told for the sermon this afternoon is the fall of Jericho, the fall of
Jericho. It's a really interesting story, a bit of a strange story,
as the Israelites had victory over this enemy city. And I remember the first time I really
thought about this story was my late auntie, she purchased a property, a house in,
she was from America, she purchased a property in New Jersey. And she told me how the Lord
delivered this property into her hands, into her family hands. And she told me that when she
saw the house, she felt like that's the house that's going to be best for her and her family.
And so I don't know if it's the right thing to do or not, but she marched around the property
seven times. She got the story from the fall of the Jericho story. And of course the Lord
God then of course gave her that property. They were able to put in the best bid for
that property and they got that property. So that's kind of my history with the story.
I remind them what my late auntie did. And it is a bit of a strange one because
normally when you go and have victory over an enemy, you, you know, you go with swords and
you go and, and you're fighting a war and armies versus armies, soldiers versus soldiers,
but God had a very different way to give the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites.
Now Matthias read from Joshua chapter six. I want us to come back to Joshua chapter two first.
Let's get a little bit more of a history of this city in Joshua chapter two and verse number
one. I think there, there are a few lessons that we can learn from this story. And
here in Joshua chapter two, verse one, it's when they first consider taking Jericho for
themselves. And so Joshua sent some spies into the land to check it out. And in verse one,
it says, and Joshua, the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly saying,
go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and they came into an harlot's house
named Rahab and lodged there. So even this story is strange, right? Joshua sends out two spies,
check it out, check out the land, check out the city. And as they go in and spy and have
a look at the weaknesses, maybe how they can best defeat this city, looking for weak points.
They find themselves in a harlot's house. This harlot opened her doors that, you know,
she would protect them into a house. So they, they stay in the house. And it says in verse
number two, and he was told the king of Jericho saying, behold, there came men in Hithar
tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho
sent unto Rahab saying, bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into
thine house for they be come to search out all the country. So the king of Jericho is
like, okay, we heard that at the harlot's house, they go to Rahab, right? Tell us where the men are,
where the men are, right? These are spies. They're not here for our benefit. Tell us where
they are. And it says in verse number four, the woman took the two men and hid them and,
and said thus, there came men unto me, but I wish not whence they were. So she lies to the
king of Jericho. She protects them. Okay. And we'll soon see why she protected them. Drop down
to verse number 12. She says to the two spies after she kept them safe from the hand of the king.
It says in verse number 12, now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord,
since I have showed you kindness that ye will know, sorry, that ye will also show kindness
unto my father's house and give me a true token. So one reason we see that she
defended the spies is because she knows the Lord God. She knows that the Lord God of these two
spies is the one true God. Okay. So she's able to acknowledge that. And so she wants kindness
from the Lord. She wants kindness from the Israelites because she knows why they're there.
She knows they're coming to take over the land. And in verse number 13, it says,
and that ye will save my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters
and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. So she loves her family. Now,
this is a harlot. She's the pretty much the scum of the earth, right? She's, you know,
like she's, she's, she's selling her body, uh, for, for wickedness. Obviously we would
look at her from a, from a physical moral perspective. And she would say, well, you know,
she's, she's low on the social ladder as a harlot, but look, she's got a love for her
family. And she knows who the true God is. Okay. And so she's trying to appease these two spies.
Can you please not destroy us, protect me, protect my family and protect all that they
have. Okay. Then verse number 14, and the men answer her, our life for yours,
if ye utter not this, our business, and it shall be when the Lord had given us the land
that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. And she let them, let them down by a cord through
the window for her house was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall.
That's important for you to realize where she lived. She, her house was upon the town wall.
Okay. She lives where the wall is. All right. And obviously in a city, you might live inside
the city, of course, inside the walls, but her house is part of the wall or attached to the
wall. That's where she lives. Okay. And so she lets the two spies escape with their lives.
And the two spies have made this promise to her and to her family. All right. Then we get
to the story in Joshua chapter six. So let's go back there. Joshua chapter six and verse
number one. Now it's time for God to send Israel and to, you know, deliver the city of
Jericho into their hands. And in Joshua chapter six, verse number one, it says, now Jericho
was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. So
the King of Jericho, he knows what's up. He goes, we're going to shut the gates. Okay.
