How to Walk in Victory: Lessons from Ai - Joshua 8:1-29

good morning. Happy Father's Day. You' gonna start off the dead little sports trivia question for you. And this is super, super obscure. You're going to have to be my age or older to even have a chance of remembering this guy. Someone you've seen many, many times, you may have never heard his name, maybe have never seen his face. Anybody have any idea who this guy might be? If you ever saw this guy, and if you're my age or older, and you're a sports fan, you would have seen this guy almost every Saturday afternoon if you turned on the TV to ABC's wide world of sports. Anybody watch ABC's Wide World of Sports on Saturday afternoon? Well, if you did, you saw these screenshots, this video, grab some screenshots. Anybody know who Victor Bogatai might be He's the face of the agony of defeat. Anybody watch ABC's wide World of Sports? It ran from the 1960s all the way up to the late 1990s, and in 1970, 19771, this ski crash happened, and for the next 30 years, he would be shown every Saturday on our TVs, as the narrator said these wordspanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat." Now, when they say that words, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, the faces of the thrill of victory would change. It was Muhammad Ali for a while, if you remember back in the day. Sometimes it would be whichever team won the World Series recently or the Super Bowl recently. But every time, while the faces of the thrill of victory changed, they never changed that shot of the video montage. And for 30 years, Victor Bogatai was the guy you saw fleeing off the edge of the ski jump when the narrator said, the agony of defeat." I wonder what happened to him. I looked him up. According to Wikipedia, he's still alive but I went to Facebook, and I found him on Facebook, discovered he only has 1,200 Facebook friends, so last night, I added him. He's not accepted it yet. I'll keep you posted to see if I actually become friends with Vinko Bogai. Some of you said this sounds exactly something Matt would do, is become friends with this guy. He's probably the most most famous athlete no one's ever heard of, and I might be friends with him by now. I'll check my phone later and let you know. Well, I' I think of Victor or Bogai? I thought of Victor Bogatai as I thought of our passage last week and this week in the Book of Joshua. We've been going through the Book of Joshua. God had promised generations ago to give the Israelite people a promised land. They waited generations for that promise to be fulfilled. 400 years of those, they were enslaved in Egypt. God led them out of slavery in Egypt, and they spent 40 years wandering in the desert, waiting to step in to the land. And now in the land, they have experienced in the last three weeks of our study, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The thrill of victory in Jericho. God has brought him to the land. He stopped the flow of the Jordan River, allowed them to cross over, and after marching around the walls of Jericho, God brought those walls to a crumbling heap, allowing the Israelites to rush into the city and take the first city in their campaign in the Promised land, the thrill of victory. We were on our our way to conquering this land, and then right on the heels of victory, they experienced defeat. They went to the city of AI, in the city of AI, which should have been an easy campaign, they should have taken that city in no time. They experienced the agony of defeat. 36 men lost their lives at AI. And the Bible says that there are hearts melted within their chests and became like water. How do you go so quickly from the thrill of victory in Jericho to the agony of defeat in AI? And how do we get back to V? victory again? They went from one of the greatest moments in their life to one of the worst days of their life, all because of the sin of one man, all because of the sin of one man, a man named Aiken read his story last week in chapter 7. Rustin preached to that text, you can go back and catch that online or our podcast our website. We saw how one man Achin had kept some things. God said, "W you go into the city, do not keep anything for yourself. Everything is either destroyed or brought into the treasury of the Lord. Ain decided to selfishly take some of the spoils of victory for himself, buried those in his tents. and after the defeat at AI, God revealed to the people of Israel that it was because of the sin of one man that the battle was lost. They had to dig up the sin, that to deal with the sin, and then they'd be on their way to victory. Again, today, we're going to see the victory at AI. We've watched them go from the thrill of victory in Jericho, the agony of defeat in AI, back to the thrill of victory today in the city of AI. How do you go from defeat to victory again? You may need this today, some in this room. You may today be walking through a season of defeat, a season of discouragement. You're going through a season of spiritual discouragement and defeat, and you're looking for hope. I hope today's