Hello. And welcome to this message
from Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. Our prayer is that God
uses these messages to impact others for
His Glory and we're excited to hear
how lives are being changed by His perfect love. If this message encourages you,
we'd love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/give. As we continue the
series Crash and Burn, we meet a guy whose name
actually means trouble. Achan was an Israeli soldier
whose personal action brought a national reaction. In the message, Here
Comes Trouble, Skip shares what we should do
when we find ourselves in the fallout of failure. Now turn in your Bible
to Joshua 7 as he begins. Would you please turn your
Bible to the book of Joshua 7? As well as did
you bring a Bible? You brought it. All right. You're holding it up? It's a beautiful sight. Joshua 7 and James 1. I'm going to make a
reference to that. It's just a whole lot easier if
you can see it in front of you. Joshua 7 and then James 1. The Heitzig boys were trouble,
especially the third one. That's my brother Bob. Bob was 6 foot 8"
and he liked it. And he wanted others
to appreciate it. He could walk into a room
and be very intimidating. So though all of us could
bring a little bit of craziness to a situation,
when Bob was coming, it's like here comes trouble. And he's sort of
like that mystique. There was a new bartender that
moved into an old frontier town, a Western town. And his predecessor said
I've got one piece of advice for you. If Big John ever comes
to town, get out quick. Well years went by
and one day a cowpoke put his head in the saloon
said Big John's a comin' Everybody ran far and
fast except the bartender. He couldn't get out in time. And just then, through
the saloon doors, in walked this huge biggest,
ugliest, meanest looking guy, black hat, snarl,
riding a buffalo. One hand was a rattlesnake,
other hand was a bull whip. With one fist, he could break
a table, broke it in half. Ordered up a root beer. I alter the story depending
on the audience, you know. And he took the root beer, bit
off the cap with his teeth, drank it. Bartender said, can I
get you another one, sir? And the big old
dude said there's no time Big John's coming. So it's one thing to be big and
mean and ugly like that guy, but there's somebody
worse than him. My brother Bob was Big John, or
he wanted to be seen that way. Six foot eight inches
on a Harley with a gang, just loved that mystique. Now I knew him. And I knew that deep inside
that wasn't really him. He was really tender
hearted but he liked to give off the
rough, tough exterior. The person in our story
is exactly the opposite. His name is Achan. Achan wants to appear like he's
no trouble at all, but he is. In fact, his name means trouble. That's what Achan means,
trouble or troubler. And he comes in
like he's a soldier. He's yes sir, he's
mild mannered, he marches with the rest. But he's trouble. Here comes trouble. And he brings trouble
to the entire nation. We're in Joshua 7. That's where his story is. But I just want to give
you a little bit of catch up before we get into it. In chapter 7 of
the book of Joshua, there's a change from
the first six chapters. If you were to read
the first six chapters and then begin the
seventh, it's like you're reading two different books. The first six chapters,
everything is great. God gives promises to Joshua,
the new commanding officer, the new general of Israel. They cross over the Jordan
River into the promised land. There is a miraculous takeover
of the first city, Jericho. All of that's good. Until you get to chapter 7. And you can see it for yourself. Look at the very last verse
of chapter 6 verse 27. "So the Lord was with
Joshua and his fame spread throughout all the country." First word of the next chapter. "But" that's not a good change. That signals that things are
going to be different from here on out. And they will be. This is the first defeat
that they will experience. Now the overcomers are overcome. Now the victors become
the vanquished ones. Here comes trouble. What's interesting is that what
brings the trouble is small. It seems insignificant. Most of us would
say oh, come on. What's the big deal? It's so small. It's a soldier who
wants the spoils of war which soldiers have
wanted for, well, since there have been soldiers. It happens in a battle. It seems small. But it brings something big. Some years ago, I was speaking
in North Carolina at the Cove, it's called-- the Billy
Graham Training Center. I think we had about 400 people
in our seminar that week. And I had just discovered,
or somebody introduced me to, this bakery shop that was
not a national chain yet. It was just a local bakery
shop only in North Carolina. That's where it started. It's called Krispy Kreme donuts. And when I had one
of those, I just thought God gave this
as a gift to mankind. This is like manna from heaven. Those hot now donuts, come on. So I had one I
thought oh my stars we've got to get
a donut like this into the hands of every
participant in this seminar. So the Cove
volunteered to do that. We ordered 400 donuts to be
