Claiming Canaan

The speaker discusses the concept of faith and its importance in claiming victory in one's spiritual life. They emphasize the need to trust and obey God for as long as it takes to receive victory. They highlight the challenge of transitioning from the physical to the spiritual, and the difficulty of comprehending spiritual matters. The speaker also mentions the battle against spiritual forces and the need to rely on God's strength. They discuss the importance of faith in facing challenges and staying obedient to God. They caution against losing faith and questioning God's love and goodness. The speaker believes that many people are missing out on the benefits of faith and spiritual battles due to a lack of trust and obedience. Amen. One of my favorite psalms. He walks with me and he talks with me. If you have your Bibles this morning, turn to Joshua chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6. We are finally going to see what happens as we claim Canaan. What is God's desire for us? How does God want us to go about claiming Canaan? We've talked about Canaan being this land of victory, of peace, a land that God promised to His children, a land that was flowing with milk and honey and an abundance of everything that they could ever need or desire was there for them. And that's the same thing that God wants in our spiritual life, not necessarily the physical things in life, but spiritually, God wants us to live a life of victory. He wants us to live a life of peace and fellowship with Him. And so as we look at this claiming Canaan this morning, we're going to see how that God ended up giving them the very first battle as they go into the promised land and what God requires in order for us to do it. And what I want us to understand this morning, and you're going to hear this quite a bit because it all is going to come down to faith. And I've kind of defined faith this morning as trusting God enough to obey God for as long as it takes to receive victory. Trusting God enough to obey God for as long as it takes to receive victory. So many times we trust God, but then we don't obey God. Or sometimes we'll trust God and we'll obey God for a little bit, and then we give up, right? Well, God didn't answer my prayer, so I'm going to quit praying. No, faith is continuing to do it until we finally receive the victory. And unfortunately, we may not even experience it here in this life. We saw that with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. I mean, the list could go on and on of the patriarchs and the different ones that were looking for that promised land, but yet they never did fully receive it and enjoy it the way that God had planned for them. We know where I got that definition from is in Hebrews 11, verse 6, He simply says, "...without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." That diligently seek Him as long as it takes until we receive the victory. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27, that God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And see, this is the problem that lies in faith, right? Because our faith and what we want to see put our faith and our trust and our obedience into something that we can see, taste, smell, touch that is a reality, right? The problem is that we are talking about spiritual. I was visiting with somebody the other night and we were talking about how hard it is for us as human individuals to comprehend spiritual matters. Because everything that we do is we live in a temporal environment. Everything that we have is controlled by what we see, what we hear, what we taste, what we touch. And all of a sudden, we come over to the New Testament and Jesus Christ says, guess what? I am going to the Father and I am seated at the right hand of the Father, but I'm going to send you a Comforter. I'm going to send you a Spirit to walk beside you in this life, to guide you in this life. And all of a sudden, somewhere between the physical to the spiritual, most of us freak out and none of us really make that connection from the physical to the spiritual like we need to. Because none of us has really seen the Spirit, right? He explained that to Nicodemus. He had a hard problem understanding the physical and the spiritual. And he said what? He described it to Nicodemus as the wind. How many of you have ever seen the wind blow? Exactly, no one. We've seen the effects of the wind, right? We can see the leaves. We can see the trees move. We can see the result of the wind. But none of us have ever seen wind. And that's the same way with the Spirit. We see the effects and the results of the Spirit, but none of us has actually seen the Spirit. And so what do we do? We are trusting by faith enough that we obey for as long as it takes till we receive the victory. And God just doesn't seem to do things the way that you and I think that it ought to be done, right? He does things in order to confound the wise. Because here's what, I want us to go back to this, and I want us to hang on to this because it's very, very important in understanding this. And it's a very fundamental belief in the Word of God that we have to... You remember we started this in Deuteronomy where it said there is one God. The Lord our God. Your God. There is only One. And what we have to understand is that that one God wants to be glorified above anything and everything. And everyone. And so God wants to get the credit. If we do something in our wisdom, if we do something that we think that this is the way that it ought to work out, then all of a sudden, who gets the credit? I get the credit. The doctors get the credit, right? And God just really does hate to give up credit when He is the Creator of all things. When He does all things and provides all things. And I'll be honest with you this morning that I, as your pastor, I struggle with giving God the credit all the time. You know, I am highly calendar functional. My wife, it drives her to nuts because usually I am rehearsing all day Sunday on the way to church. Not necessarily what I'm going to do when I get to church, but we're going over everything of what I've got planned for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I am constantly planning. I am constantly working. I am constantly adjusting. Because why? I want to know what's coming up and where I'm going. And so, man, it is hard when I get my plans and God all of a sudden says, you know what? We're not going to quite do it that