Thank you, brother. Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you, and what a joy it's been to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords once more together. I want to invite you once again to turn to the book of Joshua, this book of promises made, promises kept, and promises enjoyed. This morning we'll be looking at chapter eight. The title of our message is Pressing Onward in the Promises. Pressing Onward in the Promises. And before I read the chapter to you, I want to kind of give you the main outline of the message just so you can be thinking about these things as we read through the chapter. because that's what we want to learn how to do this morning is how to press onward in the promises after acknowledging failure and weaknesses, after realizing that God has a better way, after finding a renewed strength and will, and after worshiping and remembering God's holiness. So if you will now join with me in Joshua chapter 8 and hear the word of the Lord. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land. And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king. Only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee an ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. And he commanded them, saying, behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready. And I and all the people that are with me will approach unto the city. And it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them. For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city. For they will say, they flee before us as at the first. Therefore, we will flee before them. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire, according to the commandment of the Lord shall ye do. See, I have commanded you. Joshua therefore sent them forth. And they went to lie an ambush, an abode between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai. But Joshua lodged that night among the people. And Joshua rose up early in the morning and numbered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai. And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up and drew nigh and came before the city and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai. And he took about 5,000 men and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liars and wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early. The men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people at a time appointed before the plain. But he wished not that there were liars and ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all of Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel. And they left the city open and pursued after Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua, stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place. And they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city and took it and hasted and set the city on fire. When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven. And they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned again and slew the men of Ai. and the other issued out of the city against them, so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai, they took alive and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were 12,000, even all the men of Ai. for Joshua drew not his hand back. Wherewith he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt Ai and made it in heat forever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai, he hanged on a tree until eventide. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city and raise thereon a great heap of stones that remaineth unto this day. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, of which no man hath lifted up any iron. And they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord. as well the strangers, he that was born among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded them, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded with Joshua Red Knot before all the congregation of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them. What an incredible story, what an incredible day of victory for the people of God, especially after the chapter we read before where there had been such abject failure and dismay. And so that's the way that it is in life. We talked about this a lot Wednesday night and I was thinking so much about this sermon when we were talking about the Christian warfare and our lives before the Lord as we live in this world. Beloved, the promises of God are always there for us, but sometimes, on our part, there's great failure and disappointment in our lives. And the question is, what to do after that that happens? And I love what happens in this chapter, that the people of God decide that they're gonna press onward in the promises of God. There was always that temptation, you know, to want to go back to Egypt, to want to go back to what they had been comfortable in before. But I'm glad with this generation that they realized that God was still with them, that the promises, the inheritance was still there, but they were going to have to get over themselves, get over their mistakes, and go onward and press onward in what God had promised to them and in the promises that they had made. So let's just think about this for a moment, even this phrase about pressing onward. I want you to turn your Bibles to the book of Philippians, chapter three. There's a great statement by the apostle Paul, maybe your mind even already went toward it, to press. This Greek word here, typos, means a steady push, a thrust, a thrust forward with strength, with zeal. You know, we read about the greatest of the champions of the faith. Peter had times where he failed, didn't