Joshua 7

Achan From Sin? | Sunday, April 23, 2023

April 23, 2023 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis

In this teaching

A teaching on Joshua 7, where Achan's secret theft of devoted things from Jericho brought defeat and judgment on all Israel, illustrating that high spiritual moments carry the danger of catastrophic falls and that God values sanctification over earthly success. Pastor Miles closes by pointing to Christ as the only refuge from the coming judgment that all sinners deserve.

Beware when you think you stand, lest you fall—high highs carry the danger of an epic fall.
If God is your Lord, certain things are off limits, forbidden, and set apart; the abundant life is found within God's boundaries, not without them.
Achan committed theft against God; severe consequences await those who rob from Him.
Sin, like leaven, spreads—a little affects everyone—and God is more concerned with our present sanctification than our earthly success.
Personal sanctification requires swift and sometimes severe action against sin in our own lives.
All of us deserve Achan's judgment, but in Christ—our Passover Lamb—we are sheltered from the coming judgment of God.

Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.

On the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets... Joshua said to the people, "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!"... So the people shouted... and the wall fell down flat. Then they took the city... So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan... took of the accursed thing; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel. (–7, condensed)

The danger of every spiritual high is the potential for an epic biblical belly flop.

An Epic Belly Flop

This last Thursday I got up early to watch a live stream of SpaceX launching their massive Super Heavy rocket in Texas. It's 400 feet tall—like sending a skyscraper into orbit. It blew up at about 110,000 feet, but Elon Musk said that was expected; they just wanted to get it off the pad. The plan was for it to make almost a full revolution around the earth and then perform what Musk called an "epic belly flop" in the Pacific.

That epic belly flop reminded me of my youth pastor days. Every summer we'd go to the Calvary Chapel youth camp near Big Bear, and out on the lake they had "the Blob"—a giant air pillow with a platform twelve feet above it. A sixty-pound sixth grader would crawl out to the end, and then two 200-pound counselors would jump on and launch her twenty-five feet into the air to come crashing down in an epic belly flop. The whole camp would gather around the lake to watch.

Today we're going to look at an epic belly flop in the Bible. There are several. In Matthew, Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter speaks up: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus tells him, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." Then within about forty-five seconds Peter is rebuking Jesus, and Jesus says, "Get behind Me, Satan!" From a high high to a low low. That's always the danger of high highs—the potential for a fall.

Standing on the Ruins of Jericho

I cannot think of a higher high than this moment in Joshua. The people of Israel are standing on top of the ruins of Jericho, having defeated this great walled city. They had no hope of doing it by their own strength—they walked around the city once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. By the thirteenth time around, they all knew they couldn't do this. But God caused the walls to fall flat.

Joshua had commanded the people, "By all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed... But all the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the LORD; they shall come into the treasury of the LORD." They shouted, the walls fell, and they took the city. And says, "So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country." If Twitter existed, Joshua would have been trending—hashtag Jericho.

Beware When You Think You Stand

Here's our first point: beware when you think you stand, lest you fall. This comes straight from Scripture. In 1 Corinthians we're told that everything recorded in the Old Testament was written for our instruction. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

You almost don't even need to read to know what's coming. We have here what's called Chekhov's gun. The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said that if you hang a rifle on the wall in chapter one, it has to go off by chapter two or three. The fame of Joshua spread throughout all the country—and then: "But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things."

A trespass is when you know full well not to cross the line, and you cross it anyway. Joshua told the people not to take the accursed things, but Achan, son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, "so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel." Israel had just experienced an unprecedented victory by God's power alone, and now they were headed toward another city called Ai—a name that actually means "heap of ruin."

Off Limits, Forbidden, Set Apart

Point number two: if God is your Lord, then there are certain things that are off limits, forbidden, and set apart. We don't like the word "no." We learn to dislike it from a very young age. There's something about the command "don't touch that" that inflames desire within us.

But I want to suggest that you cannot experience the abundant life God intends without boundaries. Our culture says there should be no boundaries—you decide who you are, what you are, how you live. But watch people who live out that mindset and you'll see people in terrible bondage. God created you with an intended purpose, and when you function within it, you excel. The abundant life is not life without boundaries; it is life within the boundaries God ordains.

God had promised this land to Abraham back in . Now, centuries later, his descendants are coming to take possession of it. But there was a condition: the first fruits of the land belong to God. Jericho was the first fruits—everything in it was to be consecrated to Him.

Why Jericho's Spoil Was Consecrated

There are at least three reasons. First, worship. Giving back to God a portion of what He had given them was an act of worship—a sacrifice, which by its very nature is difficult, but which anticipates blessing.

Second, it signaled honor and value. By giving this to the Lord, they declared they honored and valued God more than the blessings themselves. When we value the things God gives us more than God Himself, that's called idolatry, and it always leads to bondage and death.

Third, it was a simple act of obedience. This initial act would reveal the extent to which they would continue to obey in the future.

Now, why were these things "accursed"? Not because they were connected to paganism—if that were the reason, the spoil of every other city would be accursed too, but God says they could take spoil from the other cities. The answer is in the Hebrew word, which has two meanings: "accursed" and "devoted." These things were devoted to God. So when Achan took them, he wasn't touching something unclean—he was taking something that didn't belong to him. That's theft. And he lied about it, breaking the eighth and ninth commandments. Point three: severe consequences await those that rob from God. You may say, "It's a good thing I've never done that." Hold that thought.