brought in for our seminar participants. When one of the guys went there
to pick up the 400 donuts, he waited and he waited and
he waited until he finally said now what's taking so long? Why is this such a long
process to wait for? And the guy at Krispy
Kreme behind the counter said well to bake
up 400 dozen donuts is taking us a lot of time. He said 400 what? He said 400 dozen. He said no I ordered 400. See, it's just one small word. There's only five letters
so the word dozen. But it changes
everything, right? 400 donuts is a whole lot
different than 4,800 donuts. I think we got the guy to
stop at 90 dozen donuts. So we carried 90 dozen
donuts back to the Cove. They dropped them off
at homeless shelters. And just kids just
along the way. And still had plenty left over. I think we sugared up every
homeless person in that town that night. People who say that
small things don't matter have never slept in a
room with a mosquito. Just one little thing
can change everything. As we look at this seventh
chapter, what I want to do is frame for you the man Achan. And I'm going to provide
four sides to this frame by giving you four
statements, for little maxims, four axiomatic truths,
self-evident truths. Here's the first one. Every disobedience
is detrimental. Mark that. Every disobedience
is detrimental. Verse 1 "But the children
of Israel--" here it comes-- "but the
children of Israel committed a trespass
regarding the accursed things. For Achan--" remember
his name means trouble-- "Achan, the son
of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah,
of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed things--"
better translation, the devoted things. Things that should have
been devoted or set apart for the Lord. "And so the anger
of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Now Joshua sent men
from Jericho to Ai--" that's how you pronounce
that little town, Ai-- "which is beside Beth-aven
on the east side of Beth-el and spoke to them saying go
up and spy out the country. So the men went up
and spied out Ai." They eyed Ai. "And they return to
Joshua and said to him, do not let the people go up. But let about 2,000 or 3,000
men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people
there for the people of Ai are few. So about 3,000 men went
up from the people, but they fled before
the men of Ai. And the men of Ai
struck down about 36 men for they chased them from before
the gate as far as Sheba rim and struck them
down on the descent. Therefore the
hearts of the people melted and became like water." Here's the deal. Jericho was the first
town they took over. The spoils of war
to Jericho were to be devoted or dedicated
to the treasury of the Lord's stuff. The people were not to touch it. The soldiers were
to leave it alone. The commanding officer, Joshua,
gave that order in chapter 6, don't touch it. Don't keep it. Leave it alone. Doesn't belong to you,
it belongs to God. If you touch it,
you'll be cursed. Well Achan didn't seem to care. He saw something
that caught his eye. And he thought why
let it go to waste? It won't be missed. And he took it for himself. Because he did that, 36
men lost their lives. Because he did that, 36
families are experiencing grief. Because he did that,
36 wives became widows. Because he did that, 36
sets of children lost a dad. And because he did that,
the whole group of Israel is held accountable. It's interesting. You go down to verse
11, God speaks to Joshua and he says "Israel has sinned." Yep Achan stole, but
Israel has sinned. The nation is liable. And it's going to cost Achan
his own life, literally. Achan will become bacon
by the end of the chapter. It will cost him and
the lives of his family. Here's the point to be made. Every believer's actions
matter, for better or for worse. And they affect the whole group. As Warren Wiersbe put
it, never underestimate the damage one person outside
the will of God can do. Ask Adam. Just one little piece
of fruit, no big deal. Thank you very much, Adam. Just ask Abraham. Just one little lie, one
act of disobedience in Egypt almost cost the
life of his wife. Just ask King David, just
one decision to number the people of Israel
cost 70,000 lives. Ask Jonah, one ticket
aboard one boat brought a storm, a whale,
and almost sunk the ship. Asked the church at Corinth
who because they tolerated the sexual immorality of
just one of their members brought judgment upon that
church, 1 Corinthians 5:1. Ask the families
of 10,000 people who last year lost their lives
in alcohol related traffic accidents. Just one choice. One act. Now we're connected
to each other. We are. You might not feel that way
or you might not act that way. But the Bible says as
the body of Christ, we're a part of one another. We need each other. I know we needle each
other from time to time, but we need each other. And what we do
effects everyone else. It's called the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 "As the body
is one and has many members, but all the members of that one
body being many are one body. So also is Christ." Now listen to this. "And if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all
