The Step of Obedience

Last week we saw that the Israelites took another step in their journey into the Promised Land. They took the step of consecration. This step was taken because for 40 years, they had lived in the wilderness, outside of the will of God, outside of His plan, and for their own selves.

When they crossed the Jordan River and entered again into the covenant that God had made with them, God demanded that they adopt the sign of the covenant which was circumcision.

We saw this was a step of consecrating themselves to the Lord and His service. As we studied the Israelites taking this step, we saw that consecration often hurts. It hurts because we are essentially cutting our self out of the equation. We are allowing God to cut out sin and any other thing that keeps us from fully enjoying God’s love and doing His will. Often, those things that God asks us to give up are deeply held goals and desires and ways of thinking, and this is why consecration often hurts.

But we also saw that the step of consecration calls us to remember all that Jesus suffered so that we would be saved. Reflecting on Christ’s sufferings and the sacrifice He made helps us understand that our suffering here is is minimal compared to His.

But not only does it put our suffering into perspective, consecration comes with a fulfillment that we would not be able to have otherwise. Nothing can satisfy like Jesus, not even reaching our most outlandish and impossible goals or dreams. A life lived for Jesus is the most satisfying of lives.

And then we saw that Consecration joins us with Jesus. It puts us firmly on His team. We saw that we are never a side, never a team. There are only two teams in this life, Jesus’s team or the world’s team. The world is firmly in direct opposition to Jesus, and when we decide to live for ourselves instead of living for Christ, we find ourselves opposed by Jesus because we are on the world’s side.

Joshua discovered that neither he nor Israel held a side when he encountered a man hold a drawn sword outside of Jericho and asked, “Who side are you on? On our side or the enemies side?” To which the man said, “No. I am the captain of the army of the Lord.” Recognizing this man to be God Himself, Joshua bowed down and worship the Lord and commited his service to to God.

He did this because he realized that he was supposed to lead the Israelites to be on the Lord’s side, not invite the Lord to join their side. And this is what we must be aware of. We should be asking God the same question that Joshua asked, “What does my Lord say to his servant?” “God, what do you want me to do?” Instead of, “God, this is what I am going to do, join me in it so that it can be successful.” Just like for Israel, in our own lives there can never be victory without first dying to ourselves and consecrating ourselves to the worship and work of the Lord.

And this is where we left Joshua last week — worshipping the Lord and asking what what God wants him to do. So let’s continue by turning to Joshua 6:1-5. As you find your place, for reference, I want to give you some information about the city of Jericho.

Jericho was a city that had been inhabited for a very long time. Even before the Israelites arrived, it was a very ancient city. Though it lay in a valley, it’s location was strategically important. It was on extremely fertile territory, had a reliable spring that kept fresh water available (that still exists today), there was access to good agricultural land, and it was positioned well to control and monitor any movement through the Jordan Valley.

Because of this, Jericho was the logical first stop for the Israelites after crossing the Jordan River.

Jericho was a fortified city that consisted not only of two walls, an inner wall and outer wall, both about 30 feet in height. There were obviously gates that controlled access through the walls and there is archaeological evidence of defensive towers along the walls also. In addition to that, it has been discovered that Jericho was also surrounded by and upward slope and a defensive ditch around the city.

Though it was not a massive city, it was well defensible and defended because of its strategic importance. Considering all this, let’s read Joshua 6:1-5.

Joshua 6:1–5 KJV 1900

1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. 3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. 4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. 5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

This is God’s plan to defeat Jericho, the city that is very well defended. Walk around it 7 days and on the seventh day, walk around it 7 times, then shout. And with all that, the wall is supposed to fall down?

Joshua finds himself at a fork in the road once more. There is a step he must take, and the next step that he will take is the step of obedience.

The Step of Obedience

Remember, this is not a man that is unfamiliar with war. He has been fighting and leading the army of Israel for 40 years now. To a battle-hardened leader, this is not sound strategy. To march around the city in total silence except for the priests blowing their trumpets for 6 days and seven times on the seventh day is to make yourself a target for an awful long time.

