Entitled Summer Classics: Timeless Truths from Scripture. And over the course of the summer, we are looking at some of the most familiar passages of scripture that if you grew up in church and if you grew up in Sunday school, you probably heard a lot of these stories. And for whatever reason, over the course of time, we kind of lose sight of the importance and the relevancy of these stories. And sometimes we think that these are only applicable to the kids in the other building or the teenagers in the other building. And sometimes we just don't talk about them enough here.
And so over the summer, we're looking at some very familiar, timeless truths from. From scripture. And I want to give you a little bit of a T so you can kind of see what we're going to talk about here today. I've done this a few times. And so, if I was to give you a hint, it is in the Old Testament, by the way, so that'll kind of get your mind in gear so that you can guess what we're going to talk about here today.
But the hint that I will give you, and you see if you can tell me the story, is this: what we're going to look at today is that the Israelites. If I were to tell you they got their steps in before the victory, what story would you think that we're talking about today? Jericho, very good. You guys got it. Joshua and Jericho.
So if you have your Bible, go to Joshua chapter number six. Joshua chapter number six. As you're turning there, I'm going to tell you briefly as a way of introduction about one of my favorite movies, okay? And it is the movie Hoosiers. You'll see a picture up on the screen.
How many of you have seen the movie Hoosiers before? And many of you, if you're under the age of probably 30, you probably might not have seen it. And if you had great parents, they would show it to you. All right.
So I'm just going to tell you. And I've seen this. And this is one of my favorite movies came out in the 80s. And And in this story, it's all about a high school basketball team. And this basketball team, varsity basketball team, the high school was super small.
The facilities were super small. Nobody expected this high school to do much of anything. And they get a new coach to come in, and he starts coaching them, and they begin to win. And remember, they're in this small rural town, real small, that kind of thing. And they begin to win so much to the point that they end up making the state.
Championship. And the state championship there in Indiana was played in a massive. Arena. in front of thousands upon thousands of people in this arena, a bigger arena than any of these players had ever seen, let alone played in. And if you've seen the movie, they go, and the day before the basketball game, the team gets to go in and look.
at this massive stadium that they are going to play the state championship in. And the players, they come in and they begin to look at the size of the stadium and the stands and the amount of people that are going to fill this place the next day and watch them play basketball. And you can almost sense, as you're watching the movie, you can sense they were intimidated by the size of the arena. They were intimidated by the amount of people that were going to gather and watch them play.
So the coach comes out and he asks for a tape measure. And if you remember the story, He measures from the rim down to the floor, which is standard ten foot. And then he measures from the front of the rim all the way to the free throw line, which is 15 feet. And you say, why would he do something like that? Here's why.
Is because what he wanted to show them was that the basics of basketball do not change. Regardless of the size stadium that you're playing in. The basics of the game of basketball in that, hey, listen, we're shooting on a 10-foot goal in this huge arena as much as we did in the really small arena that they played their home games in. And the basics of basketball don't change regardless of the Of the obstacles in front of them. Here's the point why I wanted to start out with that series or with that story as we get rolling here today.
It's this. That is also true in your spiritual life. In your relationship with God, here's what you have to understand: the basics. Of trusting and following Jesus in your life do not change. with the size of the obstacles that are in front of you.
The basics stay the same. The basics of following God are true if the obstacle is small, as much as it is true. If the obstacle is really, really big. And so today we're going to look at this familiar summer classic story that we're looking at: Joshua and Jericho here today. And so, Joshua chapter 6, we'll read the first five verses and then I'll give you a little bit of thoughts about this here today.
It says this: now, Jericho. was straightly shut up. Because of the children of Israel. None went out. And none came in.
And the LORD said unto Joshua. I have given into thine hand Jericho and the king thereof. As well as the mighty men of valor, and ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war. and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do that six days.
and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams horns, and the seventh day ye shall come past the city seven times, And the priest shall blow. with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horns. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet. All the people shall shout.
With a great shout. And the wall of the city shall fall down flat And the people shall ascend up every man. Straight. Before before him.
Now, a couple of things that I want you to understand about this familiar story is first of all, Jericho, and you see it right here in verse number one: Jericho was a fortified city. In fact, the city was built in such a way to keep enemies out, specifically, it mentions here in verse number one, to keep the Israelites out. You say, why is that? It's because you got to understand that the Israelites, God's chosen people, the fame of what God was doing through them, it spread to all the other nations around them. It spread to all the other cities around them, so much to the point that people would build their city and they would build their fortress designed specifically to try to keep them out and to keep them away.
