Getting It Right!

Lisa recently performed a medley at church, which focused on the theme of possessing our blessings from God. The sermon discusses the presence of God and how as Christians, we always have Him with us. The story of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan is used as an example of possessing our blessings. The sermon emphasizes the importance of having the right character, cause, and candidates in order to conquer our flesh and live in the spirit. The promise of victory is given, with God assuring Joshua that He will give them Ai just like He gave them Jericho. Kind of started, Lisa did a medley of that last Sunday night, and that's kind of what we've been dealing with all summer in the Word of God is, I've entitled it Possessing Our Possessions. And then our kids go to church camp last week, and of course the theme of that was the presence of God. And it's just kind of all culminating here lately, and we looked at the book of Ephesians for quite a while last year, and one of the things that we discovered, that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, and part of that blessing is the fact that, I don't even have it on, if that's what you're looking for, it's me, when the sound guy moves I'm in trouble. There we go. Anyway, we're talking about the presence of God, and in Ephesians it says that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings, and part of them blessings is that we have Jesus Christ in us, and we are in Jesus Christ, and so for the Christian today in the New Testament, if you are a child of God, if you have Jesus Christ in your heart, everywhere you go and everywhere that you're at, you are in the presence of God, because God is in you. And so man, this is an amazing thing, and so, you know, it's a real good song to sing in church, but of course we know we're in the presence here, but you also ought to be in the presence when you're at home, when you're at work, when you're going about your everyday business, because you take Jesus Christ with you, and so we've ended up in the book of Joshua, and Joshua was this great campaign, if you remember, Moses has now died, he wasn't allowed to take the people any further than the wilderness because of his sins and because of his action, Joshua is now the new leader of the nation of Israel, and they are going in to possess the land of promise, the Canaan land, and we've showed the different illustrations and what these different pictures and types mean in the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament, Canaan is a picture, New Testament, of the life that we have right now living in God, living in the presence of God, Canaan is not heaven, because when they get to Canaan, if you remember, they had to fight wars, there was evil in the land, they had to drive out, there was death in Canaan, and all of these things are going to be done away with when it comes to heaven, and so what it represents is right here and right now, and we saw that their very first battle that they go in, they are committed to God, they are consecrated to God, and they follow God, and God gives them the city of Jericho, but then last week we saw that their arrogance, their pride, we saw sin that was in the lives and the hearts of individuals that they decide to take a small group and go down to Ai, and unfortunately there they were delivered into the hands of the people, and they ended up fleeing, and over 300 of them died. We saw that finally Joshua was heartbroken, he fell upon his face, now he seeks the will of God, and God tells him, why are you down on your face? There is sin within the camp, and so they finally go through the process, Achan finally confesses that he stole from the spoils of Jericho, he hid it into his house, and God had him stoned, all of his family and everything, and that's where we picked up the story this morning in Joshua chapter 8, because I titled the message this morning, Getting It Right. So Jericho was a great thing, but when they went to Ai, they messed it all up, right? And it seems like in our spiritual life, don't we kind of do the same thing? One week we trust God, we believe God, the next week we're trying to do it on our own, out of our own confidence, and so Ai really is a picture of our flesh. That spiritual battle that has taken place when we're a child of God, and the Spirit of God has come upon us, and Jesus Christ is in us, we now have this tremendous battle because we're still sinners, we're still in the flesh, and so, but yet God says, I want you to be holy as I am holy, I want you to live for me and be obedient to me. And Paul said, and it is an everyday battle, when I want to do good, evil is always present, right? And then sometimes when we don't even mean to, we slip up and we do evil things, sometimes we accidentally do a good thing, and man, life is just tough trying to sort out the spiritual from the physical, and Ai kind of represents that flesh, living life in the flesh. How do we get that part right? How do we get our flesh under the control of our spirit so that we can live for God in all of His holiness? And that's what we're going to find out this morning in Joshua chapter 8. The three things that I want to mention, if you're following along in the bulletin before we get into the actual message, we have to understand that now when we come to chapter 8, the people of Israel now have the right character. They have now backed with God. They have gotten rid of the sin, they have stoned the sinner, they've gotten rid of all of this out of the camp, the evil men that said, we'll just take two or three thousand and go down there and take care of Ai while y'all take care of Jericho. Most of all of them have now been killed in battle by those at Ai, and so their character is now focused back on God. If we are going to consume our flesh and live in the Spirit, we have to have the right character. Ephesians, over and over, Paul told them to do what? Walk. Walk into God. Walk in the Spirit. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Be good. In other words, submit to that Spirit. Take your flesh and give it to the Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit is guiding us, he said, be not filled with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit will guide us where we need to go. And so there has to be a right character. The second thing, there has to be a right cause. You know, unfortunately, a lot of Christians, we just go out and we kind of do our own thing, right? We go down to Ai. What did they say? Oh, we don't need everybody to go down to Ai, right? We'll just take 2,000 or 3,000 and we'll be able to handle that. How many times in churches today do we have small groups of people or even individuals that want to do everything? It's not what God wants. God says that we have to have a proper cause. In other words, He wanted them to take the city of Ai, but He didn't want just a small because why? The small group could have had the glory that God wanted to get. God wanted all of them to go so that nobody can take the credit. All the glory goes to God. And His purpose is to be proved His might. And so there has to be this earniness of conviction. We have to know that God is with us. When He prayed and taught His disciples to pray in the model prayer that He gave us in the Sermon of the Mount, what did He say? He said, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on what earth as it is in heaven. And so we've got to make sure our cause is according to God. And the last thing is, is there's got to be the right candidates. In other words, if you'll notice in verse 5 of chapter 8, it says there, And I and all the people that are with Me will approach unto the city, and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us at the first, that we will flee before them. There must be the rule of the church that it is all, all of us, all for one and one for all. Paul told us in Ephesians that we are one in Christ. There is one Lord. There's one Savior. There's one baptism. There's one. The unity of Jesus Christ. And that puts us in. There's not individuals. We are not little separate bodies or separate Jesuses running around. We are one. We all together, fit together as part of the body in order to represent Jesus Christ. Paul explains that to us in Corinthians. And so understanding that we have to have the right character, we have to have the right cause, and we have to have the right candidate, now let's look at Joshua chapter 8 and see how do we conquer this flesh and how do we live in the Spirit and begin to possess our possessions. And you'll notice there in chapter 8 and verse 1, it says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed, take, and there it is again, all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai, see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his lands. And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king. Only the spoils thereof and the cattle thereof shall you take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee in ambush for the city behind. I want you to notice first of all is the promise of victory. Now God has gotten their attention. He's got their character, their focus is back on heel. They're all got a good cause to go to. They're all committed with each other. They're all one now and he says, All of you go and all of you will have victory. And as they're possessing the land, they're possessing their possessions. And he said, I'm going to give it to you the same exact way that I gave you Jericho. Now how did he give them Jericho? All they had to do was put the Ark of the Covenant there. And what did they do? They marched around the city. The presence of God was with them. They did it one time on the first day, one time on the second day, and so forth until they got to the seventh day. And on the seventh day, they marched seven times around the city. And after they completed the seventh time, the Bible says they were to shout. And when they shouted, God all of a sudden caused the walls to come falling down and they went in and they were able to possess the land. They didn't have to do anything but obey God. He gave them the victory. And when they repented of their sins, they dealt with their sin, they judged their sin, and now God is saying, since you have dealt with this, since you have corrected what was wrong, now I will give you Ai. And I'm going to give it to you exactly the same way that I gave you Jericho. And so the same God that defeated Jericho is going to defeat Ai. Now, notice He, first of all, out of this promise of victory, He gives them the promise of winning. In other words, the same way that you won Jericho is the same way that you will win Ai. And the lesson here is that what we need to understand, did they, if you've read ahead in Joshua chapter 8 this week or before, did they conquer Ai the same way that they conquered Jericho? No. And the lesson here is God's methods oftentimes change, but it's the same God. He gave them Ai just like He gave them Jericho, but they didn't have to go march around Ai. He did it with a different method. And I think sometimes we as Christians, especially when dealing with our flesh and stuff, is we need to understand that