Brokenness and God's Mercy

Thank God for the remarkable care he has entrusted us. He is the God of the heavens, having placed the stars in their orbits, and yet he has entrusted to humanity the care of the earth. When he speaks of our being crowned with glory and honor, David speaks of the image of God bestowed upon every human. The references to foes, enemy, and avenger in the course of praising God for his creation remind us that there was also a fall. Yet despite our fall into sin, God still dignifies his people as the stewards of his creation. Yet we need a savior to overcome not only personal sin, but also the fallen condition of the creation. By quoting this psalm, the writer of the book of Hebrews later clarifies that Christ our Savior is the perfect representation of the humanity described in this psalm.

The one through whom the world was created came to restore the image marred at the fall. Verse 1 and 9 of Psalm 8 not only serve as bookends for the psalm, they also anticipate the end of all things, when Christ's enemies will be made a footstool for his feet, and his name will be majestic through all the earth. And so we're going to go ahead and stand, and we're going to be reading Psalm 8, and we are going to be reading that verse 1 and 2.

And it begins, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength, because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for the opportunity to gather here today, and we thank you for those that are here. And that are watching online. And we just ask that you allow us all to be encouraged by each other, and by worshiping you, and by reading together your word. And we just thank you so much for your grace and your mercy that's been there since the beginning and since the fall. And we just thank you so much for Jesus and his sacrifice.

And we just ask that you be with our service today, and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we're going to begin by singing "Indescribable." From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea Creations revealing your majesty From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings All exclaiming Indescribable Uncontainable You place the stars in the sky And you know them by name You are amazing God All powerful Untameable All stuck We fall to our knees As we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow Who imagined the sun and gave source to its light Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom Indescribable, uncontainable You place the stars in the sky and you know them by name You are amazing God

All-powerful, untamable All-struck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Indescribable, uncontainable You place the stars in the sky and you know them by name You are amazing God Incomparable, unchangeable You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same You are amazing God You are amazing God

All right, you can remain standing if you'd like or if you'd like to sit, you can. We're going to be moving into our prayer and share time. So if you're watching online, there'll be a phone number for you to text. If you have anything you'd like to send us, please do that and we'll share it here. And then we're going to be muted during that time here for just for privacy. And we'll be back after that to move on to the next part of our service. So as we enter into this time, we're going to be singing "Your Grace Is Enough."

Great is your faithfulness, O God. You wrestle with the sinner's restless heart. You lead us by still waters and to mercy. And nothing can keep us apart. So remember your people. Remember your children. Remember your promise, O God. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Great is your love and justice, God of Jacob. You use the weak to live. Your weak to lead the strong. You lead us in the song of your salvation. And all your people sing along. So remember your people. Remember your children. Remember your promise, oh God. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

As we continue in our time, we're going to be singing this next song, "Who You Say I Am," which is one of my favorite songs because it's such a great reminder of who God says we are. I know for myself, you know, growing up, you have all these things that you think you are, and when I was growing up, I was the adopted kid, the tall kid, the dorky kid, even the abused kid, and all these other things, and then when I got to see what the gospel was and to know who God said I was, it's just such a refreshing and encouragement and hope that comes into your life that you can't really describe, but anyway, this is one of my favorite songs that kind of reiterates that for my life, and so I hope it does it for you as well, and so we're going to be singing "Who You Say I Am."

Oh, His love for me. Oh, His love for me. Oh, the sun sets free. Oh, it's free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. The grace runs deep. While I was a slave to sin, Jesus died for me. Yes, He died for me. Oh, the sun sets free. Oh, it's free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. In my Father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am. Who the Son sets free. Who is free in me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. In my Father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am.

There's a part of us that likes to know who we are, and how when we see the gospel, that changes what we think, and I remember when I was just a brand new baby preacher, I've maybe been a preacher at this little church in Illinois for like maybe three or four months, and we were at this church conference with these preachers that I had grown up listening to, and one of them, we were there the Wednesday night before the conference and at the One Preacher's Church, and he said, I do this thing on Thursday mornings before the conference. I get together with some preachers, so if you're a preacher here and you're from out of town, come talk to me and come join our small group. We've got room for eight people, and I didn't really think I was a preacher. I was like, "Yeah, I preach at a church," and my dad, being a good encourager, was like, "Go up and talk to him," because I think he knew that this guy was one of my heroes, and so I went up and I said, "Hey, I'm a preacher. Can I come to your group?" and he did and invited me in, and I remember sitting in this room with all of these guys

