Joshua Chapter 6:1-14

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Our obedience produces results but should not be motivated by results. We need to trust the Lord and persevere even when we don't see things happening the right way. Stay tuned as Pastor David continues in the book of Joshua chapter 6. But first, have you ever experienced a time when you felt spiritually drained?

Well, the Bible holds the cure that will bring joy and vitality back into your life. That's why we want to send you a copy of Pastor David Magee's video message, A Checkup from the Neck Up. In this inspiring teaching, you'll find biblical truths that can restore your spiritual health. A Checkup from the Neck Up is our way to thank you for your gift this month to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life.

So please visit crossthebridge.com to get your copy of A Checkup from the Neck Up. Now here's David Magee with his teaching, Walking in Obedience. Last week we were in Joshua 5. We were talking about circumcision and dying to self and also talked about the commander of the army that we decided was in fact Jesus.

And also the sharp knives, I forgot to mention this last week, the sharp knives that are used in circumcision to cut away the flesh is again a picture of the word of God which we're told in Hebrews 4.12 is sharper than any two-edged sword. So with that backdrop, let's jump in here and as we face Jericho, the beginning of this chapter. Chapter 6 verse 1 says, Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel.

None went out and none came in. Notice family that as soon as they came into the promised land, there was a battle waiting right there. Jericho was right there. And we need to understand that because there are battles in the Christian life. And a lot of times, you know, I hear other pastors or I hear other teachers or I hear somebody give an invitation and it almost goes something like this.

Just come to Jesus and all your dreams will come true and all your struggles will be over. And I'm thinking, what book are they reading out of? Because, you know, Jesus says, in this world, you will have what? Tribulation. So we shouldn't really be surprised that there's battles in this life. As a matter of fact, to be honest, as I've grown in ministry, I'm actually surprised when there's not battles going on. And that's the way we should be walking in this Christian life, not being surprised by battles but being surprised when we don't have battles. And understand that battles are just part of it. Verse 2, and the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand. It's king and the mighty men of valor. And you shall march around the city, all you men of war. You shall go around the city once.

This you shall do six days. Now there's interesting wording in here because God says to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand. And then he goes and tells him what to do.

That's kind of interesting in it. Because he's saying, look, I've given you Jericho, now here's what you've got to do to get it. See, now maybe you're sitting there going, if he's given it to him, why does he have to do anything? Because this is the way our relationship with the Lord works.

It's the way it functions. God has given us promises in His Word. And a lot of these promises are key to our activity. In other words, some of you may relate to this. God given us the promise as much like giving somebody a check.

Okay. When you have a check, it means something. It's a promise of funding or funds, right? But it doesn't really mean anything to you personally until you what? Until you sign it. Until you take it to the bank and until you cash it.

Then you have access to those funds. So there's been a promise given, but usually there's an activity tied to it by which you realize these promises. Now here's what happens as believers.

It seems like we overemphasize one and underemphasize the other. What do I mean by that? One popular Christian author, this guy wrote a book, it said, and the title of it was, If It's Going to Be, It's Up to Me. Now, you know, I read that title.

I'm like, oh, man. You know, that kind of leaves me in trouble if it's all up to me. See, that's overemphasizing us. That's overemphasizing our works. But then on the other side is, well, you know, God will just do it. God will just take care of it, and God will do this, and God will do that, and I'm just going to sit and watch TV 12 hours a day, and God will handle all this and see what happens there. Well, there we're not partners with God.

We're ducking our responsibility. And there needs to be a balance of both the power of God and our responsibility to walk in the power of God. It's been said, and I kind of like the saying, without God, we can't. Without us, he won't. Without God, we can't.

Without us, he won't. See, it's like salvation. You know, I could have came up with what I think were probably much better ways to spread the gospel than God did. I'm just kidding.

You know, but think about it. But think about, you know, if maybe writing letters in the sky all over the world at the same time, or maybe a voice, a thunder from the heavens telling everybody it's time to get saved, I would think that would be really effective. Praise God. I'm not in charge.

You guys can rest easy. But God came up with a totally different plan. That plan was to use us to partner with him in ministry. Now, he gives us a lot of promises in the Word of God, and a lot of them are tied to our activity of walking in these promises. Verse 4, and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, but the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priest shall blow the trumpets.

