In Tearing Walls Down

Introduction

One of the first acts that God used Joshua with once he became the leader was to conquer Jericho.

As I pondered upon this message over the last week - I knew the point & premise of the message, but as I began to lay it out I struggled a bit.

But then God’s Spirit really began enlightening my eyes and granting me wisdom in the Scriptures and the further I got, the more excited I became for this message. I believe it’s an important message - one that can certainly impact your life in a tremendous way if you let it.

I pray that you prepare your heart for it - and what God wants you to do with it.

The Title of the message revolves around the sacking of Jericho - the first battle that the COI faced as they entered the land of promise.

(Recap)

Now if you remember the Theme we’re building on is ‘Be Strong and of a Good Courage’ and today we’re looking at ‘In Tearing Walls Down’.

The Text in which we read takes place after the COI crossed over Jordan ready to follow God and finally getting to the place where God wants them.

LET ME ASK YOU THIS: ARE YOU WHERE GOD WANTS YOU TODAY?

As we see, in order to get where God wants us, walls need to come down.

That being said, we’ll look first at Examining the Problem

I. Examining the Problem

In considering the Walls of Jericho to the COI, the walls were a problem. But we’ll get more into that in a moment.

Before we do, I want for us to just consider the concept of walls.

(Ill.) I’ve been asked on multiple occasions how to synergize Day 1 & 4 of the creation account. Day 1: Genesis 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” but He didn’t create the sun unto day 4: Genesis 1:16 “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

The simple answer is that on day 1, God Created the concept of light, on day 4 He created sources of light.

(Ill.) You see, a candle will produce light, but it’s the flame that does so. Light is the effect of the source, but God first created the concept before the producer.

IN THIS SAME VAIN: Before we look at the Walls of Jericho, I want us to examine the concept of walls themselves.

So we look first at the Design. What is the purpose of walls?

The Design

As we consider what walls ARE, we consider first what they DO.

Wass (def) A work or structure of stone, brick or other materials, raised to some highth, and intended for a defense or security.

This was most certainly the reason the Canaanite’s erected the walls in Jericho - was for their security and defence.

But you see, that’s not what the walls were to the COI. They didn’t mean security or defence to THEM.

So what is it that walls do? They impede or restrict progress. No matter which side of the wall you are on - they impede or restrict progress.

(Ill.) If you were outside the city, they impeded your progress to the other side. If you were inside, they impeded your progress to the other side.

So when we consider a wall, we must consider that it’s entire purpose is present a restriction or impedance.

Sometimes a Help

Walls have their place. I’m not here today to say that all walls are bad - because they are not.

Walls have their place. One place for a wall is on the southern border!

Walls can be a good thing! They DO provide us with safety & security. They give us a defence. The Bible speaks much on this:

Satan recognized a wall about Job: (Read Job 1:6-10)

Church, do you know what parents need to do for their children? Put a hedge of protection around them.

They need to put barriers in place to keep Satan out!

They need to put walls up to impede the progress of the Devil who is out to destroy them!

Walls are Sometimes a help

Sometimes a Hinderance

The Walls might have been a help to the Canaanites in Jericho, but they weren’t a help to the COI. They were a hinderance.

Those walls impeded their progress.

They restricted access to accomplish the goals that God had for them.

This is the angle or aspect of how we’re looking at walls today. THE SAME WAY GOD’S PEOPLE SAW THE WALLS OF JERICHO. A Restriction, an impedance. An obstruction that was hurting them from accomplishing God’s goals for them.

The reason why we’re looking at it in this fashion today, is because a lot of Christian have a lot of walls that are hindering them.

They have walls in their lives that is impeding their progress.

They are stopping them from accomplishing the goals that God has for them.

Many Christians have walls in their lives that are not good. They are not beneficial, they are hurting them.

HEY - GOD HAD A LAND AND A PLAN FOR THE COI - BUT WALLS STOOD IN THEIR WAY.

I wonder if you’re not where God wants you because there’s some walls that need to be torn down in your life - so that you may advance to where God wants you to be!

As I preach this message I want you to consider what one (or some) of the walls in your life are today.

