Joshua 4: Courageous Faith, Part 2 (Jericho)
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Joshua 6:1-24
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning church family and those who are our guests today, as well as to those members and visitors who are joining us online! I’m Pastor Bill Connors, and it’s great to be here together to worship the Lord and to look into God’s Word. If you’re a guest of the Eastern Hills family this morning, whether you are here in the room or online, would you please let us know you’re here with us by texting the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004? You’ll get a text back with a link to our online communication card. If you’re here in the room and you’d rather fill out a physical card, you can grab one of them out of the back of the pew in front of you. You can get those back to us in two ways: 1) drop it in the boxes by the doors at the end of service, or 2) bring it down here to me when service is over, as I’d really like the chance to meet you briefly and give you a small token of our gratitude for visiting with Eastern Hills today.
I’d like to take a second to say thanks to our Bible study leaders this morning. These folks take time each week to prepare to lead our Sunday morning small group studies and other studies throughout the week, and they are a blessing to our congregation.
Announcements
Announcements
NMSMO Video, Goal update ($10,755, goal $11,500)
Correct Cornerstone date from Chronicle (Rich wrote 21st, but it’s this Thursday the 19th)
Endeavor update. I talked with Ric Rutherford, our contractor, for a while on Friday:
Large units for Sanctuary should be ready to function for either cooling or heating on low (waiting on parts for high) next week.
Stucco being completed on Friday this week.
At least some of the doors should be available starting next Sunday, if all goes well!
Opening
Opening
We’re in our fourth week of eight in the book of Joshua, where we are using the boldness, courage, and obedience that we find in that book as a call to being bold, courageous, and obedient in our walks of faith today. Last week, we looked at Part 1 of 2 parts in this series on “Courageous Faith,” as we considered Israel’s miraculous crossing of the Jordan River, seeing that God-sized obstacles in our lives demand the presence and power of God if they are going to be overcome. This morning, we will look at Part 2 of “Courageous Faith,” the first conquest in Israel’s taking of the Promised Land—the taking of Jericho.
So as you are able, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word as we read our focal passage, Joshua 6:1-24:
1 Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering. 2 The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you. 3 March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. 4 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. 5 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.” 6 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.” 7 He said to the troops, “Move forward, march around the city, and have the armed men go ahead of the ark of the Lord.” 8 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. 9 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. 10 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.” 11 So the ark of the Lord was carried around the city, circling it once. They returned to the camp and spent the night there. 12 Joshua got up early the next morning. The priests took the ark of the Lord, 13 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. 14 On the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 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. 19 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.” 20 So the troops shouted, and the rams’ horns sounded. When they heard the blast of the trumpets, 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. 21 They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword—every man and woman, both young and old, and every ox, sheep, and donkey. 22 Joshua said to the two men who had scouted the land, “Go to the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out of there, and all who are with her, just as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel. 24 They burned the city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.
PRAYER (Vista Grande Baptist Church, pastorless: pray for search and elders as they lead; Pray for peace and justice in Israel)
What does it mean to truly live by faith? Sometimes when we talk about living by faith, we mean trusting God for the incredible, the unlikely, or even the impossible. And while that certainly isn’t untrue (because sometimes faith is all about believing God for the miraculous), sometimes living by faith is simply found in the day-to-day, moment-by-moment reliance upon God’s plan, provision, and peace.
When we look at Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Faith” chapter of Scripture, we see the explanation of what faith looks like in practice:
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
And in that chapter, we see both kinds of faith: the simple faith of Abel’s sacrifice in verse 4:
Hebrews 11:4a (CSB)
4a By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.
And the incredible result of Israel’s march around Jericho in verse 30:
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days.
In the life of Eastern Hills, I believe that we are currently in the midst of a recent step of courageous faith. Just under a year ago, we as a church committed to the Endeavor project: the first phase of reviewing our priorities for connecting with our neighbors and making necessary repairs to our building in order for it to continue supporting the church family through the coming years. Last November, we committed together to give funds to pay for the repairs, as well as to give of ourselves to be a blessing to our neighbors.