tax, Joshua chapter 8, will give you some hope in the face of defeat. I don't know what you're struggling with today, but perhaps today you're struggling with that same constant temptation. You're a follower of Jesus, you're trying to live for his glory, but there's this one sin that oftentimes seems to knock you down, and maybe right now, you feel a bit knocked down. Maybe it's an addiction and maybe you're in a season of relapse or coming out of one, or you fear you may be headed into one. How do I get back up again? How do I come out of this season again? Maybe there's a darkness in your life, some emotional season you're walking through right now that has you feeling so spiritually defeated Maybe a relationship that has been been broken and you've made some progress, but now, because of some misstep, you feel like you're back to square one again. You thought you were making some progress, and now you're feeling defeated. Maybe it's growth in your life, your spiritual life, your relationship with God. You so desperately desire growth that you're not seen You say, how do I recover from this season of defeat? How do I come out of this?" It If you feel knocked down today, I hope Joshua 8 might give you the encouragement and give you the guidance that you need to get back up again. Let's jump in. Joshua, Chapter 8, verse 1. The Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear, Do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you and arise. Go up to AI. See, I have given in to your hand the king of AI and his people, his city and his land. We're coming off of the terrible defeat. We're not sure what we're going to do, how are we going to beat this army that so terribly defeated us just moments ago, and our hearts are now melting, and God says it's time to cheer up and get up and get back in the fight. Don't be discouraged by this temporary setback, Joshua. Get back, get the troops together, get back in the fight. My promise still stands. God had said that wherever your feet tread, it's land that I'm going to give you. And that promise he said still stands.Be strong and courageous was the message he had for him in chapter one. It's where we started this whole series weeks ago. Chapter 1, four times in that chapter, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. Again, God says to him,Do not fear, it's time to get up, it's time to get back in the fight. This time, we're going to take everybody. Last time we just took a few, I want you to get all the men ready. We're about to go into battle. My promise still stands. I'm going to give you the land. I'm still with you. Verse two, and you shall do to AI and its king, as you did to Jericho and its king, only its spoil and its livestock, you shall take us plunder for yourselves Lay an ambush against the city behind it. Okay, you didn't give the battle. plan. We're gonna get in a lot of detail here in a second. But what he tells him is, you're gonna see the same victory in AI that you saw in Jericho. And I said, we can do it differently, I got a plan in Jericho, it involve marching on the Wall, blowing some trumpets, a lot of shouting, the walls came down, got a totally different battle plan for AI, but I'm gonna be I'm still gonna give you the victory. And now notice the difference. Did you catch it verse two, there's one thing different about AI that was different from Jericho. I want you to catch it now, we're going to come back to it later. He tells them, when you go into AI, you get to take the plunder this time. Jericho, don't take anything for yourselves. That's what guys y'all in trouble. Aken took the plunder, he took the spoils of war, buried in his tent, and as a result of his disobedience, because I told you not to take any plunder, the army was defeated at the city of AI. This time, I'm going to lead you into victory, and you get you're going to get to take some of the plunder You Can't help but wonder if only Aikken had waited one more city. If only he'd waited on the law Lord, one more day, the outcome might have been quite different. Verse 3. So Joshua, when all the fighting men arose to go up to AI, and Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, butut all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city from the they will say, they are fleeing from us just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord, your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, you shall do according to the word of the Lord, see I've commanded you. So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethle and AI to the west of AI, but Joshua spent the night among the people. So here's what he does. 30,000 soldiers gets them prepared, ready for battle. He takes some of the soldiers, and he hides them on one side of the city. He takes the rest of the army, the bulk of the army, they come around to the other side of the city, and they camp in front of the city like they're going to attack it just as they had approached it before. And he said, "What's gonna happen is we're gonna approach the city like we're gonna attack them. They're gonna get really