Untitled Sermon (4)

Move through Me

“For in him we live and move and exist” or in another translation “For in Him we live and move and have our being”. In our lengthy text this morning I would like to make highlight some verses: Verse 2 “I have given Jericho into your hands” Verse 7 “And he said to the people” Proceed and march around the city and let them who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord”. Verse 20 “When the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat... and they took the city” Through this message this morning keep in mind these three verses because as I was preparing for this message they seemed to leap out and I believe they have a lot for us. A little background before we get into our text: Joshua in a few verses before has been summoned and commissioned to be the leader of Israel by God Himself. Joshua was summoned in 5:15 to take your sandals off your feet, just as Moses was instructed by the burning bush, because he was standing on Holy ground. It reinforces the fact that Joshua is filling the role of Moses as leader of Israel. Joshua was confronted by the living God just as Moses had been. Joshua has already had a divine meeting and commissioning. It is a powerful time in his life yet he is about to see more power than he ever dreamed of. God’s word is far from a boring text wouldn’t you agree. So Joshua is now the leader of the Israelites. This chosen people who have had so much controversy. Joshua is to lead them into the Promised Land. Joshua immediately after receiving this appointment to be their leader sought God’s face on behalf of what is next for them. This morning the title of this message is “Move through Me”, three points we will look at are 1. Live – Instruction – You want God to use your life spell it out, God is clear, we need to pray clear. 2. Move – Obedience – Believe – stand on His promise. Pray through it, Praise through it! 3. Exist – Having vision beyond your resources

1. Live – Instruction – Spell it out – God is clear, pray clear First of all let’s look at Living. If I were to ask for a show of hands, which I won’t, of those who are living for God to their full potential, we may be hesitant to shout out amen or throw up our hand quickly. Take a look at Joshua. He is leading the Israelites they have been wandering for a while. They need help. Joshua is their new leader; God Himself has commissioned him. They are on track to the Promised Land but this will not be easy. How does Joshua react? The first glimpse of Jericho was both awe-inspiring and frightening. While wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the Israelites had never seen anything approximating the skyline of Jericho. The closer they got, the smaller they felt. They finally understood why the generation before them felt like grasshoppers and failed to enter the Promised Land because of fear. Anyone who knows me knows I need to see it, to visualize things. So use your imagination here to see what these guys are up against. There is a 6-foot wide lower wall and a 50-foot high upper wall encircling the ancient metropolis. The mud-brick walls were so thick and tall that the twelve-acre city appeared to be a fortress that was impossible to gain access. It seemed like God had promised something that was impossible, and His battle plan seemed comical. But before we get into all that I love how God begins his conversation to Joshua as he is seeking God’s face for guidance. Verse 2 “ The Lord said to Joshua “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and mighty men of valor” And we are like say what? I see walls and walls and walls. This place is locked up like fort Knox. No one is coming in or going out. We see it as impossible but God states it is DONE! Then after stating that the promised is completed, according to the tense of the Hebrew verb here “have given” God goes on to tell Joshua the plan. Verses 3-5 is the plan. It is specific, it is clear, it is spelled out and direct. Read verses 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 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. 5 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.” The plan was quite simple Proceed, March and Advance! I ask you this morning what is your Jericho? For Israel it was a fulfilled promised that had taken many years for it to come to pass and is traced all the way back to Abraham. It was the first step to claiming the Promised Land. It was the miracle they had been hoping for and waiting for their entire lives. What is your Jericho? What Promise are you praying around? What miracle are you marching around? What dream does your life revolve around? Just as clear as God was giving instructions to Joshua we are to be clear in our dreams with God. Dream big dreams, talk to God openly and honestly about what you need, where you want to grow, where you want to be in your relationship. Don’t you think he wants the dialogue with you? You have got to define the promises God wants you to stake claim to, the miracles God wants you to believe for, and the dreams God wants you to pursue. Here’s the problem most of us don’t get what we want simply because we don’t know what we want. We’ve never circled any of God’s promises. We’ve never written down a list of life goals. We’ve never defined where we need to be for ourselves. Instead of drawing circles we have drawn a blank. Jericho is spelled in many different ways. If you have cancer, it’s spelled healing. If your child is far from God, it’s spelled salvation. If your marriage is falling apart, it’s spelled provision. But whatever it is, you HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT! The point of prayer is God wants to hear the whole story. Spell it out to Him! Don’t be vague. We have not because we ask not.