Defeat at Ai

Joshua sent spies to Ai, and they returned saying, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few." We've got this—it's not a big deal. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

Their thinking was flawed because they failed to recognize what had given them power at Jericho. They were victorious not because of the size of their army or a good plan, but because of their wholesale dependence on God. Now they say, "We got this, God." So about three thousand men went up, and they fled before the men of Ai, who struck down about thirty-six. "Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water."

The tables turned quickly. Back in , Rahab told the spies that all the cities of Canaan melted with fear when they heard Israel was coming. Now Israel sends a small detachment to a heap of ruin and is defeated, and their own hearts melt.

Joshua's Strange Prayer

Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face before the ark until evening, putting dust on his head—signs of mourning. He responded to defeat in the proper way, sort of. But if he had come before God with this humility before sending the army, he would not be in this position. I don't point a finger of judgment, because many times in my own life I've come to brokenness only after a defeat, wishing I had come in humility sooner and averted disaster.

But notice his prayer in : "Alas, Lord GOD, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all... Lord, what shall we say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?... and what will You do for Your great name?" Joshua essentially says, "God, this looks really bad for You." Not the best look. In Corinthians we read that if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. A little self-reflection would go a long way here.

God's Response: Get Up

I love God's response: "Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned... they have both stolen and deceived... Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies... Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you."

Israel was defeated because they had stolen, lied, and broken the covenant. In both Testaments, sin is associated with leaven. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Just a little bit of sin—it's private, nobody sees it—affects everybody. That's exactly what happened here. The exhortation is to purge out the old leaven.

Point four: God is more concerned with my present sanctification than my earthly success. This is hard for us, because we're all focused on success. Unfortunately, many churches in 2023 give a message that basically says God reigns in heaven for your earthly pleasure and success, which is completely unbiblical. Yet the amazing thing is that when we walk in righteousness and are sanctified by His Spirit and His word, we do experience success—just measured by God's standard, not the world's. As says, if you meditate on God's word and do it, "you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." That success carries over into the next life; the world's success will not.

Achan Exposed

In the morning, Israel was brought tribe by tribe, family by family, man by man. The tribe of Judah was taken, then the Zerites, then Zabdi, and finally Achan. Joshua said, "My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him." Achan answered, "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold... I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent."

Just before Moses died, he warned the tribes in the book of Numbers, "Be sure your sin will find you out." My observation is that no one ever truly gets away with anything—there will be a reckoning. You may object: some pretty wicked people seem to do quite well. A man about three thousand years ago thought the same thing in . He was almost in despair over how the wicked prosper—"until I went to the house of the Lord and saw their end." This life is not all there is. Revelation tells us a day is coming when the Judge of all the earth will open the books and we will be judged according to our works.

I Saw, I Coveted, I Took, I Hid

Notice Achan's progression: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. This same progression appears in with Adam and Eve—I saw, I coveted, I took, I sinned. In the 21st century we are bombarded with temptation Achan could never have imagined. Research shows the average American sees between four and ten thousand advertisements a day, all designed to make us want and desire. We don't need it, but within minutes we find a way to need it. That ignites covetousness—I want it, I have to have it.

There has long been discussion about where exactly we cross into sin. Seeing is not in itself sin, but there's a fine line between seeing and coveting—the tenth commandment says, "You shall not covet." Between seeing and coveting, a desire is triggered, often called lust.

Lust in itself is not necessarily sinful, but it's a very fine line. Lust is actually necessary for life—you have appetites for food, water, even sex, and there would be no life without them. In the proper context lust is good. Fire in the fireplace is good; fire in the living room is not. A boat in the water is good; water in the boat is not. Lust for your own spouse—praise Jesus. But lust for someone else is another matter.

Whose Authority?

Recently the Daily Wire released an Exodus series led by Dr. Jordan Peterson with a group of scholars. In one episode, the Jewish commentator Dennis Prager said, "As a Jew I am less interested in the interior person than you Christians are... that's why we don't have a claim that if you look at another woman to lust after, you've committed adultery." He suggested lust, even through pornography, might not be that bad. This caused a controversy online. But here's the problem: Jesus said, "If you look at a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart." So it comes down to authority—do you take the guy on AM radio, or the One who died on a cross and rose from the dead? I'll listen to that One.

Unbridled lust leads to covetousness, which leads to all forms of sin, which leads to death. James writes, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death."

Some religions, like Buddhism, try to escape desire altogether. But John observes in 1 John that all that is in the world is "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." You cannot get away from desire. The body wants it, the eye sees it, the mind says "I deserve it"—and sin always follows: I see it, I want it, I will take it.

Judgment in the Valley of Achor

Joshua sent messengers who found the spoil hidden in Achan's tent. They brought Achan, his sons and daughters, his livestock, his tent, and all he had to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." So Israel stoned him and burned them, raising a great heap of stones. "Then the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger."

It seems severe. No one in Israel took pleasure in this. You may say, "But Achan confessed." Yes—but only after they cast lots tribe by tribe, family by family, until he was singled out. He had every opportunity to come out and repent and did not until it was, "It's you, dude. What do you have to say?" Like the unmasking at the end of Scooby-Doo: "If it weren't for you meddling kids." The options were either to be doomed to destruction and lose the presence of God, or to punish Achan severely.

Point five: personal sanctification requires swift and sometimes severe action against sin. The takeaway is not that we purge sinners from our midst, but that we purge sin from our own lives—even if that sin seems small, hidden, and harmless. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Jesus said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out... if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off." We don't end up with a bunch of one-eyed people, but we should have a severe view of sin, because sin is deadly. How is it cleansed? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He cleanses us by the washing of the water of His word.

