Transcription
We're doing this heart of a conqueror series because God is God is setting us up. God is God has more for us. He wants every one of us to move into a new time, a new place, a new season. He's got new blessings. But the blessings of God aren't always automatic. Sometimes it seems they are. Other times there's a battle. Where we battle the enemy. Where we stand strong. Where we conquer. Not only because we have the heart of a conqueror, but we've developed the disciplines that are part of that heart. Disciplines that we're learning in the book of Joshua as we're following him and the children of Israel as they're moving in to the promised land.
Has God promised it? Yes. Is it going to be easy to take it? No. What are they going to need to be like? What are they going to need to do? Well, they're going to need to be strong. They're going to need to be courageous. They're going to need to consecrate themselves in an attitude of expectancy believing God's going to do great things in the future. Consecrate yourself today for tomorrow. The Lord's going to do awesome things.
The heart of a conqueror has an attitude of thankfulness. Remembering what God has done in the past. The heart of a conqueror says, "You know what? I'm grateful for the way God works in my life today, but I'm willing to let go of of what I'm holding on to now or the expectation I have of God now to believe for even bigger things, better things. For God to work in new ways in my life." The heart of a conqueror says, "I don't want to just see with my natural eyes. I'm not going to go just by what I'm seeing, but I understand this is a spiritual journey that in the words of Paul, we walk by faith and not by sight." So, I'm going to see like God sees.
Last week, a powerful week. We talked about the shout of praise, that we don't praise after the walls do we do, but if you want to see the walls come down in your in your life, you want to see things happen, praise God before it happens because there's a power when you and I lift up the shout of praise. And now tonight, we come to Joshua chapter 7 and we learn another lesson about the heart of a conqueror. The heart of a conqueror understands a certain law, a certain principle. It's woven into the universe as surely as the principle of gravity is. It's called the law of first things, the law of first things. And the law of first things has two corollaries. I'm going to explain the law, then we're going to look at the text so it makes sense to you because honestly, a lot of people, they come and I don't think it's a misappropriation of the text, I think it's just missing a very important thing in the text. If we look at the story of Achan and we talk about, you know, be sure your sins will find you out, that's true. If we look at it and say, "Well, how much is your sin going to cost me that our sin affects other people?" That's true. If we look at it and we say, "You know, it's wrong to steal." That's true. But the issue in Joshua chapter 7 is it can include those, but I think primarily it has to do with the law of first things.
Now, the law of first things, there are two corollaries to this law. The first one is this, the first part of all God gives us should be given back to him. God gives us everything. It's all his. The proof of that is when we exit the world, we leave everything behind. You say, "No, I earned it." No, you wouldn't have been able to earn it if God hadn't given you the strength. That paycheck is God's. That house is God's. That car is God's. Those clothes are God's. Everything you and I possess has come from the Lord as a part of his graciousness and his blessing in our life whether we know him and acknowledge him or not. And God has woven into the universe that he gives it all to us and expects in return a portion back recognizing it all came from him. His covenant with us is, "When you do that, you give me the tithe. You give me the first 10% and when you give me that, I'll do more in your life with the 90% than you could do with the 100." It's the law of first things.
Now, watch this in Exodus. I'm just going to give you some scriptures cuz you see it all over scripture. "The first offspring of every womb" This is the Lord talking. "Belongs to me." This is God saying, "Everything that's ever born" He's saying this to the nation of Israel. "The first child, the first animal belongs to me including all the firstborn males of your livestock whether from herd or from flock." In the next verse, verse 26, "The best of the firstfruits of your ground, you shall bring to the house of the Lord." So, the first part of the harvest, the best of it, it belongs to the Lord. Proverbs chapter 3 says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all of your produce." So, whatever you get first, you give to him. You give the first 10% to him. You honor him with the first part.
In Genesis, cuz some people say, "Well, you know, you talking law and we're free from the law." Well, before the law. Way back at the beginning. This is a principle woven into creation. It's woven in to God's interaction with people. You can disagree with it. You cannot like it, but it's still there. Or you can say, "You know what? That's there. I'm going to I'm going to honor that because when I honor that, God honors me." Watch this. The In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. He followed the principle of first things. Cain brought to the Lord an offering. Cain said, "You know what? It doesn't matter. I think I should decide what I want to give. I should decide how much I want to give, and I'll decide what I'm going to give and the quality of what I'm going to give." And God didn't regard his offering.
