Lesson 1 of 4

The Stash (Achan)Doctrine: Obedience, Holiness, Devotion

Students will see that they can be obedient even when the appeal of the world offers them everything.

Joshua 7:13How can we stand before our enemies?

HOOK: Sin is often so appealing; however, its consequences never will be.There are several things in this world that are appealing and desired. Something that is appealing is something that has the power to attract. It even can control your emotions if you are not careful.

LESSON CONTENT: What God desires is our devotion to Him rather than to “things.”

I. Your sin affects you and those around you (read Joshua 7:1). II. Sin stands in the way of victory.III. God desires us to be set apart (read Joshua 7:16-18).IV. Sin confessing is sin cleansing.

CONNECTION: Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.Think back to the beginning of the lesson. Do you remember the fruit shrapnel that totally exploded all over the room? Of course you do. As we discussed in the lesson on Achan, the effects of sin in your life are like that fruit shrapnel. It affects you and everyone else; you just may not realize it yet.

DECISION: Consider the sin in your life.When you confess your sins, God forgives them and sets you free. He puts them to death. Achan was stoned and buried for his sin and Israel was set free. If you truly confessed your sin you are set free. I’d like each of you to bring your stone to the front and toss them on the pile of sins. These sins have been put to death!

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Worth Repeating: Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.

Scope and Sequence

Objective

Memory Verse

Sanctify: To set aside or apart for a divine purpose.Confession: To reveal or make known sins to God (and sometimes man) and ask for forgiveness.Holiness: Moral and ethical perfection; the absence of any evil.

Fruit: lemon, orange, or watermelon Hammer or sledgehammer A tarp or plastic to lay down for the mess Perhaps technology, food, or money for introduction A small piece of paper for every student A pen or pencil for every student to write with A small rock or stone for every student A PowerPoint presentation for this lesson is available.

Show the video of how those who win the lottery and have lots of money end up broke. Coveting can cause huge issues. Lottery Winners Who Lost It All | “The HotList,” https://teachersource.wol.org/videos/SBS17/43-1/

The truths of this lesson are powerful. The story of Achan can really grab a student’s attention. This would be a good lesson to “preach.” There is some interaction with the students but the story is so compelling it will capture them as you share. You will find during the “Connection” and “Decision” portion of the message that the application of truth is both to the believer and the lost. May God empower you to preach it well!

Before you start the lesson, hand out a small piece of paper, a pen or pencil, and a small rock or stone to every student. This will be used later in the lesson. Also, prepare the room in advance for the illustration by laying down a tarp or plastic to catch the mess.

There are several things in this world that are appealing and desired. Something that is appealing is something that has the power to attract. It even can control your emotions if you are not careful. There are certain foods that are extremely appealing. What is your favorite food? (allow students to respond) Is your mouth watering right now after talking about all that food?

Perhaps you have an attraction to technology. There are certain people that live for the next iPhone, gaming system, or computer software upgrade. The iPhone has a certain appeal. From one’s fingertips you can control and navigate anything from email, schedules, social media, and you can even make movies. Technology has come a long way and only becomes more and more appealing.

Maybe more money is appealing to you. Money has a dangerous power to its appeal and you must be careful. Money can either be a great addition to your life or a great harm. With more of it you can often feed the power of its appeal. In most cases that is not a good thing.

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Definitions

Checklist

Resources

Teacher’s Note

Hook: Sin is often so appealing; however, its consequences never will be.

Is it a certain relationship that is appealing to you? If you had a certain friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend then you would gain the social status you desire. Again, the power of relationships can be emotional as well. Whom you decide to spend your life with will determine the quality and direction of your life.

This world will try to offer us absolutely everything. Not everything is going to tear us down. Technology can and should be a blessing, but our iPhones can quickly become idols when our time, thoughts, and energy are consumed by them. We were made for relationships, yet when a relationship with someone becomes more appealing than your relationship with Jesus then something is wrong. The consequences of being drawn to the wrong thing can be devastating. Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.

In this lesson, we are looking at a man named Achan. His life will teach us some amazing truths that should be applied to our daily living.

Let’s turn in your Bible to Joshua 7. All because something was appealing, Achan made a choice that affected not only him, but his nation. Can you believe that your sinful choices can affect more than just you?

I. Your sin affects you and those around you (read Joshua 7:1).The beginning of this chapter can be terrifying. The end of verse 1 says, “The anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.” Why? Why doesn’t this verse say, “The anger of the Lord burned against Achan”? In the previous chapter (Joshua 6) we have the epic battle of Jericho. Right in the middle of the chapter we have some specific instructions for the people. Chapter 6, verses 17-18 give the very clear instruction from God, “Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed.” Wow! This is quite the obvious and incredible command. “Destroy everything. Take nothing. If you do, NOT ONLY will you be destroyed but your nation will be troubled.” God says, when you sin, things will get bad for you but ALSO they will get bad for those around you. Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not, especially for those around you.