excited, because the last time they saw us come to their city, they rushed out, and they beat us out of the field outside of the city. They're gonna expect the same outcome. They're going to rush out of the city to attack us, and when they leave the city to attack us, you guys are going to come up from your place of hiding and you're going to ambush the city from the other direction This is my plan. When you catch that, verse 8, the focus is here is on obeying the Lord's plan. You shall do according to the word of the Lord, see, I have commanded you. We're going to follow the Lord's command. This is God's plan for the battle. And we're going to follow it. Verse 10, Joshua rose early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel. Before the people of A.I, and all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of AI, with a ravine between them and A.I. He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Beth and AI to the west of the city So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent the night in the valley, and as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Araba to meet Israel in battle But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, fled in the direction of the wilderness, so all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua. As they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city, not a man was left in AI or Bethel, who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. So the next morning, Joshua leads the soldiers to position themselves to the north of the city, just on the other side of the ravine, 5,000 men waiting in ambush, and the overconfident king of AI hurried out to attack the Israelites, expecting to easily overcome them as he had before. And Joshua and his troops, they pretend to be defeated, they run away, they're being pursued, and they leave the city wide open for attack.se 18. The Lord said to Joshua, stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward AI, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire fire So when the men of AI looked back, behold, the smoke, of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. And when Joshua and all, Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and the smoke of the city went up, they turned back and struck down the men of AI And the others came out of the city against them, so they were in the midstst of Israel, some on this side, some on that side, and Israel struck them down until there was left none that survive or escaped, but the king of AI, they took alive and brought him near to Joshua. So, the plan works. This group attacks from this direction, the men of AI rush out, they say, "Oh, no, they're going to kill us again. They're beginning to run, and there's are running, The other group sneaks in, set's seat on fire. The men of AI are chasing up your Joshua's men, and they go, "ou smell that? Smells like smoke." They turn around. Oh, my goodness, the house is on fire.Let's go back to the city, put off the fire, and is they're rushing back to the city, you've got troops on this side, you've got troops on this side, they're trapped outside of the walls of the city, and they are completely wiped out and destroyed. V 24. When Israel finished killing all the inhabitants of AI in the open wilderness, where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword. All Israel returned returned to AI and struck it down with the edge of the sword And all who fell that day, both men and women were 12,000, all the people of AI, but Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin into until he had devoted all the inhabitants of AI to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder. According to the work of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. Again, is with Jericho, the entire city is devoted to destruction, according to God's plan. It's tough again, isn't it? Chapter 6 was tough. Men and women and children destroyed by the swords of the people of Israel. Chapter 7 was tough. Achin and his family killed for his sin, buried under a pile of rocks. And again, chapter 8, Joshua held up his javelin until every living soul in AI was killed. This is tiough. struggle with these, don't you? We talked about this two weeks ago. Russ and talked about it last week. There's passages that they don't sit well with us. We struggle with these because you can't imagine the entire city being wiped out, the men, and the women being destroyed, the city burned to the ground, why, we're told, we understand that the grand scope of the Old Testament, it was because of their idolatry, because of their sin, because of their rebellion, God had patiently endured for generations with people of this land who refused to turn to him, and finally, there was no more patiently waiting. It was time for judgment to come upon the land. I struggle with these, I'm sure you do as well. Here's what I always try to remember as as I look at passages like this. I think the reason I have such a hard time with this is because I often, I wonder if you're guilty of the same. I often tend to overestimate