Joshua: Courage over Fear Part 4

Intro Hook:

- What does courage look like in your life?

For some of us its killing the giant monster spider on the wall when your wife screams from the bathroom.

For some of us it’s walking into the haunted house or going on the roller coaster...

The number one fear people have? Is public speaking. Even more than dying, people are afraid of speaking in front of people. People would rather be dead at a funeral than have to give the Eulogy.

To clarify, those things all take courage…but they are not the things that require true courage.

I am not being judgemental of those things… just trying to be honest…what are the things that really hold us back… like Dr Al talked about last week. Its not spider’s its not heights…its not even public speaking.

NT Wright talks about how Courage is related to Character. It is doing the things that we do not want to do. Courage to be obedient to God when we do not want to. When we disagree with him.

How often do you and I celebrate just overcoming the scary things in our lives… but we are not obedient to the invitation that Jesus has for us. Courage is not only overcoming fear…the greatest acts of courage is being obedient to Jesus…even when we do not agree.

Everything else is couragish.

How do we become couragous? How do we do couragous things?

We have been spending time together walking thorugh the story of Joshua. We are learnign about his life of courage. We have talked about transitions that take courage. We have talked about the need for encouragement and then overcoming the obstacles in our lives. This week we are talking about the thing that sets Joshua apart. His obedience

Seam: Let’s read Joshua 6:1-17

Joshua 6:1–17 CSB

Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering. The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the rams’ horns. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead.” So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” He said to the troops, “Move forward, march around the city, and have the armed men go ahead of the ark of the Lord.” After Joshua had spoken to the troops, seven priests carrying seven rams’ horns before the Lord moved forward and blew the rams’ horns; the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. While the rams’ horns were blowing, the armed men went in front of the priests who blew the rams’ horns, and the rear guard went behind the ark. But Joshua had commanded the troops, “Do not shout or let your voice be heard. Don’t let one word come out of your mouth until the time I say, ‘Shout!’ Then you are to shout.” So the ark of the Lord was carried around the city, circling it once. They returned to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua got up early the next morning. The priests took the ark of the Lord, and the seven priests carrying seven rams’ horns marched in front of the ark of the Lord. While the rams’ horns were blowing, the armed men went in front of them, and the rear guard went behind the ark of the Lord. On the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way. That was the only day they marched around the city seven times. After the seventh time, the priests blew the rams’ horns, and Joshua said to the troops, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. But the city and everything in it are set apart to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers we sent.

Seam: Let’s first look at the antagonist of this story.

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Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering.

Now Archeologists and historians tell us that Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world and as we can see in this passage it is SHUTDOWN. The gates would be shut…It’s like Helmsdeep in the Lord of The Rings… it's impassable.

The first obstacle to “The Promise” is a walled fortress. This had to have been scary for the Israelites. They are a group of desert nomads coming up against a fortified city. This is a group of desert nomads. They dont have a strong military. They dont have superior military technology. They are not brilliant strategists… this had to have been discouraging and hopeless to see.

But put yourself in the shoes of Jericho…

Joshua 3:16 NIV

the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

If you take God out of the story this story does not make sense. But something fascinating is happening. The Israelites are not afraid of Jericho. They are marching orward towards them. And while they do not know what God is going to do… you can see the faith they have that God is going to show up.

Contrast that to Jericho’s reaction. Jericho is afraid. They are not araaid of Israel. They are afraid of the power of God in Israel’s life. They witnessed the waters stoping and a group of people crossing a river.

I would invite you for a moment to think about the obstacles in your own life. Are you confident, do you have faith that you are being obedient to God in what you are doing? Or are you like Jericho, fearful…closing up… building walls around yourself apart from God.

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SEAM/INTERLUDE: ​Lets continue.

Joshua 6:2–5 NIV

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

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Look at this. What is the great military strategy that God is giving? Is it instructions for dynamite? Is it a weak point in their defenses? Maybe digging under the well... Or building ladders... Something? No

The instructions are to walk around the city in silence For 6 days… and then on the seventh day blow the ram's horns.

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This looks crazy to us as we read it. And I guarantee that it probably felt crazy to Joshua as well.

But pause for a moment and look at a couple details of this with me.

The Israelites are not marching on their own. Look at verse 4. “Have the seven priests carry trumpets of ram’s horns in front of the ark.” As Dr Al has talked about the last couple weeks… The Ark is such an important detail. The ark of the covenant is a symbol of God’s presence among his people. Its not just a mystical magic box that kills nazi’s (Indiana Jones joke) it is God among his people. And so while Israel is marching around the city… their God is marching around the city with them.

Jericho is not going to be conquered by their strength, or by their minds… all of that is irrelevant. All that is required for Jericho to be conquered is the presence of God and obedience to his invitation.

