Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.
We often make this mistake. You and I often believe that God's always on our side because we're a child of God. He's always on our side and he's here to help me with my agenda.
But I think God would say, no, I'm on my side. You see, I'm on my side. I want you to be on my side.
I want you to follow me. In this case, he clearly is on that side. But this encounter leads, I think, to the very first point that I want to make this morning is this. When it comes to bringing down strongholds in your life, you need to know who fights the battle. You have to know that.
You have to know who fights the battle. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. When we deal with the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews basically says that all of us as believers have a choice to make. You can live your life in the wilderness or you can live your life in the promised land. You can live what he calls the faith rest life. And he warns us that if we don't do certain things, we'll never get into the promised land or living a life filled with joy and peace and hope. And so in Chapter 12, he says to us in two verses, what's our responsibility? What is it we need to do? And he says, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.
And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. When I read that verse, I think of those two things, lay aside the encumbrance, but I think especially of the sin that so easily entangles us. Have you noticed that about yourself? Have you find yourself struggling with sin? The same sin. For months, for years, some of us for decades, the same sin, it just keeps coming. And that sin, that sin is going to stop us from ever living the kind of life that Christ intends for us to live. Tony Evans, he calls these kinds of sins the strongholds, he said, of the enemy in our lives.
And that's really the reality of it. I want you to open your Bibles first to Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, because there the apostle Paul tells us what's really going on. What's the fight that we really have?
How difficult is this for us? And he says in verse three, he says, For though we walk in the flesh, when Paul says that, it just means we live in the moment. This is the real world. Although we walk or live in the real world, we live in the flesh. He said, although we live in the flesh, he said, we do not war.
Interesting word. We do not war according to the flesh. He said, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. But divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses, for the destruction of fortresses.
That Greek word is often translated strongholds. Just what Tony had said. So he says there that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. He said, we are destroying speculations in every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. James Montgomery Boyce writes that he says, Look, if you're a Christian, whether you know it or not, you're in the Lord's army and you're engaged in a war. And he says, where many enemy strongholds are going to have to be conquered.
The question for us then would be this. How do we bring down the strongholds in our life? How do we finally deal and bring down the strongholds in our life? The sin that so easily entangles us stops us from ever getting the kind of life that we really deserve. As we follow Jesus Christ. And there's a great lesson for this once again in the book of Joshua. I invite you to open your turning your Bibles now to Joshua Chapter five in verse 13. This is our fourth sermon on lessons from the book of Joshua. An incredible book in the context now is they've crossed the Jordan. They're standing right out outside looking at Jericho. That's what they're doing.
As they're looking at Jericho, you can just imagine without a doubt, you can just imagine what's going on in Joshua's mind. I've got two million people here, the most fortified city in that part of the world. How do we do it?
How do we take this? Our people have never fought against the fortified city at all. We have no experience in this. We probably don't have what we need. We don't have ramparts and things like that catapult.
We don't have anything. How do how do we do this? And he's probably looking at the city and he's kind of just contemplating it. And then this happens. Now, it came about when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, are you for us or are you are you with the adversaries? What an interesting encounter here.
He's thinking about what am I going to do? He looks up and he sees this warrior with a sword in his hand. And it's an interesting divine encounter. That's one thing about the Bible.
You never get the same kind of encounter. Moses had a burning bush. Balaam had a donkey talk to him. If you went to the if you went to the gravesite of Christ, there's this shining angel there. There are all kinds of ways God encounters people. And you're going to see what happens here, because what he has here is he sees something. It's not a ghost. It's not a vision. It's not a spirit. And I'll show you in a moment, it's not an angel.
He sees someone. In verse 14, he said, no, rather, he said, I come now, captain. The word as is not in the text, captain of the host of the Lord.
Wow. Now, what's Joshua's response? Joshua fell on his face to the earth and he bowed down and he said to him, what is my lord to say to his servant? He worships him. Now, you know, it's not an angel. Never in scripture do you ever wash it, worship an angel, not even in heaven.
John tried that. Remember, in Book of Revelation, the angel told him to stop doing it. There's only one ever worshipped.
And so we got an idea of who this is. Notice you get it becomes complete in verse 15. The captain of the Lord's host said that Joshua, remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so just like the burning bush. It's a theophany. He encounters the son of God standing there. In his moment of trying to figure out, how do I deal with this stronghold, this fortified city?