We All Deserve Achan's Judgment

Beware when you think you stand, lest you fall—none of us is immune. If God is your Lord, certain things are off limits, set apart, devoted to Him. Severe consequences await those who rob God. And again you say, "I've never done that." Consider : "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings... for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation."

I can't close without acknowledging this: all of us have taken of accursed things. All of us have experienced the defeating effects of sin. Every one of us is worthy of the same judgment Achan endured. So why are we not judged like Achan? Because there is a final judgment yet to come, when the Judge of all the earth opens the books and death and hell are cast into the lake of fire—the second death.

This is a sobering reality that should cause a little terror in the presence of a holy God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise it. Whether or not you believe it does not make it any less real.

The Only Refuge

That's the bad news. The good news is that in Christ we can escape judgment. There was judgment on Jericho, but Rahab the harlot escaped because she was in the house with the scarlet cord in the window—reminiscent of the Passover forty years earlier, when the blood on the doorpost spared everyone in the house. Both foreshadow this: if anyone is in Christ, they are sheltered from judgment. He is the Passover Lamb who became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness and be safe in Him. He is the only refuge from the coming judgment of God.

This is a heavy, sobering story meant to weigh upon us and point us to the only place of protection. The good news is not good until you see it against the backdrop of the bad news—and then it makes all the more sense. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for passages like this that weigh upon us. They are sobering, they seem severe and harsh, and we see what it looks like to be judged without mercy—and we realize there is only mercy and grace from You in Christ. God, You loved the world so much that You gave Your only begotten Son, that whoever trusts in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus, You demonstrated Your love toward us in that while we were still sinners, You died for us. We need Your death, because we have all sinned and fallen short of Your glory, and the wages of sin is death—but the free gift is forgiving grace and mercy in You.

You said whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, for with the mouth we confess and with the heart we believe. We confess that You are Lord; we believe that You rose from the dead, dying and rising for our sin. There we find no shame, but Your mercy and Your grace. God, we rejoice in that good news today. As we stand here, I want to give anyone hearing this an opportunity to confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is the one who deals with their sin, and to experience the forgiving grace of God. In Jesus' name, amen.

This last Thursday morning, I got up really early to watch a live stream on YouTube. Maybe some of you saw this in the news: SpaceX launched a massive rocket in Texas. Did anybody see the Super Heavy rocket that they launched? A few of you did. It did blow up; it blew up when it got to 110,000 feet. However, their CEO, Elon Musk, said that was kind of expected. They anticipated that it was going to blow up; they just wanted to get it off the pad.

This rocket is massive. It is like sending a skyscraper into orbit; it's 400 feet tall. As they were describing what they were going to do with this test flight, they mentioned that they would launch it from Texas out over the Gulf of Mexico. The second stage was going to continue on, making almost a full revolution around the Earth, and then it was going to do what Elon Musk called an epic belly flop in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. Now, it didn't quite get there, but they say that in another couple of months, they will probably do it again, and we'll see the epic belly flop. I, along with many others, am looking forward to this epic belly flop.

As I was thinking about this last week, it called to memory many years ago when I was a youth pastor. Most of our pastors started out in youth ministry. Pastor Mark and I were both junior high youth pastors; he was down at Maranatha Chapel, and I was a youth pastor here. Every summer, we would go up near Big Bear to a place called Running Springs and attend the Calvary Chapel Youth Camp there.

At the youth camp, around the lake, they had this big giant thing called The Blob. Has anybody ever heard of The Blob? If you went to youth camp, you probably saw a blob and might still have some injuries from it. So, what is The Blob? It is this giant air pillow sitting out on the lake, and it has a platform that's about 12 feet above it. You walk out to the end of the platform and jump off onto the blob. Then, you crawl out to the end of it, and some other people jump on the blob to launch you into the water.

When you are a junior high pastor, junior hires are in this amazing growth stage. Some of them are like my oldest son, who is six foot four, while others are like the 60-pound sixth grader. Inevitably, by about day three of camp, you would have the 60-pound sixth grader jump onto the blob and crawl out to the end.

And then, like two 200-pound camp counselors with joined arms, they jump on the blob and launch this little unsuspecting girl 25 feet into the air. She would come crashing down, sometimes in the form of an epic belly flop. What would happen is that pretty much everybody in the camp would end up around the lake watching this. You could be a mile away, and you would hear the commotion because people were doing the epic belly flop. It was absolutely amazing.

Now, I bring all that up, and you might be wondering how to make a transition from that to the Bible. Today, we are going to look at an epic belly flop in the Bible. There are a number of epic belly flops in the Bible, but one that comes to mind is in the New Testament book of Matthew. It’s a great story. Jesus is with His disciples, and He asks them, "Who do you say that I am?" One of them, always the spokesman, Peter, speaks up and says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Jesus responds, "Simon, son of Jonah, Peter, you are absolutely right. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." He says to him, "God the Father just spoke through you." I can imagine Peter at that moment looking at the other guys, like, "Hey, do you see that?" Within like 45 seconds, he is rebuking Jesus. Peter is rebuking the Lord, the one whom he just called the Messiah, God incarnate. Now, he is rebuking Jesus, and Jesus says to him, "Get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me."

In 45 seconds, Peter goes from this high high to this extreme low. That is always one of the great dangers with high highs: the potential for a fall to a very low low. What we are going to look at today in the text of the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament is an epic biblical belly flop for the people of Israel. You can open your Bibles there; the sixth book of the Bible, chapter seven, is where we are going to be.