who were all, like, 40 years older than me, had been doing this, like, longer than I'd been alive. I was, like, 21, and I remember thinking, "This is not the place for me," right? It's like, "Who am I that I'm here with these guys that I've heard, you know, preach, and have, you know, you know, I'm nowhere near belonging to this place?" And there's something in our lives that makes us feel, I think, insignificant at times, and this question that we just sang is has been asked by some remarkable people in the Bible. I'll give you an example of two. One is Moses, as he stands before the burning bush with God. He goes, "Well, who am I? Like, I'm not good enough, I'm not strong enough, I'm not important enough to lead your people." David will say the same thing to God in the Psalms. He'll say, "Who am I that you would care about me and bless me?" And I think, in a lot of cases, many of us feel like we're too small, we're too insignificant.

The question posed by this song to look at ourselves in light of the gospel. Not who I feel like I am, but who am I to God? And in John, the eighth chapter, Jesus speaking about freedom. And it's interesting because he's having this conversation that is sort of a little bit political. And the people he's talking to think he's talking about political freedom, but Jesus is talking about spiritual freedom. And he will say to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practice his sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed." And what Jesus is saying is that we as slaves to sin, like our freedom and our eternity comes through him when he sets us free. And Jesus sets us free by dying on the cross in our place for our sins and

rising again, defeating Satan, sin, and death, and hell. And we in Christ are truly free. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you take all of us with all our different roles and places and identities and have brought us in to your family. And sometimes looking at the world, it feels like it overwhelms us. That there's too much trouble and we aren't strong enough and we're not brave enough and we're not good enough. And so rather than focusing our eyes on ourselves, may we lift our eyes to you. You're where our help comes from. You are our strength. You don't sleep, you don't leave, but that you are there for us and with us. I thank you for Jesus and the freedom that he has given to us at the cost of his own life. Help us as we break this bread and drink this cup to remember that we are part of a family, that we are set free by

the good news of the gospel, that you have equipped us with your spirit. May you bless this bread and this cup. May we proclaim your son until he comes again. It's in his name I pray. Amen. Paul writes this, "For what I received from the Lord, that which I delivered to you, the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

We're going to be diving into Joshua, the ninth chapter, this morning. And so we're going to kind of read this a little bit as we go. And so we'll dive into that in just a moment. We're going to see kind of a startling change in Joshua chapter 9 from where we have been. So we're going to kind of take a look at that and sort of see some surprising things happen in our text this morning. So we're going to go ahead and pray, and then we will dive into it. Father in heaven, I thank you for your grace. I thank you for your word, and I thank you for how it strengthens us, how it equips us, how it trains us for righteousness, how it corrects us, and how it shows us where to walk.

And so I ask this morning that through your spirit and through your word that you would encourage us, that you would help a broken and hurting people see your mercy and your grace, that you would, if necessary, correct us and bring us back from those sins that we are chasing after or walking into, that you would help us this morning. Be with us as we open your word. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as I said, as we come to Joshua chapter 9, we come to sort of a change, and it's an interesting time of year because we're experiencing sort of an external change as we see this change in the book of Joshua. We wake up, and instead of being warm, it's cold. Instead of being light, it's dark. The seasons are changing. The holidays are changing. We're kind of in this place right now

where we've got kind of rapid-fire holidays. You've got Halloween, you've got Thanksgiving, you have Christmas all at once, and people can't seem to figure out which decorations are which, especially if you've been in Cracker Barrel. They're like a couple months early on the Christmas decorations. And so we are in a time of change, and in the book of Joshua, chapter 9, what we're going to find is this book and this chapter is a picture of change. So I'm going to kind of read this as we go through it. I'm going to begin with verses 1 and 2. "As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and the low land along the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,

and the Jebusites heard this. They gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel." And so the first change we see is up until this point in the book of Joshua, the people of the land that Israel is in the process of invading and taking over have been afraid, and they have hidden. They have run in fear. The phrase that you see through these first eight chapters a lot is that their hearts were melting within them. But now the change you see is that these kings are beginning to realize the Israelites are serious, and they're beginning to realize that they are a danger to them, and so they begin to form an alliance together. And so instead of hiding in their cities or hoping that Israel doesn't get that far, they're going to begin to take proactive action against Israel. The second change that we're going to see as we read

