SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Bolt.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_01: Um in so many different levels.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I've talked about I'm pretty open about what's happening in my life, and it's uh it's rough sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody had any rough periods in relationships?
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of you are liars, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um but but you go through these times, and so when I came to Joshua chapter 6, which is the next chapter, I was just so spoken to by the Holy Spirit because I feel like there's some lessons here.
SPEAKER_01: These are lessons I'm living, these are lessons some of you in this room are living.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just so beautiful to see that God can take a real story that really happened in time, and then he can give us life lessons that can be transformative in our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, everybody has difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: All of us go through things in our life that seem impossible to us.
SPEAKER_01: Like, like, how could, how am I gonna get out of this?
SPEAKER_01: How am I gonna work my way out of this situation?
SPEAKER_01: Which is basically the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: It's the wrong question to say, how what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: The right question is, what is God gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And so, in this story, probably the most famous in the Bible outside of David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: There's David and Goliath, every kid who ever spent any time in a Sunday school class knows it.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, which by the way, Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho, Jesus did, but that's the song we sing, and we know it.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of you know this story, you're familiar with it, and I pray that this morning we could see it from a slightly different perspective.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to open, though, with bringing you my journal.
SPEAKER_01: It was sitting on my couch.
SPEAKER_01: And I haven't done it in a while here at the road, but I always kept a journal.
SPEAKER_01: And this is one that Mike McNeil with Fathers in the Field gave me with strength and courage on it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've got probably a hundred of these in boxes.
SPEAKER_01: I don't go back and read them.
SPEAKER_01: Probably no one ever will, but they were always present in my life ever since I came to know the Lord when I was 18.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd encourage you if you're not, if you if you're not a journal taker, you you'd consider getting a journal.
SPEAKER_01: And you'd consider the fact that keeping a journal is really, it's really good for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's therapeutic, it's healing, to be writing down your thoughts and then remembering what God has said to you.
SPEAKER_01: And then during this very dark time in my life, um, I go back and I look over the last five months, and I did that this morning because of some stuff that I'm gonna share here with you guys, things that God has said.
SPEAKER_01: And when you write it down, they say that it's an 80% greater chance of you remembering what you write down than if you didn't.
SPEAKER_01: And it and it's not on a computer.
SPEAKER_01: So it's actually with pen in hand on a piece of paper, 80% chance.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I encourage taking notes too.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember 80% more of the sermon, or 80% more of what you had in your time with the Lord by writing it down than if you don't.
SPEAKER_01: So I just wanted to remind you of the power of journaling.
SPEAKER_01: But turn to Joshua 6, and what a great first line.
SPEAKER_01: What a great first line in Joshua 6.1.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jericho was securely shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Jericho was securely shut up.
SPEAKER_01: So we understand that all of the, it was the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: It's during the barley harvest in Israel, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not really Israel yet, it's Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so the farmers and the people of Jericho have their farms outside the walls because Jericho's only between six and eight acres, according to which commentary you read.
SPEAKER_01: So it's about the size of my property in Black Forest with these huge walls.
SPEAKER_01: 25, again, everybody's got a different opinion based on the archaeological evidence, but it was between 25 and 30 foot high walls, 12 feet wide at the outside of the wall, and six feet wide on the inside of the wall.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a pretty secure place.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody had run, everybody had booked it into Jericho, into the walls, even though they lived outside the walls, as Israel crosses the Jordan and they're coming toward Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: So here's lesson one.
SPEAKER_01: Jot this down.
SPEAKER_01: This is lesson one is that we all have a Jericho in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a Jericho in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has some kind of fixed walls from your childhood or from a hurt relationship or because of betrayal or because of addiction.
SPEAKER_01: I would call them things like shame walls.
SPEAKER_01: We have shame walls, we have anger walls, we have addiction walls.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting, the latest neurological studies on DNA.
SPEAKER_01: The latest neurological studies on DNA.