he? King David, the man after God's own heart, had times where they failed. Every one of us in here have had times of great failure, of great disappointment, either from others or from our own selves. You know, but I never measure a man how he falls. I always measure a man or a woman by what they do after. And that's what's so important. We think about Peter. How could he have denied the Lord the way that he did? How could Achan have taken that gold, that silver, that Babylonian garment But I ask you, could you walk on water like Peter did? I don't know that I could. How could David commit adultery and have one of his mighty men murdered in the battlefield? I don't know. It's hard to square those things sometimes, the weakness. that is in us all, but I know I don't think I could slay Goliath like David did either. These men slew giants, they walked on water, but they also had moments of great weakness and great failure, as did even this greatest generation. This generation that we're studying about in the book of Joshua was the greatest generation that Israel was ever going to see throughout their history. And yet, even for them, there were times of disappointment. There were times of weakness. But what I love about them is that they kept pressing onward. And so the Apostle Paul, he knew disappointment. He knew discouragement. He never forgot the great sinner that he was, right? He said, this is a worthy saying of all excitation that I'm the what? I'm the chief of sinners, right? And he knew that he was a persecutor of the church. But I love this, what he said here. And I think all of us have taken courage in this sometimes, beginning in Philippians 3. beginning in verse 12, not as though I had already attained. Now the Apostle Paul had come very far as a Christian. I think we would all delight to think that we could even measure up to a tenth of what he was as a child of God, but he realized something. He said either we're already perfect, But he said, but this, even though that's true, I haven't attained, I'm not perfect. He said, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ. It's like this beautiful, divine game of tag. that Christ had tagged Paul with his love and said, you're it. And Paul said, oh no, you're it. And I want to pursue after you as hard as I can. And so he says this, he says, brethren, he said, I've got to do this. I've got to forget those things which are behind. That doesn't mean the apostle Paul didn't learn from them. And beloved, Israel had to learn from their mistakes. at AI, and so do you and I in this life. It's not that we forget them in the sense that we don't learn from the mistakes that we made, but we don't let them captivate us. We don't let them keep us from pursuing the promises of God and going forward in our lives. That's what happens to people sometimes. They fall so hard. or they get disappointed so much in themselves or others, and then that's it, and they can't find the way forward in their lives, and so they forfeit so much of the blessing of God in their lives. Let's not let that be us, or you or me, but let us take the example of the Israelites here and what it said about Joshua over and over again. Did you notice what it said? And Joshua rose up and Joshua rose up and Joshua rose up. Beloved, let me tell you something. Sometimes the greatest courage that you will ever summon in your heart is to say, I will get up again and I will try again tomorrow. It'll be just that simple. And so it was with the people of God here, a stunning defeat, a terrible defeat. They were, as Brother Logan said, they were humiliated and defeated by their enemies so much that Joshua said, Lord, why did you even just bring us over here? But God commanded him, he said, I want you to rise up. I want you to keep pressing on. So the Apostle Paul says here, I forget those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Hallelujah. They're still there for us no matter how much that we fall, no matter how many times we fail. The promises of God remain for the people of God. What a faithful God we serve. He said, I what? Press there's our word, right? pressing onward Typos, this is where we get like on a on a press pressing tight the the pushing down the Carrying on the the steady push of the Christian in his life. This is what the Apostle Paul is talking about He's encouraging us. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Well, I hope that that stirs up every heart in here, because I'm sure if you're like me, you can look back through last week, and there were faults, and there were failures. Beloved, keep pressing onward. Keep pressing onward. And so to press this steady push, the Apostle Paul says, I'm going to keep pressing toward the mark of that high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Yes, I've messed up. Yes, things haven't gone the way that I've wanted, but I'm not going to let that define me. I'm gonna press I'm gonna press on. Oh Hallelujah onward onward. This is a we'll look at the Hebrew word here for onward holla It means to go further to go forward. Let's just think about this in our in our lives Beloved I just want to confess Man, I've been there haven't you? like so hurt and So disappointed, so discouraged. I remember coming out of my mouth, I'll never preach again. I'll never pastor again. I'll never trust people again. I put my heart and my soul into people and they stuck knives in my back and they spoke evil even of the good that I did. It's not worth it to try to help people. Been there? in the church, in family, in your marriage. You ever reach that impasse in your marriage to where you said everything that you know to say, you feel like you've done everything