I cannot think of a higher high, if you will, even though at this very moment in the story, the people of Israel are at the lowest point on Earth. They are down where the Dead Sea is, but they are experiencing a very high high at the lowest point of the Earth.

Standing on top of the ruins of the city of Jericho, having just defeated this great walled city, they were experiencing victory over Jericho. What an awesome high! In , Israel overcame this first major obstacle to taking possession of the promised land. They marched around the city of Jericho once a day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day.

We read in , that on the seventh time, as they went around the city on the seventh day, it happened that when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua, their leader, said to the people, "Shout, for the Lord has given you the city! Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent."

Joshua then instructed the people, "By all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord."

So Joshua said to the people to shout, and they shouted. The wall fell down flat, and they took the city. , states that they utterly destroyed all who were in the city. The next verse says they burned the city with fire. God declared that the silver and the gold were His and were to be put into the treasury of the Lord.

In of , Joshua charged them at that time, saying, "Cursed be any man before the Lord who raises up and builds the city of Jericho. He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates."

Note this: states that the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. Trending on Twitter the next day was Joshua, hashtag Jericho. His fame spread throughout all the country. The people of the entire land of Canaan, the promised land that the children of Israel were coming into, had been fearing and dreading the coming of the people of Israel for many decades because of Joshua's fame.

However, as I'm sure you know very well, the danger with high highs is the...

Potential for a fall to extremely low lows exists, and the danger is an epically biblical belly flop.

Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning: beware when you think you stand, lest you fall. This comes right out of Scripture, a passage that I've shared with you a number of times, especially as we've been studying through the Old Testament of the Bible. The first two-thirds of the Bible is found in the New Testament book of First Corinthians, where we are told that all of these things recorded in the Old Testament were written for our instruction and learning. Therefore, beware when you think you stand, lest you fall. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

You almost do not even need to read , the verse that comes right after the fame of Joshua spread throughout all of the country. You almost don't even need to read , to know what is coming. In this passage, we have what would be referred to as Chekhov's gun or Chekhov's rifle. That may not mean much to you, but there was a Russian playwright by the name of Anton Chekhov who said that if in your story, your book, or your play you put a rifle on the wall in scene one or chapter one, that rifle has to go off by scene two or scene three. It's got to go off.

So here we have the foreshadowing: the fame of Joshua spread throughout all the country. We read in chapter 7, , "But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things." A trespass in the Bible is often connected to a number of other words: transgression, iniquity, sin, and trespass. We know this word "trespassing." Maybe you have been caught before in a place where you're not supposed to be, and you saw the sign that said "Do not trespass. Violators will be prosecuted." You get called on the carpet for your trespass.

What is a trespass? It's when you know full well not to cross the line, and you cross the line. Joshua told the people, "Do not touch the accursed things. Do not take the accursed things." But the children of Israel...

Committed a trespass regarding their cursed things for Achan. Remember that name, Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, an important tribe in the land of Israel. He took of the accursed thing, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall. Israel has just experienced an unprecedented, awesome, maybe unexpected victory in an unexpected way. Just walking around the city, the walls of the city of Jericho fell flat. By their own strength, by their own military strategy or ingenuity, they were hopeless. They had no hope of defeating Jericho by their own plan or strength, and I think that everybody in the nation of Israel knew that. By the thirteenth time they went around the city, they all knew they could not do this. But God caused the walls of the city to fall flat, so that Jericho became a heap of ruin.

Now, here's this heap of ruin, and they are headed towards another heap of ruin at a city called Ai, which actually means "heap of ruin." Before we talk about Ai and what happens there, I think it's worth noting that one of the earliest lessons we learn in the Bible, on page three, chapter three, has application for us today.

Point number two, if you're taking notes: If God is your Lord, then there are certain things that are off-limits, forbidden, and set apart. If God is your Lord, then there are certain things that are off-limits and forbidden. Now, I think you probably would agree that we don't like when things are off-limits, forbidden, or set apart. We do not like the word "no," and we learn to not like the word "no" from a very young age because we hear it a lot when we're little.

How many remember having little children? You find yourself on repeat, like a skipping record—some of you don't even know what a record is—saying "no, no." It doesn't take long for your children, my children, to react. When you say "no," what happens to their faces? They are just not happy with it. We don't like the word "no." We don't like when things are off-limits, forbidden, or set apart.

Apart, we don't feel that anything should be off-limits, forbidden, or set apart for us. When someone says, "No, you can't," we think, "Watch me! I'll show you." There’s something about the command "Don't touch that" that inflames desire within us; it's like we want to touch it. God says, "Do not touch the accursed things," but if God is your Lord, then there are certain things that are off-limits, forbidden, and set apart.

Now, we have a hard time with this, but I want to suggest to you, and I’d love to talk about this more, that I don't think you can experience the abundant life that God intends for you without boundaries. You see, we're told in our culture that there should be no boundaries. You should be you; you should do whatever you want to do. You decide who you are, what you are, and how you live. However, if you watch people who live out that mindset, you will see individuals who end up in terrible bondage. That is the inevitable outcome of living like that.

What the Bible reveals is that God created you with an intended purpose. If you function within that intended purpose, you will excel and experience the fullness of His blessing and the fullness of success. The abundant life is not the life that is without boundaries; it is actually a life that lives within the boundaries that God ordains.