Both commitments required a step of faith: we had to commit to giving the resources necessary to complete the necessary work, trusting that God would provide those needed funds. And we also committed to paying attention to how we can serve our community around us, and being available to do so. Both require the work of God in the life of this church family so that His purposes will be fulfilled. And both commitments require sacrifice, surrender, and obedience on our part if we are going to experience all that God has in store for Eastern Hills. If you weren’t here yet last November, you can get all of the things that we did as a church to prepare us for that journey on the giveaway wall in the foyer. If you’re interested in participating in the Endeavor focus financially or through your prayers, feel free to do so.
But my point is that courageous faith doesn’t just look one way. It’s not just for the impossible, and it’s not just found in the day-to-day. But there are four things that courageous faith does consistently: it listens, it obeys, it trusts, and it ultimately overcomes. We see each of these aspects in our focal passage this morning:
1) Courageous faith listens.
1) Courageous faith listens.
It’s not faith to go off and do something that God didn’t call you to, in ways that God didn’t instruct you to, at a time that God didn’t want you to. That’s actually folly, not faith. In our focal passage this morning, we find that Joshua is receiving instructions from the Lord about how Jericho will be won. However, the meeting in which these instructions were given actually began in chapter 5, when Joshua received a surprise visitor:
13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14 “Neither,” he replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in homage and asked him, “What does my lord want to say to his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did that.
Joshua’s visitor is the “commander of the Lord’s army.” He is a special figure, as he receives worship from Joshua, and the ground around the place where he was became holy through his presence. Some see this commander as the pre-incarnate Christ, but given that the New Testament never speaks of this being the case, it’s wiser to allow a similar experience to define how we look at it.
In Exodus 3, we find Moses’ encounter with the burning bush. Notice what it says:
2 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. 3 So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. 5 “Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
So there is this interesting conflation in Scripture where this special angel, the “angel of the Lord” speaks and the text says that it is God who speaks. The angel of the Lord also appears at other times in Scripture holding a drawn sword as we see here in Joshua:
16 When David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell facedown.
I believe that it is best to say that the “commander of the Lord’s army” is most likely to be identified as the angel of the Lord, but as the angel of the Lord speaks the will of God, the instructions that he gives are ascribed to God Himself in chapter 6.
Verse 1 then is like an interruption to Joshua’s meeting with the commander of the Lord’s army, separating the meeting itself from the instruction it contained.
1 Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering.
Verse 1 gives us the reason for the instruction that Joshua is given by the angel of the Lord—Jericho was on lock-down. Gates were shut and strongly fortified, and no one was going in or coming out, because they knew the Israelites were coming.
This had likely not been the first time that such an event had occurred in the life of Jericho, as the city at that point had been around for thousands of years. They were perfectly situated to defend themselves against a siege, especially at that time of the year. They had just completed the harvest, so food was plentiful. Jericho also had an interior spring, which would have provided fresh water without having to go outside the walls. They were set.
But the angel of the Lord was very clear:
2 The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you.
This is a statement of fact, not a statement of opinion. It’s a done deal. Jericho, its king, and its soldiers are all Joshua’s.
The part that’s so incredible are the instructions that Joshua receives:
March around the city with the men of war and the ark once a day for six days.
On the seventh day, march around it seven times, then blow the ram’s horns trumpets, and on the last long blast, give a shout.
Then the walls will just fall.
These instructions seem really clear. Except for the wall part… how is walking and trumpeting and shouting going to collapse a wall?
Let’s consider a question: What would we think of Joshua and Israel if they hadn’t listened to God’s explicit instructions? I mean, we already have several places in Scripture where they didn’t, and we see the results, don’t we? And we look, and shake our heads, and say, “Wow… God had been so clear in His instructions to them. How could they not listen to what He said? I guess they didn’t have much faith.” Fortunately in Joshua 6, they did listen.
But now, let’s turn it around to us: Do we always listen to God’s explicit instructions? We come across direct instructions that have meaning in our lives right now as we read Scripture. Do we listen? Do we even read the Scriptures in order TO listen? Courageous faith must first listen to God, because if it doesn’t do that first, then it has no idea what to actually DO.