that you know to do, and you're still not getting along, and you're still, you just feel like that you're just at an impasse. You gotta press forward. You gotta press forward. You gotta press onward. Beloved, here in, have you turned with me here? I've been giving it to you, Exodus 40. Exodus 40, verse 36. This is at the end of the book of Exodus, and I just remembered it as I was studying, and we were talking, and I was studying about this. At the end of Exodus chapter 40, verse 36, And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went what? Onward in all their journeys. That's what I want to encourage you with this morning To press on in the promises to keep giving that steady push that steady thrust To seek to continue to go further in your Christian walk and in your faith to go forward beloved There's only one direction two directions for the child of God forward and upward. Can I get an amen? But there's no backward, right? We can't put our hands to the plow and look back. Or we're what? We're not fit for the kingdom of God. We think about Lot's wife. She was almost saved, right? She had gotten out of Sodom and Gomorrah. She was with the angels of God. She just had one commandment. Just don't look back at it. Just stay forward. Just keep going forward. But she looks back. She's turned into a pillar of salt. Oh beloved, may God bless us to learn how to press on in the promises. So we left the people of God in Joshua chapter seven. There was a weakness in their midst. There was a leaven in the lump that had to be purged out. There were things that had to be taken care of in their midst that were hindering them in their walk, in their pilgrimage, in obtaining the promises. That's true in all of our lives, isn't it? Oh, I wonder what your AI is. That enemy within, that is there that seems like it's so hard to overcome, to get past. Maybe it's something in your personality. Maybe it's a character flaw. Maybe it's just a situation that is there that you just seem like you can't get a handle on it. All of these things. They were facing here. Now, what do we do, Lord? You gave us this great victory over Jericho, and now we've been defeated by this little city of AI? God tells them. Don't you love it? He just reminds them. Remember how the Lord began to talk with Joshua? Fear not. Neither be thou dismayed, be of good courage, I'll be with you wherever you go. He just reminds him of his promise, of his presence, that like you said today, Brother Drew, even though we can lose everything in this life, if we still have the Lord, we have it all. And that's what the Lord is reminding Josh, is fear not, neither be thou dismayed. And he says there in our first verse in chapter eight, and here it is, arise and go up to Ai. Beloved, you just kind of keep pressing forward. And our first point is that we must keep pressing onward in the promises after acknowledging failure and weaknesses. We can't just pretend like that they're not there. We can't just ignore the things in our lives that we've got to work on. Beloved, that's not right, it's not good, that's not what sanctification is all about, but the Holy Spirit In His great work, He's going to reveal to us in our lives our failures, our weaknesses, and He's going to deal with them, and He's going to make us deal with them in our lives. And I was just remembering, if you'll turn with me to Mark chapter 14, this was in one of Christ's greatest Hours of agony and trial for him own self. He took his inner circle with him in Gethsemane You remember and it's hard even to see the Lord Jesus like this our Joshua, right? because he was fixing to go and face the greatest battle of all time. And he felt, I imagine sometimes that Jesus, knowing what he was going to face, he was even concerned that the human part of him would not be able to endure and sustain itself in what he needed to accomplish. Have you ever felt that way in your life? I don't know if I've got it in the tank. I don't know if I can get this week done or this day done or see this situation through. If it was just, if we were all that we had, that would be true. But aren't you glad that when Joshua is on empty here, remember he just lay on his face before the ark of the Lord, just wondering, Lord, what now? What's the way forward? He said, rise up. I want you to go and look at it through faith again that I've given it to you, just like I gave Jericho, but follow my plan. Do it the way that I've commanded you with a humble heart, and you'll have the victory. Joshua and Israel were knocked down. And I know you've been knocked down sometimes, but hallelujah. The righteous man, though he falls seven times, right? But what? Yet shall he rise again. And I just love this language in here. It said, God told him to rise up. Joshua rose up. The next day, it says he rose up early again. Then it says all the people of war they rose up that's what we need in our generation that's what we need in our time is a people who acknowledge yes I have failures yes I have weaknesses and I'm working on them but I'm not gonna let that define me I'm not gonna let that keep me from doing what God has called me to do and from being who God has called me to be you have to be willing to say that, to acknowledge it, to be honest about it. Here, Jesus was in his hour of agony. He took his inner circle with him. Are you with me, Mark? Chapter 14, here, and we read, he's going into the garden, and verse 33, and he takes with him Peter, James, and John. and began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy. Oh, I know you felt like that sometimes. And we live in a day, beloved, that is an oppressive time and an oppressive day in many ways. And we know