SPEAKER_01: And they're finding out, and we we are, we've known this for a long time, that you get your DNA from your parents, and that means you get some of the characteristics of your parents, which could be a predisposition toward, for example, addictive behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just we know that where there's families, where there's been alcoholics, that um you have a greater chance of being an alcoholic because of the DNA that comes from either one or both of the parents.
SPEAKER_01: Here's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This is really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: A recent study has found that you also can pick up the characteristics through the DNA of the skills that your parents developed, if they were developed before you were born.
SPEAKER_01: For example, if if someone is mechanical in nature, even though they've never had that in their background before, but they learned mechanics, we'll just use that as an example.
SPEAKER_01: They learned mechanics, that actually is encoded, listen, it's encoded into the DNA, and that you pick that up.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm giving you a positive example.
SPEAKER_01: So what they did is they took mice and they put mice in a maze.
SPEAKER_01: And they took like 50 mice, they put them through a very complex maze, and only six mice figured it out, figured out the maze.
SPEAKER_01: Then they mated the six mice with random other mice, and guess what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Their offspring could work the maze without ever making a mistake, with having never been in the maze before.
SPEAKER_01: So somehow, in God's way of doing the DNA that we're still discovering, you can be picking up these traits that were actually skills that we thought were just related to that particular person, but they're actually encoded into the DNA.
SPEAKER_01: So why is that important?
SPEAKER_01: Because God can change you.
SPEAKER_01: You can be changed, and it actually gets encoded into your DNA.
SPEAKER_01: That you can change your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Those walls of that Jericho can come down.
SPEAKER_01: As you spend time reading God's word, believing the promises of God, it's getting encoded into your DNA, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then you're not doing it just for yourself if you're still young, if you're still in the childbearing years, as you're spending time with God, you're encoding the DNA of your future generations coming up through the relationship you have with your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, first lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Here's lesson one.
SPEAKER_01: There is walls of Jericho that lead into a promised land.
SPEAKER_01: So Joshua came in, and this is the first thing he has to encounter is this wall.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, listen, you guys, this is really important.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second part.
SPEAKER_01: So go back to chapter five, and we looked at this last week.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: So before Joshua comes in, for you that were not here with us, last week, Joshua encounters the pre-incarnate Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?
SPEAKER_01: So he said, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I've now come.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant?
SPEAKER_01: And the commander of the armies of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua did so.
SPEAKER_01: Lesson two: taking down any Jericho means surrendering to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's where it all starts.
SPEAKER_01: He's the commander of the armies of God, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: And when we surrender to him, we now have the full potential of our creative, imaginative abilities because he's the one who created them.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you're never at your full potential until you know the creator of your full potential.
SPEAKER_01: So I had a 1962 red Volkswagen bug.
SPEAKER_01: From 1974 to 1976.
SPEAKER_01: Paid$500 for it from my dad.
SPEAKER_01: He bought it new.
SPEAKER_01: $1,200.
SPEAKER_01: I got it for$500.
SPEAKER_01: Hit over 200,000 miles on it.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when I was driving to school, I'd hear a pop, pop, pop sound in the back.
SPEAKER_01: And if you guys didn't know about Volkswagen bugs, the engine was in the back.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd hear it hitting.
SPEAKER_01: And what was happening was the spark plugs were blowing out of the cylinders.
SPEAKER_01: So I had to go, I learned how to retap spark plugs into the cylinder and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Had no money.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I did.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was a pastor, he didn't have any money either.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we did.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't take a Volkswagen to a Chevrolet dealership.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't take a Volkswagen to a Pontiac dealership.
SPEAKER_01: I took the Volkswagen, if I took it anywhere, I took it to a Volkswagen dealership, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so to come to discover who we are, let's go back to the Creator.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to the one who created you and made you.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So all Jerichos start with an encounter with the one who said, I came to heal the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_01: I came to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how to fix you.