It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet that all the people shall shout with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him. Let's be honest. We kind of know how the story works out, so we kind of see it through a different lens. But if you were Joshua and God unveiled this plan to you, what would you be thinking?

I mean, here you are. You got this massive army, and here's this city, and you're wondering how you're going to scale it, and I think that's what Joshua was doing in the last chapter when he was out there sitting there, and then the commander of the army of the Lord appears, and then you're wondering how you're going to scale it and what you're going to do, and then God comes in. He goes, okay, here's your battle plan, and it's really, let me paraphrase. It's the equivalent of, why don't you go up to the walls and sing a song?

I mean, it made about as much sense if you really think about it. Now, again, you have to remove yourself from the knowledge that you have of what happens in the end, but it doesn't, let's be honest, it doesn't make a lot of sense. But Joshua, notice what Joshua does here in the next verse. Verse six, then Joshua the son of Nun, I know it's N-U-N, but it's pronounced Nun, Nun called the priest and said to them, take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. Joshua, look what he does. He immediately calls the priest together and unveils this plan. Joshua doesn't sit there and you go, well, God, that's it? That's the plan you have? I mean, you know, that doesn't sound like a good plan. I think, God, that we need to form, we need to form a committee because I think I have a better plan, God.

He didn't do that. Joshua was a real man of faith and it took a great deal of faith for Joshua just to pass this plan to other people. As believers, you know what I found over, and this has taken a long time, it's taken a lot of years, don't argue with God. Don't argue with God. You know, God can tell us to do something and we can rationalize, we can use our powers of logic to come up and craft a plan.

To come up and craft a better plan. But don't argue with God. When God says to do something, take him at his word and do it. And don't sit there and wonder how this is going to work or how that's going to work because you know the really cool thing, when God tells you to do something and you do it the way he told you to do it, you know who's responsible for the results? God. Not you.

Now, let's flip that around. God tells you to do something and you say, no, God, I'm going to do it my way? Guess who's responsible for the results?

You are. So where do you want the either the blame or the glory for the results going? Do you want them to go to God or to you? See, I've learned just to trust God, do what God's asked you to do, what God's asked you to do, and then he's responsible for the results. And even sometimes God may test you and the results may not be what you think they should be.

But doesn't matter. It's a test of obedience. And as long as you've been obedient to the Lord, you've been successful.

The result is a good one, if you will. And notice something, God told Joshua and Joshua told the leadership and the people. And that's an important thing.

That's an important flow. I've had, you know, a couple of people since we've started the fellowship, I've had a couple of people come up and go, the Lord told me to tell you, you know, and to be honest, it's usually not something good that follows. The Lord told me to tell you that he's leaving or something, you know. And I always prayerfully consider this, but I also understand that the Lord will speak to me about the vision of the church and the leadership of the church because he's placed me in that position.

And I can trust God because God has our best interest, your best interests at heart in the working out of the fellowship. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, your enemy, the devil, doesn't want you to experience the life-giving truths of God's Word. He wants to rob you of the full life God wants for you.

But you can overcome his attacks because there is supernatural power in the Word of God. That's why we want to send you Pastor David McGee's video message called, A Checkup from the Neck Up. This powerful resource will show you how to revitalize your spiritual health and grow in your faith daily by meditating on God's powerful Word. A Checkup from the Neck Up is our way to thank you for your gift this month to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So please, visit crossthebridge.com now to get your copy of A Checkup from the Neck Up. This is Pastor David McGee with Cross the Bridge.

You know, I want to thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge. I also want to tell you about an exciting website. The website is lostlovedones.org, and it works very simply like this. You go to the website and you put the first names of up to 10 people that we begin praying that they get saved. Now, it takes two things to get saved, presentation and prayer. And what we're offering is prayer and also there's different tools there to help you present the gospel to them. So we're there with you, helping you with the presentation, helping you with the prayer. There's over 920 people that belong to the prayer team on Lost Loved Ones. And you can join the prayer team as well and help us to pray for others who don't yet know Jesus.

