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Let's get into the sermon. So we had the reading there in Joshua 7. Go back to Joshua 7 if you move the way. And the title for the sermon today is Defeated by Secret Sins. Defeated by Secret Sins. Now I was thinking about this story here in Joshua and you know Joshua has been used by God to, you know, they've gone into the promised land and they go into battle, they go into war against the Canaanites. And they're having obviously many victories along the way. And I was thinking about this story because, you know, in our lives we can have these great victories that God gives us and we can be just having a great time seemingly just doing so well in life, being prosperous and just seemingly doing so well. And all of a sudden you're defeated, all of a sudden you're cast down, all of a sudden things fall apart. And we don't, sometimes we don't know why that occurs. Why is it that we can be doing so well and then the next day we can just be struggling in our spiritual walk. And this is, you know, this story that we have here in Joshua 7 gives us a reason, not the only reason, but it gives us a reason why we might struggle from after having a great victory in our lives. So before we get stuck into Joshua 7, let's start in Joshua 6. Look at Joshua 6 and verse number 16. Joshua 6, let me just bring you up to speed. This is of course when the Israelites would have victory over Jericho, okay. And you know, just by the miracle of God, he would take down the walls of Jericho and they would win in that city. And of course, this is the story of Rahab the harlot and her family. And they were saved. They were saved during this time of victory. And look at Joshua 6, 16, it says, and it came to pass at the seventh time when the priest blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, shout for the Lord have given you the city and the city shall be accursed even it and all that are therein to the Lord only Rahab the harlot shall live she and all that are with her in the house because she hid the messengers that we sent and ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing lest ye make yourselves accursed when ye take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. All right, so Joshua is saying, look, God's about to give us the victory. He's about to take down the city, okay. But he says, look, let's not take any spoil for ourselves. This city is accursed. It's accursed of God. We don't want to take any of the spoil for ourselves. Please don't do that. Otherwise you'll make yourself accursed. Otherwise you'll curse our nation, our, you know, the Israelites. So please do not take anything, any of the spoil, because that's normally what happens when you have victory of a city, victory over a people, you take of their spoils, you take their best cattle, you take their gold and silver, right? You take it for yourselves as your wage, I suppose, for winning that war. Let's continue there. Look at verse number 19. It says, but all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So all the, all the wealth, the gold, the silver, right? All the precious metals, that's all going into the treasury. That's going to belong to the Lord. We're going to utilise that later on in the service of God. So look at verse number 20. So the people shouted with a priest, sorry, people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. All right. The first thing we learn here, brethren, is that obedience leads to victory. Obedience leads to victory. God gave them these instructions that they had to shout, that they had to blow the trumpets and the walls themselves will fall apart. Okay. The people didn't have to do anything. They didn't have to go and knock on the, on the bricks. They didn't have to pull out their swords. They just to shout, they just to blow the trumpet and God through a miracle will take down the walls of the city. And so because of their obedience, they had victory and brethren, you know, that's what's going to give you victory and cause you to succeed in your life is when you just simply obey God, even when it doesn't make sense. Have the shouting and blowing a trumpet take down a city. It doesn't have to make sense. Just obey the Lord God. And when you do that, there will be victory. Okay. Like I said, the title for the sermon this morning is defeated by secret sins, defeated by secret sins. You see when you've got victory on your side and you're doing well, and man, we, we just can't lose. We've got God on our side. What can happen? You know, why is it that sometimes we fail afterwards, let me explain something to you because victory can lead to complacency. Victory can lead to complacency. We just think, man, we can just do no wrong. We just have to keep marching forward and we've had great successes and life is going well and you just don't expect the fall to happen. And so you become complacent, all right? You become complacent. Look at verse number 27, so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was noised throughout all the country. So they're like, man, nobody can defeat Joshua. Joshua is the greatest warrior, right, that we've ever seen. You know, his armies, no one can defeat them. God is with them. So this fame starts to spread throughout, not just amongst the children of Israel, but even amongst the other Canaanites and all the others that are there, the enemies, right? They hear about the fame of Joshua, but like I said, victory can lead to complacency. And what's so sad is the next verse, where we started reading from in Joshua chapter seven and verse number one. It says, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, look at