You know, you can read the story of Abraham. You know, it's one of the things people don't often talk about when Abraham offers Isaac as a sacrifice. Why is he offering Isaac as a sacrifice? Because Isaac is the firstborn. So, before the law, this principle of I give the first part to God. So, the first part of your check you give to God. The first part of your week, you're in church. You're giving it to God. You're giving your time to the Lord. You're saying, "God, I'm going to start my week by acknowledging you, the resurrection day, acknowledging the Lord. I'm going to honor you."
Here's another way that it works and I'm I'm again, I'm just telling you how I apply this in my own life. So like if I get a raise, what I would do with that raise is whatever it comes out to in that first paycheck, the amount of the increase from the previous check to this check, I give all of that to the Lord. I say, "I'm going to give you the first part. I'm going to give you the first fruits. I'm the first part belongs to the Lord." I'm going to do that with gratitude and with thankfulness to say, "God, I'm so grateful for what you've done in my life."
So, the first corollary to the law of first things is God wants us to give back to him the first portion. Now, here's the second corollary. What we do with the first part determines what happens to the rest. What we do with the first part determines what happens to the rest. Listen to this in Ezekiel or Exodus, excuse me, verse uh chapter 34:20. The firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb. Or if you'll not redeem it, you shall break its neck. What this is saying is you'd be better off not to have the donkey than to keep what is God's. It's a very interesting principle. Most people don't think of it this way. Better better off not to have that 10% in your checking account than to keep what is God's. Because what you do with the first part determines what happens with the rest. If you keep it, everything else is cursed. Now, that's a strong word, but it's it's simply I'm just I am. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm clueing you in to the way things work. You can like the law of gravity. I can tell you about the law of gravity. You could say I hate that law. But it's the law. And you break it at your own risk. It's how this works. You can either not do it and think, "Oh boy." Or And here's what I would find, the people who who do tithe, they love this law. If you do it, you love it. If you don't do it, you don't like the law. So, if you give to the Lord, everything's blessed. Watch this. Proverbs chapter 3, "Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine."
In Genesis chapter 4, "And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. And Cain was the guy that was mad. See, when people don't give God the first part, then they get angry. They're like, "Oh, that's not fair. I don't like that." That's what Cain said. The people that give, they're like, "Yay, God is so awesome. He's blessing me." You read on in Genesis chapter 16. Look at the Or Genesis chapter 22. This is God speaking to Abraham. He offers Isaac. And God says, "Because you've done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I'll surely bless you." And how's that blessing work? He says, "I'm going to multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies." In other words, "You know what? I'm going to multiply your offspring, and I'm going to give you victory." You're going to conquer. That's what he's saying. And of all the nations of the earth, you're going to be blessed.
Now, with that as a backdrop, let's go to Joshua and we understand the principle. In Joshua chapter 6, so here they're getting ready to for the last time do the series of marching around the Jericho, the city of Jericho. And here's Joshua's command. It says, "When you do it the last time, shout for the Lord has given you the city. The city and all that is in it will be devoted to the Lord. Why?" Because it's the first city in the promised land. It's the first It's the first place they're taking. And the first belongs to who? God. And God says, "This is the first city you're going to conquer, and the first part is always mine, and so everything in it is mine. Everything. You can't have one thing out of it. Give it all to me. Don't keep any of it back. And when you do that, what's going to happen? I'm going to bless you. If you don't do that, what's going to happen? I'm It's not going to go well. Everything else is going to be cursed. That's the principle of first things." So, he says, "You know, you you Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared because remember she'd hid the spies who were sent. But keep away from the devoted things so that you'll not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise, you'll make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and the gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and they must go into his treasury." Again, this is the principle first things. Jericho is the first city, therefore, Jericho belongs to the Lord. It's his.
Now, watch what happens chapter 7. But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things. Achan, son of Carmi, and it gives his lineage there, took some of them. So, the Lord's anger burned against Israel. And it's not going to go well for them. And Israel goes into battle, and what happens is they're going to lose a battle they should have won. Look at it in verse two. Now, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven, to the east of Bethel, and told them, "Go up and spy out the region." So, the men went up, spied out Ai, and then when they returned to Joshua, they said, "Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or 3,000." So, they're saying, "Listen, it's a little city. This should be a slam dunk. Just send a two or 3,000. Do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there." So, about 3,000 went up, but they were routed by the men of Ai who killed about 36 of them. And they chased Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes, and at this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Here's what Joshua does. In verse six, he tore his clothes, fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there until evening. And here's how God responds to him in verse 10. The Lord said to Joshua, "Stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen. They have lied. They have put them in their own possession. That is why the Israelites can't stand against their enemies. They turn their backs and run because they've been made liable to destruction. I'll not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever is among you, uh whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Go and consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, that which is devoted is among you.' In other words, that which belongs to God, you've kept back. And you cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them. Why? It's the law of first things. That if I keep what I should have given to God, then it results in what I've kept being cursed. Everything I've got is cursed. There's some people in your finances, honestly, it's just like you never have enough. It It's as if they're under a curse. And there's other people and you can see the blessing and the favor of the Lord. Now, I'm not suggesting you're never going to have trouble. I'm just simply saying that when you give God what belongs to him, you're in a covenant with him that God's going to honor. And that will give you confidence, and if I could put it this way, the heart of a conqueror in the midst of a challenge.
