Joshua: The God Who Fights for Us, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. What God wanted to do in them was much more significant than what he wanted to do through them. You see, as they were walking around the walls, nothing may have been happening to those walls, but something important was happening to them. God wanted them less focused on the outcome and more focused on obedience, because outcome is God's responsibility. Faithful obedience is ours. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Let me ask you, how do you judge success in your life? Is it tied to your bank account, job title, or the respect of your peers?

Maybe it's about your marital status or your kids' achievements or your friend list on social media. We all seek validation in different ways, but today Pastor J.D. reminds us that God has a different way of measuring success. This message, titled The God Who Fights for Us, is part of our teaching series we began this month called The Whole Story. If you have questions about this ministry or want to catch up on previous teaching, visit us at jdgreer.com. But right now, open your Bible to the book of Joshua, and let's continue where we left off yesterday.

Here's Pastor J.D. Chapter six, verse one. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out.

None came in. The Lord said to Joshua, see, look at that. I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and its mighty men of valor. Then God proceeds to give Joshua instructions on how to take Jericho.

But the instructions are really odd. God tells him, I don't want you to fight. I want you to put the Ark of the Covenant, which houses my presence in front of you. And I want you to march around the city in silence one time each day for six days. And then on the seventh day, I want you to march around seven times in silence. And on the seventh time, you then shout and I'll take care of the rest.

Do not lose sight of how bizarre this is. How hard must this have been for Joshua? He wants to prove himself. But God says, no fighting.

I'll do the fighting. Then God says, verse 18, but you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction. All silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron, they're holy to the Lord.

They shall go back into the treasury of the Lord. Well, they do as instructed, verse 20, and as soon as the people on the seventh day after they circled seven times had heard the sound of the trumpet, they shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat. And then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword. Chapter seven, verse one. But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things for Achan of the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things. Remember God had told him not to touch those things, but he took them, hit them in his tent and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. Now, Joshua has no knowledge of this. Joshua sent out spies from Jericho to the next city, Ai, which is just the city over and they returned and said to him, this is such a little town.

I mean, compared to Jericho, it's nothing, but it's just like, you know, it's like, this is nothing. I mean, we just, it let two or 3000 people go up there and attack Ai for the people there are few. So 3000 men went up, but they fled before the men of Ai. And then the hearts of the people melted and became his water. And so the people are distraught.

They're like, what happened? Why is the power of God left us? So Joshua gets on his face before God and God reveals to him what Achan had done and that they got to get out that sin before God's presence and his power will come back on them. Notice how God describes what Achan did.

It's really important to understand everything that's going on in the story. Chapter seven, verse one says that Achan broke faith in God. In other words, Achan quit depending on God to fight the battle and meet his needs personally and to fill his life with meaning and happiness. So in this one little area, he took things back into his own control. He says, I don't trust God to give me enough.

I don't trust God to provide for me. So when this one little area, I'm gonna take matters back into my hands and I'm going to hide these things in my tent. From these stories, I want us to focus on three postures that God had the people reassume as they went into this new arena in the promised land for you to succeed with God in any area of your life. These three postures you must reassume in every arena.

Here is number one, surrender. What is it that you keep hidden in your tent because you feel like you can't trust God with it? Because Lordship is one of those words that's got to be total if it has any meaning at all. In order for Jesus to be Lord at all in your life, he's got to be Lord of all.

He doesn't come to be a part of your life. He comes to take the whole thing over. The good news Joshua is he's got plans far beyond what you ever dreamed. C. S. Lewis said that coming to Jesus was like living in this old rickety house.

It's just totally falling apart. And so Jesus comes in and immediately Jesus goes to work on fixing up the house. And you're so excited about it because he's, you know, patching the roof and he's, he's taking the mold out of the walls and he's, you know, fixing the pipes. But then all of a sudden Jesus tears out a wall and you're like, why did you tear out that wall? But then you notice there's shiplap behind the wall and you're like, oh, that's cool. And then he rips up a carpet and you're like, oh, the under the shag carpet, there was this like hardwood floor and you're getting a little excited. But then he just totally knocks out an entire section of the house. Louis said, and you're like, what's happening? What is going on?

Let me quote C. S. Lewis. The explanation is that he's building quite a different house than the one you were expecting. 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 that palace himself. God had a better plan for Joshua, but it started with surrender.

God's got a better plan for you. And it starts with total surrender on your part as well. So the first word is surrender.

Here's your second posture. Courage. Courage. Throughout the book of Joshua, the primary thing that derails obedience is fear. That one theologian said this, you ought to write this down. In the book of Joshua, fear equals rebellion, which brings us to perhaps why God did things the way that he did them in the story.

