Bobby Bosler: All right, if you could please turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 7, please. Please turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 7. As you're turning, I want to say that I'm excited about what God has been doing in hearts here this week.

And I know that His work is only just beginning. For some of you, God has been working in your hearts much longer than just this week, and it's a thrill to be able to join with your parents and with your pastors in seeing you take steps forward. All of us have had people invest in our lives, every one of us.

Every last one of us here in this room are where we are because of the grace of God. We're where we are because of people who have spent time and sacrificed for us. We're here because sometimes people have loved us so much they've been willing to have some difficult conversations with us.

Had to have a few difficult conversations with my kids from time to time. Hope I don't have to have one with them from the pulpit here this evening. I have two children, three and five.

They're still learning the whole sitting still in church thing. but you know faithful are the wounds of a friend and I'm not planning on wounding anybody here tonight but I do want to talk to you about something that is absolutely vital for your forward progress for your forward progress in your growth for your forward progress in following Jesus Christ, for your forward progress in reaching people with the gospel.

I'd like to take a look at a text of scripture here that has challenged many in the thousands of years since it has been written. And I'd like to take a look at Joshua chapter 7. What we're going to do is we're just going to read verse number 1, then we'll pray, and we will dive into the message.

Joshua chapter 7 verse 1 obviously is on the heels of Joshua chapter 6. If you know anything about the book of Joshua, chapter 6 is all about an incredible supernatural victory at the city of Jericho. God had given those people an incredible promise.

Every place where on the sole of your foot shall tread, it will be yours. He promised his presence that I will go with you. That was a big deal to the children of Israel.

He promised his power that as you go in, I will send my hornets ahead of you. I will do the work. I will win the victories for you as you go in.

God was not sending the children of Israel into the land because he felt that they were capable of overtaking it. He was sending them in to do an impossible job, One that was beyond their physical ability to accomplish. And the reason that He sent them in in that way is because He was planning on doing the work.

It was an incredible potential that they had. They had a promise from God. They had a promise of God's power to accomplish God's will.

And you know what? They had a precedent as well. They had just seen God cause the walls of Jericho to tumble down in front of them.

It was a miracle. In fact, they didn't even touch those walls. They just followed God's orders.

And depended on the fact that God knew what He was talking about and that He was going to do something miraculous. They walked around that wall on that seventh day. They blew those trumpets.

They shouted. And God did a miracle. God gave them victory.

But as we head into Joshua chapter 7, these people who had a promise from God of his power, these people who had precedence, they had seen him do it in the past, also had a problem. Joshua chapter 7 verse 1 talks to us about the problem. It says, But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing.

For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing. You see, there's something you need to understand. The children of Israel were told to go and fight that battle there at Jericho, but all of the spoil of the battle was what was called a curse.

It was devoted to destruction. Whereas in other battles in the land of Canaan, They were permitted to take the spoils of the battle in this one, a representative battle. The first battle, it was hands off.

That was God's policy. Don't you touch it. It's not yours.

It's devoted to destruction. But there was a man who didn't listen to the words of God. There's a man who didn't heed God's words, as we heard about in the second afternoon session, a man who disobeyed.

His name was Achan. He took of the accursed thing. And the last part of verse 1 says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.

In this passage, we are going to find that God takes sin. Sin that is specifically hidden, incredibly serious. And what we find is this group of people that God treasured so dearly that had a promise of power, that had precedence.

The problem of their sin held them back from experiencing all that God wanted them to experience in the battles ahead. What I'd like to speak about here this evening is what every one of us need to hear from time to time. I'm going to speak to you about sin in the camp.

Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we come before you and as we talk about this heavy topic, Lord, I pray that your goodness would lead us all to repentance. Lord, this preacher who's standing before these young people that have so much potential, that have the same promise of power that you've given to all of us.

Lord, I feel so weak. And God, I need 0100 here tonight. I cannot do what you've called me to do.

You've burned my heart for this message for months. I know this is the need of the hour, and yet I cannot do it. So, Lord, I ask that you'd fill me with the life and spiritual power of Jesus.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me. I pray that his love and compassion would be seen, and yet also at the same time that his holiness would be manifested in a way that we can all sense in this room. May all of us, Lord, sense how much you hate sin.

And I pray, Lord, you would lead us to victory tonight. Lord, we thank you for what you're going to do. In Jesus' name, amen.

Northern California, there is a 770-foot dam named the Oroville Dam. This dam holds back the force of 3.5 million acre-feet of water. That's actually 1.14 trillion gallons of water.

