Sermon Tone Analysis

It was president Donald Trump who popularized the phrase “Fake News” — He used the term to describe the reporting of main stream news media …during his campaign which caused wildfire of controversy…

Now, regardless of how you feel about “Fake News” it was around…way before Donald trump.. So.. What is Fake news?

Fake news or false news which is a deliberate disinformation and hoaxes that spread.. and there is a lot of it on the internet.

There is actually a website called Snopes.com

where you can find out whether a story is true or not…When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes.com’s

fact checking and try to find original sources so that the Reader then can then make up their mind.

The co-founder of Snoops.com

David Mikkelson says it's hard to keep up with all the false stories on the Internet.

In an interview with The Guardian "There are more and more people piling on to the internet and the number of entities pumping out material keeps growing.-

We are living in the information age where the problem is not finding information but filtering information.…

This desire for truth tells us something about our culture today — That we are tired of synthetics, plastic, additives and substitutes… We are desire something of substance… we want something real..

The Christian hip hop artist and songwriter.. Lecrae — Put it like this..

Fake is everywhere.

Real is rare.

This morning we are going to be looking at Real Faith for the real world...

We are in a sermon series in the book of Joshua and we are exploring the battles that took place in the conquest of the promised Land.

The book of Joshua is about Israel entering into God's promises through the conquest of Canaan.

The book of Joshua is also instructive… The way it is written was to teach coming generations how to win spiritual battles…

Joshua teaches us how to live with real faith in a hostile environment..

This idea of the world being a hostile place is all over the Bible.. Genesis through Revelations.. Paul tells us Ephesians 6 that we are in engaged spiritual conflict… we might think that its all about the hear and now — but something much bigger than us is going on..

To wrestle against flesh and blood is to say I can handle this myself… I’ve got this… you take out the spiritual dimension… see everything from the natural realm.. Scripture is clear ... you cannot fight a spiritual battle in the flesh…you have to walk by faith..

Paul In 2 Corinthians tells us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight.,To

walk by faith is to walk in a spirit of prayerful dependence on the Lord and His guidance.

As Israel enters into the land they are learning that natural world is tied to the spiritual world.. that the only way to posses the land is by faith.

T/S How do we have real faith in the hostile world?

1. Allow Space for Spiritual Renewal and Formation.

As we move into Chapter 8 of Joshua we find that Israel has already won two major battles in the Conquest of Canaan…Two cities Jericho and then city of AI have fallen and been captured.

You might imagine that Israel would immediately head for the next battle field… But instead of battlefield we are transported nearly twenty miles to the north to a worship service at Mount Ebal, near Shechem…

Mt Ebal is the highest mountain in northern Israel, Mount Ebal — From this vista almost the whole land could be seen.

It was thus a strategic and symbolic site.... major trade route… But what is important is that Israel took time to worship God.

It is here that Joshua and Israel build an altar to the Lord..

The Authorized Version translates this as: ‘Then Joshua built an altar’; In other words after all the two massive battles, the people of Israel turn to worship.

It seems that Joshua is learning the lesson of Consecration…

On the other side of the Jordan they took 3 days to be refreshed and prepare emotionally and spiritually… this was before the miracle of Israel crossing the Jordan…(timing was important)

At Gigal Joshua consecrated the young men and made covenant with God…Before the miracle of the battle of Jericho… The walls fell down..

At the battle of AI they failed at first because they neglected to seek God… but after they sort God — They saw the miracle of the defeat of AI.

Notice a pattern emerging…

“Spiritual preparation Precedes Spiritual battles”

Timing is important with Spiritual warfare…

R.A. Torrey said

“The reason why many fail in the battle is because they wait until the hour of battle.

The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came.”

What a great lesson — Don’t wait for the trial — Don’t wait for the difficulty — Don’t wait for the set back… We already know that we are engaged in warfare… Like Joshua we can prepare for battles by building Spiritual Altars.

Altars were designed for offerings… and in the sacrificial system.. burnt offerings were intended to atone for sin, whereas the fellowship offerings were to reaffirm the relationship with both God and the community.

We don’t have physical Altars --- but we able to build personal altars of worship… Devotional times when we open our heart and mind for God --- Two things should happen when we worship… Confession — Reaffirm our relationship with God

To confess our sins means to agree with God that an act or thought was wrong, to acknowledge this to God, to seek forgiveness, and to turn and walk obedience.

Confession of sins is necessary for maintaining continual fellowship with God… When you prepare your heart — able to receive what God is saying…

The first thing Joshua does is the bless the people and then he begins to read the whole of the book of the law… Worship was interactive activity..