J. Hutson Taylor said that there are three ways to serve God. “(1) To make the best plans we can and hope that they succeed; (2) to make our own plans and ask God to bless them; or (3) to ask God for His plans and then do what He tells us to do.”

Joshua received his orders from the Lord, and that is why Israel succeeded.

Joshua 6:6–15 KJV 1900

6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord. 7 And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord. 8 And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. 9 And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. 10 And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout. 11 So the ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. 12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. 14 And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days. 15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.

I want you to note that not only did Joshua obey, but the people obeyed. Forty thousand men of war accompanied the ark of the covenant and the priests, walking in front and behind them. This step of obedience showed them many things.

Obedience Brings Victory

The first thing that we see from the step of obedience is that obedience brings victory. let’s continue reading Joshua 6.

Joshua 6:16–24 KJV 1900

16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city. 17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 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. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. 22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. 24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

Victory! Finally! After 40 years of wandering around, after finally taking the step of faith that would lead them into the Promised Land, after consecrating themselves, and after obeying what must have seemed like an illogical seige method, Jericho’s mighty walls had been brought down, not by them, but by God.

Now, I want to qualify this statement, Obedience Brings Victory. The events that happen here in the book of Joshua are not meant to make us believe that if we obey everything, every obstacle will fall before us in seven days. No, victory in the spiritual world is not measured by how many obstacles are removed. Victory is measures by how persistent we are in faithful obedience.

If, in our obedience, God wants to bring walls down, He will. And if in our faithful obedience He wants us to struggle through situations, then we must trust that in following Him, even if it is through the valley of the shadow of death, His rod and staff will guide and protect us and that his grace, as the Apostle Paul said, is sufficient for us.

But the falling of the walls was not the end, it was only the beginning. Obedience must be continuous.

Obedience Must Be Continuous

Had Israel just stood there and applauded and shouted for joy that God had brought down the walls, the victory would have remained incomplete. As we continue to study the book of Joshua, we will see that their obedience does end up being incomplete, but right now, they understand — for this to be total victory, they must rush in and finish off the city.

And so they did. But they did not follow the custom of the day which was that those that fought would enjoy whatever spoils of war they could get their hands on. God had commanded them otherwise — everything was to die or to be burned. The only things that would be kept was anything that was made of precious metals like gold, silver, or bronze, and those things could not be kept by the soldiers, they would all be dedicated and consecrated to the Lord.

So the Israelites enter and they killed everyone that survived, including all the animals. And this may be difficult to think about, but we must understand that God has given Jericho, and the other nations in Canaan, nearly 500 years to repent and turn from their wicked ways while Israel was in Egypt and in the wilderness. And today is the day of reckoning for the city of Jericho. We see that through God’s grace, He does save the family of Rahab, the one family that did repent and follow God.

The rest of the city they burned to the ground, even the food supplies that were stored — they kept nothing, burned everything, and trusted God to supply for their needs.

It is an interesting thing to note that archaeology confirms that in this time period, there was an event that caused the walls to collapse, and there is also evidence that the city was destroyed with fire. Archaeologists have recovered charred wood and mud brick in that area, and even charred remains of grain — indicating that the Israelites did indeed burn everything.

Why burn everything? It was a warning to Israel — God hates idolatry. It was a warning for them against following the pagan practices of the Canaanites.

But it was also so that they would see the provision from God. No more manna meant that the grain and other food in the storehouses of Jericho would have been a great blessing, but they burned it all, obeying even when it didn’t make sense to them, because they trusted God to provide.

They took that which was precious and deposited it in the treasury of the Lord as they were instructed. The only surviving people were those that were in Rahab’s house at the time of the walls collapsing. Joshua, true to the promise of the spies, saved them alive, and Rahab’s family eventually incorporates with the Israelites when she marries a man from the tribe of Judah.