We've had spies come in here. They want to attack. It's time to protect ourselves.
No one is allowed in. No one's allowed out. Okay. Verse number two. And the Lord said unto
Joshua, see, I have given into thine hand Jericho and the King thereof and the mighty
men of valor. And you shall come past the city, all ye men of war and go round about the city
once. Thus shalt thou do, sorry, that thus shalt thou do six days. So it tells Joshua,
all right, get your men of war, get your soldiers. Now normally if you're going to get
your soldiers, you get it ready to fight. You got your, your shields. You got your weapons.
You got your swords. You got your bows, whatever it is that you need, right?
You got your horses. You're going to get yourself ready for the battle.
But he says, okay, this is where you can do your soldiers. When you see the city,
I want you to walk around at once. And then name day number two, walk around it again,
three, four, five, for six days. I want you to just go and walk around the city.
I mean, God's not even telling them to fight. God's not telling them find weaknesses in the
wall that you can tear down. And that's how you go into win the battle. I mean,
wouldn't you say these are kind of odd instructions for, for a battle,
odd instructions. You're walking around the city with your soldiers, with your army
and the opposing enemy on top of the walls can see, you know, what you have. They can
see the number of men you've got. They can see the weapons that you have. I mean,
as you're walking around, you're kind of showing the enemy your hand. You're showing them
hey, this is what we got to fight. And they can start preparing themselves to fight against
your numbers tactfully. All right. So this is not really a wise decision if you're going to go
battling head to head, showing your enemy exactly your hand, how you can fight.
Well, let's continue there in verse number four.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns.
Um, and the seventh day you shall come past the city seven times.
And the priest shall blow with the trumpets. So bring seven priests with you, seven trumpets.
And on the seventh day, they were to walk around the city seven times. They've
already walked around it six times for six days. And on the seventh day, one day,
seven times around the city, right? And the priests are going to blow their trumpets.
Right? They're blowing the trumpets. Getting very strange. How's this going to win the battle?
It makes no sense. It makes no sense. Verse number five. And it came to pass
that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you 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. So not only the trumpets,
but I want you all when you hear the blowing of the horn, I want you to all shout.
And God says, the moment you do that, all the walls of the city shall fall flat.
Now, when, where does Rahab live? On the wall. Okay. So if the walls are going to fall,
I mean, what's going to happen to Rahab's house and all her family,
their chairs are going to be killed. They're going to be destroyed. Having all that,
you know, concrete boulders, whatever it is, fall upon their heads.
All right. Let's drop down to verse number 16. Joshua 6 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 have given you the city.
And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein to the Lord
only Rahab, I love this. I love how Joshua mentions Rahab,
only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all that are with her in the house,
because she hear the messengers that, that, that we sent.
Drop down to verse number 20. So we're just fast forwarding for the chapter.
So they obey, God told them do this and they obey. Okay. Weird instructions,
strange tactics of the Lord. They do it. So we get to verse number 20.
So the people shouted when the priests blew 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. Like what a strange way to defeat the city.
Walk marching around, blowing trumpets, shouts, and the walls come down.
Obviously this is the hand of the Lord. This is a miracle. Okay.
And the wall fell down flat, obviously. So the, you know, where Rahab's house is,
it's all crumbling down. But what do we notice? It says in verse number 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.
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 he swear unto her. So Rahab's house somehow,
all the walls are falling down. Somehow Rahab's house is still there.
I mean, God's just wiping out entire people, not entire city.
And the defenses, and you've got a harlot, not the greatest of people.
And God is able to say, Hey, you know that we're going to keep us safe.
The promise that we made. Okay. Somehow miraculously, her house does not fall down.
The rest of the walls do, but her house stays standing.
And it says in verse number 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. How good is that?
And left them without the camp of Israel, her whole family, her mom and dad, her siblings.
All right. Her whole household, her whole family, everyone, extended family.
They all were safe, safe when the Lord God took over Jericho.
The title of the sermon, as I said, is the fall of Jericho. Okay.
Now drop down to one more verse, drop down to verse number 27.
It says, so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was noised throughout all the country.
So we can make clearly the Lord God did this miracle, right?
And the Lord God was with Joshua. That's all introduction for us.