the members rejoice with it." Beware of the person who
says what I do is what I do. It's none of your
business, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. That's just the thing. It always does
hurt somebody else. It's selfish and
ignorant and arrogant to think that you
can just do it and it doesn't hurt anybody else. It always does. Always affects other people. Ecclesiastes 9 says "one
sinner destroys much good." Or to put it in
our little axiom, every disobedience
is detrimental. That's one side of the frame. That's part of the
picture frame of Achan. Let's go now to another side. Not only does every
disobedience become detrimental, but every sin has stages to it. It comes in stages. Now I want to go down to verse
19, I want to skip ahead. So follow your eyes
down to verse 19. After Joshua prays
to God about this, God tells him to find
the person responsible. "Joshua said to Achan,
my son, I beg you. Give glory to the
Lord God of Israel. Make confession to Him. Tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered
Joshua and said indeed I have sinned against
the Lord God of Israel and this is what I've done. When I saw among the spoils a
beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge
of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are hidden in the
Earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it." Did you notice the stages? Do you notice what
he says he did. Look at the verbs. He said I saw, I coveted. I took. In other words, it didn't
happen all of a sudden. It happened with a
series of stages. I saw something. I wanted something. I took something. So far, we've been seeing
that in just about every one of these Crash and Burn studies. Eve saw the fruit. It was pleasant to the eyes,
good for food, makes one wise. So she took it. Ate it. Gave it. Lot didn't just wake
up one day in Sodom. He first looked toward it. It looked good. He moved his tent
in that direction. Then he moved to town. Then he led in that town. Then he lingered in that town. So there's always
stages to this. And here's the irony. If Achan would have just
waited one more chapter, if he would have just
obeyed God and said, OK. I'm not going to touch
anything from Jericho, I'm going to just do it. The man says I'm
going to obey this. We get to chapter 8 verse 2,
and Joshua tells his soldiers now the town of Ai is all yours. You can have anything
you want in it. Jericho belonged to God, but
this whole town is yours. All the spoils of war
are yours to keep. He would have gotten even
more than he got out of greed. Jim Elliot, the
missionary, said God always gives His best to those who
leave the choice with Him. Isn't that great? God always gives
His best to those who leave the choice with Him. But he saw. He coveted. He took. Those are the stages. Now I ask you at the beginning,
did I not, to turn to or to mark James 1. So turn there for a moment. I want you to look
at two verses. James 1 gives to
us, we could call it the anatomy of temptation. It's like he's a scientist
and he dissects temptation to show you the
different stages. And it's like he has
been reading Joshua 7. James 1: 14 and 15. I'm going to begin in
verse 13. "Let no one say when he is tempted
I am tempted by God. For God cannot be
tempted by evil. Nor does He Himself
tempt anyone. But each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full
grown, brings forth death." Notice the stages. First stage, desire. Desire. James says each one is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires. We all have desires. There's nothing wrong
with having a desire. They're normal. You couldn't function
without desire. You have a thirst drive. You have a hunger drive. We have a sex drive. God put that in the human race. There's nothing
wrong with desires. What's wrong is when you
seek to satisfy those desires outside the will of God. That's the problem. So, for example,
eating is normal. Gluttony is sin. Sleep is normal. Laziness is sin. Sex is normal. Adultery is sin. Wanting an education is normal. Cheating on the test. that's sin. You get the point. It begins with desire. The next step is deception. After desire becomes deception. You'll notice in verse
14, James tells us "Each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desires." See the word drawn away? It's a hunter's term. It means to lead an animal or
lure an animal from a place of safety into a trap. I have a friend who is
helping me solve a problem. I think I have some kind
of critters at my house. He thinks they're squirrels. So he says I got the solution. I'm going to trap
these squirrels. And then I'm going to let
them out somewhere far away. So he has these traps. The door's open. And he put a little container
with just a little bit of peanut butter in it. I love peanut butter. I'm tempted by it. I won't let my dog out
because he'll get trapped. So that little door is open. And that little cup
of peanut butter is sitting there to lure an
animal from a place of safety into a trap. That's the idea of drawn away. Come here little squirrel. Also look at the word