So their obedience was continuous. Our obedience must also be continuous. We cannot take one step of obedience and think that that is the end of the journey. No! We must continue to walk in obedience. I obey today, then I obey tomorrow. I obey right now, and I continue to obey throughout the day.

Disobedience Brings Consequences

We will study this more in depth next week, but disobedience brings consequences. Notice the consequences for taking things from Jericho for one’s self. Joshua 6:17-18

Joshua 6:17–18 KJV 1900

17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

Again, we will cover this more in detail tomorrow, but the consequence for Israel was that if anyone took spoils for themselves, it would bring a curse upon not only them, but the entire camp of the Israelites.

Likewise, our disobedience troubles not only us, but those around us — our family, our church, our whole community.

And again, that is why our Obedience must be continuous. Look at Joshua 6:26

Joshua 6:26 KJV 1900

26 And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

The word “adjured” is an interesting word. It means “to seven one’s self,” or, “to cause others to seven themselves.” You are hearing me right, I am saying the word seven, as in the number 7. It was a type of oath, a very serious oath. One that was repeated 7 times, ergo the meaning “to seven one’s self.”

But here, Joshua adjures the people. He makes them swear this oath. And the oath is one that comes with a curse.

Jericho, for all its agricultural and military value, must never be rebuilt. Just like the Israelites had set up stones as a memorial of God parting the waters of the Jordan, the ruins of Jericho could serve as a memorial of God’s judgment on a wicked, idolatrous people that refused, for centuries, to follow the God that they knew was powerful, more so than their false gods. The city of Jericho dates back to before Abraham’s time, and based on archaeological findings, there is evidence that Jericho had close ties with Egypt. There are even the ruins of an Egyptian styled palace dating to the time in which Joshua and the Israelites destroyed the city.

This would explain why the inhabitants of Jericho were so afraid of Israel. Not only had rumors reached them, but they were informed by Egyptians themselves what had transpired before the Israelites were set free.

Even so, there was no repentance. There was no call to abandon the false gods and worship the true God. The only person that had that idea was Rahab, and only she and her family were saved from destruction.

So Joshua causes the people to swear an oath — that Jericho was to remain a ruin. And the person that set out to rebuild it would bring upon himself and his family a curse. If anyone tried to rebuild the city, when the foundation was laid, his firstborn child would die, and upon completing the city and setting the gates up (which would typically go in last), the youngest son would die.

About 530 years later, during the reign of King Ahab, a man named Hiel set out to rebuild Jericho. And as is recorded in 1 Kings 16, his oldest son died while the foundation of the city was being laid, and when they were setting up the gates of the city, his youngest son also died.

Disobedience brings consequences.

But one more thing that we need to consider is that

Obedience Brings Us Closer to God

Joshua enjoyed a closeness with the Lord because of his obedience to Him.

Joshua 6:27 KJV 1900

27 So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.

Joshua’s obedience was not an obedience out of obligation or simply out of a sense of duty. Joshua’s obedience was a true, heartfelt, and rightly motivated obedience — joyful obedience. And that is the type of obedience to the Lord that we must have. Remember from last week:

“Worldliness,” wrote Warren Wiersbe, “is not so much a matter of activity as it is of attitude… Worldliness is anything in a Christian’s life that causes him to lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love or his desire to do the Father’s will.”

We can lose the enjoyment and lose the desire to obey and still do what we are supposed to do. Children and teens do it all the time at home and at school. Adults do it all the time at work. But this must not be the case with Christians.

In the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, the character Polonius gives his son some advice. He gives what is generally regarded as sound advice — don’t rush to speak; don’t act before you think; when you find good and trustworthy friends, bind them to yourself with steel bonds; but don’t rush to trust unproven new friendships; be careful about getting into fights, but if you do, do it in a way that those opposed would beware of you; listen to everyone, but be careful who you talk to, etc.

At the end of this counsel, he tells his son the famous words, “This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

To the Christian, to the members of Good News Baptist Church, I would offer the same counsel.

