Failure Is Not Final — Joshua 8

When Israel stumbled at Ai, it looked like the story was over. But in Joshua 8, God steps back into the locker room and says, “Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed. Get up — we’re not done.”

In this message, Chaplain Marc reminds us that failure doesn’t disqualify us — it prepares us. God restores what failure tries to destroy, and He uses our past mistakes to teach future wisdom.

Through Joshua’s comeback, Ted Lasso’s locker‑room lesson, and a few stories from real life, you’ll hear how God turns defeat into victory and shame into strength.

"This is Chaplain Marc.

Stand firm, stay faithful, and keep moving forward.

God restores what failure tries to destroy.

Until next time - one more day, one percent better."

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Open up your Bibles, if you will, to Joshua chapter 8. Oh yeah, I'll do that. Joshua chapter 8. Hold on, I'll get hooked up here. And I'll say, how am I doing, brother? Yeah. Okay. I'll keep it down here because I talk a little bit loud sometimes. Yeah, I I don't like what I had to preach last week. I I always want to make it about grace and hope and whatnot. And uh last week was about sin, and it's not that that's not in the Bible. In fact, there's a preacher who I was kind of preach against who is taking the blood and sin out of his church, and I hate that, but I always want to leave you with something uplifting whenever I preach. So uh this is uh Joshua chapter 8. This will be probably the most uplifting and positive message out of Joshua at all. And um uh even though we've had a whole lot, but this one's about victory. And um so we've seen so many things in in Joshua. You know, there was the the victory when they crossed the River Jordan and God stood up the waters in a heap. And there was a victory at the the Battle of Jericho, and like I said, battle is a bad name to call it because it wasn't a battle, God just won it for them, you know, and uh uh wasn't anything about that. But last week we saw Israel suffer a painful defeat at Ai. And it's not because Ai was strong, uh, but because Israel had hidden sin in the camp. And uh so a kind of uh Israel Joshua chapter 7 ends with judgment and sorrow and a nation sitting on the ashes of failure. And um uh but Joshua 8, you know, uh Joshua 8 begins uh with one of the most beautiful phrases in Scripture: do not be afraid. God says this all throughout Scripture, but listen, y'all ever feel like your damaged goods or like that God can't use you anymore? Um maybe because of your sin or your weakness or something or or sickness or whatever, but um this is the enemy trying to tell you you're not worthy of God's love. God is great about turning any mistakes that we have into victory. And um, and he did that for Joshua. So imagine Joshua for just a minute. Uh you come out the starting gate, you know, you're you're primed by the river crossing. God holds up the river, this raging river, um, and your people walk across on dry land, and then they're at Jericho, and they all they do is walk around and they they shout and the walls come crumbling down, and uh to the next point, then they're about to go conquer Ai, and uh AI said, you know, they they said, just send a few thousand people. It's not that big a deal. Not a really big deal. It'll be easy to take them, and then you suffer defeat. I know sometimes, depending on my mood, I might be saying, maybe I'm not the guy. Maybe I'm not the leader. I know Moses thought I was, but maybe it's not me. Maybe I need to step down and step away. Or I might say, you know, God are used against us now. And I've heard some people say that. It's uh the folks who come up to me and say, Do you think God is punishing me? No, I think you had a string of bad luck. I think you're gonna be fine, but uh God's not in the the punishing business. And uh, regardless of what some people like to speak and preach, I don't believe that at all. But you know, now and that but the thing is, you know, is sin entered the camp, and now they got one win, Jericho, and one loss, AI. And it doesn't look good at this point. And and so do you just give up? Do you say, Jericho, oh, that was just an anomaly? God was only with us the one time, you know, or do you keep pressing on? You know, were you a fool to trust God to go ahead and do it or not? You know, maybe, you know, like I said, maybe Joshua's thinking he's weak or or that the people messed up God's plan or whatnot, but sometimes we step out of something good that happens and then say, oh my, God is against me. And and we're not the only ones. Elijah in scripture, if y'all remember, he was the one who he he uh conquered the the Baal prophets, 450. Actually, then there was another 400 more, and he he had that, if y'all remember in the book of Kings, that was when fire came down from heaven, and he told them as they were dancing around, calling out to their God, the prophet Baal, he said, Why don't you talk louder? Because obviously your God is deaf and he can't hear. This is a guy trash talking over, like we're talking about 800 people, and then God ends up consuming in fire. Right after that, he finds out Jezebel wants to kill him, and he said, I'm done, and goes off to the mountains. And I'll tell you what brought him back. Just a side note, this is extra for you today. You don't have to pay for this. A nap and a snack. That's what got him feeling better. Just remember that whenever you're down, a nap and a snack got got Elijah feeling