And I want to talk about the fall of Jericho here and look at the lessons that we can take
out of this. There might be a bit of overlap with this morning sermon.
Cause I was kind of thinking about Jericho with my morning sermon.
Then I made it its own sermon altogether. There might be a bit of overlap,
but there are four points that I want to talk about this afternoon.
When we look at this story, we look at the lessons because it is such an unusual story.
And you know, sometimes when something is that unusual in the Bible, it's like, well,
you know, you've done it differently, God, because again, there are things you want to show us.
And we know when it comes to the Old Testament, you know,
these stories are there to help us today in the New Testament to learn from that.
And when there's plenty that we can learn in this story,
but the first thing, and that's the reason we read verse number 27 again.
So the Lord was with Joshua. Okay. And his fame was noticed throughout all the country.
The first point that I have for your brethren is that our battles are won with the Lord.
Our battles are won with the Lord. Our Lord God is the one who fights on our behalf.
That's why this morning we know that the need to wait patiently on the Lord,
because sometimes we don't really understand how the Lord God
is going and fighting for us in the midst of our struggles.
Keep your finger, actually, you don't need to keep your finger on Joshua,
because you covered all the verses that I wanted to cover.
But can you come with me to Exodus 15?
Come with me to Exodus 15 and verse number one.
Exodus, of course, Exodus, famous Exodus, the exit out of Egypt, right?
God delivering the entire nation from Pharaoh and from the armies of the Egyptians.
And in Exodus 15, Moses begins to sing a song.
And it's interesting what he says in his song in Exodus 15 verse number one.
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,
and spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he have triumphed graciously,
sorry, gloriously, the horse and his rider have you thrown into the sea.
I mean, that's another strange victory.
You got an army, you know, of the Egyptians.
You would think, all right, Moses, train the Israelites, get weapons in their hands, right?
Get ready for the battle.
And the Lord God does another miracle and he drowns,
you know, the Egyptian army into the Red Sea.
And then just another time where God does the victory.
God has won the battles for them.
And he says in verse number two, the Lord is my strength and song.
And he's become my salvation.
He is my God.
And I will prepare him in habitation, my father's God.
And I will exalt him.
And verse number three, the Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
Wow.
The Lord God, our Lord God is a man of war.
How good are you at fighting?
I don't know.
I've had a few fights in my teenage years and I lost them all.
I don't think I'm this great fighter in the flesh.
All right.
I don't know.
I mean, what does it take to go into battle, to be a soldier, a hardened soldier
and to fight?
I mean, these days we've got weapons and you fight from a distance.
But what if you had to go hand in hand combat, you know, with some sword?
I don't know.
Do we have it in us to fight such a battle?
I mean, such a big ask, isn't it?
But I want you to remember that our God is the man of war.
Like we don't have to go and win the battle.
We don't need to figure out the techniques and the tactics
and get all the training, you know, from a physical point of view.
But brethren, when you're going through some challenge and hardship,
we need to allow the Lord God to be victorious for us.
He knows how to fight.
He's ready for the fight.
He's ready for the battle.
And even when it just, I mean, how's that going to work?
Marching around and God said, no, no, the victory is mine.
Leave it with me.
And you need to remember that our battles are won with the Lord.
There's a sort of repetition of this morning,
because we need to remember the Lord God is always at our side.
Cause I forget, I forget, I forget.
Again, same thing, okay, that I said this morning.
Okay, issue thing.
All right, what do I do to fix issue A?
You know, here's my plans and here's, Lord,
how are you preparing for the battle, Lord?
You know, what, how are you going to step in and solve this issue?
Can you come with me to Proverbs 21, please?
Proverbs 21 and verse number 31.
Cause this one's important as well.
Cause I never want to leave you.
Look, when I say to you that the Lord has it in his hands,
the Lord has it in his control, okay?
The Lord will win the victory for you.
The Lord will give you the solution.
The reason I say that and I preach that,
number one, it's in the Bible, obviously,
but number two is to give you peace, to give you rest
and be, all right, Lord, I'm going to be calm.
I'm not going to lose control.
Okay, but what I don't want you to do is be lazy and do nothing.
And be like, oh, it's all going to take care of itself.
No, no, no, no, no.
We have instructions.
We know what we need to do in our lives, okay?
