(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 Hey man, welcome to First Works Baptist Church We're gonna get started with song number 296 there in your hymnals as you find your seats Song number 296, follow on Song number 296 And let's all stand together If you are able to to sing this song, song number 296 Follow on, sing it on that verse 🎵Down in the valley with my savior I would go🎵 🎵Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow🎵 🎵Everywhere he leads me I would follow, follow on🎵 🎵Walking in his footsteps to the ground he won🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Everywhere he leads me I would follow on🎵 🎵Down in the valley with my savior I would go🎵 🎵Where the storms are steeping and the dark waters flow🎵 🎵With his hand to lead me I will never, never fear🎵 🎵Danger cannot frighten me if the Lord is near🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Everywhere he leads me I would follow on🎵 🎵Down in the valley or upon the mountain steep🎵 🎵Close beside my savior would my soul ever keep🎵 🎵He will lead me safely in the path that he has cut🎵 🎵Up to where they gather on the hills of God🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on🎵 🎵Follow, follow I would follow Jesus🎵 🎵Everywhere he leads me I would follow on🎵 Amen, wonderful scene. That's all for our service. With a word of prayer. Dear God, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord God, for just allowing us to be here in your house this morning. We thank you so much for every soul that got here safely, Lord God. And I do pray, Lord God, for those that may be coming in a little bit late, Lord God, that you are still bringing them here safely, Lord Heavenly Father, as well. And Lord, I do pray that you would please just bless every aspect of the service. Please bless most of all the preaching of your word, Lord God. I do pray that you would please just be with pastor, Lord God, fill him with your Holy Spirit, guide him through the scriptures, Lord God, bring to remembrance the things that he has studied, Lord God, as well. And Lord, I do pray that you would also just be with us in the congregation, that you would help us to have open hearts and open ears, Lord God, to receive your word of gladness, and that we would apply the sermon to our lives, that we might leave here changed, Lord God, this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Song number 245, the old account will settle. Song number 245, song number 245, we'll sing it on that first verse. And so long ago, long ago, long ago, Yes, the old account will settle long ago, And the record's good today, for he washed my sins away, When the old account will settle long ago, The old account was large and growing every day, For I was always sinning, and never tried to pay, But when I looked ahead, and saw such pain and woe, I said that I would settle, I'd settle long ago, Long ago, long ago, Yes, the old account will settle long ago, And the record's good today, for he washed my sins away, When the old account will settle long ago, When in that happy home, my Savior's home above, I'll sing redemption's story, and praise Him for His love, I'll not forget the hug, when pain is fine and slow, Because I came and settled, and settled long ago, Long ago, long ago, Yes, the old account will settle long ago, And the record's good today, for he washed my sins away, When the old account will settle long ago, Oh, the sinner trusts the Lord, be cleansed of all your sin, For thus He hath provided for you to enter in, And then if you show them a hundred years below, Up there you'll not regret it, you settled long ago, Long ago, long ago, Yes, the old account will settle long ago, And the record's good today, for he washed my sins away, When the old account will settle long ago, I believe this world is not my home, correct? And so if you did not get a handout, go ahead and raise your hand, and the government will get you, no, I'm just kidding, one of the ushers can get you one, and we're going to be singing, this world is not my home. Also, if you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand, one of the ushers can get one for you as well. Our services are as follows, Sunday morning is at 10.30, Sunday evening is at 5 p.m., and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the soul winning times and teams, the list of expecting mothers, and the important reminders there at the bottom, and then the upcoming church events, of course, today after the service is Seri Solis' baby shower, and so that'll be in the fellowship hall, and we will not be meeting here for soul winning, and so team leaders, make sure you get with your team, and dismiss them at 12.30 to go out, and so just keep that in mind. That'll be after the service. P.E. and end of school picnics coming up on Wednesday, May 25th. You can see Brother Ulysses Hernandez for more details regarding that, and then Giovanni Franceschini's graduation service is coming up on Sunday night, May 29th. Be here to celebrate with him as he concludes the school year, his high school year, actually, years, and then the June birthday breakfast is coming up in Judea soul winning on Sunday, June 5th, and then Father's Day service is coming up on Sunday, June 19th. We'll have a gift for all the dads that show up on that day, so make sure you bring your dads. Bring someone's dad on that day. The service will be geared towards fathers, and then something that's not on there that I want to mention, there's a sign-up sheet for volunteers to clean up before evening service in the Usher station, and so if you want to be a blessing, you want to be a help, please sign up there in the back, and Brother Ulysses