this, took of the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. Now look, when I read this story, Achan did the wrong thing. God commanded them and Joshua expressed, we do not take any spoils of Jericho, okay? And whatever gold, silver, brass, precious metals, that's going to the treasury, that's going for the Lord's service. We are not going to touch that. You know, when I read this story, and I know Achan makes a big mistake, he takes of the accursed thing, he sees the spoils, he sees the riches, and he goes, just a little, just a little for myself, surely look, we've gone to war, we've gone to battle, we've used our time and our resources, surely God won't mind if I just disobey in this one area of my life. You start to become complacent, victory, we always win, things always go well, surely God will just turn a blind eye to this one sin that I just get to enjoy for myself. Just this one issue, Lord, I know it's accursed, I know it's the wrong thing to do, but Lord, come on, we've been so obedient so far, we've done so well so far, surely you don't mind if I just take of the accursed thing. Sometimes victory can lead to complacency, and again, when I read this story about Achan, he makes a mistake, but when I read the whole chapter, I don't think Achan's this really horrible guy, I don't think he's like an excessively wicked guy, when I look at Achan, I think Achan kind of just represents the normal weak man, where he sees, well, it makes sense, I've gone to war, I've spent my time and my resources to go to battle, you know, we've won in the hand of the Lord, surely I just, we deserve something though, Lord, just some little bit of spoil, Lord, you know, how can we just let it go to waste and rot away, and you know, just all of it, all that gold and silver to you, God, come on, like surely you don't mind if we, as your servants, just take a little bit, you know, that was to go completely to you, but just a little bit to me as your servants. So he becomes complacent and he participates of this sin, which is hidden, nobody else knows about it, but the Lord knows about it, and brethren, the Lord knows your secret sins, the Lord knows the sins that you strive to hide, right, and you're like, oh, but I'm at church this morning, praise God, you're at church, but you think God's going to turn a blind eye to your sins, no, these stories in the Old Testament are here to teach us many, many lessons. Let's continue, look at Joshua chapter seven and verse number two, and Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, all right, so they've defeated Jericho, the next city to overtake is Ai, not artificial intelligence, don't start to get crazy ideas and surely we can learn from Ai here, look, he turns his attention, because you know, that is God's plan, God's plan is they would overcome these cities, right? So Joshua's like, all right, next victory, it's time to win the next battle. So he turns to the city of Ai, which is beside Bethaethon, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them saying, go up and view the country, and the men went up and viewed Ai, and they returned to Joshua and said unto him, let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labour with her, for they are but few. So you know, Joshua sends these spies, if you want to call it that, right, spy at the city and they're like, Joshua, we come back, they're a small city, they're just few, they're not as strong as Jericho, they're not as strong as these other places, we don't need to send our whole army there, just two, three thousand, we'll easily defeat them with that number. The thing that I learned from this brethren is that complacency leads to overconfidence. Complacency leads to overconfidence. We don't need to give our best. I know the Lord said we ought to just go out there and fight the battle, man, we'll easily win this one. Boy, I mean, I feel like I can relate to this story, honestly. I feel like I look at this and I just think, it's a small thing, it doesn't need a lot of attention, overconfidence. You know, when things are going too well, and there's a secret sin, a hidden sin behind the scenes, it's just a small issue, I can take care of that, we don't need to give our best to overcome them. Complacency leads to overconfidence. Look at verse number four. So they went up vida of the people, about three thousand men. So Joshua listens, all right, well, we'll take the max of their recommendation, three thousand instead of two thousand, all right? And they fled before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai smote of them, about thirty and six men, and they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down, when for the hearts of the people melted and became as water. Well, the three thousand men were defeated by the few of Ai. Overconfidence leads to humiliation. Humiliated, it was a small issue, I should have won, I should have had victory, we sent three thousand of our soldiers, we've defeated Jericho, isn't God with us? God's on our side. They went to battle and they lost thirty six men, and they got chased away by the few in Ai. But we saw earlier, the Lord was angry, the Lord was angered for their sin, for the sin of Achan, isn't it interesting how they can take on a bigger city like Jericho, with very little effort, and they have success, and then they go to the smaller city, and they fail. They're humiliated, all right, they're defeated. Overconfidence can lead to humiliation. So I want you to just think about that this morning, again, we have these stories in the Bible for us to teach us a few things. Why is it that sometimes we seem to be doing so well in life, and then all of a sudden, it