that Jesus is our sympathizing Jesus. And he said to them, listen to the words of the Savior. My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here and watch. So he's just asking them, just pray for me, just stay awake for me. There's dangers all around and I'm in a weak place and I'm gonna go and cast myself in prayer before God, just be there for me. And you think that they'd have been able to do that, right? Just go defeat AI, right, this little bitty city. And he went forward a little. Oh man, if you've ever felt down and out, you can take it to Jesus. Listen to the King of kings and the Lord of lords here, in his humility, in his condescension, in his becoming the sin bearer for you and me. You think Joshua was on his face before the Lord? Our Jesus has been there. And he prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, Daddy, all things are possible unto thee. Take this cup from me, nevertheless not what I will, but what thou will. You know, we don't want to go face our mistakes. We don't want to go face our failures. We want to say, God, just sweep it under the rug. But God didn't let them skip over Ai to the next town, did he? He said, arise up, you're gonna go do to Ai exactly what you did to Jericho, hallelujah. And God didn't take the cup away from Jesus either, did he? But he drank it all, what a mighty savior. But listen, and he cometh, and he findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Why does he pick on Peter? He was the leader. The leader has a lot of responsibility. You need to pray for your leaders, for strength for them, for God to uphold them, encourage them. Whenever you can, beloved, encourage them in the way and do for them as best you can. I love it in our Psalm that we're reading, Psalm 105. He says, touch not mine anointed, right? And do my prophets no harm. Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And here it is. And what a true statement. True for every one of us. True for Peter. True for Moses. True for Joshua. True for David. True for me and you. The Spirit truly is ready. But what? flesh is weak." Always remember that, beloved. There's an enemy within. Joshua and Israel were knocked down, but not out. And we cannot allow fear to guide our actions. Sometimes, beloved, it is true that the greatest courage is just simply saying, I will try again. I'm going to press, even though I've made mistakes, even though the devil has knocked me down, even though I've embarrassed myself, I've embarrassed my family, I've made bad decision after bad decision, and I'm as low as a man can get. Oh, beloved, that's where you'll fall upon, the rock of ages. And you'll begin to be lifted up when you come to the end of yourself. I acknowledge my failures, my weaknesses. They're real. They're true. But they're not going to define me. I'm not going to let fear. That's why God deals with Joshua at the very beginning. Don't fear. But what if I go forward again and I get hurt again, Lord? Don't fear. What if I go forward again, Lord, and everybody says, well, it'll just be a matter of time, and they'll be right back where they were? Don't listen to that. That's the devil. That's the devil keeping you from what God has for you, beloved, which is victory and triumph and obtaining of promises. Don't buy in to negativity and doubt. Put that away. God said, Joshua, put fear away. I want you to look at this thing by faith again. I'm with you. Just rise up and go forward. And here's the plan. So we want to press onward in the promises, definitely after we acknowledge failure and weaknesses. We say, Lord, my spirit is willing. My flesh is weak. Lord, You're the vine. I'm the branches. I can't do anything without you, but with you everything is possible Did he wash away a Manasseh stain brother Kevin? He did even Manasseh as wicked as he was God forgave him and brought him back What about Amiri, who had all those devils? Did he heal her? A wild Gadarean, a denying Peter, he brought back. A failing David, he brings it to his heart and arms again. You and me. Trembling Israel here in chapter 8, he tells them to rise again. Then secondly, after realizing that God has a better way, Proverbs 16, 25 says, there's a way that seemeth, what? Right unto man, but the end thereof is what? It's death, right? We think that we're so clever. We think that we have it all figured out sometimes. But we need to acknowledge, God, your ways are high above our ways. They're past finding out. Like Jesus said, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. Joshua hears the word of the Lord. He's asked the Lord, OK, Lord, what's the plan? What's your plan, Lord? Maybe you've tried in your marriage. Maybe you've tried at your job. Maybe you've tried in this and that. And you have found that you've just dug wells that hold no water. Well, it's time to go back to the fountain of living waters. Lord, I haven't done too good at this. Now, Lord, I want to do it your way, all the way. Just show me the way, Lord. I want to follow orders. You know, following orders is important, isn't it? Especially in the military. They start you at the very bottom. teaching you how to take orders and how important it is to follow the orders to the detail so that when it comes into the thickest part of the battle that you'll do what needs to be done. And so here, God tells them and we realize that God always has a better way. So I just ask you and I ask me, in our lives, are we listening and following God's plan so closely, so carefully? It's so important, isn't it? Are you just listening to advice of the world? Are you listening to your own wisdom about the way to be a husband, the way to be a wife, the way to raise children, the type