But how does Joshua become obedient. What drives Joshua to be obedient to a strategy that makes no sense at all? Faith

Faith

A defini

SEAM: Now this obedience to God is not just for The Saints or Biblical Heroes. Its not just for mature christians or pastors or monks. We can experience the same courage that Joshua and the israelites have in our own lives.

Anyone can be obedient to the invitation of God. But there are certainly 3 major challenges in our way.

Apathy

Pride

Distraction

First is

Apathy

People are bent inward. Meaning most of us are only aware of what we want or need. At the end of the day we are all just trying to get by. So we struggle when we are invited into something uncomfortable. Frankly, we do not want to. We don’t care what God is asking us to do. We don’t really care about our neighbors or the people around us. We are just trying to get by.

Now dont be shamed by this. This is the human reaction. This makes you human. It is because you and I are human that we are bent inwards. That is what Sin has done to us. It is the natural tendancy of our hearts.

And while this is the natural way of our heart, it does not need to stay this way. Our hearts can be softened, we begin to care what God is inviting us into, or about others, but we should know that this natural bend never really goes away.

And the key to beating Apathy is truly relationship. It is not something we can force. It is only through relationship with Jesus that the Holy Spirit begins to reform our hearts. Without relationship, our faith, our lives…other people become a to do list...

Dan Kimball has a great quote “The fruit of the Spirit wasn’t intended to be a list of goals for us to produce – it is the Holy Spirit through us who produces fruit.” We begin with relationship with Jesus. If you dont spend time with Jesus through prayer, scripture and quiet with him… you will remain apathetic.

Second we have to face

2. Pride

Pride made the soul desert God, to whom it should cling as the source of life, and to imagine itself instead as the source of its own life.

Augustine of Hippo

We are meant to cling to God. For relationship with him. To live in communion with him. But Pride, pride believes that we know better. It believes that we dont need God, and we certainly do not need other people.

When we live this way, we destroy relationship. Not only with God, but with others. Have you noticed how when we believe that we are right and others are wrong…when we will not at least be curious about the other persons thoughts, feelings, views or experiences…that we isolate oursleves from them…make them an enemy, and only add to the brokeneness in our world?

And we see this all over the place. We see it play out in politics in a nation that is torn in half by a two party system where we believe the other side are enemies to be defeated instead of people with dignity and worth that we can work with and possibly make something better. We saw it during covid. We see it in Racial issues in issues of resource disparancy and immagration.

We see famillies torn apart. We see friendship dissinigrated…churches destroyed…because we let pride run our lives.

9240 The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

C. S. Lewis

It is common wihtin the tradition of the church that it is pride that is at the center of all sin.

Obedince with God requires us to humble ourselves. To understand that you and I do not have all the answers. That we need others…and most importantly we need. God.

3. Distraction

Even when we decide that we want to obedient to God, how easy is it to distracted by everything around us? Dr Al has shared the statistic that the average church goer goes conservativley 1/3 weeks… its probably more like 1/6. We become distracted and too busy to follow Jesus. We choose our careers. Influence. Sports. The Weekend and just escaping. We unintentionally are distracted by so much in our world that we dont even position ourselves to being obedient to God.

And trust me, as you make yourself more avalible to God, to trying to be obedient, you will begin to notice all of the distractions even more and more.

And if we do not begin to find new ways of living wihtout those distractions…eliminating hurry in our lives, we will never be obediant to what god is calling us to. A life that is full of peace, joy, comfort and fullfilment.

Trust me when I say that hte world will promise these things to you…but the more distracted you are, the more you will be unable to get them.

And that is hard. It is hard to live in our world and not be distracted.

But if you begin to be obedient in the small things in your life, doing the things that you know you are supposed to do…then you will begin to learn how to remove those distractions.

THE NEXT RIGHT THING

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When we don't understand what is going on. When all we have to go on is Faith… we do the next right thing. Which is what Joshua does. He gives instructions to the people.

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Joshua 6:12–14

CSB

Joshua got up early the next morning. The priests took the ark of the Lord, and the seven priests carrying seven rams’ horns marched in front of the ark of the Lord. While the rams’ horns were blowing, the armed men went in front of them, and the rear guard went behind the ark of the Lord. On the second day, they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

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Joshua is doing the next right thing. He trusts God. Even though he does not have the whole picture.

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The Enemy. He is going to try and get you not to trust God. He will lie to you till the cows come home. It is the story of

Genesis 3

. He is trying to get you to believe that God cannot be trusted.

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There are our Brains. They are going to lead us to flight or fight responses.

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But then there are a few societal/cultural enemies to Trust.

