The fact that Jesus is the truer and better Joshua might be the main point of the Jericho story, but it's not the only point. There are things about Joshua's faith that the writer of Hebrews thinks we ought to emulate. Welcome back to the Summit Life podcast with Pastor J.D. Greer. I'm Molly Bidovich.
I wanted to remind you about a daily email devotional from Summit Life that you can sign up for today. Just go to jddgreer.com/slash resources. And while you're there, you can read Pastor JD's blog, view transcripts, and join our mailing list. All great ways to stay connected with Summit Life. You know, it's so easy to slip into reading scripture like we're the focus of every story.
Like the Bible's mainly about us and our struggles. But when we do that, we can actually miss the bigger picture. And the real question is. What is God doing and how can we join him in it? Our teaching today is part of our brand new series called Broken People and Famous Faith.
Here's Pastor JD with a message he titled, Keep Walking, But You Won't Knock Down Our Walls. Hebrews chapter 11, one of my Favorite movies from the 1980s is called Hoosiers. How many of you have seen that movie? Raise your hand real quick. Quick hot take, by the way.
I cannot prove this, but I am pretty sure that when we get to heaven, we are going to learn that God brought Western culture to its Pinnacle in the 1980s. I mean, before you object, and I know some of you will just think about it for a minute, okay? Chicago, REO Speedwagon, Run DMC, Whitney Houston, Chuck Norris, the advent of Nicholas Cage, Prince. Guns N' Roses, Back to the Future, The Outsiders, Bon Jovi, Rocky Balboa, The Indiana Jones trilogy, Karate Kid Before All the Guys Got Old, Todd Gunn, Todd Gunn Before Tom Cruise Got Weird. Star Wars, back when the stories were actually interesting.
I know not everybody agrees with me on this, but that's just because certain things are only spiritually discerned.
So he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Okay, the movie Hoosiers came out in 1986 when I was in the eighth grade. We watched it before every basketball tournament that I played in in high school. In the movie, which is based on a true story, you got this little backwoods country basketball team that overcomes incredible odds and makes it all the way to the Indiana State Championship, where they face this school that is like 10 times bigger than theirs before this humongous crowd and in Indiana University's main arena, which is like a hundred times bigger than anything they've ever played in before. The day before the game, everybody's nerves are just Are just on edge, they're shot.
So, Gene Hackman, who plays the coach in this movie, walks into this massive arena with this team, and he gets out a. a tape measure. And he has one of the boys hop up on the shoulders of one of the other boys, and he has to measure how tall the rim is. That's what you can see here. And the guy takes a tape measure and he measures it and he says, 10 feet, coach.
Then he has him take the tape measure and measure the distance from the free third line to the to the baseline and says, how long is that? And the kid says, 15 feet. And Gene Hackman says, see? Just like everywhere we played all year. His point is that the arena that you're going to play in tomorrow is much, much bigger than anything you faced before.
But all the basics are the same. And it's going to be a really, really important um idea as it relates to today's story in Hebrews 11. It's Hebrews 11:30, if you're going to look at it. This is one of the most dramatic. Most epic.
most iconic stories of faith in the Bible. God knocking down the walls of Jericho. And what you're going to see is basically God pull out his tape measure. And it's going to say, see 10 feet. The menu the venue may change.
But the basics are all the same. For whatever it's worth, I think this is going to be really, really timely for some of you today because some of you. Feel like you're in a brand new season. I know I've talked with you. Maybe you've just gotten married, or you just had kids, or grandkids, or you're starting retirement, or maybe you're facing a new season of suffering.
or some new challenge you've never faced before, a new job.
Some big thing that you want to see happen in somebody's life that you're trusting God for.
Some new relational thing that you're in, or maybe you're just newly single again. Maybe some ministry opportunity. You know what, or maybe you just feel stuck. And you can't figure out what God is doing right now. You've been doing all the things you think you're supposed to be doing, but nothing's changing.
That relationship hadn't gotten any better no matter how hard you've tried or Or you're still single? It feels like a new chapter, and you're just not quite sure what you are supposed to be doing. Through this story, God basically takes out his tape measure. And he's going to say the arena is different, but the basics stay the same. Hebrews 11 verse 30 says this.
The walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven. Days. That's it. That's all it says. But there is so much packed into those 16 words.
A little bit of background. Joshua was the newly inaugurated leader of Israel. He'd been Moses' right-hand guy for years. He'd come to fame as one of the only two spies to give a positive report of the land when Moses sent the 12 spies out ahead of the children of Israel to spy out the promised land. Of all those spies, only Joshua and Caleb had come back with a positive report saying, Hey, this is good land.
Yeah, yeah, the people of this land are strong. Their armies are big, the walls are high, but our God is stronger. We should go out and do whatever God says immediately. All the other ten had come back saying, no way. The people of this land are giants, literally giants.
There's no way that we can do this. We remember Joshua and Caleb because of their faith. We don't remember any of those other 10 guys. For two reasons, really. One, because they were a bunch of cowards.
And you never remember cowards. And two, they had strange names. Joshua and Caleb are awesome names, aren't they? Right, but those others had names like Shofat. That is literally one of their names.
Parents, if you are looking for a biblical name for your kid, I would suggest you stay away from Shofat. If you name your kid ShoFat, it's not going to go show well for him in high school, okay? Definitely going to the prom by himself. But Joshua had established himself. During that season, and many others, as a man of faith, and so God made him the next leader of Israel.
As the book of Joshua opens, this is what God promised to Joshua. Joshua, verse 3, chapter 1. Every place that the sole of your foot is going to tread on, I've given to you. Your foot touches it. It belongs to you.
That's what I promised to Moses. Verse 5, no man will ever be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Why? Because you're awesome? No, because just as I was with Moses That's how I'm gonna be with you.
I will not leave you or forsake you, like I did not leave or forsake him. As I was with Moses.
So I will be with you. That is the promise of the Christian life.
Okay, fast forward to Joshua 5. Joshua is now on the eve of his first major challenge. As the leader of Israel, between the children of Israel. and the promised land is the mighty city of Jericho. Jericho at the time was the most fortified city in the world.
By the way, archaeologist not too long ago. Uncovered the ancient city walls of Jericho, or at least some of them. For years before this, a lot of scholars had debated whether Jericho existed at all or if it was a myth that Bible writers just made up, but then they dug up. parts of the city wall, making this the oldest walled city in the world that we know about. Its walls, they say, were so thick that you could race two chariots across them at once.
This scene here in Joshua 5 takes place on the eve of that battle.
Now as you can imagine Joshua was pretty nervous I mean war is imminent. This is his first true moment of leadership. Everybody's looking at him thinking. I mean, Moses was awesome. Moses led us well.
I wonder if this guy's got what it takes to fill his shoes. We've got a Chick-fil-A operator at our church that I heard of. I actually know. Her name's Catherine Wade, who took over the Lake Boone Trail location here in Raleigh from another Chick-fil-A operator in our church named David Langston, because David was moving over to the Briar Creek location.
Well, just before Catherine took over the Lake Boone Trail location, David had set the one-hour drive-through record. Most cars in one hour. Through a drive-through. By the way, that was not just the record for Chick-fil-A, but for any drive-through in the world. He and his team got 476 cars through the drive-through in one hour.
You gotta love Chick-fil-A, right? You pull in, there's like 300 cars that's wrapped around the building twice. You're like, no problem, this will be four minutes, right?
Well now she's taking over Right, she's a new operator and she's like, you know, well, I definitely gotta break that record.
So she got her team trained, and that first Saturday, she got... 501 cars through that drive-through in one hour. That is a new world record. By the way, I think it's pretty awesome that the number one and number two spots for most efficient drive-through in the world are both in our church. Right?
Right, but I shared that because Joshua felt a little bit like Catherine did. He doesn't want anybody to think that they're about to experience a drop-off in competence from Moses.
So, understandably, he's having a little trouble sleeping.
So, Joshua 5, he goes out for a late-night walk. It's really late at night. Everybody's in bed. He's out praying or smoking a cigar or scrolling through TikTok or whatever. He does to unwind.
Verse 13, when Joshua was by Jericho, by the way, in the Hebrew. The word by Jericho means right up next to. Right up next to the walls of the city. Literally, what it means is at Jericho, standing by the walls, touching it. While he was there, he lifted up his eyes and Looked and behold, a man.