way. Because you've got great plans, and Ani, you're a smart guy. But man, I would get a whole lot more credit if we did it this way. And so what does He do? Come Monday morning, no matter how much I rehearse, no matter how much I plan, He throws a monkey wrench on it. And all of a sudden, all of my best well plans are what? Out the window and what am I doing? I find myself on Monday morning, okay, God, how are we going to work this out? Right? I thought this was going to work, but You said, yeah, so I'm going to follow You. And what do we do? That's what faith is. Trusting God enough that we obey God for as long as it takes to receive the victory. In Ephesians, we talked about this when Paul told us, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand. In other words, we are in a battle. But it's not a physical battle. None of you have seen any spiritual dark forces, right? None of you have seen any demons. We have seen the results of the wickedness. We've seen the results of Satan. We've seen the results of the influence of Satan. But I haven't seen Satan. I've seen some pretty evil people being in prison ministry, being in some of the places that God has placed me before. But I have never looked at a demon. But I have definitely seen the results of a demon. I've seen the effects of a demon. And so when we think about that, that's what He's telling us. And so we are fighting this spiritual battle. And so the big goal is what we have to do is get from physical to spiritual. And what we have to do, and the only way that we can do it is by having faith in God. Trusting God. We walk by faith, not by sight. God, I don't understand. I don't know. We're talking in Sunday school about the signs of the end times and stuff. Guess what? There have been books and preachers and teachers and people talking about the signs of the end times for 2,000 years, right? And matter of fact, guess what? Peter said that listen, in those last days, there's going to come along scoffers that are going to say, have you not been talking about this for 2,000 years? You are off your rocker. It's not going to happen. It's not going to take place. If it was going to do it, God would have already done it, right? And a matter of fact, they'll go and use the Bible to prove it. Because why? God works in 2,000 year sections, right? You can break the Bible into three parts of 2,000 years when God did something great. And guess what? We have passed that 2,000 marker and so guess what? You can find books out there with this garbage in it. And so what's happening? We see Christians that begin to lose faith. Can I really trust God? And if we question God and we question His love and His goodness, then guess what? We're going to have a hard time obeying. You know why I didn't obey my parents as a teenager? I really didn't trust them. They're just wanting to keep me from having fun, right? They just want to keep me. But you know what? Now that I'm 54 years old, I call Dad. Dad, what should I do, right? And when Dad tells me, I obey. Why? Because I have seen my faith has grown. My trust in Him has grown. That I can trust His opinion. Therefore, I obey Him. And guess what? We've reached the benefits of it. And so that's what we're going to find here as they go in to the promised land. And I believe that a lot of us are missing out when Paul puts in his priority after he tells us that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings, go get them. But guess what? There are going to be a lot of spiritual battles and a lot of problems along the way, so you better suit up with the armor of God. That's what Ephesians was about. And today, I'm afraid that we are not teaching people, and I'm talking about we as preachers and pastors, we are not teaching Christians how to fight. We are not teaching Christians that our God is able to give us the victory. That we will be victorious. We don't know how to follow Him in that victory. And so Joshua this morning is going to give us some insight into this on exactly how do we, and remember we talked about this last week in Corinthians. He said that all of this history that we look at in the Old Testament, God gave us as an example, as a pattern. He gave us physical things in order that we might understand spiritual things. And so it's there. Now you can't make every single physical thing into something that is spiritual. It is a pattern. It is a picture. When you take a picture of your wife and you begin to make more details and stuff out of the picture than you do your wife, then somewhere you've got a problem in what the purpose of the picture is for. The purpose of the picture is to give you a representation and idea. But you cannot replace the real thing with the picture and come up with something better. And so Paul, or the author, I believe Paul, the author of Hebrews tells us that. He shows us all of this stuff in the Old Testament how that Jesus Christ is better. Don't substitute and don't get wrapped up in the picture that you forget about the person Jesus Christ. And so that's what I want us to be very, very careful as we go through the Old Testament and as we look at these examples that we are using them for a picture of what we should be seeing, the effects of what we should be living in the spiritual, but that doesn't mean that every single thing is going to be there and relate. And so notice the very first thing when we come to Joshua, if you have your Bibles, Joshua 6 and verse 1, the very first thing that Joshua teaches us is that we need a faith to believe God. And we're going to basically three points just right out of that definition that I gave you all ago. Trusting God enough to obey God for as long as it takes to see the victory. So the first thing is we have to have a faith that believes God. Look at Joshua 6 and verse 1, Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor. And you shall come past the city, all you men of war, and go round about the city once. Thou shalt do six days. And seven priests shall bear before thee the ark, seven trumpets of ram's horns. And the seventh day you shall come past the city seven times and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat. And the people shall ascend up, every man straight before him. Notice, first of all, Israel's problem. If we have to have a faith that believes God, notice Joshua, they have come in, they have already crossed the River Jordan. You can go back this week and read Joshua. They crossed the River