This above all: To thine own self be true. This is not a way of saying, “be loyal only to yourself and only think of yourself.” What it does mean is, “Don’t be a fake.” Don’t be a hypocrite.

If you come serve in this church in any ministry and you are not right with God, then do one of two things: 1) get right with God and continue to serve. E.g.: it is your turn to serve on the worship team either singing or playing an instrument, but you are struggling with sin. There is resentment in your heart or unforgiveness, or you just find yourself just going through the motions as you play and sing, but your heart is not in it.

Before you stand up here and participate in this ministry that leads our church in corporate worship, get right with God. Confess your sin, get focused on Him, and if getting right involves going and settling a matter with a brother or sister in Christ, then follow the Lord’s command to reconcile with the person you need to reconcile with and then come and lead worship.

Or option 2: Don’t serve. For example: It’s Sunday morning and it’s your turn to teach kids. Everything seems be going wrong and it is just getting you more and more frustrated. You’re biting off everyone’s head at home as you prepare to come to church, and then you remember, “Great! Just great! I have to teach the kids class today!”

If you can’t get over whatever is causing you to have an attitude that morning, would you please hear my heart when I ask you right now, “Please don’t serve like that.” I don’t care what ministry it is — kids, worship, teens, nursery, toddlers, the welcome team, the audio visual team — it doesn’t matter. Don’t serve like that.

Because your service would be a lie. It would be a hypocrisy, just a facade.

Obedience for obedience’s sake does nothing and ultimately means nothing. If there is ONE THING that you should remember from our 46 sessions studying the Sermon on the Mount, it should be that Jesus, over and over, tells us that it is not about the obedient act itself, it is about the heart of the person obeying.

Listen very closely, I am not saying that you must be perfect to serve or that you must serve perfectly. There will be times when we struggle with joy. There will be times when we we have grown tired. There will be times in which we will be discouraged. And we must bring those things to God too, and the amazing thing is that when we do bring those things to the Lord, He fills us up, if we let Him. He encourages us and brings people into our lives to encourage us. He gives us His grace to continue going on, if we will willingly submit to Him.

This above all: to thine own self be true. Don’t put on a front. And no, this is not an encouragement to walk around and be hateful toward others. It is an encouragement to genuinely love others. To be true in your love for others, which, by the way, is the second greatest commandment of all.

So if you are serving, serve from the heart or not at all. Otherwise it is a disservice to yourself and those around you, and ultimately, it is a sin. Likewise, to not serve where God has called you to serve is also a sin. So really, all we are left with is option 1 — to get right with God and then serve.

And when we obey out of love and in faith, it draws us closer to God.

Joshua 6:27 KJV 1900

27 So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.

And not only that, but others will know about our obedience.

No, again, we do not obey for any reason than out of love and trust for the Lord. We don’t obey so that others will see us, but in obeying, others will know about it. Those who love God will be blessed and encouraged by it. Those that are not right with God will be jealous and/or hateful because of it.

Joshua didn’t go out seeking fame, but his reputation began to spread. Listen, you may not get recognition and you may not be lauded by our city government for your obedience to the Lord, but believe you me, people will notice, and it will have an impact.

Application

Last week we had a different kind of invitation. There were about 30 people that stood up last week saying, “I will be consecrated to the Lord in His mission in this church.”

If you were one of those people, then you need to be praying like Joshua did — “Lord, what will you have your servant do? What do you want me to do in this church?”

Once you have sought the Lord for His direction, then obey. Faith and obedience go hand in hand. There is no faith without obedience, and obedience without faith is not pleasing to the Lord.

If you are already serving, have you asked God lately if there is another area in which you could serve? Are you regularly seeking His plan for you in the church?

Church, most likely, in about a month we will be voting on whether or not to merge with Blair Ridge Baptist Church. There should be no other motivations to do something like this than to obey the Lord, but I question our ability to obey God in that area or even hear His voice, if we are not seeking His will for our service within this church.