God promised the land to this group of people, to Abraham, back in , the first book of the Bible. God said to Abraham, "I'm going to give this land, the land of Canaan, to you and your descendants." Abraham had a son, Isaac, and Isaac had a son, Jacob, who had twelve sons that became the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Now, hundreds of years after Abraham, that group of people is coming into the promised land to take possession of that which God had promised to them four centuries before. They are now laying hold of it, but there was a rule, if you will. God said, "I'm going to give you all of this land, but there's a condition: the first fruits of that land are Mine; they are to be dedicated to Me." Jericho was the first fruits of the promised land. They come and take this city, Jericho; it is destroyed, and all of the goods of the city are to be consecrated, set apart to God. Why?

It is to be consecrated to the Lord. There are at least three reasons why this is to be consecrated to the Lord. The first is the issue of worship. It is going to be an act of worship to God for them to give back to Him a portion of what He has given to them. He has promised them this great blessing. He says their first order of business is to offer worship to Him in the form of this city. All of its goods are to be consecrated to God as an offering of worship.

Sacrifice is hard for us. By its very nature, sacrifice is always going to be difficult. However, sacrifice recognizes that in giving this sacrifice first, I am anticipating blessing in the future. So, the first reason that they were to give this was as an act of worship.

The second reason is that this would signal that they honored God, who had blessed them, and valued the God who had given them these blessings more than the blessings themselves. By giving this to the Lord, they are saying, "We honor and value You more than these things." That is a very important truth.

What is it called when we honor and value the things that God blesses us with more than the God who blessed us? That is called idolatry, and it always leads to bondage and death. So, the first reason was worship, the second reason was signaling the honor and value of God, and the third is a simple act of obedience. God said, "I am calling you to do this," and by doing this, their initial act of obedience would reveal the extent to which they would continue to obey in the future.

However, Achan of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed things. At this point, it is worth asking: Why were these things accursed? The things that they took as spoil in the city of Jericho were accounted in this passage as accursed. Were these things accursed because they were connected to paganism and idolatry and all the horrible things that took place in the city of Jericho?

I want to suggest that they were not. If they were accursed because they were connected to idolatry and paganism, then every other city they would go to would also have those things accursed. But in the text, that is not the case at all. In the other cities, God says they can take those things as spoil, but in this place, these things are accursed. Why were they accursed? Well, it is actually the...

The answer to the question is found in the actual word that is translated as "accursed." The Hebrew word that is translated as "accursed," because this was originally written in Hebrew, has two meanings. One meaning is "devoted." These things were off-limits because they were devoted—devoted to God. They would become a curse if you took that which was devoted to God.

So, in effect, when Aiken takes these things, it wasn't that he was taking and touching something that was unclean because of its pagan connections; it was a curse because he was taking something that did not belong to him, which we call stealing or theft. You get an A on the test, so good job!

If theft is stealing, you may remember if you've ever read through Exodus or Deuteronomy, there are these Big Ten, which we might call the Commandments, known as the Ten Commandments. One of them says, "Thou shalt not steal," which is the eighth commandment. Another one says, "Thou shalt not lie or bear false witness," which is the ninth commandment. Those were connected to the covenant that these people had entered into.

Aiken steals from God and lies about it. He took of the accursed things, those that were devoted to God. When he took of that which was devoted to God, it became a curse, and that curse affected him. He now bears the curse, and it flows over to everyone else around him; they bear the curse as well.

Look at chapter six of Joshua, : "And you, by all means, abstain from the devoted things." That's how you could read it—abstain from the devoted things, lest you become accursed when you take of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. All the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated, set apart, devoted to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. But Aiken took of the accursed things, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

There are so many things that we could say about this, but one thing we can be certain of: severe consequences await those that rob from God. To which you might say today, "Well, it's a...".

Really good thing I've never done that. I say, hold on, hold that thought because we'll get there.

, : Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, "Go up and spy out the country." So the men went up, and they spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Don't weary all the people, for the people of Ai are few."

Joshua, we've got this! It's not going to be that big a deal. I mean, Jericho was a huge walled city, and we took that. So we don't need to weary everybody. We don't need to send tens of thousands of soldiers from Israel up to take care of that. Just two or three thousand people up there is nothing for us.

Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall. Under normal circumstances, apart from Achan's curse, perhaps Ai would have been a place that would be easy for the people of Israel. However, the thinking of these spies is flawed because they failed to recognize what it was that gave them power and strength to defeat Jericho in the first place. They walked around the city thirteen times. They knew full well that by their own power and strength, and strategy, they could not overtake this city. Then God, by His miraculous mighty power, destroyed the walls of the city of Jericho, and they took the city.

Did that have anything to do with Israel's power and strength? I suggest none whatsoever. But here in this situation, they say, "Hey, we got this. God, we're glad you got that. Good job, but we got this." Nobody here has ever thought like that before. They were victorious at Jericho not because of the size of their army or because they had a really good plan. They were victorious at Jericho because of their wholesale dependence upon God.

states that about three thousand men went up from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, chasing them from before the gate as far as Shibarim, and they struck them down on the descent. Therefore, the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

The tables can turn very quickly. Back in , Joshua had sent two spies into the city of Jericho, that great walled city. They met a woman named Rahab, who informed them that all of us in this city and all the cities throughout the land of Canaan had hearts that melted when we heard that you were coming. We have been scared of you. Now, Israel sends two to three thousand, a small detachment of soldiers, up to this heap of ruin called Ai, and they are defeated. The hearts of the people of Israel melted.