Jordan. Matter of fact, they had the leaders of each of the twelve tribes to go into that bare thing because they divided the waters that was there. They grabbed twelve stones, one for each of the tribes. They go and they stack it on the other side. In other words, how did they get them stones? It wasn't because they were wearing scuba equipment and they were diving. No, God moved the water. They went into this dry land, and so them stones stacked up. They made an altar and He commands them to do that in order that every time they come to the bank of the River of Jordan that went into the Canaan land from Egypt and the wilderness. Remember, what stood between promised land and Egypt was the wilderness. And so when you come on this side of the Jordan, you will remember that I was with you. I delivered you. I did it. Here's the promise. Hang on to that. And so now all of a sudden they've come in, they've gathered up their troops, and now they are standing here looking at Jericho. And here is the problem that I want you to understand. He says, now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. Remember, after they did that, they sent in the spies to check out Jericho. And when they got there, they stayed with a woman by the name of Rahab. And you remember Rahab? She didn't have a very good occupation. It wasn't a really good place for Christians to be hanging out. But guess what? That harlot, that woman Rahab, do you realize wound up being in the lineage of Jesus Christ? There's so much there that I'm skipping over that is there. But yet what happened? She believed that God was with Israel. And she said, we have watched y'all since y'all have come out of Egypt. And we have saw that God has delivered everybody into your hands. And I believe that God will give you Jericho. And I don't want to die. And so let's make a deal. Because the rulers found out that these spies of the Israelites was there. And so what happened? They said, we need to get these guys and kill them. Because we don't want to lose our city. They already knew. They were already defeated, right? And they were scared. And that's what he said. They shut this whole city down. They would not allow anybody to go out, nobody to come in, who made sure that it wasn't spies or anybody else, to be able to come into Jericho. They were afraid to death of God and Israel. If you study about the history, and they've started recovering the remains of Jericho from this time. And this is what it is to believe. Either there was two walls or there was one single wall. There's some discrepancies that are there. When you go back and you study archaeology, you can imagine down through the years the change of things. But here's what typically where most people agree. The outer wall was 6 feet thick and 20 feet high. So a 6 feet wall, 20 feet high. Then there was an inner wall. That inner wall was about 12 foot thick and 30 feet tall. So you had this 20 foot high wall, and then you had a 30 foot high wall. You had a 6 foot wide outer wall, and double that to a 12 foot wide on the inside. Now can you imagine, in between them two walls, there was a walkway of about 15 feet. And the guards would walk between them two walls and watch the city. And they could see out over these plains, and they could see for a long way any enemies or anybody that was approaching. And now they've got the complete city shut down. They're on high alert. They're not letting nobody leave. Nobody come in. And God said, guess what? I'm going to give you the promise, man, but the first thing you have to do in order to get it is you've got to go through Jericho. That's what's happening. This is the first city they come through that's huge. Matter of fact, most scholars and historians say Jericho is the oldest known city ever. It was older than even Egypt where they were at. That Jericho has always seemed to exist, and there's always artifacts. Now, why are them walls so important? Because if you go back to Numbers 13 that we talked about a few weeks ago, remember it was the walls that was one of the problems that the ten spies came back and reported that caused them to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years. It said, nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land. And what? Their cities be walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. Now, when you study this, you have to also understand some context here. Who's looking at these walls? Wilderness dwellers. Do you realize all of the ones that had ever lived in a city are now dead? Only those that was below the age of 20, which would now be around the 40. They would all be 40 or less. All they have done for 40 years is live in the wilderness. They haven't seen any cities. They haven't seen any walls. Can you imagine a nomad type of people that lived in tents all of a sudden walking up and seeing this walled city and God say, OK, this is your first fight? To me, it's like, what in the world? How are we going to do that? As a matter of fact, if you will study, there were basically only five ways that they could conquer the city. Number one, they could scale the wall by ladders or ramps. You've seen that in some of history. They'll take them ladders and if you watch some of the old movies, whatever, when they go into a walled city, what do they do? They take the ladders and throw up there and people just keep climbing the ladder until they run out of ammunition or can't fire enough until finally somebody breaks over the wall. And once they break over the wall, the fight goes on the inside until they can get the gate open and then they come in and they destroy the city. The second way is by digging tunnels underneath the wall. If you can't go over the wall, then let's go under the wall. The third way is by using battering rams and they would take these large beams and multiple men would sit there and they would continue to swing and beat on the gate and the places of small support until they knocked a hole in it where they were able to go through. The fourth way was by laying siege to a city until the people all starved in surrender. Just starve them out. Wait them out. Don't allow them to come out. Eventually, if they're living in a walled city, guess what? They're going to eventually have to come get water and food. If you stop all the delivery trucks and everything else, so eventually you just starve them out. And the fifth way is by some means of deception. Sneak in amongst them and destroy them