better. But he wanted to give up. So, and I wonder, you know, that's the tendency sometimes we face when we step from something victorious God had done, and God provided something in our lives, and then all of a sudden, oh, and you know, and and and don't think the enemy won't whisper, you are too weak. What are you thinking? Were you actually thinking you were gonna go do that? Um, I actually have a story about that from when I was going to seminary. I I don't want to bring up another story, but but I remember hearing the demons whisper to me as I was gonna go up to Southeastern Seminary, and we had it was an eight-hour drive up there, and all of a sudden I got nervous, and my hands got cold. That because I rarely get nervous or scared. My hands were cold, I had butterflies in my stomach to the point that it was dark outside. And Dee said, What is wrong with you? I said, Nothing. I'm okay, I'm all right. But the devil was whispering in my ear, said, You can't do this. What are you doing? You're gonna uproot your family? You're gonna uproot them and do what? Go to school? Go to seminary? You failed out of school. What are you doing? I was like, and I'm listening to this. And finally, as as we're she said, no, something is wrong. And I said, I'm scared. All of a sudden I'm scared. I don't know why. I'm scared. And as we pulled into uh, as we as we as we pulled into um Wake Forest, the city of Wake Forest, which is where, and there's people praying 24 hours a day. Suddenly I felt I started to feel better. And once we parked in front of the manor house, I felt better. What I learned later is 24-7, they've got people praying over that town and over each and every person, and everywhere in the world, they've got missionaries. 24-7 in that college, they've got people praying. And I think as they were praying, the the godly, the angels were fortified and told all those demons, you can't come in here. You're gone. And suddenly my fear started to abate. I could be wrong about that. I can't see the spiritual realm, but I'm just saying, sometimes when we lose heart in things, we suddenly feel like, well, God's not on my side. God's not even listening to me. My prayers are hitting the ceiling. I want to show y'all through Joshua chapter 8, uh, your mistakes can be God's victory. Um, your mistakes can always be God's victory. And there isn't any such thing as a mistake or as an error or a failure as long as you're with God. So let me, I'm gonna break this down a little bit, and I'm gonna read in a little bit of a time because there's a lot in Joshua chapter 8. But um the uh the the first verse, like I said, this is encouraging. So I'm gonna read the first eight verses. It says, Now the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid nor dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, arise and go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its foil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves, lay for an ambush the city behind him. So Joshua arose and all the people of war to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city, do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. Then I, Joshua says, Then I and all the people who are with me shall approach the city, and it will come about when they come out against us at the first, that we shall flee before them, for they will come out after us, till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing before us at the first. Therefore we will flee before them. Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. And it will be that when you have taken the city, you also you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord, you shall do. See, I have commanded you. So there's milit I love this. I'm gonna pause for just a second, then we're we're gonna jump down to um down to verse 18. But uh there's always military strategy. Even when David fought, it was clear that the angels and the army of the Lord were with him. However, there was always military strategy. So the strategy is okay, all the men of war, and notice this time they didn't say two or three thousand. They said all the men of war. They they go and they said, You guys are gonna camp out around the city. You guys are gonna not camp, but you guys are gonna hide. Uh, kind of like we used to do when I was with the scouts. You'd hide somewhere where nobody could see you, and that way you could just watch what was going on. And Joshua said, I'm gonna lead the men as if we're gonna attack. When they come out to attack us, we're gonna run. We're gonna run, and they're gonna think that we're trying to run from them. And so then when we run and we're gonna pass you up, and nobody's even gonna notice you, then when we take them that way, you go take the city. Set it on fire, and and God's gonna give you the city. And um, so that's exactly what they were gonna do. Now they've got a uh a battle plan that God has given them, and this is what's gonna happen. So we go down there to verse 18. The Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that's in your hand towards Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place. They ran as soon as he stretched out his hand, and they entered the city, took it, and hurried to set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven, so they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who had fled to the wilderness turned on the pursuers. So you see, right, uh what happened is as they the reason they went and they burned the city is because now all the army is out with