Hernandez will get with you regarding a schedule. Please keep that in mind, and then no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee, no loitering in the foyer and fellowship hall during the preaching service, and, of course, quiet time this afternoon is from 3 p.m. to 4.15 throughout the whole building, and make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. And that is it for our announcements. Go ahead and pull out your sheet there. This world is not my home. Amen. This world is not my home, and if you did not get a song sheet, keep your hand raised, and one of the listeners will deliver one to you. I believe Pastor needs one. Amen. Seen on that first verse. This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My passions are laid off somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what would I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. They're all expecting me, and that's one thing I know. I say your pardon me, then I'll not overflow. I know who'll take me through. Oh, I am the emperor, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what would I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. I have a loving savior of a glory land. I don't expect to stop until I understand. He's laying down for me in heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what would I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Just something glory land will live eternally. The saints on every hand are shouting victory. Their songs of sweetest praise drift back from heaven's shore, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Amen. We're going to be singing at this time. Our wrestlers will be receiving the offering, and please turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 6. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Joshua chapter number 6 this morning. Joshua chapter 6, the Bible reads, Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out, and none came in. The Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. You shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days, and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns. The seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. It shall come 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. 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 ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. 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. It came to pass when Joshua had spoken unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns passed on before the Lord and blew with the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them, and the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rear word came on after the ark, and the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, now that shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day that I bid you shout, then shall ye shout. So the ark of the Lord compass the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord, and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went before them, but the rear word came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did six days. 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. It came to pass that the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city, 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. 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 accursed and troubled it. 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. 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. 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 ye swear unto her. 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. 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. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive in her father's household, and all that she had, and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth the city Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was noise throughout all the country. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you for this day. Thank you for our salvation. Thank you for everything that you blessed us with. Just ask that you would be with Pastor Mejia now. Please just fill in with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word, and please just give us ears to hear it, and just ask that you would use it to accomplish your will, and to honor and glorify you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Joshua chapter 6 this morning. Look down at your Bibles at verse number 1. It says, Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 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 this morning we're going to continue our series entitled Epic Wars in the Bible. And we're covering some of the most legendary wars and conflicts in the word of God, and extracting spiritual principles from them. And as I mentioned, throughout the Bible, God records numerous wars. He records numerous battles. And many of these battles have an underlying spiritual principle behind them. And many of the reasons why they're so epic is because of the supernatural element that's added to them. And obviously there's wars and battles in the Bible that don't have a supernatural element. It's just men fighting with men. But other instances, like the one we're going to look at this morning, do have a supernatural factor attached to it that has an underlying spiritual principle that we can learn from. And so we're going to look at that this morning. We started off with Abraham versus the League of Kings, and then we looked at Moses versus Amalek. And this morning we're going to look at Joshua versus Jericho. Now let me explain what's going on here leading