What is it that I do? And David had his Goliath. Elijah had his Jezebel. The apostles had the Roman Empire, something formidable in their life, a stronghold that you can't get by. And so do you. So do I.
A stronghold, a fortress. I keep going to the same thing. I keep doing the same thing. I can't get past this.
This becomes very difficult for me. He has Jericho. It's an amazing thing when you think about it, how difficult it must be. Jericho is a series almost more in a circle than a square, a series of stone homes. With walls around it, the walls are seven feet thick, so you're not likely to knock them down. They're 16 feet high. They were that for a while, but they decided to build another wall on top of that wall and they built it eight feet higher.
So they're seven feet thick and 24 feet high. Jericho to the east has a thick, thick forest of palms. When you go north, there's a citadel there, a warlike citadel. And to the west, you have this very steep ramparts that go up toward the city from a valley. And so he is trying to figure out how do I deal with this?
What is it that I do to handle it? And he sees this man. What was interesting to me was the question that he asked in verse 13.
Are you for us or are you with the adversaries? What do you expect him to say? I'm for you, but he doesn't. He doesn't say that.
Notice the numeric and standard there says no. A lot of the other translations, I think, do a better job and say neither. He said. I'm the captain of the host of the Lord. This is an important point.
We often make this mistake. You and I often believe that God's always on our side because we're a child of God. He's always on our side and he's here to help me with my agenda.
But I think God would say, no. I'm on my side. You see, I'm on my side. I want you to be on my side.
I want you to follow me. In this case, he clearly is on that side. But this encounter leads, I think, to the very first point that I want to make this morning is this. When it comes to bringing down strongholds in your life. You need to know who fights the battle. You have to know that you have to know who fights the battle so often. Well, think about this.
A lot of Christians are like a lot of people in our culture. How effective do you think New Year's resolutions are? I mean, it's amazing when you start reading, by the way, of the diet plans and the exercise machines they sell in the first couple of weeks of January every year. Then they hang clothes on them for the rest of the year.
They end up in a yard sale somewhere. Because it doesn't work like that. You're never going to take down the strongholds in your life with more effort. It's never going to happen.
It's not for you at all. That's why he shows up and says to them, lift up your eyes, look at me. You see, Jericho is really formidable. It really is. But he says, but how much more am I?
And Jericho. You see, you and I have the presence of God in our lives. He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what it is you're trying to deal with. He wants to you to lift up your eyes and see him there. I'm right here.
You see, I can do this. I want you to know that in John 15. That's why he said, I'm the vine and you're the branches. He said, if you abide in me and I in you, you'll bear a lot of fruit. But apart from me. You can do nothing.
There's nothing you're going to do on your own. Paul understood that in Philippians four. He said, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. He lifted up his eyes. He saw that he saw it for what it really was.
He understood the way this worked. You never face strongholds alone. No wonder the psalmist said in Psalm 46, the Lord of hosts is with us. God says, I'm always with you.
I'm always there. No matter how big the obstacle seems. I want you to think about your life. What are the obstacles in your own life?
What are your own struggles? Are you facing a Jericho like challenge? Are the walls too high?
Are the walls too thick? Jesus says, lift up your eyes and look, I'm right here. So that's the first thing we need to know now to verse 20. He says, when it comes to breaking down strongholds, you need to follow my directions. Completely. Don't miss that.
You need to follow my directions completely. If you want to take down a stronghold, that's what he says. Notice verse one, he says, Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel.
No one went out and no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, see, I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and valiant warriors. What? You see, I'm just giving you Jericho. No, no, he didn't say go get him. Don't go get him, Joshua.
Go after those people. He said, no, I've given it to you. It's a done deal. It's God's will that all of us succeed in dealing with the strongholds in our life. He wants all of us to overcome their strongholds. When Jesus said, I've come to give you a life and give it to you abundantly, he wants all of us as children of God to have a life of joy and peace and hope. All of us. You see, and he says, I'll give it to you.
I've already given it. But then he says, look, all I'm asking from you is to follow my plan completely. Verse three, You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once, and you should do so for six days. Also, seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. And then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times. And the priest shall blow the trumpets. And it shall be that when you make a long blast with a 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 will fall down flat and the people will go up, every man straight ahead.
So Joshua. The son of Nun called the priest and said, take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests carry seven trumpets, rams or horns before the ark of the Lord. Then he said to the people, go forward and march around the city and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord.
