Joshua 8 The Thrill of Victory after the Agony of Defeat

Dr. Jack Terry emphasized the importance of sharing the Gospel with friends and family, and Vacation Bible School. He urged listeners to trust in God rather than relying on their own plans. He emphasized the need to seek guidance from God before making decisions, sharing personal anecdotes to illustrate the power of trusting in God's plan. Good morning. How are you all doing today? Everything going well? Everybody happy? Look happy? Everybody look happy? Turn to the person to your right and say, I love you. Now to the left, say, I love you. Now you're happy. Now you're happy. That's good. That's good. When I was Dean of the School of Education at Southwestern Seminary for 26 years, I did a survey in a class that I taught that was under title Educational Evangelism in the Sunday School. I want to tell you something, folks. More people are saved through the Sunday School and Vacation Bible School than in any revival meeting you've ever attended. There are more people who are saved in Sunday School and in Vacation Bible School because in Vacation Bible School we used to have two weeks and in two weeks you could teach the kids more Scripture than you could in six months of Sunday School. Now, Education Evangelism through the Sunday School was just like what you see up here. And we had contact persons as the circle shows. I want to share something with you. I did a survey of 2,500 churches over a 10-year period and asked them one question to send me at the end of the week. How many people joined your church by profession of faith and why did they come? And over a 10-year period, 2,500 churches sent me information and when I collated all the material, here's what I found. Two percent of that, and there were 250,000 people who joined churches in 10 years. Of that group, two percent joined the church because they just dropped in and went to a Sunday School class. Two percent. Ten percent joined the church because somebody from the church came to their door who did not know them and knocked on the door and shared Christ with them. Ten percent. The highest level was 15 percent were one in Vacation Bible School. Now, 79 percent, and look at the circle, 79 percent of 250,000 people over a 10-year period, 2,500 churches, over 75 percent of the people who joined the church, joined the church because of a friend or their family. Now, who should be sharing Christ with these lost people? And that's why the circle is like it is. Would you like to look and see who's number one on the circle? I think it says family. Does it not? In the circle? Family? And what's next? Friends. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So, what happens is that's the people because they know you and they trust you and they're friends of yours and you don't have to make friends with them. You're already part of their family. And how many people in our families have never, ever had a family member share the gospel with them? And over that period of time, 250,000 people, 76 percent of that number came because a friend or a family member shared Christ with them. Now, the reason that friend thing is so involved is because when you come to Sunday School, guess what you make? Lots of friends. And when you're in a neighborhood, guess what you make? Lots of friends. Okay, that is the advertisement for Ed and for this new program. I hope you'll become a part of it. By the way, I have the next two Sundays. I get Father's Day. Isn't that cool? I get Father's Day and I will be doing chapter 8 and chapter 9, working on them. Two interesting stories. Chapter 8 is a revisit of AI. And it's a different visit this time. And Joshua learned a little bit in the first visit to AI. And he learned that of himself, as Jesus said to his disciples, gentlemen, of myself, I can do nothing in this body. I can't do anything in this body, guys, unless the Father does it how? Through me. Now, Joshua had forgot that lesson. Evidently, when Joshua went to AI the first time, he didn't see the sticky note on the flap of his tent or he missed the little magnetic thing on his Yeti cooler. Evidently, he either missed that sticky note on his tent or he missed the little thing on his Yeti cooler. Now, this is the little thing that we put not on our Yeti cooler, but on our refrigerator in the utility room. I'm going to read it to you. Good morning. This is God. I will be handling all of your problems today. I will not need your help. So, have a good day. Now, ladies and gentlemen, humankind has the problem. Frank Sinatra put it in a song. I did it my way. And that's the greatest problem that faces the Church of the Lord Christ. We all want to do it our way. And when we do it our way, generally, we crash and burn, right? You know, it's kind of interesting. Wouldn't it just be more simple if you have something that you really need to be thinking about to talk to your daddy about it? Just talk to God about it and say, Lord, I don't know how to handle this problem. You see, there has been nothing that Barbara