all starts to crumble, it all starts to fall apart, or it could be, I'm not saying that it's always the case, but it could be that you've got some hidden sins. There is something that God is angry about in your life, all right. Now I love this story, I actually think it's such a great lesson to learn from this, and I know sometimes when, you know, things just seem to be going so well in life, I'm always wondering, when is it about to fall apart? I don't know about you, do you ever feel that way? You know, I remember just a few months ago, my wife and I were just saying, hey, our kids have not gotten sick in so long. Like when's the last time our kids have gotten sick? We're like thinking about it, we don't remember. And then like next week, they're all getting sick. What happened? It's like we're just expecting, at some point something's got to happen, right? I'm not saying the sicknesses were because of some hidden sins, but life can be like that, like you sort of, and I don't know if you're like me, but I think you're like me because I know what I'm like, and I also see that the characters in the Bible are like this. So you must be like this too. But when things are falling apart, or everyone's sick, or there's some type of struggle in life, that's when I'm constantly going to God, God, can you help us through this challenge? But when things are going so well, no troubles, easy, I must be right with the Lord, the Lord must be shining his face upon me, and blessing, and he is blessing you and doing those things. But what can happen in the condition of man is that you become complacent, and you start forgetting the Lord. Because I don't have to pray to him that often, because things are going well. You don't think God wants to speak to you even when things are going well? Is it only when things are going horribly that we turn to God? Like if God wants our fellowship, wants our interaction, and we forget God in the good times, then isn't God going to bring the bad times to bring us back to him, to bring us speaking to him, praying to him, talking to him, depending on him? One thing I've learned in my life is that, you know, not only do I need to depend on God when things are falling apart, but I need to depend on God when things are going well. Even when things are going well, there is something about man that says, you got this, you know, well done, you've got this, you know, you've controlled the situation. And even to the point where Joshua's fame is going throughout the whole country, look at Joshua, he's doing so well, and straight away when that fame goes throughout the whole country, defeat. Wow, that's a bit embarrassing. So everybody knows that you've been defeated after all this great talk about your successes. Overconfidence can lead to humiliation. Look at verse number six, Joshua seven, verse number six, and Joshua rents his clothes and fell to the earth upon the face before the ark of the Lord, even, sorry, until the eventide. He and the elders of Israel and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, alas, oh Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side, Jordan. Joshua doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't know about the secret sin that Achan has done in the camp of the soldiers. So he's like, God, what is it? What happened? Don't you want us to win? I thought you wanted us to go to victory. It would have been better if we just stayed on the other side. It would have been better if we didn't cross into this land to just be defeated. Is that your purpose, God, just for us to lose? To lose men, to lose lives, to be discouraged? He doesn't understand, right? And guess what? Sometimes when you're having great victories in life, things are going well, and then all of a sudden the next state falls apart. You're like, what? Where did that come from? God, what's going on? Right? I don't know. Sometimes we don't know. We can't figure it out. We're lacking wisdom. God, why is it falling apart? What I see in the heart of Joshua here is that the humiliation leads to brokenness. It's broken. He's put on the, what is it? He puts dust upon his head, he's ripped his clothes, showing his brokenness, showing his confusion, humbling himself before God, says, God, I just don't get it. We've had victory just the other day, and now we lose. It doesn't make sense. Now this is the first part of the sermon. I want to give, I want to get on the positive side of it, okay, because this is not the end of it, right? Of course. And what you need to learn in your Christian life, like if you want to get to the end of the end and run your race well and get to the finish line like the Apostle Paul has, you need to learn that you're going to go for these periods of times. You are going, you are. You will get discouraged. You will get cast down. You will fall over yourself, okay? There'll be times that you're just down and out and you just don't understand why. You don't get what's going on. Now this is the point where you have to make a decision. Look, I'm telling you, if you want to get to the finish line, you want to run your race well, you need to pick yourself back up. You have to, okay? It's good to get to this point in life. It's good to get to the point where you're like, man, I'm just broken, God, what's going on? God, why? This is a place that we all get to at different times in our lives, okay, but you don't want to stay in this broken condition. I'll tell you what's going to happen if you stay in that condition. Number one, you're going to stop reading your Bible, okay? Number two, you're going to stop attending church. Number three, you're going to stop caring about lost