Is standing before him, and that man's got his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua goes up to him and says to him, Are you for us, or are you for our adversaries?
Now first, can we acknowledge Joshua is a man's man? I mean, he is right by the enemy wall. All by himself. and he encounters a strange man in the dark who has his sword drawn. A lesser man like me would have high-tailed it out of there.
But not Joshua. Joshua, who is most likely 70 or 80 at this point, by the way. Goes over and challenges this dude to a fight. Come on now. Write this down.
Joshua. is the truer and better Nicholas Cage, okay?
Some people wore Superman pajamas, Superman wore Joshua pajamas. And Joshua says to him, You for us, or you for our adversaries? And the man said, No. No? Had Joshua asked a yes-no question?
Sounds to me like he'd ask him an either-or question: Are you for us or for our adversaries? And the man's response was.
Now It's kind of like when my kids do that thing. where they try to trap me. with some yes, no question as if I've already agreed to something. Like, dad, are we going to go out for ice cream before lunch or after lunch? And I'm like, wait, did I promise that we were going out for ice cream today?
I don't remember that. Kids are natural gaslighters, aren't they?
So as I've gotten wiser as a parent, I just answer a question like that with no No, no, you're asking the wrong question. The man says, wrong question, Joshua. No. But as commander. of the army of the Lord, I have now come.
The question, Joshua, is not, am I on your side? The question, Joshua, is, are you? On my side. I'm not coming as the lieutenant in this battle. I come as the general.
I don't work for you. You are for me. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and he worshipped. And said to him, Well, then what does my Lord say to his servant? The commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you were standing is holy.
And Joshua did so. By the way, who exactly is This mysterious man that Joshua is standing in front of.
Some say, well, obviously it's an angel, maybe Michael, the archangel, the commander of the Lord's host, but y'all, it cannot be an angel. Why? Because it says that Joshua worshipped him, and whoever the strange man was, let Joshua do that. Angels in the Bible never let you worship them. Revelation 22, for example, when the Apostle John falls down to worship at the feet of the angel, revealing all the visions of revelation to him, the angel says, John, what are you doing?
I'm a creature just like you. Worship God alone. But in Joshua 5, this man says to Joshua, Very good. And by the way, take off your shoes too, because my presence here makes this ground holy. This is what theologians call a Christophany.
Which means a pre-nativity. Old Testament appearance of Jesus in human form. This is Jesus before he was conceived in Mary's womb. It's kind of an awesome thought, if you ask me. Before Jesus was born as a helpless babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.
He was the commander-in-chief of the Lord's armies. And the question has never been, whose side is he on? The question is always whether we are on his. These are his battles that he calls us to join him in, not our battles that he comes to assist us in. By the way, we skipped this part, but at the beginning of chapter five, just after Israel had gotten up to Jericho.
Jericho's right there in their sights. They're setting up camp. God had Joshua circumcise all the male soldiers.
Now, I do not want to go into all the details of circumcision. That is what your campus pastor is for. But suffice it to say, that left the army feeling rather Guys? Vulnerable. Why would God do that then?
I mean, God could have literally given that command to them at any point. They've been wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years before this. Why not do it in one of those 40 years? Why not do it before they cross the Jordan and could see Jericho? Why would you wait until they were right up at Jericho and then give the command so it leaves them feeling really vulnerable?
You know the answer. It was to show them that victory and strength did not belong to them. This was God's battle, not theirs, and what God wanted for them. Is surrender not a show of strength?
So he puts him in a position of weakness.
so that they'll be reminded to lean upon him. And this is what Jesus is now reinforcing again to Joshua on the eve of this battle. I'm the commander. Not you. I don't come to assist you, Joshua.
I call you to follow me. Chapter 6, verse 1.
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. Nobody went out, nobody came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see? I've given Jericho into your hand, and Joshua's like, Why are we talking about? This looks like a big city with walls around it.
John says, no, I've given it to you already with its king and mighty men of valor. Joshua's like, well, I don't see it. Then the Lord proceeds to give Joshua instructions about how he is. Supposed to take Jericho, but the instructions are. Odd.
To say the least. The Lord tells them to put the Ark of the Covenant out in front of them, the Ark of the Covenant being that little mobile tabernacle that housed God's presence. It wasn't a battle weapon. Other armies at the time would never put your, whatever you worship is not put up front. They're going to put that safely somewhere in the back.