But here's what I'll tell you, and you can do some research on this to get a little bit of a better idea about it. But a lot of the remains of Jericho are still there. You can go see them. I've never had the privilege of going over there, but if you look online, you can see some pictures of the remains of Jericho and some of the ancient city in which we're talking about here today. And there's been through the years a lot of archaeologists, specifically from Germany and some from Great Britain, who have actually gone and they've done some different digs and some things there.
And what they've uncovered was some interesting things about. The city. And they've uncovered what perhaps could have been like this.
So, if you're kind of reading this story and you're familiar with this story and you know this, I want to kind of give you an idea of what these walls might have looked like. In fact, in their research and what they found, these archaeologists came to the conclusion. that there was more than likely Two walls around around Jericho.
So, what they found was there was one outer wall, and then there was one, one, what they called the upper wall. And in between it, there was this embankment in between the two walls. And from ground level all the way to the top of the second wall, they would say that it would range around 40 to 50 feet. Hi. And that's the city that we're talking about.
There's a picture or a drawing, if you would, that I'll show you up on the screen. This is kind of the idea of what many of them in their research, when they kind of found the remains of Jericho, this is what many of them have drawn up to kind of give you a picture of what they believe that the city actually looked like.
So, if you look at this picture up on the screen, you can see that there's two walls. There's one kind of on the lower inside, and there's like two parts to it: one that looks like brick and one that looks like stone. They said that that lower wall was ranging almost 30 feet high right there. And then the upper wall, if you can see it kind of at the top of the picture, that upper wall was an additional about 10 feet high. What they found in their remains is this: there were homes, it looks like that was.
In the upper, but also some that were in that middle sphere. And their estimations is that there was probably somewhere around 1,500 people that lived within the city of Jericho. And here's what's interesting: in the remains of Jericho, they said that all of Jericho was only about six to eight acres. 1,500 people.
Some of you guys here in Davidson County, you're like, man, I got five acres right there. Could you imagine 1,500 people living in your backyard? And so they would build these houses, much like what we would call probably a townhouse. And many of them would share the wall, and they would pack people in. But this is an idea of what it could have.
Could have looked like, but here's the point. This city was completely like you could not, the Bible says nobody could get in and nobody could get out. In other words, in other words, conquering Jericho. Was was impossible. Humanly speaking, there was no way for the nation of Israel to ever get on the other side of that wall.
There wasn't a good enough strategy. There wasn't a good enough battle plan. There was no way that they could ever sneak in and try to attack them. This city was built in such a way that it would keep the Israelites. Ow.
It was fortified and it was Secure. And yet here, God. He tells them that he's given the city of Jericho over into the hand of. of the Israelites. And so God gives Joshua the battle plan.
And we know the battle plan. And the battle plan was this: you're going to march around. In silence. This is why I know that the Israelites could not have been Baptists because they had to walk around in silence. And there's no Baptist that could ever walk around in silence, right?
That's a joke.
Some of you are looking at me like, is that true? No, I don't really believe that, okay? But here's what I'm telling you.
So the battle plan that God gave Joshua was this: they would walk around the city of Jericho. They walk around it once a day. for six days. Complete silence. And then on the seventh day, they'd walk around seven days.
And on that final time, that final lap. Around the city of Jericho, they would blow their trumpets. They had the ram's horns there that they would blow. and that all the Israelites would shout. And God would give them the victory.
Now, one specific or one specific point that he mentions is that the Ark of the Covenant would go before them. The Ark of the Covenant was where God's presence dwelled. If you remember, they're in the tabernacle in the most holy place. The Ark of the Covenant was there, and God's presence would dwell above that. And so God's presence was going before them, and then all of them would march.
And here's the thing. I want you to think really and put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites or put yourself in the shoes of Joshua. Who got this battle plan from the Lord and had to go deliver this back to? The Army. Think about how bizarre This plan really was.
Think about how bizarre it'd be like this. You know, I um I coach basketball here, David Iverson and I. We coach the middle school basketball team here at our school. And could you imagine, you know, getting, if I was to get all of our team in the locker room before the game, and, you know, I kind of begin, you know, to draw on the whiteboard the battle plan that we're going to do. Perhaps we're playing a team that we're not expected to beat, maybe a team better than us or whatever.
And so the boys are a little intimidated. I said, guys, here's the battle plan for today. And I begin to draw it out here. I'm like, here's what we're going to do. The five of you that are going to get on the court, our starters, you guys, here's what you're going to do.
You're going to start at the beginning of the game, right at the opening tip. I want you five to just start jogging around the edge of the court. And I want you guys to just start singing as loud as you possibly can the song, What a Mighty God We Serve. And you just kind of go around, what a mighty God we serve. And you're going all around and you're doing the motions and all this kind of stuff.
And here's what you're going to do: you're going to do that for the entire game. And here's what's going to happen: we're going to defeat the enemy. Could you imagine? What my team would look. First of all, I'd probably not be the coach very long if that was my strategy.
But as crazy as that is, I want you to understand we need to put ourselves here because the Israelites lived this. For you and I, we know the end of the story. We know that as crazy of a battle plan as this is, we knew that right now as you kind of came to this story, you knew God's going to make this happen. And you knew the end result. But for them, when they received this, They didn't know how God was going to do this.
They didn't understand it. And so they're sitting there thinking, What in the world? You know, because if you read any of your Old Testament, the Israelites struggled to trust God. They struggled to live in obedience to God. They struggled to believe God and to trust in him.
You know, no doubt, that some of them. Doubted. The battle plan that God gave them. But if you drop down to verse 20. We're not going to read what you what you learn in verses six through nineteen is is what they did was they obeyed.
They obeyed. And the nation of Israel they begin their walk around the city day one. Day two. Day three, four, five, six. And day seven.
And then in verse number 20 of Joshua 6, here's what the word says.
So the people shouted when the priest blew with the trumpets, and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout. that the wall fell down flat.
So that the people went up into the city. every man straight before him. And they took. The city. They took the city.
God did this miraculous thing through the most bizarre battle plan you could imagine.
So, what do we learn from this summer classic? You know, this story that you guys have learned in children's church and that kind of thing. What can we learn, and how does this apply to us here today, regardless of your age? I want to give you about four. Thoughts that I think will help you.
If you take notes, you can write these down. But here's some lessons, if we were to title them this way: lessons from Jericho. Here's number one. What we learn here is that impossible Obstacles. in your life.
Can serve as incredible opportunities for God to work in your life. Let me say that again. Impossible. obstacles in your life Can serve as incredible opportunities. for God to work in your life.
Now in this story, and I know we talked about the city a little bit, but in this story, I want you to understand Jericho, they had these massive walls. It was fortified. Nobody could get in. Nobody could get out. And so I want you to understand the reason why scripture specifically mentions that is because I think it's painting a picture of the human impossibility that this was.
In other words, there was no way for Israel in their own strength to get into the city of Jericho. There wasn't a good enough battle plan. There wasn't a good enough strategy. There wasn't a good enough army or enough warriors or anything like that to ever get into the city of Jericho. And so what we see here is an impossibility or an obstacle that is bigger than the nation of Israel.
And here's what I want every single one of you to understand. Is that we all have Jerichoes in our life, don't we? Every single one of you, you came in here today. With the Jericho.
Now, let's talk about those for just a moment. What does the obstacle or what does the Jericho look like in your life? For some of you, here's what it might mean: it might mean a wayward child. Maybe you have a son or a daughter that you raised to love the Lord. And when they got old enough to make their own decisions, they walked away from the faith, they walked away from the Lord, and now they're doing their own thing.
And what keeps you up at night and what brings about a level of stress and an obstacle in your life. Is it a wayward child, or perhaps is it a broken marriage? Is it a broken marriage in your life? Is it addiction? Is it fear about a big decision that you have to make?
And when you kind of count the cost and you look at the decision that's in front of you, you look at it and it is a giant and it is too big and it's a huge obstacle in your life. Perhaps your Jericho is a sin that you continually go back to. It's something that you constantly go back to and you can't get victory over it. And you're trying your best to overcome it and you just can't. Or perhaps it's a test.
at your school that you're trying to pass. Or something in your life. You know, I can't mention them all, but every single one of you, here's what I want you to know: you have a Jericho in your life. It might be a medical thing, it might be a relational type of aspect. It might be something, but here's the thing: we all have Jerichoes in our life.
And here's what Jericho is here in the story: what you have to understand: Jericho was the thing. that stood between the nation of Israel. And what God had for them. Do you understand that? Jericho was the thing that stood between the nation of Israel.
and God's promises for them.
So they have an obstacle in front of them, a humanly speaking impossibility that is in front of them. But here's what's interesting about it: before Israel, even showed up to battle Jericho. God had already spoken the outcome. You understand that? Before Israel even showed up to battle Jericho, listen, God had already spoken the outcome.
In verse number two of our text, he says this to Joshua: He says, I have given into your hand Jericho. In other words, the outcome was decided before Israel even showed up. to battle. And listen, here's what I want you to know about your obstacle. Is that the outcome's already been decided?
God has already pronounced victory for you and for me. And there's victory on the other side. There's a promise of God on the other side of the obstacle that's in your life. There's a promise on the other side of Jericho. You see, here's what I'll tell you about our Lord: God sees victory.
before Israel ever saw movement. Listen to that. God saw victory and pronounced victory before Israel ever saw any movement. Before a wall came down? Before a crack happened in the wall, before a lap was even been made.
God saw victory. You say, What do we learn from this? Here's the point: is sometimes for you and for me, if you're like me, our problem is that a lot of times we're looking at the size of the obstacle, aren't we? You're telling God how big your obstacle is. You're telling God how impossible.
the obstacle in front of you is, how impossible the mountain to climb in front of you is. And our problem is, a lot of times we look to progress, we look to movement, and we look to obstacles. More than we look to the promises. of God. And here's what we learned.
Is that when you see an impossibility, Don't forget. The incredible Opportunity. That this gives God to do something special and miraculous in your life. Number two. And you know this, God's instructions don't always make sense.
God's instructions don't always make sense. If you've served the Lord for any length of time, you would understand that this is true. That sometimes the way God chooses to work, it's different. The way that God chooses to work things out. Like when I look at my life and where I'm at today, I can go back to the last, you know, 15, 20 years.
I would have designed my life a little bit differently than the Lord. And when you look at your life, you would probably say, hey, God could have done without that, you know, or could have done without this moment or whatever. But what we learn is that God's instructions for our life don't always make a lot of sense. I mean, here in this story, you don't see. Weapons I mean, no swords, no knives, no ladders, nothing.
Here's what it is. Grab your trumpets, right? Grab the ram's horns. And make sure that you bring your running shoes. And make sure you bring a shout.
And those walls are coming down. Can you imagine that? Like the Israelites, they were warriors. They had gone out and they had defeated people with swords and things like that. And here, God's like, hey, you don't need any of that stuff.
All you need to do is show up and do this. Listen, sometimes God uses methods. that remove all possibility of human credit in your life. You see, what God wanted here was this to be such an impossibility and such an unconventional battle plan.
So that everybody in the nation of Israel knew what? That the Israelites were special. That Joshua was a great leader? No. What they wanted more than any of those things was for everybody to know that there was a God in Israel.
That there was a one true God in Israel, and that's no different than your life. Listen, whatever obstacle you have in your life, here's what I want you to know about that obstacle.
Sometimes God is going to give you instructions that don't make a whole lot of sense.
So, that when you come on the other side of your obstacle and you're looking at it in your rearview mirror, that the only one that can get credit and the only one that can get glory from it is the Lord. That's what he wants to do in your life. Number three, Faithfulness is repetitive. Faithfulness It is repetitive. Can you imagine for a moment being in the nation of Israel?
I mean, the battle plan's bizarre enough, right? But think about What they were like after day three. You know, they're They finish their walk their lap around. They head back, you know, it's getting dark. They get the fire going.
You know, they open the s'mores pack, and they're doing some s'mores. They're having this conversation with one another. Like, man, this is. Weird. Like, all we're being told is to walk around this place in complete silence.
And nothing's happening. Can you imagine what it was like to go back to the nation of Israel after day one, two, three, four, five, six? And all six days you head back to your camp, and nothing's happened. There wasn't a crack in the wall, there wasn't any wall shaking, there was no death, there was nothing. Everything is as it was the day that they.
They started. How many of you would wanta wanted to quit, right? This seems pointless. Like, what good are we doing? We would all want that.
And you say, why is that? Here's why. Because in your life and my life, it's also true. And for the Israelites. The reason why so many of us would have probably quit is because we all want instant Results Don't worry.
We want instant we don't like to wait. We don't like to wait on God. We don't like to wait on anything. Like, we don't like to wait on anything. I mean, I get frustrated anytime I have to wait.
If my family's not ready and I'm ready to leave the house, I'm ready to leave the house, right? I don't like to wait. I don't like to wait in a drive-through line. I don't, I mean, I literally look at my microwave and watch it count down. And I mean, I'm like so impatient.
We don't like to wait, but in your spiritual life, when you follow God, here's the thing. A lot of us, we struggle to live in obedience to God because we're struggling with waiting on Him because we all like instant. Results. And so the challenge is: this: faithfulness is the goal. And so, whatever that obstacle is in front of you, keep praying about it.
Don't stop. Keep showing up. Keep serving. Keep believing. Keep attending.
Keep leading. Keep giving. Keep everything that we've done. What is it in your life that you've stopped doing because you've lost? Faith and trust.
and what God's trying to do in your life. What is it? What's the obstacle in front of you? Maybe it is the way we're a child, and you prayed, and it didn't happen. Or maybe it's the doctor's appointment.
You prayed, didn't happen. And maybe it's this. And what have we done? Man, we've lost sight. We're like day three and we've stopped.
For some of you, you started praying and you prayed one time for something and it didn't happen right away and you got frustrated and you never prayed for it again. What the lesson here is this: faithfulness is repetitive. Don't stop, don't quit. And here's why: is because perseverance. Often comes.
Before The breakthrough. Isn't that true? Before the wall comes down, what God's trying to do is teach you perseverance. He's trying to teach you and build in you faithfulness. He's trying to build in us discipline.
And what we learn in a relationship with God when we follow him is that a lot of times before the walls come down, before the breakthrough happens, before you climb the mountain, before the giant in front of you falls, A lot of times it's perseverance. It's staying at it. It's continuing to show up. Even when maybe the wall hasn't came crashing. Down.
You see What I think About faithfulness is this. When I look at this story. The Israelites, what they didn't see? was that God was working every single lap that they took. Think about that.
Like every time they showed up, they woke up and said, All right, we're doing this again. Got my running shoes on. And they started marching around just silence. Here's what I'm saying. God was working every single lap.
Of the way. And for some of you that have continued to pray for something and it's not happened, don't stop. Faithfulness is repetitive, and God is working every time you show up, every time you show up for your family, every time you pray for something, God is working every single lap. Do not stop. And then finally, number four.
The ultimate obstacle, and don't miss this. The ultimate obstacle. It wasn't Jericho. It was Israel's obedience. We read this story, and like if you're like me, You read this story and you immediately know what the obstacle is.
It's the city of Jericho. Right? That's what we think. And here's what I'm telling you: the deeper lesson for the Israelites was this: it wasn't the city of Jericho. It wasn't the walls around Jericho.
It wasn't the people that lived within Jericho. The ultimate obstacle in front of the nation of Israel. It was their obedience. Were they going to live in obedience to God? Were they going to be faithful to Him?
Were they going to trust? In God. Their ultimate obstacle wasn't Jericho. And here's what I want you to understand. You can define your obstacle as any of those things we mentioned.
Addiction, a situation with a friend, a class you're trying to pass, a wayward child, a marriage that needs to be healed, a medical thing in your life, or something, whatever. You can define your obstacle, but here's what I want you to know about following God. Your ultimate obstacle is not the thing that just came to your mind. Your ultimate obstacle is: are you going to live in obedience to God every single day? That's what the nation of Israel realized because, listen, every single lap.
that they took in every silent march That they marched around the city of Jericho. It was this declaration. And by the way, a silent one at that. Right? It was a silent declaration that our trust is in God, our trust is not in us.
So, every time they showed up and they marched around this city of Jericho, it was this internal declaration that we trust in him more than we do ourselves. And every time you get on your knees and you pray, and every time you worship, and every time you come into this place, and every time you live your life to please God, and every time you do the things that you're called to do based on scripture, here's what I'm telling you: every lap you take in your relationship with God, and every silent march that you take in your relationship with God, it is a declaration that we trust in him more than we do ourselves. You see, the ultimate thing of what I see here is this: that God. Wasn't just Knocking down walls for Jared or for the Israelites. He wasn't just giving them into their hand.
Here's what he was doing. He was building the faith. of the Israelites. You see, God wasn't just knocking down walls. He was building faith.
And you know what he wants to do in your life? Is this? He wants to build your faith. He wants to build your trust. He wants to build your obedience.
So, whatever obstacle is in your life, what God's trying to do, He does want to take care of the obstacle. Yes, He does want giants to fall in your life. Yes, He wants, you know, buildings to fall in your life and that kind of thing, and all the obstacles in front of you. He gets that, and He wants you to experience breakthrough. But more importantly than any of those things, is this: it's not the walls coming tumbling down.
What it is? Is he wants to build Your fate. And trust. in him. And unfortunately, Here's what I'll tell you.
Unfortunately, when we follow Jesus. Every one of us, we love The Fallen Wall Story? We love the breakthrough. We love the giant falling, and we rejoice in that. And I do too.
But none of us Want the seven days of walking. Isn't that true? We want the walls to fall. You want your obstacle to be conquered. You want the battle to be won.
You want the obstacle to fall and for the obstacle to go away, but here's what I will tell you. Is this? Everyone loves the Fallen Walls story. But no one wants the seven days of walking. And sometimes, what God is doing in your life, He puts obstacles in front of you as opportunities for God to work in your life.
And what He's going to command you to do is, He's going to command you to do things and to make decisions and to be faced with things that are just difficult in your life. And he wants you to, in essence, like the children of Israel, to make laps. and to walk laps. Because As we love to celebrate breakthrough, What our God loves to celebrate. is faithfulness.
Yeah.