through this text is where, for most of this book, God has been the absolute center of everything that his people do, from equipping them and encouraging them in Joshua chapter 1, to directing them, to bringing them victory at Jericho, to disciplining them at AI, to ultimately bringing them victory again. God has been at the center of almost every verse we've read in Joshua this far, and then we get to Joshua chapter 9, and there's a lot of names and a lot of places, and a whole lot of conversation and talking. But Israel just kind of ignores God. In fact, one of the sticking points of this chapter is that the God who has been the center of their lives for the first eight chapters is kind of pushed to the back a little bit. And so we're going to begin to see these changes. The attitude of God's people has gone from being reassured,

needing reassurance, to guidance, to sort of this self-reliant "we can do it by ourselves." And so we're going to read the story of the Gibeonites there from the tribe of Hivites that we just read. And I want to read their story, and then we'll talk about it. So beginning in verse 3, remember the contrast here is these kings who are gathering together against Israel. "But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they, on their part, acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and wineskins, worn out and torn and mended, with worn-out patched sandals on their feet, worn-out clothes, and all their provisions were dry and crumbly. And they went to Joshua in their camp at Gilgal and said to him,

to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country. So now make a covenant with us." But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live among us. How can then we make a covenant with you?" And they said to Joshua, "We are your servants." And Joshua said to them, "Where do you come from? Who are you?" And they said to him, "From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord and your God. For we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt, and all he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and to Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashterah. So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said, "Take provisions in your hands,

for the children will go out and meet them and say to them, 'We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us. Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you. But now, behold, it is dry and crumbly. These wineskins were new when we filled them and they burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey. So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made a peace with them and made a covenant with them and let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore to them. At the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them,

they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them. And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now the cities were Gibeon, Chepera, Beroth, and Kirith-Jerom. But the people of Israel did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. But the leaders said to the congregation, "We have sworn to the Lord, the God of Israel. Now we may not touch them. This we will do to them. Let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath we swore to them." And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood, drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said of them."

And so you have these people who, instead of joining with the kings as an ally to go and fight the Israelites, they say, "We have a better plan." And so they get a bunch of disguises. They get their oldest clothes, their most worn-out sandals, they get the weak-old bread, and they get saddlebags for their animals that are all patched and torn. And so when they show up at the camp of the Israelites, it looks like they have been journeying for weeks and weeks and weeks. And they say to Joshua and the people, they say, "We want to make a treaty with you." And the people of Israel say, "Well, that would be good not to have enemies that are far away, but how can we be sure that you aren't our neighbors and you're trying to trick us?"

And so they trot out all of their evidence. Look, our bread is dry and crumbly. Our sandals are worn out. Our robes are all worn out. Our wineskins have burst open because it's been so long. And in this deception, these neighbors, right next to where God's people were, deceived the people into making a treaty and a covenant with them. And what we see in this chapter, and in this story, and in the response of the people of God, is this deep and abiding brokenness in the lives of the people of God and in the lives of the people of Gibeon. And this is a brokenness that not just is for this story or for this moment, but this is one that is wide, and it's deep, and it stretches to the past, and it reaches to the future for all of these groups that are involved here.

And what we find is that when sin enters our life, everything breaks. You see it in Genesis chapter 3. You go from this beautiful garden to now having strife and difficulty between men and women, between man and the ground that he seeks to work. Labor becomes toil. You find relationship between man and God is broken. And what you find is that when sin enters our world, it breaks things. And every single one of us has experienced this, right? This isn't just something we hear about in the Word of God. This is something that every single one of us has deep and abiding knowledge of, is that sin breaks things. We've had relationships destroyed by sin. Maybe we've seen it in our work, and in our families, and in our friends, and in the world we live in.

When sin comes in, it does nothing but break and destroy. And here, in Joshua chapter 9, we see this sin. And we see it sort of illustrated in two different ways. You see, there's sort of two categories of sin that happen. One is an active sin, right? This is the "don't do that thing," and then we go and do that thing. And on behalf of the Gibeonites, they are actively scheming. They're seeking to deceive. So they're actively pursuing the wrong course of action. But then there's another type of sin, one that may be less talked about, but in the lives of Christians is no more troubling. And that is the sin that comes from being passive. So there's an active sin that says, "Don't do this," and we do it anyway. But then there's a sin that says, "You should be doing this, but we don't do that."