and I could do to help anything that's happening in Birmingham. We can't get over there. We can't go see the baby. All we do is get pictures and texts and little notes. So, we have to do one thing, and that is we have to trust eternal God to take care of that child. And it is start trusting and stop trying. Read the sticky note on the flap. Read the note on your refrigerator. Quit telling me that. Do what, sweetie? Quit telling me that. So, the end of the story is Joshua thought he had a plan the first time at Ai. He picked out a unit of men. Now, in the Israeli army that Joshua had, he had several units. Each unit consisted of 3,000 soldiers. And this particular time back in chapter 5 when he went to Ai, he chose one unit. He just chose 3,000 soldiers. One unit out of several hundred units because later on he's going to send 10 units to Ai the second time. And when he sends 10 units to Ai the second time, he's going to send 30,000 troops. Ten units. But the first time he only sent one unit, 3,000. And he didn't ask God about it. He didn't read the flap on his door. He didn't read the sticky on his door. He didn't check his Yeti cooler. And he had no information from God. He made his own plans. He sent his men up there, and they got thoroughly routed. Hey, come on. 3,000 men went up there. Do you know how many died in that little trip? Give me a break. 36 died. Out of the 3,000 he sent up there, 36 died. That's not a great loss. Although it's a loss, and if Joshua had simply done what each of us needs to do before we make a major decision, talk to the Father. Ask him if he might know something a little bit more than we know. We have a friend that says, I'm not stuck up. I just have a better idea. And all of us have better ideas. And the tragedy is, we all think we have a better idea than God has. And when we do that, guess what happens? God cannot honor us because we have not trusted him. I did not know this, what I'm talking to you about, until I came to North Richland Hills in 1963. And met up with a pastor by the name of Hal Brooks, who one Monday morning when I brought my resignation in to resign, I'd been there nearly eight months, and the Sunday school was in the pits. We hadn't had hardly any salvation experiences. Hal was hurting. I was hurting. The church was hurting. And I came that morning, it was funny, every Monday morning he and I both bring our resignations and we'd tear them up. And on this particular Monday morning, Hal said something to me that I've never heard before. He said, Jack, we're not going to tear up our resignations today. We're going today to go to Dallas. We're going to go to Dallas Theological Seminary, and we're going over there to hear a man speak. And I want you to hear, his name is Major Ian Thomas. He is a torchbearer. He along with Dr. V. Raymond Edmond and Dr. John Hunter and other great British Bible teachers is teaching today at Dallas Theological. We're going to go hear him. Ladies and gentlemen, it changed our lives. We came away from there because we were at the point where we were not trusting, we were trying. Hey, we were working our hearts out. We were working 12 and 18 hours a day. Trying to grow a little church that when I got there was running 130 in Sunday school. And now we've dropped down to 105. And I've been there eight months. And I said, Hal, what are we going to do? We came back and we said, okay, Lord, we can't handle this thing. We're just going to give it to you. We're going to quit trying. We're going to quit trying. We're not going to quit working. You don't quit working when you quit trying. You just get out of your own head and get into God's head. We started praying. May I fast forward you three years when we were doing this? And when I left the church to go to Hardin-Simmons to teach at Hardin-Simmons University, the church had built three buildings. We were running 1,500 in Sunday school. And we had had over 200 baptisms every year. We did nothing different except trusted God. That's all. And every morning we'd say to each other, now, Jack, don't try today. Just trust God to do it through you. Okay, Hal, we'll get it done. And here we went. Ladies and gentlemen, I am sitting here to tell you it works. Right, Barbara? Now, there is no way a professor on a seminary salary can get, can pay three kids through TCU University and come out with no debt. There's just no way you can do that. Not on a seminary salary. And yet you're looking at Barbara and me, put two kids through TCU and both of them came out with absolutely no debt. When we got to the place, we'd say, Lord, we can't handle it. We just want to trust you. They're there. Take care of them. God took care of them. Okay? Now, that's what happened to Joshua. He didn't see the sticky. He missed the magnetic on his Yeti. And he didn't get the word. And in chapter 8, he got the word. And he figured it out by the time he got to chapter 8. That evidently, the plan that he developed was a human plan. And the plan that God wanted to develop was an eternal plan. Now, I want you to follow