Sometimes their a hinderance

The Diversity

The next thing that I want to consider is the variety of walls that there are.

There are: Stone, brick, wood, picket, privacy, tall, short.

God spoke of hedges being a wall

There are all sorts of walls that we encounter - and there are all sorts of walls hindering Christians.

(Ill.) Mine may be a 10’ tall stone wall, yours may be a 4’ tall picket fence. One may seem insurmountable, others may seem easily overcome. My wall may not be your wall, yours may not be one of great significance - BUT THEY ARE WALLS JUST THE SAME! They ALL hinder our progress to getting where God wants us to be!

There are walls of addiction:

Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography, adultery

There are walls of:

Pride, greed, covetousness, lying

There are walls of:

Idolatry, Apathy, Indifference, Omission (Prayer, giving, etc.), UNBELIEF!

Just as there is diversity in physical walls we see, there are just as many Spiritual walls that Christians face.

JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T STRUGGLE WITH WHAT I DO, DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT STRUGGLING!

We see the Diversity

The Diagnosis

This is important. Figuring out what YOUR Wall(s) is / are.

Notice I said what YOUR wall is. Do you know what’s NOT part of the diagnosis? Identifying what MY wall is.

All too often, we’re very good at looking at the walls in other people’s lives - but let me just say, that will do NOTHING FOR YOU! You don’t need to figure out what wall is in my life - that wall is not the one impeding you! Your neighbor’s wall isn’t hindering you! YOUR WALL IS HINDERING / IMPEDING YOU! And that’s what you got to figure out.

Not only do you have to focus on YOUR wall, but you got to identify the wall that’s there.

(Ill.) There was a Marvel movie out a few years ago and they were this place and there was this wall dividing two different armies. Then, these mindless creatures start storming the walls - and they’re running into these walls and killing themselves.

In many ways this is a picture of Christians today. Like mindless creatures we go about our way never noticing the wall in front of us - treating it as though it’s invisible - to our destruction! The destruction of our potential in Christ!

So it’s very important to make sure to identify - diagnose - the walls that hinder us. The COI faced a wall in Jericho. It hindered them from reaching God’s place for them.

We Examined the Problem, next let’s explore the Solution. What did the COI do that we can apply to our lives?

II. Exploring the Solution

To understand what is necessary, we can’t start in Jericho in Jos. 6. We must go back further.

To see the solution, there must first be a Confrontation

A Confrontation (Jos. 3-4)

This builds of the last point a moment ago.

What I mean is that many years earlier, Joshua & Caleb had spied out the land. They saw the walled cities there. Joshua KNEW they were over there. But in Jos. 3, Joshua is still over on the wrong side of Jordan.

In other words, he KNEW the walls were there, but HE HADN’T CONFRONTED THE WALLS YET!

You see church, it’s not enough to recognize a problem - you must confront the problem if you’re EVER GOING TO OVERCOME THE PROBLEM!

(Ill.) I wonder how many of us are aware of the fact that we don’t eat like we should? Some may over eat, some may eat junk food - YOU KNOW THERE’S A PROBLEM - yet, you STILL over eat. You STILL eat the junk food… you see, you KNOW YOU HAVE a problem, BUT YOU HAVEN’T CONFRONTED THE PROBLEM.

Church, it’s not enough to know that you have walls in your life that are hindering you - that are preventing you from reaching God’s goals for you - you MUST CONFRONT THE WALL!

The COI knew the walls were there, so what did they do? They crossed over Jordan and marched up to Jericho where the walls were.

Acknowledging your walls is one thing (the Diagnosis)

But diagnosis WITHOUT confrontation is pointless!

For a solution to be had, there must be a confrontation. The next thing we see is a Preparation

A Preparation (Jos. 5)

The task they were about to embark upon was a great task. It wasn’t going to be easy. There was a battle that lied before them.

Therefore, they needed to take preparation for it.

The first thing that we see is that they Acknowledged their Status

They Acknowledged their Status (v1-9)

We see in these verses that the COI made sure that everyone bore the mark of the circumcision. But what did this mean?

Circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. In other words, it was the sign that God’s people bore.

By circumcising the nation, they were acknowledging the fact that they were God’s people.