And Proverbs 21, 31 says this,
the horse is prepared against the day of battle,
but safety is of the Lord.
We have a really interesting thought here.
Yes, we know when the battle is coming,
that the Lord's going to fight the battle for us.
But still, if we have a horse, figuratively speaking,
you know, the horse for the battle,
let's get ourselves prepared for it, all right?
So what is within our control, we do.
What is clearly what God instructs of us in his word, we do, all right?
Like I need to be vigilant and sober
because my adversary, the devil is out there
going about roaring like a lion, seeking to whom he may devour.
Okay, so I'm not going to, oh, I don't know, forget the devil.
No, the devil's out there.
It's a dangerous threat, okay?
So I'm going to keep my eyes.
Be careful at the temptations of the devil.
But at the end of the day, the one that's going to deliver me
out of the lion's mouth is the Lord God.
But I have my part to play, to prepare for the battle, okay?
But the Lord is the one who's going to give us safety, okay?
So I want to have that right balance.
I'm not going to get concerned and worried.
God's going to fight for me, but I'm not going to be lazy and do nothing
because I've got to prepare how best I can prepare for the battle to come.
2 Timothy chapter 2, please.
2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 3.
2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 3.
So obviously the stories in the Old Testament of the battles
are physical battles, literal battles,
that then we can try to take and apply
because we have a spiritual battle.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against powers and principalities.
We wrestle that spiritual warfare that God has put on us, okay?
And in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 3.
2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 3.
I know this specifically for pastors, but this applies for all of us.
It says,
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, okay?
So we are soldiers.
We are in this spiritual war.
You know, when you go out and you preach the gospel,
you're taking the sword of the spirits,
you're going and fight against the forces of darkness
where the devil has blinded the minds of people
and you're trying to shine forth the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
But verse number 4 is important.
No man that warth and tanglers himself with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.
You know, as we go and prepare for the battle,
even though the Lord is the one that fights the victory, okay?
No battle is won without the Lord.
He wins it for us.
We need to remember we are in this spiritual warfare
and we need to remember that eternity is the most important thing.
You know, we can't be distracted or entangled by all the affairs of life.
Now look, there are things in our life that we need to deal with, right?
We need to make sure we take care of our families
and provide for our needs
and things that God has laid out for us in the Bible.
But there are so many aspects of our life
that I feel sometimes Christians are caught up with,
with what the government is doing
and what is going on in the conspiracy world
and what is going on in places that we have just literally
no influence, okay?
And we get entangled in these things.
We get entangled in these webs
and we forget the spiritual battle that God has in our lives this very moment.
And I want you to remember that the Lord God wants to give us victory.
In fact, I've read the last chapter of the Bible.
He has given us victory.
We win.
We go home.
We walk streets of gold.
We're going to be living in a glorious city.
Like we, brethren, we win.
We've already won, but we've won in Jesus Christ.
He's our captain, okay?
He leads us and he wins the battles in our lives.
Just like Jericho.
It's like, what do we do?
Not much.
I mean, walk around, give a shout, blow the trumpet,
let the Lord destroy those walls.
You know, and that is really how God operates.
It's just amazing to see God's hand when he's able to deliver us
and answer our issues, answer our prayers.
We need to remember that our battles are won with the Lord, with the Lord.
The next thing that I learned here,
and again, this is kind of doubling up a little bit this morning,
but the next thing I learned, the second point is that God's timing is not our timing.
I mean, what is that?
Six days walking around?
Like, Lord, you can give us victory on day one, can't he?
He can give us victory on day one.
He says, walk around.
Six days, seventh day, whatever it is, right?
I mean, we know that the Lord God can simply, you know,
perform his task as he wills this very moment,
but he makes us to wait.
And can you come with me to come with me to Isaiah 40?
Come with me to Isaiah 40.
I'll read some other passage to you while you turn to Isaiah 40.
Why is God's timing not the same as our timing?
I'll give you a scripture here.
Second Peter chapter three, verse eight.
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, okay?
Don't be ignorant about this, guys, okay?
That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
You know, sometimes for us, it feels like,
Lord, it's been a thousand years.
And the Lord's be like, it's only been a day.
Hey, Lord, come on, you can come through.
Why is it taking so long?
Where has it been?