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First is that we live in what is a “Skeptical” Society. You see our culture celebrates rationalism and it struggles with the mystical and spiritual. It lives by what it can see, touch and taste. It wants empirical evidence.

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This causes us to struggle with faith. To struggle with their being a God at all. They can't see or hear him… but what they do see and hear is Christians that are angry, hateful, and judgemental of them…and so they either carry that over to what they believe God is like or that God cannot be real at all.

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There is also a part of our culture that is based completely on feelings. I feel like something is true, so it must be. We see it in movies all the time, “Follow your heart.” And if your heart says that God is not good…then maybe he isn't. We see this in Gender conversations right now. Men and women say that their feelings say that they are not a man or a woman.... and so that is how they are going to identify.... we live in a world that is driven by feeling.

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And last is the armchair quarterback. People are functional experts. We all do this. When we are feeling sick, or get a test result back from a doctor… we research it on google or Facebook. We try and determine what is wrong with us and treat ourselves. We do this with the common cold…but this became a real reality during covid. People began to form opinions of how to treat themselves based on what they were seeing online without trusting a health expert.

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All of these lead us to not trust God…to not do the next right thing.

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And when we live out these things instead of trusting God…it continues to break our lives. We break relationships, with family and friends. Instead of patience, compassion, and love, we try to manipulate them because we do not trust God to work on their hearts.

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People that are driven by only what they can see…tend to be very lonely. They don't trust, they struggle to love. To believe there is good in the world because they see so much brokenness.

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It can lead us to try and remake the world in our image. What do we believe the right things are… What do we believe are the ways things should run? From our broken perspectives... Instead of trust God has a big picture and knows what's best, we go off of our hearts and are

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But here is what happens when Joshua trusts God

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Joshua 6:15–20

CSB

Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way. That was the only day they marched around the city seven times. After the seventh time, the priests blew the rams’ horns, and Joshua said to the troops, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. But the city and everything in it are set apart to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and every one with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers we sent. But keep yourselves from the things set apart, or you will be set apart for destruction. If you take any of those things, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and make trouble for it. For all the silver and gold, and the articles of bronze and iron, are dedicated to the Lord and must go into the Lord’s treasury.” So the troops shouted, and the rams’ horns sounded. When they heard the blast of the ram’s horns, the troops gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. The troops advanced into the city, each man straight ahead, and they captured the city.

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God takes down Jericho. Joshua doesn't have to. Joshua trusting God leads to victory over Jericho.

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Abraham. trusting God leads to a child.

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Noah, trusting God leads to the rescue of humankind from God’s punishment.

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The biggest act of faith though? We see it in Jesus.

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The night before Jesus will be crucified…killed. He goes to a garden to pray. And he prays these words.

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Luke 22:41–42

CSB

Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt, and began to pray, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

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See… Jesus trusts that it will be his death that will defeat the powers of darkness. He trusts that God is in control. He is faced with the darkest day in all human history. And he prays that God would take it from him… but he trusts God to do the next right thing.

Partial obedience is an argument of insincerity.

Thomas Manton

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And through him… it was not Israel being saved from the Romans. It was Death and the powers of Darkness themselves that were defeated.

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Because Jesus did the next Right thing.

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Jericho was defeated because Joshua trusted God and did the next right thing.

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So what does that look like for you and me? How do you and I begin doing the right next thing? How do we even begin to trust God?

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True faith commits us to obedience.

A. W. Tozer

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First, Know that it takes time to trust God. You will never wake up one day and be trusting God. Trusting God takes time.

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To begin with the small things. Begin with the small things that you know are obedience for you.

I had this happen a couple months or so ago. I went to go put on a pair of jeans to realize that they had somehow been shrunken! I felt like a stuffed sausage as I wore it. More likely though, I knew I had gained weight… and needed to lose it. I mnow the next right thing is to begin to excercise and watch what I am eating better.

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Maybe it is 5 minutes of prayer a day. That is a good first step.

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Maybe it's taking a part of a day off to stop working and be with your loved ones.

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Maybe it's family meal time, sitting down around the table.

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Maybe it's giving financially to God.

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Maybe it's inviting that person to come with you to Church.

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Salvation

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All of those are great first steps of faith. The trust is, most of you know what the next right step would be…you just need to take it.

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Me, right now I am trying to be more obedient with my body. Trying to take the step every day of exercising in some way.

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Remember Doctor Al saying this “ Spiritual Maturity is how quickly we are obedient to God.” It's not big prayers, knowing a ton of scripture, sabbath, fasting. All of these things are good… but all are meant to draw you close to the father. so that you begin to trust him. And begin to do the next right thing.

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So remember. We do not have a full perspective of everything. We don't know what is going on. God works in ways we do not even know of or thought of. We are just learning to trust him. To know him. And to do the next right thing.