And it was so. And when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying seven trumpets of rams horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. And the armed men went before the priest who blew the number of trumpets. And the rear guard came after the ark and they were continued to blow the trumpets. Now, this is goofy.
What kind of scene is this? You have these different groups. You have seven priests with the horns. You have all the priests. They're carrying the ark of the covenant. You see, then you have the army. There's 40,000 of them, by the way.
They're in army and they're marching around. Then you have two million people walking around. And he just says to them, here's what I want you to do. I want you to just go and walk around the city. And they'll blow a horn. And then I want you to do that six days in a row.
The seventh day, I want you to do it seven times. Now, I don't know. You're probably not an expert in military tactics. But does that sound right to you?
Does that sound like the way you take down a fortified city like Jericho? You see, that's an amazing thing. He says, no, that that's the way this is going to have to be. Notice verse 10. But Joshua commanded the people and said, You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day that I tell you shout.
Then you shall shout. No talking. Two million people. No talking. Now, remember, how many kids are in this group? I mean, you people can't even keep your kids quiet in the car. How are you going to keep them quiet marching around? He said, no talking. No one will talk. All they hear inside Jericho is.
Two million people, four million feet, just bouncing through this, just walking. And do it day after day. The first thing that God says, if you want to bring down a stronghold. Be silent. Shut up. Don't talk. You see, be silent.
Let God do what God does. See, that's an interesting thought, because that's usually not the case when we're really struggling with a problem. What do we want to do? We want to talk. We want to tell everybody about our problem.
You say, how about first you just be silent? It's an interesting thing when you think about it from that point of view. You know, all these sun baked days, all these terrible things. But God said, this is crucial that you do this. Hold your place and go with me to Psalm 46. Psalm 46. Verses 10 and 11. Probably two of my favorite verses in the Old Testament, especially 10. But this means something from God's point of view. The numeric standard says cease striving.
And I like the King James better. It says, Be still. Be quiet. Cease striving.
What? Know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Be silent. Be quiet. Stop talking. See, this is hard for us. We don't really want to do that.
We want to talk about this. He says, don't do that. Let me show you another verse. Go with me to Exodus 14. Exodus 14. Verses 13 and 14.
You know the story. The exodus has happened. The plagues have happened. They're on the run. They come to the Red Sea. And now the Egyptian army is in hot pursuit. And their view is we're all going to die. That's their view, because there's nothing we can do. Cease here. Egyptian armies there.
What do we do? That's a stronghold. You see, that that's something that scares the daylights out of them. In a verse 13, it says, Moses said to the people, do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he has accomplished for you today.
For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Silence. Facing adversity. Silence.
Let the Lord fight for you. You remember the worst adversity that Jesus faced was the whole arrest and everything and the mock trials. And they were all wrong, right? Illegal.
Wrong. How much did he talk about that? How unfair they were. Not a word. It says he never spoke a word. They beat him. They slapped him. They spit on him.
He'd never spoke a word. Silence. I'll be quiet, God.
I'll let you work. You see, that's an interesting aspect from our point of view. Can we remain in that sense silent as this goes on? Now back to Joshua. Now, what I find so interesting about this is that as the story goes on, you see something happens completely different. It says in verse 11, so the Ark of the Lord was taken around the city circling at once and they came into the camp and they spent the night in the camp. Now, Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up the Ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets. And the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the Ark of the Lord while they continued to blow the trumpets. Thus, the second day they marched around the city once and returned to camp. And they did so for six days. What day do you think if you and I were walking, one of us would have said, do you really think this is going to do anything?
Do you think this is going to, this is how you, what? See, one of the things he never told the people, he told the priest, he didn't tell the people how many days they're going to do this. He said, just march again today. Now, just imagine from the inhabitants of Jericho, the first day they're in terror. They are terrified of the Israelites. And then they watch them march around, hear some horns blow. Nothing happened.
They went back. So the first day they were just like, oh, what are they going to do to us? The second day, it's like, what are they doing?
By the third day, the trash talking starts. You cowards. What are you? This is stupid.
What are you doing? You have to do it day after day. So I said, when it comes down to this, you have to follow his plan completely. If you don't follow it completely, you'll never take a stronghold down in your life. You just won't.
It doesn't work like that. He said, I have a plan and you're going to have to follow it completely. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.
At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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