And we say, "Well, I haven't done anything wrong," but the answer is, "You haven't done anything right either." And we see this illustrated in the lives of Israel, right? They went and they did not ask God, right? They didn't do what they were supposed to do, and as a result, brokenness happens in the lives of the people. And so coming into the brokenness of sin, one of the first things we see about this sin is that the brokenness that we see in Joshua the ninth chapter is generational. And what's remarkable about what is happening here is this story in Joshua chapter 9 goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 9. This story doesn't start with Israel crossing the Jordan and these people trying to figure out a way to save themselves. This story starts as Noah exits the ark with his three sons Ham, Shem, and Japheth.

And Noah plants a vineyard, and maybe you're familiar with the story, plants the vineyard and does what people for centuries have been doing with vineyards, and he makes some wine, and he drinks some wine, and he's in his tent, and he's not wearing any pants, and his son looks at him and begins to laugh and go get his brothers, and they're seeking to sort of poke fun at their dad, and they, respecting their dad, will pick up a cloak and sort of walk backwards in the tent and cover up Noah. And when all this sort of shakes out, Noah will say of his sons, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant shall he be to his brothers. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

and let Canaan be his servant." So Noah sort of pronounces a blessing and a curse. A blessing upon Shem and Japheth, and a curse upon him and his son Canaan. And he says, "The descendants of Canaan will serve the descendants of Shem and Japheth." You're seeing that fulfilled here in Joshua, the ninth chapter. The Hivites, the men of Gibeon are Hivites, descendants of Ham, descendants of Canaan. The Israelites are descendants of Shem. See that in Genesis, the eleventh chapter. This is not just a new thing. This is a sort of generational problem. But this is also not the first time that God's promised people have met the Hivites, the people of Gibeon. In Genesis, the thirty-fourth chapter, there is this very heartbreaking story. And it sort of resolves in a way where two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, make a covenant with the city of the Hivites.

The men of Gibeon are Gibeon and Hivites. And then Simeon and Levi will break that covenant, go into the city, and murder all the men of the Hivites in that city. Alright, Genesis chapter thirty-four. The sons of Israel break a covenant with the Hivites. They sort of instituted on false terms, and here in Joshua chapter nine, the Hivites are now doing the same thing to God's people. I want you to see that this generational problem of sin, it's not just for them there or them there. It stretches to their children and back to their parents. And one of the things that happens when you and I think about sin is we think it's just a "me" problem, right? It's just my problem. It's nobody else's business, nobody else's problem. But we see that in Genesis nine, the sin becomes the problem of the descendants.

And we see in Genesis thirty-four that sin becomes the problem of the descendants. That the consequences, the consequences of our sin may reach farther and farther into the future than we can see. Sin is a serious thing. And as Christians, we have to stop toying with it and playing with it and getting as close to it as we possibly can. Sin is a serious thing, right? This brokenness also runs deep in the Hivites. I don't know if you've ever played a board game or if you play board games, but if you've ever played with a rules lawyer, we've all met that guy or that girl who's a rules lawyer and may not be in a game, but they're always looking for a way to take the rules and kind of misrepresent and twist them to get what they want.

And it's especially annoying when you're playing a game and you're going along and you go, "This is the rule," and they do something. "You can't do that," and they go, "Well, if you look at this rule and you combine it with this rule and you take the implication of this rule, then I can do that." What you find with the Hivites, the men of Gibeon, is that they don't just know that Israel's coming to get them, they know the Word of God. They know what God has said to Moses. This deception is not just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. They have studied what God has said, and they have come up with a plan to thwart it. And the reason that we know that is in Deuteronomy, the 20th chapter, God is going to give two sets of rules to his people. He's going to say, "If you encounter enemies who are from

far away, you can make a treaty with them, and they can be your servants." If you encounter enemies that are close to you, and the Hivites, they are named specifically by name, then you've got to wipe them out. So there's two sets of rules. If you're far away, this is what you do. If they're close, this is what you do. And somehow, we don't know how or why, the Hivites, the men of Gibeon, have found out about that. And they said, "Hey, we found a loophole." Back here, Moses told the people that if they're from far away, they can do this. If they're close, they do this. And he said, "Hey, it's a better situation for us if we're far away." So this is not just a spur of the moment, accidentally kind of falling into sin.

