Follow the Promises: The Battle for Surrender before the Battle for Victory

What if the fastest way to victory is to stop running and kneel? Walking through Joshua 4–5, we explore how God slows an eager nation on the brink of Jericho to secure a deeper win: remember His grace, cut away reliance on the flesh, and bow before holy presence. We start with the memorial of twelve stones—a public, generational sign that the Jordan’s miracle is about God’s action, not human effort. Like communion, it centers our story on the cross so we have something solid to hold when the river runs low and life feels dry.

From there, the text gets uncomfortably practical. On hostile ground, God commands circumcision—a stunning picture of renouncing self-salvation. We name four signs that the flesh is steering: self-effort, legalism, anxiety, and comparison. Each is confronted and “cut off” by faith as we receive the Spirit’s power and let grace define our identity. Then the manna stops. Not because God withdraws love, but because He invites maturity. We move from surviving on daily drops to harvesting the land, savoring the richness of Scripture, and partnering with God in the growth He supplies.

Finally, Joshua meets the Commander of the Lord’s army. “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” “No.” The holy answer reframes everything: the question is not whether God joins our plan, but whether we yield to His. Shoes come off. Worship begins. Strategy will follow, but surrender leads. When we remember the cross, submit the flesh, and bow before Jesus, shame is rolled away, courage rises without bravado, and obedience becomes the path of peace. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us which step—remembering, submitting, or bowing—hits home for you today.

Transcript

Why Preseason Drills Matter

Stones Of Remembrance And Grace

Celebrating The Cross Over Self

Crossing Complete And God’s Timing

Memorials For Future Droughts

Witness To The World And Humility

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Let's open up our Bibles and open up our mind and our heart to God's truth. We're going to be in Joshua chapter four and five, which is we're going through the book of Joshua. And these these chapters are going to blow your mind. Okay. So let's pray and we'll get started on our sermon, Following the Promises, the Battle of Surrender before the battle of victory. That's what we're going to talk about today. The battle of surrender that comes before the battle of victory. Father, we love you. And Lord, I pray that before we ever think about winning a battle, before we ever think about our victory, God, we would lose a battle, that we would surrender to you, that we would be conquered by you in every area of our life so that we can know our Heavenly Father and the life that comes from living in your presence. In your name we pray. Amen. All right. I love football. Amen. Who else loves football? Okay. The Bears, yeah. I love football so much that I actually like pre-season. I'm a sicko. Okay. I told my wife I gotta watch the Broncos preseason games, right? And when we moved here, and she's like, what? And I uh you have to pay like uh the little NFL plus thing just to watch the preseason game. So I paid four dollars to watch all the preseason games, and it's dumb because preseason sucks. Okay. Even after I got it, I was like, uh, I probably didn't need to do this. Because I'm not none of the real players are playing. It's I like games that count. I like games that count. So why is there a preseason? The crowd doesn't care. The jerseys kind of look the same, but not really. The the purpose of the preseason is completely different from the regular season and the playoffs, right? In preseason, the coach isn't trying to beat the other team. He's trying to expose his own team. Who's undisciplined? Who won't follow instructions, who can't execute the basics, who's more concerned about their own vanity, their own image than their assignment. So the the coach runs drills, he and these are painful drills, these are monotonous drills, uncomfortable drills, not because he hates his team, but because the real battle is coming, right? The real season is coming. If you skip the preseason, the real game is gonna humiliate you. Israel wants Jericho. They're coming in to Jericho, they've been promised Jericho, they know Jericho is the battle that's coming. We're gonna get there. But God is gonna fight their flesh first. They think their battle is out there, and God says the battle, the real battle is right here in their heart. God is never, ever in a hurry. Okay, so last week we studied that they crossed over the Jordan and now they're just like, all right, let's go, let's, and God's like, stop, wait. And it's weird, right? Because God's never in a hurry. He knows that before we have we do something for him, we have to be something with him right there. So so he's gonna take time, God is, in our two chapters we're gonna study today, to conquer Israel spiritually before he lets them conquer the enemies under Joshua's guidance in the land. So before they ever swing a sword at the enemy, he's gonna have them do three things we're gonna study today. He makes them build a memorial, he makes them submit