Well, no, it hasn't really been that long
because, you know, we're stuck in time.
I was trying to listen to some podcast about time
and the space time, you know,
what is it called, space time continuum
and the different theories that are out there.
And, you know, it's like, what are these rules?
What are these laws that we fall under?
And it's so hard to mentally think outside of that realm.
And yet God is literally outside of that.
He is the master of space and time and matter, okay?
He's outside of that.
And so what looks like a thousand years to us
is to God is simply a day.
And what might simply look like a day to us
for God is a thousand years,
meaning that time is irrelevant to God.
And that's hard for us to grasp.
Like, it's hard to understand what, you know,
look, cause I, boy, you know, if I had my time in,
every issue I go through, any battle
will have to be solved that very minute.
The very second probably, right?
If I had it my way, but again, like we saw this morning,
we won't learn the lessons that God has for us in place.
But I need to remind myself that our time is not,
God's time is not our timing.
What God promises, He's going to fulfill, okay?
He's going to fulfill His promises.
It's going to happen.
It's just not the time we expect.
And again, you know, I'll just be completely honest,
just completely honest with you, okay?
The times I felt like,
God, you're just not fixing things in time for me.
He does fix, and then He fixes it,
and it's way better, way better
than what I would have thought.
Can you relate to that?
I don't know, cause sometimes, you know,
I know we all have battles,
and maybe you're in one right now.
But all I'm saying to you,
just my life and my experience
is that when God's forced me to wait,
I mean, I can't do anything without Him anyway,
it's His battle.
And then when He answers it,
it's so much better than if I just got it fixed immediately.
Always, it's always been like that for me.
And it can't be different to you.
It can't be different for you.
Cause it's the same God.
We have the same God.
We have the same Lord.
The same God that gave Jericho into Joshua's hand
is the same God we're worshiping and praising
in this very moment.
I mean, I don't know why Joshua didn't go,
Lord, why do we have to walk around?
What's this?
Why do we have to wait?
You know, we'll look in a moment.
He was just simply obedient,
but we'll touch upon that in a moment.
But just one other verse that I have for you
before we read Isaiah 40.
It's in Psalm 31 15, which says,
these are the words of God.
My times, sorry, the Psalmist is saying to God,
my times, my times are in Thy hand.
Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies
and from them that persecute me.
Our time is in the hands of God.
And is there any more protective hands
than the hands of God?
There's no greater protection and safety
than God's hands.
Our time, our days, our years,
however long we live in the past that we've lived
has been in the hands of God.
Why do we want it?
Lord, no, no, no, it's safety.
There's safety.
There's protection.
There's love in the hands of God.
Please remember this,
when you feel like God's not coming through for you
in the time necessary.
You know, so many of you guys need visa
and you know, different requirements.
And I can't, look, I'm not in your shoes
for those that have this,
but I can't imagine it being pleasing
or it's probably stressful at times, you know?
But just remember, it's in God's hands.
There's no better hands
than the hands that it's in right now.
You know, you live with him,
his timing is not our timing.
And Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40, verse number 31, where you are,
you guys know this verse, very famous verse.
But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary
and they shall walk and not faint.
That's interesting.
To be able to, as it were, have wings as eagles,
eagles can fly at a very high elevation, okay?
Powerful birds, run and not be weary.
How do we, and of course that's,
we're not literally gonna have wings on our backs
and like that, but you know,
how do we fit that in a spiritual life
where we can spiritually be powerful like eagles?
That we can spiritually run
and not be weary in our well-doing?
Well, in order for that to happen,
we need to wait upon the Lord.
We have to accept that his timing
is better for us in the long run.
It's making us more powerful,
making us stronger, spiritually speaking.
So there is such a benefit to the timing of God.
The flesh part of me says,
God, hurry up, hurry up.
But I know deep down in the new man,
just leave it in God's hands.
He's got it.
It's in his time.
That flesh that I would man, it's always there.
I feel like punching in the face,
but then it hurt me.
What are you doing?
You know, it's safe and good and proper
in the hands of God.
Let's wait upon the Lord.
His timing is not our timing.
Can you come with me to Luke 11, please?
Luke 11, Luke 11.
The third point that I have for you is
that God rewards obedience.
Do you think the walls of Jericho would have fallen
if Joshua did not walk around those seven days?