my goodness and underestimate God's holiness. And as a result, I miscalculate the gravity of sin. I miscalculate the gravity of sin, and passages like like this remind me once again, they recalibrate my thinking that I'm a sinner, and we are sinners, and we live our lives in rebellion of God, a holy God, and a just God.. And there is a point where a holy and just God judges sin And this reminds me of the gravity of sin that I just don't realize so often what a big deal sin is, that sin costs all the inhabitants of Jericho their lives. sin costs Ain and his family, their lives. sin costs all of the inhabitants of AI, their lives We see these things, and we're struck with this, what's happened on the day, and what we ought to do is stop presuming upon God's grace and his patience. The passages like this ought to call us to repentance, that to remind us of the holiness of God and the gravity of sin, to stop overestimating our goodness and underestimating God's holiness and miscalculating how serious sin is in his eyes. It brought this entire city to the ground. verse 28. Joshua burned AI made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day, a permanent ruin, a permanent reminder of God's judgment, of God's holiness. verse 29, and he hanged the king of AI on a tree until evening, and and at sunset Joshua commanded that they took his body down from the tree, threw it at the edge of the city gate, and they raised over a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day. Notice those m monuments.member the first one in Gilgal, when they crossed the Jordan River, they took the stones out of the river, and they stacked at those stones as a memorial to God's faithfulness In Jericho, they said the walls will never be rebuilt, a reminder of God' faithful's justice and God's holiness. And again, the city of AI, and then we see in the middle of it, God's grace and God's mercy that he gave the children of Israel another opportunity to be victorious after sin brought defeat into their life. What do we learn from this? kind of walk through this long passes, kind of repeated the story, a couple of times, we walked through it, we're talking in a minute, why I think that is the case. What are the lessons of AI? I think the lessons in AI, the lessons we learned from the second Battle of AI the first Battle of AI, give us some guidance at how to walk in victory How do we get back up when we've been knocked down? What was different from the defeat in AI and the victictory in AI? What's the difference between chapter 7 and chapter 8? I think we'll notice several things. There are three I want to draw to your attention. So when you find yourself defeated, you find yourself discouraged, when you find that your heart is melting how do we get back up again, trust the promises of God again, and get back in the fight again? Three lessons I think we need to learn. Number one, is that it was purity, not strategy that brought victory. It was purity, not strategy, that brought the victory. Don't let the creative battle plan distract you from the true key to victory in chapter 8. You might say, "Yeah, but they took more men the second time. Of course they were going to win. Or they had a really cool plan to hide them in and put them in here and set the stay on fire. All that's true. But that's not the point the scripture's making. If you read chapter 7 and chapter 8 together, you look at the whole story, don't we've broken up into two chapters and two sermons in two weeks. We got to see the whole thing together, what we're seeing here is it was their repentance. They're dealing with the sin that took them from the agony of defeat back to the thrill of victory. Again, notice verse 7. If you have your Bible in front of you just flip back from where we are in chapter 8, just to chapter 7 for a second, notice verse 10. verse 10, "The Lord said to Joshua, get up. Why have you fallen on your face? Is Israel has sinned. You know why 36 men are dead? You know why your hearts are melting? Because of sin. Because they've transgressed my covenant that I commanded them Verse 12 of chapter 7, I will be with them no more unless they destroy the devoted things. And then you read through the story, the rest of chapter 7, into chapter 8, they dealt with the the sin that was buried in their tent, and once they dealt with the sin buried in the tent, they were able to go from defeat back to victory. Again, you see the pattern? Chapter 7, chapter 8, Sin brought defeat, repentance brought brought victory. Having dealt with their sin, they're back on God's side again. You see, when we get our lives right with God that's the key to getting up again, not some clever plan, some TED Talk, some pep talk from a friend, some strategy. It's going to be when we get our hearts right with God again, we can go from defeat back to victory again. You said, well, they had a lot more people. The math doesn't matter here, because I'm not super good at math. I never was. My son was taking algebra too, and he said, "Dad, did did you take algebra 2 in high school?" I said, "I had two years of