Bringing Down Strongholds, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. When it comes to bringing down strongholds, we need to know who fights the battle and we need to follow his plan completely.

That's what he is saying. You need to follow his plan completely. 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.

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 the 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 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 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 ram's 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, that are in the 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 and 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'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 you 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 here 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 New American Standard says, cease striving.

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. She's here. Egyptian armies there.

What do we do? That's a stronghold. You see, that's something that scares the daylights out of them. And in 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. 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 never spoke a word. Silence. I'll be quiet, God, and 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 rearguard 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?

I mean, 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 go out and march again today. 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. This is stupid.

What are you doing? You have to do it day after day. That's why 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.

Let me show you another example of that. 2 Kings chapter 5. We're introduced to a man, and it's interesting that his response is a lot like ours when it comes to following the Lord's plan completely.

Here's what it says. It says, now Naaman was captain of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man with his master, highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.

Boy, that's the worst thing in the world you could possibly believe in that world. He's all these wonderful things, but he's a leper. And so down to verse 9. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and he stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha, the great prophet of God. And he said, wow, this is important. And he said, Elisha sent a messenger to him and said, go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.

Go and wash in the Jordan how many times? Well, that seems stupid, doesn't it? It did to Naaman. He didn't like it.

Naaman was furious. And he went away, and he said, behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call in the name of his Lord, his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Look, why is he doing that?

Why would I have to go to the Jordan and wash seven times? That's ridiculous. All he has to do is come out and go like that, and it should get better now. The end of verse 12. So he turned and went away in rage.

Wow. So then we find in verse 13, his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father, he said, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then when he tells you to wash and be clean?

If it had told you some amazing thing, you would have tried it. But he told you, just go down and wash yourself seven times. You're saying that's just stupid. But that's God's plan. So he went down. He dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.

He was clean. Got to follow the plan completely. You see, you have to follow the plan completely, not partially. Think of this. How do you deal with not becoming bitter in relationships that are hurtful? See, how do you deal with those?

Well, it's clear in scripture. You forgive, right? Right, you forgive. OK. And that always works.

Not necessarily, right? So you know how the culture thinks about it. If you do something to me, I'll forgive you, because that's shame on you. But if you keep doing it to me, and I keep forgiving you, that's shame on me.

But they asked Jesus that question directly. You see, directly, and said, well, how many times did you forgive, two, three, four? Well, how many? Jesus said 70 times 7. 490? Really, it's bigger than that.

But 490, yes. Well, that's just ridiculous. You don't just keep forgiving somebody. Yes, that's God's plan.

That's His plan. You forgive and keep forgiving. See how this works.

There's no asterisks by it, not in your case. See, you're justified. We're not justified. He says, this is what I'm telling you. You want to take down that stronghold of bitterness in your life? You forgive. You say, you have to do that. Well, how often do I do that? You just keep doing it. You see, you just keep doing it. You see, Jesus said this over and over again, the implication of the verse. If someone hits me on the face, and I mean this, and he says, turn the other cheek, notice what it didn't say just once, and then let them have it.

He doesn't say that. Look, I put up with it for a while, but I'm done. You see, that's where we get ourselves in trouble with certain sins.

You see, you have to follow the plan completely. You know what's interesting? If just one more chapter in 2 Kings, when you get to chapter 6, Elisha is in his house with an attendant, and the armies are coming in around them.

Same thing as Jericho. And the attendant says to him, what are we going to do? What can we do? The armies are going to come and get us. And Elisha says to him, do not fear, for those who are with us are much more than those who are with them. And the attendant went, there's just us. And so Elisha prayed and said, oh Lord, open his eyes.

And the Lord opened his eyes, and he saw a whole mountain full of horses and chariots of fire. He said, I'm right here. You see, that's what he says to us over and over. I'm right here.

I've got this. But you have to follow my plan, and you have to follow it fully if it's going to be my plan. See, what we want to do is we want to alter the plan then. Well, this isn't working. I need to do something else. Seeming failure should never mean to adopt a strategy other than God's. You can never say, well, God's plan is not working. I've got to come up with something on my own. If you do that, you'll stay in the stronghold.