The way our constitution is set up, all active members will be able to vote. We don’t have a lot of requirements for you to be considered an active member according to our constitution. But some of y’all will be voting in a month, and you haven’t participated in a ministry that serves the mission of this church by making disciples or seeking discipleship in years. But sure, “you’re active.”

And when the time comes to vote, some people will vote according to their comfort; some will vote according to their fears; some will vote according to their expectations; and others will vote a certain way because they think that is how someone might want them to vote.

But some, and I honestly pray that all, will vote according to their faith to obey the Lord no matter the circumstances or the consequences.

But here’s the deal, that vote will most likely take place in 4 or 5 weeks. And if you expect to vote according to what God wants for this church, but you, in your personal life, are not in obedience to Him, how do you expect to vote obediently?

Regardless of what God does through this vote, I have no doubt in my mind that God is getting us ready to do something big, something that is impactful for the kingdom of heaven.

So, what defining steps are you going to take in this church so that this church can take defining steps into God’s work here in Cedar Rapids? Will you, today, take a defining step of faith and obedience?

Before we have our invitation I have one more thing to say. While I am pastoring here, Good News Baptist Church will not be the church of the wilderness, you’ll have to look for another pastor if that is what you want.

I will fight, tooth and nail, to lead us where God is leading us. But we will not be the church that is afraid of the Promised Land. We will not be the church that is happy with the status quo. GNBC will no be complacent nor will it be a place of complacent, comfortable members.

If that is what you are looking for or expecting here, you will not find it. We will move and we will move in faith wherever, whenever, and however God tells us to. By faith we will see Jesus move mountains and crumble the enemy’s walls, or we will see nothing at all.

So if you’re wanting just a place to come Sunday morning, sit on your derriere, check off the “attended church this week” box, and go on about your life — do it at another church.

And if you are wondering what you can possibly do, please see me. There’s lots to do and lots that can be done.

Invitation

Before we bow our heads and close our eyes, how many of you are members of this church, would you raise your hand? (If you are not a member and would like to be a member of Good News, then please talk to me after the service.)

Now, with your heads bowed and eyes closed, I have a question just for the members. How many of you would say, “Mike, if I am honest with myself and with God, I must admit that I am not actively involved in the mission of this church of making disciples. I don’t disciple others, I am not being discipled, I am not active in the mission of this church.”

You can put your hands down.

Now the question that follows is this — for those that raised their hands just now, how many would say, “Mike, I want to be active in the mission of this church. I am willing to do whatever God wants me to do, no matter what. Would you pray for me?”

if you raised your hand just now, I am going to invite you to come to the altar and deal with God in that matter. Would you please come and commit yourself to the Lord and to obeying Him?

Anyone that might say, “I am a member, I have been serving, but I have not been serving with an honest heart. Please pray for me.”

Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, I’m not a member, but I would like to be a part of this church.”

Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, I’m not a member here, and if I am honest, I don’t even know if I have a relationship with God. But I would like to know more about being saved. I would like to know how to be sure that my sins are forgiven.”

Life Groups

1. What is something that stood out to you from the sermon? Any questions or comments?

2. Have you ever had to follow instructions that didn’t make sense until later? What happened?

3. Are you more likely to struggle with taking the first step of a difficult task or with continuing it day after day?

4. Read Joshua 6:2–5. What did God promise Joshua, and what did He tell Israel to do? Which part belonged to God, and which part belonged to them?

5. After the walls fell, what instructions did Israel still need to obey? What does the account of Rahab add to the story?

6. Where is it hardest for you to keep obeying when you cannot see any change yet?

7. When you serve while tired or discouraged, what helps you turn honestly toward God instead of either pretending you’re fine or giving up?

Challenge for the week: Choose one clear step of obedience you already know is in front of you. Write down what you will do and when you will do it. Each day this week, pray briefly: “Lord, help me trust You with the outcome and be faithful with the step You’ve given me.”

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.