them, and when they realize that they're outnumbered and they turn around, they got nowhere to go. Now they can't go anywhere. That's some strategy. So it said, now when Joshua and all of Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and the smoke of the city ascended, they turned their back and struck down the men of Ai. Then the others came out of the city against them so that they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on the side and some on that side, and they struck them down so that they let none of them remain or escape, but the king of Ai they took alive and brought him to Joshua. So now they have a plan that works because they were with God. And let me say this real quick. At the end of chapter 7, they killed Achan, they killed his family. And here they're destroying the city of Ai. I need y'all to know a couple of things. They're destroying the city, and they're not leaving any stone unturned. Sometimes God does some things that are that are seen by us as really graphic or really bad or really horrible. I actually had somebody ask me several times why is the God of the Old Testament so mean? I want you to know a couple of things. One, the AI was was the uh the Canaanites, uh, Amalachites, and uh they did horrible things. They didn't capture people, they did what the Taliban does now. And the reason why the people of Kuwait love America, uh, now they still charge us. There's a lot of places in the world where the dollar goes far, Kuwait's not one of them, because they got plenty of money over there. But they love America, they love our troops being there, and you know why? The only people who could get Iraq out of Kuwait was America. Because what they do is they kill men, any man who could serve in the army, they'd kill every man in here. If Chase was in here, they kill the young men too, so that they don't have an army. And then they do horrible things with the women. They don't kill them, they capture them and keep them. Those are the people that God said to burn the city and don't leave anybody alive. So I want you to know that first. The other is that Achan had sinned and God said, strike him down and his family. Now, whenever God does something new, he usually does something radical. And for instance, I want to go all the way back to when Aaron's sons decided, when Aaron's sons decided to do something in the temple that had never been done before, they decided to bring, says strange fire into the temple, and God struck them dead. Struck him dead immediately in the church. Said, you don't treat my pulpit, it didn't say pulpit, as something to do for you. What I command you to do, do it. Otherwise, do not. And then move on along. And there's there's several other times that that happened. When God's doing something new, I feel like he had to get the attention of people and grab them. And I think with Achan, now you're entering into a new season. Now suddenly God's got to grab the attention. Go back to when God was trying to weed people out in the desert. One time he opened up the earth and over a half a million people fell in. And that doesn't happen. That's all Old Testament, right, Mark? Book of Acts. Ananias and Sapphira lied when they came into the church. And uh Ananias died. He said, they asked him, Did you give the money to the church that you said you did? He said, I absolutely did. Dead right there on the floor. Basically, the deacons carried him out. And then Peter said one of the most gangster things I've ever heard. His wife came in, gave her a minute, saw the people. She should have read the room, and he said, Okay, your husband said you gave all the money from selling this property to the church. Did you do that? And she said, We absolutely did. And he said, Woman, it was so gangster. I can't I wish I could say it the way he said it, but he said, Woman, your husband died right here. And the six men who carried him out are gonna carry you out. Don't know what happened. If it was a heart attack, stroke, I don't know. But she died right then. Whenever God does something new, I feel like he has to say, Wake up, pay attention. This might be a really bad thing for me to do, but you need to pay attention to what I'm saying. Something new is happening, and I need you to know that I am the Lord. And he demands holiness from us. So when people ask you, and the thing is, is when people will say, Why is God so cruel? Well, those people that God says, you know, wipe them all out. I'll give you a, for instance, King Saul. He said, Wipe out all the Agagites, wipe them out. And King Saul said, You know what? I'm gonna keep the king and a few other people, and I'm not gonna leave everybody alive. Flip up a few pages to the book of Esther. The Jews were going to be annihilated by who? An Agagite. Had Saul done his job, they wouldn't have had that problem a couple uh, not quite centuries, about a century late. So there's always a reason that God does what he does. Yeah, sorry, gonna go back. Now we'll go back to Joshua, uh, looking at chapter 30. It's just some people always look at God as such a horrible, horrible. The God of the Old Testament is so horrible, and the God of the New Testament is is is is beautiful and loving, forgiving. It's the same God, Old Testament and New Testament, and his grace is sufficient. Now Joshua built an altar in verse 30 to the Lord, God of Israel in Mount Ebon. I could leave it right there. Joshua built an altar. But as Moses and the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it's written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool, and they offered it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger, as well as the one who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim, half of them were in front of Mount Ebal. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the people that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them. Why is that important? Y'all ever think I preach long? I have never preached the entire book of Deuteronomy to you in one day. So just remember that. That is exactly what he said. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them. They desired the law and the word of God so much they ate it up. The whole book of Deuteronomy, that would be a long message. But they wanted the law so much. They said, Give us Jesus, give us the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and eternal God, Lord, I thank you so much for the um, Lord, you showed us when we have our folly, when we don't do the things that you want us to do, what can happen to us. Lord, that sometimes where we think that you have led us, we may fall flat on our face because we didn't invite you to go with us. And now we see in chapter 8 how victorious we can be when you are the focal point of what we do. As the angel of the Lord had said to Joshua, I'm not on your side and I'm not against them, I am for the kingdom of God. Lord, may we remember continually that you are always for the kingdom of God. And Lord, as long as we will be obedient and follow along with you and do whatever it is that you want us to do, we'll be victorious. And Lord, if we falter and fall, you are the God of second chances. Every time you will teach us and help us to move on and be victorious. We love you, Lord. We thank you, we praise you. In your name Jesus, we pray these things. Amen. Amen and amen. Um, there is a show that I really love on TV, and it's called Ted Lasso. And I don't remember you got a got one of these channels to get it, but he's encouraging, and he's a he's a he's a he's a football coach from America who ends up going to coach football, which is soccer, overseas. And his big thing is that he wants you to be better as a player, him as your coach, he wants you to be better on the field and off the field. Just wants you to be a better person. Does he want to win games? Of course he wants to win games. But his main thing is, are you going to improve as a player and are you going to improve as a person? And um the first uh uh the first game that they had, they lost terribly. But um uh, and and as they did, instead of the players felt defeated, the fans were angry. The fans were like, what is this Yankee? Meaning he wasn't necessarily from the South, but Yankee meaning an American, doing teaching football, you know, and the fans were angry, the locker room was heavy, uh, and and and they were embarrassed, and and ever, you know, it was it just looked bad. And everybody expected him. And if any of y'all have been in sports and seen, sometimes coaches will yell, sometimes they'll scream, sometimes they'll blame this or blame that or blame this player or blame, I don't know, the wetness on the field or whatever. They'll blame something. But he didn't deny it, he just refused to let it define them. And instead he said, Here's what we're gonna do we're gonna get up, we're gonna dust ourselves off, and we're gonna be better for it. That was what he wanted them to do as a team. And uh and that was what Joshua did here. You know, Israel failed at Ai, and they were they were discouraged and they were ashamed. But God walked into the locker room and said, Do not fear. God said, What he literally said was, do not be afraid nor dismayed. That's some of the best words that you can hear from God. God walked in the locker room and said, Do not be afraid, dismayed, get up, we're not done. I can promise you, whatever age you are, God is absolutely not done with you. Looking at you, Mr. Nelson. No, I'm kidding, but yeah, but uh, God is not done with you at any age. And as I've mentioned it before, Moses was about 80 when he went through the promise, you know, went through the promised land, divided the Red Sea, and shut it up on the Egyptians and walked on. Moses was about 80. Daniel was about 80 when he got thrown in the lion's den. It's no retirement age. God is not done with you. Whatever it is that that you think God may have for you, God is absolutely not done with you. When he's done with you, you'll know it because he'll call you home. But uh uh, but nonetheless, but um God uses our failures to teach us future wisdom. God restores what failure tried to just to destroy. And I could see that. I could see feeling like you were. Disappointed or disgruntled or dismayed, and that nothing was going right. You know, I could see that failure might have tried to destroy them, and sometimes it does that with us. Sometimes we get such down in a pity party that we think whatever failure that we had, that it's absolutely going to take us, you know. And uh, but God says, Do not fear, take the people I've already given you, the king of AI. In Micah 7:8, Micah, Micah said, When I fall, I shall rise. There's a um uh a broken tool, you know, sometimes uh uh uh older tools look very well worn, but they're still usable. And I was I was uh talking about this today. I have a I have a spade that's uh that's pretty old. I know when we moved here, it probably moved from three houses, so I don't know how long it had it, 15 or 20 years. But a carpenter bee decided