You'll never get free of it. When it comes to bringing down strongholds, we need to know who fights the battle, and we need to follow his plan completely. That's what he is saying. You need to follow his plan completely. Once again, I'd like you to go with me to 2 Corinthians, where I started chapter 10 again, and look at this. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Now look at it since what we looked at in Joshua. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.

They are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses, strongholds. We're destroying speculations in every lofty thing. That's our own opinion there.

What we think would work. He said, we're destroying speculations in every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That's what this is all about. That's how we deal with the strongholds in our life. We think differently. And we say, Lord, I'm just going to follow your plan.

I'm just going to follow you and your plan, and I'm going to do it completely. Now, one last time, let's go back to the Joshua story as I read the rest of the story of what happens. Verse 16, it says, it came about the seventh time when the priest, seven times in a row, they had gone around the city on the seventh day.

I wonder, just imagine how long that took. Two million people walking around, seven times. The priest blew the trumpets. Joshua said to the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. He said, the city shall be under the ban. He said, and it, he said, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot and all those who are in her house shall live because she hid the messengers when we sent them. But as for you, only keep for yourselves the things that are under the ban.

So do not covet them and take any other thing from the ban. He said, and make the camp of Israel a curse and bring trouble upon it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, and they shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted. The priest blew the trumpets. It came about when the people heard the sound of the trumpet that the people shouted with a great shout. The wall fell down flat so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

It's amazing. No military strategist would say that's the way to do this, but this isn't about that. This is a spiritual battle. Now, archaeologists have found something interesting with ancient Jericho for most cities that are besieged with its walls. The walls of ancient Jericho fell outward. Normally, when you besiege a city with walls, you knock the walls inward. But these walls fell outward because God did it. He destroyed the stronghold.

Now, what stronghold has a hold of you? God could never forgive me. If you knew the things I did, God could never forgive me. That's the stronghold of guilt.

I will never forgive that person. That's the stronghold of resentment and bitterness. Bad things always happen to me, the stronghold of self-pity. The stronghold of self-pity, some of us turn this into an art form. Everything, every conversation we have, we victimize ourselves. Oh, my life is so bad.

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong with me. Yes, because that stronghold has a hold of you. I have to be in charge, stronghold of pride. I don't deserve to be loved, the stronghold of rejection. I'll never recover, the stronghold of defeat. I've got to be good, otherwise God will reject me, the stronghold of performance. I'm only as good as I look, the stronghold of appearance. My value equals my possessions, the stronghold of materialism. See, the problem we have as Christians, most of us don't even recognize the strongholds.

You see, we don't even see it. They are encumbrances. They are the sin that so easily entangles us. And they stop us from ever getting the life that we know we should have, as Jesus described the abundant life. Don't let some joy-sucking Jericho take it all out of your life.

You see, don't let that happen to your life. Isn't that what we all want? Don't we long to see our strongholds, like the walls of Jericho, just demolished, so that we could get on with it? We can, but we have to know who fights the battle. And we have to follow his direction completely.

Let's pray. Father, the truth of this story and Joshua touches all of us, because I think we all know that we're not all that we should be. I also believe that all of us know what our real weaknesses are. Of all the things that get us in trouble, envy, and lust, and pride, and all those things, Lord, that constantly hound us and dog us, that steal our joy, steal our peace, and steal our hope. And Father, we feel helpless. We say we can never just get rid of that in our lives. And for that, you would say amen to us, because we can't.

But you can. That's why you appeared. That's why the Son of God appeared to Joshua, to let him know who really fights the battle. The battle belongs to the Lord. And what you ask us to do as we read through the scriptures and especially in the New Testament, what you ask us to do, we're to follow.

Obediently, faithfully, continually. And when we do that, Father, when we don't abort the mission at all, when we follow you and we obey, the stronghold comes down. Father, may your spirit just convict us to ask us what's stealing our joy, what's stealing our peace, what's stealing our hope. And Father, we'll deal with it the way you want us to. We pray this for our good and for your glory.

In Christ's name, amen. 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.