But I want that in front of you, God says. I don't want your spears in front of you. I want that in front of you. And I want you to march around the city once a day for six days in total silence. And then on the seventh day, I want you to march around the wall seven times.
And at the end of that seventh lap, I want you to shout. Praise to me and I'll take care of the rest. Do not lose how bizarre and humiliating this is. The army of Israel is all amped up for a fight. Joshua's itching to prove himself.
And God tells them to march silently around the walls 13 times. And on the 13th time, they're just supposed to shout. Yo, I mean, imagine if this were a football game with a new coach, your team, which is being coached by a brand new coach, trying to prove himself. Is down by three points on the two-yard line with five seconds to go. And this brand new coach, whom everybody's wondering whether he's going to make it, says no offensive play right now.
I just want you guys to hold hands at the scrimmage line and sing away in the major. How hard. Must this have been for Joshua? He wants to prove his mettle as a general, but God says, I want you to walk a bunch of newly circumcised soldiers. Around these walls, and then I want you to sing to it.
I want to draw out for you some basic faith lessons from this story. But first I need to warn you about misapplying these lessons because Most people do that. with the lessons from this story. And with stories, other stories like this one in your Bible. We read these stories as if they were all about Us.
As if we're the main character in the Bible and God exists. to help us with whatever Jericho is keeping us from whatever it is that we want. As if building our little personal kingdoms is the focal point of what God wants to do in the world.
So there's some guy listening to this right now thinking, well, my Jericho. My impossible situation is getting a date.
So, I'm going to walk around that girl seven times. On the last time, I'm going to shout, go out with me, and I expect her walls of resistance to fall down. That is not bold faith, my brother. That is exhibit A and a petition for restraining order is what that is, okay? Hey, news flash.
The Bible. is not primarily about You. It's about Jesus. I hate to break this to you. But in this story, you and I ain't Joshua.
If you're looking for something or someone in this story to represent you, you and I are Jericho. Jericho is the citadel of our sin that stood between us and the promised land of our salvation, and there was nothing that we or anybody else could do about it.
So along came Jesus, the truer and better Joshua. Who, through the counterintuitive, humble obedience of the cross overcame that barrier, his final cry of it is finished, brought down the walls of sin and death that held us captive. By the way. Joshua's name Literally means the Lord saves. In Hebrew, Yahshua.
That's how you see Joshua in Hebrew. Yeah, the Lord. Shua saves. 2,000 years later, when the Jewish people adopted Greek language and culture, they changed the pronunciation of Yeshua slightly. You know what the Greek version of Yeshua is?
Jesus. Our sin was Jericho. Jesus was Joshua. Who destroyed our sin all by himself without us so much as lifting a finger to help him? Jesus is the main point of this story.
And I know, I know a lot of worship songs. Make it sound like, oh, God's going to knock all the walls down for me, and He's going to come through for me, He's going to give me the miracle. But that is not the main point. The main point is for you to worship and obey Jesus, to stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he can love me, a Jericho sinner condemned unclean. Do not read the Bible like a narcissist.
Read it like a worshiper.
Okay? Good. And yet. Hear this, and yet Hebrews 11.30 does point to this situation. as an example of faith that we should emulate.
The fact that Jesus is the truer and better Joshua might be the main point of the Jericho story, but it's not the only point. There are things about Joshua's faith that the writer of Hebrews thinks we ought to emulate. So let me give you four basics of the faith. That we see tucked into the 16 words of the story that got recorded in verse 30 that we ought to emulate. Let's call them the Jericho rules.
Here is number one, rule number one. The Christian life is something we do with God. Not something that we do for him. This has been a major thing that I've been emphasizing all year because I've been relearning it myself. Christianity is not you for God.
It's Christ in and through you. And see, that changes the equation. Because the question is not what must I do to get God on my side? How do I procure God's blessing? No.
The question is, as Joshua shows us, what does God want me to do and how do I join him in what he is doing? If you would like to learn more about this ministry, including how to partner with us financially, visit jdigreer.com. We love hearing from people all over the world, and we recently heard this from one of you. I just want you to know that the daily devotionals are helping me grow in my walk and in my relationship with the risen Savior. They help me to see Jesus in a different way and allow me to be transformed by the Word.