to make a a hole right in the middle of the uh uh of the wooden post that you use for it. And uh so I kept using it, kept using it, got older, got sunbeaten and worn down because I kept it outside. Then finally one day I was using it and that snapped. Well, looks like well, time to buy a new one. But you know what? I am small of stature. So so in shadow being this hall was really not that big a deal. I could still use it for the most part, and it worked just fine. I didn't have to go spend $40 or $80 on another one. I still used it, you know, and it may have looked old and broken. Some that is broken, you need to get rid of it. I said, that is a shorter spade. I'll be fine with it. We'll get another one when I need a new one, you know. So uh uh, but sometimes, you know, uh God uh God will continue to restore what failure tries to destroy. God doesn't throw away people, God doesn't throw away people who have failed, God restores them and brings them back. Um in that same show, the uh the Ted Lasso show, uh there's a guy who's a big jerk in the movie and in the TV show, and and uh he um he decides that he's gonna challenge him to darts, you know, and it looks like he's gonna lose. And Ted Ted threw some practice shots and they weren't very good. So the guy was chuckling and laughing, but uh he shared a lesson that he learned from years of being underestimated. He said, Here's the thing that I've learned about people be curious, not judgmental. I'm gonna say that one more time. Be curious, not judgmental. That's what I have learned to do in chaplaincy, regardless of if somebody, whatever somebody tells me, and I've heard some horrible stories, I'm curious about their life. I'm not judgmental. And that's sometimes why you'll hear a counselor say something that you might think is dumb, like, how did that make you feel? But the truth is, we're curious. What did that do for you? But he revealed something that nobody knew as he starts to throw a dart. He has spent years, almost a decade, playing darts with his father every Sunday afternoon. His past didn't disqualify him, it prepared him, and he won the game with a perfect throw. In fact, he got a triple twenty. If you know what that is, it's very hard to do. But um, Israel's failure at AI did not disqualify them either. It prepared them by letting them know, again, that horrible experience that happened with Achan. It said, God needs us to be obedient, God needs us to have humility, and God needs us to have victory. And so they went on with that. And uh, but God uses past failures to teach wisdom. And um uh in in in verse 2 in Joshua 8.2, uh he defines the strategy and he says, You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Sometimes we need to remember that God has already given us a victory. Sometimes we forget that. I think sometimes that we are very short-sighted. Just like when they were fixing to cross the Jordan River, I think they may have forgotten that 40 years ago God swallowed up the Egyptian army in the Red Sea after God let them walk across on dry land. I think there were times that they forgot that God was giving them manna raining down from heaven, and they didn't stop to realize how blessed that they were. Or that when they complained about not having meat, God gave them quail and they forget. Sometimes I think we forget the victories that we had. So God said, Remember, I gave you Jericho. He didn't say you took Jericho, he said, I gave you Jericho, and in the same way, I am giving you AI. And he and he sent them on their way. And um uh God changed the strategy, and and Israel learned to be obedient, to be patient, and to have teamwork. Romans 8 28. Never forget that Romans 8.28 says God works all things together for good according to God's purposes, including failure. And I often think of um, I often think of uh Michael Jordan. Now, there's a lot, you can actually find out how many baskets that Michael Jordan made in his career. He's supposed to, you know, as far as anybody knows, he's the best basketball player who has ever lived. Not a basketball guy, but nonetheless, but I admire Michael Jordan and I studied a lot about him. But you know what Michael Jordan can tell you? He can tell you every shot he ever missed. And I don't remember what the numbers are, it's well over a million. But he knows, he has counted every shot that he missed. In fact, he was so bad at basketball his first, he did not make varsity his freshman year in high school. He had to practice, practice, practice. I can't remember if it was a sophomore or junior year before he became a varsity basketball player, but he practiced. But he could tell you every shot that he missed because he said every shot I missed taught me what it was to get a winning shot. And that's why he became better. In fact, they said the same thing of um of uh I was about to say Al Graham Bell. Um sorry, my brain just went out. The light bulb. Edison, Thomas Edison, sorry. I was about to say Alexander Bell and the Einstein. I don't know where my mind went, but Thomas Edison took him over a thousand tries to be able to get the light bulb. And now, as you see here, churches were one of the first ones to have the electric light bulb, whether y'all know it or not. Churches were also one of the first ones to have air conditioning. So uh uh, as churches always try to be on the cutting edge of things, but uh they asked him, they and I'm sure this person was trying to what they call now rage bait, Thomas Edison, when this reporter asked him, Did it upset