algebra." He said, "So you had algebra 2?" I said, "Nope, I had two years of algebra. Listen very carefully to what I'm saying. I'm not good at math, and here's a math problem my understanding God plus none is a majority. God plus none is a majority. You can take 100,000 troops to AI. If the sin is still buried in the tent, 100,000 men will be struck in.. You can take one guy to AI, and that one guy's heart was right before God, and God decides to let one guy be victorious, then one guy would be victorious. The number of troops doesn't matter. It's the fact that the people got right with God again Purity put them back on God's side again. Look at the scriptures, a couple of verses, I'll share with you, Isaiah 59, 1,Bhold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is ear dulled, that it cannot hear, but your iniquities, your sins have made a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so he does not answer. You know why you're feeling distant, why you're feeling cut off? It's because of your sin. It's not because God is far away. It's not because God can't hear. It's not because God's arm can't reach you. It's because your sin has caused a separation, and you're going to feel that until the sin is dealt with Jeremiah 5, the people are wondering why the rain isn't following, why they're going through difficult times. They do not say in their hearts, let us fear the Lord, our God, who gives the rain and it se, and the autumn rain and the spring rain, who keeps us us for the keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest. verse 25. Your iniquities, your sin have turned these away. Your sins have kept good from you. It's your sin that's cut you off. And until you get your heart right, you're going to walk in defeat. You're feeling defeated today. Your first step is to dig up the sin buried in your tent, and here's the good news, God is going to be faithful to forgive God will forgive. God will give you a second chance when you deal with your sin, Jesus died of the cross so that our sins could be forgiven. We get the full picture. Our story doesn't end in the book of Joshua. We get the whole Bible. We don't know how the story ends, that Jesus came, God, the flesh d crossed for our sins. He rose from the grave to show his victory over sin Not only the penalty of sin, but also the power of sin in our life, and we can have our sins forgiven, we can walk in newness of life, we can get back up again and walk with him because of the grace of Jesus. But we can cannot expect God's favor when we're walking in disobedience Have you presumed upon God's grace? Have you presumed upon God's patience, takenaken it for granted? Have you overestimated your goodness and underestimated his holiness? Have you miscalculated the gravity of your sin today? You will not have victory until you dig up what's buried in your tent. But here's some good news. You don't have to be discouraged by temporary setbacks. Don't be discouraged by temporary setbacks. They dealt with the sin in chapter 7, and now in chapter 8, here's the good news, chapter 8 verse verse 1, "Do not fear or be dismayed. You don't have to fear now. That was temporary. It was tragic, it was awful. 36 men are dead, 36 families are grieving. The nation had their hearts melting, but God says, wee've dealt with the sin, we're back on track, you're back on my side, get up, let's go to A. Let's get back in the fight. You can trust my promises. Have you been knocked down? It's time to get up again. It's time to get back in the fight again. You can't change the past, but you can step into a future second opportunity because of God's grace and and God's mercy. Your past can either be a rudder that will guide you or to be an anchor that will drag you and hold you back. You would decide. Will your past to be a rudder to guide you into a different plan this time, a different approach this time? Or is it going to be a rudder that holds you back that keeps you defeated, that keeps you down? Trust this promise is one of the very first Bible verseses I ever memorized was 1 John 19. I'd submit to you today that if you're discouraged, if you feel beat down by the same sin you feel like you're on your back today because of the sin of your life. Let me encourage a man memorize this verse, to commit this to memory in your heart, to claim this promise that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's His promise to you today. You can have a fresh start, you can have your sins forgiven You can have your unrighteousness cleansed. This is a temporary setback. You can get up again from this. Micah 7:118, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, passing over transgression for the remnant of your inheritance, he does not re retain his anger forever. He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea He is a God who delights in love, who wants to cast your sins into the sea when you repent, when you call out to him, you can get back up from the temporary setback you've walked through. And then finally, we submit to God's plan. Submit to God's. you notice some differences