Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Sermon Outline: “What Happens When We Fail?” by Michael Rochelle
• Sermon: “The Folly of Hidden Sin” by R. Kent Hughes

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training podcast. Today we are in Unit 7, Session 3, God Judges Disobedience, with the core passage of Joshua 7.  Although space only allowed us to focus on particular verses, we’re just going to say that we’re covering all of Joshua 7, the details of the defeat at Ai and Achan’s judgment. The key concept here is: Sin deserves God’s judgment. So, let’s dive in.

Looking at the timeline on p. 43 in the Leader Guide, it grounds us in where we’ve been in the Bible and where our passage is today. God is still leading Joshua and the Israelites to conquer the land. But He does expect obedience and faithfulness.

In verse 1 of chapter 7, we get a summary statement of what was about to happen. Although “the Lord was with Joshua” in chapter 6 verse 27, chapter 7 starts with a big “however” or a big  “but”. “The Israelites, however, “were unfaithful.”  Like an adulteress husband or wife, Israel betrayed God’s trust. Though Israel was charged of guilt, Achan was the individual culprit. Achan’s lineage is mentioned here because the tribe of Judah is the line of royalty, the line of kings. So Achan was as Israelite as they come, so as to be a foil, a character contrast to Rahab, one who was as Canaanite as they come. We’ll return to this idea a little later.

So, after the defeat of Jericho, the people were confronted with the city of Ai. After scouting it out and seeing that the “people of Ai are so few,” the scouts advised Joshua to send only two to three thousand men. But then when “the men of Ai struck down thirty-six of them,” the people fell in despair, they “lost heart” in verse 5, tearing their clothes and falling facedown. Now, losing 36 soldiers doesn’t sound too bad in a battle, but as their first defeat in the promised land, they must have felt confused about what God was doing. Didn’t He say they were going to conquer the land and their enemies? Why would they lose a battle if God was on their side?

God knew their confusion and answered appropriately. He told them Israel “have stolen, deceived, and put those things with their own belongings… I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you what is set apart,” verses 11 and 12. When sin occurs, God knows for He is omniscient, all-knowing. Jesus said, “There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered” in Luke 12:2. Such a statement in light of Achan’s story should spur us to resist temptation and confess sin because God already knows what we’ve done. Nothing is secret to Him. So we should just come clean and repent and confess, that we may be forgiven and restore the fellowship we have with God.

Achan’s sin not only was detrimental to himself but made all of Israel guilty because we are connected with other people. The church is described as the body and a community as seen as a whole. Sin impacts not just the individual but the whole. Examples of sin impacting the whole could include, an affair affecting the whole family, or stolen goods affecting a whole company, selfish leadership affecting a whole town or even country. We have all experienced sin effecting more than just an individual.

From verses 13 through 19 then, we see God calling the people to consecrate themselves, for in the morning they would find out the culprit, presumably through casting lots although it is not completely clear. In the morning, Joshua called each tribe, then clan, then family, then individual, then we are told again that “Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected,” seen in verse18.

So Joshua told Achan to confess. Highlighting the phrases that communicate what it means to confess sin in the second set of verses on page 46 is interesting here. I highlighted, giving glory to the Lord, telling what you have done (to God and to others), not hiding anything, saying you have sinned, and explaining exactly what you have done comprise the idea of confession. Achan was found out and though he confessed, I’m not sure he was repentant as he waited through the whole selection process before he fessed up. He eventually confessed that he did exactly what God told the Israelites not to do: take anything for themselves at the defeat of Jericho. Achan blatantly disobeyed and so judgment would come. Especially when God was trying to bless His people with victory and the promised land, blessings of His covenant,  to disobey and sin out of selfishness and wanting more, coveting, shows our ungratefulness and lack of trust in a good and faithful God. That’s what Achan did and that’s why he was stoned for it.

The reality that no sin is hidden from God should strike our hearts with reverence and awe as well as humility and gratefulness. In one sense, we should hold sin as serious and should confess whenever we acknowledge sin, asking God to uncover it in our hearts as we sometimes hide it from ourselves even. God knows our sin and wants us to confess to Him. He also is ready to forgive when we confess so it shouldn’t be difficult to come to Him in our sin. Knowing our sin, He loves us still and wants to restore us.