you that it took you over a thousand tries to make the electric light bulb? And uh Thomas Edison said, Not a bit. He said, because I learned 999 ways not to make a light bulb. A thousand times worms. Failure is never final, defeat is never fatal, failure is never final. Uh, and but God can help you to have the wisdom to come back from that. And and I think about that when like if if somebody calls me smart, I'm probably gonna deny that. Um, there's a guy at work who likes to tell me I'm smart, he's like, You're a genius. I'm like, no, I'm not, Mark. Uh but I always say that he gave me $20. You know, if you try to say that I'm uh smart, if I'm good looking, if I'm whatever, I will deny every bit of it. But if you say that I'm wise, and I've had young people say, You are you are wise, and I'll say, That I am, that I am, because I'm gonna tell you where I believe wisdom comes from. Because when you mess something up, and you learn from messing something up, and learn for one to not do it again, but also how to tell others not to do it. That I've done a lot. I've messed up a lot, and I can tell these young people, don't do that. I can probably tell y'all most of the things that you've done, whether it's be it, be it a bad investment, be it a bad investment of time or money or or or just about anything, or getting into something that you're not supposed to get into, or or uh uh jumping jumping into a multi-level marketing scheme or anything like that, all the stuff that you can think of. I have done that, messed it up, and come back from it. So wisdom I will say that I've got, but I won't say that I failed at a lot of things. I'll just say that I've tried a lot of things, and God has led me in the direction that I needed to go. So uh so I will I will take wisdom. But not only um does God restore what failure and the enemy wants to destroy, God uses our past failure to give us wisdom that we can go on from that, but God brings victory when we return to obedience. All of chapter 7 was about correcting the disobedience. And Achan, and I get it. Achan saw this leather jacket with all the gold on it, and he said, It's just a leather jacket. Robert, I know what God said, but nobody's gonna miss this leather jacket, brother. I know what God said, but nobody's gonna miss this leather jacket and all this cash land here. Nobody's gonna miss it. I'll just take it with me. And then they lost the battle at Ai. But God had specifically said, do not take anything. Now, this time he told them what of the spoils they could take, but God had said, do not take from the spoils, but he said, Oh, that leather jacket's so sweet, and that cash is so nice. Nobody'll nobody'll bother. It bothered God a lot. But when the the the corroborating scripture that that uh when when Joshua said, I'm gonna stretch out the javelin, they said, Go into the city. Um, and and so Israel obeyed immediately and victory followed them, but obedience brings blessing. And as I said last week, repeatedly, 1 John 1 9, confession restores fellowship. If we are faithful and just to confess, or if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Israel had realized what had gone wrong, they confessed, they fixed it. And and then God restored fellowship. Now God restores what failure tries to destroy, God uses past failure to give us wisdom, and then God brings victory when we return to obedience. Michael Jr., he's a uh Christian comedian. Uh love him to death. Um tall black man who's bald. So the immediate assumption is that he can play basketball. He will tell you he cannot play basketball. He is horrible at it. But the assumption, and I had another friend who was tall and skinny and black, uh, just talked to him yesterday, Will Wilson. He said, I said, I said, hey, brother. I said, does everybody when nobody was around, I said, does everybody assume you can play ball? He said, yes, everybody assumes I can play basketball because I'm tall. I'm a tall black man. He said, so they assumed so. He said, but I'm no good. He said, I don't even like basketball, you know. So, but um, but he said, but but Michael Jr. was on TBN one night I was in a hotel, and I remember this and I've never forgotten. He said, God is the cosmic GPS. Now, I don't know if everybody here, I'm I'm I'm guessing everybody has used GPS in some way, shape, or form. Y'all remember when we used to have to have maps, but now there's GPS, whether it's the kind you mount on there or now it's on your phone and whatnot. But he said, God is the GPS. He said, the thing is if you go the wrong way, the GPS would say recalculating. And it may take you a longer route or a route that you don't like. And I was remembering when he said it, there was a time I was in Augusta. I was trying to get to a martial arts class, and uh I didn't know much about the town. I was just trying to get there by you know eight o'clock on a Wednesday night or something, I don't remember. But uh I remember I missed some major turn. I was supposed to just be like interstate to highway and then right there, but I missed some turn, and all of a sudden I turned in and it was a bad storm that night. And so I'm seeing literally, I'm seeing limbs fall, I'm seeing things blow across the ground, and I was and I'm going through subdivisions, I'm going by people's houses, and I'm going, and the GPS has guided me. And I was like, I have no idea where I'm going. I'm just gonna follow the GPS because I have no clue. And I really didn't trust the GPS, it was new to me. So I kept making left turn, making