I know now that my transformation will not be done overnight, but minute by minute. Thank you for allowing God to use you to be a light to the world. P.S., I feel that you are speaking to me personally. And that's just one example of the impact of the gospel message that we try to steward here at Summit Life through all of our resources, including the daily devotional. Like I mentioned earlier, you can sign up for this free resource at jdgreer.com/slash resources.
That's J D G R E E A R dot com slash resources.
Now let's return to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JDE. Let me just ask you to consider for a minute. You're all religious because you came to church this morning. How do you relate to God?
How do you relate to God? I would say many of us. Look at God like he is our faithful lieutenant. He's there to influence, to guide, to comfort, to take care of us, to help us through tough times. Most of all.
To escort us to a safe place after death. And listen to me, friend. God wants to do all that. All of those things. He wants to do all of those things and more in your life.
He wants to bless you, and he most definitely. Wants to take care of you and take you to heaven. But he comes first as commander of the army. He comes first as Lord. Which means the point is not what do I need to do to keep God on my side.
If you. See your life primarily as yours, and God is there to assist you. Your question is going to be what Joshua's first question was: God, what do I got to do to keep you on my side? Are you for me, or are you for the people against me? How do I keep the blessing flowing?
How do I keep this tap open, God? How much do I have to give to get your blessing? Is 10% enough? What about in really tough times? Can I get away with less than 10%?
Or how involved do I need to be in the church? If I were more involved, would God bless me more? You know, I'm starting a new season. Maybe I just got to get in and get back to church because that's the only way I'm going to get God's blessing in this season. How good do I actually have to be?
Which sins really tick God off? I mean, God grades on the curve, right?
So, how do I go from a D to a C or B Christian? How do I make sure that I'm going to be in his list of blessing? And if you think this way, When something goes wrong in your life, your first impulse is always, all right, what did I not do? What's he punishing me for now? But see, if you see the Christian life as you following Jesus, the only question we'll ever have is.
Where does he want me to go? I don't give God 10% of my money so he'll bless the rest. 100% of it belongs to him. And so my question is, what does he want me to do with all of it? I don't give him a 10% tax and say 90% is mine.
I put it all on the altar and say all of it belongs to you. You don't give God one or two days a week at church so he will bless the rest of your week. He owns 24 hours of all seven days of every week of your life. By the way, some Christians try to go so far as to even separate out the lordship of Jesus from his being their savior and their help as if you can have part of Jesus but not all. See friends, you cannot bifurcate Jesus.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot separate him into parts and take the savior part, but leave the Lord part like he's a build-a-bear that you get to assemble for a deity that you want to sleep, you know, with because he makes you feel comfortable at night. If you invited me over to your house and I rang the doorbell and you said, oh, come in, JD, stay out, Greer. I wouldn't know what to do. I'm all JD, I'm all Greer.
People say, well, I want loving Jesus. I want helpful Jesus. I want save me and take me to heaven, Jesus. but not commanding Jesus or holy Jesus or giving me rules about my sexuality Jesus or Lord Jesus, if that's you, you aren't going to get any of Jesus. 'Cause you can't divide him up like he's a solid bar.
We come not to solicit his help. We come to Follow him and surrender. And you know, believe it or not, this is incredibly comforting. Because see, that means, for example, in my parenting now. I'm not coming to beg for God's help.
I'm offering myself to be used by him. I'm not responsible for saving or bringing up my kids. That's his battle. He's the commander. I'm only responsible to follow and obey him as he does that.
So, I don't have to sit around and think, what am I? Where am I not strong enough as a parent? Or how do I fix these kids? No, he says, as commander of the army of the Lord, I come. That means my battle.
That's my battle, not yours. You follow me. When it comes to the success of this church, I don't have to say, hey, are we good enough to win this community? How much money do we actually need to accomplish what we want to accomplish here? When something goes wrong in this church, I don't say, oh, what are we going to do now?
We cannot win. We cannot, I don't know how it's gonna happen. Here's what I came to realize a long time ago. We can't win this community. But that's not my battle, and it's not yours either.
He came as commander of the Lord's armies, and that means it's his battle. He leads, we follow.