here from chapter 7 to chapter 8. Chapter 8, verse 1,The Lord said to Joshua, take all the fighting men with you How's that different from chapter 7? Chapter 7, the spies said,This will be easy. don't take very many men. Take a handful of men, we'll run up there, we'll defeat AI, we'll be back by lunch. Different time, this time, we're not going to listen to spies, we'll listen to God. And the Lord said, "Here's the battle plan. I've got the plan. Listen to me. Who are you listening to? Where are you getting your advice? Where are you getting your council, victory comes when we listen to the voice of the Lord. We're in His Word, when we're in community with others, when we're on our knees in prayer, we're following his plan. Notice that they carefully followed his plan first. verse 8 You shall do according to the word of the Lord. It's interesting, actually, going through the book of Joshua, up to this point, how often these stories will, you go into a chapter and you listen to a sermon, and it kind of keeps repeating itself. Do you notice that? It happened when they crossed the Jordan River. It happened when they picked up the stones in the river, it happened when they were told how many times a march on Jericho. We saw it here in this battle plan. It varies a little, but the pattern just goes kind of like this. God tells Joshua something Joshua tells the people what God just told him. him, and then the author of the book of Joshua tells us exactly what they did. So the stories over, they're kind of repetitive. The kind of long chapters kind of work through. But basically, it's this. The author says, this is what they did because Joshua told the people to do it because God told Joshua to do it. Why does it keep doing that? I think there's a reason for this in this book. It's the focus is on the great attention to the detailed commandments of God God says, doo it exactly this way. And then Joshua tells the people,We're going to do exactly this way. And then the author says they did it exactly exactly this way. You know what happens when they do it? When they do it exactly the way God told him to do it, there was victory, and when they varied from that plan, there was defeat. And the lesson is, when we follow his plan, there's victory, when we stra from his plan, there's defeat Who's directing your steps? Who's directing your steps? You decide to do it your way. There's going to always be it's always going to be a recipe for defeat. There used to be a bumper sticker. You don't see it very often now, but remember these bumper stickers, you just say, God is my co pilot? That's actually kind of bad theology, really bad theology and bad advice. Guy on our coilots. What's a cop pilot do? The coilot assists the pilot, and once in a while, the pilot lets the coilot take over the controls of the plane, and that's how we live our lives lives. It's a terrible bumper sticker, but it's probably pretty true for most of us. We say, God, you sit here, and if I need your assistance, you can help me. And if I feel like there's some point where things are out of control, and I want you to take control, I'll let you know. And that's a recipe for disaster. That's a recipe for defeat. We see the pattern is, when they did it, God's way there was victory. They listened to him, they followed him, and noticed something else here. They waited on him. And when they waited on him, they were able to take the spoils of what war. This is a sad, sad irony here. Verse chapter 8, verse 2, verse 27, are really sad to me, that he tells these people, when you get to AI, I'm going to give you victory, and when you get the victory, you take all the plunder you want. Take all the stuff you want. You've defeated the city verse 27, all the livestock and the spoil of the city, it's yours as the Lord commanded. I don't know if I'm pressing this too much here, but I just can't help but think of Aiken and his family if he just waited another day. if he just waited.Jericho, don't take anything. AI, you take whatever you want. How often do we rob ourselves and hurt other people because we rush ahead of God? Because we get impatient. We don't have the faith to wait on him, to do it his way, to delay gratification for a moment What are you waiting on today? I wonder how many times people desperate for God to bring that special person in their life. And rather than patiently waiting on God to unfold his plan, they rush ahead into a relationship that doesn't honor him. They robbed themselves of what might have been because they didn't want to patiently wait on God. How many times people are in a situation, a job or circumstance, and God says, I just want you here for a season, and then I've got something for you. And that season, we sabotage it. We mess it up. because we want to get out of what we're in instead of waiting on him to bring the next thing. How many times we go and we make some stupid major purchase because we're looking for some kind of happiness in our life that we think this thing will give us. And we rush out there and do something that ends up being a mistake. How