A. Saying “I want that” can harm others.God’s command was easy and clear, yet it was somewhat of a struggle for Achan. As he went about destroying things, something caught his eye. He saw a beautiful robe from Babylon, some silver coins, and a bar of gold. He decided he “had” to have them. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever seen something that you desired badly enough that you decided you had to have it even if you had to do something wrong to get it?

He fell into what the Apostle John calls the lust of the eyes (read 1 John 2:16). He saw something he wanted and was willing to get it by sinning. Because of Achan’s sin the Lord was upset with him and the entire nation of Israel. Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not, and those consequences were coming very soon.

Have you ever done something that not only affected you but the people around you? Maybe it was a decision you made. Perhaps it was something you said or did. Whatever it was, it brought much more harm than you

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Lesson Content: What God desires is our devotion to Him rather than to “things.”

thought it would. Perhaps you have been around someone who made a terrible decision and you suffered the consequences with them.

What if you decide that it’s cool to go to a party with alcohol, even though your parents tell you not to go? You think it’s okay because you don’t drink. After the party, you get into the car with your friend who brought you, and he assures you that he didn’t drink too much. On the drive home, he gets into an accident and kills the driver of the other car. The police come and you get in trouble. You also keep remembering the accident and live with the questions about “what if” for the rest of your life.

In school, you walk up to your friends and hear them talking badly about another friend of yours. You are going to walk away, but you are intrigued. You never say a word, but someone overhears your conversation. That person spreads a rumor that you were the one trash-talking your friend. She is hurt and no longer wants to be friends with you.

There is truth to being guilty by association and that is what we see in this passage. The whole nation of Israel is guilty because of their association with Achan.

B. Hanging with fools brings harm (Proverbs 13:20).Let’s look at Proverbs 13:20. This verse sheds some light on this (have a student read it).

Notice the verse does not say that you will become a fool if you hang out with fools, like it says about hanging out with the wise. You almost assume the opposite would be true, but that is not what it says. Proverbs 13:20 says when you hang out with fools you will suffer the great harm of that fool’s dumb decisions, simply because you are around them.

Illustration: “Shrapnel” Lay out a tarp or plastic before the lesson; this could get messy. Before the lesson have a piece of fruit on a table in front of the room. You are going to hit the fruit with the hammer in order to smash it and cause pieces to fly around the room, or at least on the front row of kids. WARNING: It will be messy. Take a piece of fruit, like a piece of citrus—if you really want to make an impact to the point use a watermelon—take the fruit and place it on a stool or stand of some kind. While it is on the table take a hammer or even a sledge hammer and crush the fruit. Watch the shrapnel from the fruit go everywhere! Especially the front row! Makes great fun!

If you would rather explain this than do it that is understandable. Here is a link to a video to demonstrate it, STOP at 1:15 https://teachersource.wol.org/videos/SBS17/43-2/

Who knows what shrapnel is? It is the messy, little pieces of debris that fly off an initial explosion. This piece of fruit will represent a potential sinful decision. Hitting the fruit is acting on that sin. Watch what happens!

Hit the fruit or have a volunteer participate.

Did you notice that the initial impact happened on the table but the result of the impact, really the mess, ended up all over the front row? This is an illustration of the results of being around a fool. Achan’s decision was foolish and because of what he did everyone around him suffered.

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Teacher’s Note

Teacher’s Note

Joshua and his men in verses 2-5 were supposed to go into battle in Ai. The men came and told Joshua they only needed a few men to do the job, so Joshua listened and because of it they were defeated. The Bible says that the “hearts of the people melted and became like water.”

That one defeat at Ai took the life right out of the people. Nothing will destroy like when there is sin in the camp. Verses 5-9 of Joshua 7 say the result of their defeat was that thirty-six men died. This caused Joshua to fall before God doubting why He had even bothered to bring them into this land. He thought it was the end. The effects of sin will cause confusion, blindness, and great doubt.

Again, sin is appealing, but its consequences are not. It is often the consequences of your sin or someone else’s sin that will drive you to your knees before the Lord as they did Joshua. Perhaps you are suffering because of a friend’s sin. Take it to the Lord.

There are still some effects of sin that we haven’t touched yet.

II. Sin stands in the way of victory.

Have a student read Joshua 7:10-13.

At this moment of confession and worship, God revealed the problem to Joshua: There was sin in the camp. The sin of Achan was twofold according to verse 11. He had stolen and deceived. He had broken the command of God. The result of taking something that was appealing, which God had said not to take, caused the defeat of Israel at Ai. Israel was not able to stand against their enemies.

There is a great truth principle here: How are we to stand against our enemies spiritually? The answer is found in Joshua 7:13. Commit this verse to memory. You will not stand against your enemies until you get rid of the “accursed thing” in your life. In other words, while there is undealt sin in your life, that remains hidden, you will struggle to have victory in your life.

