Joshua Chapter 6 Verse 1

• So Jericho was sealed up…closed off…secured and when I read this the Lord gave me a picture of a lost heart. A heart that the enemy, the flesh and this world has closed up, secured. Secured with regret, with fear, with pain, with abuse, with want…with pride…why? Why has the enemy done this? Why is this his strategy? To team up with the flesh and with the world to securely shut the heart of the lost? Because of you! The prople of God…Because he knows you’re coming, man! Jericho is on full alert and I want to ask you tonight, is the enemy on full alert…because of you?

Joshua Chapter 6 Verse 2

• What would you do if you knew you would not fail? Would you take that step of faith? Would you put a stop to that sin in your life? Remove the convenience…put yourself at risk…Would you tell him or her that you’re going to stop living in sin until you’re married? “But what if she leaves?” Listen, if you knew that you could not fail…what would you do?

• I have a little secret for you tonight. In Jesus, you never fail. Doing what’s right, you never fail! You may lose a convenience, you may even lose a friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend…even a family member but the Bible promises, in this age and in the age to come, whatever you give up for righteousness sake…you will not regret.

• Most issues, problems…hardships…arise from a lack of wisdom…fueled by pride and rooted in fear. Folks holding on to what they know they should not…whether it be pride, unforgiveness, or just plain sin…what on earth would you do with it if you knew you could not fail? God says, “Move out! Go forward! Trust Me, believe Me, and that means follow Me. You’ll see…you cannot fail!” Again, the question is never can I or can’t I…its should I!

Joshua Chapter 6 Verses 3 – 5

• “Ooooook. Couldn’t I just blink like Mario and run in there all Jason Bourne style? Or maybe hook me up with a few fantastic beef-cake angels?” These must have at least been Joshua’s preliminary thoughts! They would have been mine for sure! This method…no precedent! Never before…And what’s more, nearly irrational…borderline foolish…and God would respond, “In whose eyes?”
• In mine! HA! In the world’s! But Jesus would say to Peter, “Get behind me enemy…for you are not mindful of God but of men.” In the eyes of men, in the eyes of the world, God’s Word, His commands, His direction, His guidance, even His love…the message of the cross…foolish…but in reality…that is in the Creator’s opinion (which is true reality) this is the way…will we trust Him or will we trust us?

• This is a real test I believe for Joshua. In many ways this will be the toughest battle yet and ever for the children of Israel. Jericho wasn’t an exceptionally large city but it was set up like a formidable fortress and it was their first battle in the land of Canaan…the Promised Land. What if they couldn’t take it? That would have been devastating! But if they could, they would be unstoppable!

Joshua Chapter 6 Verses 6 – 7

• Very interesting here. God said, “You shall march around the city, all you men of war…” But Joshua orders them. He says to the priests, “Let him who is armed advance before the ark.” Why? Because Joshua is a military genius! AND he loves the people dearly. He orders the men of war to go before the ark and before the people in order to protect them from the wall archers of Jericho! It’s brilliant!
• Now we have no record of anything being hurled at the children of Israel as they marched around the city. Why? Because they were too far away? Maybe. But could it be that the Jerichoians saw that their attack would be futile!? Notice, Joshua doesn’t change what God says, he utterly submits to it and yet he introduces military genius. Ministerial excellence! Order and experience! Love and Wisdom!
• What’s the point? Just this. God’s direction doesn’t make you a mindless drone. It activates you! Just because God called April and I to plant this awesome work of God called C4 doesn’t mean that I can sit back and wiggle my nose like I Dream of Genie and poof…awesomeness! No, I am to love, obey, trust, follow and serve the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength! A work of the Holy Spirit, essential. A work of love, energy and excellence, essential! God’s direction activates you man! I love that! Seen here in Joshua ordering the people!

Joshua Chapter 6 Verses 8 – 9

• Ok, mind picture time. The order is the men of war, the priests, the ark, the people and then the rear guard…or it could be the men of war, the priests, the ark, the rear guard and then the people…we often get this a little messed up in the story book illustrations…

Joshua Chapter 6 Verse 10

• Welp, I’m out. Silent game for seven days? Yea that would be a real test for some of us…especially for me! HA! BUT…I’m confident that we could do it. Why? Because even as utterly, completely…entirely impossible as that sounds for someone like you or someone like me…when we resolve to trust God…which means we obey Him…He enables us. Right then and there. I’ve seen it time and time again in my own life and in the lives of others…it’s simply true. He doesn’t call the enabled, He enables the called.

Joshua Chapter 6 Verse 11

• Well what about everyone else? Hidden scratch and sniff here…you see all of the people, all of the men of war, all of the priests, all of the guards, everyone…even you and me…the people of God…summarized in this…the presence of God. That’s what the ark was by the way…it was a symbol of the very presence of God to the people of God and now to us what is that? Or better said, Who? Man its Jesus! We are all found in Him and He in us! Pretty neat truth hidden there…