Joshua was equipped with the plan of attack and now he was to go to the people and institute to. For many of us we know the Israelites are not the easiest crowd to get to follow. At this point I felt for Joshua but He was up for the challenge. Share story Personal example – How I never wanted to move to Minister in Labrador. Lord anywhere but there. Always a fear for some reason. Nothing specific but felt I could not take that on. It was too big for me, it was overwhelming. One day working in GFW with Pastor Noble, he mentioned that the Pastor in CF was leaving. He states what an opportunity for a young couple. You know at that point in time I was like not this young couple. I was stone cold. It was not happening. As time went on it was like those words just melted the cold heart I had for Labrador and Churchill Falls. I kept putting it off as not happening. We were comfortable in our life in GFW. We both had jobs our girls were happy. What more did we need. The more I pushed it away the more the Holy Spirit put that town and Labrador in my path. Never before did I hear so much about it in all my life. One night as I was getting ready for bed I said to Travis how would you feel about going to Labrador, to Churchill Falls? He said wherever you feel God leading we need to go! I was wishing for resistance but I didn’t get any! Then I thought maybe the girls will give me resistance, but I got nothing only cooperation and excitement. We were in a large church, lots of resources, ministry tools etc., Moved to CF with limited resources, space, and tools. Never thought I would love or have such a desire to see people come into the presence of God more in my life. It doesn’t matter about comforts or even the perception. Get your act together and get obedient. The details will come. It is not an overnight process. We waited on God and prayed through, cried through, praised through, yelled through many obstacles but He has prevailed! Our lives are not perfect but I would not trade a moment of the peace I have at being obedient to God’s call for our family for once bit of the other comfort I had. Church we need to get real with God and get out of the rut of comfort! 2. Move – Obedience – Believe – standing on his promise Joshua did not question the plan he quietly obeyed. He went to the people and explained what they would do with authority and confidence. Joshua called in the priests and gave instruction. Every soldier in the army had to have wondered why. Why not use a battering ram? Why not scale the walls? Why not cut off the water supply or shoot flaming arrows

over the walls? Instead, God told the Israelite army to silently circle the city. And He promised, after they circled 13 times in 7 days, the wall would fall. God’s plan may have seemed foolish but it was the perfect scheme for this battle. No battle plan seemed to be more unreasonable than this one. What if the armies of Jericho started to rain down arrows and spears on the defenseless Israelites? Joshua obeyed God’s plan, no argument. He lost no time in calling together the priests and soldiers sharing the directions he had received from the commander in chief. Little after dawn when the procession began to unwind out of the camp of Israel as directed. They followed the instructions and silently marched around the walls. It took them less than 30 minutes. The march covered about 8-9 acres then the Israelites returned quietly to the camp. The first time around, the soldiers must have felt a little foolish. But with each circle, their stride grew longer and stronger. With each circle, a holy confidence was building pressure inside their souls. Same procedure was followed for the next 6 days. No fortress had ever been conquered in this fashion. It may have been given to test Joshua’s faith but he did not question he trusted and obeyed. This process was also designed to test Israel’s obedience to God’s will. And that was not easy in this case either. Everyday they exposed themselves to ridicule and danger. The faith of Israel triumphed over their fear. Their thermometer of faith was high in that camp! They stood on obedience, on God’s promises. Circling Jericho gave the Israelites a 360-degree perspective of the walled promise. It helped them wrap their spirits around the mud brick miracle. It gave definition to the 50-foot high dream. That is precisely what prayer does. Prayer helps you get outside the problem. It helps you circle the miracle. It helps you see all the way around the situation. If you want God to do something new in your life, you can’t do the same old thing. It will involve more sacrifice, but if you are willing to go there, you will realize you didn’t sacrifice anything at all. It will involve more risk, but in the end it won’t seem like a risk. Make the sacrifice, take the risk, and get out of the rut. The point is MOVE! 3. Exist – Vision beyond your resources