in that verse, enticed. Do you see it? Each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Now this word comes from the
word that means to bait a hook. To take a hook and
put bait on it. So you throw a hook
into the water. You don't want to
leave it like the hook because the fish is
going to go forget you. But you put bait on
the hook and he's going to think
there's breakfast. Not knowing he is the breakfast. That's the point of
bathing the hook. You're hiding that
lure from them. You're bringing them out
from a place of safety. You're baiting a hook. Achan had a desire for more. OK. Nothing wrong with
having a desire, Achan. And then he sees something
alluring clothes and cash. Babylonian garment,
it's the style now. It fits just perfect. Why let it go to waste? Looks good on me. It's a lure. So desire, and after
that deception. There's a next step decision. That's verse 15 James 1. Then notice this "When
desire has conceived--" see that word conceived? "It gives birth to sin." Now that's the terminology
of having a baby. But it could be translated
when it has spawned. When it has spawned. Have you noticed that all of
these terms in these two verses are animal terms? And I think that's for
a very important reason. I think what James
is saying is when you live on the level of
just getting your needs met, your desires are met,
you are living no higher than the level of an animal. That's what animals do. They live according
to their senses. They just want their needs
met any way possible. Any creature can do that. That's animal living. So when you have desire
followed by deception, you're faced with a decision. Do you take it? Or do you leave it? There's a great book that I've
had for years in my library. It's still published. It's called The
Fight by John White. It's about the Christian life. But he gives one of the best
illustrations of temptation I've ever heard. He said temptation is
sort of like a piano. If we were to have a grand
piano out here like we have in the back, if you
open the lid of a piano and you press the right
pedal, the sustain pedal, you can sing a
note into the piano and you know what happens? You'll hear your voice
come back to you. Your voice will excite a string
or two or three in that key and reflect it back to you. Now that's not how
pianos are meant to work. A piano is meant to respond
to the strike of a felt hammer once you activate the keys. You push the keys
down, mechanism makes that little felt
hammer strike the string. But if you didn't use that
and you just push the pedal and sang into it, it excites
the strings and they sing back. Now if you want to
stop that process, there's an easy way to fix it. Close the lid. Just close the lid. Says Dr. White in
that book, he says that's how temptation works. Satan comes along
and he calls to you. He sings to you. And that sounds very exciting. In fact, the piano,
if it could speak, says White, would be turned
on by the human voice. So you got you close the lid. Satan calls, gives you something
that's alluring and you go ooh. I hear that voice. Close the lid. Walk away from
the magazine rack. Get off the computer. Leave the shoe section of the
store, whatever it might be. Close the lid. Because the desire
that leads to deception that brings you to a
decision, something happens. There's a four step
and that's death. James says "Then when desire
has conceived, it gives birth." To what? To sin. Sin is born. "And sin when it is full
grown brings forth the death." It might not happen for a while. You might live a long
time before it ever comes. But it's so cute at first. It's a baby. Look at my baby sin. That's kind of cute. A lion is cute as a baby. When it grows up,
it will eat you. It's going to act
according to its nature. And it can destroy you. Death is always
the result of sin. Always. Some kind of separation occurs. In a relationship of trust,
or a relationship with God. And in Achan's case,
literal, physical death. It wasn't satisfaction. It wasn't pleasure. It wasn't I'm so satisfied,
it's the wages of sin is death. So every disobedience
is detrimental. Every sin comes in stages. That frames two sides of it. Let's go to the third side. Every prayer is not pure. Every prayer is not pure. Now Joshua prays here. So go back to chapter 6--
I mean to go back to verse 6 of chapter 7, excuse me. Verse 6 "As soon as that defeat
came, Joshua tore his clothes, fell to the earth on his face
before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he
and the elders of Israel. And they put dust
on their heads." I mean they are broken
hearted over this. "And Joshua said--" here is
his prayer-- "Alas, Lord God. Why have You brought this
people over the Jordan at all? To deliver us into the hands
of the Amorites to destroy us. Oh, that we had been
content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh, Lord, what shall I
say, when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all
the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround
us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do
for Your great name?" I appreciate that Joshua prayed. In fact, what marks