with me in the scripture because you can read my material as you go. I'm going to refer back and forth. The scripture begins in chapter 8, Then the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. Now, this word, Do not be afraid, appears in the word of God 39 times in the Masoretic text. Which would have been the text that the Hebrew people were reading. And the ones that we read in the Old Testament. And this phrase, Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, is a very popular Masoretic text statement. And God says it to Joshua, Take all the people of war with you and arise up and go to Ai. See, I have given it to you in your hand. Now, that's God's plan. Joshua sent 3,000. God is going to send 275,000. If he needed to. Joshua could have picked 10 units. He's going to send 30,000 of the 275,000. Joshua had a big army, folks. And on this occasion, his human thought was, I can whoop up on little old Ai because there's not more than 12,000 people up there. I can send 3,000 of my prime troops and they can go up there and whip up the daylights on that crowd and come home and have a victory. They got up there and got totally defeated. 3,000 men were totally defeated by 12,000 men, women and children in the city of Ai. And Joshua's face, his chin is on the floor. And he doesn't know what to do. Now, let me put something in your mind and I want you to remember it all the way through the conquest of Canaan. When God took care of Jericho, he totally annihilated Jericho. When he finished with it, it was a heap of nothing. A pile of rocks. Everybody in the city, men, women and children were dead. Now, I am not going to fend for God. If God chooses to do that, that's his will. But let me tell you something that God had chosen. God had chosen for his people to go through Canaan and do the same thing with everybody who was not on God's side in Canaan. Now, there were several different kinds of people in Canaan when the Israelis got there. The two greatest groups were Canaanites and Amorites. And the Amorites had several little offshoots. The Canaanites were in the center of Canaan and the Amorites were in the center of Canaan and the Canaanites were more off on the coast. And along with that you had the Hivites and the Hittites and you had the Jebusites. You had all these kinds of little spring-offs that came out of the Amorites and the Canaanites. But the two big groups were Ammon and Canaan. And God said, when you go into the city, if I tell you to totally annihilate a city, don't leave anybody alive. Now, whether or not that sits on your palate, well, I can't answer that for you. What I can answer is it was God's intention to do it. And God here is telling Joshua, we're going to go back up to Ai. This time you're going to go under my direction. You're going to use my battle plan. You're going to trust me to do it and you're not going to trust your own idiotic self. And when I give you the information in this battle plan, and God gives Joshua a whole battle plan, I want you to follow the battle plan to its totality. And when you get through, all of Ai will be a heap of rock. Just like Jericho. Now, pause. What do you think the other kings in Canaan and in Ammon and all the other offshoots were thinking? If they went to Jericho and they totally annihilated Jericho, and then they come to Ai and they totally annihilate Ai, and the next little city up there is Bethel, and just on the other side of Bethel is Shechem, and just on the other side of Shechem, all these cities of the Canaanites and the Amorites. Now, all of those little cities had kings. They had city kings. And all of those city kings were saying, guess what's going to happen to us when the Israelis get here? Look what they did to Jericho. And after this time at Ai, they can say, look what they did at Ai. Now, the next group in line were the Gibeonites. They were Gibeonites part of Ammon. And the Gibeonites were a strong fighting group. I can tell you all kinds of stories about the Gibeonites. Now, God said, when you go up there and I tell you to totally annihilate something, I don't want anybody running around the town after you get through. Do you understand the battle plan? And Joshua said, I understand. And Joshua said, I understand. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Now, if you were a city king in Cana or Ammon, what would you be thinking? Hello? They're coming here next. I mean, Gibeon was right in line. Bethel was right in line. And they knew where they were going to come, because they were going to come up there and turn south, because they were going to have a south conquest first, and then a north conquest. And all of these little city kings, including the king of Jebu, the Jebusites who were on the hill of Jerusalem, they were all thinking the same thing. When they come through here, when they get through, we're going to be a heap of rocks, and nobody's going to be alive. Now, in chapter 9, the Gibeonites are going to trick Joshua. And he's not going to pay attention to God's command. Guess what? He