Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG002709
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00:09 It's been 2000 years since the glorious light of the cross
00:12 illuminated the world veiled in darkness and confusion about the 00:15 character of God. But still today the greatest need of 00:19 mankind is a revelation of God's love as revealed in the life of 00:22 Christ. Amazing Facts presents the Everlasting Gospel with 00:26 Pastor Doug Batchelor coming to you each week from Sacramento 00:30 Central Church in sunny California. Discover hidden 00:33 treasures in God's word today. 00:38 Good morning friends. I'd like to welcome our visitors that may 00:44 be here with us today. I should probably explain that if you are 00:50 joining us midstream, we're engaged in a study in the book 00:55 of Joshua. A little background again. We're exploring the many 00:59 ways that Joshua is a type of Christ. In the same way that the 01:03 Old Testament Joshua was the general who led the children of 01:08 Israel from the wilderness into the Promised Land, Jesus, our 01:11 Joshua, is going to be leading us into the promised land. 01:15 So it's a story of victory and conquest and rest and these are 01:20 all parallels of the Christian experience. And in case you've 01:25 missed it, remember Jesus and Joshua actually have the same 01:30 name. It was a very common name. Matter of fact, I should 01:34 probably say, I think I heard Richard Anger mention this 01:37 during the offering appeal. There is a little bit of stir 01:41 that there's going to be another TV special that ostensibly is 01:44 going to be exploding the Christian religion with some new 01:48 discovery and what it amounts to is they've found some tombs. 01:53 They found them years ago that have the name of Joseph and 01:57 Jesus the son of Joseph. And they said that proves that Jesus 02:02 actually died and that he was buried and that he wasn't 02:05 resurrected. That is so ridiculous and so absurd 02:09 friends. I've been to Jerusalem twice. It is totally honeycombed 02:15 with tombs and graves. They can't build anything over there 02:18 without running into tombs. It's one of the oldest cities in the 02:21 world. And the name Jesus or Joshua was as common in Israel 02:26 as the name Joe or John in our culture. I'm serious. It is one 02:31 of the most common names. In the New Testament there are many 02:35 Jesus'. There are many Josephs. And so the chances of this tomb 02:39 they found for them to say that this must have been the Jesus of 02:43 the Christian religion is totally absurd because it was a 02:47 very common name. But in the Bible there are only two 02:51 prominent Joshua's that you find. One was the general who 02:55 led the children of Israel from Egypt and it's the first time 02:59 the word appears; Joshua the son of Nun. Nun meaning the eternal 03:03 one. He leads them from the wilderness into the Promised 03:06 Land. The other Joshua was the high priest who led them from 03:09 Babylon into the Promised Land. Isn't that interesting? Those 03:12 are the only two Old Testament types. But by the time of Christ 03:16 Joshua was such a hero everybody got the name. So people did not 03:19 turn their heads very much when Jesus walked down the street 03:22 and they said this is Jesus. They'd say which one. That's 03:25 Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth. They had to specify 03:30 because it was like the name John or Frank or what other 03:35 common names? Bill, Steve. Yeah we've got a couple of those. 03:39 Anyway you'll be hearing more and more about this. I hope it 03:42 won't shake your faith. It will affect some people because some 03:45 people are gullible and that's what concerns me. But back to 03:49 our story. When we left off in our last study the city of 03:54 Jericho had just fallen. Now some of you have read... Well 03:57 I'll ask for a show of hands. How many have read or even 04:01 listened to the tapes of the classic Pilgrim's Progress. Did 04:05 some of you read it? It's one of the great classics. You owe it 04:09 yourself. Next to the Bible it is the most translated and read 04:12 book of history, Pilgrim's Progress. Three hundred years a 04:18 best seller. John Bunyan wrote it in prison. It's an allegory 04:23 of salvation. There's this character whose name is 04:25 Christian and he is fleeing from the City of Destruction. It's 04:29 talking about this world that is doomed. Our world is going to be 04:34 a city of destruction. Well there's something similar that 04:38 we've found as we studied the book of Joshua. Jericho was a 04:42 cursed city. It was a city of destruction. You remember God 04:46 saved Rahab and everyone in her house from this city of 04:49 destruction because they had made a covenant with Joshua. 04:53 You and I are saved from the city of destruction because we 04:56 make a covenant with our Joshua, Jesus. Now the other interesting 05:01 thing about this is the bounty, the booty of war, when the city 05:06 was destroyed that all was to be consecrated to God. This city 05:10 was accursed. Now let me read you some of the verses. Go back 05:14 to Joshua please. I'm going to back up into chapter 6 05:18 and I'll be reading to 05:20 you from verse 17. After they blow the trumpets the seventh 05:24 time and the people shout Joshua declares now the city 05:29 shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction. This is 05:33 representing the condition of this world when Jesus comes. 05:37 And it will be all who are in it are doomed. Only Rahab the 05:41 harlot shall live. She and all who are with her in the house 05:44 because she hid the messengers. Only those who are in Christ 05:48 and in the body of Christ will be saved when this city of 05:53 destruction is destroyed. And notice verse 18. And you by all 05:58 means keep yourselves from the accursed things lest you become 06:03 accursed when you take up the accursed things. Notice 06:08 accursed, accursed, accursed. Some things are blessed and some 06:11 things are not blessed. Jesus begins his ministry by saying 06:15 blessed, blessed, blessed. But as they were coming to this 06:18 world that was about to be destroyed and Jericho, they 06:22 called it the accursed. This world is on death row. It is 06:26 irrevocable. It is appointed to be accursed. The things in the 06:31 city were either to be burnt but the real money, the silver, the 06:35 gold, the treasure was to be given to the house of the Lord. 06:40 The only thing coming out of Jericho that they could retrieve 06:44 was the precious metals that were to be given to the Lord. 06:49 This is because it was understood that the first city 06:54 they conquered, the first fruits went to God. The Jews had a law 06:58 in harvesting. The first harvesting, the first gleaning 07:03 of the crops, the first picking of the orchards was given to the 07:06 Lord. Your first child in your family, back then they had big 07:11 families, was consecrated in a special way to God. So the first 07:15 fruits of Jericho were to be dedicated to God. Anyone who 07:19 took anything from the city for themselves, if it wasn't to be 07:23 burnt, it was to be consecrated to God. There was a curse 07:25 pronounced on it. It would be declared as stealing because the 07:30 first fruits went to the maintenance and the upkeep of 07:33 the temple of God. Matter of fact, if that's not enough for 07:38 you, read verse 26 again of chapter 6. Joshua charged them 07:44 at that time saying cursed be the man before the Lord who 07:49 rises up to build the city of Jericho, to lay its foundation 07:53 with his firstborn and with his youngest he will set up it's 07:57 gates. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread 08:01 through the country. Oh, verse 18 one more time. Everything was 08:06 to be cursed and it says if they take of the accursed thing they 08:12 will make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. Now our 08:17 sermon is about troublemakers. If anybody in the camp, anyone 08:22 in the army took any of the booty from the war, the bounty 08:28 or the war, there was to be a curse upon the whole camp. It is 08:34 true that we're in this thing together and what one person 08:38 does can affect the other. All right now look at chapter 7. 08:42 We're going to find out what happened with more detail here. 08:48 But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding 08:53 the accursed things. Is children a singular person or is a people 08:59 group, the word children. It's many. But you'll find out that 09:04 it was one and because of this deed of the one the many 09:11 suffered. For Achan... You know what the word Achan means? 09:17 Troubler. The name Achan means trouble of the worst kind. Achan 09:22 this one covetous, greedy person, son of Carmi, the son of 09:26 Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, it gives his 09:31 genealogy, he took of the accursed things. So the anger 09:35 of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. 09:39 The disobedience of this one brought the wrath of God on 09:43 the group. Now you might be thinking to yourself, that isn't 09:49 fair. Why would many suffer for one? There's a very important 09:53 lesson I learned in military school. Sometimes one person in 09:57 our company or in our platoon would misbehave and all of us 10:00 would be punished. How many of you were in the army and you 10:03 were in the army and you know what I'm talking about. And it 10:06 taught that we need to take care of each other, we need to care 10:10 about each other and we're all accountable to each other. We're 10:14 in America right now where everybody is such an 10:16 individualist. You won't find two people anywhere in this room 10:19 wearing exactly the same thing and I venture to say there are 10:23 no two of you that have the exact same car, color, make, 10:25 model, features in the parking lot. You won't find it that way 10:30 in other countries. It's changing but it used to be when 10:34 you go to communist countries and everyone kind of wore the 10:37 green uniform and they all had the same little book and in 10:41 Russia everybody drove one of two cars. But we all want to be 10:45 individuals. Now it's good, I mean it's a great country 10:47 because of our individualism. But we lose the idea that we are 10:51 one body. We lose the idea that you are your brother's keeper. 10:56 We lose the idea that there is corporate accountability. In the 11:00 Lord's Prayer you notice it doesn't say give me this day my 11:04 daily bread. It doesn't say forgive me, lead me. Me does not 11:07 appear anywhere. It's forgive us, lead us, 11:11 deliver us, feed us, Right? 11:15 We're in this thing together. When Daniel was 11:19 confessing his sin and praying to God, he says while I was 11:23 confessing my sin and the sin of my people. Why would he confess 11:27 the sin of a group. Because we're all in this together. 11:30 It does matter. Now it is true the son does not suffer for the 11:35 sins of the father and the father does not suffer for the 11:38 sins of the son when it comes to your individual salvation. 11:41 But when it comes to the blessings and cursings that come 11:45 in life it matters what happens to us collectively. We should 11:49 care where our brother is. It does matter how we behave. 11:54 I could say more about that. When Isaiah was confessing his 11:58 sin to God, he said I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in 12:02 the midst of a people of unclean lips. They remembered the 12:07 corporate nature of sin. Now this plays out in a more full 12:11 way here. First it tells about the sin of Achan and then it 12:15 says they're getting ready to take on the next city. They made 12:18 a short word of Jericho didn't they. They were with God's 12:22 blessing, they had walls that reached unto heaven but they 12:24 didn't need to worry about it because they were in the 12:27 blessing of God. Nobody could stand against them. It didn't 12:30 matter if there was one of them against a thousand, they were 12:32 going to win because you and God are always a majority, right? 12:35 So now they're getting ready to take on the next sequential city 12:39 they needed to conquer in the Promised Land, which is Ai. 12:42 And you know it's a pretty small city. As some of the leaders 12:46 went and they looked over Ai and after they were flushed with the 12:49 victory from Jericho they said, hey look, we don't even need 12:52 ...let the soldiers rest. You know they're counting all their 12:56 blessing right now and why you just send a small contingent to 13:01 fight against Ai. So about 3000 men went up there against this 13:07 city of Ai. But they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai 13:13 came out against them and struck down about 36 men. They were 13:18 dying in battle. And they chased them from before the gates of 13:22 this little city of Ai as far as Shebarim and they struck them 13:27 down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people of 13:33 Israel melted like water because of the disobedience of Achan. 13:38 The blessing and the protection and the power of God had been 13:43 withdrawn from the group and they could not stand before 13:47 their enemies. God had warned them. The whole camp would be 13:52 guilty if they disobeyed. Now let me see if I can apply this 13:58 to our lives in a more personal way. Achan had a secret sin. 14:05 He stole something and I'll talk a little more about that in just 14:09 a moment. He took something that he wasn't supposed to take. He 14:14 stole something and he thought well that's between me and my 14:17 family, probably his family knew that he had buried this in 14:20 the middle of the tent. It's hard to hide that from your 14:24 family. But because of that everybody suffered. If he had 14:27 known what the consequences of his sin was going to be on the 14:30 great group, he would have realized that's a terrible thing 14:34 to do. Your decision to follow the Lord or to compromise with 14:40 the devil will react in blessing and victory on others or cursing 14:45 and defeat on others. So as you go through your day and you're 14:49 making choices each day about whether to capitulate to the 14:52 devil and give in to temptation or to fight the good fight of 14:56 faith and be obedient and you're thinking what will this mean for 14:59 me, stop thinking that way. It's not just what will it mean for 15:03 you. Start thinking what will it mean for Christ and his church? 