God's methods are not always the same. What works to clean my flesh up may not necessarily work for you. God uses different methods. He uses different things in our life. He uses different things, but it's the same God. It's the one God. And the result will always be the same. When we are obedient to God, there will be victory. Even the Apostle Paul proved this over and over, didn't he? He was obedient to God, but even in prison, what happened? He said, I still find victory. And he was winning Roman soldiers to the Lord. He wrote most of the New Testament while he was in prison. And so, man, we would look at this and say, man, God doesn't love me. I'm in prison. It didn't work out. This obeying God is not very good. But Paul said, I count it all joy. I consider it joy that I'm here. In other words, God has given me the victory because I've been obedient to Him and He's taken care of me. And so understand that the who is a whole lot more important than the how. It does not really matter how God works. The important thing is that it is God that is working, that it is God that gives the credits. So listen to the important thing that God is doing it. God is doing it. You know one of the worst things in life that can happen to a church? The worst thing that in the church can happen is that we fall into a rut. You know, how many times have I heard it in all my years of ministry that we think we have to keep having the same programs that we have done for the last 20 years, right? We've got to have the same classes. We've got to do it the same way. And Dad used to say that a rut is nothing but a grave with both ends kicked out of it. And so, man, we don't need to be in a rut. God doesn't always do it the same way. And so it's okay to change. It's okay to look at things. As a matter of fact, the seven most damaging things that a church can say is we've never did it that way before. Because God's methods always change. And we've got to change to keep up. We've got to change to do it the way God wants to do it, because God wants the glory. He doesn't want us to do it. And I think sometimes we get our programs and we get our things so lined out and so comfortable that, man, we a lot of times attempt to do it without ever seeking God or considering God, just like they did in AI, right? We had this big victory at Jericho, but AI is a small thing. We don't need everything, right? And God wanted to prove them differently. Methods are not important. The important thing is God. God's methods change. But God's personality, God's character, God's principles never, ever change. And so not only is there the promise of winning, but there's also the promise of waiting. Now I find this kind of interesting, and Brother Brian mentioned it last week, and I ran out of time last week, and I'm probably going to run out of time this morning, but I didn't have a chance to go into it, but I'll mention it right here. If you'll also notice here in this passage of Scripture, it says, now in verse 2, thou shalt do to AI and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king only, the spool thereof and the cattle thereof shall you take for a prey unto yourselves. Remember in Jericho? They were to take and destroy all of the city, burn it down except for the gold, the silver, and the things that could be given to God. God said, I get mine first. If Achan would have waited, and I don't know how long has transpired between Jericho and AI, but it hadn't been very, very long. If Achan would have waited, God would have gave him everything that he could have had. But what did he do? Instead, he took away from God, and he took it to himself, and he hid it down in his tent. And what happened? It cost him and his whole family. It cost them over $300 in the battle because of their sin. If he had just waited a few more days, but yet Achan didn't wait, and therefore he paid the ultimate price. When we think about the lessons that we can learn, if we would just learn to wait on the Lord. Just be patient. Wait on God. Let Him lead and bring into our lives the things that need to be there. We would be far better off. Matter of fact, I think the Bible, and Jesus Christ said this in His Sermon on the Mount, He said, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you. And I think Jesus Christ, through the words of Malachi the prophet, God wrote these words to Malachi, that the first thing we are to do is lay up in the storehouse on the first day of the week. In other words, give God what is due Him. If we will put God first, God will take care of everything else. Achan didn't put God first. Achan put himself and his family first. And guess what? He paid the ultimate price. But now God says, You put Me first. You've obeyed Me. Now when you go in and you have victory, now all of the foals are yours. You can have these. And so notice what He says there in verse 5 of Psalm 130, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope. I read this more in Psalm 37, Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. Isaiah, a Scripture that we often quote, Those that wait upon the Lord shall what? Renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as ankles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And so we have this promise of winning, of waiting. But notice the pursuit of the victory. How do we get there? We've got the promise. We have in Ephesians that God said that if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, that God has already blessed you with all spiritual blessings. How do we get that victory? How do we obtain that victory? Well, notice what it says in verse 3. We'll pick