You know, it is okay when you read stories like this one to just ask why, why did God do it this way? In fact, put yourself, if you will, in the place of an Israelite warrior. You're ready to fight, but instead God tells you not to fight. He tells you to march, but he never tells you why or even how long you're supposed to march.

It never says that Joshua relayed that information to them. And while you're marching, y'all literally nothing is happening. It's not like the bricks slowly start to quake. It's not like, you know, they fall down one by one and by day six, you get there and there. No, on day six, it looked exactly like it did on day one. Not a single thing has happened.

Y'all, I don't know about you, but I feel like I need to see a little progress in what I'm doing in order for me to stay motivated. I mean, imagine these men going home at night to their wives. I'm sure that men and women were not that much different back then.

So your wife asked you, how was your day? And guys, you know what that means. This is not a straight recounting of the facts. This is lots of details. And then what you thought about what happened and then how you thought about what you thought and then how you thought about how you thought about what you thought. That's what we're talking about. So your wife says, how did it go? And you're like, we walked around. I think Joshua had us on a kind of a vision trip or something.

I don't know. So day two, you know, you come back home and she was like, so baby, how was the battle? You big warrior man, you, did you slay the bad guy for me? And you're like, no, we kind of walked around again. We just sort of walked around.

You do this for six days. Can you imagine how, I mean, what do you say? What do you say? Meanwhile, the people on the wall are taunting you. You know, that was happening.

They're throwing stuff at you and making fun of you because you're just walking around. Why did God do it that way? Because what God wanted to do in them was much more significant than what he wanted to do through them. God was preparing them for a promise they were about to receive.

You see, as they were walking around the walls, nothing may have been happening to those walls, but something important was happening to them. God wanted them less focused on the outcome and more focused on obedience because outcome is God's responsibility. Faithful obedience is ours. You see, God does not really need you or them or any of us to accomplish anything for him. Does he? No, he can speak the world into existence. He doesn't need your money. God does not need us for anything.

So what we do for God is not nearly as important as who we become in God. Told you it reminds me of the story of the proverbial story, the little woodpecker that's tapping away at the telephone pole. Nothing happened to the telephone pole. And as he's in the middle of tapping, all of a sudden lightning strikes the pole from heaven and splits the telephone pole in two. And the little woodpecker's like, you know, kind of looks at it. And then he goose flies off and gets his friends and he brings them back. He's like, there she is, boys. There she is.

Look at what I did. Now his tapping had nothing to do with that pole splitting. It was heaven, you know, the lightning that split the pole. What you've got is you've got obedience that often feels like that woodpecker that's just tapping away. And then God sends the power. It's not like your tapping caused it, but your tapping was the faith expression day after day that God's going to do what God said he was going to do.

So here's my question. Where are you right now? Where are you right now feel like you're in the place of that woodpecker? Maybe it's in your parenting.

Maybe you just plugging away at a job. Maybe you just faithfully praying for sharing Christ with somebody who doesn't seem to be listening and you feel like it's not doing any good. Again, y'all, there are two things that I feel like I need from God whenever I obey.

I need the why and I need the when. I'm like, God, I will go through anything. I'll go through anything.

I just got to see it working and I got to know when it's over. Here's the thing. God rarely gives us either the why or the when.

He rarely does. And the greatest danger is that you're going to quit. What if these people had stopped on day six? I wouldn't have made it to day six. I don't think I'd have been like day three. I'd be like, this ain't working. Every day, all I'm doing, my Fitbit thing's going off every day. I'm getting my 10,000 steps. That's the only thing that's happening.

That's it. There's no way I would have made it to day six. What if they had stopped at day six? What if you stop at day six?

What if you stop at day six and say it's not working? Courage is the ability to keep going even when you can't see the results because you know that God is faithful. Courage is the ability to keep going for a long time even when you don't see any progress because you know that God's going to do what he said he's going to do. In fact, write this down, endurance is what courage looks like over the long haul. Endurance is just courage repeated day in and day out because God is faithful.

What derails most of us in obedience, what derails most of us is a lack of courage. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

For more free resources, visit us at jdgreer.com. I want to take a moment here in the program to recognize a very special group of people, our gospel partners. These faithful givers make everything we do possible, including broadcasting Summit Life on your local radio station today. We call them gospel partners because they are actively helping us spread the gospel around the globe.

They're not simply passive participants, they're actual partners. This month we are sending our gospel partners a set of 2025 scripture memory cards to say thank you for their gift to the ministry. It also has the added benefit of being unbelievably helpful in the memorization of God's word, so you'll want to get your set today. This ministry wouldn't be possible without the generosity of people like you. If you'd like to partner with us, either with a one-time gift or by becoming a monthly gospel partner, we'd love to send you a set of scripture memory cards as a thank you.

Call us at 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. So let me ask you, where is fear keeping you from obedience this weekend? Maybe there's a relationship that you know you need to end, but you're scared. You know God wants you to end this relationship, but you're scared of what life is going to be like when you do. Maybe it's in pressing through a relationship, but you know God wants you to press through in it. Maybe it's in coming clean with a sin, admitting your problem. Maybe it's in obeying God with your sexuality and you got like, how is this going to work?

I don't even know how this is going to work. Maybe it's in obeying God with your finances and being obedient like he's told you with the first fruits of what he's given you or making the financial sacrifice. Maybe it's in having the hard conversation with somebody, maybe telling that person about Jesus or confronting them with hard truth, and you're not sure how they're going to react. For some of you ladies, maybe it's quitting the job and staying home with your kids. For some of you ladies, maybe it's to go back to work. You feel like everybody's going to judge you for doing that.

I don't know. I'm not the Holy Spirit. I'm just telling you that you have to listen to him and you have to shut out the other voices and you have to act without fear. Maybe God's been telling you in this season to quit the job or start the business, but you're just so scared because this is the only security you've ever known and you got so many questions. God has so much for you, but it starts with obedience.

Maybe it's going on your first mission trip and there are a thousand reasons you can think of why you should not go, but there's one reason you know why you should go, and that is God told you to go. Maybe it's to actually go out, you guys, and buy the ring and get down on one knee and ask the question. You've been dating her for seven years, Hoss, all right?

You don't need to know anything else, right? She knows you're not doing it because you're scared. You know you're not doing it because you're scared. Right now, you're sitting beside each other.

You both feel awkward because you both know I just called you out. You need to act in fear. Get your backbone out of your mama's purse and do what you know God wants you to do, right? Whatever it is, you need to act with faith. I promise you that when you do, when you say, I'm going to do this, what's going to well up in you is fear.

It's going to be like, you're going to get crushed. Do you know what is the most often repeated command in the Bible? The most often repeated command in the Bible is fear not.

366 times. I always look at that as one for every single day of the year, including leap year. There's not a single day you will ever live that God does not look at you and say, fear not. Let me look at it from the other side. There's a very disconcerting line in the book of Revelation. At the very end of the book, when God describes all the people that are going to go to hell, here's what he says.

Look at this. The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars. They're the ones who be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Now, there's a lot of things in that list I would expect. Liars and vile and sexually immoral and idolaters, people practice magic, people who think Harry Potter is for real and they try it.

I get that. But you notice the very first one, the cowardly. But what leads off the list are those who not that hear they didn't know what they were supposed to do, it's that they didn't have the courage to actually act on it. Fear equals rebellion. It is rebellion to delay doing what God has told you to do today. Number three, the faith to wait. The faith to wait in Joshua, the people are ready to fight. In the book of Joshua, the question of faith is not are you ready to fight? The book of Joshua is are you ready to wait?

I hate waiting. I think it is the source of my troubled relationship with Time Warner Cable. Why do you need my phone number?

Again, do you not have caller ID software on the computers? Why am I reentering my phone number to you again? It's why I hate flying to Atlanta. I don't know what it is about that city with their airport and I'm like, why are we circling the... Did you not know that we were coming?

Why is there a traffic jam? Just let us... I'm like, I can see the airport. Just give me a backpack and a parachute. I'll jump out right here.

I know where I want to go. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Whenever God calls people to do something in the Bible, always, I can't think of an exception.

Maybe you can come up with one, but always there's this time of circling and it drives you crazy. Moses gets called to deliver Israel 40 years in the desert. 40 years exist between the call and when he did. Paul, the apostle, remember this when we went through the book of Acts? Between the time that the apostle was... Paul was called on the Damascus road to the time he was actually commissioned into ministry. 17 years. That's a lot of circling.

That's a lot of re-entering your phone number. King David. King David gets anointed to be the next king of Israel. What happens? You run off to the palace and try on robes and start ordering people around?

No. He goes back to the pasture where he shovels sheep dung for seven years. That is so standard in the Bible.

I would say it is par for the course. That when God is going to call you, what he's going to do first is he is going to begin to prepare you. He's going to have you circling because he doesn't really need you to do that much for him because he's God.

What he wants to do is something in you and that is to teach you to trust and obey. So where are you circling this weekend? Where are you circling? Don't give up.

You might be on lap six. This is the hardest faith of all, y'all. It's the hardest faith of all.

It's the faith to wait. The time of circling. The time where you can't see what God is doing. It's that circling pattern, for example, of sickness or poor health. That circling pattern of singleness. That circling pattern of the loss of a job. Maybe you got passed over for a promotion.

Maybe the mission board turned down your application. The circling pattern of infertility. The circling pattern of being a student or an intern when you want to be doing something significant. The circling pattern of praying for a loved one to come to faith. God says don't give up because I'll fight for you, but I want you to obey. Well, Joshua leads him through this and many other conquests in the book of Joshua. And then he ends the book this way. Go all the way to the last chapter, chapter 24.