and the children of Israel are going to have to put up with the Gibeonites for the rest of the conquest. Because they did not do what? Okay? Now, do you remember that? Put that in your head and think about it. And later on, when I talk about the Gibeonites, and I talk about how they were still hanging on to Israel and what they were doing for Israel, Israel made them slaves to themselves, and they had to do some things. I'll talk about that next week. Okay, so now we're getting ready to go see Ai. And as you did to Ai, to Jericho, what you do to Ai, only there's one difference. In Jericho, everything that was left was dedicated to whom? Hello? Everything that was left was dedicated to whom? To God. Now, it's going to change. Now, listen. These folks were told, down in the wilderness, when they were wandering around like a bunch of nuts for 40 years, when you get to the land of promise, you are going to live in houses that you did not build. May I ask you a question? There's only one way you can come live in my house without me. Either you have to buy it or you have to kill me. That's the only way you're going to get in my house, right? Okay, so look what God is telling them down in the desert. When you get to Canaan, you're going to live in houses, not in tents. You're living in tents now. You've got flats on your door. You've got Yetis in the back, coolers. When you get to Israel, you're going to be living in a real house. It's going to be a house you did not build. That's simply saying, the people who used to live there ain't there anymore. They're dead. Oh, and secondly, you are going to be able to glean fields that you did not plant. And you are going to be able to trim and to collect from vineyards grapes you did not put in place and magnificent orchards of all kinds of fruits and all kinds of vegetable gardens. You are going to be able to have them because the people who are there are going to be gone. Do you understand? I want you to annihilate the entire population of Canaan. Why? Why would eternal God want to do that? Because He knew our human problem. If He had left those different kinds of ites, Amorite, Canaanite, Jebusite, Chickerbite, whatever they were. If He had left them in there, they all had idols. That's the problem. You see, ladies and gentlemen, all of us have idols. And we haven't done away with our idols. We haven't done away with our idols. I can talk to you about all kinds of idols that you and I have. Some of your idols are your children. Some of your idols are your bank account. Some of your idols are your profession. Some of your idols are who you are. We all have idols. And God said destroy them totally. Do away with them. You see, had the Israelites done what God said they were to do, they would not only have annihilated a large group of people and gotten all kinds of wonderful wealthy things for themselves, but they would have totally done away with the what? The idols. Because God knew that if they messed around with these idols, they'd be in trouble. Right? Now, back up just a minute. Do you remember when the spies went into Canaan and they came back to Joshua and 10 of them said, we can't get in there. They're giants. And they have a fighting force. We can't do it. It just can't be done. But I want you to know, it does flow with milk and honey. It is a magnificent, productive place. And there's all kinds of wonderful food. And if we can get in there, we can get that food. But I want you to know, there are a bunch of giants in there. And we can't do it. You see, 10 did not trust. 10 said, we can't try. Now, they also said, you know what we found when we were in there? We found out that all of these people were idol worshippers. And do you know what their gods were doing for them? That you haven't done for us out in this dusty, ugly desert? Do you know what he's doing for them? We saw wheat fields that were harvest ready. We saw fig trees that were full of things. We saw all kinds of vegetable fields. We saw wheat. We saw barley. We saw oats. We saw cattle. We saw livestock. We saw all kinds. Look what their god is doing for them. Now look down in the desert, sir, and see what you're doing for us. Oh, they were getting mad every morning and none of them starved to death. I'm sure they got tired of it after 38 years. I'd get tired of bread every morning too, but I eat it. They had quail at night. That's not bad. But God was taking care of them. Oh, by the way, they never lacked for water. Water is the source of life. You don't have water, you can die. Everything will die. Plants, you, cattle. They had water. They had food. They had meat. Oh, God wasn't taking care. Look up here, what he's doing. Look at what the gods are doing. Okay. Now, as these Israelites begin to tread through Canaan, that thought is in the back of their minds. Look what these idol gods are doing for the people here. And then look at us and see what our almighty God is doing for us. They didn't realize that he destroyed Jericho. They didn't realize that he gave Joshua the plan to annihilate