Some of you are praying right now, God bless my career. Let me give you a better prayer that you can pray. Why don't you say this? Why don't you surrender your career and all the days of your life to him? Listen, and then you don't even have to ask him to bless it.
Because the orders he gives come pre-blessed. You see the difference here? Listen, some of you came to Jesus because you knew you needed his help. You were up against some Jericho. that you could not overcome and that's Great, that's exactly where you should come, but what you find when you come to Jesus.
is that he's looking for far more. and something far more radical than you ever imagined. You came wanting comfort. He came demanding control. T.S.
Lewis said that coming to Jesus was like living in this rickety old. house where there's a lot of leaks and a bunch of stuff's broken and You're uncomfortable and so you send out for Jesus the repairman. Oh, Jesus comes in and he gets to work. He starts fixing the leaks and patching the roof and unplugging the drains. And you're like, man, this is great.
But then, all of a sudden, without warning, C.S. Lewis says. He takes out a sledgehammer. And he starts tearing down a wall. And you're like, oh.
What is happening? That's not what I wanted. C.S. Lewis said this. This is one of the favorite passages he ever wrote.
The explanation is that he's building quite a different house from the one you imagined.
So he launches out on a new wing here. Puts up an extra floor there. He runs up towers, starts making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. And he intends to come and live in it himself.
God had a better plan for Joshua than just helping him win a battle, and he's got a better plan for you. And it starts with surrender to him as commander. The Christian life is not something you do for him. It's something you do with him. But he does through you.
Number two. Rule number two, God's way often seems. Crazy, okay? The key point in this story. is the absurdity of what's being asked.
I mean, God could have had them show their faith in a bunch of different ways, right? Ways that would not have involved weird demonstrations of public humiliation. I mean it's an army. marching around the city in silence and And that's be graphic, but they're probably walking a little bow-legged from the recent circumcision. This is not an awe-inspiring sight.
But the crazy nature of these instructions is intentional. Because, see, lots of things that Jesus commands us to do seem crazy and counterintuitive. Listen, I know some of you just in me saying that you feel so gratified right now. But listen, I'm just gonna say this right now. I don't wanna get in an argument with you, but we're When I say that, I'm not referring to weird Christian rituals primarily when I say that.
Right, over the years I've been given my share of wacky instructions to procure God's blessing in something, to rub oil in certain places, wave banners, shake tambourines, blow chofars, and other forms of Christian loony weird. I'm not talking about any of that stuff. You do that stuff on your own time, okay? I'm talking about the counterintuitive way of the cross. Like responding to somebody who has wronged you with forgiveness instead of vengeance.
Everything in your whole body says vengeance is the only way to make this right. But Jesus says, nope, be humble, forgive. because vengeance belongs to me and it feels crazy. But here's the thing. With forgiveness comes the power of God.
Or how about taking a Sabbath? You think, well, I can't afford that time-wise? I mean, I got so much to do. I can barely get everything I got to get done in seven days, let alone cut it back to six. That makes no sense.
But see, you do it in obedience and God multiplies your time. Or take tithing.
Some of you say, well, this isn't the way I can afford to tithe. I literally could not make ends meet if I tithe. But then you obey and God multiplies your resources because of your obedience or being patient in a situation where you feel like giving up.
Sometimes that crazy way means taking a risk. When you feel God is leading you somewhere, you're like, God, resigning my career and going into this mission opportunity. That just seems crazy, but you're saying it.
So I'm going to do it and I'm going to trust you.
Now Jesus was the preeminent model of this crazy obedience. He overcame evil not through a display of strength and power. Not by forcing all of his enemies into submission, he overcame evil and the devil himself through his own submission and weakness of the cross. And there he unmasked evil and stripped it of its power and overcame the curse of death. And then says, now you follow me the way that I did it, and now we follow in his steps.
Rule number three. Beware the off-ramp. of compromise. There's a little addendum in this story. That's worth mentioning briefly, and I can only do it briefly.
When God gave them the instructions about taking Jericho, he told them. One of his last instructions was don't touch. Don't touch any of Jericho's spoils. See, it was customary in those days for soldiers of a conquering army to collect some of the spoils for themselves. But God said, in this case, I don't want you to touch any of it.