his success as a leader is that he regularly
prays through the book. And I think his
prayers were good and effective I know it was
said that Mary Queen of Scots said she feared the
prayers of John Knox more than all the
armies of her enemies. And so I tend to think that
Joshua's prayers were pretty instrumental in bringing
the children of Israel into this new land. But having said that, I
want to say something else. I wish Joshua would have
prayed earlier not later. Before the defeat, not after. I wish he would have
prayed before this battle like he prayed before
the Battle of Jericho. They did pray,
chapter 5, they prayed before the Battle of Jericho. They didn't pray here. No record of that. They assumed-- this
is a small town. It's podunk. It's easy. Don't need to pray about this. I got this. What Joshua should have
done is said come here guys, let's get before God. God, thank You for that
miraculous work at Jericho. This looks like a
small town, but we don't want to presume anything. We still need You, that's
what he should have done. No record of that. If he would have
done that, he would have saved the lives of 36 men
and the grief of 36 families. Because God would have
said to him, you know what? Don't go into that city,
because there's sin in the camp. You've got to deal with that. You've got to deal with that. God will tell him, that but
that's 36 dead men later. Years ago, I'm
going way back now. Some of you, just a few
of you may remember it if there's any
left from this era. But we were in a
building on Eubank. Our church was 1660 Eubank. We needed a bigger place
so we moved to a place down the street
9610 Snow Heights. We built it out. We got all excited. We announced next week
we're going to meet there. Come Sunday morning
for our service. In between that
Sunday and the next Sunday, the Fire Marshal
showed up at our new building and said you're not
opening for anybody. You're not up to code. This wall isn't rated
for a fire wall. Now, we thought it was. We thought we knew
what we were doing. We had a bunch of
pastors building walls. So that shows you the
mistake off the bat. And I remember getting so
angry with the Lord after that and pleading with the
Lord because of that. But if I would have had
that prayer meeting earlier, and consulted builders
along the way, I'd have saved myself
a lot of grief. Like Joshua, had
he done it earlier. If you pray in times
of victory, you won't have to plead
in times of defeat. But Joshua does. Now as you read
this prayer, did you catch the tone of this prayer? Joshua was blaming God. Did you catch that? Why have You brought us here? Lord this is Your
fault. We could have just stayed on the
other side of the Jordan. But You brought us here. In fact, you know what this
reminds me of interestingly? Years before when
Moses sent 12 spies out into the land, scouts,
to look it over. 10 came back with a bad report. 2, including Joshua,
Joshua and Caleb came back with a good
report, men of faith. The children of Israel
cried out and said God, why did You bring us here? We should have died in Egypt. If I were Moses, I
would have said, yep. It'd have been a lot easier. Joshua seems to adopt
that kind of prayer. That fatalistic
it's your fault God, why did You bring us
here into this land? So that's the prayer meeting. It's not over yet. Look at verse 10, God is
going to answer his prayer, but not like you might think. "So the Lord said
to Joshua, get up." How's that for an
answer to prayer? You don't want to hear
that when you pray. Get up. "Why do you lie
thus on your face? Israel has sinned and they have
also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken
some of the accursed things, have both stolen and
deceived, and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children
of Israel could not stand before their enemies
but turned their backs before their enemies
because they had become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be
with you any more unless you destroy the
accursed from among you." Why would God say that? Here's why. Because there is a time to pray
and there is a time to move. There is a time to
get on your face. There is a time to
stand on your feet. And now is the time
to stand on your feet. I appreciate your
prayer, Joshua, but now is the time to
stop your whining and deal with the problem at hand. You remember when Moses was
leading Israel out of Egypt. They came to the Red Sea. The armies of Egypt
were behind them. I mean right on their tail. They come to the
edge of the Red Sea. Moses thinks this is a good
time to have a prayer meeting. So he starts praying. And the Bible says this
"the Lord said to Moses why are you crying to Me?" Tell the people to get moving. Moses, I love your
prayers, but now's the time not to have a prayer meeting. Move, buddy, move. Get into that water. Go. All of that to say
prayer is good. Prayer is essential. But not every prayer is pure. Sometimes a person
can pray to cover up disobedience or laziness. He needs to get up. Action without
prayer is atheism. But prayer without
action is presumption. You think you can just