right. I'm going by people's driveways, by people's house. I'm like, I have no idea where I'm going. And it took me longer than I thought. I would ended up being later. But nonetheless, as I went through these neighborhoods and whatnot, dropped me out on a street, took a right, one block. There was exactly where I was looking for. But nonetheless, but the GPS didn't give up on me, took me some routes that I wasn't real comfortable with. I didn't know where I was or where I was going, but it got me there. God is the eternal GPS. Because when you go the direction God wants you to go, God says, recalculating. And you might not like the longer route that you take, or the different route that you take, or the more painful route that you take, but God never gives up on you. But who did that in scripture, Mark? Think of Jonah. Jonah said, God said, I need you to go to Nineveh and tell them about judgment. He said, Okay. And he goes to a boat and he says, Where are you going the other way from Nineveh? Got on a boat, headed the other way. God said, Recalculate it. Gave them a storm. They start throwing stuff off the boat. They were like, What happened? Jonah said, I made God mad. Just throw me off the boat. And they said, We don't want to because you're God's chosen. They said, Okay. But so then they threw him off the boat. And I'm sure what Jonah thought was, I'm surely gonna die. And he hit the bottom of whatever sea they were in. And I know that because the reeds brushed up against his face. That doesn't happen when you're floating. But then a fish came and swallowed him up, spit him out right in front of Nineveh. Recalculating, recalculating, recalculating. For three days, recalculating. Told you I'd put you where I wanted you. God never gave up on him. God just changed his trip until he could be obedient enough to match where God wanted him to go. Recalculating. God gives you a new path forward. Um, uh, so there is no such thing as failure. We can just learn from whatever had happened, what defeat we have had, and move on. But um, Joshua A is is the message for the discouraged believer because failure is not final when God is still leading. Israel failed at Ai. Don't forget, they literally attacked and they literally got beat and pushed back. And Israel wept at AI because they had they had been defeated right after that that big, huge battle of Jericho, and and and the walls come tumbling down, and now they got defeated. But Israel learned from Ai. And now they learn that with obedience comes God's blessing. And then suddenly they could go ahead and and defeat uh Ai. Um, I don't know if y'all have ever had this happen where a tree or a branch or something, you know, the storm cuts it in half, and uh there was a storm that snapped a tree in half, and everyone assumed it was dead. And but nobody did anything about it for a little bit that said, well, it's a dead tree. And then a few months later, some shoots started coming up, and uh, and then and and it started having blooms and blossoms. Well, its strength returned. Failure didn't kill it, failure forced a new growth. Y'all probably seen that in plants. Sometimes one gets cut down and it forces a new growth, and that's what God wants to do. So, um, but today, yeah, just if if you remember nothing else, that that failure is not your future. When if something ever happens and you feel like this is a failure or this is something, it may have been that God was trying to stop you from something that didn't happen, or or maybe something just wasn't right, and God may provide victory in the future, but failure is not your future, and defeat is not your destiny, and our past doesn't define what our next step is. Obedience defines what our next step is following God. So even if you've stumbled, if you failed, if you carried shame over something that happened, and shame is what will keep Christians down so much. But if you believe the lie or believe the lie that God has done with you, God has absolutely not done. Joshua 8 says otherwise. So Joshua 8 says, Come to the altar, give that to God. God's the one who restores, he gives second chances. Come, come to the God who says, Do not fear. I have given you the victory. That you already have the victory. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and eternal God, Lord, uh, I just pray that you would be with us. Lord, I thank you that you are the God of second chances, that you are the God that we can believe in. You that you are the God that we know if something happens, maybe we need to get you to recalculate our steps and head the direction that you want us to go to. Lord, help us where we get confused. I pray that we would learn to relax and turn things over to you, and that you will give us the commanding victory that we need in our lives. We love you, Lord. Lord, I pray that you would be with each and everyone in this room. I pray that you would be with each and every one and the ones who could not make it, that you'd give them strength and healing wherever they may be, and Lord, that you would remind us that failure is not our future. Failure is not final and it's not fatal. That instead, Lord, we just need to seek you. And with obedience, you will give us the victory. We love you, we thank you, we praise you. In your name, Jesus, we pray these things. Amen. Amen and amen. And what are we singing this afternoon, Brother Robert? Uh number 321. Savior is waiting. Savior is waiting to open your heart. 321, let's stand and sing as we close out this afternoon.