SPEAKER_01: And every one of us in this room needs a little bit of fixing.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have some walls, some Jerichos that we have to encounter and we have to deal with in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it begins, first of all, with understanding that you have a Jericho or two.
SPEAKER_01: But then, second, meet the commander.
SPEAKER_01: Meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Have you surrendered to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, have you surrendered to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you did years ago.
SPEAKER_01: But do you need to resurrender?
SPEAKER_01: Is it time for a revival of what once was in our lives?
SPEAKER_01: I think we need to receive Christ like all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Not because we lose it, but because we forget who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You're a child of God, you're a daughter of God, you're a son of God, you're king, your priest, you're a worshiper and a warrior.
SPEAKER_01: You can walk in a new kind of freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Man, have I needed to re-surrender to Christ over the last five months.
SPEAKER_01: Holy smokes.
SPEAKER_01: I've had to just come back and come back to the Lord constantly and ask God to give me his power and his strength and surrender the impossibilities that I face to an impossible God, a God who does the impossible in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: None went out.
SPEAKER_01: None came in.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand its king and the mighty men of valor.
SPEAKER_01: You shall march around the city, all you men of war.
SPEAKER_01: You shall go all around the city once.
SPEAKER_01: This you shall do for six days, and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.
SPEAKER_01: But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout, and then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight before him.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, this guy Josh was like a hundred years old.
SPEAKER_01: And if you were one of the generals and this this guy Joshua told you to do that, I'd say, I think he's losing his marbles.
SPEAKER_01: I think we got some issues here.
SPEAKER_01: Some early signs of dementia or something, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: I can hear some of the generals on the side saying, Oh, I'm saying I've been saving up some, you know, some pesos, and I think I'm gonna get a few battering rams.
SPEAKER_01: But this marching around and shouting sounds really weird.
SPEAKER_01: Here's lesson three, though.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: You got to listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever your situation, whatever it is you're going through, whatever obstacle you're facing, and Jericho with those thick walls that face you, listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to take time every day to listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: What he says for you to do may not be what you want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: God's ways are higher, deeper than ours.
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening to God over your Jericho?
SPEAKER_01: Are you taking time to listen to him instead of getting advice from everybody?
SPEAKER_01: Getting advice is great.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one who loves, you know, getting people's opinion and their thoughts on things.
SPEAKER_01: I really am.
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, everything rises and falls for the Christian follower on what is God speaking to you to do.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, I don't know how to hear God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a whole nother issue.
SPEAKER_01: How we hear God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: But I can tell you this, it's mainly going to come through Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to mainly come through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we're not spending time in the Word of God, then we're missing God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so if the if the Bible's boring, ask God to have it come alive.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God, would you show me where to start reading?
SPEAKER_01: And then start just reading chapter by chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Take your journal and journal what you're hearing from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing how clear the voice of God is when we're regularly listening.
SPEAKER_01: So I challenge you to listen for God's voice on any Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: And there's, and then we've got these Jericho, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna have one Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: Now, usually you have them one at a time.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I've got five Jerichos right now, but most of the time it's one at a time.
SPEAKER_01: Another way to maybe think of it is spiraling.
SPEAKER_01: Spiraling.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is that sometimes in our life we're spiraling.
SPEAKER_01: We're spiraling in a relationship, we're spiraling in our job, we're spiraling in our finances.
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you get past the spiral, you're gonna have another one.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as we see the walls come down in one GR code, there's gonna be another one.
SPEAKER_01: So these are all things that are just gonna be a regular part of our life.
SPEAKER_01: People die, people betray us, people offer us opportunities that are not from God, and we take it.
SPEAKER_01: So there's always a Jericho, there's always another spiral.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the Holy Spirit, take time to listen.
SPEAKER_01: Get away from the noise, get away from the crowd every day.
SPEAKER_01: Every day, get away, morning, evening, um, in the middle of the day, whatever works for you.