souls, alright? And eventually you're just going to try to find solutions outside of the word of God. You're going to try to find satisfaction and direction outside of the word of God. And I'm telling you now, there is nothing that will direct your life better than God's word. God has the answers. God will give Joshua the answer shortly, but you need to make a decision at this point in your life, because it's going to happen. You get discouraged, you get cast down, you stop loving or caring for the brethren of the church. You're like, you know what, who cares, church, I've tried it, I've tried walking with the Lord, I've tried doing the right thing, and I just lose, right? I go to war, I spend my time, I spend my resources, and I get no spoil. There's no reward to me, I get nothing out of this. So I give up, I'm done. I'm out of church, Lord I don't care, whatever, things work out with other people, great, but I'm out of the race, Lord. I'm stepping away from the race. You don't want to get to that point. But the truth is we all get to the point of brokenness. At some point your heart will break, at some point the tears will come to your eyes, and you won't understand why have I been defeated. Why have I been humiliated? Why have I failed? When just the other day I've had great success. I've been there, I hope this resonates with someone this morning, because if you've not been there, you'll get there at some point in life, and you might get there multiple times throughout your life, okay? But I want you to understand when that happens, it's normal. It just tells me you're a normal, weak, sinful creature. And we need to be reminded of that from time to time, okay? But look how God responds to Joshua in verse number 10. And the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up. Maybe that should be the title for the sermon today. Get thee up! Therefore, liest thou thus upon thy face. God's like, why are you just laying there on your face? Get up, Joshua! Reverend, when you get to that point in your life, and you're broken before God, and you're needing some answers, I want you to understand that God wants you to get up. He doesn't want you to stay in that defeated face down scenario. He says, get up! It's time to move forward. Reverend God doesn't just bring us low when we need to be brought low. He then picks us up afterwards. And then God explains, verse number 11, Israel have sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them, for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed from among you. See, Reverend, when you're unsure about what's going on, why have I been defeated? Why am I in the dumps? Why do I feel like giving up? God has the answers. God will tell you why. You need to go to God in prayer and say, God, why? Give me wisdom. Can you show me the error? Can you show me the problem? Can you show me why you're allowing me to go through such hardships? God reveals it to Joshua. They've taken, Israel has taken of the accursed thing. You've disobeyed. They obeyed, and they had victory. Straight after victory, disobedience became complacent. God won't mind. Just a little sin. My own little secret hidden sin, nobody knows about it. Man, God has turned his hand of victory away from them. He says, I'm not going to be with you guys. I mean, I kind of like wish that God said that earlier, but we have to learn the hard ways sometimes. I mean, we just should have obeyed to begin with, and we never would have got to the place of AI defeating us and bringing us down. They've stolen, God says. They've taken of the accursed. All right, let's drop down to verse number 19. So God begins to reveal to Joshua which tribe, which people, which family, and which man specifically God is angry with. All right, and Joshua 7 19, it says here, God reveals us to be Achan, okay, the sin of Achan. Joshua 7 19, and Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him. And tell me now what thou has done, hide it not from me. So you can say Achan was hiding this. His secret sin, his hidden sin. And Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils, a goodly Babylonian garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a hedge of gold, or 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. First of all, he sees this expensive garments, all right, this remember back in those days, they weren't using China to print make garments, you know, costing 10 cents a piece or something like that, right? The garments were handmade, expensive, it's like a tailored suit or something like that. I don't know how many thousands you spend on a tailored suit, okay, the garments back in these days were expensive. He says, man, this looks really nice. I can wear that garment. All right, so he takes it. Not only does he take that, he sees the silver and the gold, and he goes, just a little bit. God told them, no, the silver, the gold, the precious metals, that goes to God. That goes to his treasury. That's why God said earlier, he's robbed me. He's robbed God. That belonged to God's service. That belonged to God's house. And they could say, no, but I want to keep it for myself. I need it too, God. I mean, you're not giving me anything else. There are no spoils to be had, surely just a little bit for my service, God. The man robs God. He took of the accursed thing, took the Babylonian garment or Babylonian garment there. So this is why I don't think Achan is this horrible, wicked, just disgusting man. Though he goes, he dies a horrible death, but because I don't seem like he's not like blaming anyone. Like he's been found out and he's like, yeah, I've sinned against God, I've done wrong. Like he's owning up to it. When I say