God tells the Israelites to stay away from those “devoted” items so no one is tempted to covet and steal them. All the Gold, silver, bronze, and iron belong to God for His purposes! They are devoted to God!

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Joshua is COMPLETELY confident that what God has done for the Israelites in Jericho He will do in every city and village in the promised land!

All of us struggle with temptation and sin. And there are SO Many ways to deal with sin badly ... making a mess and leaving things way worse. We need to know how to deal with sin well. What can we learn about dealing with sin well from all of this?

Confession is telling the truth about what you’ve done. Joshua calls for Achan to tell the truth about what he’s done. Dealing with sin well begins with telling the truth about what we’ve done. Here’s why:

- Sin thrives in secret, but is defeated by honesty. “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” – Louis Brandeis <ILL: Sunlight and COVID>
- Confession strengthens relationships. When someone knows my worst and still loves me, that strengthens my trust. NB: Accountability We can relate to broken people.

All of us need confession in the face of our sin! It is scary and intimidating and our old sinful nature is screaming, “NO!” But dealing with sin well begins here!

1. It Begins with Confession

2. There are Always Consequences! Sin always brings consequences ... for us and for those around us. It always seems like it only impacts us, but that is NEVER the case.
- We tell a lie and someone else pays a price for our lie. (or it changes a relationship)
- We do something wrong and we hurt ourselves or others.

Sin always brings consequences. But when we face those consequences, we have a chance to do something about the pain and problems those consequences have created. We need to face those consequences and do our best to make things right!

The MOST IMPORTANT way that we deal with sin isn’t something we do at all. It is something that God does!

Adam and Eve believed the lie and broke faith with God. Abandoning our faith always leads to disaster. We are no different than Adam ... or Achan! Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that we are DEAD in our sin. But faith ... faith makes all the difference!

Faith brings hope. Faith brings forgiveness. Grace and forgivnenss is God’s response to sin!

500 years later, the prophet Hosea is speaking for God. He is talking about the consequences of the sins of His people AND His plan for their redemption.

Jesus traveled the valley of Achor (trouble) all the way to the Cross to pay for our sin and restore our relationship with God.