up in this story. So Joshua arose and all the people of war to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. And he commanded them saying, Behold, you shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but you all be ready. And I and all the people that are with me will approach unto the city, and it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee from before them. For they will come after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say they flee before us as at the first, therefore we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city, and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire according to the commandment of the Lord shall you do. See, I have commanded you. Joshua therefore sent them forth, and they went to lie in ambush and abode between Bethel and Ai. We've talked a lot lately about Bethel. Bethel, if you remember, Abraham had encounters with God at Bethel. Jacob had encounters with God at Bethel. It was at Bethel that Jacob saw the ladder that ascended to heaven, that Jesus Christ, God said, I am going to come to you. And that prophecy of the fulfillment of that. And so Bethel is a very special place, but where are they at? They're not even in Bethel. Where are they at? They're between Bethel and Ai. Somewhere between the presence of God, the spiritual life, and the flesh. And notice what happened. It says, so Joshua sent them forth and on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged the night among the people. And Joshua rose up early in the morning and numbered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel before the people of Ai. And all the people, even the people of war that was with him, went up and drew nigh and came before the city and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai. And he took about 5,000 men and sent them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. And when they had sent the people, even all the hosts that was on the north of the city and their liars on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it that they hasted and rose up early. And the men of the city went out against Israel to battle. He and all his people at the time appointed before the plain, but he wished not that there were liars in ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel. And they left the city open and pursued after Israel. Notice the plan of God. It wasn't to march around the city every single day, but notice what God wanted them to do. They were to ambush Ai. They were to set up a trap. Why? It's already partially been done. Remember the 2,000 to 3,000 that went up against Ai? What happened? When they came to the city gates, God was not with them. The Ai came out of the city. They chased them, killing over 300 of them on their way back to Jericho. And now what does God say? They've already in the habit of beating you, right? So we're going to lay an ambush this time. Joshua, his strategical military expertise is still studied and practiced by militaries today. An ingenious plan. Where did he get it? God told him. God gave it to him. And so remember that we're talking about fighting this flesh and that we all carry around. If we're going to pursue victory over the flesh, if you ever expect to gain that victory, then you have to go about it God's way. You can't do it your way. No other plan will work. And I will say more about God's plan dealing with the flesh in just a moment, but understand that God gave them a plan and they had to be obedient. Notice the power of God. In verse 18, the Lord said unto Joshua, stretch out that spear that is in thy hand toward Ai, and I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand and they entered into the city and took it and hasted and set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, that the smoke of the city ascended, then turned again and slew the men of Ai. And the other issued out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, some on that side, and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai took them alive and brought him to Joshua. As we look at this passage of Scripture and we see this plan that God had laid out and this power of God that is there, remember, Israel fought the battle, but God gave the victory. Get that into your mind. The battle is not ours. The battle is the Lord's. We give ourselves to God. God will give us the victory. The first time Israel went to Ai, it was in their power. And what happened? They got defeated. This time, they go in obedience to God and God gives them the victory. There is only one way for us to prevail in battle. And that is to learn to appropriate the power of God in our lives. None of us is capable of winning because none of us are good. There is none that is righteous. No, not one, right? God is what's made us righteous. And God is the one that will give us the victory. Now, I'll tell you how to fight the flesh. Here's how we fight this old sinful, wicked flesh that we have. We do it in God's power. We do it in God's power. Ephesians, again, remember chapter 6 that we finished on. Finally, my brethren, be strong where? In the Lord. And in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And so what is He telling us? Put on Jesus Christ. Stand in Jesus Christ. That's where our victory comes. If you want to possess all spiritual blessings and have victory in your life, start learning to live, not for the church, not for Brother Donnie, not for your spouse. Try to start learning to live in Jesus Christ. And when you live in Jesus Christ, you're going to get the victory. The greatest leaders that are out there, even Moses, failed