Ai. They didn't realize that the whole plan was eventually never for them to leave Kadesh, Barnea. It was for them to come from Kadesh, Barnea, or just keep walking right, walk right into Israel and just annihilate everybody in front of them and conquest the whole land of Canaan. That was the plan until they got to Kadesh. And then at Kadesh they quit trusting and they started trying. For 28 years they had to put up with their sin. We in the same way. God does marvelous miracles in our lives. God's done a miracle in the life of little Piper. God's done miracles in your life this week. Hey, God did a miracle. You're still breathing. Have you figured that one out yet? God must love you. He let you get here. This is what Joshua was facing. And God's saying, Joshua, listen to me son. If I give you a battle plan, you need to work out the battle plan and if you work out my battle plan, guess what? We're gonna win. Okay, so look what happened. He said, so, and you shall do to Ai like now, but one thing is gonna be different from the conquest of Canaan. You're gonna totally annihilate the people, but what are you going to do with their houses and their livestock and their fruits and their vegetables and their gardens and their wheat? What are you gonna do with them? That is going to become your gift, your booty, your spoil from this point on. Forget Jericho. You got nothing out of Jericho. Achan died because he got into a mess. From this point on, every time you conquer a city, you're going to get all of their livestock, you're gonna get all of their vegetables, you're gonna get all of their orchards, you're gonna get all of their land, you're even gonna get to live in their houses. You got it? Amen. Well, guess what? After Ai, they forgot it. Anyway, he said, you're gonna go up there and here's what you're gonna do. You shall lay an ambush for the city of Ai behind it, on the western upper north side. You're gonna lay an ambush. So Joshua rose up and all the people of war to go up against Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and he sent them away by night to set themselves up behind the city in an ambush. Okay. 30,000 troops was one unit. Okay. 30,000 troops was 10 units. The first time he sent 3,000. Remember? One unit. And the 3,000 troops lost 36 men. This time, God's plan says, Joshua, this time you're not gonna send one unit. This time, you're gonna send 10 units but we're gonna use the rest of them so hang on. And 30,000 men are gonna go up behind and now, pause, in your material, there was a 10th century king. Now, wait a minute. This happens to be the 12th, about the 12th or 11th century you're in here. Joshua and the children of Israel were conquesting the land of Canaan sometime in the latter part of the 11th century or the early part of the 10th century because David was the king of the 10th century. And so, this is around the 11th or the 10th century and there was a 10th century king about the same time as David and he had a same battle plan that he used. He sent a group behind the city. He sent him an ambush. He sent an ambush on the left side and he won the entire war. So, this particular strategy that God gave Joshua later on other kings were using it to advantage as well. So, it's a great strategy. So, he said, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind. Do not go very far from the city but all of you be ready. Then I and the people who are with me will approach the city from the south will come up from Jericho. Now, if you kind of get the map in your eyes you're coming up from Jericho. Oh, 3600 feet. When you go down to the Dead Sea you're 1200 feet below sea level. When you get on top of the hill at Jerusalem you're 2400 feet above sea level. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how many feet that is. That's 3600 feet between Jerusalem and Jericho. The distance between Jerusalem and Jericho is 18 miles and it's 3600 feet. That means that every time you go a mile you're 200 feet going down to Jericho. So, now they have this hill in front of them going up to Ai because Ai is up on the scarp. And so, they're going to go up from Jericho and they go up to Ai and they're going to face the city. Joshua has already sent 30,000 of them behind the city and he's getting ready to send another group out. He's going to really take this city as God told him. Then I and all the people with me will approach the city from the south. You'll be at the northwest. And from the west all of you will come with me and when they come out against us we shall faint as if we are being defeated again. And Joshua said when they come out we're going to kind of run away like we did last time. And they will think that we are getting beaten again. And they'll come out of the city. And he just goes on and says when they come out of the city chasing us down in the valley coming down south toward where we are in the valley and by the way in the middle of this lesson there's a little blurb in there called a summary for some of you who want a little bit more information about where