SPEAKER_01: But to open God's word, God speak to me.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you instruct me in what you're calling me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know what to do sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what the answer is on this situation.
SPEAKER_01: And then lesson four.
SPEAKER_01: Lesson four.
SPEAKER_01: Obey God, listen for his voice, and then do what he says.
SPEAKER_01: So look at um, look at verse two.
SPEAKER_01: It says, the Lord said to Joshua because he's listening, but then look at verse six, it says, Then Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, So he got his instructions from God, and then he gave the instructions to his men.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what it says he was told to do, crazy as it is.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to the people, Proceed and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.
SPEAKER_01: The armed men went before the priest who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.
SPEAKER_01: Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you, shout.
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall shout.
SPEAKER_01: So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around at once.
SPEAKER_01: Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priest took up the ark of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went before them, but the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.
SPEAKER_01: And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So they did for six days.
SPEAKER_01: But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times.
SPEAKER_01: On that day, so the first day you go around once, second day once, so forth for six days, seventh day, seven times, in the same manner.
SPEAKER_01: On that day only they marched around the city seven times.
SPEAKER_01: And the seventh time it happened when the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city.
SPEAKER_01: Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: It and all who are in it.
SPEAKER_01: Only Rahab, the harlot, shall live.
SPEAKER_01: She and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
SPEAKER_01: And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp Israel accursed and trouble it.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so Jericho comes down through obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what we may not understand is that bestiality, abortion, prostitution, human sacrifice was present in that part of the world at a high, high level.
SPEAKER_01: And this is this is the capital of the Amorites.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the capital city of the Amorites.
SPEAKER_01: And so this so some would say that the wall.
SPEAKER_01: We're actually embedded with infants that created these walls.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys know that God measures time for nations morally?
SPEAKER_01: God measures time morally.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes when you see things happening where nations go down, and we've seen a lot over the last 50 years, nations going down, God's behind that.
SPEAKER_01: God has been giving that nation a chance and a chance and another chance to repent, and they would not, and then their time is up.
SPEAKER_01: God measures time morally.
SPEAKER_01: And for the Amorites, their time was up.
SPEAKER_01: They had 400 years to know about the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: They had 40 years of hearing about this present generation coming up that was coming into the land.
SPEAKER_01: They had at least 10 to 20 days from when they're on the edge of the Jordan and coming over.
SPEAKER_01: And only Rahab repented.
SPEAKER_01: God measures time morally.
SPEAKER_01: In church, there's things in our lives that God is giving you opportunity after opportunity to repent of.
SPEAKER_01: There are times when God lifts his hand.
SPEAKER_01: Because you will not repent.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may you may live.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes God actually, we know that we're going to take communion today.
SPEAKER_01: And we know in 1 Corinthians that the scriptures say that taking communion in the wrong manner, some sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that God has taken some people because they're taking the Lord's communion, the Lord's Supper in the wrong manner, in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe if you look at the whole passage, it's talking about relationships and broken relationships.
SPEAKER_01: But God's judgment is real.
SPEAKER_01: God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't life hard enough?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't life hard enough without being opposed by God?
SPEAKER_01: I've been opposed by God before because of pride in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a really, really scary feeling to realize I'm not under, I mean, I'm under God's grace in a salvific way.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe you can lose your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But I've lost his grace in a sanctified way in the anointing being lifted off of my life because of hidden sin.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge you that if you've got hidden sin, get that right with God because you're gonna be on your own.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a scary place to be when you're on your own without the grace and the power of God over your life, because God is giving you the chance to repent and you won't, and so his hand gets lifted off of you.
SPEAKER_01: So Israel obeys.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is a holy war.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think Israel had any big issues with the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so, you know, because they they didn't know everything about them, but this is a holy war.
SPEAKER_01: God's using Israel to judge Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: And so they obey him.