When Debbie and I were were pastoring in Kansas City, and I've told part of this story before with you know, part of what made it difficult, we weren't making a lot of money and and the the uh Assemblies of God had asked us to move to Kansas City, and I'd said, "Hey, listen, I own a house in western Kansas, and I don't want to move until the house sells." And so, uh at one point they said, "You know what? Uh sometimes you have to step in the water before the water's going to going to part. And so, we think you should by faith move believing God's going to sell your house." Well, you know, I have want to have as much faith as anybody, and they're over me in the Lord, which is again an authority issue, so hey, here we go. So, I go there, and we get we get to Kansas City, and and so, I'm making payments, you know, we I have enough saved up that that we can make it about 6 months. Uh so, I'm making payments on the house, and then that's out. And all along I've got people telling me, "Don't pay the bank a dime. Don't waste your money because, you know, what? You just need to tell them I can't pay, and then they'll negotiate with you. And I said, you know what? Listen, I've got the money. I'm going to pay the money. And it's a struggle to get it to sell it not nobody's looking at it. Nobody's buying it. And so what happens is my house is auctioned off on the courthouse steps. You know, I get a I go into default. I have no money. Can't pay it. Um, you know, I'm calling the district saying, "Hey, the water's up to here." And um you know, it hadn't parted yet. And they're like They're like I hate that for you. Well, brother Lindell, and again, when they say brother Lindell, you know it's not going well. So, anyway all that to say, I'm in this really wild situation where I'm trying to get attorneys to represent me and no attorney in the western half of the state will represent me. Which is really odd. So, I get people to call who are attorneys who say, "Oh, they'll do you. They'll they'll take care of you." Then when they when I call them they're like, "Oh, yeah, it's a slam dunk. We do this all the time." And then they 20 minutes later call back and say one attorney said, "Reverend, I can't help you and there's nobody in western Kansas who can." You know, so it's just an odd thing. I don't know why I'm getting all them getting off track here. Anyway I had 10 days to come up with tens of thousands of dollars. By the time I got the letter, 3 days were gone. So, now I have 7 days. But, you know what? I'm in a covenant with God. And that's what I thought. I'm in a covenant with God. I took the letter. I laid it out on the on the floor of my study in our little duplex, which is also bedroom, and I said I said, "Lord here's what the bank said, and you know I don't have any money." And I wasn't going to tell anybody. I mean, my my family did not know, my parents did not know, cuz I felt like, "You know what? This is between me and God. I'm trusting the Lord." And I said, "God, you see what they're saying, and um I really need your help." And I've been in a covenant with you from the moment I learned about tithing, I have given you the first part of everything I've ever earned. And I'm in a covenant relationship with you, and you've promised to take care of me, and I don't know how you're going to do this, but I need your help." So, long story short, on the last day, the last possible moment, God provided the money that I needed in a in a really a miraculous way. Incidentally, when I went to pay the bank, they were like, "We don't want your money." They wouldn't accept the money. I called their attorney. They He said, "We're we're we're going to come after everything you've got." Which I was like, "Huh? It's nothing. I mean, come on. Do you know I mean, I was really I was like I knew the attorney. I was like, "Come on, Ron. I don't have anything. What do you I mean, you can have it. I mean, but anyway, um God provided all that we needed. And he took care of it. It was the last moment, but it was And I And you know, let me just say this, I was willing to pay it all back, but through a turn of events, it was all forgiven. I mean, it was a gift straight from heaven to us. I'm just simply saying, you know, sometimes we we we don't understand that it's you know, we think well, there goes the money and we've given the money and you know, part of the blessing is the confidence that when you and I give, we're in a covenant, we're entering a covenant with God. And it's a covenant that he is not afraid for us to remind him of. And I wasn't accusing him and I wasn't saying, "Hey, you you've let me down." I was like, "God, this is a covenant."