15:06 Because we're all a part of Israel. We're part of God's 15:11 body and no man is an island. It will certainly affect you, it 15:15 will affect your family, those closest to you and it will 15:19 affect your people. And this is what we see. They could not 15:23 stand before their enemies, they could not be victorious while 15:27 there was sin in the camp. Now God has blessed this church. 15:31 I often think God blesses. I think he blesses you in spite of 15:37 me. I think he blesses us in spite of inconsistencies that 15:41 are no doubt in our midst. I think we all are realistic in 15:46 that respect. But I think how many more victories would we 15:50 have? How would God pour out his Spirit on this church? Could we 15:55 experience what the apostles had during Pentecost if all of 15:58 us were resolved to be particular about obeying God? 16:03 If we would get rid of the accursed thing that we might 16:08 have in our homes. If we would be determined to consecrate to 16:12 God what belongs to God what kind of blessings would he pour 16:16 out upon his people. Well he tells us there would not be 16:20 room enough to receive it. Isn't that what he says? Let's read on 16:24 in our story. So Achan had secret sin that he thought 16:30 nobody knew about. Is there really such a thing as a secret 16:34 sin. When you think about it there is a spiritual world that 16:39 is open. God sees everything you do. Angels are able to watch and 16:45 see everything we do. Behold there are probably the unfallen 16:48 worlds that desire to look into the things that are happening 16:51 here on earth. They may not be as involved as the angels but 16:55 this great controversy between good and evil is not a secret to 16:58 the universe. Their commander Christ has come to this world. 17:01 They know what's going on and so because you and I live in the 17:04 three dimensions we're confined to we think well you know what 17:07 you don't see with your physical eyes nobody knows. But God sees 17:11 everything. There's nothing hidden from the Lord. All things 17:15 are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do 17:20 is what Hebrews tells us. Matter of fact Moses had said... you've 17:24 heard this, in Numbers 32 verse 23, that's sort of backwards 17:29 isn't it three two, two three. But if you do not do so then 17:33 take note you've sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin 17:38 will find you out. You never ever, ever, ever get away with 17:43 any sin. Now you might be thinking, now wait a second 17:49 Pastor Doug, what about the sins Jesus forgave me for. You didn't 17:54 get away with it. Somebody paid. And not only does the Lord take 17:59 the penalty, you can't sin without hurting yourself in some 18:02 way. There are things I've done in my past I know God has 18:05 forgiven me for but my soul is still scarred from those things. 18:09 And not until I get my glorified body and the former things do 18:12 not come into mind. How many of you remember sins that God 18:15 forgave you for. You still remember them? They're painful 18:18 aren't they? So the idea that you got away with something, 18:21 you're kidding yourself. No one ever gets away with anything. 18:24 You might be able to speed without getting a ticket. You 18:28 might be able to slip through a stop sign without really 18:32 stopping. There are things that we sometimes think that we get 18:36 away with in our social civil laws that we violate, but that 18:39 is not true of the law of God. It can never be broken without 18:43 consequences, never. I can say that with authority based on the 18:47 word of God. It's always paid for. Someone's going to pay. 18:53 Jesus paid and you all pay in some way for everything. 18:57 There's no such thing as secret sin. And here you might be 19:00 thinking you're hiding it from the other mortals around you 19:04 but all heaven sees what's going on. You know what I've often 19:08 thought separates real Christians from hypocrites 19:12 and the lost is who you want to impress. This is really a good 19:15 litmus test. Are you more concerned with what people think 19:19 of you or what God thinks of you. The genuine Christian is 19:22 not preoccupied with trying to impress those around him. They 19:25 are interested in what heaven thinks and they live their life 19:28 based upon that criteria, what does heaven see, what does 19:31 heaven think and that's what makes the big difference in 19:36 their life. In Luke chapter 12 verses 2 and 3, Jesus said, 19:40 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. 19:43 Neither is there anything hid that will not be known, 19:47 therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness will be heard 19:50 in the light and that which you have spoken in the ear in 19:54 closets shall be proclaimed on the housetop. There is nothing 19:58 secret. Now after they lost this battle, all of Israel began to 20:03 mourn and wonder what had happened. Well they'd only lost 20:05 36 men, you wouldn't think that was a crisis but the very fact 20:09 that they had entered the Promised Land, they had this 20:12 glowing victory with Jericho, big city, now they go against 20:16 a little bitty city and they are soundly beaten and they 20:21 realize they've got other big nations they've got to take on. 20:25 They thought this is going to embolden the other nations that 20:28 we are vulnerable. We wanted them to think we were invincible 20:31 and now they know that we can be beaten by Ai no less. Oh man, 20:35 now what's going to happen to us? You know if Ai could beat us 20:38 they said, we can't take them on what about the other big cities 20:41 that remain. So this is a real crisis for them. I mean it's 20:45 like somebody who things they've got a bullet proof vest 20:49 on and all of a sudden they get hit and they're bleeding and 20:52 they realize we're not bullet proof. That could be pretty 20:55 scary when bullets are flying. Or they find out their bullet 20:58 proof vest is made out of silly putty. This is how they felt. 21:02 They suddenly felt very vulnerable, very mortal and 21:07 is God not with us anymore? So in the midst of all this 21:12 Joshua chapter 7 verse 11 God says, Israel has sinned. They 21:18 have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. 21:22 You notice the plural nature of this statement. For they have 21:27 even taken some of the accursed thing and have both stolen... 21:31 Now how many people stole? One man. What was his name? Achan. 