their flesh to him, and number three, he makes them bow before the commander of the Lord's army. So we're gonna see those three things. God makes them not fight, but do those three things. And we'll uh so why should you listen to God's word today? Well, some of you have been asking for victory for a long time. But God is asking for your surrender today. And he will wait, he's gonna give you the victory. You will have that victory, but he will wait until surrender happens first in your life. Hmm, interesting. Look, surrender is always the path to grace, which is how God gives us his victory. So let's start reading in Joshua chapter 4. It came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them, saying, Take for yourself twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priest's feet stood firm. So right, remember the priest held the Ark of the Covenant. So right in that spot he wanted them to take twelve stones. And uh, you shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight. And Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe, and he said to them, Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over to the place where they lodged, and they laid them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there till this day. So here is the first non-battle battle that we see. This is a non-battle, but God's doing something here. God tells them to build a memorial to the miracle of crossing the Jordan. Why? Because, as we learned last week, this battle, this uh crossing the Jordan was the transition for this entire nation from wandering in the desert under this law-based relationship with God, where everything was rules, to this new life that God wants to give them of a life of faith in God, where God is giving them victory. They're not trying to earn it by keeping his commandments. Okay, because they were terrible at that. They they broke all of them. They were they were bad. So God wants this new truth, this transition, which is like being enlightened or coming to understand God's grace. He wants this to be celebrated as the center point of their new life, the the very purpose of their new life. It's not about us anymore and us following God's Ten Commandments, God's rules. It's not about that anymore. It's about what he is gonna do for us. It's about what God does, not what we do for him primarily. Then we will do great things for him as our confidence is in him primarily. So that's how this works. So they put these 12 stones in the river and they take 12 stones out of the river, and it's kind of confusing what they do with 12 stones. And is there 12 stones or 24 stones? I don't know. You can get lost down. Um whatever. They're celebrating. They like listening to the Rolling Stones, I guess, maybe. Um and they celebrate where where they were delivered, the very spot that they were delivered. Now, if this isn't a picture of our life, where were we delivered? Where were you saved? At the cross. There's a hill in Jerusalem. I've been there. It's called Golgotha. And there's a there's a formation and it looks like a skull. The word Galgotha literally means the hill of the skull or the place of the skull. And if you go there, you can kind of see it right on top of that. That's where Jesus was crucified, and that is the place where your deliverance happened. So, what do we remember when we are told to celebrate Jesus? We are supposed to remember the cross. We're supposed to remember the cross. In Luke 22, Jesus sitting down with his disciples right before he's crucified, he says, He took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them and said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. What's he saying? He's saying, I want you to celebrate the new Passover, the new sacrifice, which the new salvation happens where my body is broken. That's on the cross. So when we're Tuesday night, when you guys all come out to the art lounge at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, and you have communion with us, we're gonna have bread, we're gonna break the bread, we're gonna have grape juice, and we are gonna celebrate the cross. And we're gonna pray. And I hope that this connects with that. Why do we this is why we celebrate communion? This is why. Because we are told to celebrate what Jesus did. His sacrifice delivers us into our promised land. If you're seeking peace, if you're seeking victory, you cannot get it by trying harder. You cannot find it by being a better person, by by following some rule. It is only found at the cross. That's where you will be delivered from any sin, any addiction, anything that God has promised to deliver you from. It will be as you fix your eyes on what Jesus did on the cross and put your whole confidence in him and step forward saying, I believe it's mine, it's done. He does it for you. Can I get an amen? All right. Celebrations matter. Who doesn't love Jill's rum cake on their birthday? I didn't get any on my birthday. And I'm still bitter. All right, I take it. Um you know, celebrating, we have to stop our normal life like you're gonna do Tuesday. And we have to let our hearts delight in something good. You know, when they bring the cake into the office and you want to celebrate because you love the cake, or it's just