Here's another thing that's very very interesting. This whole thing, you know, some of my houses were auctioned off the courthouse steps. We come here to town and we want to buy a house and I I tell the the banker my story and he's like, "That is the weirdest story in the world." And back then credit was really tight. He said, "There is there is no way if you tell that story anybody's going to give you a loan." And I said, "Well, it's a true story." And he said, "Can you prove it?" I said, "Yeah, I can." So, I had different people write letters. Uh had a state representative, a state senator from Kansas write letters that that validated my story and and um so, I give it to the banker and the banker they go through and they check my credit and my credit rating is perfect. Which tells you the whole thing was really sneaky. So, my credit rating's perfect and he says this, he says to me, he says, "Well, you know, still if you check the box, you'll never get the loan." This guy was not a believer. And I said, "You know what? Let me talk to Debbie. I I think I know what I'm going to do. I we're going to check the box, but let me talk to Debbie." And so, we go home and ringing in my ears is is Psalm 15, "Blessed is the man who keeps his oath even when it hurts." You know, being honest even if it's not going to go your way. So, I go back the next day and I say, "You need to check the box." He's like, "We're not going to get the loan." And I said, "You know what? We'll leave that in the Lord's hands." What happened was we got the loan. And he was so shocked that he came to church. I had the privilege of taking him on a missions trip and in the jungle of Panama leading him to the Lord. Today he pastors a church of 4,000 people. You know, you just never know what God is going to do.
Well, back to the law of first things. What we do with the first part determines what happens to the rest. There's one other place that you see the city of Jericho mentioned and it's at the start of Ahab's reign and I just mentioned this. It's a bit of a curiosity if you're a Bible student, but I think it's very, very interesting. So, you you have Ahab. If you're familiar with your Bible, Ahab was one of the worst kings in all of the Bible. His his reign is mentioned in in 1 Kings, you know, with Elijah and and Jezebel as his wife and and all of that. But, we we find out about his reign at the start at the end of chapter 16 and it gives us kind of like a little regnal summary summary of his kingship before we're going to read about it. Now, Ahab, the son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. So, he was he was evil from the get-go. Then it explains what he did. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. So, Jeroboam built a golden calf and put it in the south of Israel, the north of Israel and said, "Don't go to the to Jerusalem. Just worship these two calves." And so, he's into that. Then he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal. Go back there if you could for just a minute. He he married her and by this guy's name, her dad's name, she's probably a pagan priestess. And when we read about Baal worship and we read about Ashteroth worship, this is this is sensual. This is fertility worship. And so if you were to go to Israel and you were to see uh Baal altars from that time, what they would be is they'd be a raised platform out in the square, in the center of the city. And what would happen is people would go up and there would be temple prostitutes, male and female, and you would have sexual relations with them in front of everybody. That's how debauched the Canaanite society was. This lady is she's probably a priestess in that cult. Uh we read on and it says the king of the Sidonians and he began to serve Baal and worship him and he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. So he's got an altar there. Uh Ahab also made an Asherah pole. So she's the female fertility goddess and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him. So I mean the guy is wicked, wicked, wicked. And then the very last verse, verse 34 of that chapter, says this, "And in Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son, Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua, son of Nun." Remember in in Joshua chapter 6 and verse 26, Joshua, after they conquered Jericho, at that time, Joshua pronounces solemn oath, "Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho." Why? Because it belongs to God. It's devoted to him. Nobody has the right to it. And here's what Joshua says, "At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations. At the cost of his youngest son will he set up its gates." He says, "It's going to cost you. If you take from the Lord what belongs to the Lord, it's not going to go well with you. It's not only going to affect you, it's going to affect those around you."
Now back to 1 Kings 16 and verse 34. So in Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. Here's what's happening. Ahab is such a wicked king and and the writer of Kings is telling us, "Listen, this is proof of how wicked he is. He takes what belongs to God." He doesn't care that Jericho was devoted to the Lord. He's like, "Yeah, so what? That's so yesterday. That happened centuries ago. How do we even know that Jer- that Joshua was a real person? How do we even know the walls fell down? I mean, how God doesn't care about all that. I can have that. That's a great place for a city. Hiel, if you want to go and build it, game on. Do it." So Hiel goes there. Ahab is taking the things that belong to the Lord. It's proof of his wickedness. And Hiel, he he builds the city. But now catch this. He lays the foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram. He sets up the gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub. What do you have going on here? You have him doing what Canaanites did, and that is they would sacrifice children in the building of the city wall. So his kids, they would take their children and they would they would encase them in a a jar, and they might be alive, they might be dead. And they would put it into the city wall as a way to appease the gods and to ward off evil spirits. So, he's doing this probably willingly. It's not like, "Well, I built the gates and now my one son's dead and I'm building the walls and now my other son's dead." No, he's probably doing this as a part willingly doing this. Can you believe this? But, that's what happens when when a person isn't walking with God, ultimately they'll do all kinds of things you never would have thought. It shows the degeneracy of the society. That's just kind of as a as a side note. Ahab's so godless, he doesn't care about what belongs to the Lord.