A good example is in sharing our faith. We know that the Word says that we are to make disciples. Do we listen? We know that the Word says that we are to be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. Do we listen? We know that the Word says that we are to be ready in season and out of season. Do we listen?
We need to listen to God if we are going to have a courageous faith, a faith that steps out in order to do what God calls us to. We need to develop our ability to hear through consistent intake of the Word of God, consistent prayer life, consistent fellowship with the body of Christ, consistent worship of our Lord. And as we improve our ability to listen, we must be willing to obey what we hear from God.
2) Courageous faith obeys.
2) Courageous faith obeys.
Have you ever heard a powerful word from God as you were in the Scripture or listening to a sermon, a time when the Word was applied by the Spirit to your life, and you were totally convicted to do something or not to do something, and you made a commitment to that right then to the Lord? Now, I might be the only one here, but I doubt that I am: Have you ever, when once you had that kind of conviction or revelation, immediately gone and failed to live it out? I have. Not very courageous.
You see, courageous faith first listens, but then it obeys.
In Scripture, the concept of obedience is often connected direction to the idea of hearing, saying that truly hearing God means obeying Him.
1 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am proclaiming as you hear them today. Learn and follow them carefully.
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
Only hearing means almost nothing. In fact, if you hear the Word and never obey it, you actually deceive yourself according to James. Parents: if your child hears your words, but then ignores them, have they actually listened?
Now, if you compare verses 2-5 with verses 6-11 of Joshua 6, we see that Joshua received the message of the Lord loud and clear. And he then took that message and gave it to the people, who then carried it out. Joshua was completely faithful in passing on the Lord’s instructions. This was the plan, and there would be no deviation from it.
So obeying the word of God here was another “crossover” moment for Israel, like the crossing of the Jordan that we looked at last week. The word in verse 7 translated “move forward” is the same word as “cross” from chapter 3, which we studied last week.
Now Jericho is called a city here, but it’s not our idea of a city. The word used for city in this case could be a small village, a large walled city, or even a military outpost. This is what Jericho was: a military outpost. When God said that He had handed the city over to Joshua back in verse 2, who was mentioned? Only the king or leader and the soldiers. There were few in Jericho who were something other than these. Rahab and her family, and there was likely a temple in the center where there would have been temple workers.
Jericho had two walls: an outer wall, into which Rahab’s house was built, which was near the bottom of the hill on top of a steep embankment. The area inside the first wall would have been the “non-military” part of the outpost, where people like the prostitute Rahab conducted their businesses. Further up the hill would have been a second interior wall, inside of which was the military supplies, command center, and a small temple for worship. Total population might have been 2,500.
We know this because the “city” wasn’t all that big. I have a picture here of the hill that ancient Jericho was built upon, Tell Es-Sultan in Israel’s West Bank. The entirety of the city, including the walls, rested on this hill. This hill is not large. It’s only 11 acres. To give you a modern comparison for size, the Uptown ABQ outdoor shopping center is 11 acres without the big parking lot and The Melting Pot. Now, Israel probably had to march a little distance away from the walls if there were soldiers throwing things at them or shooting arrows, but the walk as far as travel distance was perhaps a mile and a half at most. Easily covered in under an hour.
So what I want you picture here is not a speedy military exercise. Instead, this was a solemn, nearly silent procession of likely a quarter of a million people or more. Joshua had been incredibly clear with the people during their march around Jericho. He told them that they were not to use their voices at all:
10 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.”
This is not a military strategy. This was a worship procession as they carried the ark of God around the walls. It was a display of God’s glory, a show of His might, not Israel’s. This was certainly not what we would expect for taking a military installation. But it is what they did. Joshua listened, and then as he obeyed, the people obeyed.
11 So the ark of the Lord was carried around the city, circling it once. They returned to the camp and spent the night there.
We should learn something from Joshua and Israel here. When we share our faith, we are being obedient. We aren’t getting results, because they aren’t ours to get. Instead, we are worshiping our God, displaying His glory as we tell of what He has done in Christ. He has instructed us to tell others. Our job is to obey, and then trust Him for the results, because courageous faith also trusts.