to lead them to the promised land. But as long as they kept their eyes on God, guess what? Israel made it. And you and I can make it if we keep our eyes on God. Philippians 4, verse 13 says, I can do all things through who? Christ who strengthened me. So 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, There is no temptation taken you, but it's such common to man. But God is faithful. God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. The only way any of us will ever see victory over this flesh is through the power of Jesus Christ. Through His Spirit. And so notice the performance of God. How does God do this? How does God accomplish this victory? It says in verse 24, And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of the slaying of all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness, wherein they chased them. And when they are falling on the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned into Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was that all that fell that day, both the men and women were 12,000, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out his spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. What did Israel do? They trusted God. What did God do? He gave them the victory over their enemy. God did what He said He would do. He did what He promised He would do. And I want you to understand this warning that you serve this same God. God has not changed. God wants you to be victorious. But He's not going to allow you to be victorious and you receive the glory. He wants the glory. He is the One that has created us. He is the One that fashioned us. And He wants the glory. And so, He is still the same God this morning that He's always been. And listen to me, you can count on God to keep His Word. Romans 4, verse 21, Paul said, I am being fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is also able to perform. If God makes the promise, listen to me, He's faithful to deliver. If God didn't make the promise, then you're on your own. You may or may not, and probably may not. But listen, God promises. Psalms 119, verse 89 says, Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven. When we're engaged in a battle with our flesh, we need to be able to count on God. And let me tell you for the record that you can depend upon God. God is all-powerful. He's able to help you as you fight the flesh and battle this life. Hebrews chapter 4 says, We have a great High Priest. We have a Mediator that stands between us and God the Father that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And He goes on, He says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the hell in time of need. See, Jesus Christ, God became flesh. He understands the struggles we go through. He understands what we face in the flesh. But guess what? He was without sin. He accomplished what God wanted Him to do. He was perfectly obedient to the Father even unto death. And God gave Him the victory by bringing Him forth from the grave and extending to us eternal life. Notice the last thing. The preservation of the victory. The preservation. Notice, first of all, they were preserved by death. What kept them the victorious over Ai? Well, first of all, is this negative side. There has to be death. If we are going to preserve victories over our flesh, there has to be some dying involved. Notice what he says in verse 27. Only the cattle in the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves according unto the word of the Lord which He commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai, he hanged on a tree until eveningtide. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city and raise thereon a great heap of stones. There remaineth unto this day. We are bound to set to fire every abomination that is in our life. When we win victories over the flesh, the problem is we get too comfortable. And we want to keep the spoils and we want to make treaties and we want to negotiate with our life. No, what does God say? God said it has to be put to death. And notice He said they took these stones, this whole entire city that was not just a heap of stones, but it became the heap that He says is even still there today. We must not emit the fire. We must not emit the fire. Things must be burned up. What did Jesus Christ tell us is going to happen at the judgment seat of Christ? All of our works and all of our life are going to be what? Tried by fire. All those works that were done in the flesh are going to do what? They're going to burn up like wood, hay, and stubble. Those works that we did in the Spirit that we did for God are going to be left like gold, silver, and precious stones. How do we do that? How do we take care of that today? I want when I get to heaven to have gold, silver, and precious stones. We need to try ourselves by the fire of the Word of God. And what does God tell us to do? God says when there's sin, him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And so what do I do when I know that I should have done good, but I didn't do it, and now I've sinned? What do I do? I go to the Word of God and I repent. I repent. And the Word of God comes. And what happens? As I go through trials and tribulations in my life, and I make mistakes, and I do good things, and I learn from them, and I begin to mature, what happens? It's like the refiner is working on my life. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, is constantly purifying me. And He puts me in trials. He puts me in tribulation. He puts me in temptation. So that what? I can take a test. And what I find out is the bad things in my heart when I am tested rise up to the top, right? Peter goes through and explains all of this. That our life, right here and right now, is like refining gold. And what God is doing is He puts these trials and temptations so that what He wants to do is that eventually, we are so obedient to Him and so trusting of Him that when He looks at us, He sees a reflection of Himself. And we can only do that through the trying of fire, through the Word of God. That's why it is so important that we read the Word of God, that we study the Word of God, because it's one thing to pray and talk to God. It's something totally else for God to talk to us. And God doesn't talk to us verbally anymore. God doesn't just come down and say, hey Donny, and slap me on the head and say you need to do this. No, how do we know what we need to do? It's right here in the Word of God. We study. We study and we pray and God leads us and God guides us. And so they were preserved by death. They killed everyone and everything of AI. And they destroyed everything except what God told them not to destroy. But not only were they preserved by death, but notice they were also preserved by devotion. And this is the good part right here. Look at verse 30. Then Joshua built a what? An altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man hath lifted up any iron, and they offered their own burnt offerings unto the Lord to sacrifice peace offerings. Listen very carefully this morning. It is no use building an altar and worshiping God until you have burned the abominations in your life. Until you get rid of them things. What is repentance? True repentance is not just saying I'm sorry. Achan did that last week, didn't he? He confessed to what he had done. He said I took it. I saw it. I wanted it. I took it and I buried it in my tent. But what was the one problem that Achan didn't do? He didn't repent. He was proud that he took it. He was proud that he did. He never did repent and therefore he had to die. Repentance is saying agreeing with God that this was a sin and then turning to God and saying I'm not going to do it again. And so there has to be repentance. The works of abomination have to be destroyed. And if you've not been faithful in the work of destruction, then there can be no construction in your life. There cannot be no building of an altar. There cannot be no progress. And unfortunately, that's where a lot of Christians struggle in their Christian life. They will get caught or something will happen and they'll see it for just a minute and they'll want to repent. They'll want to turn to God. They'll want to say I'm sorry, but they haven't given up and destroyed the things of their life. We see it every year at camp. We see kids that come and I've talked about this. You know, all week long, they're out of the world. They're away from their parents. They're away from their friends. They're away from their TV and distractions and Internet and everything else. And what happens? Man, God begins to speak to them. And they begin to see these problems that are in their life. But the problem is what happens. When they leave and go back home on Friday, the same junk that was in their life is still present when they get back home. And when they get back home, what happens? They don't go in and destroy all the things. And so what happens to that commitment to God? It begins to dwindle. And then what do we do? Hopefully, next year they'll come back and we can get them again, right? No, we've got to teach and we've got to show that guess what? You've got to destroy all these abominations. Jesus Christ made a hard statement and I love reading different commentators and books on it because it is amazing at how human flesh will try to explain these passages away and try to make sense of them. But Jesus Christ said this, if you love your mother and father more than you love Me, it's an abomination. Jesus said I am to be loved greater than your mother and father. So anything in the world. If it's an abomination, you need to cut it out of your life. If it's bringing you down, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to surround ourselves and that's what Ephesians talked about. That's why church attendance and fellowship and all of these things are so very important because we need to get rid of the wicked stuff in our life and we need to cleave to the godly stuff. But notice what else. They didn't just stop by building an altar, but look at what they placed on the altar. It says they took the law of God. It says, and Moses, servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel as is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man had lifted up any iron. After the altar, what do we do? After we've come back to God and we've praised God, we've received the spoils of the victory, what do we do? We do the law. The law of righteousness. The law of God. Look at verse 32. And He wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which He wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their elders and their officers, their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which wear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as he that was born among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel with the women, the little ones, and the strangers. They were conversant among them. What do you do after you build your altar? What do you do after the victory and you come back to God? You live the law. You go back to the Word of God. Notice Joshua read it. Can you imagine how long it took him to read Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, right? And he said he