21:36 What Achan mean? Troubler. This one man whose name means trouble 21:42 became trouble for everybody and they were all guilty because of 21:47 what he had done. Even God says it that way. Israel, they, them. 21:51 So don't say Pastor Doug, you're being a little harsh. This is 21:56 God! We are a church body. We do need to care about each other 22:00 We're in this thing together. My relationship with God affects 22:03 you. How many of you already knew that. Hope you pray for me 22:07 and my devotional life and my relationship with Jesus because 22:10 it may affect you. But maybe you don't realize the person sitting 22:14 in the pew next to you, you need to be concerned about their 22:17 relationship with Jesus. That may affect you. Go ahead and 22:22 look at them for a minute. Ask them how they're doing. Tell 22:27 them you better be doing okay because it affects me. Are you 22:32 praying for them and they for you? It's not give me this day 22:36 my daily bread, it's give us. And the bread is not just the 22:41 physical food. It's the Bread, Jesus is the Bread. We all need 22:45 to have that relationship with Jesus and if all of us were as 22:50 passionate about each other's relationship with Jesus as we 22:54 think about our own, what a mighty church we'd have. I think 22:58 Central is an extraordinary church. I do. I'm so thankful. 23:01 I travel, I hear about some of the nightmares other pastors are 23:05 wrestling with and we have our challenges but it's an 23:07 extraordinary church. I'm so thankful for our church. But I 23:11 still realize the biggest room in the world is the room for 23:14 improvement and we've got lots of room and if we would love 23:18 each other the way the early church did when God poured out 23:20 the Spirit. They had put aside their differences. They knelt 23:23 down. Instead of vying for the highest place they were 23:26 confessing their sins and praying for one another and when 23:30 they had that attitude, then he poured out the Holy Spirit. One 23:33 Achan in the camp. You notice it was after Judas was eliminated 23:37 that God poured out his Spirit. Did you ever think about it that 23:41 way? It wasn't until Jonah was thrown overboard they had 23:45 peaceful sailing or converted. You don't always throw them 23:48 overboard. You'd just as soon they be converted, right? 23:55 Cursed or blessed. Which are we? You know the Bible doesn't 24:00 give a third option. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 God said 24:06 if you come into the land and you obey my commandments, you 24:10 will be blessed. You ought to read that chapter. You will be 24:13 blessed when you go out, you'll be blessed when you come in, 24:15 you'll be blessed when you sit down, you'll be blessed when you 24:18 rise up, you'll be blessed in the field, you'll be blessed in 24:20 the store, your children will be blessed, your family will be 24:23 blessed. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. 24:24 It's wonderful. But stop reading there if you want to feel good 24:28 because then if you go on to but if you turn away from me 24:33 and disobey you'll be cursed. And the cursing, I don't like 24:37 saying this but it's true, that he says a lot more about the 24:42 cursing than the blessing. Maybe trying to mobilize them to be 24:46 good by wanting to trust him and obey him. You'll be cursed when 24:50 you go out and you'll be cursed when you come in and you'll be 24:52 cursed with you sit down, you'll be cursed when you stand up. 24:56 You'll go out before your enemy one way and you'll run before 24:59 him seven ways. Moses warned them and that's what happened 25:03 with Ai. It does make a difference if we surrender 25:08 to the Lord and trust the Lord and resolve to follow the Lord. 25:11 God wants to bless us. Some of his blessings are withheld 25:15 because we don't trust him and obey him. I'm not saying we're 25:20 saved by obedience, we're saved by faith, but trust and obey. 25:25 Faith leads to obedience. Obviously Achan did not believe 25:30 what Joshua said. How many would agree with that? Joshua said the 25:34 city is cursed and everything in it. Don't take the accursed 25:37 thing. Anything of value give to the temple of the Lord, 25:41 otherwise you'll be accursed. Achan didn't believe him. Can 25:44 you imagine how he felt when he saw these soldiers die. You 25:51 notice Achan didn't die in the battle, but others did. It says 25:56 in Joshua chapter 7 verse 12, Therefore the children of Israel 26:01 could not stand before their enemies but they turned their 26:05 back before their enemies because they had become doomed 26:09 to destruction. God says, notice. I've underlined this. 26:12 It's a warning but it's important. Neither will I be 26:16 with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed thing from 26:20 among you. Just by chance some of you missed that. There could 26:24 have been some distraction. I'm going to read it two more times. 26:28 Neither will I be with you any more unless you destroy the 26:34 accursed thing from among you. How many of you want God to be 26:38 with you? Jesus said I am with you always. Are there conditions 26:42 to God's being with us. He says I will never leave you or 26:46 forsake you. But we can leave him. And if we want him to be 26:50 in our midst, if we want him to help us have those victories 26:55 neither will I be with you any more UNLESS you destroy the 26:59 accursed thing from among you. Didn't Jesus even say to Mary 27:03 go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee. Actually 27:07 he said that to another man, go sin no more, I think that was 27:10 the pool of Bethesda, lest a... He did say to Mary go and sin 27:13 no more. He said to the other man go and sin no more lest a 27:17 worse thing come upon thee. If we know there is something in 27:22 our life that we're living in rebellion, defiance to God, some 27:27 secret sin that we've got buried in our tent, we can't claim the 27:31 promises and the blessings of God. Now keep in mind you might 27:34 say but Pastor Doug I've still seen some good things happen. 27:37 I still experience some of God's blessing. Yes. Keep in mind God 27:41 is good. He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. So just 27:45 because you may still have food in the refrigerator and money in 27:48 the bank and an element of health does not mean that Christ 27:53 is with you. Some of us have been self-deceived. It's the 27:56 goodness of God that gives us so much but are you living a 28:01 blessed life where you're walking with Christ and you know 28:05 that you are in the will of God. Are you failing in your battles 28:09 with temptation? Would you like victory in your battles? This is 28:13 all about winning battles, losing battles. If you want to 28:18 be an overcomer, get the accursed thing out of your midst 28:22 You know while we're on that subject, don't miss the 28:29 connection between obedience and victory. There are certain areas 28:34 where we know that we can surrender and God will give you 28:37 the victory. I'd like to submit some of us keep saying Lord give 28:40 me the victory and then I'll surrender these things. That's 28:44 backwards. God says trust me. Lay this on the altar. Present 28:47 yourself a living sacrifice, then I'll give you the victory. 28:51 You make what efforts you can to do God's will and he can give 28:54 you the victory. Let me read something to you from Moses. 28:58 This is the mentor for Joshua. Deuteronomy 7:26: Neither shalt 29:04 thou bring an abomination into thine house lest thou be cursed 29:09 like it, but thou shalt utterly detest it and thou shalt utterly 29:15 abhor it, for it shall be a cursed thing. This is Moses, 29:19 don't bring any cursed thing into your house. I can go a lot 29:24 of places with that. You bring alcohol in your house, your 29:28 bringing an accursed thing into your house. And what does he 29:32 say will happen? He says you shall be cursed like that thing. 