many times we want satisfaction in our life, and we seek that somewhere else instead of waiting on what the Lord wants us to do we wait on him. Where are you today? You walk into a season of defeat. What are the lessons from AI that could help you? You have sin buried in your tent? I don't even know where I am right now with God. You may feel so defeated right now, so discouraged, so cut off spiritually. You're not even sure where you are. Let me just give you some good news. I think a lot of times people will say, he talked about Jesus d on the cross for me and that I can trust Jesus, and I could follow Jesus. I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't know. Maybe I was following Jesus, and right now, I just kind of straight away and I need to kind of get back on track. Maybe I never was following him And I don't even know. Maybe I've never really trusted Jesus. Maybe I've never turned for my sin and put my faith in him. Let me you some good news. Your next move is the same either way. You see, we talk about time you. Do I need to rededicate my. The Bible doesn't talk about rededication. I' talks about repentance Repentance. And if you're not a follower of Jesus, okay, you know what you need to do? You need to repent. You need to turn from the sin in your life and follow Jesus. Trust Jesus. If you are following Jesus, and you've just been knocked down into a season of rebellion, you know what you to do? Repent. It's the same same solution. I can't. We can unpack it all later, your circumstance. What you right now, if you feel like I feel like cut off right now, I've got c in my life that that has entangled me, that has pulled me down, and I feel off track, your solution, no matter what it is, is say, God, I want to turn from that sin in my life, I want to trust Jesus to forgive me. I'm going to claim the promises of your word, that you forgive me when I bring my sins to you. And I want to turn from the sin that has brought defeat in my life, and I want to trust you, Jesus to bring the forgiveness in my life and the restoration of my life. your prayer writing I'm going to get right of the sin that's knocked me down. And let me tell you, not just get right, but get up, get back up, get off the ground, get off the mat, get off from the defeat you're feeling right now. Take the word of the Lord in chapter 8, verse 1, The Lord said, don't be discouraged. Get up and get back in the fight. and let that be God. God's word to you today from the story of AI, to get back up, get right, get on God's side, and get back in the fight again. Let's pray together. I don't you think about where you are right now. This is a season of defeat for you. Just maybe your prayers. God. I I'm walking through just a discouraging season right now, and if it's because of a sin in my life, God, would you show it to me? Would you reveal what's buried in my life in? Maybe you know full well what it is. Would you dig it up right now, God? I know I'll never have victory until I have purity And God, I've tried every strategy. but I've not come to you and let you deal with the sin in my life. God, I'm coming to you, I want you to dig up the sin in my life that's holding me back, that's causing defeat in my life. Maybe you're discouraged, you say, God, I feel so defeated by the decisions I've made lately, the circumstance of my life, lately, God, would you help me to get back up again? Maybe you have given up and God is saying, get back in the fight. Maybe your sin has puts you no longer on God's side, and you would say, God, I want to be on your side here. God, would you forgive me? Maybe you never give me life to Jesus. And you see in this story the holiness of God and the justice of God. And you know, you need the grace of God. You need the mercy of God. Maybe your prayer today is Jesus. I need you to be my Savior, Jesus. Would you come into my life. Would you forgive me? Would you cleanse me? Did you give my Lord, you my Savior? God, I pray for the person here who feels defeated. I pray show him or her what the sin is that might be buried in their life, if that's what it is. God, for the one who knows there is sin in their life, would you convict them and bring them to a point of repentance? God for the person who has, would you show them your grace and your mercy, remind them of your promises to forgive us when we bring our sins to you, that they're not defined by this season of their life. They're not defined by they do not have to be defined, but they're recent decisions that they've made, but they can receive your mercy rece receive your grace, receive your forgiveness. Walk in holiness, walk in purity and walk in victory. God, would you convict us when we want to make you our co pilot? Would Would you convict us when we listen to the advice of counselors instead of the word of the Lord? Lord, convict us when we rush ahead of you instead of waiting on what you have for us. Let us learn the lessons of AI, the lessons of your word, the lessons of what you did, and let us walk in victory today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.