presume to shoot up a prayer and not obey God? No, no, no, no. Get going. Get moving. You've got to do
something, Joshua. Not every prayer is pure. Because the purpose of prayer is
not to inform God of my needs. Do you know that? Do you think when you pray
and you tell God something, God's up there going wow. Thank you for the information. I did not know that until you
brought it to My attention. But now I'm duly informed. The purpose of prayer
is not to inform God. It's to invite God
to rule your life. You are letting
Him have control. So pray early in the
process and report for duty. What do You want me to do, Lord? Every prayer isn't pure. So we've framed three
sides of Achan's picture. Every disobedience
is detrimental. Every sin comes in stages. Every prayer isn't pure. Let's complete the picture. Fourth side, fourth statement,
fourth axiomatic truth. Every failure isn't forever. So this is the but to the but. Chapter 1, verse 1, but
the children of Israel. You're going ooh. After six chapters of good
stuff, that's not a good word. But now I want to give
another turn in the road. But every failure isn't forever. So look at verse 26. After they took
care of business, it says "they raised
over Achan, over him a great heap of stones,
still there to this day--" the time of its
writing-- "So the Lord turned from the
fierceness of His anger. Therefore, the
name of that place has been called the valley
of Achor to this day." Why is it called
the valley of Achor? What does Achor sound like? Sounds like Achan doesn't it? Achan, Achor. it's the same word in Hebrew. One is for a person. One is for a place. Same word. They called the valley after the
guy who sinned in the valley. It was a pun. It was a play on words. They named that the
valley of trouble. So the story of
Achan was a defeat. It was a sorrow. It was a judgment. It was a blot on
their national record. Achan is executed. He's buried in the
valley of trouble, because he was a trouble maker. But that's not the
end of the story. Twice in the Old
Testament there is a direct reference
to what happened here and the valley of Achor. I don't have time to
look at both of them. One is found in Isaiah 65 where
God says the valley of Achor will be filled
with pasture lands one day, speaking of
a future prosperity. But the second one is
found in the prophet Hosea. Hosea 2. I'm going to read
it to You But we'll show you the scripture
on the screen. Hosea 2. The setting is very similar. It's a time of judgement
during Hosea's time. It's a time of trouble
during Hosea's time. But he gives a glimmer of hope
and he makes direct reference to the incident of Achan. this is Hosea 2:14. "Therefore, behold--"
God says-- "I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her vineyards
from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. She shall sing there as
in the days of her youth, as in the days when she
came up from Egypt." Here's the point. The place that was associated
with defeat and downfall, that will be a place of victory. Now the immediate
fulfillment of that won't take place till
the Messianic kingdom, the millennial kingdom. But there is a principle
in that promise. God is saying I can
take your trouble and turn it into triumph. I can take your defeat
and make it delight. I can make a door of heaviness
close and open a door of hope from that place of defeat. So here's the whole
story of Achan. Sin can't be taken lightly. It leads to judgment. But God uses judgment
to turn people to Him. And when they turn to
Him, He offers them hope. So that even their
worst failure can be part of their
testimony in the future. Your failures in the past do
not have to mark your future. You don't have to be
defined by well I'm this. I'm that. I committed this. That may be, but that can
become part of your comfort and your ministry and
your help for others who are struggling with that. You can offer, you can
open a door of hope in a place of failure. Every failure isn't forever. To put it in the
words of the prophet "to give them beauty
for ashes, it's the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." So instead of saying here comes
trouble when you come around, it could be here comes triumph
in the midst of trouble. Father, thank You
for these truths, these principles
that rise to the top when we boil it all down. And we have a
picture now before us of a troublemaker, a
troubling individual, one who brought trouble to the land. But from that valley where
he was buried, a door of hope opened up. That's a testimony of every
person being baptized. That's the testimony of
every believer who is saved. And even if we have been failing
at something, with someone, in dealing with
temptation, You can for us make it part of our
testimony as a door of hope. In Jesus' name, Amen. Achan was one man who caused a
lot of damage by disobedience. We must be conscious of
how our choices affect others around us. How will you practice the
truths that you learned today? We want to know. Email mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us
for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque.