you let your heart delight, you you stop doing the normal every day, and you let your heart delight in something that's good. Remember that the father in Luke chapter 15 when Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, and the father took uh his son came back after years of wandering, and he took the fatted calf and he killed the fatted calf, and he threw a party. Because he loves celebrating us. And he he says, You can celebrate me and my love too. We celebrate each other, and that's the essence of a really positive relationship. Um God chooses to celebrate us instead of making us work for his forgiveness. Think about that prodigal son. He could have got the the father could have said, All right, you're back, you screwed up. Now I'm not gonna love you until you give me five years of perfect work. He could have said that, but he didn't because that's not how God loves. That's not how his grace works. His grace forgives completely, washes it away, and then lifts us up, puts a ring on our finger, a robe on our, and he celebrates us saying, You are my son, you're alive. Come and celebrate with me. Celebrate the total victory. It's so good to celebrate. When you celebrate, you have to do two things. You have to, number one, you have to stop working. Number two, you have to remember him instead of yourself. Is God bringing up all of your past mistakes? No. Once it's forgiven, once it's washed away in the precious blood of Jesus that can cleanse every sin, once that happens, it is gone forever and God will never bring it up again. He just celebrates you. He said, You are my son. You weren't dead, now you're alive. Oh, he loves to celebrate us. And he asks that we stop our lives to celebrate him as well. Because that's what a good relationship with God looks like. All right. Verse 10 So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed over. I can just picture them all. Hey, let's hurry. Then it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people. And the men of Reuben, the men of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh crossed over, uh armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. About 40,000 prepared for war, crossed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho. On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him, as they feared Moses all the day of his life. It means they respected him, honored him. And then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan. So Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up from the Jordan. And they and it came to pass when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, that the soles of the feet, uh priests' feet touched the dry land, and the waters of the Jordan returned to the pl their place and overflowed all its banks as before. So I want you to just remember we studied two weeks ago that the Ark of the Covenant represents Jesus himself. Everything about it is a picture of Jesus. So go back and listen to that if you're like Ark of the Covenant, Jesus, that's weird. It's it's really important for you to understand everything that's going on. Jesus, if we take this picture, stood in the water the whole time. He stood in the water the whole time. He never left them. Jesus never hurried them. They were all and Jesus was like, it's all right. I got you. Okay? Someone's phone's ringing. Um this is a picture of the love that Jesus has for us. He keeps calling and calling, and he never lets you go. Amen. Right. All right, so then now the river gets flooded again. So so think about it. They just put 12 stones right there in the middle of the river. You can't see them anymore. So what's the purpose of them? What's the point? These are the type of questions I want you to ask when you're reading the Bible. Well, this week. What was the purpose? What was the purpose of this drill in their pre-season? Because this is the pre-season for the children of Israel. Well, when are when would they see this again? When does the river shrink down? In times of drought. In times of drought. Celebrate your salvation now because the days will come when you're gonna be in a drought. The days are gonna come when you're gonna need to remember it, when everything's gonna feel like it's against you and God has abandoned you. You are gonna need to remember the salvation of God. Those dark and dry days are coming. You've gone through them before. And if you've celebrated the Lord's salvation, if you truly celebrated it, that's setting up a memorial in your life. You're gonna remember his salvation. But when we neglect to regularly set our eyes to the cross and remember and celebrate the cross, when we neglect that, when those dark days come, we say, All is lost, my life sucks, and God has abandoned me. And you write a psalm that's all popped down and dumps. That's why Joshua put those stones in there. Because even when there was a drought, he's like, Your God has brought you here, and he is gonna bring the rains. Just remember, he didn't bring you here to kill you. Look at what he's done. But some memorials only come out when it when it's really dry. Some memorials only matter when life sucks the worst. And you'll be like, I can remember that Jesus loves me. All right, look at verse 19. Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. Now, Gilgal in Hebrew words have really fascinating meanings. Gilgal means rolling stone. I kid you not. Roll rolling wheel, rolling stones. I get it. On the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, and he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea. You remember that, guys? Forty years ago, he did the same thing, which he dried up before us when we had crossed over, and all the people of the earth, that all the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, and that you may fear the Lord your God forever. So, why does this memorial matter? He gives us two. Reasons why it matters to remember your salvation. It's for us to remember the cross. Number one, the world sees it. And as we celebrate Jesus, the world is invited into a personal relationship with the real God who really saves. Have you been saved? Then celebrate it because the world is desperately looking for any sign of hope. And if they see a group of people that says, I have been set free, I have been forgiven, my life was junk, my life was trash, my life sought, and now God has forgiven me and set me free. The world takes that and says, Well, first you're crazy, but you have hope that I don't have, and I find that a little bit intriguing. And I'm gonna keep my eye on you, and I'm gonna see if when you celebrate, I'm gonna see if you celebrate when something bad happens to you. So God allows something difficult to come into your life, and you're like, God, why me? But I'm gonna celebrate you anyway. And the world sees this. And the world says, I didn't believe you when you just talked about it, but I believe you because your life celebrates the salvation. Your life celebrates it. And then the second reason he says memorials are important is because it says, and you will fear the Lord your God forever. That is humility. Humility. We grow in humility when we celebrate that we couldn't save ourselves, but God's grace was poured out on undeserving people like us. And he so willingly saved us. So that's humility right there. All right, now chapter five. We're going through chapter five. It says, So it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, they heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over. Their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. Okay, so picture this. So now we're gonna go kick some butt, right? We're gonna go right into victory, right? They're all scared. We can just walk in and win. We're so cool, everything is just set for us to walk right into victory. Wrong. We still got two more things that God, and this one is a doozy. God is now gonna deal with their flesh. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Yeah, make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself, circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the of the four skins, apt name. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. This is kind of an editorial that we get from Joshua. So he like tells us why. He says, All the people who came out of Egypt, all of them who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. So for the 40 years, every single man died except two. Yeah, Caleb and Joshua. Joshua? Caleb and Anna. We'll get to that in a minute. Don't worry. For all the people who had come out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness, wandering, no purpose they did, they weren't even doing what God told them to do. Um and they were consumed because they had not they did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that he would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their for fathers that he would give them a land flowing with milk and honey. Then Joshua circumcised their sons, whom he raised up in their place, for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. Okay, so remember, they came, they crossed the river, they set up their stones, they're like, go fight, win, right? Ra-rah-rah. You guys ever been to a church where it felt like rah-rah-ra? Okay, just know that's not it. That's not it. It's more likely that that's flesh, just trying to excite your flesh. Hey, have you tried harder today? Hey, have you sacrificed a little bit more today? If if you go to church and the feeling you get is, man, I should be doing more. I want you to be very careful. Because the gospel says it is finished. And you guys are well taught. Good job. It is finished. Now that does transform how we behave, absolutely. It transforms what we do. But our focus is never on that. Our focus has to be on the it is finished part, so that that can transform us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how that works. So the rah-rah-ra, you know, it's probably flesh. The flesh is probably in it. If you, if someone's trying to motivate you, if someone's even trying to manipulate you to give or to do more, even to do good things, it doesn't matter. Because circumcision is all about cutting away the flesh. See, spiritually, what this means is they are renouncing dependency on flesh. The entire New Testament spells this out. Romans chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8 is all about this. We all have to get to the point where we realize you have to stop trying to be a good Christian. It is