Where the whole nation got involved… We are told that everyone was present… the men, the woman, and the children… and also the sojourners… Everyone heard every word of the law… Worship was interactive…

In Deuteronomy 27–28 we see the instructions as to how this part of the ceremony was to be conducted.

Six tribes were to stand on Mount Ebal and six tribes on Mount Gerizim.

Joshua was to call out all the curses and the people would say ‘Amen’ to each one.

He would then call out all the blessings and all the people would say ‘Amen’ to each one.

Joshua’s voice rang loud and clear and the ‘Amen’s thundered forth from thousands of voices as the people affirmed the righteous laws of God to whom they were now committing themselves...

There is something about Hearing the Word — that builds faith… listening to scripture… One of the ways we can have real faith in real life --- is simply practice reading scripture out loud… Tim Keller qouted this article in the New York Times entitled.

"Turn the Page, Spur the Brain" that presented empirical findings showing that reading to children, even infants, was crucial for brain development.

They found that exposing children to a video or a picture short-circuited the child's imagination.

One expert said: "They're not having to imagine the story [for themselves]; it's just being fed to them."

Another pointed out that children who were exposed to reading "showed significantly more activity in the areas of the brain that process visual association, even though the child was listening to a story and could not see any pictures."

In short, verbal communication makes your mind and heart do the work of grasping and imagining the story for yourself.

Images tend to feed you what some other person's imagination has created.

Our experience with the word of God should be exciting and interactive..

George Whitfield.. who evangelist during the “Great Awakening Revivals’ in the 18 century.—

worked closely with John Charles Wesley… preached over 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners… He tells us how reading the scriptures changed his life… when he was a student at Oxford .

“I began to read the Holy Scriptures on my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word.

This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul.

I daily received fresh life, light, and power from above.”

The word of God shapes us into people of God.

God’s people, and worship was the appropriate way to respond to it. .

..T/S How do we have real faith in hostile world?

1. Allow Space for Spiritual Renewal and Formation.

2. Be Aware of areas of Deception and Compromise.

In Chapter 9 we see that Isreal presence in the land causes the Kings in the hills and lowlands of Canaan to panic… We are told that Alliances begin to form as these Kings join forces to fight against Israel… While all this is happening there is One city that has a different approach.. Gibeon is much closer to Israel--- and probably the next on Israels list..

They plan is to save themselves..

Gibeon was one of the larger cities, it was a Royal city meaning that it had its own king..… they had reputation for their brave fighting men...

But when Gibeonites hear what Israel had done Jericho and AI — they came up with a plan to save themselves..

All the other Kings are planning for a conflict… But Gibeon chose a different approach..

Gibeonites are wanting to Save themselves..

So their plan is to trick Israel into making a peace treaty with them.. make covenant with them..

So they disguise themselves as travelers who have come from a distant country… Everyone in Gideon goes to the Good will and finds the oldest possible clothes… worn out shoes… saddles and water-bottles… They have all the props and they look convincing..and they present themselves to Joshua and the leaders of Israel at Gilgal.

What is fascinating about these verses is that the Leaders of Israel have a sense that something is off.. the men of Israel even question there story-

— Perhaps you live among us?

They are asking the right questions… but still lacking discernment..

.The Gibeonites go onto say that their elders had sent them and they had bread that was freshly baked when they started and was now stale.. there wine skins were new but they had fermented and burst… There story is convincing…

There is a lesson in leadership here...

Even when the facts seem apparent and the path before us seems clear to discern, we must always seek the Lord. .

This is a great example of how the people of God should not make decisions —

Our world is a world of sense impressions.

We have to decide on the basis of what we see and hear and touch, and if in operating that way we make mistakes, we can hardly be blamed for them.

There is nothing else to be done.”

The great error here——is assuming that reality is nothing more than the material.

It is true that much of reality is material.

That is why judgments based on sense impressions are proper and reliable under many circumstances.

When you pull a piece of meat out of the refrigerator and find that it is discolored and has a bad smell, it is wrong to eat it.

Your senses are given to you by God to tell you that the meat is bad and that you will probably get sick if you eat it.

That way of making a decision works for us every day in scores of situations.

But the difficulty with operating that way all the time is that reality does not consist only of the material.

There is a spiritual world too, and in that spiritual world there is a powerful, crafty, and malicious being who is bent on our destruction.

We cannot see the devil.

We cannot handle, taste, or smell his stratagems.