One part of your preparation is to acknowledge that you are God’s child!

They Remembered their Salvation (v10-12)

They then partook of the passover. What do we see here?

The Passover was instituted when God redeemed them from the land of Egypt. This typifies their Salvation.

They were Remembering now what God has already done for them!

In your preparations before you get to your wall, you need to take a moment and remember what God has already done for you! For the Christian, that means that the God of Creation came down to this earth, took upon the form of a man, then bore their sins on Golgotha, then Rose in Victory after 3 days!

Listen - a God that will do that for you, let me ask you - what won’t He do for you?

The Past is a Promise church! But then we see something else:

They Recognized their Saviour (v13-15)

Now Joshua sees the captain of the host - AND HE’S READY FOR BATTLE!

CHURCH, THEY ARE GOD’S CHILDREN

GOD HAS ALREADY PROVEN HE’S MIGHTY IN DELIVERANCE

AND GOD IS READY TO DELIVER AGAIN!

That makes me what to shout! What a God we have!

They Recognized the Saviour!

Church, the biggest part of the battle is simply getting in the right frame of mind!

They were willing to Confront their Wall

They prepared themselves for the confrontation

But then lastly, we see a Submission is required also

A Submission (Jos. 6)

Lastly we see what’s taking place. They get to Jericho and it’s shut up - the walls are too tall for them to overcome. They’re too strong for them to bring them down by themselves.

So what do we see?

We see that God has a plan.

Listen - Joshua didn’t come up with marching around the city and blowing trumpets. If Joshua came up with that on his own, he’s not very astute in military tactics. That was God’s plan.

At this point - Joshua could have done 1 of 2 things: He could have chose to approach this wall his way, or God’s way.

And here’s the thing: Joshua could have done everything else up to this point right:

Diagnosis

Confrontation

Preparation

Acknowledging he was God’s child, God’s has done great things before and is ready for battle now.

But if he chose to tear down these wall his way - THEY WOULDN’T HAVE COME DOWN!

Church, if the walls are to come down, you’re going to have to do it God’s way!

(Ill.) I’ve counseled many people over my ministry. All too often, my counsel doesn’t work. But here’s the thing: It’s not because of the counsel - I give Biblical counsel, and oftentimes Biblical counsel is straightforward. It’s because they don’t head God’s way of fixing things!

Church, if you’re going to get past those wall that are hindering you - that are keeping you from being what God wants in your life - YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SUBMIT TO DOING THINGS GOD’S WAY.

There is no magic pill to swallow

There is no secret sauce

There is no hidden YouTube video you need to see

You don’t need a new way - YOU NEED GOD’S WAY!

GOD’S WAY IS THE ANSWER!

It may seem simple

It may not make sense

It may seem like it’s not going to work

But if you do it God’s Way, God’s Captain will lead the charge and bring down the walls that hinder you’re best life in Christ!

We’ve Examined the Problem & Explored the Solution. Lastly, that only leaves Enjoying the Result!

III. Enjoying the Result

God Enabled the Victory

After all the instruction that Joshua gave, we see the results in Joshua 6:20 “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.”

I wonder if you’re familiar with that song ‘The battle’s not mine - said little David’? The same principle that David used before Goliath is the same principle that we see the COI in Jericho this day!

God enabled the Victory

(Ill.) In Sunday School we’re learning about ‘Living Beyond your Capacity’ and the effect of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers - church you can have victory because it’s not YOU, it’s GOD! God will enable the victory, IF you do things God’s way!

God Enabled the Victory

They Enjoyed the Victory

Imagine the feeling that went through the COI when they shouted and then the walls came tumbling down!

(Ill.) Church, I’ve experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I’ve experienced it in many aspects - but the most impactful is experiencing the victory in my Christian walk. What a blessing it is when we experience the victories God has for us! What a feeling we have when God brings the walls down!

They Enjoyed the Victory - will you?

Conclusion

What’s your wall? Have you identified it / them yet?

Are you willing to confront it?

Are you willing to prepare yourself?

Are you willing to submit to God’s way of bringing down the walls?

If you do - you can experience victory today church!