By the seventh day, their faith was ready to pop. They arose before dawn and started circling at 6 o’clock in the morning. At three miles per hour, each mile and a half march around the city took a half hour. By 9 o’clock they hadn’t said a word in six days. They just silently circled the promise. At the end of the 7th circle the priests sounded their horns and Joshua gave the order “SHOUT! For the Lord has given you the city!” and they were ordered to spare Rahab and her family. Six hundred thousand Israelites raised a holy roar that registered on the Richter scale, and the walls came tumbling down. So when noise reverberated through the hills around, startling the wild animals and terrorizing the dwellers of Jericho in their homes. At that moment the wall of Jericho at the summons of God collapsed (fell in its place). After 7 days of circling Jericho, God delivered on a 400 year old promise. He proved, once again, that His promises don’t have expiration dates. And Jericho stands and falls, as a testament to this simple truth: If you pray through, praise through He will follow through! Verse 20- the fact that the wall was utterly destroyed in a moment illustrates God’s complete mastery overall his people’s opponents. When you are faced with an impossible feat you need to have faith in your God that will see you through it! Vision beyond your resources – Don’t let your insecurities, inhibitions, financial outlook or whatever limit the hand of God. If He has given you a dream, a promise, you can stand on it, believe it and know it will come to pass. Conclusion: Now let me backtrack for a minute, remember verse1-2? “Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands”.” Did you catch the verb tense? God speaks in the past tense, not the future tense. He doesn’t say, “I will deliver”. God says, “I have delivered”. The significance is this: The battle was won before the battle ever began!!!!!! God had already given them the city. All they had to do was circle it. They had to MOVE! We need to realize this “Stop praying for it and start praising for it! True faith doesn’t just celebrate after the miracle has happened; true faith celebrates before the miracle happens, as if the miracle has already happened, because you know that

you know that God is going to deliver on His promise. This is not name it and claim it sacrilege. God cannot be bribed or blackmailed. God doesn’t do miracles to satisfy whims. God does miracles for one reason and that is to spell His glory! It is truth revealed. We are on the winning side! You need to quit asking God to do something and start praising Him for what He had already done. Prayer and praise are both expressions of faith, but praise is a higher dimension of faith. Prayer is asking God to do something, future tense; praise is believing God has already done it, past tense. Prayer has the power to resurrect dead dreams and give them new life – eternal life! This morning I believe our response to this is to take up the commission that we have been given to obey the instruction of God. To follow His plan for us. First of all if you are here and you are not living it out, if you have not asked Jesus Christ as personal Saviour and King of your life I want you to make that happen right now! Do not miss out one minute longer on what He has for your life. Please come the pastors will be ready to pray with you and we will be ready to rejoice with you on your decision to follow Him! Secondly this morning, we need to move! We have been given promises, dreams, and words of knowledge. We are to obey, follow through, to move! We need to get out of the rut and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in us. Make the sacrifice, take the risk, and get out of the rut! We have people here to pray with you take the risk to be obedient on the commission that he has stated clearly for you! You need to stand up and walk to this altar to take that step of faith. In order to experience a miracle you have to take a risk! Thirdly, Vision beyond your resources! Dream beyond what you know you can do. Do not limit God. If you want to see your town come to Christ flesh out how that looks for you! If you want family members saved, talk to God about what that means for you, what part do you play in this. If your Jericho looks too big don’t worry your God is bigger! Believe beyond where you are. If your dream is too big for you your God is not! Trust Him with the dream! Songs: Good, Good Father Holy Spirit How great is our God