Overcoming the issue
Notes
Transcript
I apologize because I think I have told this story before, but in college I would do a good amount of rock climbing as a workout.
And the college I went to had this awesome rock wall that I would climb often
but then there was this other place I where I would climb which was at a near park and they had these decently large cliffs you could free climb
And if you fell you would probably break something and get pretty hurt, but I was a college student so I would free climb.
But there was one time me and some friends were back there and I got stuck in the middle of this cliff.
And if you have ever rock-climbed often times when you are stuck you are still using strength and energy to hold onto the wall.
So my hands are starting to get sweaty and I am getting weaker
And I have a friend trying to direct me where to go next.
And what he told me there was a foothold I couldn’t see and to just go for it.
And thats a pretty big step of faith because I cant see what he is telling me to do and if I fall and miss what he is telling me to get it could result in me breaking something break something if this guy tells me the wrong thing.
And this is a little bit of a spoiler alert, but I did make it and was able to get down.
But you know there are issues and things in our life that will often times get us in a place similar to how I was on the cliff.
Where we are tiered, we are exhausted, and there is some type of issue present in our life that needs to be dealt with so we can move forward.
There are some of you here where you have a health issue and it rightfully so weighs heavy on your mind and heart this morning.
There are some of us where we have that kid or grandkid where we are thinking what am I going to do with him?
There are others where there is something in your walk with God that needs to be addressed
But whatever it is today we are going to be in Joshua chapters 5 through 6 and we are going to be looking at an issue that is present for the Israelites as they were getting ready to enter the promise land.
and we are going to see how God directs them in the middle of this issue.
and really my hope for us today is that we see how God wants to direct us in the middle of the issues that we face in our life whether it is spiritual or physical.
So once again we are 5-6 and if you have missed the past few weeks let me catch you up to speed, because we have been following the Israelite people who have been wondering around the wilderness for 40 years
but God has promised them this land, that we call the promise land that they are getting ready to enter.
But the issue has been there are so many things in the way
And the past couple weeks we talked about the Jordan river which was a huge obstacle to cross, but God has made a way,
and so what they do is they set up stones to remember exactly how faithful God was in making a way.
and so picking up today the Israelites find themselves finally getting ready to enter the land that God has called them, but the issue is that there are people living there and they have a giant wall around the city.
And I said this another week, but these were really evil people, they were doing unspeakable things and so God tells Israel to take the land.
but like I said this seems impossible, and so this leads us up to where we are today in Joshua chapter 5-6 and I just want to start by focusing on the first part which is 5:13-15,
Because they are getting ready to go to war and something unexpected happens. Look at verses 5:13-15 because it says
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
So Joshua looks up and it says that he sees the commander of the army of the Lord.
And some people say this is God, others would say its an angel, but regardless is Joshua (who is the leader) he ends up asking them this question of are you with us or are you against us.
And we do not know if Joshua recognizes that this is God or an angel yet, but he ask this question
and the response is just “No”
And whats so interesting is that what this implies is that Joshua has asked the wrong question.
Because instead of Joshua saying okay God are you with or against us, the question that Joshua should have is “okay God am I with or against you?”
Because can I tell you something so often we ask God are you going to do something about this or are you going to help me out (which these are not bad things),
But the issue is that what happens is we start treating ourselves like we are the god that makes the call over what happens, but then God is just our helper who makes it happen
It would be like if we went up to our boss or (if you are still in school) a teacher we had and they gave us a task or plan to carry out,
But we turned around and said “hey that is awesome, but we are going to do this instead.”
It probably would not go over great would it?
But this morning before anything else happens in God wants to ask you the question “Are you with or against me?”
“Do you want me to be your God? or do you want to be your own?”
and I love Joshua’s response because he falls on His face and takes off His shoes as a way of saying God I am for you.
Just tell be whatever it is you want me to do.
And look what happens because God begins to direct Joshua in chapter 6:2-5 because He says this:
2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.”
You know you think God would start to command Joshua to get your armies swords sharpened because we are taking this land,
But instead God tells them I want you to grab the ark of the Covent (which represents God) and get all the people to circle the city of Jericho.
And this causes the Israelites to do two things
First for them this gets them right against the walls of this city which they have been trying to enter.
And really they were able to come face to face with this challenge.
They were finally able to see how big the wall way, they were able to see how guarded the city was.
And this is something that is so easy to miss, but its important when we are addressing issues in our life.
In order to address the issue, we need to begin to understand just how big that issue is.
It would be like if you told me I am going to run a marathon, and I said that is awesome and asked how far is a marathon
And you said I have no idea, well you would probably want to start to understand how far that is so you can prepare yourself.
And really for any issue, it is so important for us to bring that issue to light, for us to be able to understand exactly what the issue is.
If we have a financial issue we need to understand it
If we have an addiction, we should try to understand it
If there is a health issue we should try to understand it
And sometimes that is scary, sometimes we are facing these things and we are going this is to big.
But what I love is that they do not just face the problem, if you just face the problem and stop there you will be left scared and anxious.
But it says they circle the problem with the Arc of the Covenent.
They circle the issue with God.
And can I just say this sets such a good example for us.
Because so often we just charge into things and battle the issue, but what would happen if instead of doing that we ended up going around and around this issue with God.
Basically if we circled the issue in our life with prayer.
Because when we do that our hearts start to align with where God’s heart is on the issue,
But also God answers prayers and sometimes I believe God calls us to keep coming to Him with that thing in our life that has been an issue.
He doesn’t want us to give up praying for our child
He doesn’t want us to give up praying for our health issue
He doesn’t want us to give up praying about a thing separating us from Him
And I am not saying God is a genie, that you just have to keep asking until you get your way,
but can you imagine if the Israelite people circled Jericho 6 times and said “well nothing is happening, lets go home”
You might be on the verge of seeing God move in a mighty way.
but at the same time it is scary to circle something in prayer, because you ask yourselves what if it doesn’t happen?
I mean you can picture the Israelites doing this and asking what if we do this and we putting our lives and risk and just look like fools.
But what I love is what we read in verse 2 because it says:
2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
Did you catch that before they even start circling God says I have given you this land.
And so they had an option where they could trust God and his promise or they could just say we have already done this 6 times what difference will a 7th time make?
And like I said this is not making God our Genie, but if we believe God has called us to a place then the only way we can get their is often times by relying on Him.
This morning I know there are people here with health issues, with family problems, with things blocking your walk with God, but would happen if you started to pray asking God? And what would happen if you kept circling in prayer.
Because first off I believe God will start to align your heart to see if that thing is something He desires,
And second off (if it is) I believe we will begin to see God work.
And I want to close on verse 20 because it tells the result. It says:
Joshua 6:20 (ESV)
20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city...
The walls they faced collapsed and the 40 year wait was over.
Will You pray with me?