Then, in , Joshua tore his clothes, which is an ancient sign of grief and mourning. He fell on his face before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord until evening, along with the elders of Israel. They put dust and ashes on their heads as a sign of mourning, going before the Lord. It is safe to say that Joshua responded to the defeat at Ai in the proper way. He tore his clothes and fell on his face in mourning.

However, it would also be safe to say that if Joshua had come before God with this kind of humility before he sent the army to Ai, he would not be in this position now after their defeat. I do not want to point a finger of judgment at Joshua because, to be quite honest, there have been many times in my life—maybe you can identify as well—where I have come to a place of brokenness. I have found myself humbled, not approaching in humility but coming after a defeat in humility, wishing that I would have come sooner. Perhaps I could have averted disaster had I come in humility sooner. Though I do not think we can point the finger in judgment at Joshua for failing to come to the Lord sooner, it serves as a reminder for us all.

The story teaches us something about the way Joshua approaches God and what he says to Him. In , Joshua says, "Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan River at all? To deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Oh, that we would have been content to dwell on the other side of the Jordan! Oh Lord, what shall we say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land are going to hear about this, surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. And then what will You do for Your great name?"

Joshua's prayer is a little strange, perhaps not the best look. He comes to God and says, "God, this looks really bad for You." This is not the best look for Joshua. In the New Testament book of Corinthians, we read, "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." A little self-reflection in this case would probably go a long way.

I love God's response. In , the Lord said to Joshua, "Get up! Get off the ground! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned and they have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. They have taken some of the accursed things, the devoted things, and have both stolen and deceived. They have broken these two commandments: Thou shalt not steal and Thou shalt not lie. They have stolen and deceived, and they have put it among their own stuff."

Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand. This is not Me, Joshua; it's you. You could not stand before your enemies because you turned your backs before your enemies. They have become doomed to destruction. The people of Israel have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with them anymore unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you.

Get up, sanctify the people, and say, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow." Thus says the Lord God of Israel: "There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies."

Until you take away the accursed thing from among you, why was Israel defeated there at Ai in their first attempt? They had stolen, and they had lied; they had broken two of God's Commandments. They had broken the Covenant; therefore, they could not stand. They had no ability to stand before their enemies because they were walking in disobedience.

In the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, sin is associated metaphorically with leaven. We don't typically use the word "leaven"; we use the word "yeast." But those of you who have made bread or baked before and used yeast know that a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. That concept is found in the Bible too. In the New Testament, it says that a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump, indicating that just a little bit of sin—something that seems like a really small thing, something nobody knows about, something private—affects everybody. That's what happened in this story.

In the New Testament, the exhortation is to purge out the old leaven and sanctify the people.

Point number four on your outline this morning: God is more concerned with my present sanctification than my earthly success. This is a hard one for us because, if we're honest, we're all pretty focused on our earthly success. I don't think there is anybody who doesn't want success. You may have a different metric for what success is, but we all want that. Unfortunately, in 2023, there are a lot of churches that give a message suggesting that God reigns in heaven for your earthly pleasure and success, which is totally not biblical.

God is far more concerned with my present sanctification than my earthly success. The amazing thing you discover in the Scriptures is that when we follow after God and walk in what is right—what the Bible would call righteous—sanctifying ourselves and being sanctified by Him, by His Spirit, and by His Word, then we will experience success. It is worth recognizing, however, that the metric of what is successful may differ from our expectations.

For 21st century Americans, the measure of success and prosperity is different than God's. However, God does say, as we found in , that if you meditate on His word and walk in His word, not turning to the right hand or to the left, then you shall make your way prosperous, and you shall have good success. Go look it up later in .

If we walk in what is right and righteous before God, we will experience a success and prosperity in this life that is different from what the world might call success and prosperity. I would suggest it is far better. The success and prosperity that you experience in God now carries over into the next life, whereas the success and prosperity that you might gain in this life will not. God is more concerned with my present sanctification than my earthly success.

In , it states, "Therefore you shall be brought, Israel, by your tribes, out in front of everything. It shall be that the tribe which the Lord shall take shall come according to its families, and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by its households. The household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenants of the Lord and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel."

So Joshua rose early in the morning. He brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the clans of Judah and took the family of the Zerites. He brought the family of the Zerites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. Then he brought the household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I beg you, give glory to God, the God of Israel, and make confession to Him. Tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me." Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment—oh, it looked really nice, Fifth Avenue quality—200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold."

Gold weighing fifty shekels. I coveted them and took them, and there they are, hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it. Just before Moses, the previous leader of Israel, died, there is a conversation recorded in the Old Testament book of Numbers between Moses and the heads of two and a half tribes in Israel. They had come to an agreement about what these two and a half tribes were going to do. Moses exhorts them, saying, "Make sure that you do what you have covenanted to do. You vowed to do this, and if you do not, know that this is sin. Be sure that your sin will find you out."

My observation has been that I don't think anyone ever gets away with anything. There will be a reckoning for sin. Now, you may object this morning and say, "No, no, there are some pretty wicked people who do some pretty wicked things." It seems to me like it's not fair; they seem to do pretty darn well. Has anyone ever thought like that before? You can be honest; I have.

There was a man about three thousand years ago who had the same thought. He records his thoughts in . He expresses his anger because it seems like the wicked prosper, and God does not do anything about it. He was almost at the point of despair; he was depressed. He says, "Until I went to the house of the Lord and I saw their end." You see, he came to a realization—something that we need to realize: there is a reckoning for sin coming. Maybe not in this life, but this life is not all there is.