What if he walked around six days
and the seventh day,
he didn't do the seven times walking around?
Would that, oh, the walls would still be up.
What if the priest did not blow the trumpet?
Would the wall have fallen down?
No.
What if they didn't all shout
the moment they heard the blowing of the trumpets?
Would it have fallen down?
No.
Everything seems odd.
How is that going to give us victory, God?
Sometimes in the Bible,
there are instructions that we don't fully understand.
Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to us.
Doesn't seem to be the solution to our issue.
But I want you to remember that God rewards obedience.
Wouldn't you say Joshua was very obedient to do that?
And again, I just think of myself.
If I was Joshua, if I was the guy put in place,
all right, Kevin, I need you to six days walk around once.
Seventh day, walk around seven times.
It's like, again, the old man, the flesh part of me,
how's that going to work?
You know, think about it, maybe in another way.
We have 24 hours, seven days a week
and there's a lot of wickedness,
a lot of sin.
There's a lot of temptations, our own flesh, the devil.
And yet, Lord, you've instructed us to be in your house,
to keep preaching, to hear, you know, a fallen man,
a sinful man preach your word.
And yet you tell us that process and reading a book
and telling people that Jesus will somehow help me grow
and mature and be a more powerful Christian for your purposes.
Like it works.
God's ways works, but it requires obedience.
Requires obedience.
And it says there in Luke 11, 27,
and it came to pass as he spake these things,
a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice
and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bear thee
and the paps which thou hast sucked.
I'm sure that there's much truth to that.
Yeah, it's a great blessing for Mary
to have been used by God to bring the savior
into the world.
But Jesus makes a point of something far superior than that.
Verse 28, he says, but he said,
yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God
and keep it.
You only blessed by God.
You hear his word, you keep it.
Keep it is not just to know it, but to do it.
You know, like a housekeeper, you know,
if someone's a housekeeper, they're maintaining the house,
they're doing the work necessary, you know,
to take care of that.
Well, when we hear God's word, we need to be keepers
of our life, what God has instructed.
We need to do what he's asked us to do.
And Jesus says, you'll be blessed.
I believe that.
I believe that from the bottom of my heart,
that if I just do it God's way,
if I just obey you, Lord, and I don't just,
oh, okay, all the instruction,
I'll just walk three days, God.
You said six days and then seventh day.
I'll just do three days.
And surely you'll answer my prayer.
No, no, you got to do it all.
Okay.
You got to do everything that God has asked of you.
The obedience.
And it takes time.
That's why we're growing.
That's why we're not in heaven immediately.
It's not why.
It's why God does not answer every prayer
straight away for us, because we're growing,
we're learning, okay?
But as we learn, we need to make sure
we understand the importance of obedience.
You guys know this passage as well.
First Samuel 15, 22, just the second part.
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
To obey is better.
Sometimes we think sacrifice is better.
If I just give everything I've got to God,
but are you obeying him though?
Are you doing it his way?
I always feel uncomfortable.
And look, this is more common than you may realize,
because I have a lot of conversations,
but there are people that I'm just so on fire for God.
I'm so zealous for him.
Praise God.
They feel that they can just override God's word
and achieve something successfully spiritually for him
and not doing the basics,
not putting in place the basic things that God's asked.
You know, one way this shows up in a very public way.
Let's talk about on a bigger scale
is people that ordained themselves.
Oh, there's no good church in my area.
God understands.
You know what?
I'm willing to sacrifice.
I'll step up and our bunch of friends
that we have together, we just call this church
and my bunch of friends, they're going to ordain me.
I'll be the pastor.
What sacrifice we're doing.
Look, God's not going to bless that.
So obey is better.
Churches start churches.
Pastors ordain pastors.
God's way is going to work.
You either get yourself in the best church that you can,
maybe that will ordain you,
or you find a church that will,
and you do it properly, step by step.
You take the years.
You be patient.
You serve in the house of God
in the body of Christ that is laid out.
Do it God's way.
It's better.
That's where God's blessings lie.
And that's just one example.
Many examples where people sometimes say to me,
I want to do this and you're not obeying though.
You think you're doing it for God.
You know, I've heard people just want to quit work
so I can be a full-time soul winner.
God says, if you don't provide for your own,
you're worse than an infidel.