That's 9.5 trillion pounds of water. that's a lot of water in fact that's approximately the weight of 119,018 wheelers that's approximately the weight of 733 of the pyramids of Giza that's a lot of water well on February 7th of this year damage began to appear on the spillway Within a week, due to fear of the dam failing, the low-lying areas down the Feather River were evacuated over 188,000 people. Just to give you a sense of scale, that is five times the population of Benomone Falls, Wisconsin.

Brother Stratton, that's 62 times the population of Pine City. Okay? Those people recognized that that incredible weight of water unleashed could do a lot of damage.

Impact is an understatement. And you know, as we sit here tonight and as we contemplate the V generation, I want you to understand something. We have within us a power that causes the force of the Oroville Dam to look like nothing.

We have the power, if you're here and you're saved, of the Holy Spirit living within us. Inside of every one of us, we have enough power not only to impact 188,000 people. inside of every one of us.

We have enough power to impact the seven plus billion people on planet Earth. And these people down this river, they feared that the dam would burst. I don't fear that the dam would burst here this evening.

I'm praying. that out of you the dam of God, the incredible power of God would burst forth as that which hinders is torn out of the way. I'd like to take a look at a passage of scripture that talks about that which hinders here this evening.

We read verse one where it talked about the fact that the children of Israel had committed a trespass in the accursed thing because Achan had disobeyed God. And what follows is an incredibly sobering account of what follows every single time you and I hide our sin. And here this evening, I want you to understand that hidden sin like that Oroville Dam holds back the incredible power of God from bursting forth from your life and impacting thousands.

And since this hidden sin holds back an incredible wealth of God's power, we must deal tonight with a hidden sin in our lives. Verse 2 of Joshua chapter 7 says this, And Joshua sent men from Jericho, the place where they had just seen an incredible victory, to Ai, which is beside Beth-haven on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

And they returned to Joshua and said unto him, Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai. And make not all the people to labor thither, for they are but few. So there went up thither other people about three thousand men.

Now, I've heard a lot of preachers preach on this topic, and I've heard some folks make a point that, well, you know, Joshua should have really prayed about how many people that they should have sent to the city of Ai. As if, if he would have sent a different number of men to Ai, it would have made a difference.

I've heard people say, well, you know, Joshua really should have gotten alone with God and said, God, do you want us to go up to the city of Ai? But you know what? Honestly, I think Joshua already had his marching orders from heaven.

Go and possess the land. You see, as far as I understand it, here at this point in Joshua's life, all Joshua knows is God had given him a job to do. God had given him a promise of power.

He had seen that power work. And I'd imagine at this point in time in Joshua's life, he was probably pretty excited, wouldn't you think? This is amazing.

Did you see that wall crumple down? Just think of what God's going to do to this puny little city of Ai. This is going to be awesome.

Joshua was all charged up, I think. And I think he was simply taking steps of faith and obedience to the revealed will of God. I personally would not fault Joshua for what he did here.

And yet, what we find following is tragically what some of us experience on a day-to-day basis. You know, the first thing that we need to do here today is we need to look at where hidden sin will take you. Let's continue reading in verse 4.

He says, So there went up thither of the people about 3,000 men, and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men, for they chased them from before the gate, even unto Shevarim, and smote them in the going down. You know, it's an amazing thing to look at this.

This group of people that had God's promise of power, that had God's precedence, they had seen him do it. They went out in faith to take down the next city, and they ran with their tail between the legs. not only did they run, they lost 36 men.

Can you imagine what must have been going through Joshua's mind? I don't know if Joshua was out there with the people or if Joshua was standing in his tent back in the city waiting for the report, but I imagine that as those men got closer, he probably thought to himself, boy, this is going to be great. This is going to be amazing.

I can't wait to hear the stories of the miracles God has done this time. this is going to be amazing. And as the men get closer, I'm sure he probably thought, man, I can't wait to hear about how many people we took down.

I can't wait to hear about the amazing stories. And as the men arrived with a look of terror in their face and said to Joshua, Joshua, we lost. God has failed us.

Can't imagine what must have been going through Joshua's mind. And yet, the first place that hidden sin will take you every time is it will leave you defeated. Hidden sin will leave you defeated.

You know, you want to know why? I'll tell you why. Because hidden sin is hidden for a reason.

You see, when you and I disobey God in an area, when we look at garbage on our phones in the privacy of our bedroom at night, we don't want anybody to know about it. When we involve ourselves in relationships on the internet, relationships with people that we know mom and dad would not approve, there's a reason why we have a separate social media account for that kind of thing because we don't want anybody to know about it.