Let me show you this real quick. Chapter 24, Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel to shechem, summons all the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they present themselves before God. And Joshua gives his farewell sermon and reminding them of everything that God had said and all the things that God had done for them.

And then Joshua closes his farewell sermon like this. Now therefore fear the Lord, the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away those gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt.

My question there is why do they still have them? And serve the Lord. If it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, then choose this day whom you will serve.

Make up your mind. Is it the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Then the people answered, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Joshua said to the people, you are not able to serve the Lord.

Talk about a dud ending. I mean, imagine that at the end of a political rally or, you know, like in ESPN, they take you into the coach's locker room at halftime. So you got your Roy Williams in there with the team.

He's like, guys, we got 20 minutes. They're bigger. They're stronger. They're faster. They're better shooters, which is why we're going to lose because you guys ain't got it.

They're just better than you are. So we might as well hang it up going out there and endure it. It'll be over soon.

What kind of speech is that? That is exactly the way Joshua ends this book. Joshua, listen, like Moses, has been unable to lead the people to be courageous.

This book of the Bible ends like every single book of the Old Testament. Another Joshua. Another Joshua is going to have to come. This Joshua is going to give you the courage to actually obey all the way because this Joshua is going to show you in even clearer ways that he was fighting for you because the real city that stood in our way was not Jericho. It was the city of our sin and the curse of death that was upon us.

And Jesus, by the way, which is just the Greek version of the name Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus. Jesus, when he shows up, he says, you can't lift a finger to take this city down. I got to do it for you.

There's nothing you can do. I'll do it for you. And so we went to the cross and the Bible tells us that when he dies, he shouted with a loud voice. He lifted up his voice and he shouted. And when he did so, he knocked down not walls of brick and mortar, but he knocked down the wall of eternal separation from God, the sword of our judgment that he carried in his hands.

He turned on himself and placed in his own heart. And then he said to us, just watch, just watch and believe and shout in worship. You see, that's what it means to be a Christian is you just shout, I believe. I believe that you did what you said you did when you knocked down these walls. I believe Jesus when you died, you knocked out this wall of separation. And when you shout, I believe the walls of separation between you and God fall down immediately.

And then for the rest of your life, you just keep shouting, I believe. Listen, listen, you keep shouting, I believe that if you won that battle for me, then you will also give me the power to live the Christian life. You'll give me the power to be a good husband or to be a good dad or a good mom. You'll give me the power to accomplish your will in my career, to be a faithful witness, to overcome temptation, to face cancer victoriously, to endure this season with patience and joy and victory. Because if you knock down the biggest city of all my condemnation, then surely you will take care of these lesser cities like cancer.

I'm sure that you'll do it because if you did the bigger, you'll do the lesser. The Christian life is not you for Jesus. It is Jesus for you and then Jesus in you and through you. We obtain victory in life not by superior battle techniques, but by constantly declaring our belief that he overcame the greatest battle of all for us and that he will continue to do so through us as we let him fight for us. All it takes for you to succeed in this season of your life in any arena of your life is for you to surrender, for you to have the courage to obey and not give up, and for you to have the patience to wait on God.

That's what it takes. And that's the secret to true success. A countercultural message, but much needed truth from God's word today.

You're listening to Pastor JD Greer on Summit Life. Pastor JD, since the beginning of the year, we've focused heavily on ways to create a solid start. A firm beginning to the year that applies to all areas of our faith. Our newest resource is no exception.

Yeah, that's right, Molly. As we kick off a new year, it's like hitting the big reset button and what you said just really hits the nail on the head. We want to help people partner with them to build a firm foundation of scripture in their lives. If you're somebody that you're like, I would love to know scripture more and I'd love to be able to have that kind of recall. We have a little set of Summit Life memory verse cards that are one of my most valuable tools in equipping myself with the gospel.

It's literally something I've done since I was a kid. Memorize verses on a consistent clip. This is an opportunity that'll give you a way to do it with your spouse, with your kids, or just yourself.

You know, putting them on the fridge, carrying them in the car, a little two and a half, about three and a half cards. The official Summit Life memory verse cards for the year, you can do them one a week. It's a great tool. We would love to get you started on this this year. So reach out to us at jdgreer.com and we can get that conversation started for you. We'd love for you to request our newest Summit Life resource when you give today to support this ministry. Ask for your set of the 2025 scripture memory cards by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or request them when you give online or when you make your first gift as a monthly gospel partner at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitevich. Be sure to listen again Friday when Pastor JD walks us through the story of a woman who lost everything, but she found hope to carry her through, even in her darkest hour. If you need a dose of hope, listen Friday to Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program is produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.