This is a premeditated strategy. They know what God has said. In fact, in the very end, they're going to say, "We know what God has done." Right? They know the Word of God and seek to twist it for their own gain. And so we see this brokenness is generational. We see that this brokenness runs deep. And what you find is that this will have significant future effects. King Saul, during his reign, will come and he will kill some of the Gibeonites. He will seek to wipe them out. And this is what happens in 2 Samuel 21. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years. That means crops are bad for three years. And David sought the face of the Lord, and the Lord said, "There is blood guilt on Saul and on his house

because he put the Gibeonites to death." Right? So this, Joshua chapter 9, it's not just an isolated little part of Scripture. Reaches all the way back to Genesis 9. Reaches ahead, far into the future with David and Saul. And we'll see at the end that it reaches all the way, all the way forward to Nehemiah. And one of the things we see when it comes to the brokenness of sin is that sin is not just an "us" problem. It's not just a "you" problem or a "me" problem, right? But our sin can ripple out. If you've ever thrown a rock into a lake, and watch those ripples spread out. The ripples of our sin spread out, and they impact everyone around us, and not just right now. But this can reach to future generations. So, one of the things that I think we see as we look at Israel and Gibeon is, in many ways, what God does with

Scripture is he holds it up like a mirror in front of us. Not just so we see the Israelites here and the Gibeonites there, and they did this wrong, and they did this wrong. But God holds this up to us, and he says, not just they did this wrong, or they over here did this wrong, but you did this wrong, and you did this wrong. And God holds Joshua chapter 9 up to us like a mirror. You see, like Israel, you and I, in self-reliance, so often just charge ahead without even considering God. Not even asking God what we should be doing. We just simply look at what's in front of us and say, "All right, let's go." And worse, some of us have this attitude that we take care of the physical things, God takes care of the

spiritual things, so I'm in charge of all of this stuff, God is in charge of this stuff, rather than seeing that God is in charge of everything. And so like the Israelites, this holds up to us a mirror of our own self-reliance, our own self-dependence. But like the Gibeonites, we're afraid and broken. What leads them to this sin of deception, this false covenant, is they're afraid, and they're trying to fix it. And it holds up a mirror to us saying, "We're afraid, and we're broken, and just like every sinner before us, we're trying to fix it." Isn't that what happens with Adam and Eve as soon as they sin, they try to fix it? "Oh, we don't have any clothes, let's make some. Let's try to fix it by excusing, or blaming, or hiding." And what you find, like Gibeon and

like Adam and Eve, we all simply see the brokenness or trying to fix it. And in seeing our brokenness, what we're doing is we're confronting a history of brokenness, right, that doesn't just go back to Noah, like the Gibeonites, but it goes all the way back for us to Adam and Eve. So I want you to see now what happens. To the sinful liars and the manipulators of Gibeon. It is a remarkable, remarkable thing. And so in Joshua, the ninth chapter, I want to read this this last part, and I want you to see what happens to the liars and manipulators of Gibeon. So this is starting in verse 22. "Joshua summoned them and said to them, 'Why did you deceive us?' Saying, 'We are very far from you when you dwell among us. Now therefore you

are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God.' They answered Joshua, 'Because it was told to your servants for a certainty, the Lord your God had commanded Moses to give you all the land and destroy the inhabitants from this land before you. So we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and we did this thing.'" They're acknowledging that they knew what was happening five times. God says they're going to kill all the Hivites. The Gibeonites are part of that family. They know what God has said. "And now behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it." So he did this to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the

people of Israel, and he did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood, drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord to this day in the place that he would choose. You want to see what God does? He turns us upside down. Here are these liars, rebellious, deceitful people. They come in, make a false covenant. They said, "What are you going to do to us?" And Joshua says, "You're going to be servants." But you're not going to be servants anywhere. You're going to be servants in the house of God. You see the mercy of God? He takes the liars and the deceitful people, and instead of going, "Hey, go to work out there," he puts them as close to himself, and says, "Now you work for the tabernacle. Now you will work for the temple." And he takes these

deceitful, lying, scheming outsiders, and he brings them into the presence of God. And said, "Now you are going to work here." But what's remarkable, this is not the first time God has done this. Remember in Genesis 34 when Levi goes and with his brother Simeon murders all the men in a city. When Jacob blesses his sons, he will say to Levi, "You're not going to have any land in the promised land." Do you know what God does with Levi who broke the covenant with the Hivites? Brings him in, becomes the priests that serve in the temple of God. So the guy who breaks the covenant with the Hivites or makes a false covenant with the Hivites is brought in as the priests of God, close to God. And the people who made a false covenant with the people of God, the