up to chapter 6 in the book of Joshua. What are the events kind of leading up to what's taking place here at Jericho? Well, at this point, the children of Israel are no longer in the wilderness for 40 years. They're no longer under the leadership of Moses, but now they're under the leadership of Joshua. They've crossed the Jordan River, and now they're in what's known as Canaanland, or what they also refer to as the Promised Land. This is the land that God had promised the children of Israel 500 years prior to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So they're finally there, and now they're going to start their conquest of Canaanland in order to distribute those lots and those areas to the different tribes of Israel. And so they start off with Jericho, they go to Ai, and then the different cities there. And then basically the book of Joshua is simply highlighting the years of war and battles throughout that time all the way to the point where Joshua is very old. And then they conquer basically most of it, and then they begin to distribute those lots to the different children of Israel in that area. And so we start off with Jericho first and foremost. And before we get into chapter 6, look at chapter 5 if you would. The latter end of chapter 5, go to verse 13. Verse 13 says here, because when you look at chapter 6 you see that the Lord is already communing with Joshua, and he's instructing him, he's telling him, this is how I want you to overcome Jericho, this is how I want you to do it, and he gives him those very detailed instructions on how to do so. But look at chapter 5 verse 13, look what it says here, it says, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him, with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay. But as a captain of the host of the Lord, I am now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where I stand is this holy, and Joshua did so. So based upon what we're looking at here in the previous chapter, we know that the person that Joshua is talking to is Jesus Christ himself. Now how do we know that? Well verse 14 tells us that he is the captain of the host of the Lord. And the reason it's important to note that is because this method and this conquest didn't formulate in Joshua's mind. You know, it wasn't the Israelites idea to conquer Canaan land and overtake the promised land. Who's the one who's leading this whole thing? It's Jesus. He is the captain of the host of the Lord. And look what it says in verse 15. He tells them, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where I stand is this holy. Now this is very reminiscent to what we see in Exodus with Moses when he was at the burning bush and the Lord calls out to Moses out of the burning bush, right? Jehovah, and he tells them, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where I stand is this holy ground. So this is telling us here that this is referring to the Lord, more specifically the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason it's important to note that is because of the fact that, you know, Joshua and the Israelites are simply taking marching orders from the Lord Jesus Christ, right? To overcome Jericho, Ai, all these other cities. But the way we would apply that to ourselves today is this. You know, the world may not like what we preach. They may not like what we say. They may not like our message and our sermons. They may not like you at the door when you're knocking and you're preaching the gospel. But at the end of the day, folks, you know, they may want to crucify the messenger, but at the end of the day, they're just against the God of the messenger, right? They're against the captain of the host of the Lord. Because at the end of the day, we're just taking marching orders from the Lord. You know, when we preach sermons that are controversial and the world dies, when we're out there preaching the gospel, going door to door, house to house, telling people that they're going to go to hell if they don't believe on Jesus Christ, and we are confronting people with their belief, you know, we're simply taking marching orders from God himself. And so the world can get mad at us all they want. They can get upset at us and say, oh, you know, you're coming up with that. That's from your own heart, and that's how you interpret the Bible. But the truth of the matter is, we're just taking marching orders. Now, I agree with the marching orders. The orders that God gives us, I agree with them 100%. But here's the thing, we didn't come up with it. You know, we're following the captain of the host of the Lord, which is Jesus Christ. And in fact, in Hebrew chapter 2 and verse 10, the Bible calls Jesus the captain of our salvation. And so, you know, we are in a spiritual warfare here, not a physical battle, not a fleshly battle, but a spiritual battle with Jesus Christ as our leader, as our captain. And so let's talk about, go to chapter 6, let's talk about why this is an epic war, why it's an epic battle. Let me give you a couple reasons here. And the first one will be very practical, and then we're going to get a little deep into the second reason. Number one, why is this an epic war? Well, because of the fact that, or because of the unusual method used to overcome Jericho, okay? And let me explain what's taking place here. What we have here is God basically tells Joshua and the Israelites, this is how you're going to have victory over Jericho, okay? You're going to go to this city, the city is very walled, which is something that was common in those days. Cities would typically have very high walls in order to protect them from invaders, from foreigners who wanted to come