There's a reason why some of you here have not talked to mom and dad about things you've talked to God about maybe dozens of times because you don't want people to find out. You know, hidden sin is hidden for a reason. You don't want anyone to know about it.

You know what that's called? Pride. And God tells us that he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

You see what happens, young people, is you might come to a conference like this, And you might begin to get a hold of truth that you can depend upon Jesus who lives inside of you to do impossible things for Jesus. And you might also find that during the course of a conference like this, God begins to work in your heart about some sin issues. And what you say is, you know what?

I want the power, but I don't want to deal with my sin. Can I tell you what you're setting yourself up for? Miserable defeat.

You see, Joshua had a promise. And so do you. But you see, here in this story, what happened is Joshua stepped out upon that promise in faith and dependence upon God and what he found was defeat.

You know, some of you here in this room have tried to apply the principles of the Christ life of zero one hundred. Some of you have tried to live in dependence upon God and you feel like all that happens in your life is failure after failure after failure. And what you can be tempted to conclude is it doesn't work.

In fact, I know of people who've written whole books saying it doesn't work. They say there is no shortcut to victory. And while there is no shortcut, the fact of the matter is God has a promise of power for us.

But hidden sin can get in the way. See, you need to look at where hidden sin will take you. The first place it will take you is it will leave you defeated.

But not only that, look at the last part of verse 5. It says, wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water. And Joshua, verse 6, rent.

He tore his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. Here we find Joshua, who had just experienced defeat for his nation, and now he and all of the people are incredibly discouraged. That's the second place hidden sin will take you.

First, it'll take you to defeat. Second, it will then lead you to discouragement. Because, you know, it's very discouraging to find defeat after defeat after defeat in our lives.

It's very discouraging to fall to internet pornography over and over again. It's very discouraging to burst out in anger at people over and over again. And though you apologize and promise that you'll never do it again, you find that it happens again and again and again.

It's very discouraging when we can't seem to get over the bitternesses in our hearts. It's very discouraging when it just seems like we can't help ourselves but lie. And I want you to know something.

Defeat is discouraging. But what I want you to see is it is where hidden sin takes you. I'm convinced that there are people that are on medication prescribed by some doctor somewhere when really what they needed to do is get right with God.

It's amazing what guilt will do to you psychologically. Guilt drives people to do all kinds of crazy things and to think all kinds of irrational things and have all kinds of irrational behavior. And I just wonder, I just wonder if half the people on these medicines that are supposed to balance them out would just get right with God.

I just wonder if that would balance them out just a little bit. You know, I think there are people who call themselves depressed, who are just experiencing the fruit of hidden sin in their lives. Perhaps you're here and you just have felt like you've been in a fog for the last number of months and you feel like you just can't seem to be encouraged about everything.

It seems like everywhere you turn, it's just defeat after defeat after defeat and you come to this conference and you just feel like, oh, I might hear some encouraging things, but I just know I'm just going to go back. It's going to be just like all the other conferences I've been to. I might make a decision here and there, but I'm just going to go back on it two weeks later.

Can I just make a submission to you? Perhaps the reason why you found defeat after defeat after defeat is because you haven't dealt with everything. Could be.

There are other reasons as well. But it doesn't leave you just in defeat. It doesn't leave you just in discouragement.

Thirdly, if we look in verse 7 and 8, verse 7 says, And Joshua said, Here's Joshua. He's before the Lord in the tabernacle. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?

Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth.

And what wilt thou do unto thy great name? You know, it almost seems like Joshua in this incredible fit of discouragement is pointing his finger at God, doesn't it? What are you going to do about it, God?

This is your fault, God? I find that people who are defeated because of hidden sin and are discouraged because of hidden sin also find themselves getting disillusioned. I'm convinced, you know, we got all kinds of statistics.

We talk about all kinds of reasons why young people leave church and never come back when they turn 18. I just wonder if it's because they had hidden sin in their lives that they were not able to deal with, they may have tried from time to time, but ultimately it seemed to them that God's promises did not work. And they wonder if this whole Christianity thing isn't just a sham.

I mean, if that promise doesn't work, what other promises don't work? In fact, if the promises in this book don't seem to work for me, I mean, is this book really from God? Is there even a God at all?

Maybe I should just live my life for myself. You know, while I'm sure not every person goes all the way down that road who involves themselves in hidden sin, that's where the road leads. That's where it leads.

And you know, you sitting in this room right here might say to yourself, I would never go there. It's amazing where sin will take you. it's amazing where it'll take you and young people i have experience i have talked with young people who got a lot of truth they knew everything they needed to know to live a life of victory joy peace power and i remember standing across from a young man many years ago who said, preacher, I've tried that stuff.

It doesn't work. And he's nowhere close to living for God to this day. You know, I just wonder if perhaps as we look at this matter of hidden sin, as we look at where it takes us, we just need to recognize the fact that it is going to lead you to a place where you will deny and doubt things you never imagined you would deny or doubt.

It is a slippery slope, my friends. But you know, you may be sitting here today and maybe as you heard Pastor Zempel preach about disobedience earlier this afternoon, maybe God was flashing some things up in the projector screen of your mind. Maybe God was pointing some things out in your heart.

Maybe God was saying, hey, yeah, what that preacher was talking about of disobeying mom and dad about lying about going over so-and-so's house when you were really just going out and spending time with your buddies. You know, when you disobey your parents and the things that you watch and the things that you say and the people that you hang out with. And God was working in your heart about those things.

And you might sit here today and you might say, Preacher, preacher, hold on. Hold on, preacher. How do I know that is what's going to hold me back from experiencing the promise of God's power.

How do I know that these things are the deal? Well, I want you to look at the next point here that I want to give to you here. What we find is Joshua came, he came before the Lord, didn't he?

He came into the presence of God. And while he was complaining, while it seems he was in incredible unbelief, the fact of the matter is, In essence, he was saying, God, what's wrong? God, what's going on?

And God spoke. And he put his finger not just on this big, general, ambiguous area. He put his finger on exactly the point of departure from his power.

And young people, what I want you to know here today is God isn't just interested here today and tonight in just giving you a general sense of what maybe could be the problem. As you come before God, you can listen to God's diagnosis. God wants to put his finger specifically on where the exact point of departure from his power was for you.

God doesn't work in just these ambiguities. If you're just sitting here and you're just kind of feeling generally guilty and you're just thinking, oh, you know, I don't know if I'm good or not. I mean, I've experienced some bad things, but I don't know.

Listen, can I tell you, why don't you just ask God what the problem is? He wants to show you. You know, as much as I want to apply here tonight and as much as I want to give examples of what perhaps it could be, why don't you do us all a favor and instead of waiting for me to hit on the thing that God wants to work in your heart about, why don't you in your heart ask him right now?

God, what's the problem? What's going on, God? Why is it that I'm experiencing defeat?

Why is it that I can't seem to find victory? What's the problem, God? God, I want to listen to your diagnosis.

See, not only do we need to look at where hidden sin will take us, we need to listen to God's diagnosis. There could have been a number of different reasons for the defeat that they experienced that day. But God spoke and put his holy finger upon the exact point of departure.

Let's look at what he said in verse 10. It says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up. By the way, God doesn't want you to stay down.

God never wants you to stay down God wants you to get up and get right get thee up he says wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed.

Neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. You see, he came for an answer and he got one. What God said to him, he said there was disobedience.

They transgressed my covenant. And that's why it didn't work. Some of you have transgressed God's words too.

God says thou shalt not commit adultery. And I think most of us here in this understand that the Lord Jesus said, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that if a man look on a woman to lust after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Listen, friend, you look at garbage on the internet or maybe another girl here at this conference with lust in your heart, God calls you an adulterer. Friends, you got a problem with God. God says, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you If a man hate, he is in danger of hell fire.

In fact, he says in the book of 1 John chapter 3, he says he that hateth his brother is a murderer. And as Dr. Jim preached earlier today, the sin of bitterness, which is just festering hatred, is a sin that God Almighty hates.

Maybe you're here and you've got a problem with lying.

you lie to your friends you lie to your parents you lie to your teachers you've built a house of cards of lies and all it's going to take is just one stiff breeze and it's all going to come crumbling down and that's why you try your hardest to back lies with lies and you've weaved an incredible web of lies in your life and you've tried the cover-up effort to cover the garbage that you've been involved in and the substances that you've abused and the disobediences

that have happened behind closed doors in your house and young people I want you to understand something God wants to put his finger on whatever is the point of departure in your heart here tonight there was disobedience not only was there disobedience there was deceit.

It says they dissembled also. They put it even among their own stuff. They hid it under their tent, friend.

See, there was a great cover-up effort going on, and some of you understand exactly what that feels like. I remember when I was a teenager, my parents had a very hard and fast rule, and this is a hard and fast rule that I just don't find in many churches nowadays or in families.

the rule was don't go to movies period no matter how good it is i think that'd be a real good rule to adopt again and i honestly don't know why we've abandoned that as a movement but wherever i go i find people going to movie theaters all the time and they say well i'm just watching finding dory well how do i know you're not watching that other thing but our family policy the rule that was handed down to me from my parents which was god's

will for me was do not go to the movie theaters And yet one day, one of my friends I was hanging around said to me, he said, you know, I've been to a movie theater.

Really? Oh, the screen is huge. I'd never been in a movie theater in my life.

He said, you got to go to one. I said, well, what's playing? He said, oh, Lord of the Rings is playing.

The very first one. It was in the theaters at that time. And I said, oh, really?

Whoa.

and I started thinking about it and I started thinking, you know, I know my mom's schedule by the way, for those of you that were in my session my dad remarried when I was 16 to a lady who had been a missionary to Africa for 15 years she knew how to pray the devil out of people trust me, I know she was off at work, I knew exactly what time she left and I knew exactly what time she would be back I coordinated things so

that I could hop onto my bike and so that I could pedal my way to the movie theater and I got to the movie theater there and there at the movie theater, I went in and I went into the lobby and I'm telling you, I felt so guilty inside.

I knew I was doing wrong. Paid for my ticket, went in and sat there through the movie. I felt fine because I thought, man, there's no cussing in this thing.

It's good. Oh man, you know, there's nothing wrong with this movie. And I know I'm probably hitting a sacred cow here, but I'm just telling you my story.

And I remember I came back and you know, I came back and I did my best to hide it all. You know, pretend like I was doing other things. You know, my mom didn't seem to have a clue.

And I was like, yeah, I'm getting away with this thing. Yeah. They're never going to know.

Pride always goes before a fall. I went to church the following Wednesday night. I was in the very back of the church.

And there was another girl in the youth group I was talking to. And I had the ticket stubs in my pocket. And I said, hey.

She's like, what's that? It's ticket stubs from a movie theater. You went to a movie?

None of us went to movies in my church. It was kind of the church policy, which, by the way, would be a good idea. But anyway, I'm not stepping on the teen's toes.

Anyway, it's funny. I loved my pastor growing up. He saw me from the front.

He said, hey, Bob, what's that? What do you mean? Nothing.

Sounds just like what Pastor Zemp was talking about earlier. No, Bob, I saw you showed Samantha that. What is that?

Nothing. Oh, I was like, oh, no, this is bad. But I thought, okay, plan B.

Okay, I got to come out with it. I'm caught here. I'll just tell Dad it was a good movie.

surely he won't be as mad if he just knew it was a good movie so i uh my dad we kind of had a little meeting in the back whoo little meeting and uh i told my dad i said yeah dad i went and saw this but dad it's not like i went to see an r movie or anything there was no immodesty no immorality. They didn't even swear in this thing. Dad, it was squeaky clean.

And honestly, my dad, as much as he was upset with me for breaking the rule, he said, oh, you know, listen, you shouldn't have gone to the movie theater, but I'm sure glad you didn't pick a worse movie. Maybe that wasn't the best way to handle it, but I remember a couple weeks later, we were at my family's house, and they definitely do not go to an independent fundamental Baptist church.

But I remember we were at the party and my uncle was just kind of talking at the party and he was saying, yeah, we went to see that Lord of the Rings thing, but man, we got up and walked out because it was just so demonic. My dad turned and looked at me. Oh no.

By the way, you should consider that. I'm not preaching against Lord of the Rings here tonight, but if the shoe fits, wear it. See, for my case, there was disobedience and there was deception.

I did my very best to cover my tracks. But I want you to know that the greatest private investigator is on your trail. And it's God Almighty.

The God of whom the Scripture says the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. In fact, if my history is correct, I think Achan would have been alive and aware when Moses said to the people, be sure your sin will find you out. I want you to continue looking here in the passage.

In verse 13, God begins to propose a solution to Joshua for how they were going to take care of this issue of hidden sin. In verse 13 it says, up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against, what's the next word there? Tomorrow.

Sanctify yourselves against, what's the word? Tomorrow. Interesting.

For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you in the, what's the next word? Morning.

Therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof, and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households, and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man, and it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed things shall be burnt with fire.

He and all that he hath because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. Why did I have you read those words? Here's why.

Because God was being merciful. You say, what do you mean he's being merciful? He said he was going to burn the dude with fire.

How was that mercy? No, no, no. I want you to remember Joshua, it said, went before the Lord at eventide in the evening.

And God said, hey Joshua, here's the deal. Here's what you need to do. You need to send messengers throughout the entire camp of Israel with this message in the morning.

Tomorrow. We're all going to assemble and I'm going to narrow it down to the very man that has wrought folly in Israel.

Do you realize what that messenger, when those messengers went throughout that camp and when those messengers stopped by Achan's tent and told Achan's family hey family of the Tsarites we have a message from the Lord God has given us a reason why we experienced this horrible defeat at the city of Ai God has told us why those 36 corpses are the way that they are God has told us why and tomorrow morning God is going to narrow it down to the very man that is

the reason for this problem.

Have a good night, the messenger says. I'd imagine Achan might look at his wife, who was fully aware of all that was buried in the tent. I'd imagine they probably walked inside and had a little family meeting.

I imagine the wife said, Achan, he's talking about us. I don't know exactly what Achan might have said, but I imagine he might have said something like what you might be saying in your heart here tonight. Come on, it's not that big of a deal.

It's not that big of a deal. Surely it can't be us. Come on, I just stole some clothes.

That's all I took. I just stole some money. Maybe somebody else stole a cow or something.

I'm sure God would do something about that. But no, this isn't that big of a deal. Come on.

Honey, we'll be fine. Go to sleep. Don't expect Achan got much sleep that night.

But what God presented to Achan there that evening was a dilemma. It was a dilemma. It was a very simple choice.

Either on the one hand, he could take the initiative, take a little walk down to Joshua's tent, knock on his tent, or I don't know if they just kind of rustle on the side of the tent to let people know that they're outside. I don't know how they do that. Say, Joshua, there's something you need to know.

He could have taken the initiative and unloaded the truck, or he could have risked detection, played the cover-up game a little longer, we know what course he took the Bible says he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy I would like to think that if Achan went down to that tent and had a conversation with Joshua I think there probably would have been consequences but they would have been a whole lot better than what happened when

he chose to risk detection you see here this evening I believe that the reason God led me to preach this message is because he wants in mercy to present to you here tonight a dilemma are you going to take the initiative and have the conversations you need to have or are you going to continue to risk detection you see God in his mercy sent the message ahead of time to give Achan a chance to come clean and you know as we look at where hidden

sin takes us and as we recognize it it's going to lead me to defeat and discouragement and disillusionment and as we listen to god's diagnosis god said there was disobedience there was deceit there is now a dilemma we need to move on to the actual resolution of the problem.

And that's the third point, which is simply lynch the Achan. Verse 16, we find what actually happened. It says, So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes.

And the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Judah was taken. That was Achan's tribe. And he brought the family of Judah and he took the family of the Zahrites and he brought the family of the Zahrites man by man.

And Zabdi was taken. And he took, and he brought his household man by man. And Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah was taken.

I cannot imagine what would have been going through his head. I don't even know why he was there. Honestly.

I suppose there's not a, I don't know where else he could have run to. I don't know. But there he was.

I don't know if he really thought in his mind that it was somebody else. I don't know if he really thought that it was no big a deal. But I think this is just a great illustration of the fact that sometimes we don't always understand how big of a deal God takes things.

And that's why it's so important to listen to what he says to us in his word. But what we find here is God narrowed it down to the man. God brought it out of the closet.

God uncovered the sin. God, you could say, printed out the web browsing history. You could say that God accidentally allowed him to stay signed in to the alternate social media account on the family computer.

God let it come out! God will let yours come out too if you don't take the initiative. Well, let's just take a look at how Joshua dealt with this.

Verses 19 and following it says, And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him. And you know, the place where every single one of us needs to start is this, you must expose your sin.

Specifically, Joshua says to God, you know, every one of you here in this room that have sin, that you are currently harboring, hiding the stuff that you're not willing to talk about and get right with those who need to know, you need to start here. You need to have a conversation with God about it. And by the way, it's not a conversation with God saying, God, I don't think this is that big of a deal.

It's a conversation with God where you agree with Him. You know, it's one of the reasons why the battle plan for victory resource that we're presenting to you all is so important. Because you could just take a look at what God said about the issues that you and I are facing so you can properly agree with him about them.

I find many times there are passages of scripture and nooks and cranny of the Bible that we are just completely unaware of. Or they're just totally out of our thinking processes. And as you will take and lay your eyes on those things, you can look at the way God really thinks about those things and agree with Him about it.

We need to expose the sin to God. As we heard this morning, the psalmist David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. But he didn't stop there.

Joshua didn't stop telling us, telling Achan to expose it to God. Look at what he says. Give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto Him and tell me now what thou hast done.

Hide it not from me. It's not enough to talk to God about these things.

See, if we in pride refuse to have those conversations, God will resist us you know sometimes I think we think that there are people that we are comfortable talking about our sin issues to know what I'm saying sometimes you're comfortable talking to your friends about those things sometimes maybe even there's a family member that you're comfortable talking to about these things and you might say well you know I've talked to my brother I'm okay right I talked to my friends I'm okay right maybe However,

consider this.

Achan told his wife, and apparently that wasn't good enough. How come? Here's what I think is the issue.

Achan didn't offend his wife, he offended God. Furthermore, Achan's sin didn't just affect his wife, though it did. It affected the nation.

He broke the nation's rules, and therefore he had to talk to the person in that nation who needed to know. Some of you have house rules. Pastor Zempel talked about this earlier.

You've been breaking them left and right. Mom and dad don't have a clue, or they probably have more of a clue than you think they do. You need to have a conversation with mom and dad.

Some of you here have been cheating in school left and right, breaking the handbook rules of your Christian school or your college. You might say, well, that's not a big rule. You might even come out with this.

I know the spirit of the law. And you go and break the law. How does that work?

Can I tell you this? You may have to have a conversation with your principal, your teacher, your dean. Listen, friends, it's not just about talking to God.

You need to talk to God, but some of you need to have a conversation. Maybe with a store clerk that you shoplifted from. Maybe some of you here need to have a conversation with a police officer.

Maybe you need to have a conversation with somebody else's parents because you broke their rules for their children. Maybe there are people that you hurt through your sin that you need to have a conversation with. Can I say this?

God is incredibly merciful and he loves you so much. He really does. And you know, there are times in our lives where God is merciful and he actually uses us.

Even when we got issues. There have been times in my life where God has used me even though I had issues. There are times when we talk to God about it and maybe in our ignorance we think that's all we need to do.

And God, in his mercy and understanding, gives us a measure of relief and his grace in a way that we feel a lift. And I tell you what, God is an amazing God. God can do whatever he wants.

Friends, the fact of the matter is, if you are unwilling, you're proud. And somewhere along the line, he's going to resist you. It's going to catch up.

It's going to hurt you. see we need to expose the sin to God and to man I remember some things that happened in my my youth some things I did I'm not ashamed I'm absolutely ashamed of today and I remember throughout my teenage years and even beyond these were things that just haunted me.

And I remember I, even in my teenage years, I had conversations with the right people about some of these things, and I dealt with a sin the best that I knew, and you know what? God worked in my life and in my heart, but I remember in Apopka, Florida, Dr. Jim, I was traveling with Dr.

Jim as a team captain in 2005. God had been using me. But I remember one day, I remember God spoke to my heart and said, Hey, Bobby, there's another conversation you need to have.

There were a lot of situations like that throughout my high school and college years where it was like I had dealt with some things, I had done some things. I'm thinking, I'm doing good. Praise the Lord, He's given me His lift, His grace, He's using me.

This is amazing. But it always seemed like a couple weeks later, God would say, okay, you've experienced my grace. Aren't I wonderful?

Don't you see what I can do in and through you? Now this. Really?

Not again. It was from like five years ago. Seriously?

I felt like it was like peeling an onion. You ever peel an onion? You tear off a layer, and guess what you do?

You cry. And guess what happens? You look down at the onion, and guess what?

There's another layer there. I felt like, man, I'd tear off a layer of my sin, and I'd cry, and a couple weeks later, I'd look back down, and what's that doing there? Tear that off again, and I'd cry, and I'd look down, and there was another layer.

And it seemed like I kept tearing away and crying and looking down, and there's another layer, another layer, another layer, another layer. And can I tell you that day in Bear, at that church there in Apopka, Florida, I stood in their brand new renovated auditorium, which had not been used for a service. I stood on that platform, and I made a phone call, and I cried.

When I hung up the phone, if I can put it this way, I looked down, and there was no more onion. I don't mean I never sinned again I don't mean I've never had to get right with people again but I was current the backlog was dealt with I didn't have to worry about my past anymore I just had to focus on victory for today and dealing with the things that happened today is an incredibly freeing thing to know I'm current.

Listen, I want you to know, young people, God might be speaking to your heart about some things this week, and you might deal with some things, and you might feel like, I got it all out! And by the way, you do need to deal with everything that God touches your heart about. Don't think that if you unload 99% of the truck that you're going to experience His presence and power.

Listen, God can do anything He wants, But I want you to know when we knowingly hold some things back, when we say, I'm going to deal with this part of the onion, but leave that one there, because I don't want to deal with that one right now. Listen, that's still pride. And God will still resist you.

When you come humbly before Him and say, God, I'm going to deal with it all. You find relief. You find forgiveness.

You find restoration. You find him. We need to expose the sin to God and to man, and we need to also expel the sin.

We find the forced confession of Achan in verse 20 and 21. I won't read it for the moment. But this man here, by the way, forced confessions rarely work.

They rarely work. Caught in the act. just telling what you need to tell to get out out of trouble those kinds of confessions rarely work the ones that really work like really work are the ones where you take the initiative and have the conversation yourself verse verse 22 we find what Joshua and the men did it says so Joshua sent messengers and they ran unto the tent and behold it was hid in his tent and the silver under it.

And they took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them onto the valley of Achor.

I remember reading that thinking, what in the world did his donkey do? What did his donkey do? Like seriously, what did his tent do?

I'll bet his donkey carried the stuff. His tent certainly covered it.

sons and daughters doubtless knew about it being probably a one-room tent i don't know sure they were aware the fact of the matter is israel took great pains to expel the problem fully they didn't leave any part of the problem at all you know it's one thing just to uh it's one thing just to delete the mp3 off of your phone it's another thing to lock yourself out of the iTunes account because you could download them again anyway it's one thing to just get the

computer out of your bedroom it's another thing to get a filter that you can't get around and a password on the computer with rules on when you're going to be on it and when you're not.

You see, we need to get the things out of our life fully that are going to cause us to get back into the sin. We need to expel the sin fully. We need to expel the sin fervently.

We find in verse 25 it says, And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. You know, honestly, if Joshua had dealt with Achan the way some of us deal with our sin, it would have been something like this.

Hey, hey, hey, Joshua. Old buddy, old pal. You know, I like you, man.

I like you a lot. But you know, this isn't going to work. So God gave me orders.

So, you know, that wasn't at all how Joshua handled it. Joshua was fervent about it. He wasn't like, oh, I don't want to do this.

No. He was like, do you realize what this has done? Do you realize how this has wreaked havoc on our people and on our nation?

Do you realize the incredible casualties? Because of this sin. He dealt with it with all of his might.

He also expelled the sin finally. The last part of verse 25 says, And all Israel stoned him with stones and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones, and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. What do you do with your sin?

Burn it. Cover in a pile of stones. One thing was for certain about Achan.

He wasn't coming back anytime soon. Now, I just have to say this. We're not wondering who the Achan's are here in the auditorium.

We're not going to have a bonfire out back and roast you for dinner. The question here is not who are the Achan's in our midst. The question is what are the Achan's in your life?

I know that God has put his finger on some things in your heart today the question is do you want to continue to live a life of defeat and discouragement spiraling out of control or do you want to do what this man did it says so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger and if you read chapter 8 on your own sometime, what you'll find is they went back to exactly the same city. And it turned out very differently.

Do you realize the things that you find defeat in day after day after day after day after day? You can go back to the very same situations, and instead of defeat, you can find victory. You can find freedom.

You can find life, light, joy, peace, God's presence, God's smile, as we sang about earlier. But it starts with dealing with sin in the camp. I have every head bowed and every eye closed here this evening.

I've got a question for you. how many of you here tonight would say preacher God has why don't we all sit with our backs up against the pew like Pastor Zimple had you do earlier but keep your heads bowed how many of you here would say Brother Bosler God has put his finger he has diagnosed the problem in my heart God is speaking to me about something very specific here tonight. Could you raise your hand, please, if that's you?

Thank you, you can put your hands down. In a moment, we're going to have an invitation. And the invitation is very simple.

In a moment, I'm going to have everyone stand to their feet, and someone's going to make their way to the piano, And when we start with the invitation, we're going to invite you to go have a conversation with God about this first. In fact, in a moment, we will invite you to head out the back of this auditorium, head down towards the music hall.

There will be people to point you that direction, to get on your knees in that room there, and confess this sin or these sins to God. After that, we will have some counselors there who will be available to help you diagnose who you need to talk to and to give you some guidance as far as how you're going to find victory over these particular issues that God is speaking to you about tonight. So here's what I'd like to do.

If we could all please stand to our feet here at this time. And I just want to make sure it's clear. You raised your hand a moment ago that God was dealing with you about something.

When the piano plays in just a few moments, we will invite all of you to leave your seat, head to the nearest aisle and to the back. Folks will direct you to the music hall. You'll get on your knees and talk to God first.

Then we will have counselors available who will help give you guidance on where to go from there. so if God has spoken to your heart here tonight as the piano plays you move