Fulfilling Our Vision By Our Actions Will Bring Victory
Fulfilling Our Vision By Our Actions Will Bring Victory
Joshua 6:1-5; 16&20
Do you remember as children we used to sing songs about “Joshua and the battle of Jericho,” and how those walls came “a tumblin’ down.” This is, without question, one of the most exciting stories in the Bible in which the mighty, supernatural power of God is displayed in response to the obedience and faith of His people.
Oftentimes, familiarity with something causes us to take it for granted, or to hold it in low esteem. I think that has happened to our church and our meeting here at Grant School. So, as of this coming week, we are being forced to get out of our comfort zone for a while. Our text is tireless story where there are lessons to be learned by the church whose desire it would be to accomplish much for the glory of God. What are those lessons?
1. We Must Believe God’s Word
As we look at this passage of scripture, we find that the children of Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, are about to enter the land of promise. All they have to do is cross the flood swollen Jordan River by following the ark of God as it is carried by the priests. God has already told them that the land was theirs for the taking, and that their possession of the land was limited only by their vision to obtain it. In Joshua 1:3-5 God told His leader Joshua: I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Everywhere you go, you will be on land I have given you—4 from the Negev Desert in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River on the east to the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand their ground against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.
Now, I want you to note something here! God made a promise concerning their possession, and of their protection, but He did not promise that their possession of the land would be without a fight! It has often been said that “Anything worth having is worth fighting for.” This is especially true in the church because we are engaged in spiritual warfare against a powerful enemy who is determined to thwart the plans and purposes of God in his attacks against God’s people. Even though God said the land of Canaan belonged to Israel they had to have a vision for it, exercise faith, and act in obedience to receive its benefits and blessings. They would have to conquer many enemies. They would have to change and have new experiences through the claiming of new ground. God says the future belongs to us, but there are enemies to be fought, and walls to be torn down.
Jericho was a fortified city. There were two walls that surrounded the entire city, and each wall was posted with sentinels. The outer wall was six feet thick, and the inner was purportedly twelve feet thick. As far as mere man was concerned the walls were impregnable! But, with God all things are possible! And, as we will see the walls fell flat before the children of Israel, and every man went straight in to conquer the inhabitants.
2. We Must Trust God’s Vision
How was it that Israel experienced such a victory? Well, it began as only it could have: with a God-given vision. In Joshua 6:2 God said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and its mighty men of valor.”
The word “see” comes from the Hebrew word râw-âw, and it means to envision something: to see far beyond the physical realm of present reality to see something as it can, and will be. God’s call for Joshua to envision the fall of Jericho was based not upon Israel’s power and might, but upon God Himself, as He declared unto Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand…”
3. We Must Follow God’s Leader
God still chooses His leaders today. We who have lived through the sixties and the time since in America have a problem with that. We as a culture have been taught to rebel against authority. But, may I remind you that it is God who still chooses a leader for His people and He gives him a vision for His church. George Barna in his book The Power of Vision writes, “Vision for ministry is a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His chosen servants and is based upon an acute understanding of God, self, and circumstances.”
Joshua knew what it meant to have vision of future things. He and Caleb were two of twelve spies sent in to spy out the Promised Land forty years before. Like the others, Joshua and Caleb saw the giants in the land; they saw the fortified cities; but they also saw the blessings that God had laid before them, and while ten spies saw themselves as nothing more than grasshoppers in the eyes of their enemies, Joshua and Caleb were visionaries, and tried to encourage the people to move forward to receive God’s blessings. But, the people didn’t trust Moses’ vision from God and were going to stone him to death because he had lead them to such a difficult place where their life was going to b challenged.
On Rick Warren’s web site I was reading about leadership and this is what was said to the pastors concerning new church plants, “One way to kill a church for sure is to let everyone lead. Follow everyone's suggestions and you're sure to be closing your doors soon. Stick to what God has called you to do, build a team around you that has the same vision and don't apologize for it.”
Solomon, in his great wisdom, declared in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I cannot help but think of the late Dr. Martin Luther King who often proclaimed: “I have a dream!” His dream, or vision was for equality for men and women of all races. Well, long before God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses and lead the nation Israel into the Promised Land, Joshua had a vision! His dream was to possess the land of Canaan. His vision was to receive and enjoy the promise of God. His dream was to live in a land of plenty in peace. It was something that he longed for so badly that he could taste it. He lived and breathed the vision.
I ask you, this morning, “Do you have a dream?” Of course you do! We all have dreams of the future and how bright it can be. We have dreams of a growing and thriving church. What is your dream for this church? What is your vision of the future?
Last Sunday night the elders met at my home for several hours. We met to talk about the fact that as a church we have departed some from the vision for our church. We discussed how we needed to get back to the basics. We discussed our future. And this week as I prayed about that and I believe God told me the first thing we need to do is to revisit the vision He gave me when we started this church.