invade their city. This isn't something that was subject to nations, it was only to cities, okay? So cities had walls, and they would erect these walls in order to protect themselves from outsiders. And, you know, in those days, an army would come in, or a foreign invader would come in, and what they would do is they would come past that city and basically starve out the people, okay? So they would basically impede resources from coming in or from anybody going out, and they would do that for months on end until, essentially, the city would starve and then surrender. You understand? Or they would, you know, dig a hole under or find a breach in the wall, or create some sort of war engine to basically fight the city. But in this case, God tells Joshua and he says, this is what I want you to do. I want you to create, essentially, a caravan of people, and what they're going to do is you have the Ark of the Covenant, you have the armed men that are in front of the Ark of the Covenant, you have the seven priests with the seven horns in the middle, you have the rear ward, which is also men who are armed, and they were to march around Jericho once for six days, every six days, or excuse me, once every day for six days. So basically, they get in the caravan and they march around the city once, day one, as they're blowing a horn, by the way, but they're not shouting, they're not saying anything, they're simply blowing the ram's horn as they're going around, and then they go back to the camp. Day two, they march around, blow the horn, don't say anything, go back to the camp. Day three, go around, blow the horn, don't say anything, go back to the camp. This continues for six days. Now you can see how the Israelites would say, how are we going to accomplish anything by just doing this? God's ways are unusual, obviously. And then on the seventh day, they were to do the same exact thing, the difference being that they were to come past the city, go around the city, lap around the city seven times, blowing the horn, and then on the seventh time, they would make a long blast, and then Joshua would command the people to shout, at which point the walls would come down and then they would invade the city. Very unusual, if you think about it. So no swords were involved, no war engines were made, no breaches, they didn't have to look for a breach, they didn't have to dig a hole, they didn't have to starve out the people, they were only there for seven days. But in seven days, they were able to conquer Jericho by literally doing nothing other than just taking marching orders to march around the city, once every day for six days, and on the seventh day, seven times, blowing the horn, shouting, and then the walls would come down. Look at verse three. It says, And ye shall come past the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once, thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear the ark before the seven trumpets of ram's horn, and the seventh day ye shall come past the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets, 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. Now, a principle that we can obviously learn from this is that sometimes God's way of doing things doesn't really make sense. Right? Sometimes God's manner of doing things doesn't always make logical sense to us. But the Bible tells us, you know, from my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way, saith the Lord. Okay? Sometimes it doesn't make sense because we're just too dumb. Right? Other times it just doesn't make sense because of the fact that, you know, God wants to supernaturally intervene, and increase our faith, you know, by supernatural means. You understand? He wants to increase our faith, or He just wants us to obey Him. You understand? And often, you know, our sinful nature wants to see that the plan is going to work first. We want to see the plan, we want to see that it's going to work, we want to see that it's logical, we want to see that we have our ducks in order, that we have enough resources, whereas what God wants is just us to simply have faith in Him. And the Bible tells us that God's eyes are going to and fro throughout the world. He wants to show Himself strong on the behalf of Him, whose heart is perfect with Him. You understand? He wants to increase the faith of believers, and sometimes He does it through divine means, supernatural means, and sometimes, you know, when He's commanding us to do something according to His Word, it doesn't always make sense. But you know, the Bible tells us, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Okay? Go to Hebrews chapter 11, if you would. Hold your place there in Joshua chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 11. And so God's ways doesn't always make sense. You know, and when you read the Bible, you'll come across many commandments that doesn't seem to make sense. You know, where God gives us an outcome that seems contrary to the process or the method that we have to use to get there. You know, He that is greatest among you, let him be a servant. Whereas the world teaches, no, you have to make sure you are ruling over the people. You got to make sure, it's not a servant, you got to rule over them. You have to make sure that you have great leadership skills, or sometimes you just have to be dishonest. You have to make sure you do X, Y, and Z. Whereas God says, well, no, if you want to be great, you have to be a servant. Right? Hey, if you want God to bless you financially, you know, it is more blessed to give than to receive. So it's like if you actually give, in spite of the fact that, you know, people may think, well, if I give, I won't