How is that?
Yo, I'm sacrificing.
Obey the Lord.
Obey him.
That's what God's looking for.
So God rewards obedience.
God rewarded them for doing that funny walk around the place,
making a bit of a loud sound,
and God brought down the walls of Jericho.
Can you come with me to Deuteronomy 28?
Deuteronomy 28, please.
Verse number one.
Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse number one.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse number one.
And it shall come to pass,
if thou shall hearken diligently
unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe and to do all his commandments,
which I commanded thee this day,
that the Lord thy God will set thee
on high above all nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come on thee
and overtake thee if thou shall hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
God told the Old Testament nation of Israel
that, boy, you'd be lifted up,
you'd be recognized as a nation of all nations
if you just obey and do his commandments.
As it said there,
if thou shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
Why is Israel today not the model nation of all nations?
Why is Israel today not the nation that people lift up
and man, that's where I want to go.
That's where I want to migrate.
I want to, you know,
yeah, I want to migrate to Israel
for all the job opportunities that are there.
Why are the nations not doing that?
Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.
It's like, that's where all the trouble is.
That's where all the problems lie, right?
As soon as there's any missile
that gets shot from one place or another,
it's all over the news.
But I want you to just remember,
look, God wants us to obey his word.
And he's laid it out for us.
He hasn't made it hard.
Like God's clear about what he wants to do in our lives.
And he just says, look, can you obey?
Might seem a bit strange sometimes.
A bit unusual, you know?
But hey, if we do it,
God can do an amazing miracle,
great victories, win us great battles.
And sometimes, well, not sometimes, all the time,
all it requires is for us to obey.
God rewards obedience.
Come with me to Matthew 16.
The last point that I have,
the fourth point that I have for you from this story.
The title for the sermon was The Fall of Jericho.
Point number one was our battles are won with the Lord.
Point number two is God's timing is not our timing.
Point number three is God rewards obedience.
And Matthew 16, 26, Matthew 16, 26.
Let's read it first.
For what a man, sorry, for what is a man profited
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
God is telling us here that our souls are more important
than everything that can be gained
in the whole world.
If you owned everything there is,
every piece of land, every property,
every dollar was yours,
you were the king over the entire earth.
So that sounds pretty nice,
but your soul is vastly more important.
The fourth point that I have for you Brevin
is that every soul is valued
or every soul is valuable.
What am I talking about?
The fact that God kept his promise to a harlot.
Where God destroyed that entire city,
every man, woman, child, every animal was slain.
But there was one soul that said,
please remember me, protect me.
That she recognized the God of Israel.
She wanted that God to be her God.
Every soul is valuable.
How is it that you'd keep the life of a harlot?
Again, the lowest on the social ladder.
There's pretty much nothing worse than being a harlot.
You're a slave, you're selling your body to whatever,
to whatever is out there.
Filthy business, a business of disease,
people looking down on you.
But God valued her soul.
And even her desire to see her family protected and saved.
So valuable is Rahab that God allowed her
to be one of the ancestors
that would bring forth Jesus Christ.
Wow, not to save your life,
but you're forever remembered in God's word
as someone that brought forth Jesus Christ down that lineage.
Amazing, right?
You're in Matthew, come with me to Matthew 21.
Matthew 21, verse number 23.
You know, this tells me that if the whole city of Jericho
said, hey, we'll make the king of Jericho.
I mean, the harlot is smarter than the king of Jericho.
The king of Jericho goes, you know what, guys?
Yeah, we surrender.
Your God is the real God.
We've seen, we've heard the stories
how God delivered you from the Egyptians.
Yeah, man, we're going to reject our religion.
We're going to reject our false gods
and we're going to trust in your true and living God.
What a difference that would make to the city of Jericho.
The harlot made that decision.
She trusted in the Lord.
Her soul is valuable.
And in Matthew 21, 23, speaking of Jesus,
and when he came, sorry,
and when he was coming to the temple,
the chief priest and the elders of the people
came unto him as he was teaching
and said, by what authority doest thou these things?
And who gave thee this authority?
The reason I read verse number 23 to you
is just to show you in context
who Jesus Christ is speaking to.
He's speaking to who?
The chief priests and the elders.