29:36 Some people bring books and magazines. Some people bring 29:40 it into the house through the internet. Thing they know are 29:45 cursed by God. It can happen through the television. And we 29:48 bring a cursed thing into our house and it's not just your 29:52 home. It's not like some kind of voodoo that you bring something 29:54 bad in your home and your house is under a curse. You body's the 29:58 temple of the Holy Spirit. You, this house, do not bring any 30:01 accursed thing in your house. What's here? You are the 30:04 property of God. And what we're talking about, why I'm preaching 30:07 this sermon is because it's in the Bible. It's because it's in 30:11 the story, but because I want you to be blessed. It's talking 30:15 about here that had a blessed victory at Jericho and now they 30:20 are overcome at Ai. Why? Because they presumed that God was with 30:25 them they could do what they wanted to do. It reminds me of 30:28 the story of Hophni and Phineas They're living in total 30:31 disobedience to God. They're sleeping with the women who 30:35 come to church. The Bible tells us that. These are the priests 30:40 of God. They're selfish, they're fat, they're bad behavior, vile 30:45 They go into battle with the Philistines and they carry the 30:48 Ark with them and they think because they're the priests and 30:51 because they've got the Ark, I'm going to win. God said no. 30:54 You've got a curse in your midst because you're disobeying 30:56 me. And he withdrew his protection and the Philistines 30:59 absolutely trounced them and stole the Ark. Some of us think 31:02 because we're members in the church and our names are on the 31:05 book and our family is on the book and we've got the truth 31:08 we've got the Ark in our midst. That we're invincible. Doesn't 31:11 mean anything if you're not obedient. To obey is better than 31:15 sacrifice. I always feel like I've got to apologize for 31:20 talking about obedience because there are so many people out 31:23 there, even in our church, who think that any discussion about 31:26 obedience borders on legalism. It can. It depends on the 31:29 context in which it's presented. But the Bible is very clear. God 31:33 is asking us, God is commanding us, to obey him. It's not a 31:37 recommendation, it's not a suggestion. God is telling us 31:42 obey me. Trust me. He doesn't say if you're in the mood, don't 31:45 do this, don't do that. He says thou shalt not! I mean, it's 31:48 just so clear. And so when God says don't touch the accursed 31:52 thing or you'll be accursed, he means it. And don't forget when 31:56 you get discouraged and think oh but Pastor Doug I'm so weak. 32:00 I'm addicted to alcohol. I'm addicted to whatever this 32:01 accursed thing is. God'll never ask you to do something without 32:05 giving you the power to do it. Trust him. Take the first steps 32:09 towards obedience and see if he doesn't bless you. Now I love 32:13 this part of the story. In Joshua chapter 7 verse 6: 32:17 After God tells them what the problem is, or actually I got 32:21 the sequence backwards a little bit. When they lost the battle 32:26 it tells us then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on 32:31 his face before the Ark of the Lord until evening. Joshua is 32:38 now interceding for the people. Did our Joshua, Jesus, intercede 32:45 for us? When the disciples were misbehaving would Christ 32:49 intercede for them? Is our Joshua in heaven now in the 32:53 presence of God interceding in our behalf. And you know it 32:58 tells us that he tore his clothes. Did they take away 33:01 Christ's clothes? Did they tear his clothes and make four parts 33:04 of them and divide them among themselves? Not his outer robe, 33:06 but his other clothes it says they made four parts of them. 33:09 They tore them up but they would not tear his robe. Now that's a 33:13 symbol for the righteousness of Christ. He humbled himself, he 33:19 took our sin for us and here is one of the beautiful pictures 33:23 where Jesus is our intercessor. Well now let's go back to our 33:27 story here. I'm jumping back and forth between my notes and the 33:33 passage in the Bible. So Joshua is interceding and verse 10, I 33:38 like what it says: So the Lord says to Joshua, Get up. Why do 33:42 you lie thus on your face? You know there's no substitute for a 33:46 action. Some people are spending all their time praying where 33:51 they need to just get up and do something about it. There are 33:55 churches that are defeated and they're whining and crying and 33:59 pining and God wants to say get up. The reason you're defeated 34:03 is you have something accursed in your midst. Deal with it and 34:08 then I can bless you. And the Lord said to Joshua, Get up, why 34:12 to you lie on your face. Israel has sinned and they have also 34:16 transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have 34:20 even taken some... You notice it doesn't say all? They took 34:25 some. I'll get to that in a minute... of the accursed 34:27 things and have both stolen... When you take something that is 34:32 consecrated to God what does God call it? Stealing. Ah, you know, 34:35 I'm a pastor. I can't let this pass. This is a great place to 34:39 just put in a little plug there for faithfulness in tithes and 34:44 offerings. Will a man rob God? And you say wherein have we 34:49 robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. If we hold back from 34:53 paying an honest tithe... You might say well I pay tithe. Do 34:58 you pay all of it? Or do you keep some back. Notice it says 35:02 some here. And if you keep some is the other percentage that you 35:07 still have blessed or is it cursed? What does it say in 35:11 Malachi? Bring ye ALL of the tithes into the storehouse and 35:15 see if I won't open for you the windows of blessing. Some have 35:18 paid some of their tithe and wonder why the blessing didn't 35:21 come. You didn't follow God's word. He didn't say bring some 35:24 of the tithe. I mean if the tithe is 10 percent and if 35:27 you've been neglecting to be faithful in returning your tithe 35:31 that belongs to God. By the way 100 percent belongs to God. Is 35:34 that right? He asks us to demonstrate our faith by 35:38 returning a tenth. And you say well all right I'm going to give 35:40 one percent of my tithe. Have you paid tithe? That's like 35:43 saying I'm going to give one percent of my tenth. The word 35:47 tithe means tenth. I'm giving one percent of my tenth. Is that 35:50 paying tithe. No that's giving some. That means you're keeping 35:55 back 90 percent that's cursed, 90 percent of the 10 percent. 35:59 Anyway so I just wanted to insert that. It's certainly 36:02 fitting in the context, wouldn't you say? For they have even 36:07 taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and 36:11 deceived and they have also put it among their own stuff. Do any 36:16 of us have something that belongs to God in our midst? 