someone owning up to something, generally speaking, it's not really a horrible guy, right? But when people start blaming everyone, ah, but you know, Joshua, you've not been taking care of us. It's your fault Joshua. You know, you should have been paying us a better wage than this and I wouldn't have been tempted otherwise. You know, those people, they're horrible, wicked people, but Achan's just like, yeah man, I messed up. I messed up really bad. I coveted. I gave in to my sin. I tried to hide my sins from God. He owns up to it. Again, you could have a different view on this, but I just think Achan's a normal guy. Just a normal, gave in to his flesh. Verse number 22, and Joshua sent messengers and they ran unto the tent and behold, it was hid in his tent and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. So they take out Achan and his family before God. They're, God, this is the family. This is the man that has sinned against you. All right, so what we learn here is that Joshua asked Achan, look, can you confess to what you've done? Achan confesses. And you know what? You know number one that I had earlier, sorry, I don't think I mentioned it, but you've got to pick yourself up and ask of the Lord, right? When you're down in the dumps, you pick yourself up and you ask of the Lord, Lord, give me wisdom. Why am I failing? Why am I going through hard times? Secondly, if God reveals you to you, your hidden sin, or you just know what your hidden sin is, secret sin, you need to confess your sin before the Lord. Say, God, yeah, I'm weak, I've messed up. I'm a sinner, Lord. You guys know that I often teach, just keep a short account with God, right? If you take of the accursed thing, just go to God, say, God, I'm sorry, I messed up. Don't hide it. Don't think God's going to turn a blind eye. Don't think just because I've had great successes in my spiritual walk so far, that God's going to be okay with me giving into the accursed thing. Keep a short account with God. I try my best. We sin every day, different kinds of sins. I try my best every day, at some point, God, forgive me, please. I know I've messed up. I know I've done wrong. I know I've thought wrong. I know I've said wrong. I've no, whatever. This and that. And I try to name the sins that I remember and then I'm like, God, if there's anything else that I just don't remember, please forgive me for them because I don't want to go through life thinking I'm okay with God. It's all good and then God has to bring the hammer down and make me defeated at the hands of AI when I should have victory over AI. It's just easier. I want to go to God before He has to call me out. Yeah, God, I messed up, I'm sorry. Here's the silver back. Here's the gold back and let me burn the garment, whatever it is, all right? Confess your sins before God and look, boy, our Lord God is such a, He's so merciful. He's so gentle. There are times in my life I just think, God, you should have done, you should have corrected me even harsher. I deserve your heavy hand of chastisement and you've offered me a soft hand and I'm grateful but I know I deserve a greater punishment and I think the reason of the softer punishment simply because I'm often going to God and just in my brokenness saying, God, I messed up, I'm sorry because we're all sinners. Don't tell me you don't have to go to God and confess some sin in your life, otherwise you're Jesus. We all do. We all mess up. I just don't want us to go to AI, go to battle and lose and suffer and be humiliated. I don't want that in my life. I'd rather get it fixed with God and then go to fight AI, then get the victory. So we need to confess our sins before God and it's a horrible end for Achan and his family. Look at Joshua 7, 24. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the garments and the wedge of gold, look at this, and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why has thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned them with stones and burned them with fire and they had stoned them with stones. What an end. It's horrible. You know, giving in to his secret hidden sin, trying to hide it from everybody, hide it from God. And you need to understand that your sins can have lasting consequences on those that you love, your families, your children. Oh man, one thing that breaks my heart is when people in my church have grown up in broken homes. You know, I've not appreciated over the years growing up in a stable home. It's not that my parents are perfect, but at least they're believers, took me to church, showed me love. I'm not wondering, is mum and dad fighting, are they going to get divorced, I'm not stressed, it's not adding trauma to my life and so many people have grown up in broken homes and they suffer from insecurities, anxieties, they feel like they're worthless or they don't want to get married because they've seen their parents get divorced and I don't want that in my life. So they're fearful, they're broken, all because of their parents' sin. Sins get passed, not the sins, God does not hold us accountable for other people's sins, but the consequences of sins can last from generation to generation. And look, I'm no perfect man, I know that some of my sins are going to have consequences on my children, I want my children to walk with the Lord, and I want my grandkids to walk with the Lord, but I would hate to think about all the problems that I've created in my life having ramifications on my sons and daughters and my grandkids. So I'd rather just keep a short account with God, God I messed up, before you, your heavy hand of chastisement falls upon me, before these consequences have lasting effects on