Hivites, who did the same thing, are brought in to be close to the people of God. Do you see God's mercy on the broken, sinful, rebellious schemers? He takes them from outside and says, "As a punishment, you're going to be as close to me as possible." Right? That's not a punishment, we find out. It turns into a blessing. That God takes the outsider and he brings him close. And what's remarkable about these people is when you go into the future. And you go to the time of Nehemiah. As Nehemiah begins to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem, comes back from captivity to help rebuild the walls that have been broken down for 125 years, in Nehemiah chapter 3, there's a list of faithful people of God who are building the walls. Listen to this. Jehoiada, the son of

Bethsaia, Meshulam, the son of Bethsaida, repaired the gates of Yeshanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and next to them repaired Melitiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Marathite, the men of Gibeon, and Mizpah the seat of the governor of the province beyond the river. That this begins a faithfulness for the people of Gibeon that will stretch throughout and help last the kings of Israel. You see, we see ourselves, I think, in the people of Gibeon, right? We're afraid and we know it. And we're going to try to fix it. And trying to fix that, we find out that the problem is too big, and it goes back not just a few hundred years, but it goes back to the very beginning. Hurts and brokenness from generation to generation before us. And so

what does God do to us, the broken and rebellious sinners? He doesn't curse us outside the camp. What does He do? He brings us close to Him. That we don't have to run and we don't have to hide. In Hebrews, the 12th chapter, there is a picture of two covenants. One, the covenant of Moses. And he says this of that covenant, "For you have not come to what may not be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, calling back to Mount Sinai as God's people gathered to hear the covenant. For they could not endure the order that was given if even a beast touches the mountain that shall be stoned. Indeed, so

terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." And here is a picture of confronting the holiness of God on one hand. And then it says, "Of us, but you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirit of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." The blood of Abel cries out for judgment. The blood of Jesus cries out for forgiveness. You see, just as Joshua takes the broken people and brings them inside the camp of God and puts them in the place of worship of God, a place of worship where David will pray, where

Solomon will pray, when Solomon has that dream where God asks him what he should do and he asks for wisdom, that happens in Gibeon. Just as Joshua takes these people and brings them in, here's a picture of how Jesus, our Joshua, brings us in to a heavenly city. Not as outsiders, not as servants, but as sons and daughters. As Jesus will say to his disciples in the Gospel of Luke, "Fear not, little children, it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And so as we come to Joshua chapter 9, we're called to put away our deceit because God already knows. To put away our schemes because they will never work. To set aside our fears and throw ourselves on the mercy of God. But we're also called to depend and rely on God in all of the things that we face in life. Let's pray. Father in

heaven, give us dependence upon you. Give us strength. We thank you that you have taken broken and rebellious and outside sinners, and you have brought us into your family. Thank you for Jesus and grace. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing. This is Amazing Grace.

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings. Who shakes the holy thunder, who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder, the King of glory. The King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That You would take my place. That You would bear my cross. You would lay down Your life. That I would be saved. Lord, be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that You've done for me. Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory. The King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of glory. The King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love.

That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. I sing for all that you've done for me. We're thankful that you are joining us this morning. We're thankful for those of you who are watching online. We are going to be back Wednesday night. We just finished up a series talking about the gospel being above everything. And as we move into the month, where we sort of end up celebrating those things that we are thankful

for, followed by immediately the next day celebrating our discontent by going out and buying a whole bunch of things really, really cheap, we want to spend a little bit of time thinking about thankfulness. And so one of the interesting things about thankfulness in the Bible, it's not just a polite thing. It's not just a please and a thank you. It's not a one-day kind of thing. In fact, Paul will say one of the reasons that people rejected God is because even though they knew Him, they didn't honor Him as God or give thanks. And so for the next three weeks, we're going to kind of unpack a theology of thankfulness. It runs throughout Scripture in a very deep manner, and at least for me, sometimes I think my understanding is probably a little shallow, and so we want to dig down and dive down deep into what that looks like in the Christian life.

And so that's where we're going for the month of November on Wednesday nights. Also, last Sunday in November will be the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and so that's when we begin our Advent series. The word Advent simply means arrival. Instead of just sort of jumping into Christmas, like cannonballing into a cold lake, we want to sort of prepare for Christmas, prepare for the hope and the joy and the peace and the life that comes through Jesus. And so we're going to start that at the end of November. So we're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then we'll sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. Thank you for hope. Thank you for your church and your people. I'm so thankful for the encouragement that they are to us. Just be with us as we move through this week,

that you would help us to see that you take the broken and you transform us, that we would depend and rely upon you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen.