Joshua Chapter 6:7-19

The first six days they did this, nothing. There was no results.

There was no wall falling. Why do I point this out? Because guys, and this is important, there are seasons in your life where you may not see results of your obedience, but those results are coming. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. 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 McGee'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 McGee with part two of his teaching, Walking in Obedience. The priest continued blowing the trumpets. Now Joshua 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. 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, and 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, In 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 with 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 coming up the wall. They're not coming up the wall. Here they are. Well, you get the picture.

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, 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.

Now, here's something interesting. 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. Not in our own wisdom.

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 shavah or shubah or shabbat, those are all seven, words for seven in Hebrew. To shavah oneself is to promise. The number seven carries with it the notion of a 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. We're not supposed to be knocking down walls in our own strength. As a matter of fact, God has to show us that in our own strength, walls are not going to fall down. But be faithful. Be faithful even when you don't see results in being obedient to God. And we see this so much here in biblical counseling, because we'll tell somebody, look, this is what you need to do.

And some people go, okay, okay, okay, I'll do that. I'll do that. Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. Okay.

Praise God. Okay, we'll meet back here next week. We'll see how you did.

Okay. And then sometimes guys will come back, okay, I tried that. I tried that. It didn't work. What do you mean it didn't work? I tried that. You tried what? I tried loving my wife and being nice to her and all that stuff you told me to do. It didn't work.

Well, describe how it didn't work. Well, I came home. I was nice to her.

I loved her. I did all that. And in five minutes, nothing had changed, so I just gave it up.

Oi. You have to continue in that obedience. And as you continue in that obedience, let me assure you, you're going to see results, but you're not going to see them like that. Especially, I just mentioned marriage and the ways of marriage. A lot of times it takes you years to get a marriage so broken like that. And you can't fix it overnight.

You can't fix it in five minutes. It takes obedience to the Lord. It makes making sure that God is the center focus of the marriage. And then these things begin to change. But God said to do these things.

So they're doing them. Verse 15. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day, only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened when the priest blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city.

At this point, the people in the city, they're probably feeling kind of safe. Little do they know. And you know, actually, if, if at that point in time you could stop Joshua and say, Joshua, what are you doing? Joshua, in all honesty, probably said, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. How Joshua, Joshua, how is this going to work?

I don't know. Well, Joshua, why are you doing it? I'm doing it because I do know who told me to do it. I know who told me to do this.

That's why I'm going to do it. He would have said, I'm not sure why I'm doing it, but this I know that I'm obeying the orders of the one who does know. Understand, guys, you won't understand everything that's going on in your life. Sometimes you may understand very little about what's going on in your life. But the Lord who you are, obey knows it all. He knows every detail of what's going on in your life.

And you can trust in that. You may not know what's happening with your circumstances. Lord knows I find myself there often. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not sure what God's doing. Sometimes if he's doing anything at all, but I know that God has told me to do this or God has told me to do that.

God has told me to do this or God has told me to do that. And when I can't trust my circumstances and I should not trust my circumstances, I can trust my God and I sure should trust my God. So don't look to your knowledge of what's going on in your life to guide you, but your knowledge of God.

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. Now, back to today's message. Verse 17, Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. Now if you remember a couple weeks ago we talked about this in Joshua. Rahab was a harlot who hid out a couple of the spies and they ended up saving Rahab because she kept those spies by the scarlet thread. And we also went into the genealogies because interesting thing, this is a gentile woman who was a harlot and yet she's listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Just speaks to us about the grace of God, doesn't it? Rahab because of her faith in God escaped the destruction.

It reminds me of a story. There was in World War II, the allied army surrounded a German town and they sent word because there was a lot of civilians in the town for the army to surrender. They were vastly outnumbered or at least allow the people of the town to leave and the army declined. They said, no, we will not surrender.

We will not let anyone know the town walk out. And in the battle that ensued that followed, there was a lot of lives lost. Lives that could have been saved, could have been rescued.

Why? Because people were unwilling to surrender to what was a superior power. Guys, do you understand that's our only way of escape? To surrender to a superior power.

That power is God. And there are battles that are coming in our lives. And some of you may be in the midst of battles right now, tough battles. Tough battles. Maybe you think they're battles you can't win. And truly, maybe they are battles that you can't win.

But if you turn to God, if you surrender your life to Him, surrender your heart to Him, God can win the battle. See, that was probably another thing that happened during those six days. There were probably people going, man, these walls are huge and there's no way. I don't see how this can work. They had to come to the end of themselves.

You know why? Because guys, you don't know it's a miracle if you think you can do it. Why you think you can pull something off? You're not going to be that amazed when God does it. But when you get to a point in your life where you go, man, there's no way.

This isn't going to work. Then God says, ah, now I can step in and you'll realize it wasn't you, that it's me. And in my own life, God's allowed me to get to that place over and over again, over and over again. He's allowed me to get to the place where I go, okay, I can't. And far from being a failure, God's been waiting for me to come to that place. He's been waiting for me to say, I can't.

Why? Because when I can't, I'm much more likely to call out on Him who can't. But when I can't, Lord, I can't do this.

I need your help. And the Lord intervenes. And when the Lord intervenes, I know who to give the credit to. God delights, and this is a weird thing, but God delights and His people being placed in what looks like a no-win situation.

You understand that? Now, some of you, that may be hard for you to wrap your minds around, but God does this and He does it a lot. He's done it a lot in my life. And He's done it a lot in Scripture. Look at Moses. Look what happens to Moses. When Moses leaves Egypt, he comes out and what happens? He's right there at the Red Sea with mountains on both sides. And then on the other direction is Pharaoh's army coming up. And I don't know if you remember the Ten Commandments, but Yul Brynner says, God is a bad military planner or something like that.

And so I down there was a bad Yul Brynner. But anyway, so they're trapped. Now, here's a tough one, guys. Who put them in that position? God did. God placed them in that position where they had to cry out and say, you know what? We don't know what we're doing now.

We need some help. And what did God do? God did the impossible. He opened up the Red Sea so that they could go through the Red Sea.

Why? Because they knew that wasn't them. They knew that that was the Lord that was doing it. And we all have battles and some of them are big and some, you know, every one of us has the big battle of what? Of death. That's coming for every one of us. Every one of us will face death because death comes to all men, all women, all children.

It's coming. And we don't decide when and we don't decide where. But we do get to decide who. Who will you align yourself with? The Lord who loves you and wants you to spend eternity in heaven? Or will you align yourself with the enemy of your soul?

Will you align yourself with the army that ultimately wins or the army that ultimately loses? Isn't that an amazing thing? He leaves that decision up to you. Nobody can force you into that decision. He loves us that much to mercifully allow us to choose to follow Him.

It's an amazing thing. Verse 18, And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

Now this is interesting. And this is the only time, and we'll see it in the next few chapters. This is the only time where the Lord requires this. It was at Jericho that he said, All the treasures, all the spoils of war, go to God.

Why is that? It's real simple folks. These were the first fruits of the promised land. And God said, These first fruits are mine. You dedicate them to me. Also notice that it was Joshua wasn't trying to figure out how to integrate the accursed thing into their truth or how it might weave a thread that they could gain something from.

Notice to be shunned. And the Lord had blessed them and had brought them into the promised land. And he said, Okay, I'm bringing you into the promised land.

I'm giving you the victory. And this is what I want you to do. I want you to remember me and give me the first fruits of your battle.

And the present day application is probably obvious. We are to give God our first fruits. We are to honor God with the increase that he grants in our lives. And God, we are so blessed, especially when you compare our lives to those of people around the world. I mean, we have running water. We have electricity. We have roofs over our head. We have food to eat. We have a place to lay down our head. And we need to honor and thank God by dedicating those first fruits to God.

And notice it's called first fruits, not last fruits. Because we're supposed to give God what's right, not what's left. I've talked to people and they go, Well, you know, I would tithe, but at the end of the month, there's just nothing left over. You're missing the concept.

See, the tithe is the first tenth as you dedicate that portion to the Lord. Malachi chapter 3 verse 8 says, Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me.

But you ask, What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.

And you are under a curse for your whole nation has been cheating me. Then verse 10, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do, says the Lord almighty, I will open up the windows of heaven for you. If you do, says the Lord almighty, I will open up the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in.

Try it and let me prove it to you. Now, this is going to become more important next week when we look at the battle of A.I., but there's a concept here that this portion belongs to God. And when we keep it for ourselves, it is called, it's called cheating here in the New Living Translation. In the New King James and the King James, it's called robbing God. God says, You have robbed me. You have taken what was His and spent it. And so it's an important concept for any mature Christian to grasp this, to set aside and to make a commitment to what you're given to the Lord.

And it shows that you're grateful for what God has done in your life. If you know anything about military strategy, and we saw this in so many wars in the Civil War, World War I and World War II, there's a concept that if you can cut off the supply line of the army that you're fighting against, the battle is much more likely to go into your favor. I sincerely believe that this is a strategy of the enemy against the people of God, because so much happens when you cut off that supply line.

Guess what? Well, then the churches, they can't afford more staff to minister to more people who yet complain that nobody has the time for them. Then you can't send out as many missionaries. Why?

Because you don't have the financial resources to do it. So less people are coming to the kingdom. And then what about the people who aren't given? Well, according to this verse in Malachi, guess what?

He rebukes the devourer when you step out in faith and give. So guess what happens to these people? They get ripped off. They get in debt. They spend all their finances paying off debt, credit cards at 22%.

And you're probably familiar with the statistics about people being in debt at a record level now. So both these things are going on. People of God, the army of God have less resources. People of God are more in debt and the devourer is after them. And they're taking what's God's.

We're going to see the results and hopefully you'll read ahead the next chapter what happens when people don't do this when they're disobedient in this integral area. Exodus chapter 23 verse 19, the first part of it says, the first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. And incidentally, in this verse and in that Malachi verse it says, bring your tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. I've come across some people go, yeah, I tithe. I tithe to Benny Hinn or I tithe to this lady or I tithe to that ministry or I tithe to this. The tithe is supposed to come into the local church. If you want to give above and beyond your 10% to some other ministry, God bless you.

Go for it. But don't unscripturally donate that money to them and not give it to the local church. Now, I believed this long before I was a pastor and I walked in it long before I was a pastor. So don't think, well, you're just sitting here because you're a pastor. No, that's what these scriptures say. The life lesson is Christians should honor God with the first fruits of their increase. Christians should honor God with the first fruits of their increase. Now, maybe you're sitting there going, okay, okay, enough about the money.

No, it's not about the money. I'm not trying to raise money with this thing. I'm trying to raise disciples because Jesus told Matthew chapter 28 verse 20. It says, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. New Living Translation use is obey instead of observe. But it doesn't say I just teach you guys. It says, I teach you to observe. I teach you to obey. So when we come across these concepts in scripture, guess what? We're going to talk about them. I'm going to hammer you guys before the service of, okay, we're going to take another offering because the last one just wasn't enough.

If we don't do that here, we don't pass the plate. But there is a concept here that you need to understand as a mature Christian, because guys, let me level with you. Well, can you give and not be a mature Christian?

Sure you can. But let me throw this out. If you consider yourself a mature Christian and you don't tithe, I question that. In over 2,300 different verses in the New Testament, Jesus dealt with exactly what I'm talking about here. And again, you're going to see next week the tie-in of the defeat at Ai. 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. 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. 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.