3) Courageous faith trusts.
3) Courageous faith trusts.
I have to hand it to the Israelites here. The level of trust that they show is amazing, because this plan makes zero sense from a military perspective, and still it is what they did to the letter.
14 On the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
After day 1, nothing happened. The troops got up, got in formation, the priests picked up the Ark and blew the trumpets, they marched silently around Jericho...and nothing happened. They went back to their tents. This happened for six straight days.
I don’t know about you, but I know that I would have been concerned. Day six of walking like that would have felt pointless. I think this is something that is fairly common among us as people: we like to see results. And doing something over and over and seeing no results from it is frustrating or discouraging.
But God’s way of doing things doesn’t look the way that we think things should go, and in fact, the Scriptures tell us over and over that since that’s the case, we need to trust in His ways instead of in our own:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock!
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song.
This morning, you might be wondering about the message of Jesus Christ. How can the death of someone nearly 2000 years ago matter for me right now? It’s because it was God’s way of doing things, not ours. Every other faith system in the world apart from Christianity ultimately comes down to earning our salvation. Do enough good. Avoid doing too much bad, and you might get to God or whatever. This sounds awfully man-made, because it’s how we would set it up. But Christianity is unique in that it isn’t what we would create—instead of us taking the initiative and saving ourselves, God says that that was the impossible way and so He made a way where there was none! Instead of us somehow climbing up to God, God came to us in the Person of Jesus! Instead of us earning points to get to heaven, Jesus died to pay the penalty that we owe because of our sin! And instead of us dying and hoping that we were good enough, Jesus was already good enough, already died, and already rose again on our behalf! All we have to do is believe it! No, it’s not the way we would do it. But that’s exactly the point. We aren’t God. He knew that we would never get there if it was up to us.
This is the Gospel message. Will you believe today, trusting what Jesus has done to save you, and not yourself? Will you give up going your own way and surrender to Him as your Lord? The cross might seem like it makes no sense, but it only makes no sense to those who are perishing:
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.
Trust in the supposed foolishness of the cross.
Back to Joshua for a moment: Then came day seven as we see in verses 15-19. Again, they got up early, but this day was different: they would march seven times around Jericho. And at the end of the march, the trumpets would sound, and the warriors were to give a loud shout. But since it was God who was taking the city, everything in it was to be dedicated to Him. Nothing was to be kept as spoil for Israel. Only Rahab and her family were to be spared (more on that in a moment) because of her courageous faith as we saw in chapter 2 a couple of weeks ago. Any Israelite who kept the things that were dedicated to God would bring trouble on Israel and would set themselves apart for destruction. We’ll see that next week.
The Israelites were called to trust in the work of God. We would see this as risky. What if God didn’t come through like He said He would? He had been clear. They could trust Him.
And so can we. We think it’s risky to share our faith, and it is from a human perspective. But from God’s Kingdom perspective, the risk is in NOT sharing the Gospel: they don’t hear, and we don’t get the blessing of obedience, and miss out in growing in our trust of God as we see Him work in our lives. By not trusting, we stunt our own spiritual growth.
And the truth is that we can trust God because He’s the one who does the saving. We do the obeying. And sometimes, we have to obey over the long haul before we see any results. I once shared the Gospel nearly weekly with a student for almost a year before he came to faith. God had me there for that time, and I had to trust Him that He was doing something in that young man’s life. Some days of talking together felt like day 6: that it was getting nowhere.
And then the walls fell, just like Jericho. Because ultimately, courageous faith overcomes.
4) Courageous faith overcomes.
4) Courageous faith overcomes.
But the difference is that it wasn’t my courageous faith that overcame. It was his. He trusted in Christ and his life was radically changed. He passed from death to life. From lost to found. From blindness to sight. The foolishness of the cross because for Him the power of God unto salvation through God’s working by his courageous faith.
And in Joshua, we see the results of God’s working through the courageous faith of Israel:
20 So the troops shouted, and the rams’ horns sounded. When they heard the blast of the trumpets, 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.