of employee you ought to be, the type of church member that you should be? Or in all those things, are you coming and bringing your life to the word of God? God, what kind of husband do you want me to be? What kind of wife would you be pleased with? What kind of church member, Lord, do you require of me to be? What do you want me to do with my money, with my time, with my talents? I hope that you see that. And so now Israel is in a position, they tried to do it on their own, didn't they? They thought, they said, man, this is just a little town. We don't have to send everybody up. We'll just send a few. We'll whoop them real quick and then come on back and be on our merry way. How did that turn out for them? Oh, I'll never forget going to a young Christian girl that was about to make just the most terrible of decisions, and everybody knew it. Her family knew it. Her church knew it. And I went to her, and I said, please don't do this. This is going to have such terrible consequences for your life. And I said, and this is what the Bible says that you should do. And they looked at me. I'll never forget. And they said, Brother Nathan, I know you're right, but this is what I want to do. And that's what they did. And I think you can probably figure out how that it turned out. I'm not judging them. Haven't we all been guilty of that? Israel was guilty of that. But now they say, Lord, their ears are pricked up, aren't they? Lord, we want to do it. You give us the plan. You give us the blueprint. You know, beloved, I think this is important too. Never think that you must fight fair with the devil. Can I get an amen? Does the devil fight fair? No, we don't have to fight fair with him. What a great strategic plan that God gave to them. Now, the other plan to fight Jericho, God was just as victorious. He said, none of you have to do anything. I'm just going to do it all. And I guess God saw that as fair because God said, I'm taking all the spoil of that city. I'm going to do all the fighting. But here he says, I'm going to call upon you to do certain things that you should do. But it's still God that gave the victory, right? But he employed his people to do certain things, and they did it carefully. And he said, and when you do it, I'm going to give you the reward and the spoils. What a great God. that we have, but never think that you must fight fair with the devil. And one of the things that I see in here that I love so much is that God really loves to see his people win together. the togetherness of the people of God. And so when they win this victory together, all of them together with Joshua. And I think that's so important. I love like when we sing together, when we pray together, we go and we do ministry together. God loves to see his people win together. He hasn't called us to be, you know, Rambo Christians, right? Now, I love me some Rambo, don't get me wrong, but that's not the way that the Christian warfare is. We need our brothers and sisters. We're stronger. together. And I just want to read something here from A.W. Pink. Pink has wrote so many wonderful things. This is one of the best things that I've ever heard him read. I want you all to really listen to this and I'm going to try to get Brother Drew to send this out to everybody so that you can have it and look at it even on a weekly basis. He's writing about this passage and about this battle and the title of it is Make Every Effort. Make Every Effort. He says, while it be true that unless God gives the victory, no efforts of ours can possibly achieve it, nevertheless, it is our duty to make every effort. Though the fall of Ai was certain, yet Israel were called upon to discharge their responsibility God's promises to us are not given to induce lawfulness, but to be a spur unto obedience to his precepts. Faith is no substitute for diligent and zealous work, but is to act as the director of the same. Hope is not to absolve us from the discharge of our obligations, but is to inspire unto the performing of the same. It is because victory is sure in the end that the soldiers of Christ are called upon to fight. That assurance is to be their incentive from which they are to draw their energy. The genuine exercise of faith has a powerful influence both upon the Christian efforts to mortify the old man and to vivify the new. The reason I'm pointing at Brother Andy because that's coming in the next Bible study. But that's what the promises of God do, that's what faith does, that's what hope does more than call us away from sanctification, it calls us to sanctification. So, beloved, in your battle and pressing on in the promises, beloved, yes, acknowledge faults and failures, learn from them, get past them, move forward, and then realize God has a better plan and follow God's plan in your life and make every effort to follow His and to listen. completely and wholly to God's plan. Now, also, thirdly, we can press on after finding a renewed strength and will. Israel was down here. They were discouraged. I don't know if you've ever been there in your life, I'm sure y'all have, that you've just been in a place, Lord, I don't even know what to do next. You feel like that you've tried everything, that you've said everything that you can say. You know you've done everything that you can do with maybe with even opposite results of what you wanted. Or you just, you feel so depleted, you feel so inadequate. You just feel like, you know, Lord, I have nothing. I have nothing. Oh, it's wonderful to see when, in the scriptures, when people were like that. Y'all remember old Elisha? Elijah, and he said, Lord, I'm left alone. You know, everybody's forsaken you. I'm the only one left, and so why don't you just go ahead and take my life, right? But God said, I have 7,000 reserved that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. He woke up, he found those cakes, and he got some renewed strength, and he went in the strength of that one meal. How many days do y'all remember? 