have enough resources. Well, according to God, you're actually more blessed when you give. Okay? And so a lot of times we see this antithesis in the Bible where God's commandments seem to go against human logic. But really what it is, is that God wants to divinely intervene. He wants to show himself strong on our behalf. And he wants us to trust him. He wants us to trust and obey and have faith that even though it doesn't make sense to us, we're going to do it anyways. You know, you think of Peter when, you know, he hasn't caught anything all night. And then the Lord says, cast the nets on the other side. And he's like, we've toiled all the night. Nevertheless, at thy word, I'll cast down the net. Now given he only cast down one instead of two, but at least he did it. You understand? And, you know, it didn't make sense to him. He's like, we've toiled all the night. We didn't catch anything. This is not a good area to fish in. But you know what? Nevertheless, at thy word, I'll cast down the net. What was Peter doing? He was just showing that he had faith. Same thing when the Lord called them outside of the boat. People don't walk on water. Water is not meant to be walked on. Right? From a logical perspective, it doesn't seem. But you know what? If the Lord says, come, then just go. You know? And, you know, people, we often talk about Peter in a negative light that, you know, he sunk because he saw the wind, that it was tempestuous. But let me just say this. There's only two people in the history of mankind who has ever walked on water. And Peter's one of them. Even if he took three steps. I don't know anybody who's taken one. Right? If he only took three or four steps, that's still more than 99% of the population. And so, you know, we see a great example there that even though something may not make sense, we should obey God anyways and trust Him that He's going to work it out together for good. That He's going to come through. He's going to bless us for our obedience unto Him. Look at Hebrews 11, verse 6, it says, But without faith it is impossible to please Him. So forget how knowledgeable you are. Forget how charitable you are. You know, according to the Bible, you need faith in order to please God. Now, charity is important. Knowledge of God's Word is important. You know? But, you know, what God also assumes is having faith in Him. And it's impossible to please Him without it. He says, For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Look at verse 7. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Verse 8, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went. So God's like, he's calling him out of the Ur of Chaldees to go into a land that he's promising to him. He's like, I don't even know where I'm going, but God told me to go, so I guess I'm just going to go. And this is an example to us that when we read God's Word, when you hear preaching, and it seems to go against your logic, but it's in the Bible, obey it. Because he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek. Well, I just don't think it's going to work out. Yeah, but does God say to do it though? Here's the thing, at the end of the day, we should do what God tells us to do regardless if we think it's going to work out or not. Right? Now thankfully, the outcome of obedience to God is that everything always works out. But even if it doesn't work out, even if it just completely falls apart, we should do it anyways because obedience to God is far more important folks, regardless of the outcome that we receive because of it. It's better to just be defrauded, it's better to just come out losing, but we know that we win because we obey the Lord. But the truth of the matter is that when you obey God in any respect, you will always receive the reward of your obedience towards Him. Now you may not receive it today, you may not receive it tomorrow, but you will receive it one day. How do you know? We just have faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. God's commandments don't always make sense. In order for us to be exalted, we have to be a base. We have to humble ourselves, right? The greatest is the servant. And here's the thing is that I'm sure the Israelites were pretty excited on the first day marching around, but after like three or four days of that, I'm sure there's someone in the camp who's just like, Josh, you know, these other armies out there, they're actually doing something, they're throwing spears, they're lighting this thing on fire. All we're doing is like walking around. It doesn't seem to make sense, okay? But look at verse 30 of Hebrews 11. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. You see, the story of Jericho teaches us that the battle is of the Lord. And, you know, if the children of Israel were to create some sort of war engine to conquer Jericho, and it was by their might and by their strength, no glory would be going to God, and then we wouldn't be able to read this awesome story about the walls coming down because of their faith in God, okay? Now think about this. You know, obviously one of the principles that we can learn from this, from the walls coming down, is the fact that, you know, when we have faith in God, you think of walls of a city, okay? You think of another word for that would be strongholds, okay? And when we have faith in God and we obey God's word, often the strongholds in our minds, and the strongholds in the minds of our families, the strongholds in the city, the strongholds in our country, will come crashing down. You know, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3, We do not war after the flesh. You know, kind of like the children of Israel. Though