We have amazing archaeological evidence of the fall of Jericho. Archaeologists have found evidence that shows that the city wasn’t taken by protracted seige, because completely full pots of grain have been found in the ruins of Jericho. So its conquest was quick. Furthermore, the lower wall sat on a revetment wall, or a retaining wall, which was likely 12 feet thick, and would have been difficult to climb. How is it possible that each man of Israel went “straight ahead” to capture the city? It’s because the evidence shows that the walls collapsed OUT. Here’s a drawing that has been made of the rubble evidence at Jericho: the yellow is the revetment, and the red is the clay bricks of the wall. The walls fell outwardly, creating an instant ramp for the Israelites to advance into the city. And since there were so many of them, the city was completely surrounded when the walls fell. Every Israelite soldier could go directly forward.
But the evidence also shows that there was one section in the northern part of the outpost that didn’t fall. It was still found intact to a height of 8 feet by a German excavation in the early 20th century. Rahab’s house was built into the wall. And when she lowered the Hebrew spies, they went and hid in the hill country to the north of Jericho. Many are certain that that section is where Rahab’s house was. Of course, we can’t verify that for certain, but there’s strong evidence, given the connection between the biblical record and the physical evidence.
Archaeologists have also discovered a burn layer in the rubble, showing that the city was burned after the collapse of the walls, which accords with verse 24:
24 They burned the city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.
There is ample evidence for us to believe the Joshua narrative about what happened there. Through the courageous faith and obedience of the Israelites, God caused them to overcome.
The only part that we might struggle with has to do with out modern perspective on the destruction of every living thing in Jericho by the Israelites, as recorded in verse 21:
21 They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword—every man and woman, both young and old, and every ox, sheep, and donkey.
Very quickly, the Amorites (who inhabited Jericho) had been set apart for eradication by God. We might think that this is divinely appointed genocide, but that is not true. Their eradication was not because of their race, but because of their sin. Over 400 years earlier, God had said to Abraham:
Genesis 15:16 (CSB)
16 In the fourth generation they (Abraham’s offspring) will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
It was God’s place to use Israel to destroy Jericho. And it couldn’t have been racially motivated, because Rahab was spared because of her faith. And before we get too far, we must remember that the evidence is that Jericho was a military outpost. In verse 21, when it says that “every man and woman, both young and old,” were destroyed, this phrase was a linguistic catch-all for “everyone.” There were likely no children in Jericho.
God, through the courageous faith of Israel, overcame Jericho. And now, the Scripture tells us that faith in Jesus overcomes death, and those who believe in Jesus overcome the world by faith.
53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. 54 When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
If we want this world to change, the only lasting and meaningful solution is Jesus, because the problems of the world are in people’s hearts. We need new hearts if the world is going to be made right, and new hearts only come through the work of Jesus Christ.
Closing
Closing
So church, we are called to a courageous faith of telling people about what Jesus has done for them: calling them to trust in the Gospel of Christ for their hope and their salvation.
Will we be courageous with our faith? Will we listen to the commands of God and choose to obey them? Will we trust Him for the results, believing that through the power of the Gospel, the darkness in this world can be overcome?
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Savior and Lord before, is He calling you to do so right now through His Spirit? Respond in obedient faith, believing that Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again so you could be saved, trusting in His work to save you from the penalty that your sins deserve. If that’s you, or you just have questions about the Gospel this morning, come and talk to one of us. Rich and I will be here to meet you and pray with and for you. If you’re online, you can reach out to me at bill@ehbc.org.
Church membership
Prayer
Offering
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Ps 125)
Pastor’s Study
Prayer Meeting: special prayer meeting this week. Larry Dubin with CJF (formerly Christian Jew Fellowship) Ministries, to share with us how to pray for Israel during this time, and to lead us in prayer for Israel.
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
A prayer of blessing for the congregation from John Stott:
Go out into the world in peace.
Be of good courage;
Hold fast to what is good;
Never return evil for evil, but overcome evil with good.
Strengthen the timid.
Support the weak.
Help the needy.
Honor everybody.
Love, serve, and witness to the Lord Jesus,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And may the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
rest on you and remain with you forever.
Blessings to you all today as you go forth in courageous faith.