This would be a great time to evaluate your own life. The psalmist asked God to search his heart in Psalm 139:23. More than ever the psalmist wanted to make sure the darkest areas of his life were revealed before God. He knew what we need to know, that we will struggle in our relationship with God if sin remains unconfessed and “hidden” in our life. The danger of sin is that it’s often easy to hide.

Many addictions can be easy to hide if you want them to be hidden. No one must know the thoughts you have about them, right? What you look at on your computer can be a secret. You can just clear the

history. What you do with your boyfriend or girlfriend can even stay hidden. No one

needs to know. Even cheating on homework assignments or tests can stay hidden.

Sometimes it’s just easier to keep it hidden. It’s appealing to have your way if the sin can be hidden. There are two problems with this: Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not. Sin always stands in the way of holiness. Holiness is moral and ethical perfection or the absence of any evil. Did you catch that? The

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Teacher’s Note

absence of any evil. Get rid of it! It’s what God desires for you. What else does God desire?

Your sin will always be found out (read Numbers 32:23). We think we can keep it hidden, and for a while God may even allow us to keep it hidden. But eventually it will find us out. Just as Achan’s sin was revealed, so too will ours. Unless we confess it and surrender it to the Lord.

III. God desires us to be set apart (read Joshua 7:16-18).Is there a way you can live so that you are ready to be used by God at any time? The answer is “yes!” That “way” is what the Word of God calls sanctified. In verse 13 God told Joshua to “sanctify the people.” In the verses following He told him exactly how he was to do that.

“What does it mean for me to sanctify myself?” Does that question resonate with anyone? To sanctify something means to set it aside for a divine purpose. What God wanted Joshua to do with the people was to set them apart from the sin, and namely the sinner. God may very well be calling you out to separate yourself from some specific sin in your life. If we are to be set apart for God, He tells us to name our sin specifically. When we build the habit of naming the exact sin and the exact moment it was committed in confession, it is an indication we have a broken heart before the Lord.

Notice how God was working through the whole nation of Israel. Joshua started with the identity of Achan’s tribe, then his clan, then his family, then his father, until Achan was identified. The whole time Achan knew he was guilty, he saw the proverbial finger slowly turning to point at him, yet he remained silent. He was so set on trying to hide his sin that he waited until his sin found him. He only confessed when all the evidence was right before him and all of Israel.

It is so natural for our flesh to want to cover sin and keep it hidden. We think it may be okay. We think no one is being harmed, but this is never the case. Are you willing right now to confess? Now may be a good time to name specific sin in your life. Get specific with it.

This would be a good place to have your students bow their head and close their eyes and do business with God and confess their sin. Allow them to write their own sin on the piece of paper they were given at the beginning of the lesson. You can lead them in this for a minute or two.

The reason that the Word of God desires for sin to be named and confessed is so that we can be forgiven and become more like Him. God truly desires to look at His people and see a reflection of Himself.

Story Illustration: When a silversmith is purifying silver and burning away the impurities of the silver it is quite the process. The silversmith puts the mineral in a cauldron and lights a fire underneath. As the mineral burns, the dross rises to the top of the liquid. The silversmith then takes a scrape and wipes away the dross from the top layer. The worker does this several times until he can see his reflection in the silver. That is when he knows the silver has been purified.

Allow the silversmith to be the Lord in this story. You are the silver and the dross is your sin. What the Lord wants to do is continue to wipe away the sin in your life until

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Teacher’s Note

Teacher’s Note

he can look at you and see His reflection. That is what it means to be sanctified. That is what it means to be set apart and holy.

Have there been instances where your sin is in the open but you are not fessing up to it? The Holy Spirit may now be at work in your life bringing that hidden sin out in the open by the power of His Word. Confess it! Lay it before the Lord and admit you are wrong.

There is another point we need to comprehend. If understood correctly it could rock your world.

IV. Sin confessing is sin cleansing.

Have a student read Joshua 7:19-21.

Joshua says something powerful in verse 19. He tells Achan to bring glory and praise to God by confessing his sins. God is glorified when His people confess their sin. When God’s people are living lives that are set apart by confession and agreement with God about sin, it will always bring Him glory. Confession is revealing or making known sins to God (and sometimes man) and asking for forgiveness. He is right and we are wrong. Achan cried out, “Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God…”

To confess our sin, we need to acknowledge the wrong that we have done, agree with God that it is wrong, and ask God to forgive us. In verse 23 it says they brought out the “accursed things” from the tent and “laid them out before the Lord.” We need to follow this pattern and bring our sin before the Lord.