they were walking around the city in the flesh, they weren't warring after the flesh, right? For the weapons of our warfare, this is like the Israelites talking here, are not carnal but mighty through who? Through God, through the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And so, you know, a side note that we can learn from this particular story is that each and every one of us, because of our backgrounds, maybe the experiences that we've had in times past, you know, we might have some strongholds in our mind, things that we believe that are not correct, you know, whether it's discouragement, depression, anxiety, fear, doubt, or just, you know, unbiblical ways of thinking, you know, the Bible would consider that to be a stronghold. There's sometimes Christians who are just saved just believe in false doctrine, just stupid doctrines. You know, the Bible would consider that to be a stronghold, right? And that's what the Bible tells us, to cast down those imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. So we need to take inventory of our thoughts and figure out what are some things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. And if these are not biblical ways of thinking, these are not biblical ways of doing things, then we need to cast these things down and bring every thought to the obedience of God's Word. You understand? Psalm 89 verse 40 says, Psalm 89 verse 40 says, Now go back to, actually go to Revelation if you would. Revelation, just kidding, go back to Joshua. We'll go to Revelation later. Go back to Joshua chapter 6. So this is an epic battle, it's an epic war because of the method that was used to conquer Jericho. And, you know, none of the Israelites can say, you know, this is by our power because we're just such great fighters. No, it was the walls came down because of God. Yeah, but we shouted. Yeah, but God told you to shout and no one else can shout and bring down walls. God gave you that supernatural ability to do so. OK, now, but another reason why this is such an epic battle is because of the symbolic nature of the story. Here's where it gets good. Now I just gave you all your vegetables to eat. Now we're going to eat the meat. OK, that's a bad example because I hate vegetables. I gave you the liver, right, because liver has more nutrients, is more nutrient dense than vegetables. But now we're going to have steak. OK, now we're going to have ribeye and all that. So let's talk about the symbolic nature of this particular story. Well, let me just point out the obvious first before we get into the sequence here. Let me just point out the obvious that what I believe going into the Promised Land pictures is actually the millennial reign of Christ. OK, let me explain to you why. And I've preached this multiple times, but maybe some of you just didn't really care for what I said before. So I'm just going to say it again, you know. Jericho in the Promised Land can basically picture the millennial reign of Christ because of the fact that, you know, the Promised Land is the Israelites going in and subjugating the people in the land. Right? Through the leadership of Joshua. OK, and this is a land, an inheritance that's promised to them. You understand? And so in like manner, that's what the millennial reign of Christ is. Because the millennial reign of Christ is essentially when Jesus, who another name for Jesus would be Joshua, right? Comes to this world and the believers, the glorified believers, shall rule and reign with him. And it's our responsibility as believers during that time to subjugate the world unto Christ because the government shall be upon his shoulders, the Bible says. And when you study end times prophecy and other portions of scripture just dealing with the millennial reign of Christ, we come to the conclusion that we're literally going throughout the world and kind of getting everyone to submit to the authority of Christ. Not forcing people to believe on Jesus Christ because people have to choose that, but in a sense subjugating them to obey the laws of God. You understand? Because the laws of God will become the law of the land during that time. It's going to be a wonderful time. And so, you know, Jericho and the Promised Land is figurative of that. And when you think about it, you know, Joshua and the Israelites, they go throughout the Promised Land and, you know, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they subjugate the people, sometimes they don't. Well, when the millennial reign of Christ happens, you know, Jesus is going to succeed where Joshua failed, basically. Okay? Because it's not going to be like, well, sometimes we will succeed, sometimes we won't. No, it's just the Bible says that he's going to rule the world with a rod of iron. You see, the Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 11 that at the end of Daniel's 70th week after the battle of Armageddon, the Bible says that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. Okay? Well, just like the Promised Land was given to the Israelites as an inheritance, this world will be given to us as an inheritance. And obviously, the people who are going to enjoy the millennial reign the most are those who labor for the Lord. Okay? And that's a different sermon for another day. The Bible says in Revelation 2 verse 26, he that overcometh and keepeth my works until the end. To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. So, you know, just as Joshua distributed the different lands and the lots to the Israelites in like manner, you know, the Bible tells us that a person, a Christian who labors in this world, you know, we see the parable, for example, the parable