It is a vision for a church to be a church for the unchurched. It is to be a church where the members are unselfish and give up their comforts and pleasures so that we can reach the people who are uncomfortable with the traditional church. It is a church who loves one another and doesn’t fight. It is a church that is “out of the box” which means if God leads us to do something, we won’t say “we haven’t ever done it that way before.” We are going to be a Purpose Driven church that balances the five purposes of the church and therefore produces church health, because a healthy church will grow.
For those of you who may be fearful and doubtful of what may lay ahead for us, I pray that you know by now, that I will never lead this church to do something unless I have the assurance that God is leading me to do it. But, at the same time, I pray that you know that I have always had a vision for the future of this church. And that vision is not just having a building on a piece of ground somewhere, but it is a vision of reaching so many people for Christ that we will need a building to house them and minister to their need. I want you to know that the Lord’s vision for this church involves people. Buildings, while necessary in our culture, are only tools to be used for the reaching of people. That is why I am not fearful of this move to Mt. View School and I am not afraid if the Lord opens the door to us having our own property, because I am crystal clear that buildings are just tools.
It has been said that “Vision that looks inward becomes duty; vision that looks outward becomes ambition; but vision that looks upward becomes faith.” Whatever our vision for the future may be, it must be given to us by God, and we must ever look to Him for it to become reality.
The writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 11:1 declared: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Joshua received a command from God. He was given a vision. He responded in faith.
4. We Must Fulfill God’s Plan By Obedience
Now, imagine trying to organize the army of Israel to act in obedience to God. It was not as if they were actually going to war against Jericho with swords and spears. Joshua told the people, This is the plan! Joshua 6:3-5 “Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the horns, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the walls of the city will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the city.” (NLT)
Now, what would your response be if I shared with you such a plan for our future? Some, if not all of you, would say: “Yeah, right! Like its really going to happen?” But folks, note that Joshua really was just the messenger. The words were from the Lord, Himself. Joshua 6:2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its mighty warriors. Joshua needed just as much faith to believe what God had said as did any man or woman in Israel. Faith is taking God at His Word, and responding in obedience to Him, knowing that God will never lead you in paths where His grace cannot sustain you!
In the movie Miracle on 34th Street, Santa Claus utters what much of the world thinks faith is. He said: “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” In other words, faith is irrational, contrary logic, and knowledge. If we cannot see it, explain it through simple logic and reasoning, we have a tendency not to trust it.
I am afraid that we are sometimes like the man who was walking down a long, narrow path one night, not paying much attention to where he was going. Suddenly he slipped over the edge of a cliff. As he fell he managed to grab hold of a branch growing out of the side of the cliff. Not being able to see because of the darkness of night, he had no idea that he was just two feet from the bottom where he could safely drop without injury. Believing that he could lose his grasp and plummet to his death, he began to cry out for help. He yelled…“Is anybody up there?” A voice was heard, “Yes! I am here.” Who’s that?” the man asked. “It’s the Lord!” “O, Lord! I am glad you’re here. Please help me!” “Do you trust me?” asked the Lord. “ I trust You completely, Lord.” “Good. Let go of the branch.” “What???” “I said, Let go of the branch.” “Help!!! Is anybody else up there?”
God is saying to us today, let go of Grant school and the comfort you have found here. Let go of everything that makes you comfortable with that which is familiar to you.
Israel could have said to Joshua, “Have you really thought this thing through?” “Don’t you have a better plan?” No! They simply responded in faith to what they believed God had led them to do. They believed God and acted upon what He has said.
And I want to prove to you that these people weren’t Baptists. In verse 10 the people were commanded not to say a word and they did not say a word. But, when they were told they shouted! I’ve never known any Baptists yet who could keep from murmuring and they think shouting is for Pentecostals.
My prayer for this church is to not to go ahead of God and presume upon His provision, but most certainly not to lag behind and miss His blessing.
As we look back to our text, we find in verses 16 and 20, 16 The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 20 When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it.
Simply put: Fulfilling Our Vision By Our Actions Will Bring Victory. There is no doubt but that there are walls of obstacle that will rise up before us. There are seemingly impossible barriers to overcome. But, they are not barriers that cannot come crashing down. And, they will! It is not up to us to devise the plan of how it will all happen. It is simply up to us to lay hold of God’s vision for this church in this community, to have faith that God will provide every means to do whatever He leads us to do, and then to respond in faith and obedience to His leading. Then, and then alone, will we have the victory that will bring much honor and glory to God.
In closing, this morning, I simply want to ask you, “What part will you play in God’s plan for this church? Will you be an encourager, or a discourager? Will you be a consumer or a contributor? Will you be an instrument in God’s hands? Will you dare to dream a dream and lay hold of a vision, or will you be one to say, “It is impossible. It can never happen?”