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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 I thought I was getting a special request. Alright, welcome back to Sure Foundation Baptist Church afternoon service. For your first hymn we'll turn to 169, Come Thou Fount. Nia's not here, everyone has to sing out. You can't count on the piano to be loud. Alright. 🎵Music🎵 On the first. 🎵Come thou fount of every blessing🎵 🎵Tune my heart to sing thy grace🎵 🎵Streams of mercy never ceasing🎵 🎵Call for songs of loudest praise🎵 🎵Teach me some melodial sonnet🎵 🎵Thung by flaming thumbs above🎵 🎵Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it🎵 🎵Belt of fiery deeming love🎵 🎵Here I raise thine Ebonizer🎵 🎵Hither by thy help I'm come🎵 🎵And I know by thy good pleasure🎵 🎵Safely all o'er private hall🎵 🎵Jesus sought me when a stranger🎵 🎵Wandering from the flood of God🎵 🎵Ye to rescue me from danger🎵 🎵In her pulse is precious blood🎵 🎵Oh, to grace how great a debtor🎵 🎵Daily I'm constrained to be🎵 🎵Let thy goodness, like a fetter🎵 🎵Find my wandering heart to thee🎵 🎵Prown to wonder, Lord, I feel it🎵 🎵Prown to live the God I love🎵 🎵Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it🎵 🎵Seal it, seal it for the courts above🎵 Amen. Brother Sean Harrington, can you open us with a word of prayer? Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, so much for the soul that was saved today. I pray that you would just come to the first speech of the Bible, Lord, and that you would do a good Bible reading in the church. I pray that you would bless us with this Lord, that you would still pass the promise from the Spirit. And Jesus, thank you, Lord. Amen. Second song, When the Battle's Over, page 404. On the first. 🎵Am I a soldier of the grass?🎵 🎵Am I a soldier of the cross?🎵 🎵A soldier of the land?🎵 🎵And shall I fear to own his cause?🎵 🎵Or watch to speak his name?🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 🎵Wear a crown, wear a crown🎵 🎵Wear a bright and shining crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 🎵Must I be carried through the sky zone🎵 🎵For events of ease?🎵 🎵While others fought to win the prize🎵 🎵And sailed through bloody seas🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 🎵Wear a crown, wear a crown🎵 🎵Wear a bright and shining crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 🎵Sure I must fight if I would reign in🎵 🎵Chase my courage, Lord🎵 🎵Now bear the toil and do the pain🎵 🎵So go divide thy words🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵Yes, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 🎵Wear a crown, wear a crown🎵 🎵Wear a bright and shining crown🎵 🎵And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown🎵 🎵In the new Jerusalem🎵 Amen at this time, we'll have the announcements. Alright, welcome back to Sure Foundation Foundation for the evening service. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements. The announcements, again, real quickly here. If anybody needs a bulletin, just lift up your hand. One of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. Anybody need one? Alright. Apparently we've got a baseline coming through at the same time. Alright, on the front cover we have our verse. It says, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18, very famous scripture there. And on our inside page there, service time is 10.30 a.m. for our Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m. We're in Joshua chapter 8 tonight. Thursday Bible study is at 6.30 p.m. We'll be in 1 Chronicles chapter 19. And our sowing times are listed below. We had sowing today, and I think we had a few people saved out there. And where did you get somebody? In Gabriel. Gabriel, okay. So we had three in our group. You had one, that's four. Anybody else get anybody? Anybody? Huh? Okay, so four altogether. Praise the Lord for the four salvations out there. What's with this pen? Looks like something wrong. Alright, so four salvations. Praise God for that. Good job out there. I think I must have got soaked up all your bad doors, Brother Ramon. Alright, and on the other page over, we've got the New Testament challenge still going. So stick with it. If you're behind, just catch up. And if you're real behind, just still keep reading. Read the Bible every day if you can. And try to get that whole Bible done in one year. January 18th we have, which is next Saturday, we have the Super Saturday sowing time at 12 p.m. in Brush Prairie. We'll have locations and maps posted in the WhatsApp group and a place to eat afterwards. And of course, the church springs for the bill at that food thing. So wherever we're eating, the church is paying for it. So we feed people for their labor. And then God rewards you on top of that. And maybe He'll bless you and take the pounds away for all the food you eat afterwards. So I don't know. I don't know how that works with the dividends, but God still is going to bless you for all the work and labor you put in for sowing. So that's great. And then February 1st and 2nd will be the one year anniversary for SFBC Indy. And there'll be a sowing Saturday there. Lunch provided, bowling rented out for three hours. And then I'll be ordinating Brother Justin in the morning service. Pastor Weave will be preaching on the Sunday night service and I'll be preaching on Sunday night service. So they just, you know, I just decided to arbitrarily do that. And they're going to be at my mercy on Sunday night, putting toothpicks in their eyelids. But they're going to they're going to listen. They will hear. So anyway, I'm just kidding. So it'll be a good time there. Very excited about their one year anniversary. Don't regret starting that church plant for one second. And February 15th is the Sweetheart Banquet. It's Western themed. We're looking into meal options. If anybody is interested in possibly helping with maybe just doing some of the cooking, we're thinking about doing some brisket, maybe getting some Costco brisket meat or something. And if anybody has any Western or, you know, some Texas barbecue style ideas, or maybe you've cooked a brisket before, we don't want we don't want we don't want to totally experiment and ruin the dinner. So if you have any experience with these things, we do have a Traeger so we can smoke a brisket for a long time. And if you're like Traeger's or Wicked or whatever, whatever, we can figure something out. But if you're interested in helping with fads and then we can always open cans of beans, that's pretty easy. But any other meal options? I'm all ears for that. We're so, yeah, dress up for the Western theme. And Pastor Wee was going to be preaching for us on that Saturday night and also for one of the services on Sunday. And then May 15th through 18th is the King James Conference. That's coming up in the distance. All the other stuff we've gone through. Go ahead and roll the service along. We started a little bit late. I was flapping my lips and I think everybody else was too. Bill lost track of time. It's all his fault. No, I'm just kidding. Let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll take up the offering after that. Pastor came up to me and said three thirty seven and I started flipping through my hymnal trying to find his special request. I was like, I don't know that one. He's like, no, it's three thirty seven. OK. Anyway, ninety seven. I need the every hour. And Juju, you can start. On the first. I need the every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like fine can peace afford. I need the. Oh, I need the. Every hour I need the. Oh, bless me now, my savior. I come to thee. I need the every hour. Stay the nearby. Temptations lose their power when the heart knifes. I need the. Oh, I need the. Every hour I need the. Oh, bless me now, my savior. I come to thee. I need the every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide. For life is pain. I need the. Oh, I need the. Every hour I need the. Oh, bless me now, my savior. I come to thee. I need the every hour. Most holy one. Oh, me, me thine indeed. Thou blessed Son. I need the. Oh, I need the. Every hour I need the. Oh, bless me now, my savior. I come to thee. Amen. This time we'll collect the offering. Brother Alex, can you bless the offering? Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for our church here, Father, and all the people that have gathered to worship you. We ask you to bless this gift, both the gift and the giver, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. That's Mikey's. Amen. Amen. Turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 8. As long as we read the entire chapter. Joshua chapter 8, the Bible reads, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear 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. And thou shalt do to Ai and her king, as thou didst unto Jericho and her king, only the spoiled thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee in ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai, and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and set them away by night. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready. And I and all the people that are with me will approach unto the city, and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them, for they will come out after us. Till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first, therefore they will flee before us. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire, according to the commandment of the Lord shall ye do. See, I have commanded you. Joshua, therefore, sent them forth, and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people. Joshua said, Behold, ye shall lie in wait, that night among the people. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And all the people, even the people of war, that were with him, went up and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai. And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush, between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liars in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle. He and all his people, at a time appointed before the plain, but he wished not that there were liars in ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them, and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel, and they left the city open and pursued after Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw and behold the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again and slew the men of Ai. And the other issued out of the city against them. So they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side, and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai they took alive and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt Ai and made it in heap forever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until even tide, and as soon as the sun was down Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city and raise thereon a great heap of stones that remaineth unto them. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron, and they offered thereon 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. And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side, the ark, and on that side before the priests of the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as he that was born among them. Half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the Lord the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them. Brother Bill, will you pray for the service? Thanks be to the reading of the word, thanks be to the people of the safe place, to the presence of the Lord, such a priest, and to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, last week we were in Joshua 7. I just wanted to kind of recap before I do. I guess I was going to title this sermon to be A.I. Falls to the Straight Guys. But anyway, I don't know. It's kind of a dumb title, but it's the only thing I can think of. Anyway, so the last chapter, the sin of one man, which was Achan, affected the whole congregation, and in the end affected his whole family when they all were stoned to death and removed from the congregation of the Lord. So this is obviously a picture for us that in the New Testament would do something to get kicked out of a local church and cause the rest of their family to suffer without the congregation for their selfishness. And I've seen this many times where some bozo gets kicked out of church or gets marked outside of church and then their family does suffer. If they're a big family and they have lots of children, well, their selfishness or their stupidity gets them kicked out and then their wife suffers or their children suffer for these things, and obviously Achan's children didn't steal all that stuff and his wife didn't steal it, but maybe they were accomplices after the fact or for whatever reason, they were stoned to death with him and removed. So now after they, you know, because God obviously cursed them and that corporal, basically that everybody gets punished together type of thing happened because it's the congregation and that sin, that leaven, can't be allowed to stay in the congregation. That's a picture for us of the New Testament. Obviously a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump. This sin was covetousness, turned into theft. He stole from the Lord himself because that stuff was supposed to go to the Lord's treasury and so he, the Lord's fierce wrath after he is removed from the congregation is turned away from the congregation and so now the plan can move forward to take the promised land and once that curse is out of the congregation, God is ready to bless the children of Israel and get back on mission. What's the mission? To take out the seven Canaanite nations that God is done with and their reprobates most, you know, pretty much all of them are reprobates. They're reprobate nations and God is destroying them and removing them from the land and letting Israel replace them. This is replacement theology and they're being replaced. Israel's being able to take over their land and he's destroying their cities for the wickedness. Now, number one, we're gonna see the destruction of A.I. here. Again, now that they're back on task and the sin is out of the camp, they can proceed with the plan. Verse number one, the Bible says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with thee and arise, go up to A.I. Remember, last time they were being all flippant about it and they're like, let's just take, you know, two or three thousand people and we could crush these people really easily and that's not what happened. They're running and fleeing and God made sure that they, you know, there was only like a certain, a very small amount of people that got killed, but still, they went running with their tail between their legs basically. I have given into thy hand the king of A.I. and his people and his city and his land. So, God's ready to give it all back to them and he's speaking directly through Joshua here. So, and the small pictures that you see in, you know, Old Testament Israel, it's on a small scale compared to what you see in the New Testament. Like, they were to go and, you know, wherever their foot, you know, tread, that belonged to them. God, you know, laid out, this is where the promised land is for you, but in the New Testament, any place that we put our foot is given over to us and we're supposed to go and preach the gospel in all the world and nothing is forbidden to us. Obviously, there's smarter places for us to go than North Korea right now and certain places that are kind of off limits. You know, you'll be killed or whatever. In the New Testament, there are certain places that the Holy Ghost forbid Paul to go at certain times and that was probably due to safety reasons of some sort or we don't really know why, but maybe God just wanted certain places to be evangelized first for whatever reason his grand plan was, but like the, you know, so the small pictures of, you know, the bigger, latter day fulfillment, you know, you can see in the conquering of the promised land, like the promised land being a small scale of the bigger picture of the gospel being spread. So I've already kind of gone over that before, but look at verse two. It says, And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king. Only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall you take for a prey unto yourselves. So last time, they weren't allowed to take anything. Remember, everything