generations to come, God can you sort me out, punish me, forgive me, be merciful to me, be merciful to my family, be merciful to my children, and I'm sorry God, help me pick myself up and win the next battle. So look, they had to destroy Achan, his family. Achan was like just a bit of a spoil, well Achan you lost it all. Not just a spoil but you lost all of your possessions, all of your wealth, all of your asses and cattle and whatever else that was on that list, and your children. You lost it all because you just had to hide your sins. I'm told for the sermon he's defeated by secret sins. I don't want that for anybody in this church. I certainly don't want that for the next generation. Say pastor how do we overcome sin? It's tough because this flesh man, he wants to sin. This flesh is selfish. This flesh wants to blame everything for every bad decision this flesh makes. Galatians 5 16 says, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But that needs a tongue sermon, walking in the spirit. That's a big one. Can you keep your finger there in Joshua 7 and come with me to 1 Corinthians 10 please. Come with me to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. Now brethren I'm not saying with this story, you don't need to walk away from the sermon this morning going, God's going to stone me to death right now. God's going to stone my family. You know God's going to take our life right now. If you're familiar with the Bible when we have these extreme punishments take place it doesn't happen like constantly all the time. It usually happens at a point in time when God is trying to teach the nation a lesson. God is not always extreme every single time but what he does usually the first time something like this happens he puts people to death because he wants to show the nation just how angry and how serious these sins are in his sight. So when we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse number 11, I want you to remember this and you can read the chapter in your own time but it's about all the different sins that Israel committed. 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 says, Now all these things happened unto them for and samples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh his standeth take heed lest he fall. These stories in the Old Testament they're written to us as end samples, examples. So we can learn from them. So we understand man, if I've got these hidden sins and I rob from God and I take place, I take part of the accursed thing, I sin against the Lord, I try to hide it, boy I see how angry God can be about that. I can understand what the rightful punishment ought to be in my life for something like this. So I better go to God quickly and beg for his mercy and his forgiveness. I better go broken before God before I have to face the full wrath of his punishment on my life. Look at verse number 13, 1 Corinthians 10 and 13, There have no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. Common to man. The sin of Achan is common to man. These things that we read about, the struggles that Israel goes through, they're common to man. Don't think, ah, that would never happen to me, pastor, I will never suffer with... It's common. And that's why I don't need to be complacent. Lest you fall, take heed, pay attention to this, lest you fall. Let's continue verse number 13, But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above all, sorry, above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. Okay, look, Achan could have borne that temptation. He could have said, no, no, I'm not doing this. God did not make the challenge so hard that Achan could not resist the temptation, but he gave in. I want you to learn at this Brethren is that God gives us a way of escape. Number one, when the temptation comes, he will give you the opportunity to avoid that temptation. You can't turn around and say the reason I sinned against God is because he made me. No, God gives you a way to escape. Secondly, if you have committed such sins, God gives you a way to escape. God I've messed up. How do I make things right? Please forgive me. Help me to move on and go and fight AI now with your forgiveness. God gives us opportunities. He wants us to pick ourselves up and do something great for him. Can you come back with me to Joshua? This time we'll go to Joshua chapter eight. Joshua chapter eight, please. Well, Achan's been destroyed, all right. What we learned out of that is that you need to eradicate sin out of your life, please. Learn to overcome sins, have victory over sins. Get rid of it. You're going to walk in the spirit and you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. There are many ways. I'll preach on this some of the time, but one way that I think about when I'm being tempted about something, I try to remember a Bible verse, especially if a Bible verse is associated with that challenge that I'm going through or I just think about God in general. I just think about him. If I'm really desperate, I just pick up the Bible. I just pick up my phone and go to a Bible app and just read the scriptures, get the words of life into me so I can be distracted from the things that are tempting me, things that are causing me to think the wrong way or to behave, to act, to do the wrong things. But that's for another sermon. Once you receive the forgiveness of God, once you eradicate the sin, you ask God to forgive you. Go back to Joshua 8 and verse number 1. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not, neither be thou dismayed, take 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 land. So God gives him the proper instructions. Don't take two thousand, three thousand. Take them all. Give your best. Go and fight against Ai and you're going to have victory. But what God had to say to Joshua is, Be not, don't be dismayed. Neither be thou dismayed. Because Joshua is like, at this point, he's lost his confidence. He's like, I don't know if we can win this. We've lost last time. And that's what being cast down can do. You know you've done great things in the past, have you been there? I've been there. I know I've done some great things for God and now I'm running, can I do it again? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how we got to defeat Jericho last time. I don't think we're going to defeat Ai this time and God's like, look, fear not. Don't be dismayed. Right? God said, look, I'm behind you. You're going to win this time. You're going to have victory this time. Look what he says in verse number two. And thou shall do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king, only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves, lay thee an ambush for the city behind it. God says this time you can take the spoils. When we defeat Ai, this time we take the spoils. So the next thing you need to do, brethren, once you eradicate the sin of your life, go and claim your victory. Go and just get back into the battle. Get back on the race, the race that is set before you. Go and run again. All right. You're like, I don't know if I can. Yes, you can. Right? You've sorted out with God. He's behind you now. Go and have the spiritual victories that you need in life. Go and claim your victory. And what really surprises me here is that God gave them now the spoils of the city. You see, the first time they defeated Jericho, Achan was like, what do I get out of this? Sometimes serving God, doing the right things, you're like, what am I getting out of? How am I profiting from this? God, I'm giving my best. I'm going to war. I'm serving you, but I get nothing in return. Because God's going to give you everything that belongs to Ai later on. That's hard when we're in that position. I'm serving you, Lord. I'm not profiting. Just obey. Go win the next victory. And that's where the spoils will lay. God always rewards those that labor for him. God always blesses those that obey him. It's just not in our timing. Don't be like Achan. All right. And give in to, what was his sin, covetousness, that's right. Give in to covetousness. Look at everyone else, God, and you disobey. Look, God's somewhere, somewhere, somehow, God's got it taken care of. He'll reward you. He'll bless you. But he just wants you to go from battle to battle, obeying his commands. And look, we won't read the whole thing. We'll drop down to verse number 30 in Joshua 8, verse number 30. God does give them the victory. They do defeat Ai. And you know what? When they defeated Jericho, what happened? The fame of Joshua went throughout the whole land. They became overconfident. They learned the lesson this time. Look at Joshua 8, 30. Now they defeat Ai, and in verse number 30, it says, And Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. And 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 lift up any iron, and they offered their own burnt offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. 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. See when they have victory over Ai, instead of being confident in the fame of Joshua, what they do instead? They give God all the glory. The only reason we defeated Ai and Jericho, and the only reason we get to enjoy the spoils of our labour, and the rewards and the blessings that God has given us, is not because of Joshua, not because of man, but because of God. And so God, we're going to offer you our sacrifice. We're going to come and bring our best to you God. And we're going to read the scriptures. Joshua takes, writes down, you know, takes a copy of the writings of Moses, and later on he reads it out to the people there. But he gives all glory, all thanksgiving, all praise to God Almighty. And so that's my final point, give God all the glory. When you have victory, when you defeat Jericho, all right? When you're having those spiritual highs, and you start to get a little bit cold toward God because everything's going well, you don't need God that much. That's the point where you go, hold on, everything's going so well in life, I better give God all the glory. That's the point you stop, you stop patting yourself on the back, ah, the fame of Pastor Kevin, ah, the fame of Joshua, right? No, no, no, no, God, it's you. The only reason things are going well in life, the only reasons I'm having victory, the only reasons I've got the spoils and the rewards and the blessings is because of you. So instead of forgetting to pick up my Bible, I better pick up my Bible more than I ever have. Instead of forgetting to go to God in prayer, better go to God in prayer, more than I ever have during these good times, I want God to be glorified in my successes and in my victories. All right, brethren, title for the sermon this morning was Defeated by Secret Sins. Boy, I hope you can learn from the story this morning. If you've got hidden sins, secret sins, you've got unconfessed sins before God this morning, get it right. All right? I mean, get it right before you leave the building. Bow your head. God forgive me. God, I know I'm wrong. I'm weak. I'm like Achan. God be merciful to me, all right? Lord forgives you. Lord's such a loving God. He's always there. He just wants your broken heartiness. He wants your confession. He doesn't want you to hide from him and things are going to get better. You have the victories. You pick yourself up and continue running the race. Let's pray.