For Achan, prideful desire crept up on him. Like those before him, Adam and Eve, Cain, and a host of others, including us today, prideful desire and lust of the eyes are a big threat. Reasons why include the fact that we are selfish and we want what we want. We also may not always trust that God has good planned for us and think perhaps we can do better for ourselves. Also, temptation is enticing and the devil is cunning and alluring and make us think disobeying God can lead to better things. It’s surely a lie but our minds tend to focus on the immediate or on fears we might have.

And thus, Achan, an Israelite of Israelites, was stoned and his family and possessions with him , and they were memorialized with stones to remind the people of what happens when we blatantly disobey God and transgress his commands. And we see Joshua saying, “Why have you brought us trouble? Today the Lord will bring you trouble!” and thus the valley was called the Valley of Achor, meaning the Valley of Trouble.

And Achan is clearly seen as a contrast to Rahab. Though one was an Israelite or Israelites and the other was a prostitute of Canaan, God honors those who trust and obey Him. Rahab was saved and Achan was stoned. Not normally how you would think God would act but God sees the heart and He knows who trusts in Him.

So on to the Group Experience, have your supplies ready if you need caution tape or rope to mark off a section of seating. Maybe stay outside the room to see what your group will do without you. Then come in and engage with your group and see how they felt about not being able to sit in a certain spot. Ask if anyone was considering sitting in the “forbidden” spots anyway. Ask what people thought or felt.

Then transition into the Context, explaining that sometimes we don’t like being told what to do, and we want to do things our own way. That’s true with other people and sometimes that’s true with dealing with God as well. Review, like in the context, last week’s portion of Scripture in Joshua 6:17-18, God’s command to set apart the city and everything in it to destruction except for Rahab and her family.

Then entering the Recap section, let your group highlight what stood out to them from their week’s study. Add any thoughts you might have from your own study.

Then onto the Group Activity, draw the chart on the board and introduce the idea that one man’s sins affects the whole body. Introduce the idea that sin comes from temptation and temptation is alluring. Engage the group to look through Joshua 7:21 to see the progression of sin there. Achan “saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, five pound of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter.”  He coveted them and took them. Then he “concealed [them] in the ground inside his [tent].” Your leader guide doesn’t say this, but I would advise you to break up your group into smaller groups. Then have each group consider a common sin to write down a similar progression. It would be good to have different examples. An example to help you along might be something like adultery or pornography, or something simpler like falsifying a resume or gossip. With abstract concepts, like gossip perhaps, you might say that you “saw” an opportunity to say something not so nice about someone. You “took” that opportunity and gossiped about their life and you “concealed” it from that person, with them not knowing you shared information that they didn’t want you to share.

After going through different examples from your different smaller groups, ask the debrief question, “What might be some communal consequences of the progression of sin described?” Broken friendships or broken group dynamics may be a result of gossip. Broken families may be a result of adultery or pornography. I don’t think it will be difficult to find communal consequences from most sin. Then ask, “How did Achan’s sin reveal his heart? Answers may include, Achan didn’t trust God, he was selfish and only thought of himself, he didn’t realize how detrimental sin could be, he thought he could sin with no one knowing, including God.  What does God’s judgment on Achan reveal about His heart regarding sin? God takes sin seriously. Even today, not “even with” Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, but especially with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we should see sin as detrimental to our relationship with God and others. Though Jesus forgives us and His grace is abundant, He still considers sin an abomination and not to be trifled with. Consider reading Romans 6:1-10 if you have time or at least verse 1and 2: “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  Though we are covered by God’s grace because of Christ’s sacrifice, we should still turn from sin when we can.

Thus, Summarize the session and enter the Head, Hearts, Hand section, focusing on the Hands if you have limited time. Ask, Where is your life out of step with God’s command today, and how can you place your trust in Him anew to fight sin? Encourage your group to confess to God and maybe even to a trusted friend and remind them that God forgives us when we confess and repent. His mercies are new every morning.

In the Next Steps, highlight some action points and share prayer requests and praises. If you have time, pray through the selected Psalm, Psalm 7, focusing on verses 9-17. Although it may sound harsh, remind the group of God’s justice and righteousness—we want a God who is righteous and holy so that He would stand up against evil and thus stand against sin. Then also add God’s mercy and grace, revealing God’s balanced qualities that saves us because of His love when we trust in Him for all things, including salvation.

Hey, thanks again for joining me on another Leader Training podcast. Send comments and questions to [email protected] and hope you have a great group time!