40 days and 40 nights. Sometimes we are like Jacob and we feel like all these things be against me, but it's not true. God is working all things together for the good to them that love him, that are the called according to his purpose. Joseph had a right that other people meant it for evil, but for God meant it for good. So what I'm asking you, especially those of you that are mature in the faith, to remember back as some of the greatest defeats that you've had in your life, some of the times of greatest discouragement. You wouldn't go back and experience that again, I know. But haven't those moments taught you the most about who you were and who God is? And haven't they, over time, made you a better Christian in your walk? And didn't God in some way come in those moments and renew your strength and renew your will to press on? I love what Ecclesiastes 9, 10 says. If you'll just write it down, look at it sometimes. But what it says is, whatever so ever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. I love the imagery here in the story. I don't know if you picked up on it. But it's the imagery of Joshua taking his spear in his hand, and what did God tell him to do with it? Stretch forth, right? Joshua felt like a failure as a leader. Here he had listened to the advice of these guys, and he had caused the death of these men that went to Ai. It was under his orders, under his direction. He falls before the Lord, Lord, you know, You just spread my fame in the chapter before, and now I'm on my face in the dirt before you, and I've got people digging holes in the ground out here to bury guys. But Joshua did not stay down. Joshua, did you hear that? Joshua rose up. Joshua rose up. And then it says that Joshua stretched out his spear. And then if you'll notice the other place, it said he did not draw back that spear until the job was done. You know, no doubt he remembered back to the time when Moses held up the rod. You remember? And Aaron and her came along and Joshua was down there in the battle fighting. Now Joshua is the one that is holding out the spear until the victory has been won. It's hard to get over mistakes, beloved. I'm not saying that it's not. It's hard to get over divorce. It's hard to get over some of the things that happen in this life. It's bitter sometimes. But you gotta learn from it. You gotta build back. You've got to get over it. And then you stretch out. Let's just look at those verses again. Joshua 8, 18. And see yourself now, whatever your AI is, whatever that you're facing in your life, Beloved, take up that spear and do like the Lord said unto Joshua, verse 18. Stretch out thy spear that is in thy hand toward thy eye, for I will give it unto thy hand. Do you have the faith to do that, to press onward in the promises Joshua did? Do you? Do I? So stretch forth and then don't draw back. Look at verse 26. Just look at it again. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Beloved, I would just encourage you to ask the Lord, Lord give me a renewed strength. a renewed will to press onward in the promises. And then lastly, and as we close, don't you love at the end of this victory, this scene of worship? It reminds me when they crossed the Red Sea. When they crossed the Red Sea and they saw their enemies drowned, that taskmaster that would not let them go, oh, what a worship service they had on the side of the Red Sea, right? we can press onward in the promises after worshiping and remembering God's holiness. Don't y'all love Sundays? Don't you love Wednesday nights? Oh, I need them so much in my life. When I feel discouraged, when I feel depleted, I come to the house of God. I'm reminded that the Spirit has promised me that sin will not have dominion over me. I heard that promise Wednesday night. It encouraged me so much that I'm not alone in my sanctification, but the third person of the Godhead is gonna see to it that I'm conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And then when we worship together, there's something in it that empowers me, that strengthens me. Oh, beloved, after we got through taking the Lord's Supper, last Sunday and washing one another's feet. I don't know if you felt it, but I felt like my whole soul had just been bathed by the Holy Spirit and I was renewed. I was ready to go back into the battle. Worship, remembering God's holiness. You remember, it was a terrible time for Isaiah. He said in Isaiah chapter 60, you remember he said, in the year that King Uzziah died, that was a hard time, when great leaders fall and die, and the future looks bleak. But he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up in his train fill the temple. And what he got a view of and what inspired Isaiah was a view of the holiness of God. They were crying, holy, holy, holy, right? He acknowledged his weaknesses. He said, I'm undone. I'm unclean. But God said, who's going to go for us? Who's going to stretch out the spear? Who's going to continue to blow the trumpet? In our day, Isaiah said, after a view of holiness and worship, here am I what? Send me. Send me. Beloved, always celebrate the victories and mourn the losses. But beloved, don't just do one or the other, but do both. Mourn the losses. We're right to mourn sometimes. We're right to weep sometimes. What did it say about Peter when he heard the cock crow three times? That he went out and he what? He wept what? Bitterly. But he didn't stay