from the inside out. Well, now as we look at this from a human's perspective, I can already see some of your minds. This is the way that I would do it, right? Some of you are sneaky and you'll try to do the sneaky route and you'll sneak in and try to gain favor and overthrow it. Some of you guys are like, a man, I'm just going to storm the gate with a battering ram and we're going to knock a hole in this. And so I see your wheels burning and your wheels turning that are there. But understand, for Israel, these guys were wilderness dwellers. When they're looking at this fortified city, they are saying, man, this is an impossible task. We don't know they have the capabilities. We don't have the know-how to go over. We don't have the know-how to go under. We don't know none of this stuff. And so they were not skilled in modern warfare. It says here that they had soldiers, but these soldiers were mainly for small raiding parties that would come in and try to steal the animals, plunder their wealth and stuff, and so they had a few that would actually help protect the deal, but nothing on the offensive. It was all defensive stuff. There wasn't a military that was supposed to fight. They'd never built rams. They had never moved ramps and ladders and all of these things. And so it looked as if it was impossible. Now, I want us to take just for a minute this physical problem, and let's put it into our spiritual problem. How many things do we come up with in life that we stand back and we look at and we say, boy, that is impossible, right? Matter of fact, God is always the biggest when we are the smallest and the biggest in possibility, right? The greatest things that God has ever showed Himself in my life was when I was the least effective at anything. When I thought, man, this is hopeless. I cannot do anything. God, it's got to be you. And God says, finally, you're listening to Me. And He shows up and He does something amazing. So what do you think when you face your obstacles? What are you thinking when you're looking at this? And most of us are just like these Israelites. We're thinking of ways that how are we going to do this? How are we going to accomplish this? We're arranging our schedule. We're calling our doctor. What are we going to do? But here's the thing. We need to make sure that we learn not to look upon the obstacles as dead ends, but as opportunities for the Lord to work in our lives. Quit looking at the hopelessness and look at the opportunity that God has to build and to live. You remember the epistle Paul? As a matter of fact, in a passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians, Paul said, I prayed three times that God remove this thorn in the flesh. You remember that passage? And what did God tell him three times? Nope, not going to do it. But God, do you know what kind of missionary I could be? We don't know what that thorn in the flesh was, but he said that it was sent by Satan to slow and destroy the work of Paul that God was doing through Paul. He said the messenger of Satan came to buffet me, to beat me down. And so God, if you'll just remove this, then man, can you think of all the mission work and the stuff preached to save souls that could be saved if you'll get rid of this? But what did God say? No, Paul? I'm not going to do it. But here's what I am going to tell you. My grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. In other words, quit looking at the end and what all you can't do. And Paul, let's figure out what we can do. And Paul says, you know what? With this thorn in the flesh, I can't do anything. It's a hindrance to me. It's just like a burr under my saddle, right? It's just constantly bothering and nagging me. You ever had a pebble in your shoe? That's that word that he uses there. I mean, it's just like a constant annoyance. Have you ever not really felt 100% and try to do a job or think through something? When you've got that constant reminder of this problem in your life, and God said, wait a minute, Paul, quit looking at the obstacle and start thinking about me and look at what I can do. The power of God is best revealed in and through us when we're unable to handle life. See, God is more clearly visible when we are totally out of the picture. Turn your eyes upon Him and what? The cares of this world will slowly beam in the light of His mercy and His grace. And so Israel has a big problem here, right? Would you agree Israel has a problem? So now notice what happens, though. God steps in and says, OK, Israel, you recognize you have a problem. Let me give you a promise. Look at what verse 2 says. And the Lord said unto Joshua. Joshua's standing at this city that's what? Walled up. No one's being allowed in. No one is being allowed out. And the Lord said unto Joshua, see, I have given into thy hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor. Notice as Joshua was looking at these walls around this great city, and man, this is the first place that God wants us to attack. And God says, guess what? I've already given it to you. It's already yours. You go back to Joshua chapter 5 and verse 13. It says, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? An angel of the Lord, I believe an incarnation of Jesus Christ himself, comes and appears to Joshua. And Joshua looks at Jesus Christ and asks the question, Are you for us or are you against us? God, have you ever asked God, Are you for me or against me? God, are you, you know, I see what this week has been like. God, are you on my side or are you on their side, right? Let's decide right here. That's what Joshua was doing. Look at what it says in verse 14. I love this answer. And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Joshua, I'm not on your side. I'm not on their side. I'm the captain of this army. This is my battle. This is me. It's not about sides. See, we think God is all about sides. God really doesn't care. You know, I'm reminded all the time of the Scripture. And this is where I get my, I'm always trying to praise God. I'm trying to always give Him glory. Because He said if I don't do it, He will cause the rocks to cry out. There was a kid's song that we used to sing many years ago that I'm not going to let no rock cry out for me. I'm not going to let an animal praise God for me. But you get up early in the morning, as the sun's starting to rise, and listen at all of the creatures as they wake up and everything begins to praise God. Except for us humans. And we get up