36:19 God has blessed you with everything you've got. He's 36:22 asked you to return a tenth. If you still have some of it among 36:25 your stuff you've God's property. What does God call it? 36:28 Stealing. It's called thieves and it's breaking one of the 36:32 10 commandments. Now I don't talk about this often because 36:36 this church I'm so proud of. We are usually the first or 36:40 second tithe paying church in this conference. You folks are 36:43 faithful. That's why you don't hear too many messages on this 36:46 subject but it's in the story here. So I'm not going to go 36:49 back to Achan next month. We may as well talk about it while 36:52 we're here, amen? I want to thank you for your faithfulness 36:54 But there are probably some, statistically there are some in 36:57 our midst who don't trust God and they're clinging to that 37:00 which belongs to God and wondering why there's a curse 37:04 hovering over their life and it may not manifest itself in your 37:07 finances. It may be some other area. But if you want the 37:10 blessing of God, if you want to see those victories then be 37:14 faithful. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before 37:17 their enemies but they turned their backs before their enemies 37:21 because they had become doomed to destruction. You notice there 37:25 are two choices. Rest in the Promised Land or be doomed to 37:29 destruction along with Jericho. There's no middle ground. I want 37:34 to be blessed and rest and inhabit and inherit the 37:37 Promised Land. Don't you? The other alternative is we're in 37:41 the city of destruction and we are doomed. There are two 37:45 choices. Life and death, good and bad, blessing and cursing. 37:51 And this story contrasts those two. Verse 12 the end it says 37:55 Neither will I be with you any more unless you destroy the 38:00 accursed thing among you. Get up, sanctify the people and say 38:04 sanctify yourself, be holy, tomorrow because thus says the 38:08 Lord God. There is an accursed thing in your midst. You cannot 38:12 stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing 38:16 from you. I've said things like this before but it hasn't 38:22 changed yet and I want to be faithful to say it again. 38:29 We have not yet seen what God can do with his church and his 38:32 people because we have not seen the consecration in our age they 38:36 had in the early church. People often say, why don't we see the 38:40 miracles we used to see. The reason we don't see the miracles 38:44 that we used to see is because we do not have the level of 38:48 commitment and consecration that they used to have. We don't have 38:51 the degree of sacrifice they used to have and God is still 38:56 waiting. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the earth 39:00 looking for someone through whom he can show himself mighty. God 39:04 is waiting to pour out his Spirit and give us great 39:07 victories. We should go forth conquering for Christ and the 39:11 reason we haven't seen that is because the average Christian is 39:17 lukewarm. We're long on talk and short on deeds. It says you must 39:24 take the accursed thing away from among you. In the morning 39:28 you will be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that 39:32 tribe that the Lord takes shall come according to their families 39:36 and the family which the Lord takes shall come by their 39:39 households and the household which the Lord takes shall come 39:42 man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the 39:46 accursed things shall be burned with fire, all that he has 39:49 because he's transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because 39:53 he's done a disgraceful thing in Israel. Whew, that's pretty 39:56 serious. Can't we just slap them on the hand and say a prayer? 39:59 Isn't that the way we often think that God deals with 40:04 disobedience. What is going to be the final fate of the lost? 40:08 Burned with fire with all that they have. Isn't that right? 40:13 There's to be a judgment. They were to be singled out. 40:17 So Joshua rose early in the morning and they brought Israel 40:21 by their tribes. They're casting lots evidently and God is 40:24 directing them. Of the 12 tribes the tribe of Judah is taken. 40:27 That's interesting it was the tribe of Judah because the 12 40:30 apostles, which one was it that betrayed Jesus because he stole? 40:33 Judas. Interesting. Judah was taken. But the way Joshua was 40:38 not from the tribe of Judah. Joshua was from the tribe of 40:43 Ephraim. And they brought the clans of Judah and from the 40:47 clans of Judah they took the family of the Zarathites and 40:52 he brought the family of the Zarathites man by man, Zabdi was 40:57 taken. And then they brought the households from the clan of 41:01 Zabdi and a man by the name of Achan the son of Carmi the son 41:05 of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah was taken. 41:10 Now suppose that you were Achan. You stole, you know you've done 41:14 the wrong thing, you saw they lost the battle, you heard that 41:18 the whole nation would be cursed if you disobeyed and now all of 41:22 a sudden they have the solemn gathering and they're casting 41:26 lots and they say Judah is taken and you're in Judah. 41:28 You're Achan. Hoo, it's starting to get focus here. And then they 41:34 take the clan within the tribe the Zarathites and then the clan 41:39 within that clan, I forget the name, Zabdi. It's all the same 41:46 to you. It doesn't matter. And then Zabdi, the Zarathites and 41:51 then Carmi. And you know what? It keeps narrowing closer and 41:56 closer to Achan. He had all that opportunity to come forward, to 42:00 confess, to repent, but you know he doesn't do it until he's 42:05 absolutely fingered. And finally Achan is taken, verse 19. So he 42:10 is brought before them and Joshua says to Achan, I'm in 42:12 chapter 7 verse 19. Joshua says to Achan, My son, that's a term 42:21 of endearment. I mean, think about it. Who are the two 42:24 oldest men in Israel right now? Joshua and Caleb. Everyone else 42:29 died. Isn't that right? The two oldest guys, in their 80s, are 42:33 Joshua and Caleb. And so he was somewhat of a father at that 42:37 point. And he said, My son, I beg you... and did Joshua love 42:41 the people like a father? By the way is Jesus also called our 42:45 Father. His name shall be Wonderful, Counselor, the 42:49 Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. My son I beg you, give 42:54 glory to God. Be honest. Give glory to the God of Israel and 43:00 make confession to him and tell me now what you have done. 43:05 Do not hide it from me. Is there going to be a day where there is 43:09 a judgment and we stand before our Joshua. What does the Bible 43:15 say about that? Romans chapter 14 verse 11: For it is written, 43:19 as I live, says the Lord... By the way that's the most solemn 43:23 oath in the Bible, when God swears by himself. Can you tell 43:26 me any other oath that would have more validity than God 43:30 swearing by his own existence? If you can count on something 43:33 friend, count on this, if there is a truth that you can be sure 43:37 of this is a truth; everybody is going to stand before the 43:40 judgment seat of God, everybody. Every knee shall bow to me and 43:45 every tongue shall confess to God. Now will some make their 43:50 confession too late. Even the wicked who are lost as they 43:54 stand outside of the New Jerusalem, their knees bow and 43:58 they confess what they've done. But that confession is not a 44:02 confession that will save them. What tribe was Achan from? 44:09 Judah. Did Judas confess before he hung himself? Was it a 44:13 confession that would save him or was it too late for that 44:17 confession? You're all going to confess, You're all going to 44:21 repent. It's like the sign out in front of the Baptist church. 