never in the trying because that's flesh. It's in the spirit, which is a free gift. That's how this works. We have to renounce our dependence on the flesh. Back then it was whoops. That's how they did it. They spent 40 years walking in their flesh, trusting their gut, trusting their emotions, walking in their own thoughts and desires. Does that sound sound familiar to anybody? You ever spent a year walking, wandering in the desert, and been like, man, what did I do this year? I did whatever I wanted, and I am spiritually bankrupt. I feel empty, I feel broken, I feel hollow. What is going on? You walk in the flesh, you reap it. You reap what you sow. You walk in the spirit, you reap life. You walk in the flesh, you reap death. Why do I feel like my life is just unsatisfying? You're walking in the flesh. 100%. God says, I'm I'm here to give you an abundant life. It's called my grace, the new covenant. It works every single time for every single person. So if you're not experiencing it, it's on us. We have chosen to not walk in what he has given us. And that might be hard for you to hear. But walking in faith always works. Jesus always works. So if Jesus is saying, I work, I always work, and you're saying it doesn't work for me, guess which one I believe? I believe him. It always, always works. So look what he says. Um, okay, they were trusting in their gut, trusting in their emotions, walking in their own. You know, where did all that walking in the flesh get them? It got them lost. So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. Okay, so let's talk about the circumcision first. Cutting away the flesh is painful. You're telling me, right? In Genesis, there's this crazy story that one of the twelve, two of the twelve tribes of Israel, uh, the brothers, they circumcised an entire town. They made a deal that said, you can marry our women if we circumcise all your men. So they circumcised all the men, and then they just walked in and killed them all because they were all circumcised and laid out on their beds. And it was a crazy story. Go back and read it. Good nighttime reading. Um, but this means in this moment that the entire nation is completely defenseless because all of their men are laid out. So here's God's battle plan. Let's get you right over to where they can attack you, and then I want you to be completely vulnerable, be completely broken, be completely wiped out. Not the best wartime strategy, is it? It's not the best wartime strategy. But God always seems to go against logic. That's how grace works. And he's always more concerned with our hearts being surrendered to him than you feeling strong or great or frisky. He doesn't care how you feel about it, he wants you to be surrendered to him. That means renouncing your flesh and depending on his spirit instead. He's always more concerned with our hearts being surrendered in this way. We renounce our flesh, which is this. I can do it, I can try harder, I can do better, it's up to me. That's that's how you can tell. To show dependence on the flesh is to rely on your own strength. This is how this applies to us. Your own understanding, your own capabilities rather than resting in Jesus and the power of the Spirit in your life. The flesh represents our old pattern of living where we might find ourselves trying to meet our spiritual needs through self-effort or religious performance. You guys ever heard this isn't a religion, it's a relationship about Jesus? It's not a religion, it's a relationship. That's a very true statement. So I want to give you four indicators that you can recognize that you are walking in the flesh. Four things. Number one, self-effort. Self-effort. You're trying to achieve spiritual growth or victory over sin through your own strength instead of trusting in the finished work of Jesus. If you know you've been doing that, here's what you do: get a flint knife and cut it off. The flint knife of faith, we'll call it. Cut it off. Stop the trying, the self-effort. Okay, that's that's sign number one. Sign number two, indicator, is legalism. Believing that rule keeping or adherence to religious laws can earn you favor or earn you, you know, uh God's blessings. And what that the reason why it's so bad is because you're forgetting that you already belong to Christ, and that's a free gift of grace. When Jesus saved you, he forgave how many of your sins? All of them. All of them are forgiven. Can you get any more forgiven? Can you become any more of a child of God? Can you be loved any more than the moment that you believed? Even before that, he loved you, but you're not earning more love from God. And you cannot earn his blessings. He doesn't work that way. That would make him a debtor to you. And he doesn't, he's a father who gives grace to his kids. He doesn't owe anyone anything. But he wants to bless you. He loves blessing you. That's why legalism is so terrible. So what do you do? You take the flint knife of faith and you cut it off. I'm not gonna live by rules anymore. I'm gonna live by his spirit. I'm gonna seek his face instead of his rules. It's so much different. Number three, worry and anxiety can be a sign that we're walking in the flesh, being consumed with concerns and stress rather than casting your cares on