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This is our year of fulfillment. We must keep reminding ourselves because I know the enemy can make us to forget the promise of God and we may begin to live lives as usual. We cannot allow the enemy to take over any part of our lives this year. God said this is your year of fulfillment. Amen! This morning I want to talk to you on what it will take to make you keep on winning this year. You see unless we know what we must do and what we must avoid, the promise of God that we shall be fulfilled may not become a reality. This is not because of God's inability to keep his promise but our inability to be faithful to God. Turn with me to the book of Joshua chapter 7 verses 1-5.
1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, *the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. 2. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, "Go up and spy out the country." So the men went up and spied out Ai. 3. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few." 4. So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 5. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Last week we saw how the Lord helped the Israelites to defeat their Jericho. Today we have just read how they lost to a much smaller city. I believe that the Lord wants us to learn some principles here so that we would not be gallivanting from victory to defeat. You see the distant between a great victory and a great defeat is only one step, and often only a short one. One sad truth of reality about this world we are in is that one moment we can be riding high on the cloud of some great spiritual success and the very next moment find ourselves in a valley of spiritual failure and despair. One moment we can be like Elijah standing victoriously on Mount Carmel and the next we are hiding under a juniper tree or hiding in a cave in deep despair complaining to God. ''...I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. (1 King 19:10.) Because of its strategic location, Ai was important to the Israelites success. They have to take the land because this would give Israel control of the main route that ran along the highlands from the north to south in the central portion of the land. Fortunately enough Ai was a smaller city compared to Jericho. Its defeat should not pose a problem to the now experienced army of Israel. But the Israelites were about to learn a great lesson of their entire life. Simply because it is small doesn't mean it cannot defeat you. Let me start from there. Many of us are underestimating the power of those little sins in our lives and we are focusing on the big sins. But let me remind you that there is no little sin. Sin is sin. Most often that not, it is those little sin that destroys people to the point of despair. Do not keep looking for big sins in your life, start by asking the Holy Spirit to show you those little sins so that big sins would not have anything to attach itself to in your life. Chapter 7 of the book of Joshua opened with "But." This means contrary to popular expectation of a normal person who have seen the Lord work on their behalf again and again, the children of Israel acted unfaithfully to God. I wonder when we as Christians will begin to act faithfully towards God. You see our problem of unfaithfulness towards each other is as a result of our unfaithfulness towards God. Are you faithful to God in all things? You cannot pick and choose what areas of your life you will be faithful to God. It has to be the whole areas of your life. Looking at this passage very carefully. I can see that the sin here was more than one. It was like a snowball that rolled on top of each other until God decided to use one of them as an example for us to learn. I pray that your life will not be negative examples for others to learn from. Let us look at what the Israelites did wrong.
1. Lack of prayer or failure to get alone with God to seek His guidance. v.2"Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them saying, "Go up and spy out the country." You see after the defeat of Jericho, they forgot to get together with God to ask him for instructions on how to continue with the battle. You see they were eager to move forward for the Lord and to take more territories in keeping with God's directions and purpose. However, they become a little self-confident and resting too much on the victory at Jericho. Joshua failed to take time to get alone with the Lord to inquire of Him and seek His strength. Many of us behave in this same pattern. Because of a workaholic mentality or our desire to get things done and to be successful, there is the tendency to rush off without taking time to draw near to the Lord, draw on his resources, and to put on the full armor of God. This is not only unwise, but it often causes us to be insensitive to serious failures in our own lives and ministries which grieve and quench the Spirit and leave us defenseless against the enemy because we are operating in our own strength and wisdom. Ultimately, then these failures stand in the way of our progress and ability to handle the various challenges in life. Because of this great error, they found themselves committing other errors.
They remained ignorant of the sin of Achan. You see it takes one who is willing to get alone with God to see the impending danger. Most of the time the voice of the crowd intimidates us and we succumb to pressure and intimidation. But until you find a place of solitude and get alone with God you must never take a major decision in your life no matter who is giving you advise. I believed that if Joshua had set a time aside to seek the Lord, the Lord would have told him that there is sin in the camp. He would have known that the only way to guarantee victory over Ai is total consecration of the entire people in the camp.
2. Reliance on human wisdom. This mistake alone gave birth to other error;
They underestimated the strength of their enemy. V.3 "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few." Joshua listened to the voice of the people instead of the voice of the Lord. This is a great warning to us leaders. It is very important that we seek counsel of the people that surrounds us, but we must never take their voice as the voice of the Lord.
3. Reliance on past victory instead of the Lord. This also led to some further errors:
a. They over-estimated the strength of their own army v.4 "So about three thousand men went up there from the people..." Here I say that Joshua temporarily lost control of his leadership. He allowed the people to map out his strategy of war instead of the Lord. b. They presumed on the Lord. They took Him for granted. When we failed to seek the Lord before any decision we take then we are taking the Lord for granted. Do not plan and then pray; instead pray and then plan. Many people will first take a decision and then start to pray that the plan works out. You see God will not be dragged to a plan that he was not the architect.
In conclusion, let me summarized by saying that for us to keep on winning we must:
Have consistent prayer life
Never rely on past victory but rely on the Lord
Never underestimate the power of those little sins in our life. Deal with them before they deal with you. Let us pray!