read it all. He didn't leave anything out. The blessings, the cursings, everything. This is what God expects from us. This is what God expects for us to do. And next week, we're going to see that all of a sudden, word spreads throughout Canaan and all of a sudden, everybody is fearing Him. They're having victory. They're having a great revival. And then they compromise. And that's the next problem that we have in the flesh. And so the question that I want to leave you with this morning is does the world need to be captured for Jesus Christ? Does the world need to be captured for Jesus Christ? Or does it not? Does the world need to be saved? Or does it not? Does the world need to be reached? Or does it not? That's the question that we have to ask ourselves this morning. And if you say it does not, then you need to get out of the battle. Get out of the battle. Don't be coming up to the battle. If it's not important, if it's not necessary, Jesus Christ gave us the commission to do what? Go into all the world. I don't understand why people want to be associated with Jesus Christ and be associated with His church and not get in the battle. If it's important and it's what God has told us to do, then what happened? Joshua said, me and all of the people of Israel went up to Ai. All of us need to get involved. If we believe that the whole world needs to be captured, then we need to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We need to be all in. See, Jesus Christ Himself said you can't straddle the fence. You can't love two gods. You can't love the flesh and the Spirit. You can't love God and money. It won't happen. Can you have the need for money? Can you have a desire? Yes, but there's a difference between having it and needing it to spend and to live and making that your Lord above Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ says, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and I'll give you money. He said, where does He say that? He said He gives you food, clothing and shelter. How do you get food, clothing and shelter with money? Right? That's our means of currency today is money. And so guess what? He says, seek you first and I'll take care of that. But when we seek money first, then guess what? We can't be following God and we can't be victorious into our life. And so it really comes down to the question, are we all in? Or not? And that's what Jesus Christ said. And that's what He meant by the statement when He said, unless you love Me more than your mother and father, He said the man that sets his hands to the plow and decides I want to follow Jesus and looks back at the world and looks back at the flesh, He said he's not fit for the Kingdom of God. And I think a lot of our churches are closing their doors and a lot of churches are being hindered today is because we're not all in. We're not all in. We have some that say, you know what? A few of us, we can handle things. You know, we can make this operation work. We have some that think they know how to do it and what to do. They haven't sought God. They're just going on their talents and their abilities that God has given them and they're trying to put the church. And guess what? We're seeing the churches close their door. We see other churches that are struggling because guess what? Just people are just satisfied being in the church. Being around the victorious. Being around the victory. Being around those that are winning, right? But yet, they have no desire to win on their own. They're not all in. And God cannot continue to bless the whole when there's sin in individuals. So it takes all of us. And so either get all in or get all out. That's what God says. If you love Me, what does He say? Keep My commandments. And what are we seeing today? The greatest hindrance we have in the church today is we hear about those hypocrites down there, right? Those hypocrites down at the church. You know, they say they love Jesus, but they don't love their neighbor. They say they love Jesus, but they don't care for each other, right? They don't love each other. They say they love Jesus, but they don't do this and they don't do that, right? You talk to people very long and you'll see that's why so many churches today are dropping these names and affiliations and everything. Because why? The world is sick of Christians playing church. And I want to possess our possessions. I want to do it God's way and be obedient to God. And God says either you're in or you're out. Make a choice. Make a choice. Which is it going to be? As we stand and have a verse of invocation this morning, do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? That's the first step. That's the first step of obedience is saying, Lord, You are my God. You are my Savior. I want to follow You. I want to forget what I'm doing. Forget my past. Forget everything that I'm doing. And I'm going to follow You. I'm going to listen to Your commands. I'm going to attack Jericho the way You tell me to. I'm going to attack Ai the way You tell me to. I'm going to go and possess my possessions. And then there's the others that say, you know what? I'm going to do it my way. And God's wrath and God's fury falls out upon them. Which one are you? Which one are you this morning? As Brother Alston comes and stands for you for our invitation this morning, I'm going to go get ready for our baptism. And so, if God has spoken to you this morning, be committed. Come to Him this morning. Come and let Alston pray with you and get committed and get to serving Jesus Christ so that we can have victory and have possessions in our life as we sing, Brother Phillip.