…

Neglect... Definition..

A lack of attention to one’s thoughts and deeds, or a failure to give adequate thought to the consequences of one’s actions, often leading to distressing results..

We have all been careless at some point..

A survey sponsored by CarMD.com

found that 10 percent of the people they polled were driving with their "Check Engine" light on.

Out of that 10 %… half the cars were showing signs of an impending breakdown and indicated that their warning lights had been on for over 3 months.

Another 10 percent said their warning lights light had been on between 1–2 months....

The reason that most people ignored the warning light is because they didn’t believe they had a serious problem..

Neglect doesn’t impact our cars…

What happens when we neglect things like our Relationship— Spouses, children family, finances, walk with the lord…

The consequences are often ends up in regret..

God’s has an answer for our neglect and

When Joshua gets the news of the defeat at AI, his response is to tear his clothes and go into mourning..

He is confused with God… Why did you bring us out of the Jordan to destroy us by the hands of the Amorities —

We’ve heard this language before, haven’t we?

It was voiced at the Red Sea: ‘It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness’ (Exodus 14:12); and later when they were hungry: ‘Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt’

Joshua says we would have been content on the other side of the Jordan…Really they would be content - living in the wilderness again?

God Response to Joshua is to get up?

Getting up is the tipping point in Change… You only are defeated when you are knocked down…

Joshua the answer was to feel depressed and sorry for himself…Depression is a very real problem… Something that can impact individuals and groups of people… We live in a political climate… which is kind of depressing… Depression can impact an entire nation…

The great English preacher D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was so aware of this problem among the people of his congregation after World War II that he preached a series of sermons on it.

They are printed in Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure.1