Why? Because he wanted them to know this is not about you winning a battle, the spoils don't belong to you. Everything belongs to me. Don't touch any of it. Chapter 7 opens like this.
But the people of Israel broke faith. That's a very... important way that the writer phrased it. They broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Achan, that was the guy's name who led it, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things in Jericho, and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.
When the walls fell down, the soldiers went in. One of these Israelite soldiers named Achan took some of the riches of Jericho and he hid it in his tent.
So when the people of Israel go out the n to the next battle A few days later, Next mouth to Jericho, it's this tiny little city called Ai. That they should have had no problem with. Basically, it's a village. They lose this battle. And Joshua is like, God, what in the world?
Did you just suddenly leave us and God says no one of your people broke Safe. It's the word he uses.
Now, I'm going to be honest. It looks to me like Aiken just got a little greedy. Like he wanted to grease his own skid just a little bit. Things are going hard at home.
So he samples just a little bit. But God calls what he did a breaking of the faith of Hebrews 11, a betrayal of the faith. How is it breaking of the faith?
Well, in short, I said, I got to make this brief. He quit depending on God to meet his needs and he took charge of filling his own life with happiness. That's how he broke faith. He took matters into his own hands. He didn't want to wait for God's plan.
He wanted to go in and obtain it for himself. Listen to me, the deadly off-ramp. In any venture of faith, there's always small compromises. I don't want to wait for the spouse that's a gift from God.
So I'll compromise. Or I'll hook up with this person, even though I know I don't want to marry them because they satisfy a temporary need. I really can't afford to tithe right now.
So I'll keep back part of it for me to meet my needs or save up for this thing that I'm trying to buy.
Well, if I don't put this person in their place, they'll never learn. I know God says vengeance is his, but I'm gonna take just a little bit of it. Beware. Compromise. When you take matters back into your own hands and you stop obeying even for a little bit, you're bringing curse into your life.
and you are cutting yourself off from the power of God. Rule number four. Endure, endure. Endor, endor. Endure, endure, endure.
You will see I wrote that seven times. That is once for each of those final seven laps. Y'all, seriously, how many times And there's final lapse. Did they feel like quitting? Because here's the thing.
Halfway through the sixth lap on the seventh day. Those walls still look no different than they did. And the first lap on the first day. I think the name for this is an incrementalist. Which means I don't mind working hard.
I really don't. I will work very hard, but I want to see progress over time, right? I read Boys in the Boat a few years ago. It's since been turned into a movie, but it's about the U.S. rowing team in the 1930s that won the Olympic gold.
Now I always thought that the worst part of being on a rowing team other than the inhuman fatigue Is that you have to sit backwards to row, which means you can't see how close the finish line is. The coxswain who was the only one facing forward, he's the only one that can see the finish line.
So in this story, the coxswain would play tricks on the crew to get the best effort out of them. He would say, for example, okay, boys, just 15 more seconds, and we'll be across the finish line. Give it all you have. Man, they dig in, they start rowing like crazy at the last 15 second sprints, and then they get to the end of 15 and say, just 15 more seconds. They drive me crazy.
By the way, the leftist part of the movie I thought was the best part of the book. That would drive me crazy! I want to see the finish line coming closer with every stroke. But that is not what happened with Israel. Every day they marched, and nothing happened.
There were no falling bricks, there was no quaking. The walls looked the same at the end of day six as they did on day one. A friend of mine says, I imagine these guys coming home to their wives and kids each night. I mean, you know how that goes right, guys? After the first day, the wife said, Well, how was your day?
And man, you know exactly what that means, don't you? That means tell me all the details. Everything that happened. What you thought about what happened? And then, what you thought about, what you thought about what happened, and then what your friend and you discussed about what you thought about, what you thought about what happened.
That's what that means, right? And these guys are like, well? We just kind of Sorta walked around. She's like, you just walked? You know, yeah.
I don't know what's going on. Maybe this is some kind of creepy scare tactic. I don't get it.
So on the second day you come home and she's like, oh baby. How was the battle? You killed the big, bad Canaanite guy, didn't you, my big warrior man? And you know, well. No.
We just kind of walked around again. By the way, there's no indication that Joshua ever told them how many days it was supposed to be. Every day they had to walk, see no progress at all. If I were God, surely, and I wanted the people to stay motivated, I'd at least have a couple bricks fall here and there. But nothing!