this is located on the map. Don't worry about it. It's just there for you if you want to read it. And it tells you the valley's names and where it was and how they did this. It's kind of interesting for some people who like to pick up some interesting things. It's sort of about page 3. It's a little blurb a summary. Sometime in your time read it. It kind of helps to understand. And he said now when they come out of the city and all 30,000 of you who are in the back then you come down and take the city. And you kill everybody in the city. And then you set the city on fire. So you just keep reading. Then when you set the city on fire according to the commandment of the Lord you shall do see I have commanded you to do it. So Joshua sent the 30,000 out they got to the back side. He gets ready and goes back and takes a nap. He sleeps overnight. The next morning he gets his other troops which was about somewhere between 225,000 troops. He had a big army. And you got to remember there were several hundred thousand that came from the two tribes on the eastern side of Jordan. From the three tribes that stayed over there. And so he has a pretty good army. And now he's going to start the whole army up from the south. But before he does that he's going to send 5,000 more troops on the western side of the Jordan. And he's going to send 5,000 more troops on the eastern side of the Jordan. And he's going to send 5,000 more troops on the western side in the wilderness. And he's going to hide them in a valley on the western side. God told him to do that. You send 5,000. And when they come down to fight us and they leave the city those of you at north come into the city wipe out all the women and children in the city and we'll have them caught in the crossfire. And when they come out of the city chasing us then the city will be taken over by you and we will know that you have the city in your possession when it begins to burn. So he's going to send 5,000 more troops on the western side of the Jordan. So when you get into the city set it on fire and when it begins to burn we will understand then Joshua did something that is very interesting. God said Joshua take your javelin and point it toward Ai. Now what does that mean? In ancient war when a commander pointed his javelin toward the enemy it meant it meant we will take no prisoners. And Joshua pointed his javelin toward Ai which meant no prisoners. None. And he held it until it was totally completed. He never brought his javelin back. He held it until the city was totally annihilated. Because God told him to annihilate it. So after Joshua spent the night the next morning in verse 11 and 12 he gets about 5,000 men he sends them over to the west they are going to come out of the wilderness because when the men of Ai come down and they encompass Joshua coming up they are going to be caught they are going to start fighting now. the men that have conquered Ai are going to 30,000 are going to come down and they are going to have the Ai people between a crossfire between north and south and just about that time there is only one way to run and that is toward the wilderness to the west would you look at verse 12 so he took about 5,000 men and set them in an ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city because he knew that when those men came down and they encosted us from the south and the north the only place they had to run was west and the wilderness because that was all mountain. So he put 5,000 of his troops west and when they decided to start running west and they ran into 5,000 of his troops coming out of the wilderness I mean this was a magnificent Godly battle plan God knew everything was going to happen and when they had set the people all the army that was on the north of the city and his rear guard on the west of the city Joshua went that night into the valley with his men now it happened when the king of Ai saw him down in the valley coming down from the scarp coming up from Jericho he said let's go do it again we did it before we'll do it again let's go down and whoop up on these Israelis so he brings his entire army out of Ai. Thank you king. You did exactly what God wanted you to do you left the city totally unprotected only women and children and when they all came out Joshua with a spear pointed at the men at the top sub they took all the city set it on fire killed all the people and now they're at the north Joshua's at the south the Ai's are in the middle the other crowd's off the west they can't run this way they only run west they are in a cross fire they're in a pickle and every one of them is going to get killed now it happened when the king of Ai saw it the men of the city hastened rose up early went out against Israel to battle verse 14 and all his people at the appointed place before the plan but he did not know that there was going to be an ambush against the city and Joshua and all of Israel made as if they were being beaten so the people who were in were called Ai went together to pursue them were drawn away from the city. Verse 