Now, what's the application for you and I? And I realize that's a little heavy, but if your Bible if you're interested in the Bible, you kind of like that. You like to You like to know, why is that in there? Why does it mention Jericho in Ahab's reign? I mean, like what is what's up with that? Because Ahab is that wicked. He keeps what belongs to God. And the result is his reign is completely cursed. There's nothing exemplary in his reign. He keeps what belongs to God and everything else falls apart. How Here here's the upshot of this, the heart of a conqueror. And I know this isn't the most, "Yeah, let's go let's go storm Jericho." type message. But, it's important for you and I to think thoughtfully about these things. How we handle our money, how we handle our time, and how we handle our talent matters. Everything we're doing is sowing seeds. And you're either sowing seeds that are going to reap blessing, or you're sowing seeds that are going to reap destruction. That's a New Testament verse, Galatians chapter 6. Whatsoever man sows, that will he also reap. Our actions, our words, how we handle our time, how we handle our finances, is either laying a foundation for the blessing of God in our life or it is diminishing our experience of his blessing in our life. It's one or the other. Either I'm faithful with my finances and that that is setting the table for God to bless my finances or I'm keeping what's his and that's setting the table for me to experience an absence of blessing in my finances. Either I give God my time and I worship him with my time. You know, listen, at times I have I have families who say to me, "You know, you're not going to be seeing us much cuz we're going to be at the lake this summer." And you know what? I don't often say something. It It depends who they are in in some sense and how well I know them because, you know, I I I want to be gracious to people, but I'm always like, "I Be careful about that." is the That's the least I'll say. The worst I'll say is, "You know what? That's a major mistake and you'll regret that with your kids." Cuz you're doing it because you think you're going to get family time, but you're teaching your children to be away from the house of God. And what you do in moderation, your kids will do in excess. It's just true. I've seen I've done I've been pastoring long enough you you can see how the game how the game gets played out. You know, what what we do with our time and our talent and our finance is so important. God owns everything. God provides everything. God wants the first portion. And what you do with that first portion determines what happens to everything else. And when you are generous with your time and you're generous with your finances and you're generous with your talent, God is going to set his hand of blessing on you in a way that's going to enable you to go farther, faster than you could have on your own.
Second, in order to conquer, we need God's help and blessing. I mean, we need his help. You know, they thought they could take AI with 3,000 men, but what they thought they could do and what they should have been able to do, they could not do. Why? Because they didn't have the hand of God on their life. Listen, more than anything else, that's what you want. You want the hand of the Lord on your life. You want his hand ON YOUR LIFE, NOT just when you're sitting in church, but you want his hand on your life when you go home AND WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE morning and when you go to work. You want that favor of God. You want that blessing of God. YOU WANT GOD TO GO BEFORE YOU. YOU WANT GOD TO multiply your time and your talent and your resource. You want God to bless you. And there are some tonight, and frankly, life is just plain hard continually. And there's a part of it It's like you're you're not able to do what you ought to be able to do. And it's because the blessing of God in certain areas of your life is missing. And it comes down, honestly, and I say this in love. I'm I'm saying it because I want you to understand and I and I know of what I speak. I've done this long enough. I've watched it in enough people's lives. I can give you example after example that this is true, that this is how it works in life. It's as true as the law of gravity. What you do with the first part determines what happens with the rest. What you do with that first finance you get. That check, the write the tithe check first. Give God his portion first and watch God go before you and turn you into a conqueror in a way you've never seen before. He wants us to be the heart of a conqueror, but we're never going to experience that or be that if we're keeping back for ourselves the things that belong to him. Achan did it and the the nation was unable to win a battle until what was God's was given to God. And there's some of you I I believe tonight God has has sent you here at whether this campus or one of the other campuses or you're watching online. And God is just simply wanting you to know, "Listen, I want you to conquer and I want to help you win. But it's going to take it's going to take a change in how you're doing some things and viewing some things and how you're giving some things."