And together, we can see a huge revival starting with your lost loved ones. Now, back to today's message. Verse 7. And he said to the people, proceed and march around the city and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord. And so it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. The armed men went before the priest who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came after the ark while the priest continued blowing the trumpets. Now, Joshua had commanded the people saying, you shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you, shout. Then you shall shout.

Now, it's getting passed down the line. So God tells Joshua the plan and Joshua is a man of faith. And so Joshua tells the priest and he tells the people what the plan is.

But at this point, let's pretend you're one of these people. What are you thinking at this point? You're probably thinking, Joshua, this is your plan. Joshua, this is not a good plan.

I don't understand why you would have us to do all these things. Now, I don't think everybody was thinking that, but I guarantee you some people were thinking of it. Some people were thinking, you know, Joshua, you know, you've heard from the Lord before, but you know, I really think you're missing at this time with this old walking around the city thing. And then there were probably people that said, yes, Joshua, we're with you. We know you hear from God and we're following you and we're with you.

Now, what's interesting is, you know, as the chapter plays out, and I'll keep you in suspense till the end, but what happens with Jericho? No, but is these two people groups, probably the first people group that says, yes, we're with you, Joshua, we believe, we know that you hear from God. When the results were successful, they said, yes, we knew it. And then what did the other people think that it kind of questions?

I don't know. He knows what he's done. They probably think, oh, what a coincidence. What a coincidence that this thing worked out. What another coincidence in the long line of a coincidence is that this thing actually worked out and they missed a great opportunity for the building of their faith. See what happens in our relationship with God is we step out in faith in things. Some of them small, usually in the beginning they're smaller things and you establish a relation of trust and faith with the Lord. And then the Lord starts to ask you to do perhaps bigger things, perhaps more faith-filled things. But because the Lord has built your faith by the prior thing, you're good to go. You're going, yeah, I believe you for that now. I believe you for that now.

For instance, when we were traveling, it was an amazing thing. I started praying. God had laid on my heart to pray that through the traveling music ministry that we would see 100 people come to the Lord in a year. And I thought, okay, I'll start praying that. So I prayed that.

I prayed that every day for a year. Well, we got towards October and the way that we could keep up with is we had follow-up materials because we were in all kinds of denominational churches and some we were really worried about the people when we left. Because we would have some people that would call us or email us or whatever after we would come through and say, hey, you know what, my pastor said that whole born again thing is just an emotional experience.

It's not needed to have a relationship with the Lord. So we started leaving stuff in their hands so they could read it and so they could read their Bibles and stuff. Well, about October, we'd followed up with like 30-some people. And I was kind of starting to remind God, God, you laid on my heart 100 people Lord. Well, we did a youth rally and it was a Methodist youth rally actually right here in Greensboro.

City-wide thing. We got a late start. The opening man got a late start so I got on late. And it was interesting because about the time it was supposed to be ending, I was really getting to the gospel presentation. And so parents are coming into the sanctuary looking for their kids if you can imagine what that went like. They'd come to the back in the sanctuary and go, Dorothy, Dorothy. And I'm up here trying to share about Jesus. But I stayed focused. And at the end of it, I asked the kids, I described the gospel as a real simple explanation.

I said, how many of you would like to receive the forgiveness of your sins by asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins? Hands flew up all over the room. There's like 300 kids there.

Hands flew up all over the room. And I thought, they didn't understand the question. I mean, that's what I literally, I thought, did I phrase that wrong? What did I say?

I thought, you know. So I asked them to come forward and so that I could pray for them and they could pray with me and we could get some materials in their hands. And the altar there was probably 15, 20 feet deep and it just filled up with kids.

And we had 65 of those follow-up packs that we gave them all out and we didn't have enough. It was like, man, praise God, what a faith builder. Later on that year, the Lord said, I'm going to, you know, we were doing more stuff, larger venues and da, da, da, da, da. And the Lord said, I'm going to pray to bring a thousand people into the kingdom next year. And had it been the previous year, I went, thousand, I would have gone, thousand people. But when the Lord said that, I was like, yeah, thousand people, praise God, we got 100 last year, we got a thousand next year.