and what do we do? Instead of praising God and being happy. Man, my nest wasn't very comfortable last night. I didn't sleep. I was up and we gripe and we complain and we bellyache, right? Oh, my bones are hurting. I can't get out of bed this morning, right? You guys that have been outside in the morning, do you ever hear the animals griping and complaining? No, they're just glad to have another day. Remember, Jesus Christ said, did the sparrows worry about where they're going to get their food? Oh, I got to get up and go gather grain today. Now they get up singing, God, You're going to provide me some grain today. I'm going to get some seed. Oh, Brother Donnie's going to put some seed in the feeder this morning and we're going to have something to eat. Thank you, God, for providing Brother Donnie to give me some seed this morning. But what do we do? We gripe and complain and we grumble. And God says, I'm not on your side. I'm not on their side. It's my side. I'm the captain of the host. Joshua needed encouragement. And he's looking at this deal. And Joshua, remember, he's been given the reins from Moses, right? He has to lead these people. And so how in the world am I going to lead these people in this undoubtable task? And God shows up and says, Joshua, you don't have to lead these people. Brother Morris reminded us in class this morning that we're all watchmen. We're all to proclaim the Word of God. We're all to preach. It doesn't matter what people do with the message, because it's God's message. And so we're just to proclaim it. We're to give the warning. We're to shout the warnings out there that Jesus Christ is coming back. It's up to you to believe it. And Joshua's sitting here trying to figure out how am I going to lead these people? And God reminds him and says, guess what? You're not leading these people. You're following Me. I've got this. Remember what got Moses into trouble? The reason that Moses is not here? Because what did he do? He got mad and he lashed out because why are you making me give you water? Why are you griping? It wasn't Moses' water to give. It wasn't Moses' rock to strike. God was already... All he had to do was go and speak to them. All he had to do was go and speak to the rock and the water was going to come. But his frustration over the people not following his plan, guess what? Cost him going in and having victory. And so look what he says in verse 15. And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot in the place whereupon thou standeth as holy. And notice what happens. And Joshua did so. That's right before this chapter 6. And Joshua is standing here with no shoes on, bowed down on the ground, looking at Jericho now, thinking how in the world is this going to get accomplished? This is going to get good. So Israel had a problem, but God gave them a promise. And notice their partner in verse 3. And ye shall come past the city, all you men of war, and go round about the city once. Thou shalt do six days. And seven priests shall bear before thee the ark, seven trumpets of ram's horns. The seventh day you shall come past the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before Him. Who is Israel's partner going to be? God. See, there's a real key thing that if we don't look at it, we're going to miss it. And it's going to be very, very important for next week when we see the very next battle that they do and the failure of Israel. Notice what it says there in verse 4. Seven priests shall bear before thee what? The ark. This is not Noah's ark. This is not the ark that Moses was in. Both of them were arks. What is this ark that he's referring to? The ark of the covenant. And what was the ark of the covenant? The ark of the covenant was a box that inside of it contained what? The Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod that budded, and the manna, the provisions that God had provided for them all the years that they were there in the wilderness. And there on top of that ark of the covenant sat the mercy seat. The lid. The mercy seat. In other words, God didn't look at the people based upon the law. God didn't even look at the people on how they responded to His priest Aaron. God didn't look at the people based on the provisions. What did He do? When He looked at Israel, He saw the mercy seat. And so this ark represented the presence of God. And He said, You get seven priests, and you get Me, and you get your men of valor, and you get them to start a war, to start out there, and your priests come, and then you put Me in the middle of it, and then you follow up with some more men of war, and we're going to march around this city. See, God didn't send them in by their self. He went with them. He went with them in that ark. And it's very important that you see that and notice that. And so because all of us face walled cities and obstacles in our lives, it's a blessing to know that we are not alone. How many promises do we have in the Bible? The great commission in verse 20. What did Jesus say? And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. When is there a time in our life that does not fall under always? Did He say I'm only with you when you're good? Did He say I'm only with you when you're sitting in the church service? Did He say I'm only sitting with you when you're reading your Bible or when you're praying? No. What did He say? Lo, I am with you always when you are doing good, when you are doing bad. God is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And so, men, when we look at these obstacles, quit focusing on the obstacle and focus on the God that we are with. Hebrews 13.5, He said, Let your conversations be without covetousness. Quit desiring what the world has and be content with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake you. If you have got God with you, what do you lack? If God is the Creator and owns everything and has everything and distributes everything, and you've got God, what do you need? That was the cool thing about living with mom and dad, right? I didn't need a bank account. I didn't need a job. I didn't need money. Why? As long as Dad was with me, I was provided for. God said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through who? Christ, which strengthens me. The Captain of the Host. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ stands there and tells Joshua, Joshua, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. Joshua said to have the soldiers march around the city once a day. We're not going to get into all of this. Once a day, come in, take a nap, go to bed, eat supper, get up, eat breakfast, then we'll do what? March around the city again. Do that for seven days, but on the seventh day, we're going to change things up just a little bit. We're going to march seven times. And when you get around that seventh one, who's keeping up with it? The priest that is standing there holding the ark. He's going to blow a different blast of the trumpet. And when he blows that blast, and all of you know what it's going to be, then guess what? At that precise moment, I want all of the people to shout. Because I've given you the battle. I've given you the victory. Romans 10 and verse 17 says, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How do we build our faith? By obeying God. We obey God. No matter how ridiculous the scheme may be. No matter how ridiculous we may think it is. God, if You want me to march around this huge wall city, then so be it. I'm going to march around this city. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So that leads us to a faith that obeys. Not only do we have to have a faith to believe God, but we also have to have a faith to obey God. The commander Joshua had received his orders from the commander of chief, and the strategy of attack was the most unusual strategy that any military person could have ever come up with. But guess what? It wasn't a ridiculous idea because it was given by God. Right? And so God, if this is what you... I mean, go back and read. How did they cross the River Jordan? You know what God told them to do? To take the ark. Listen to this. Take the ark of the covenant and walk down into the River Jordan. They start walking in there. They start walking. They're toting the ark. The water's getting higher. The water's getting higher. Finally, all of them are standing here. They're standing in the middle of the water holding the presence of God. And what did God say? God said immediately He parted the water. And here comes the people. It didn't happen halfway. What did they do? They had to believe. He told them, go into the water and then I'll be there. And you'll see. The only question was, would Joshua obey the command? And then the second question becomes, would the command obey Joshua? Because see, remember, Joshua and Caleb was the two that the people said, I don't care what they say. We're not going in there. And they wound up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. So here's the test. Faith in God's Word was essential. And Joshua and the officers were fixing to prove their faith. Notice Joshua obeys God. Look at verse 6. And Joshua the son of Nun called the priest and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ramsorn before the ark of the Lord. And he said unto the people, Pass on and come past the city and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord. And so notice what's happening. Joshua obeyed exactly what God told him to do. Joshua did. He didn't say, Let's take eight priests for just in case. Or no, we really don't need seven. God said seven. And so how many did he send? Seven. How many priests were they? I don't know. I didn't look it up. But you can go back to Numbers and you can find out because Numbers tells us how many was in the tribe of Levi. Not every one of the priests, not every one of the people marched around the city. It says the men of war and seven priests marched. It may have been a different seven every day. I don't know. God doesn't say, but it says that there was seven. Joshua did not add to or take away what God said. He commanded seven priests. Go get the ark and let's get busy. So Joshua obeyed God exactly with what he said. But notice what happened. The priests and the soldiers obeyed Joshua. Now things are working. Things are starting to function right. This is what God wants us to do. God puts leaders into our life and God says they will obey Me. And if they obey Me, you need to obey them. And He gave all of us the Holy Spirit to make sure that God's not going to lead me a different way than He's going to lead you. And so if we have a difference of opinion, then one of us is not following the Holy Spirit. Right? So God picks checks and balances for us in this spiritual world right now. And so everything that God asks us to do should line up with the Word of God. And so how do we discern whether or not you're right or I'm right? We go to the Word of God. And if it cannot be condemned against the Word of God, then guess what? We better trust and have faith and go through. Now look what it says at verse 8. And it came to pass when Joshua had spoken unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horn passed on before the Lord and blew with the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed Nehem. And the armed men went before the priest that blew with the trumpets and rearward came after the ark the priest going on and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua commanded the people saying, You shall not shout nor shall you make any noise with your voice. Neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout. Then shall you shout. So, the ark of the Lord come past the city going about at once and they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. And the Bible says, Faith without works is dead. Go read it in James. In other words, He says, Show me your faith without obeying God. You can't do it. You can't do it. All we have in order to understand the spiritual, all we have is the physical to rely on. Can someone fake the physical? They sure can. But who is the discerner of the heart and the intent of the heart? God and the Holy Spirit is going to take care of that. But as your leader, according to the Word of God, we can see whether or not you are walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh because He gives us a guide here and He tells us, These are the works of the flesh. These are the works of the Spirit. And so, guess what? We can see that and we can know that. And so faith is proven by our works. Joshua proved that he believed God with his obedience in God. The priests proved that they believed God and they believed that Joshua was their leader by their obedience to Joshua. So faith without works is dead. Obedience is the clearest evidence of faith. That's why sometimes you wonder why in the world sometimes we preachers and why are we so set on some of our doctrinal things and why don't