The last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, near the last chapter, tells us there is coming a day when the judge of all the earth will sit on a throne of judgment, and the books will be opened in which are recorded the works of men. We will be judged according to our works. There is a reckoning that is coming—a sobering thing to consider.

But I want you to notice this morning the progression of what happened here with this man Achan: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. This progression is actually seen a number of times in the Scriptures. The very first time is found in the Book of Genesis.

Chapter 3: The Very First Sin with Adam and Eve

I saw, I coveted, I took, I sinned. This same progression is one that you experience on a regular basis, and so do I. In the 21st century, we are bombarded with temptation in a way that people like Aiken and Joshua could not even have imagined. We are constantly exposed to imagery that tries to get us to want and desire it. It's called marketing, and research has shown that the average American sees between four and ten thousand advertisements a day in 2023.

What is the whole point of those advertisements? It is that we would see them and long for them. I want it. I don't need it, but within a few minutes, we find a way to convince ourselves that we need it. This ignites in us something called covetousness—a deep desire that may lead us to do anything to obtain it. I want it. I need it. I have to have it now.

The hard part is that there has been long discussion among theologians, Bible teachers, and ethicists about the point at which we move into the territory of sin. I want to suggest to you that seeing is not, in and of itself, sin. However, there is a fine line between seeing and the next step: I saw, I coveted. The Tenth Commandment says, "Thou shalt not covet." What takes place between seeing and coveting? Many people have tried to clearly identify the process that occurs in this transition.

At some point between seeing and coveting, a desire is triggered. Oftentimes, the word that the Bible uses for desire is "lust"—a deep longing or desire to have that leads us into the area of covetousness, which is sinful and can lead to other kinds of sin. This whole issue of lust is a really difficult discussion for people. You can read all kinds of material from theologians over the centuries on the issue of lust: Is lust sin? When does it become sin? I want to suggest that lust, in and of itself, is not necessarily sinful.

Sinful, but it is a very fine line. You see, lust is actually necessary for life. Life would not continue without lust. You have appetites for food, you have appetites for water, and you even have appetites for sex. There would be no life without any of those things. So, lust is actually, in the proper context, good. But in the proper context—that's the important key.

It's like saying it this way: I've heard it before like this. Fire in the fireplace is good; fire in the living room, not so much. A boat in the water is good; water in the boat, not so much. Right? So, context is important. Lust for your own spouse? Praise Jesus! Lust after your own spouse all day.

Now, there is some real danger. It can lead into sinful behaviors very quickly. But lust for someone else? There was an interesting back-and-forth recently. You may have seen it on social media. The Daily Wire has put out this Exodus series on the Book of Exodus, led by a guy by the name of Dr. Jordan Peterson. He has gathered a group of scholars and different thinkers around the table to talk about the Book of Exodus.

In one of their recent videos, a very well-known radio commentator, maybe you have heard of him, Dennis Prager, a Jewish man, is having this conversation. In this whole video, he says, "As a Jew, I am less interested in the interior person than you Christians are, largely because I come from a behaviorist religion. We care how you act in Judaism. That's why we don't have a claim that if you look at another woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her."

This started quite a controversy online because Dennis Prager says that lust, even through pornography, might not be that bad. Lust for another woman? Yeah, you know, we care about behavior.

Here's the problem: Jesus said that if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart. So, it's an issue of authority. Who do you take for authority: the guy on AM radio or the guy who died on a cross and rose from the dead? I'm going to listen to that guy.

Over Dennis Prager, this whole area presents a challenging discussion. Unbridled lust leads to covetousness, which in turn leads to all forms of sin, ultimately resulting in death. One New Testament writer said that each one of us is tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires. That word "desire" is translated as "lust," or "epithymia" in Greek. We are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. When lust, or desire, is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Some religious groups and other faiths have determined that the way to deal with this issue is to get away from desire, recognizing it as a problem. Buddhism, for example, teaches that if you can just get away from desire, you can achieve enlightenment. However, the Apostle John observes in First John that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This is what exists in the world; you cannot escape from desire.

You can try to meditate extensively, fast frequently, and follow the Buddha, but you will not get away from desire. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are inherent to our nature. What does this mean? The body wants it, the eye sees it, and the mind says, "I deserve it." That is the pride of life, and sin always follows this progression: I see it, I want it, I will take it for myself.

Achan stood and saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels. He coveted them. In , Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to Achan's tent. There it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath it. They took the items from the midst of the tent and brought them to Joshua, where all the children of Israel laid them out before the Lord.

Then Joshua, along with all of Israel, took Achan, the son of Zerah, along with the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had. They brought them to the Valley of Achor, and Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us?"

The Lord will trouble you this day. So, Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned him with fire. They stacked up stones on top of him, raising a great heap of stones, and still there it is to this day. The Lord turned the fierceness of His anger; therefore, the name of the place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.

This decisive and sobering action seems a little severe, doesn't it? I don't think there was anybody in Israel that day who took pleasure in this. Now, you may say, "Hold on, I thought Achan confessed. Didn't he confess?" Yes, but imagine the scenario: they cast lots, and it falls on the tribe of Judah. Achan stands there thinking, "It's not me." Then it narrows down to the family of the Zerahites. It's getting a little closer now, and he still thinks, "It's not me." One by one, he is given an opportunity to come out, expose his sin, and repent, but he does not do it until it’s like, "Hey, you've been singled out, dude. It's you. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Finally, he admits, "Okay, yeah, it's me. You caught me." It's like that moment in a Scooby-Doo episode where they say, "We gotcha! It wasn't for you crazy kids; I would have gotten away with it." I don't think anybody in Israel took pleasure in this action, but it was either option A: be doomed to destruction and the departure of the presence of God, or option B: punish Achan severely.