Christ and relying upon his love and his sufficiency to meet your needs. He knows the the most comforting verse I ever heard was when Jesus said, Your father knows everything you need before you ask. He knows you need it. He is not trying, the reason you need it is because he wants to meet the need. He wants you to see that he's a good father. Mmm, so good. And if you are struggling with stress and anxiety all the time, cut it off by faith. It is a fleshly thing, cut it off. Ooh, could be painful, doesn't matter. Cut it off. Fourthly, comparing yourself with others. This is a really good one. Looking to others as the benchmark for your spiritual life doesn't work. You need to find your identity in Jesus, in Christ. What does Jesus say about you? That's where we find our identity. You don't compare yourselves with other people. Just what does Jesus say about me? I'm loved, I'm holy, I'm righteous because he made me that. He says I am. I look at myself and I'm like, I am terrible, but I'm gonna believe what he says about me. Cut it off. If you're comparing yourselves with others, cut it off. That's the step of faith. Whoopsh. That's my sound effect. Whoopsh. I'm sure that's what I sounded like. Okay. Now I mentioned Gilgal means a rolling wheel or a rolling stone wheel. And I want you to, every time you see a wheel, I mean, there's so many billions and trillions of wheels in the world. I want, I'm gonna redeem all the wheels in the world right now. Every time you look at a wheel, I want you to remember what he said right here. He said, I'm gonna name this city Gilgal because I have rolled away your shame. So every time you see a wheel rolling, I want you to remember God has rolled away your shame. He loaded up a wheelbarrow. You know, they got one wheel. Let's just do wheelbarrow. He loaded up with all your shame, everything you did, and he wheeled that wheelbarrow to the dump and dumped it out. And he said, You're free, I love you. Then rejoice. Right? Good stuff. All with the name Gilgal. All right, verse 10. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight in the plains of Jericho, and they ate the produce of the land on that day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten of the produce of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate of the food of the land of Canaan that year. So this next surrender that God says is, I've been supernaturally providing this manna. Mana means what is it? But it's like angel food. So while they were wandering in the desert, God was supernaturally keeping them alive with his magic food. And he says, We're not going to do that anymore. I brought you into the premise, promised land, and I want you to work the land. What is this? How does this apply into our life? Um, do you have to read the Bible? No, God will supernaturally keep you with him. Okay, he'll he'll cause you to grow a little bit, but boy, does it taste better when you read your word and and you dig and you discover really juicy fruits and wonderful things through the word of God, and you start to be nourished by the word of God. Amen. It says manna tasted like nothing. It it was just like bland. They they were like, What is this? Well, it'll keep you alive, but it doesn't taste good. That's why you read your Bible, that's why you dig in, because it tastes amazing. When God shows you something and reveals something to your heart and your soul and meets your need by his grace, there is nothing like it in this entire world. You don't read your Bible because you have to, you read it because it tastes good. Amen. Verse 13. It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho. So he's just now get this, okay? So he knows we're we're doing this. And he's by Jericho, he lifts his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us or adversaries? Okay. And he said, No. What? Are you for me or against me? And he's like, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. So Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servants? And then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your the sandal off your foot, for the place which you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Here's 312 Jesus points. Who is this angel? This commander of the Lord's army. It's Jesus. You're like, wait a second. Jesus doesn't come until chapter two. Nope. Jesus shows up all kinds of times in the Old Testament. They're called Christophanes. Okay, where he takes a human form and he speaks to people. How do we know? Well, this angel does something very interesting. He accepts the worship of Joshua. Well, no angels do that. They know very, very when the angels appear to Daniel, uh, Daniel's like, oh, and he falls down, and angels like, get up, don't worship me. I worship God, you worship God. We're all worshiping God. Okay. But this angel's like, bring it. I am. You bet I am. Ah, I am. Ah, that's good. This and and this angel commands all the angels, all the all the angels of the Lord, all the hosts of heaven. He's the commander, and Jesus accepts Joshua's surrender. This is the third great thing that must be done before any victory happens in our life. We have to surrender to the Lord. And look what he uses the exact same language take off the sandal off your foot. What