SPEAKER_01: And then look, it's kind of interesting, it's tucked away in sort of a cryptic way, is verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19 is kind of this cryptic verse, it seems like it comes out of nowhere, but it says, but all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna make a point of this except to say that when we're when we're moving into victories in our life, there's such a tendency to forget, first of all, who did it in our life, but then also to forget the obedience that it takes for the first fruits of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't tell you how many people here in the church we know because we see um we see the giving and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I've that people send us these really big tithe checks.
SPEAKER_01: And when I've called or talked to them or something about it, they'll say, Yeah, I sold a house or I sold this piece of property and I made a ton of money, and I just want, and I'm and I'm first fruits.
SPEAKER_01: First fruits go to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: First fruits goes to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying look, the first fruits, this is the first fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Jericho is the first fruit of the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, Dedicate it to me so that I can bless you in future days.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, get your heart right, and we all know that material things is the hardest thing, that's the biggest idol to give up to God is our material blessings.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you learn how to tithe, when you learn how to give, when you learn how to give first fruits in your life, it sets you free from the bondage of materialism.
SPEAKER_01: It breaks the power of materialism in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Lesson five.
SPEAKER_01: Here's lesson five.
SPEAKER_01: Jericho comes down through faith.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 says, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down.
SPEAKER_01: Every battle in your life is by faith, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: George Mueller, the great man of God who built so many orphanages, once said, faith begins where man's power ends.
SPEAKER_01: Faith begins where man's power ends.
SPEAKER_01: The great Indian or the missionary to India, Amy Carmichael, once said, When you're facing the impossible, you can count on the God of the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Warren Wearsby.
SPEAKER_01: Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems to be unbearable, to do what seems to be unreasonable, and to expect what seems to be impossible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put that one on my wall.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 32, 17.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power, an outstretched arm.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing too hard for you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in Matthew 19, 26.
SPEAKER_01: With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in this work for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm becoming an elder statesman, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: I'm elder, I don't know, and I and I am in a state, but I don't know if I don't know if I'm an elder statesman.
SPEAKER_01: Um but we don't talk about the God of the impossible much anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I've noticed that.
SPEAKER_01: We don't seem to talk about the God of the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: We've become enamored in the church with technique.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've ever been to a seeker-sensitive church, who's ever, anybody, y'all know that term?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the seeker-sensitive church has kind of become in vogue in the last 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: Started with a guy named Bill Heibels out of Willow Creek and uh kind of spread across the country.
SPEAKER_01: And what it is, in its good form, is to reach people for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's great, it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: But the way in which it's done is you you use man-made techniques.
SPEAKER_01: You have man-made techniques that you do, and you try to keep everybody in the chair or in the pew as comfortable as possible because you wouldn't want to offend anybody because they might not come back.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm being very simplistic.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think you should be in people's faces for dumb reasons or get legalistic about stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That's, to me, that's like bad theology.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens is we begin to depend on technique rather than the power of God to change people's hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And so the God of the impossible is a God we believe that He can change a heart through the clear presentation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And we believe that God can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we see here is that faith brought down the walls of Jericho, not just marching around, not blowing trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: That was God's particular technique at that time.
SPEAKER_01: It was never ever used again, as far as we know in history.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens in our lives is we're facing an impossible situation at Jericho, and we say, What do I do?
SPEAKER_01: God, what are you telling me to do?
SPEAKER_01: And it's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: The right question is, what are you gonna do, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: You're the God of the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: You're the God who can take down my walls of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to position myself for you to be able to use me to pull down those walls.
SPEAKER_01: So speak to me, guide me, and lead me in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Lesson six.
SPEAKER_01: This is the whole passage, right?
SPEAKER_01: Verses 20 and 21 is how it all happened right here.
SPEAKER_01: So the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat.
SPEAKER_01: And then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword.
SPEAKER_01: Lesson six, Jericho comes down through praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's no other way to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: It was praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: When the trumpets were sounding, that's the trumpet of Jubilee, of the year of Jubilee.