Confession will always lead to cleansing (read 1 John 1:9). What happens when we confess our sin? (wait for responses)

These are amazing promises!! God is faithful and will forgive us when we confess! He will also cleanse us from all the wrong things we have done! In your life, this means that God is committed to help you become more like Jesus. He will help you remove the sinful things from your life. We need to stop fighting the process to see our sin for what it is and confess it to Him! He will always forgive.

We also need to learn that being forgiven does not mean that we no longer must face earthly consequences. We see this very principle called to action in verses 24-26, and it is a vigorous cleansing process God put the nation of Israel through. Our God is a holy God and He is the One that says what holiness looks like. Achan, his family, his belongings and property, along with the items that were so appealing to him were all destroyed. They were stoned, burned, and buried under a great heap of stones.

Achan did confess his sins after he was caught. He acknowledged that he sinned before the Lord. But he still had to face the punishment for his crime. There are times that you will be spiritually forgiven but will still have to face the earthly penalty for your sin. If you cheated on a test, God will forgive you when you confess, but your teacher may still give you an F. If you commit a crime, you may be forgiven by God, but the court will still send you to jail.

After the judgment fell on Achan, verse 26 says, “The Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger.” Where the sacrifice for sin is met, the satisfaction of

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Teacher’s Note

God is found. There must be a connection made between what we are talking about and the way we are living.

Think back to the beginning of the lesson. Do you remember the fruit shrapnel that totally exploded all over the room? Of course you do. As we discussed in the lesson on Achan, the effects of sin in your life are like that fruit shrapnel. It affects you and everyone else; you just may not realize it yet. Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.

If you are a Christ follower—at one point you decided to follow Jesus and trust Him with your life—you still need to practice confession. Hiding sin in your life, whether the sin is big or small, will bring ruin. God will do whatever it takes to get the sin out of your heart. To avoid the shrapnel, you need to regularly confess your sin.

Jesus said that the enemy of your soul has come to destroy you, but Jesus offers abundant life (John 10:10). Confessing your sin to Christ allows you to be free to experience victory in your life. Don’t be like Achan and bury your sinful treasure; bring it out into the open and surrender to God.

This lesson on Achan is not a pleasant one. It is a lesson with a stern warning. There are consequences for sin. Thirty-six soldiers died and Achan and his family were destroyed. Maybe this has scared you and you are asking, “Do I have to die for my sin the way Achan did?”

The Bible clearly says that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and that the payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). We all deserve death because we all have sinned, like Achan sinned. There is nothing we can do to work off our sin. We cannot be good enough. And left to ourselves, we would have to die for our sin.

But God loves us too much to let that happen (John 3:16). God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place. Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for our sin. When we acknowledge that we are sinners and believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross for our sins and rose again, we are set free from sin and forgiven before God. Not only do we not have to die for our sin, but we will live forever with Jesus!

If you have never trusted Christ before, it starts with confession (read Romans 10:9-10). If you have not placed your faith in Him would you like to do so now?

As you close the lesson take a minute and ask your students to bow their heads and close their eyes. Encourage them to be honest with God and tell Him what He already knows about them. Encourage them to name their sin to God and confess it to Him right now. Below are a few areas you may want to talk about.

An addiction that they are hiding A wicked thought life that only God knows about Habits of viewing content on a computer, phone, or mobile device that is not

pleasing to God Things you have done with your boyfriend or girlfriend Cheating on homework assignments or tests

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Connection: Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.

Teacher’s Note

As you bring the lesson to a close in prayer, read 1 Peter 1:16 and encourage them to live holy before God because He is Holy. Remind them sin is appealing, but its consequences are not.

Use the piece of paper you gave the students at the beginning of the lesson. Have them write their sin on the paper. Bring it up to a designated area of the room while leaving the rock they were given at their seat. Then remind them that for Israel’s cleansing, Achan was stoned and buried. Then have them come up and place their rock on the pile of confessed sins in a designated area—this could be the foot of a cross if you have one in the room.

The decision is an invitation-style response. There may be students who need to be saved. There may be students that need confession time. Allow students to toss their rocks over the sin. Allow for prayer groups with leaders. This can be a very powerful time. Allow for students to commit to the Lord to live holy lives.

Take out the piece of paper we handed out at the beginning. Take a few moments to consider your life and any area of unconfessed sin. This is private between you and God. Write whatever God lays on your heart. When you are ready, bring your piece of paper up to the front and lay it in a pile here (designated area).

When you confess your sins, God forgives them and sets you free. He puts them to death. Achan was stoned and buried for his sin and Israel was set free. If you truly confessed your sin you are set free. I’d like each of you to bring your stone to the front and toss them on the pile of sins. These sins have been put to death!

Sin is appealing, but its consequences are not. This week, take a few minutes to think about one of the areas of sin in which you struggle. Put together a list of possible consequences of that sin. Spend time thanking God for the forgiveness we have in Jesus!

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Decision: Consider the sin in your life.

Teacher’s Note