was cursed, but now this time and from here on out, they get to take the spoil. This is how wars generally worked in those times, you know, and this is how wars have gone on for thousands of years. The soldiers take what they want. Even like World War II and World War I, you know, this is why all these Nazi memorabilia is all over the internet and stuff you could buy and people collect it and stuff like that is because they would kill the Nazi soldiers or the officers, and they'd take those pistols from them and sneak them back in their bags. I don't know if it was illegal for them to do that, but it shouldn't have been because that's the spoils of war, right? But they probably just don't want that memorabilia out there or whatever because it's Nazi, but anyway, so that's how that stuff gets back here. That's how people have, there's a big market for Nazi stuff here, probably all around the world, but that's how it got back here and back in other places in the world is through the spoils of war. You know, you take it off their dead bodies or whatever. So you see this throughout the Bible. So anyhow, it says, lay thee an ambush for the city behind it. So now God is, you know, they get to take the spoil and God has a new battle plan for the siege. Couldn't God just do the same thing over and over again? I mean, he's God. Couldn't he just say, you know, walk around one time below the trumpets, do the same thing as he did to Jericho? He could do that, right? It's like God is God. He can destroy any city the way he wants. You know, couldn't they just do a head-on siege like they did but instead have the whole tribe go against them? I mean, this is a small town. In comparison to Jericho, it's 12,000 people in the end if you were paying attention to the Bible reading. 12,000 people, I mean, they just pick out 30,000 people to go to this battle, but they have, you know, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tons of people. They could just overwhelm them with the sheer numbers and destroy them, but this is, you know, God just has different plans for different places and this time he's got a different plan. Lay thee in ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua arose, verse three, and all the people of war to go against Ai and Joshua chose out 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. So, you know, God's giving Joshua the plan, the battle plan for this siege. And instead of two or three thousand, he sent out three thousand last time, now it's 30,000. So, instead of 3K, 30K. And, you know, there's all these different names that they have for military tactics in war. And, you know, there's obviously military tactics for battles and then there's, you know, there's, you know, ways that they fight a whole war, you know, and I don't really necessarily understand all these military tactics and things. I've never been in war. I haven't studied a lot of things about war. But, you know, there's obviously military tactics that people use and God's employing this military tactic to Joshua. But if I was gonna call this a military tactic, the ambush, I'd probably call this the Judas military tactic if I was gonna call it something. I'm not saying that that's, you know, what it was called. I'm just saying that this is probably what I would call it. Because isn't an ambush, isn't that, I mean, to me that seems like a cheat way to fight somebody. And really, in the annals of time, a lot of times people, I mean, it looks stupid when people are just lining up with guns and just walking in straight lines. This is the way people fought military battles for long periods of time, right, in the Civil War even. They would just run at each other with guns, cannonballs are firing at each other, and then they just get killed. It's like, why do people do that? Well, it's just the way it was done. And not guerrilla tactics like you see being done here. I'm not saying it was bad, God's the one that came up with the plan. I'm not gonna call God bad or Judas. I'm just saying that this is a Judas technique. Didn't Judas like pretend to love Jesus and then sneak around and pretend and then he came up and kissed him in the Garden of Gethsemane, pretending to be his friend the whole time, and then betrayed him. And again, I'm not saying, don't get me wrong here, I'm just saying that, because I want to lay out a picture for you of how the king of AI does picture Christ, which is really weird to say, but just follow me along with this because this is a very interesting picture of how Christ did redeem his people, but in the picture of these bad people. Because look, bad people picture Christ sometimes in the Bible, like Absalom. Absalom is hanging by his hair, obviously Jesus wasn't hanging by his hair, but then he's thrust through with a dart by Joab and he's buried in a pit and then rocks are piled upon him. And obviously Absalom's a bad person, but he does picture Christ in that moment. Jephthah's daughter is a female, but yet she does picture Christ in the way that she sacrificed, an innocent person sacrificed, and he says I'm going to sacrifice the first thing I see, and then she's this virgin, she bewells her virginity, and she doesn't deserve to be sacrificed, but she gets sacrificed anyway. So you're like, well she's a woman, yeah I know, but I'm not saying they're perfect pictures, but they are pictures. So this whole battle though, it is kind of an interesting way to show the Gospel picture, so you'll see as we go along. But anyway, a military tactic is a specific method or maneuver used by a military unit to engage and defeat an enemy in combat, often involving the deployment and employment of forces on a smaller scale, like an ambush, flanking maneuver, or frontal assault. So what they tried the first time was a frontal assault with 3,000 people, and the essential how to fight a battle as opposed to the overall strategy plan to win a war. Wars take a long time, there are many battles in most cases, but different tactics are named flanking maneuvers. Ambush is what this one is. It's an ambush style attack, and so this is definitely that, but the reason I call it a Judas attack is because of it's a sneaky way to fight. You're pretending that you're gonna attack them from the front, but in reality you have all these people hiding, and they're gonna come out. Once you trick them into running out of the town and chasing you, then they come in, sack the town, catch it on fire, and then when your people are like, oh man, it's on fire, and they turn around, then the people that are pretending to be afraid and running away turn around. Then you got everybody sandwiched in the middle, you kill all them, then you go back to the town, kill all those people, and that's basically the tactic that's being used. They're pretending. It's called a feigned withdrawal. A feigned what? It's called a feigned withdrawal. Feigned withdrawal, okay. See, Brother Bill, thank you Brother Bill. But it does start out as an ambush though. So feigned withdrawal, okay. See, and who invented it? Well at least we know that God is the one that came up with the plan. So, you know, and it seems like it's a pretty good one, right? It works. So they hide out and pretend to attack from the front, like I said, and then, you know. What's interesting though is the number 30 is involved. Obviously it's 30,000, but how many pieces of silver did Judas betray the Lord Jesus for? Well that's interesting. All right, so Joshua 8 four. Joshua 8 four. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie and wait against the city, even behind the city, go not very far from the city, but be already. And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city, and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them, and they will come out after us, for they will come out after us, till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, they flee before us, as at the first, therefore, we will flee before them. So, basically this is an excellent strategy. Why? Because the first time, they fled, and so now they're gonna take and use their pride against them, because they think, oh, they're gonna run from us again, and so they use their own pride, like, oh yeah, we're tough, they're gonna run from us again, and that's exactly what they use, their pride against themselves. So that first strategy, you know, that God used, in the first city, you know, that worked, and this time, Joshua employs this clever battle strategy, that uses their own pride against them. So, God just made the walls fall down last time, just by telling them what to do, they did it, that worked. This time, God just has a completely different strategy, it's not really Joshua's idea though, it's God's from the very start, it's very clear. In history though, you hear about these great war strategies, of great generals like Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and they're like known as these great, these great generals and kings of our, you know, who can think of another one, that's like a great strategist, or great war hero or strategist? Brother Bill, you got him? Caesar, which one? Julius Caesar? Yeah, who else? Who else? Anybody else got one? Jesse, I know you've got one. Yeah, like a, yeah. Okay, I've never heard of that. So, he's pulling out the deep ones now. All right. Oh, Pershing, is that what he said? Okay. So, but, God has some pretty neat battle strategies himself in the Bible, doesn't he? And, you know, he is God, so he probably has the best strategies, and nobody's probably gonna come up with a better strategy and war than he is. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 15, verse two. Exodus chapter 15, verse two. The Bible says in Exodus 15, two, it says, the Lord is my strength and my song. This is the song of Moses after the Red Sea battle. It says, and he has become my salvation, he is my God, and I will prepare him in habitation, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in peace as the enemy. I mean, what was the strategy there? The children of Israel didn't even have to fight. Moses just put his staff out. The sea parted. God did that. And then, what was the trap? Well, the Egyptians, in such a rage, wanting to kill Moses and the children of Israel, then the sea just killed them all. That's a pretty good strategy. I mean, obviously, he used his power, you know, that only God can use, but that was a pretty good strategy. You know, their pride, their rage, you know, was their undoing. They shouldn't have kept following them. They should have just been like, okay, you know, maybe we should stay and fix our own country up. Maybe we should humble ourselves before God. He's already destroyed our whole nation, but they're just like, ah, let's get in the chariots and go kill them, you know. And then, you know, God just ended up like, okay, reprobates, it's time to die. But the Bible says the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. And, of course, when it says the right hand, it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is gonna come back and, you know, in a flame of fire, and, you know, he's gonna take out the heathen. So, but, you know, there's all kinds of battles where God just employs these impossible tactics that seem impossible for him to win or for men to win these battles, but all it takes is the faith of God's people, and God just makes these mighty victories happen, like the real 300, you know. The 300 that's in that stupid movie, you know, are not as cool as the 300 of Gideon. Gideon's 300 are a lot better. That's a better story, because God's just like, I don't need these 10,000 people. I just need 300. The ones that, you know, that lap like a dog or whatever, we'll take those guys, and they just broke some pottery and had some lanterns and scared off the whole, you know, all these, all the Midianites and destroyed them and won the battle, because they just listened to what God said, and there was a little strategy employed with that. They thought, you know, obviously God scared them and put the fear of himself in them, but the men still had to do what God said. That's the point. See, if men are willing to follow God's lead, then he will empower us to fight great battles and to do great victories, and of course, we don't battle in the flesh nowadays. You know, our battles are spiritual battles. Our battles are apartment manager, you know, demons and, you know, these people that just harass us and malign us all the time, but you know what? We still fight battles. They're just different types of battles. They're just different types of battles now. So we still have to fight fair. You know, people can say all manner of wicked and evil things about us, and it's just like we kind of have to just take it. You know, just know that God is going to even the odds. God is going to settle the scores for us. We don't have to settle scores. You know, sometimes it feels like you want to, and you would like to just lash out in the flesh, and I can't say that I haven't done that before. I have, but the best thing to do is let God settle the score for you. That's what the Bible teaches. So, but God is the greatest war strategist of all time, and man can't even conceive of the strategies that he comes up with. Who would have ever come up with the strategy to win the ultimate war that God has already won for us? I mean, we're just waiting for the redemption of our bodies. The war's already won. We're still battling, and you know, in the present time, and they're still fighting to happen, but the ultimate war, the war's actually already been won. We're just fighting battles in the meantime, which is kind of interesting, isn't it? We still live in this life, and live in this world, but the war's already done. When Jesus died on the cross, you know, went to hell for three days and three nights, he was buried, rose again the third day. That defeated the devil. That defeated death, and one day, we get to live forevermore with God and his kingdom. It's already done. It's just waiting for that to happen. He won without physical violence. He won without actually having soldiers to fight in a physical battle at all. He won with nonviolence. He defeated the devil. He defeated all of his minions, the third of the angels that fell with him. I mean, do you think that the devil actually would have crucified Jesus had he known that when he crucified him, he would have lost? I don't think that the devil actually really knew the full plan, because if he would, he wouldn't have done that. I just don't think he would have. I think that that was probably a little bit of a surprise to him when Jesus arose the third day. I think that he was probably screeching and very upset and the rest of his little angels with him. I don't know. There's a reason why Jesus' name was kept secret. There's a reason why some of the things were kept secret into the New Testament, and I think that it's possible. It's because God really wasn't, he was playing things a little close to the vest. Satan knew some things, but I don't think he knew everything. That's just my opinion. I mean, you could think whatever you want. That's just my opinion. So let's look back at Joshua 8, verse number seven. The Bible says, Then ye shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand, and it shall be when ye have taken the city that ye shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord shall ye do, see, I have commanded you. And that's kind of just an interesting way to say it, but what's part of the destruction? He specifically says you have to set the city on fire. What is that picture, you think? Yeah, because these people are being judged. This is a judgment, and that picture is what? That they're going to burn in hell. And fire is a picture of judgment, isn't it? I mean, we see fires happening in Los Angeles, and a lot of people that aren't even saved are saying that it's judgment. And yeah, I feel bad for the people that all that stuff's happening to. I feel terrible that there's no water coming out of the hydrants because they want to save the smelt or whatever. That's terrible. It really is. But this goes back to the sermon I preached at Red Hot Preaching Conference that people were so mad about. But it's like, yeah, when you put animal life over human life, these are the kinds of ramifications that are going to happen later on when you don't want to put the water in the reservoirs and you just want to protect some smelt, they'd probably still live on anyway. Like you put more water out, it seems like there's more water to flow than they're going to be able to live, I don't know. I don't know what their science is behind the whole thing, but they're celebrating smelt or whatever that they lived. How about all the places that are burned down that people don't have insurance for? Where are they going to live? How are they going to rebuild all that infrastructure in a reasonable time? They don't even have enough people to fight the fire. It's foolishness. But God's judgment is a lot of times showed in fire. But God's judgment has to be followed to a T also. When he says to burn the city, say they didn't burn the city, would God be happy with the way that they did it? No. This is a command. It says, you shall set the city on fire according to the commandment of the Lord shall you do. See, I have commanded you. So say they just do everything else but they don't burn the city down, would God be happy with that? No, he wouldn't. Because the picture has to be clear, the judgment has to be clear. So those people, that picture is that they have to burn in hell. And so, and just know this, that Joshua's the absolute leader of the children of Israel and he's the one that's passing on all this information. This is not a committee. This is not leadership by committee. God is telling all this stuff to Joshua. Joshua's giving all this stuff to the people and the people are following him and listening to him only. It's not like, well, I don't know. Joshua, if you really should burn up the city or not, they're not even questioning what Joshua's saying. This is not a democracy. Look at verse nine. Joshua, therefore, sent them forth and they went to lie in ambush and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people. Now, there's a lot of controversy over where Ai might be. There's a lot of people that want to disprove the timelines of the Bible that are involved in archeology. So you do have to take some of the things that people say with a grain of salt because they might want to say, well, yeah, this place is here, but the time that they say happened, Joshua couldn't have done that because whatever pottery. But this is a picture that I found that you probably can't see very well. But this is, I mean, I thought that this kind of looked like a pretty good spot where they could hide right here. This is supposedly where it was at. I'm not 100% sure that that's 100% correct, but it looks like a good spot. That's where a lot of people think that it actually was. You can come up and look at that after the service. Those are the times when I wish I had one of those screens up there, but I don't want to be a liberal. So anyway, you can look at it yourself. But I'm not here to teach an archeology class, I guess. But anyway, so, and notice it says that they abode between Bethel and Ai. So these places are really close together. Bethel and Ai are close together. And so it says on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people. So, and again, Joshua does picture the Lord Jesus Christ in many ways. And Joshua is the same name as Jesus. And the New Testament is Jesus, and the Old Testament is Joshua. So, and then, if you remember where Bethel is, in Genesis, it's where Jacob met with God and saw the vision of the ladder with the angels ascending and descending, and it was the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, if you remember that. Turn to Philippians chapter two, verse seven. But what I thought was interesting about, why would it just say, but Joshua lodged that night among the people? Because Joshua is not just some leader that can't get down and be on the same level with his people, and Jesus was the same way. Jesus hung out with his disciples and slept in the same area. It's not like he had to sleep in some shrine somewhere or in some special tent. He hung out with his people, and Jesus was a servant leader. Philippians chapter two, verse seven says, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. And what name is that? Jesus, right? Joshua has the same name as Jesus. So, you know, Joshua also was a humble man. Joshua slept that, you know, he stayed that night in the same place where all the people did. He was with his people before the battle, and I think that says a lot about what kind of a man Joshua was. He wasn't some stuck-up snob type of leader that couldn't hang out with his people. Look at Hebrews chapter two, verse 10. Hebrews chapter two, verse 10. Hebrews 2, 10. It says in Hebrews 2, 10, it says, for it became him for whom all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. See, Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. That's what we are with him. We are brethren. Of course, he's our Lord, but we're also brethren with him because Jesus Christ is the son of God and we are sons and daughters of God and we are co-inheritors with him. He's not ashamed of us. He's not ashamed to call us brethren, saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise unto thee. So, you know, Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice literally to win that great war. So talk about the ultimate strategist. I mean, he could have done it with his power. He didn't have to be born as a servant. He didn't have to be this humble person. He could have just came down as this conquering son of God and just destroyed everybody he wanted to. He could have done it any way he wanted to, really. I mean, he could have. He could have still been a sinless person and still, you know, done it with power and not be, you know, but he chose to do it the way that he was humble and not this, you know, obviously he's a God to be feared. He's a God that strikes terror in the hearts of his enemies. This is not how he chose to do it. He chose to win the ultimate war by being humble, by being fashioned as a man, by being obedient to the death. He allowed people to spit in his face. He allowed people to nail him to a cross. He allowed people to mock him and make fun of him and tear his clothes off and laugh at him. This is not how most people would do things. This is not how most kings, most kings would not allow this to happen to them. Most mighty men in this world would not allow this to happen. Most soldiers or mighty, you know, strong men would not allow this. This is not what we'd come up with. This is not the plan we would use to win a war. This is not our, this would not be our plan, but this is who our God is and that's why he's worth following. That's why he's worth fighting for. That's why he's worth serving because he's just different. He's not this demonic god like the Hindus have. He's not this weird god like the Muslims have. He's not this weird god like the Mormons serve. He's not, you know, he's not a god like the Jehovah's Witness serve. He is the son of God, but he is God and his plan was the best plan and his plan was the one that worked. Just laid his life down. That's, you know, he allowed himself to be killed. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do that, but that's the plan he came up with. That's the one that was the most humble, the best way, the right way, the good way, the best way to win that war. I mean, you want to talk about strategy. You want to talk about great military generals and ways to win the war. That won the war. Nonviolence. It's pretty crazy. Honestly, if you really sit and think about it, it's not the way we would think. You know, men get all testosterone and rah, yeah, let's go, rah. You know, all these football players and martial arts and we want to, you know, our way is to war and to fight and to smash and kill and destroy, right? That's the way we win wars. We build engines of destruction and, you know, great weapons to destroy and God could do that just like that. He doesn't even have to, he probably doesn't even have to say anything. He could just think something and things just die and things explode or whatever. It's not the way he did it. Pretty amazing. Verse 10. And Joshua rose up early in the morning and numbered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And, you know, just like Jesus, he's up before everybody else. You know, he's always the first one up. He's already been praying and the disciples are like, where's he at now? You know, Joshua rose up early in the morning. Verse 11. And all the people, even the people of war that were with him went up and drew nigh and came before the city and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai and he took about 5,000 men and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, even all the hosts that was on the north side of the city and their liars in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, they hasted and rose up early and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people at the time appointed, before the plain, but he wished not that there were liars in ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. So, I mean, basically, this strategy works because, in a way, you think about what happens with Jesus, it seems like he loses the day he gets crucified. Doesn't it seem like, all of his disciples think he lost. They run away. They think he lost. Isn't that what they think? And the Pharisees think that they won. The wicked people thought they won, the devil thought he won that day. But he didn't win. It's not like, you know, Jesus knew he won. Obviously he had to go through the agony and the shame and all that. But again, had Satan know what he was doing by crucifying Jesus, he would not have done it. I don't think he would have. But the scriptures had to be fulfilled, didn't they? Look at Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26. Because when Judas comes to betray him, Jesus already did know. He knew that these things had to happen. He prophesied these things in the Psalms that Judas had to come and he prophesied these things against Judas. He knew what Judas was. He knew what Judas was gonna do, but it was part of the plan. Matthew 26, 48 says, Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whosoever I shall kiss, the same as he, hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. His disciples thought, when they went to go buy those two swords, that it's time to fight. And what happens? Peter smites his ear off, cuts his ear off with the sword. Jesus ends up healing that ear and then tells them to put their swords up. So, yeah, they're gonna run. They're like, Why aren't you fighting, Jesus? What's going on? Look at verse 53. Thinkest thou I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels? You think I can't win this war if I really wanted to? I can't just send all these angels to destroy them? Of course he can. But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled? The scriptures have to be fulfilled that thus it must be. In that same hour, said Jesus to the multitudes, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves, for to take me I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that what? The scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. They didn't think that Jesus was gonna win the war, did they? They thought it was over. They thought they lost. They ran off. And Peter's like following from afar. John is following. He's the only one that really sticks with him. But nobody tried to fight after that. John's, you know, people are watching the crucifixion. They're crying, they're weeping. Everybody thinks everything's lost. They didn't even believe the next, you know, three days later when he rises from the dead, the disciples don't even believe Mary when she comes and tells them, hey, he's risen from the dead. They're like, yeah, okay, whatever. You foolish woman or whatever. They don't believe. And Jesus abrades them for their unbelief. He gets mad at them. Look at back in our text of Joshua 8, 16. It says, and all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them and they pursued after Joshua and were drawn away from the city and there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, so they're getting a two for one special apparently, that went not out after Israel. And they left the city open and pursued after Israel and the Lord said unto Joshua, stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai and I will give it to thine hand and Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. Now if you remember, Moses is, you know, his weapon of choice or whatever it was was a staff and he stretched out his staff and he would hold up his staff when he would do things like this, but Joshua had a spear and God told him to stretch it out toward the city when the destruction was supposed to start. Apparently this is the same sign that he gives the liars in wait in the ambush. It says the ambush arose quickly out of their place and they ran as soon as they had to stretch out his hand. As soon as he had, excuse me, stretched out his hand and they entered into the city and took it and hasted and set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them they saw and behold the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven and they had no power to flee this way or that way and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers and when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended then they turned again and slew the men of Ai. So they got caught in the mix and the other issued out of the city against them so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape and the king of Ai they took alive and brought him to Joshua. Now this is pretty interesting too. They take him alive and this kind of, I mean I don't have time, we don't have time to turn there but in Revelation 19 the beast is taken alive and the false prophet are taken alive and where are they thrown? They're thrown straight into hell, right? But we don't have time to turn there but I just thought it was interesting to take them alive but we're gonna see the fate of the king of Ai here in a minute. Look at verse 24 it says and it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they chased them and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were consumed that all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword and so it was that all that fell that day both of men and women were 12,000 even all the men of Ai. So they killed all the men and it says men and women were killed so it says for Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai which you know that's a sign of a good leader isn't it? He was told to stretch out a spear but he utterly destroyed all of Ai. He didn't stop. He's not like King Saul. He's not like oh let's save the best sheep and let's save this and that. He's like no let's kill them all. That's what God said to do. So Joshua stayed in that place with his spear extended towards Ai until every inhabitant was destroyed and you know great leaders stay focused until they finish the job. Joshua finished the job. So kudos to him and it says only the cattle in the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua and Joshua burnt Ai and made it in heap forever even a desolation unto this day. So that's a really interesting way to say it because you know when I've been talking to you guys about all this excavation what is it that they are called? Does anybody remember what they're called? The mounds that they find? They're called a tel. But what is it? It's a heap of all the trash and stuff all the city that's been destroyed it's just a heap that looks like a hill and so it's funny that the Bible actually calls it that it says and made it in heap forever even a desolation unto this day. And what is it? It's a heap unto this day. I mean this is a pretty modern picture here. I mean you can look at Jericho same thing. I mean they've excavated parts of it but the rest of it's just this mound of destruction that Joshua destroyed 3400 years ago. Pretty cool. And it says in verse 29, and the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide. So I just thought that this was really interesting so the law of the Lord talks about what happens to people when they're hung on a tree. But let's finish the verse here it says, and the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide and as soon as the sun was down Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city and raise thereon a great heap of stones that remain unto this day. So we're gonna see a lot in the future chapters here where Joshua is just taking these kings and pronouncing judgment upon them but it's real interesting that he hangs this one on a tree. Now that's why I'm saying that it does picture Christ because Christ is hanged on a tree isn't he? And when the sun's about to go down what do they do? They beg for the body of Jesus to be taken down and to be buried and then where was Jesus killed? Was he killed in the city of Jerusalem? No, he was killed outside the city of Jerusalem wasn't he? Obviously this isn't Jerusalem but we're talking about pictures here. But it says and they cast it at the entering of the gate of the city. So he wasn't buried inside the city of Ai. He was buried outside the gate, outside the city which Jesus of course was not buried inside the city of Jerusalem. He was buried outside the city. I'm not saying he was buried at the gate, he wasn't but still he was not buried inside the city of Jerusalem where all the kings are buried and it says and raise thereon a great heap of stones. Now it says it remains unto this day. Now I'm just gonna have you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 21 and we'll look at what Moses said in the law. So Joshua basically you know does he have to do this? Why does he do this? I mean I tend to think that it like this story it's not a perfect picture of the gospel but it is a picture of it because you got the betrayal, the seeming betrayal of the ambush and you know then you have the destruction and then you have this king who's hanged on a tree just like Jesus is. You know just like the Bible says Jesus is but obviously this guy's a wicked person and he doesn't picture Jesus in the fact that he's sinless or anything like that but it is still a picture of Jesus in the way that he's buried outside the city, he's hanged on a tree, his carcass is taken down exactly how it's supposed to be in the law of Moses. He's buried and all that stuff. So Deuteronomy 21 says in verse 22 it says and if a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be to be put to death and thou hang him on a tree his body shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. So this verse is basically you know it's almost like you know it almost seems to be written for the Lord Jesus Christ but then here you have this king that's a wicked king that God's destroying their land and destroying them and being given into their hands but he's dying like Jesus died in a way you know he's hanged on a tree and basically you know it doesn't say he's crucified but he's essentially being hanged on a tree just like that so and the Bible says in Galatians 3 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for his written curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So I mean he is cursed by God there's no doubt about that and that we have that picture for us from Deuteronomy and it pictures Christ in Galatians is quoting that verse and it says in verse 14 that the blessing of Abraham might be come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith they're definitely Gentiles. So is the king of Ai a type of Christ? Is it a coincidence that he was ambushed? You know could the children of Israel have overpowered them with sheer numbers? Absolutely. They could have just steamrolled them but you know there's some pictures there I believe you know which are strange you know at being a wicked person or whatever but they are still pictures nonetheless. Now the last thing I want to cover really quickly here let's go to verse 30 in Joshua. Joshua renews the covenant here in verse 30 it says then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. Verse 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel as it is written in the book of the law of Moses an altar of whole stones over which no man hath lift up any iron and they offered their own burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their leaders and officers and their judges stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priest in Levites which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord as well as the stranger as he that was born among them half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. So this is something that Moses had commanded that they do and this is where they find themselves in the promised land. They're at this location that Moses had commanded them. In Deuteronomy chapter 27 it says in verse one Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people saying keep the commandments which I command you this day and it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee that thou shalt set thee up great stones and plaster them with plaster and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law when thou art passed over and that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and land that floweth with milk and honey as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan that ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Ebal and thou shalt plaster them with plaster and there shalt thou build an altar upon the Lord thy God the altar of stones thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones and thou shalt offer burnt offerings there unto the Lord thy God and thou shalt offer peace offerings and shall eat there and rejoice before the Lord thy God and thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. So they were commanded by Moses to do this once they crossed over the promised land and once they got to this point on their journey. So this is why Joshua did that and notice it says that they plastered or to plaster them on these whole stones they're to plaster the law of God and these standing stones have been found in archeology and there's a really interesting video that you can watch about it but when we get to chapter 24 I'm gonna preach about that in more detail because in chapter 24 it talks more about it and these stones are here today in archeology from 3400 years ago and you can't really make out the words on the plaster anymore but when they discovered them they didn't really know what they had and these stones are actually mentioned in the book of Judges 2 and they've been used in this temple of Baal but anyway we'll get to that when we get to chapter 24 it's pretty interesting but it's a pretty cool archeological find too but and then the last thing for the night here look at verse 34 the Bible they set up those stones they write out the law on the stones and verse 34 says and afterward he read all the words of the law so they're sitting around just chilling Joshua's writing all this stuff down and then he read all the words of the law the blessings and the cursings remember you got people on one side of the mountain one mountain and one side on the other and it says according to all that is written in the book of the law so he had to read all the words the blessings so it says the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law so that's what the positive parts and the negative parts the positive and the negative and when you get it all you can't hide the truth so Bible reading out loud a lot of people don't understand sometimes I think why we read the whole chapter before a sermon is preached here well there's a lot of reasons for that but one of the reasons is is that someone can't just capture something and steal it out of context and then preach false doctrine out of it you know as easily anyway and you know obviously you could preach one verse and you could preach a truth out of that verse but like you're not gonna be able to just you know preach some weird false doctrine out of the New Testament especially without you know just you know you gotta preach within the context of the Bible so but also the people need to hear the words of the law the words of the Bible being read and this was something that was done by Moses this was something that was done by Joshua this was something that was done by Ezra and it was done multiple times in the Bible you know Josiah when they would get up and read the whole Bible to the people notice in verse 35 what it says there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them so it's not like they put the kids in preschool to watch Veggie Tales while all this was going on they were with the women the women were there present so why is it saying that though because it's not just about the men it's about the women it's about the little ones it's about the children so that's a good reason why we're family integrated so the children can hear what's being said the children can hear what's being preached the children can hear the Bible being read and so I would put our children against a lot of children in different churches that know the Bible way more and they know preaching way more and I'm not saying that to say hey let's compare our kids to other kids I'm just saying that they're getting a lot more out of church services than a lot of other kids that other church services are most kids once they get out of junior church or out of whatever you know they come and they're like bored they're bored in church and they don't understand what's being said because they've been taught a bunch of junk and it's been about candy, jacking them up on candy and kool aid or whatever or some kind of sugar spaz high everything's about fun and games and silly songs and so you wonder why you lose them to these non-denominational churches like well I used to go to a Baptist church but now I go to this non-denominational church why? because it's just like junior church it's just like Sunday school and so when you just feed your kids all this stuff and everything's supposed to be about fun, fun, fun all the time, it's like look the Bible is fun learning the Bible is fun and you just sometimes, look not all things you do in life are fun, but do you think it was fun watching them, Joshua write the Bible on the plastered stones it probably wasn't do you think that sounds fun? I mean they're just like okay Joshua, what part are you on now? you know, it probably wasn't fun I'm sure they were playing with sticks or whatever kids do and then it's time to listen to the Bible kids and then he's reading it and it says that he read the whole thing it's like I'm bored this is so boring well you know what, not everything's fun you know what they call work? they call it work you know why it's not called fun? sometimes work is fun, but I'm just saying it's not called fun, hey guess what I gotta go straight home from church because you know I gotta go and get ready for fun tomorrow that's not what it's called are you going brother Sean you gotta go to fun tomorrow? is that where you're going? I can't wait to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go to fun, woo! no 4 o'clock, oh that's even more fun getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning that's real fun how about having to be at work at 3 for a special overtime shift that's not fun, that's called torture I know the US government doesn't call sleep deprivation torture, but it actually is, that's why they play like that loud, satanic rock and roll music to the people they capture and then they like just make people stay awake so they can ask some questions like they'll tell them anything at that point just let me go to sleep yes I blew up the twin towers yes I did it I did everything so but it's really important to give attendance to reading it really is and the Bible mentions it over and over again and so why did he read, why was it so important, well because it's important to get the context it's important to get the negative and the positive parts but in church today you won't hear the negative parts in a lot of churches that you go to, it's only going to be positive and that's why they won't read the whole chapter what does 1 Timothy 4 13 say, well it says till I come give attendance to reading why did Paul say that? to exhortation to doctrine because these things are important to read the Bible in church you know what does the King James Bible say to be read in churches that was the purpose that was one of the purposes of the King James to be translated so that it would be read in churches and it took off and we're still reading it over 400 years later when in the time of Nehemiah they got up and read the Bible and gave the sense of it to the people, it's not just about you know we don't just get up here and read the Bible only, we give the sense of it to the people so they can understand what the Bible is saying and kind of elaborate on it some Isaiah thought it was important, he said seek out the book of the Lord and read in Matthew 4 it says but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Jesus said every word is important so I know it's gotten a lot bigger since the first five books of Moses and Joshua hadn't been written when Joshua wrote all this stuff down so he still didn't have the 24 extra verses or chapters excuse me to put down there so he was probably happy about that but later on it got added didn't it and all these other books too I'm sure it got harder and harder to read all these things in front of all the people maybe they didn't necessarily get to that point but to read the whole Bible on one sitting to read all five books of Moses would take some time Genesis to Deuteronomy that's tough but God thinks it's important to hear all the words of him and we do that challenge for a purpose we read the Bible in front of everybody for a purpose and we preach the Bible for a purpose we have an every word Bible Jesus told us every word is important and so God promised to preserve it so why do people neglect it though people neglect it because they kind of forget how important it really is it's important it's the one of the most important things that we have you know people say what would you what item would you pick if you were stuck on a deserted island like one luxury that you could have just one thing and I would choose a Bible you know you can make all kinds of stuff to help you fish or whatever I'm not talking about that kind of stuff one thing to entertain you would you pick Anne of Green Gables maybe some of you girls would I don't know I would hope that you would choose the Bible you know are you going to pick the Hardy Boys full volume I don't know how many there are how many are there Hardy Boys books are there hundreds do they still make them or do they quit making them okay I remember at the library you could get a whole bunch of them but I don't I don't know how many there are but you know you should love God's word if you're a Christian you should love it you should read it and when it's being read you should pay attention to what it's saying and you know we should develop that love and we should know I'm not saying that we're going to memorize every word of it but Jesus said that we should live by every word of it so man shall not live by bread alone but every word of God right so let's pray Lord we thank you so much for the people that got saved today pray that you bless their lives pray that you'd help us Lord to love your word above all things and Lord that it'd be magnified above all things and Lord we thank you for your son the Lord Jesus Christ who won that great war for us and Lord we're just kind of waiting for the redemption of our bodies and we're fighting battles as we go but Lord one day we're going to be able to be in that kingdom that heavenly kingdom with you and help us to be faithful as we wait in Jesus' name we pray Amen My Savior that thy law may hold of me thou hast served and cleansed and will be that I my my turtle me turtle's only constant master but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us thou can stay and marry our empty though the shortest will be a great battle in the end with no far part as thou giveth graciously with each command turtle's only blessed master but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us thou canst use us every day and every hour witnessing my power to save me setting free from self and sin thou who callest to possess me in my fullness come in turtle's only blessed master but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us thou canst use us every day and every hour Jesus fill now with thy spirit hearts that all surrender at those streams of living water from our inner man made full turtle's only blessed master but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us thou canst use us every day and every hour Brother Jesse can you close this with a word of prayer?