SPEAKER_01: They're proclaiming through praise and worship, and it reminds me so much of Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: Jehoshaphat facing Amon and Moab and Mount Seir.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it says: Jehoshaphat, after consulting the people, the enemies that were coming against Israel, appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise the splendor of the Lord and his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And they went out ahead of the army.
SPEAKER_01: And they shouted out, give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.
SPEAKER_01: And as they began to sing and praise, the Lord said ambushes against the men of Amon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gonna do in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_01: In a few minutes, after this message, we're gonna worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think we even know what's happening in the fourth dimension when you worship with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some have said archaeology has found the broken walls.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what one commentator said that the marching around, the trumpets hit a certain frequency, and it loosened the mortar and the walls crumbled.
SPEAKER_01: The shockwaves of 500,000 men marching around.
SPEAKER_01: Some even say that they were digging under the wall at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: My only problem with that, you already know the answer to this.
SPEAKER_01: What about the part of the wall where Rahab was?
SPEAKER_01: So was hers like different mortar?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is faith, man.
SPEAKER_01: This was a supernatural work of praise and worship that broke through just like it did with Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, verse 22 go into the harlot's house and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.
SPEAKER_01: And the young man who had been spies went in and they brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had, so that they brought out her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire.
SPEAKER_01: Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua spared Rahab, the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had.
SPEAKER_01: So she dwells in Israel to this day.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, she's the great-grandmother of David, 14th generation to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because she hid the messengers from whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: I love this point, lesson seven.
SPEAKER_01: This is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Jericho comes down because of love.
SPEAKER_01: God tears down walls of Jericho in our lives because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to be all that he created you to be.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to be the best version of yourself that he created you to be.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because of love.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about spiritual warfare around here, and we do from time to time, when we talk about obedience to God's word, and we talk about a quiet time, we talk about journaling, we talk about being a worship warrior, we talk about being a wholehearted worshiper and warrior, we talk about what it means to be strong and courageous, always about love, faith, faith that moves mountains, hope that believes God.
SPEAKER_01: But the greatest of these is love.
SPEAKER_01: Never forget that.
SPEAKER_01: So we fight for love.
SPEAKER_01: And we care about people because we love them.
SPEAKER_01: So we had some roofers at our house.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, we must have put so many roofs on our house.
SPEAKER_01: We've been there since 1998.
SPEAKER_01: I think we've had like five roofs, and it's always Hispanics.
SPEAKER_01: We got all these Hispanic guys on our roof.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife loves Spanish-speaking people.
SPEAKER_01: She just thinks they're the coolest.
SPEAKER_01: And so she went out and she brought all this food and all these drinks, and she laid out the tables and put a spread out for them.
SPEAKER_01: And they were like, What is this?
SPEAKER_01: It's love.
SPEAKER_01: Because of love, because she loves them.
SPEAKER_01: And she practiced her UCLA Spanish.
SPEAKER_01: But look at the last part, and then we're going to go into communion.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_01: I stared at this all week.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what do I do at this point?
SPEAKER_01: Then Joshua charged him at that time, cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city, Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn and with his youngest, he shall set up its gates.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.
SPEAKER_01: In Ahab's time, heel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua, son of Nun.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to lesson eight.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: Jericho comes down.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rebuild it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rebuild it, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: How many people we know they've come out of that addiction, they've come out of that adultery, they've come out of that situation that they were in, and they're forgiven, and they walk with God for a while, and they're fired up and they're going after it, and they go back and they rebuild Jericho in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Church, don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: The demons are stronger the second time.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture seems to indicate from Jesus seven times worse.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rebuild those walls.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're rebuilding a Jericho right now, stop it.
SPEAKER_01: Stop it.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean we don't have mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean we don't have uh struggles.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying don't rebuild it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rebuild that Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: Learn from it, grow from it, and never rebuild it.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: That's theroad.org.