we change and why don't we bend just a little bit or why don't we just fudge just a little bit? Because it's not about bending or fudging. It's about obedience. And if you're not going to be obedient, then it doesn't matter if you fudge or you change a little bit with the Word of God, because you won't be obedient to the Word of God, then what's going to happen the next time you don't want to believe the Word of God? You're going to fudge again. And guess what? Look at our religious system today with all of the compromise, because why? Religion is supposed to be all-inclusive. Show me one Scripture in the Bible where religion and church is supposed to be all-inclusive for everybody. I challenge you. It's not there. Matter of fact, He says when you join the church and you come to the church, be different than the world. You're different. You've got to differ the obedience. Not compromise. Obedience. And so we've got to obey. And now we're seeing all of these churches and all of these religions that we want everybody to conclude. And so you walk into some church services and you don't know if they're having church or having a concert. You don't know if you're supposed to take juice or wine. You don't know if you're supposed to be smoking dope and singing and raising and everything. Why? Because we have so wanted, we just keep getting further and further and further. Until what? We have lowered our standards down. When you walk into a lot of churches today, you don't know if you're at a church or at a regular function that's being held during the week. It's not what God teaches us. So obedience is very important, because obedience is what proves our faith. And we can conquer and be victorious only through faith. And it's only a faith that obeys. And so faith, true faith, is trusting God enough to obey God. But here's the last thing, and we'll go through it very, very quickly. We also have to have a faith that endures. Believing God and obeying God is not enough. You've got to keep trusting God. That's what we were doing in Hebrews, right? That's the whole purpose the author wrote is because why? They were willing to give up on Christianity because guess what? They wasn't what they thought was the victorious, joyful life. And so guess what? We had it better in Judaism. So we're fixing to leave Christ and Christianity, and we're going to go back to Judaism and the law. And the author is sitting there pleading with them, the law is just a picture of Christ. You're not going to get better and realize what you wanted under the law apart from Jesus Christ. You're only going to be able to find it in Jesus Christ. And so it's got to endure till the end. Look at what he says in verse 12. And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew at the trumpets and the army and went before them. But the rearward came after the ark of the Lord. The priests going on and blowing with trumpets. In other words, all they're doing is marking. Remember, nobody's to talk. There's no shouting. There's no speaking. The only noise that is being made is the priests and the trumpets as they're going around this city. And the second day, they can pass the city once and returned into camp. And so they did six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and can pass the city about the same manner seven times. Only on that day, they can pass the city seven times. And it came to pass. If you're reading on the screen, I've underlined it. And hopefully you've picked up on that by now. And it came to pass. And it came to pass. And it came to pass. In other words, guess what? Not only can you imagine getting up early in the morning? What day is this? Is this the third day? The fourth day? The fifth day? All of this. Hey, we've got to get it right because on the seventh day, we've got to march seven times. Can you imagine being tired and trying to figure out how many times we've gone around this building, right, this city? For six long days, the Israelites followed the same seemingly foolish strategy. They get up early in the morning. They set out marching around the city. Nobody speaks. Nobody shouts. Nobody says anything. All that they do, the only noise that they have is the priest blowing the trumpets. Think for just a minute the patience that's needed for this. You know, I imagine the first and second day, it was probably pretty exciting, right? We could have a revival, right, and the first couple of days was real exciting, right? People would come out. I want to hear what this preacher is going to be like. I want to know this, that, right? The excitement's pretty good. But by the third day of revival, what? It starts to wane just a little bit. You know, we know what this guy's like now and we know how long he's going to preach. And so, we've kind of lost the luster. And by Thursday night, what happens? We have less here. And then by Friday night, so you know what we did? Let's just cut our revivals to three days instead of five days, right? So that way when the attendance and stuff starts to wane and people start giving up, well, God didn't send a great revival on Monday night. He didn't send a great revival on Tuesday night. So I'm going to give them the third night on Wednesday night just in case, right? But God, I've done this three nights now. I'm busy tonight. I've got to get this done. I've got to get this taken care of, right? Can you imagine these guys as they're marching around the city as they're starting to think? What in the world? The patience. Remember, this is a people that was readily grumbled and mumbled and complained. They didn't have to wait very long. Look what he says in Galatians 6.9, And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. God said in Ephesians 1, I have blessed you with all spiritual blessings. But how many Christians have stopped short and never received victory in their life because they give up? They give up. You know, that's the cool thing and I'm looking forward to it this week at camp because I need to be reminded. Camp teaches us to give up. Camp teaches me this lesson every year. And that's why I'm 54 years old and still I don't have to go to camp this year. Austin, we got plenty of sponsors and everything else, but you know why I'm going? You say you're going to get out of work. Well, if you think that, then you sign up for be a sponsor next year. All right, because I'm not going to get any sleep. It's going to be worse than I would much rather spend time in the