The chief priests being the religious leaders,
the elders being the political leaders,
if you want to put it that way, okay, of that day.
He's speaking to the most important people
and drop down to verse number 28.
He gives his parable, Matthew 21, 28.
He says, but what think ye?
A certain man had two sons
and he came to the first and said,
son, go work today in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not.
But afterward he repented and went
and he came to the second and said, likewise.
And he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not.
Whither of them twain did the will of his father?
They said unto him the first.
That's the one that said, no, I'm not going to do it.
But he repented, he changed his mind.
Then he went to do it, right?
Verse number 31, Jesus saith unto them,
verily I say unto you
that the publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you.
Those religious leaders, those political leaders,
the elders, the ones that are respected in the city,
the one that's going to heaven is the harlots.
The publicans, publicans are like tax collectors
which were known for cheating their people.
They were thieves as they were, right?
These thieves and these harlots, these prostitutes,
they're going to heaven.
These religious leaders, who are you?
It says, and Jesus Christ explains it.
Verse number 32, for John came unto you in the way
of righteousness, and ye believed him not,
but the publicans and the harlots believed him.
And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward,
that ye might believe him.
Believe John.
What did John teach?
The lamb of God, take away the sin of the world.
John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord.
But these religious leaders, they did not believe.
Hey, they think they're righteous, look at us.
But they did not believe the teaching of John the Baptist.
The publicans and the harlots,
they know they're not righteous.
They know they're not self-righteous, okay?
They realize, hey, being righteous is not the way for salvation.
So they repented and they believed the teaching of John the Baptist.
They're like, yeah, we're going to put our faith on the one to come.
The lamb of God, which take away the sin of the world,
even though I'm a harlot, even though I'm a publican,
even though I'm a sinner,
I'm going to believe the words of John the Baptist.
They went to heaven.
They got to heaven.
The self-righteous, look at us, our position, our leadership,
the honor that we have on the earth.
Look, if they're trusting in their righteousness,
they're not going to heaven.
The harlot, Rahab had no righteousness to stand on her own.
She's nobody.
She's the worst of the worst in society levels.
But she put a trust on Jesus, on the Lord, on the Lord of Israel.
And the Lord saved her physically, spiritually saved her.
The value, I see the value of every soul.
And yet our city on the Sunshine Coast is full of wickedness, full of sinners.
People that we probably don't even want to interact with because of their filthiness.
You know, their soul is valuable.
You know, the need to preach the gospel.
These two spies represents spiritually, two people,
the preacher and the soul winner going and knocking on the harlot's door.
And she's receiving the Savior.
She's receiving their God as her God and her salvation.
And not just her salvation, she's able to then influence her family.
And she's a harlot.
Every soul is valuable.
Maybe you've made major mistakes in your life in the past.
Maybe you've seen yourself as scum, as nothing, lower class.
No one cares for you.
But I promise you, the Lord cares for you.
The Lord loves you.
He gave his son to save you.
Even all the mistakes we've made in the past.
Your soul is valuable.
And just like Rahab the harlot, you're able to see many other people come and be saved.
Should I ever see a whole family get saved?
You know, that's the fourth point that I have for you.
Every soul is valuable.
It overwhelms me to think that God would destroy an entire city, take down all the walls,
destroy them all, but he saves the harlot, Rahab.
And I'll just finish on this.
Philippians 3, 13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The apostle Paul says, I'm going to forget my wicked past.
I'm going to push forth unto the high calling of Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
You need to stop beating yourself up about your past.
You need to stop beating yourself up about the mistakes you've made.
Okay, who hasn't made mistakes?
Maybe you've made bigger mistakes than I have, or whatever.
We've all made mistakes in our lives.
Okay, there are things that we all regret in our lives.
We can see how valuable even a harlot is in the eyes of God.
We put our eyes on the Lord.
He's going to deliver us.
He values our souls.
Okay.
And instead of worrying about what mistakes we've made in the past,
put our eyes on the high calling of Jesus.
You know, set our eyes on Him, understand that He wins the victories for us.
These are the lessons that we can take from the fall of Jericho.
Let me just summarize those four points and then we'll close.
Number one, our battles are won with the Lord.
Number two, God's timing is not our timing.
Number three, God rewards obedience.
And number four, every soul is valued.
Let's pray.