Sermon Tone Analysis

An accusation that is made again many preachers today is that we are afraid to call sin by its name.

I desire to be faithful to the Word of God and allow the Bible to shape my preaching more than polls or focus-groups.

In the last year you have heard me preach through the 10 commands as well as all the sins that Jesus exposed as He called followers to Kingdom priorities through the Sermon on the Mount.

The last 5 weeks we have looked at God’s dealings with His chosen people, the Hebrews, and we have hopefully learned from their mistakes, or their sin.

Today’s text is also grounded in a historical event, but the application has bearing for each and every one of us in Chase County, KS. Today we will be looking at the heart issue of hidden sin.

Some of the messages I have preached have been a call for us to avoid the sins that plague others.

Today’s message, if I accomplish my goal, is going to force each of us to deal with OUR desires, temptations, failures and sin.

Some words for desire automatically trigger our minds in a particular direction.

If I mention “greed” your mind probably goes to wealth.

If I say “lust” your mind shifts to sexual temptation.

Where does your mind go when I say “craving”?

Most likely it goes to a food or drink.

I did a quick Google search on the word “crave” and I was provided with hits from an electronic instrument, to pet food, to frozen dinners, to burgers, to drinks, to a youth ministry called “Crave”.

Since a craving can be biological (I’m told when your body is lacking certain minerals your brain will trigger particular dietary cravings), or emotional when we crave attention (1 Tim 6:4 speaks of false teachers with an unhealthy craving for controversy), or spiritual (1 Peter 2 commands us to crave God’s Word), let me clarify that today I am addressing Sinful Cravings.

The definition of sin that I used with the VBS children this week was “anything we think, say or do that displeases God.”

So, in the context of today’s sermon I’m talking about “a compelling desire for anything God has chosen to withhold from you”.

Let’s start by getting an overview of the scene then we will go back and examine some of the turn-by-turn directions.

Transition: The first leg of the journey through this chapter teaches us that…

Sinful Craving leads to Death (vv.1-15)

Explanation

1. 6:27 stated that Joshua’s fame spread to the extent that Yahweh’s presence was with him, but 7:1 states that Israel broke covenant with their source of victory.

2. Joshua consulted his men rather than Yahweh for the battleplan

a. Ai was 15 miles away.

Jericho was below sea level and Ai was above sea level so that is why we read that they went up to spy out the land.

It was smaller and less fortified than Jericho.

b.

The defeat had nothing to do with strength, size, walls or troops.

It was all about sinful disobedience.

c.

I know that hindsight is 20/20 and I am about to offer a hypothetical situation, but if Joshua had consulted Yahweh instead of his deputies, perhaps he would have been told about the stolen cherem, and avoided the defeat.

3. Individual sin had community impact.

a.