Until that seventh lap on the seventh day when it all came crashing down. Isn't this the way it feels? in your life sometimes. You're obeying? And you're obeying, but you just not see in the fulfillment of the promises.
You're reading the Bible, for example, and you just don't see any change in your life yet. You're like, God, am I ever going to get better? Am I ever going to get better? Or you're trying to raise those kids right, but they keep doing stupid stuff. You're trying to be what you're supposed to be in your marriage, but your spouse just didn't change him.
And you're like, God, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much. Why aren't they changing? Or maybe you tried to do the bigger thing. And forgive. But that friend, that neighbor, neighbor, that co-worker, they just don't forgive you back.
They stay mad at you. You've prayed and you've prayed, but there's no change or... Or maybe you're paying off your bills and you just got your head above water. But then your car breaks down and you get a medical bill out of nowhere. Tax bill.
And you're like, God, come on! Just let me see a couple bricks fall. And God says, Percino. I want you to walk by faith, not by sight. And you're going to have to believe that I'm working even when it doesn't look like I'm working at all.
That even when you can't see it, I'm working. Even when you can't feel it, I'm working. That I never stop and never stop working. Write this down. Endurance is faith expressed over time.
That's all it is. Endurance is faith expressed over time. It's easy to have a big moment of emotional faith in here, but endurance is faith expressed day after day after day after you get out there and you just take another lap. Because in faith, what you're saying is, I believe you're working just like you promised. Even though I don't see it yet, I believe it.
Yo, listen, just because your progress is not obvious doesn't mean your faith is not working. You gotta keep walking. You see, the reason God sometimes lets us walk without seeing results is that he wants our faith to be less focused on the outcomes and more focused on his promise. Outcomes are his responsibility. Faithful obedience is ours.
Y'all see, listen, no changes may have been happening to those walls while they were circling those first six days, but I guarantee you, changes were happening in them. The reality was that God wasn't just preparing the promised land for them, He was preparing them for the promised land. And every single lap reminded them that this was God's strength and God's strength alone that was going to win this battle, not theirs. And I imagine that had God knocked down those walls on the first lap, Israel would have quickly forgotten that it was God's strength that won that battle. At least that's what it would have been like for me.
So, every awkward, bow-legged step of every lap reinforced, it is not by might. It is not by power, it is by my spirit, says the Lord. A friend of mine says, it is encircling the walls that we are prepared for the promise.
So thank God for the extra laps. Because the long, lonely lapse of unfulfilled promise are where God infuses the promised land into us. Here is the reality of the Christian life. God is not just taking you to heaven. He is putting heaven into you.
I've liked this whole story. I feel like these 16 words of Hebrews 1130 is for somebody today. It feels like they're walking in circles this weekend. You're here in church. You're trying, but this whole time you're wondering how much further, how much.
Longer, God. How much longer? How much longer, God, until you answer this prayer? Or you tear down this wall, how much longer until I see my kids come back, how much longer until I see blessing and fruit in my career, how much longer until I break out of this terrible financial cycle, how much longer do I have to live with this pain? How many more friends do I gotta watch kick engaged?
How many more weddings do I have to go to? God, I'm trying to stay pure. I'm trying. How much longer? And Jesus says, be steadfast.
Immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because my cross and my resurrection show you that God always brings resurrection after the cross of obedience.
So keep walking. Keep obeying. Act like every single lap is your last one and one day you'll be right. One day you're going to see those walls quake and the goodness of the Lord break into the land of the living. Endurance is faith expressed.
over. time. Thanks for listening and a quick reminder that we are giving Pastor JD's newest book to all of our financial partners this month. Many Christians today feel caught between extremes. Either speak up and get attacked.
or stay silent and feel disobedient. But there's another way. In his brand new book called Everyday Revolutionary, Pastor JD reminds us that we're not called to win the culture war. we are called to bear faithful witness for Christ. We can live boldly and faithfully in the middle of a hostile world without compromising truth or compassion.
Request your copy of Everyday Revolutionary When You Make a Donation at jdgreer.com and discover how everyday obedience can become the loudest testimony of all. Thanks for hanging out with us today. We'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Jiddy Greer Ministries. Yeah.