garden. I know that when the sun goes down, I can quit, right? Camp, there is no quit. You're responsible for kids all night long. And you've got 13, 14 year old boys that just get excited over bodily noises and everything else when it's dark. So you listen to that all night. So it's not a vacation. But you know why I go? Because I love to watch God move come about Thursday night. When you separate kids from the world, from mom and dad, they get there on Monday night. Man, they're hyped. I want to hear about this speaker. They're excited. They're ready to go. And God doesn't do much. And Tuesday night, God may move a little bit, but nothing real exciting, you know. It's just another worship service. And Wednesday night, you know what? Finally, we just kind of quit praying, you know. God, you know, I've had three opportunities to be saved, right? But then all of a sudden, you get to Thursday night. And when you think, OK, this is the last night. And what happens? It comes crunch time. And all of a sudden, everybody starts praying. When preachers start texting now, hey, this is the last night of camp. We've got three people that never made a profession of faith. Please pray tonight that they'll hear. And what happens? What we do is we make the reality that guess what? God, here's your last chance. This is the last time we're going to have them out of the world, that they're going to hear the Gospel before going back into their broken homes, their broken families and everything else. God, if you're going to move, you've got to do it tonight. And what happens? A lot of times, the worst preacher of the week gets up there on Thursday night and he rambles on for whatever and says whatever. And all of a sudden, guess what? The invitation is given and the Holy Spirit starts to move. He said that was the worst preacher, the worst singing. But here we've had the most people that have been saved. Why? Because we got desperate and we prayed. We prayed different on Thursday night than we prayed on Monday night. Right? We see it in revival. We see it in church services. When does God always show up? When we finally get desperate. And we can't. Every single year is a reminder to your pastor that I don't need to wait till Thursday night to get desperate. I need to start on Monday night. And so you know what I'll be doing tonight? And what I've been asking you to do for the last month is pray. Pray. God, what happens if you save this kid on Monday and we get four days of discipling without mom and dad and the world interfering? Now I've got kids that are going to come to church on Sunday and want to get involved in the youth group because why? We've had days instead of them being saved on Thursday night. And what happens? We load the bus up on Friday morning. We throw them right back into the world and then we wonder why in the world they don't show back up to church on Sunday. And so this preacher over all these years of going to camp has finally learned a few things. Lord, if you'll get some kids saved on Monday night, then guess what? I don't have to be there all week, but guess what? I've got the whole week to build a relationship, to disciple, to mentor, to be with these kids, to talk to these kids, to let them know, guess what? When you return home, the same problems and the same junk is going to be there when you get home that you left on Monday. But there's one thing that's different. You now have God with you. You now have God with you. And if you'll trust Him, I promise you, it may not be the very best situation and it may not get any better, but here's what I can promise you is God's grace is sufficient. And if you will continue to be the life that you're supposed to be and you continue to live for Christ and let Christ live through you, then you have a greater shot of winning your parents to the Lord and letting God change the situation. You see, that's what I'm praying this week. And so the question that I want you to ask you as you stand for a verse of invitation this morning is do you believe God? Do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe God? Are you obeying God? And the question is, are you going to continue to believe and obey even if Monday night nobody walks the aisle? You know what that's going to do? Oh God, I've been praying for two months and you didn't have it. I'm done. No, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to double down and keep praying Tuesday night. And I'm going to pray Wednesday night. And I'm going to pray Thursday night. And when I get back from camp, those that didn't make moves, I'm going to keep on praying. I'm going to keep on going. And I'm going to pray that somewhere that Austin's able to work with them or some event that they're going to come to in the youth group or something's going to happen that God's going to finally break through and see them. I'm not going to give up. And folks, we all need to get that desperate. And it says, when they finally made it that seventh time and the priest blew the trumpets, then what happened? All the people that was hanging out, all these nearly two million people that were gathered up there waiting, watching them as they go around this city, all of a sudden, they heard that last trumpet on the seventh time around and everybody shouted. And what happened? The walls came tumbling down except for one spot. Where was that? He said all the walls. No, Rahab's house. And everyone that was locked inside with Rahab because God made a promise that guess what? If you'll take that scarlet thread of redemption that represented the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ and you'll show that outside that window that you believed us and you trusted God, then God will spare you and everyone that's in it. And everything fell and everybody was destroyed except for Rahab and everyone that was in there. And how important did that act of faith become? Very important because Rahab ended up being a great, great, great, great, great grandmother to Jesus Christ. The harlot. Wow, you think God has a plan and God has a purpose? I do. I trust Him. I believe Him. So therefore, I'm just going to obey Him. And I may not know for a thousand years what this day was for and what this sermon was for, but God has a plan and God has a purpose. And as long as we believe Him and obey, then guess what? We just keep continuing to do what we do and God says, I will give the increase. Right? I'll give the increase. As we sing, what Him.