does that remind you of? What other event had this in the last book in Genesis? Moses wandering in a desert finds a bush that's on fire, but it's not consumed. And he The bush speaks to him and it says, I am the Lord. And he says, Take off the sandal off your feet, for the ground which you stand is holy. Guys, we face the same thing today. God's presence is holy. This bar right now has the presence of God and it is holy. Why does he make them take off the sandals off their feet? Because their sandals represented the unholiness, dirtiness. There's no hiding from his holiness. You can't protect yourself by wearing sandals. Take off the sandals. You gotta get foot to ground with him, face to face with him. You can't hide. God is not someone to be messed with, is what this is saying. God told Moses, don't mess with me. I'm I'm here, but I'm I'm scary. I'm dangerous. Don't take it lightly that God is here right now. I'll say it again for the people in the back. Don't take it lightly. Don't ignore what is happening right now. God is dangerous and he sees right through you. He sees right through you. He sees everything you're hiding, he sees everything you're struggling with. He sees everything you're addicted to, and it will not stand in his presence. And if you want victory, you cannot hide. You can't hide, you cannot hide. You can hide nothing. He sees right through you. He says, in my presence, if you're gonna surrender to me, the last battle that has to happen is you have to get on your knees and you have to give everything to me. Full, complete surrender. I have been running my life. I have been wandering. I have been turning to alcohol when I should not. I have been turning to pornography when I should not. I've been turning to relationships when I should not. I have turned to all kinds of things that are sin and that are not God's plan for my life. And I will do nothing but bow on my knees and open myself to you, God. God have mercy on me. God, I surrender everything to you. I surrender everything to you. I cannot you cannot hold anything back from God. My prayer is that in this room we go into this promised land. I pray that we're celebrating Jesus with all our heart every day, not just on Tuesday. I pray that we cut off fleshly things, confidence in our flesh, confidence in ourselves, cut them off. And above all, I pray that we bow before the commander of the Lord's armies and say, What do you have for me? I've been living my life for far too long. If you want me to walk into Jericho or whatever you have for me, I will do whatever you command. That is full complete surrender. And God says, if you give me your heart, if you give me full complete surrender, no matter how scary that is, I will deliver you. I will do whatever it takes to protect you, care for you, and I will use you in a mighty way. I look around this room, and the things that God could do around the earth with just the people in this room is incalculable. I love that word because I can never say it right. I mean, he took 12 guys and he changed the entire world. If we fully surrender to him, you have no idea what God would do through your life. But maybe you do have to quit your job. Maybe you do have to make a radical, maybe you do have to cut off some major parts of your flesh. Yeah, it might be painful. But I'm telling you, it is always worth it to be on the right team, to be on the side of the God of the universe who is dangerous and holy. And he said, I am inviting you to my team, but it's got to be this it's got to be full and complete surrender. Okay, so here's been our lesson today. Before God ever lets you swing a sword at the enemy, before he ever lets you have a bit of victory, you're gonna have to see three things in your life. Number one, you have to build a memorial, you have to remember where your salvation comes from. The cross. Number two, you have to submit your flesh to him, just like they did. You gotta cut off all dependence on self. Number three. You have to bow before the commander of the Lord's army. This is the battle that no one remembers before the battle that we're gonna get to next week that everybody knows about. VeggieTales did a story about what we're talking about next week. I mean the peas. It's a great one. When we win the Super Bowl, no one remembers the preseason. I didn't say anything about the Broncos, although you all thought it, didn't you? There's, guys, and as the worship team comes up here, there's no victory without total, complete, utter surrender to God in all things. You cannot say, well, I get a little bit of me time, and then you get the rest of me, God. I just, I just, I gotta do a little bit of this, I gotta, I gotta try a little bit of that, I gotta drink a little of this, I gotta smoke a little of that. No. It's all Jesus, your surrender, and then you're free. What do you celebrate? What do you trust in? Will you bow your when you come face to face? Are you gonna bow to the real Jesus, the commander of millions of angels, full of glory, with eyes of fire, sword swinging, a robe dipped in the blood of his enemies? That's Jesus who we see in the book of Revelation. Today is the day of complete surrender in this room. Do not leave this room without saying, Jesus, I am yours.