Why? Because God had built my faith that year to do something else. And see, that's what God does. God uses the small things to build your faith for the larger things. And so if you miss building your faith in the smaller things, do you understand what has to happen? You have to go back through that so that you can learn a lesson, learn the lesson He meant you to learn. See, I'm convinced that many of us, and I include myself in this, we're learning the same lessons over and over and over and over again.

It's not that there's a lot of new lessons really going on. Now, there is some in my life as I mature in the Lord, but you realize that's what happens. And so instead of learning one lesson and going past that, we're learning the same lesson, learning the same lesson, learning the same lesson. And then we go, wow, we're going right back through this and occasionally God will put somebody on our path and they'll go, well, did you learn the lesson the last time?

Well, no, that's why I'm back here again, I'm walking in a circle, I don't seem to be getting anywhere. Get past that, let the Lord build your faith. Mark chapter 9 verse 23 says, and Jesus said to him, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

All things are possible to him who believes. I believe this verse. Verse 11, so he had the ark of the Lord circle the city going around at once, then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning, the priest took up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets and the iron men went before them. But the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord while the priest continued blowing the trumpets. Now I want you to notice something, this was a very organized move and they kept to the very details that they had been given.

Now let's read on. Verse 14, and the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp, so they did six days. Do you know what happened the first six days they did this? Nothing. Nothing. Not one thing changed. They couldn't see any results from what they had just done.

Night after night they went back into the camp. No changes. Nothing changed to the wall.

Nothing changed for the people. Now I can imagine at this point the people in the city are probably a little bit confused about what's going on. Because if you imagine the first day they came to the wall, they're like, here they come, they're going to come up the wall. And then they're like, they're not coming up the wall. They're over here, here they are, they're coming up the wall. They're not coming up the wall. Here they are, they're coming, well you get the picture, they, you know.

Meanwhile, he's going to go all around the stage doing that. And immediately they thought, well, they're walking in circles. Maybe these guys aren't as much of a threat as we thought. But there was no results. There was no wall falling. There was no victory.

Nothing. Why do I point this out? Because, guys, and this is important, and this is important, there are seasons in your life where you may not see results of your obedience. But those results are coming. And you can't be motivated by results.

Now, again, results are coming. But the first life lesson is your obedience produces results, but should not be motivated by results. So you're not, you shouldn't be motivated to obey God because you want to achieve a certain end or achieve a certain result. You should be motivated to obey God because He loves you and He saved you and He forgave you of your sins and He's so worthy to be praised and to be followed. And if you start looking for results, maybe you see them, maybe you don't, or maybe even when they come, you're looking at them through a weird kaleidoscope where you can't see the results as they really are.

And then your obedience begins to fall away. And they marched around these walls six times. And see, now we know what happened the seventh day, but forget that for just a minute. And remember that six days, nothing happened.

Six days. Six. What does the number six represent? Well, we're told in the book of Revelation that six is the number of man.

Six is the number of man. To me, that kind of speaks that you'll never achieve anything with human wisdom or secular humanism or anything like that that will ever have eternal results ever. It's a supernatural thing. See, walls won't move for our wisdom. Walls won't move for our efforts in the flesh. The walls simply, they're not impressed with that.

The walls in our own life are not impressed with our powers of logic or our intellect or anything like that. Our own efforts come to nothing when it comes to things of eternal nature. Now seven, on the other hand, is what? It's a biblical number that represents a completeness, if you will.

If you remember, earth was completed in seven days and the Shabbat, those are all seven, words for seven in Hebrew. To shivah oneself is to promise. And so there was a promise here that God said, look, you do this and it will work. But the walls won't fall by your own strength. Why am I talking about this? Because some of us are trying to knock down the walls in our own strength and we're surprised when nothing happens. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Modern life just keeps getting busier and busier by the day. As a result, a lot of Christians are missing out on the life-giving nourishment of daily time in God's Word. That's why Pastor David McGee wants to help revitalize your spiritual health by sending you his video message titled A Checkup from the Neck Up. This resource shows you how to meditate daily on God's Word so that His truth can transform your life. A Checkup from the Neck Up is our way to thank you for your gift this month to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So please visit crossthebridge.com now to get your copy of A Checkup from the Neck Up.

You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David McGee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David McGee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com and be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge as we continue in the book of Joshua. We'll see you then.