44:25 It says do it now and avoid the rush. Right? Now at least there 44:32 is grace. Some people, they wait till it's too late. And then he 44:39 tells what he did more specifically. Notice here. I'm 44:41 still in chapter 7 and verse 20, I believe. Tell me what you've 44:46 done. Make confession before God. Indeed he says I have 44:49 sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what I've 44:53 done. During the battle, he goes into Jericho. They run over the 44:57 walls and after all the slashing and killing is done and they're 45:01 burning things and they're collecting what's valuable for 45:05 the temple here's what Achan says: When I saw among the 45:08 spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment. Let's stop right there. 45:14 What does clothing represent? Clothing represents character. 45:19 I heard someone say righteousness and sometimes it's 45:21 righteousness. It depends on whose clothes. The Bible tells 45:26 us all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. Babylon in the 45:32 Bible, is that good or bad? Babylon is always sort of the 45:35 antithesis of Jerusalem. If you are bad, you're carried off to 45:39 Babylon. Babylon was a city cursed, never to be rebuilt. 45:43 That mystery mother of harlots is called Babylon and what kind 45:48 of garments did she wear? Scarlet and purple, symbols for 45:51 sin. And here he sees a Babylonian garment. Achan 45:57 represents those in the church who want the righteousness of 46:01 the world. It's a false covering Did it do him any good? Did he 46:05 ever get to sport that? Wouldn't it have been kind of suspicious 46:09 if after they've conquered Jericho, somebody's walking up 46:12 and down the streets with a Babylonian garment and it was 46:15 all supposed to be burned? He'd never even get to wear it. 46:19 It didn't cover anything, but it looked good, he coveted it. 46:23 I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment 46:26 and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold 46:30 weighing 50 shekels. By the way Judas sold Jesus for silver 46:36 didn't he? I coveted them and I took then and there they are 46:40 hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver is 46:46 under it. Covetousness. I think that we have the door open 46:51 to talk about this. It's one of those sins that's often winked 46:58 at in the church. Drugs, alcohol adultery, a lot of things that 47:04 upstanding Christians just will not stand for, but sometimes we 47:09 actually extol people for their greed and it's something Christ 47:13 spoke against a lot. Over and over again the Lord is telling 47:17 them to unload. A man's life does not consist in the 47:20 abundance of things that he possesses. It doesn't do any 47:24 god to weigh yourselves down so you can't live the Christian 47:30 life. In the early church, after God pours out his Spirit on the 47:35 early church, who are the first Christians that died because of 47:40 hypocrisy? Chapter 5 Acts. Ananias and Sapphira. What was 47:47 their sin? That they didn't give to the church? No, they did give 47:49 but they held some back. They purported to be giving a 47:54 faithful amount and they actually kept some and they made 47:58 like they were giving everything but they were really keeping 48:01 something. It was hypocrisy and covetousness. What happened to 48:06 them? They died. It's a very serious sin because it tells us 48:09 that our hearts are not really yearning for more of Christ. 48:13 Our hearts are yearning to be filled with more of the world. 48:17 And it will never satisfy. When Alexander the Great was marching 48:20 across Persia preparing to conquer. Small, comparatively 48:25 small army, Alexander and his soldiers, they were going up 48:28 against probably statistics of the Persian soldiers of 48:32 somewhere in the neighborhood of one against a hundred. But 48:36 they were taking on the Persian empire and as long as they were 48:39 traveling light and fast they were winning. But they won so 48:43 many battles they began to load themselves down with incredible 48:47 spoils from the Persian cities they were conquering. And 48:50 Alexander noticed that his soldiers could barely move 48:52 because they were carrying so much of the bounty of war. He 48:56 ordered them all at one place to stop. He said let's pile up 49:01 all of the bounty and he set it on fire and it so enraged his 49:05 soldiers they could barely bring themselves to listen to him 49:08 anymore. But after the second day they were moving so quickly 49:11 they realized it was almost like they'd been given wings and they 49:14 understood the wisdom of their leader that they would never 49:18 have conquered the empire if they hadn't learned to just let 49:21 go and keep on with the task. Some of us have not been free to 49:26 work for Christ because we are so burdened with the things of 49:30 this life that we're encumbered. We can't get out and do mission 49:33 work because who's going to stay home and guard my stuff? 49:39 And we just weighted down. Covetousness. If we want to 49:44 have more victories it might mean unloading. And they'd only 49:50 made a partial commitment like Ananias and Sapphira I'm running 49:56 out of time here. Joshua 7 verse And Joshua said, to Achan 50:01 after he confessed, Why have you troubled us? What's Achan's 50:06 name mean? Trouble. Trouble why have you troubled us? The Lord 50:10 will trouble you this day. Here he's making a play on words. 50:15 So all Israel stoned him with stones. This is the judgment day 50:20 He confessed and then he was judged. They stoned him with 50:25 stones. They burned them with fire after they had stoned them 50:29 with stones. By the way, I left out the previous verse. You know 50:32 who was in the pit when they stoned him? Achan and his wife 50:39 and his children and his sheep and his goats and his camels and 50:45 his donkeys and everything he had was brought down to this 50:49 little valley, this pit, and all of Israel by the millions 50:52 gathered around and he was judged. He was stoned to death 50:57 and they burnt him with fire. He wanted what Jericho had and 51:01 he shared in the fate of Jericho. He was burnt and he was 51:06 doomed. Because he had troubled Israel. I think the judgment of 51:09 Achan was so severe, one reason the judgment came on his family 51:13 was I'm surmising his family was privy to his deed and they could 51:17 have said something about it but they didn't. They were 51:21 complacent with him. They were accessories to his crime. They 51:25 knew where everything was hidden, they were hiding it with 51:28 him. That's why it's important to keep people in your family accountable to God. 51:31 And so they were judged. And after they piled up this big 51:39 pile of stones on Achan, nobody knows where the grave of Achan 51:41 is today, do they? Nope, it's all disappeared. Then the 51:46 fierceness of his anger was turned away. Instead of cursing 51:50 and anger, now blessing and favor because they'd dealt with 51:54 something that needed dealing with. What happens now? They go 51:58 against Ai this little city and they actually used a bit of a 52:01 diversion tactic. They have a group of men to go against the 52:04 gate. They go through the same motions as before. The men of Ai 52:08 come out, they come swarming out of the city to fight. The men of 52:11 Israel made like they're retreating from them. They draw 52:14 them down away from the hill of the city. But what they didn't 52:17 know is that Joshua and his soldiers, the bulk of the army 52:20 they were in the hills in the other direction and as soon as 52:23 the city was vacated they came down, they went into Ai, they 52:27 set the city on fire. So now the soldiers of Ai, they hear a 52:30 shout and they've got soldiers behind them and they see that 52:34 there's nowhere to retreat to because their city is burning 52:38 and the Bible basically tells us they looked before them and 52:41 behind them. There was no way to escape. The men of Israel who 52:45 had been retreating now turned and they basically came upon 52:48 them and just swallowed them up, nobody survived, 12,000 men, 52:52 interesting number, were destroyed in Ai. The point being 52:57 when they dealt with Achan, they got the victory. Sometimes I 53:01 have been accused as a pastor of being unloving and unfeeling 53:06 because we have periodically dealt with people whose 53:09 membership is on the books and they're living lives of 53:12 rebellion or they're not even making any pretense of embracing 53:15 the teachings of Christ. And it really hurts the whole church 53:18 when people can say oh I'm a member of that church and they 53:22 live like the devil. And you want to do everything you can 53:25 to reclaim and redeem but sometimes the loving thing to do 53:29 is to say you've got to deal with their membership. And you 53:33 know what it does? It opens the door for God to bless those who 53:37 do take the name Christian. It's not the unloving thing to do, 53:41 it's the loving thing to do. Paul talked about someone who 53:44 was in the midst of the church in I Corinthians and he said if 53:47 you want the blessing of God on you, there's a man sleeping with 53:50 his stepmother. And Paul said you need to deal with that or 53:55 God cannot bless you. Sometimes the Achans need to be dealt with 53:59 Now you know what's preferable is if there are any Achans in 54:03 out midst, if there is any accursed thing in our midst, 54:06 you deal with it. We don't want to know about it. Achan, his sin 54:10 was a secret. He could have done something about it. Judas could 54:14 have come to Jesus before that last night and said Lord, I have 54:18 sinned. Would Jesus have forgiven him? There could be a 54:21 book in the Bible, some already says there is, named after Judas 54:25 but it would have been a real book and the gospel according to 54:28 Judas. He could have been a man of victory like Peter. Peter 54:32 made mistakes but he came to Jesus, Jesus forgave him. 54:34 Judas waited till it was too late. It would have been so much 54:39 better if Judas would have dealt with it early. Is there 54:43 something that you've allowed in your home that's a curse? 54:47 Is there something that you have allowed in your life, have we 54:51 allowed something in our church? We've got to care about each 54:54 other and pray for each other to get the victory that God can 54:58 bless us collectively. I want to see God's Spirit poured out in 55:01 my life, but you know what? It should be just as important for 55:05 me that his Spirit is poured out in your life. I want victory in 55:09 my life, but it should be just as important to me that you have 55:13 victory in your life. You know, there's something else 55:16 interesting in the story I didn't want to rush past. 55:19 After they conquered the city of Ai you know what happened to the 55:25 king of Ai? Verse 29 of chapter They took the king of Ai and 55:30 hanged him on a tree until evening and at evening then they 55:36 took him down. What does that conjure up in your mind 55:39 Biblically when someone is hung between heaven and earth on a 55:44 tree? Picture of Christ. Did Jesus become sin for us? Did he 55:48 take the curse of sin for us. It's telling us that they got 55:52 the victory but someone hung on a tree at the end of the day. 55:56 And that's reminding us that that's how we get the victory. 56:00 Because Christ hung between heaven and earth for you and me. 56:03 Well friends, there's more I've got to say. Matter of fact, I 56:06 didn't even get as far through Joshua as I wanted to today. 56:09 But we'll pick it up in our next presentation on this subject. 56:12 I think the important thing I could leave with you as we 56:17 consider this troubling story about the troubler of Israel, 56:20 Achan, is that I think that all of us have been a little bit 56:24 like Achan at times. We've done something we knew we shouldn't 56:27 do and we've forgotten that it affects not only us, it affects 56:30 our family, it affects our people, it affects the glory in 56:34 the name of God. They couldn't get the victories if God wasn't 56:38 with them and God says I can't be with you if you're clinging 56:42 to that hidden accursed thing that's in your tent. My appeal 56:46 is if there's anything in your life, especially if it's 56:50 something you've robbed from God that you'll make it right and 56:54 watch and see if God doesn't open for you the windows of 56:57 heaven. He wants to bless his people. He wants to bless his 57:00 church. We need to be willing to not just be hearers but be 57:03 doers of the word. Be willing by his grace to trust him and 57:07 obey him and the only way that can happen is we just say Lord 57:11 I present myself a living sacrifice. I am yours. I'm yours 57:15 my tent is yours and everything in the tent belongs to you, my 57:18 family is yours. Take my life as wholly thine. 57:23 Father in heaven, Lord, we want to thank you for this story 57:26 talking about the blessings and the cursings. We know it's there 57:30 because you want us to choose the blessing. Lord I pray that 57:34 those of us that need to be warned that we'll be warned, 57:37 Lord. If there's anything buried in our tent that we've coveted 57:41 that belongs to you, the things of this world that have 57:44 distracted us and made us take our eyes off the Promised Land, 57:48 I pray you'll forgive us Lord. Help us to lay those things on 57:52 the altar that we might seek first your kingdom. Pour out 57:56 your spirit on your people. I pray that we will be one 58:00 family, one body, knowing that our life and our choices affect 58:03 the whole army. Give us victory Lord and help us to be faithful. 58:07 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17