a crying man. No, Jesus, after he met with him and he gave him bread and fish upon the fire, he said, I want you to feed my sheep. When you're converted, strengthen the brethren. Keep pressing onward in the promises of God. Worshipping, remembering God's holiness, celebrating the victories. Yes, mourning the losses. all the victories in the Christian warfare. Brethren, my sisters and brothers, my friends, their hard fought and their blood bought, we celebrate those victories. And we give glory to God. And remembering His holiness and worshiping Him, there's a great strength that comes into us that helps propel us forward and upward in our lives. And I just love this. Here in verse 30, would you go there? So they had been in the land. They had experienced the circumcision. They experienced the Passover. They had been battling against Joshua, I mean, against Jericho and won the victory. They had been defeated against Ai and had to have that terrible experience with Achan and dealing with that and mourning over the loss. But then, I love to see them here. They're celebrating the victory. And they're celebrating it the right way by giving all the praise and glory and honor to God. Amen? Don't you love to read here in verse 30 after this? Then, after the victory, right? After they had pressed onward in the promises, then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. This is circled out to highlight that that's the first time altar is mentioned in the book of Joshua. It's the first altar that they built when they came back into the land of Canaan. Beloved, we must often come to God's altar. The altar of prayer, our family altars, the altar of church service, the altar that is in our daily lives, in our personal secret life with God. And this was, if you'll notice, that all of this was according to the commandment. And I love, did you notice that all the people, they were doing this together. All the people fought together. All the people won together. And did you notice one of the things that gave them such great strength? And I drew strength from this. Did y'all notice how it said in our passages that Joshua camped among the people? I love that because that's Jesus is our Emmanuel, our God with us. That's what strengthens us so much is when we do really truly realize that God's with me. What did Paul say at my first stand? No man stood with me, but what? The Lord stood with me. Oh, it's so powerful. But I just want you to see, turn with me to Deuteronomy 27, because what Joshua did here, Joshua is still following orders. Moses has been dead for many days now. But his words are still echoing in the mind and heart of Joshua, because this that Joshua did in building this altar, and yeah, they had all fought together. They had all mourned together. They'd all had to deal with sin together, and had to deal with failure and disappointment together. Then they all went and fought together. They all won the victory together. Now they're all worshiping together. The soldiers were there. The men were there. The strangers were there, the women were there, the children were there, all worshiping together. Isn't that sweet? That's what we have, isn't it? To encourage us to press onward in the promises of God. Well, here in Deuteronomy chapter 27, I just want you to see, because sometimes we forget these things, but what we're doing here today what we did last Sunday. Brother Andy, was that just something me and you came up to do with this month? We needed something religious to do? That was orders, wasn't it, brother? Orders passed down for 2,000 years to God's people to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Orders to bow down and wash one another's feet, following orders. And happy were we when we did it. and blessed were we. And it says here at this scene, at the end of, I don't know if you picked up on it when we read it, it said that the priests were blessing the people of God. The word of God was being read and proclaimed. The commandments were being remembered. God was being given all the glory. Here in Deuteronomy 27, four and five, therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day. In where? In where? In Mount Ebel. Where are God's people right now after the battle of Ai? They're in Mount Ebel. Where did Joshua build this first altar in Canaan's land? In Mount Ebel. Just like Moses told him to. Right, isn't that beautiful? And thou shalt plaster them with plaster. Is that what Joshua did? Yes. And there thou shalt build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Is that what Joshua did? It's exactly what Joshua did. And thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones, and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereupon unto the Lord thy God. And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and thou shalt eat there and rejoice before the Lord thy God. Hallelujah. They doesn't leave us in our faults and failings. that he shows us a better way, his way, that he renews our strength and our will, and then he invites us to come, remember his holiness, and worship him in spirit and truth, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. Beloved, I pray today that that's what you have done, that you have rejoiced before the Lord your God, and that your prayer today will be, Lord, Help me if I can't do anything else in this life. Just help me to keep pressing onward toward the promises. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. Well, I hope that that's what this message has been today. Very plain, very clear. Beloved, don't give up. Don't get discouraged. Just keep pressing on. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Onward, Christian soldiers.