Point number five, and I'll try to close: personal sanctification requires swift and sometimes severe action against sin. The takeaway from this is not that we purge sinners from our midst, but that we seek to purge sin from our lives. Sanctification, even if that sin seems so small that nobody knows about it or sees it, is still important. It’s not affecting anybody; it’s just me. Not so fast! A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Jesus said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it far from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body be cast into hell." He continued, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body be cast into hell."

Body be cast into hell. This is not something that I think we practically go and do. Now we just have a whole bunch of people with one eye and one hand, but we should have a real severe view of sin because sin is deadly. It is deadly to us, and it is deadly to others. It needs to be dealt with in our lives.

How is it cleansed? How is it sanctified? Jesus said, or actually John said, "If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness." He cleanses us by the washing of the water of His word. He wants to transform and cleanse us to make us right before Him.

This is a sobering passage: "Beware when you think you stand, lest you fall." None of us is immune; any of us could fall. If God is your Lord, there are certain things that are off-limits and forbidden before Him. There are set-apart things that are consecrated to Him. Since they are devoted to Him, they become a curse for me. Severe consequences await those who rob God.

You might say, "Well, I've never done that; I'm not going to do that." I just want to highlight a passage of Scripture for you to think about. I've thought about it and wrestled with it many times. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, chapter 3, says, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me," says the Lord. But you say, "In what way have I robbed you?" God responds, "In your tithes and your offerings. The first fruits, you are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation."

God is more concerned with my present sanctification than my earthly success. Sometimes that personal sanctification requires swift and sometimes severe action against sin.

One final note that I can't close this passage without acknowledging: all of us here today have touched, tasted, and taken of accursed things. All of us here today have experienced this.

The defeating effects of sin in our lives are evident. Every single one of us here today is worthy of the same kind of judgment that Aiken endured. So, why are we not judged like Aiken? As I said previously, there will be an ultimate judgment one day when the Judge of all the Earth sits on a throne of judgment and opens the books. At that point in time, the Scriptures say in that death and hell will be cast into the lake that burns with fire; this is the second death.

There is a coming judgment that is a sobering reality, which should cause in me and in you a little bit of terror in the presence of a holy God. When we talk about the fear of the Lord, we recognize that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Here is something to consider: there is a day of judgment coming, and it would be wise to live with that in mind. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom.

I forget that. I don't believe that. Your belief, whether or not it is real, does not make it unreal. Let's get that out right here. That's the bad news.

What's the good news? In Christ, we can escape judgment. There was judgment on the city of Jericho, and a harlot named Rahab escaped judgment because she was in the house that had the scarlet cord in the window. This is reminiscent of what happened 40 years earlier in the land of Egypt when they sacrificed the Passover Lamb and put the blood on the doorpost. Everyone that was in the house was safe from judgment.

Both of these events foreshadow and point forward to what happens if anyone is in Christ: they are sheltered from judgment. He is the Passover Lamb who became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness and be safe in Him. He is the Refuge.

The only refuge from the coming judgment of God is a heavy, sobering message. It may seem severe, but it is meant to point us to the only place of protection from this judgment. The good news is not truly good until we see it in contrast to the bad news, and then it makes all the more sense. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, I thank you for passages like this that weigh upon us. They are sobering, severe, and harsh. We see what it looks like to be judged without mercy, and we realize that there is only mercy and grace from you in Christ.

God, you loved the world so much that you gave your only begotten Son, that whosoever trusts in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus, you demonstrated love towards us in that while we were still sinners, you died for us. We need your death for us because we have all sinned and fallen short of your glory. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift is forgiving grace and mercy in you.

You said that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. With the mouth, we confess, and with the heart, we believe. We confess that you are Lord, and we believe that you were raised from the dead, dying and rising for our sin. In you, we find no shame but your mercy and grace.

God, we rejoice in that good news today. As we stand here in this moment of prayer, and as you hear the good news and the bad news contrasted, I want to give you an opportunity to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is the one who deals with your sin and experience the forgiving grace of God.

I'm going to ask you to do two things that might be uncomfortable for you to do this morning if that's you.

The first is to indicate that it's you by raising your hand. If that's you this morning and you say, "I want to receive that forgiving grace," would you lift up your hand so I can say, "God bless you"? I see a number of you here this morning. Praise the Lord!

Then, I ask you to do something that might be more difficult than raising your hand. In just a moment, Anthony is going to lead us in a song. I'm going to ask you to come down here and stand with me up in the front because Jesus called people publicly. I want to lead you in a prayer, confessing your sin and asking for God's forgiveness. He promises to forgive. Some of our other prayer team leaders will be down here in front as well. I want to invite you to come. If you came with someone who invited you and you feel weird about coming down here, they'll probably come stand with you. But I want to invite you to come down here so you can receive His grace and His forgiveness as Anthony leads this song. You come.

Hey, Cross Connection! This week, we are launching into our growth groups, and we want you to be plugged into one. If you haven't had a chance to sign up yet, or if you missed last week's growth group launch night on Wednesday, that's okay. Go on over to ccchurch.com/grow, and there will be a page with all of the growth groups listed that you can get plugged into. I hope that you can get signed up today for one of those.

Also, ladies, coming up on April 28th, Friday night at six o'clock here at the church, we will be having a Funko night. Please sign up at ccchurch.com/events.