17, there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out of the city after Israel so they left the city open and pursued the spear's up again stretch out your spear that's in your hand toward Ai for I will give it to your hand and Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city and those in the ambush arose quickly out of their place and they as soon as they saw his stretched hand and they entered the city took it and opened the city and set it on fire and when the men of Ai looked behind them they saw their city burning and they realized that they were in a crossfire. So they had no power to flee if they ran to the east they had to run in the mountains if they ran to the north 30,000 troops were coming down. if they ran to the south Joshua had about 250,000 at the south so the only way to run was to the wilderness to the west and guess what Joshua according to verse 14 had already said in the wilderness he had already said 5,000 in the wilderness and as they turned to run in the wilderness here came out 5,000 of Joshua's troop and they were caught in a crossfire from the north from the south and from the west you can't fight from the mountains and so they were caught in a crossfire so they had no power to flee this way or to flee that way and the people who fled the city to the wilderness turned back to the pursuers now when Joshua and all of Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city had descended they turned back and struck down Ai every last one of them so that they were caught in the midst of Israel some on this side some on that side they struck them down and they let none of them remain or escape Spears we take no prisoners ok now look at verse 23 but the king of Ai they took and brought to Joshua and when they brought him to Joshua by that time just about his entire army had been taken. This is the King's command that all men everywhere repent and turn away from sin's seductive snare and all who will obey with him shall live for Eddie and that's the business of my King My home is brighter far than Sharon's rosy plains Eternal life and joy within his vast domain My sovereign bids me tell, Ed that mortals there may dwell and that's the business for my King Ladies and gentlemen each of us is an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ and when I was a royal ambassador at sixteen years of age I was taught an ambassador is the personage of a king in the land of another enemy I am an ambassador for Christ and I am a stranger here Amen? Amen Now next week we're going to meet the Gibeonites Right And guess what? When Joshua sees what they can do he got a better idea and that better idea attached the Gibeonites to Israel for the entirety of their conquest of Canaan You know if you want something God will generally give it to you It may not be what you wanted but he'll give it to you In fact someone said you know there are really not two answers to prayer there are three answers to prayer Yes No You've got to be kidding. Now on your last page I want to show you something On your last page I want to show you something At the bottom What was the difference about the second battle of Ai? Number one The word of the Lord was responsible for the victory Number two Joshua's success was due to his faith and obedience in God's word Number three God gave Joshua a miracle battle plan to be used against Ai Joshua did not need a better idea Number four There was no human attachment to the battle plan Now what's your takeaway today? Here's your takeaway Number one God gives you all your victory What part of give do you not understand? Number two Success in productivity is on faith and truth If you're going to be successful you've got to be faithful Number three God has a better idea Number four God does not need our help All he needs is our faith and trust That's all Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Don't have a better idea It's not going to work How many of us would stand up and say Oh I had a better idea and it went down like a two-egg pudding I have no idea what a two-egg pudding would do but I have heard that a two-egg pudding will not rise Don't have a better idea It'll go down like a two-egg pudding Okay? Let's pray, Sovereign God Our biggest problem is we're human. We think we've got all the answers when we don't even know what the questions are. And we try to put all of our answers into questions that have never been asked. And we try to do everything you want us to do on our own strength and we constantly fail. But when we do put it in your wonderful hand you have such wonderful victory in our lives that we just remember all the victories and kind of forget our failures and kind of forget what put us there So Father just help us to come to understand that you're in charge. You will take care of everything we need All of our problems will be solved by you today. And you do not need our help. So help us, Father, to trust you and have a good day is our prayer. In Jesus' name. And everybody said Amen See you next Sunday Chapter 9 Gibeon!