of the pounds, where he says, thou has been faithful over little, have thou authority over ten cities. Have thou authority over five, have thou authority over one. I believe that's what it's referring to is the fact that we're going to have authority ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. Okay? And so that's what the book of Joshua really pictures is the millennial reign of Christ with all believers. But let's talk about this peculiar thing about walking around the city and blowing the horn and once a day, you know, taking a lap once a day for six days, and then on the seventh one for seven times. Well, here's the thing, okay? Walking around Jericho for seven days, I believe, pictures the end of the world. You're like, what? I don't know. Well, I believe what's happening here is that, you know, this number is giving history a numeric value. Okay? Because if you have one from the beginning, seven is the number of completion in the Bible. Seven would be the conclusion of history. You understand? Now look at verse eight of Joshua chapter six. Look what it says here in verse eight, it says, And it came to pass when Joshua had spoken unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horn passed on before the Lord and blew with the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets and the rear ward came after the ark, the priests going on blowing with the trumpet. So we see here that the priests that are bearing the ark, they have seven trumpets and they're blowing as they're going around the city once every day. Right? Now the ark obviously is figurative of God's word. Okay? And the Bible tells us in the New Testament that we are the royal priesthood. So this would apply to us as Christians that we are carrying forth the word of God. Now, when they're going around the city, they're compassing the city, they're not like, you guys are dead, you're done, the city's ours. They're not like banging on the walls and threatening them. They're kind of marching peacefully. You know, not like the peaceful protest that we've seen in times past, right? They're marching peacefully with the ark of God, blowing the trumpets, just simply marching around the city every single day for six days, for seven days. Of course, for those six, once for six days. Look at verse 10, and Joshua had command of 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 you shout. So the ark of the Lord came past the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. Now, what is this picturing here? Well, if the entire seven days is simply giving us a numeric value of history, and the seventh day would be considered the end of the world, then those six days would be considered where we're at right now. Okay? You say, well, what are you driving at? What are you trying to say? Well, you know, just as the Israelites were to come past the city going around it peacefully in like manner, we as Christians go from city to city, house to house, we come past the cities in our area with the word of God, peacefully preaching the gospel. You see, the reason I believe God had the Israelites doing this for six days, it was showing that God was long suffering towards the Canaanites there. Because he could have easily just said, hey, just shout, tear down the walls, overcome them, but he allowed them to do it for six days without doing anything. Right? And I think what this is referring to is the fact that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. They would hear the horns, they would see the ark, they would see the peacefulness of the people, and in light of that, people would hopefully want to be salvaged from the wrath to come. They said, no, they're supposed to destroy them all. Okay, what about Rahab? Rahab and her household were saved from the wrath to come. Right? So, you know, in God's long suffering and his mercy, he's like, let's do it for six days, because he was hoping that someone else other than Rahab would also be saved. This is a picture of God's long suffering. You know, and people think, you know, go to 2 Peter, if you will, 2 Peter chapter 3. Now, look, folks, we know that God is a God of justice. He's a God of judgment. He's a God of righteousness. Folks, he's a God of wrath. Right? But those attributes are not absent of his mercy and his grace and his long suffering. You know, God doesn't want people to die and go to hell. In fact, the reason we know that he doesn't is because he sent the Son Jesus Christ to die for all the world, that the world through him might be saved. You understand? And, you know, sometimes we think to ourselves, oh, man, you know, when is the end? Why can't the end come already? Why can't, you know, these accelerationists out there, you know, why can't we have the Antichrist come already and the new world order and let's just get this over with? Well, I'll tell you why. It's because God wants more people to be saved. Because eternity is forever, my friends. Hell is forever. And so God in his long suffering impedes his wrath or holds back his wrath, not because he's unjust but because he's long suffering. Look what the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse number 3. It says, Look, skip down to verse number 8. Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some may account for slackness, but his long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And let me just say this. There's no new thing under the sun. There are scoffers today that will mock Christians for believing that Jesus Christ is coming again. Oh, where is the promise of his coming? You guys have been saying this for hundreds of years and you guys are so stupid and I can't believe you guys believe in this sky daddy and all these things. And they mock God because he's not here yet. Almost as if he's incapable of coming back or something like that. But what we see here is that God is not slack. He's promised to come back and he's going to come back. The reason he hasn't is because of the fact that he wants people to be saved. And so while we're waiting, let's come past the city. Let's go from house to house, city to city, you know, preaching the gospel peacefully, by the way. You see, right now, it's our job to be peaceful, right? And in fact, the Bible says that he's given to us the ministry of what? Reconciliation. What is that? Making peace between mankind and God. Preaching the gospel to the lost so that they can reconcile their differences, so to speak. You know, that they can have peace through Jesus Christ unto God because they're an offense unto the Lord. They deserve to be punished and to die and go to hell, but God is not willing that they would perish, therefore he wants them to make peace through Jesus Christ. And so, you know, this is simply saying that we as Christians should be meek, we should be peaceful during this time. Now, is there going to be a time of war for us? Absolutely. Because we're only doing this for six days, so to speak, right? And a day with the Lord says it's a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. So we're only doing this for, quote unquote, six days, and on the seventh day then the millennial rain comes and now heads are going to be rolling, literally. That's why he says, we shall rule them with a rod of iron. And in fact, the Bible says, blessed are the meek, listen to this, for they shall inherit the earth. Go with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter number 4. So we see that the priests are bearing the ark, they're carrying the word of God, they're marching peacefully, just as us Christians are supposed to be peacemakers, we're supposed to be reconciling the world unto the Lord. We're not supposed to be fighting with people and getting into physical fights. Obviously, it's a spiritual battle, it's a spiritual warfare, and we're to defend God's word, but our job is not to go out there and punch people and, you know, threaten people to, if you don't see it our way, then bless God, we're going to roll your head. You know, leave that for the end, because that's not our job right now. Our job right now is to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh us of the faith that is in us, listen to this, with meekness and fear. We're to preach with meekness and fear, not being a jerk about it. Let me just say this, when you're out there preaching the gospel, don't be a jerk to people. Number one, because it's not biblical. Number two, because we're going to knock on that door again one day. And hopefully they don't remember you. Or our church. Or if you are a jerk, just say you're from some different Baptist church or something. Say you're from the Mormon Tabernacle. Say you're a Jehovah's Witness or something. Don't be a jerk. We're to approach people with meekness and fear. And I get it, you know, sometimes people just want to, like, Christians sometimes just want to debate. Believe it or not. There's Christians out there that just like to debate. It's just like they want to talk about all their pet little doctrines that they like to talk about, that they like to emphasize. They want to get into these arguments. They want to be able to come back to the church and show their belt to all the people they told off and all the people they were able to... Forget that stuff. Folks, we're supposed to march around the city peacefully. And in fact he said, let no word proceed out of your mouth. Here's the New Testament way of saying it. Shut up. That's what he's saying. Now obviously we're to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the Gospel. But what I believe this is referring to is the fact that, you know, he doesn't want us to judge anything before it's time. And you know there's people out there that will criticize how we evangelize. They'll criticize soul winning. Even though soul winning is in the Bible. Even though the Bible literally says that the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that win its souls is wise. Well I think we should call it different. We should call it outreach. Leave outreach for the liberal churches and the victory outreaches of this world. We're not doing an outreach. We're stepping out and opening our mouths boldly and we're winning souls to Christ. Well you don't win anybody, it's the Lord that wins them. Paul said that I might by all means save some. Pulling them out of the fire. You know the Bible clearly describes, obviously Jesus Christ is the one who saves the person and saves the soul. But he does it through a human instrument that is willing to preach the Gospel. We get him saved too folks. But you know people criticize soul winning all the time. They criticize soul winning. They criticize calling upon the name of the Lord. These fools out there, they want to mock calling upon the name of the Lord and say well you don't have to do it, you just believe in your heart. Okay let's just remove Romans 10 and verse 9 and 10 and verse 13 and all the other times it says to call upon the name of the Lord. Let's just take that out of the Bible because you just know so much. You just know more than God. Just remove that from the Bible because you know God made a mistake when he put that there. Know folks that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. I thought you had to believe. Of course you have to believe but the Bible also says you have to call upon the name of the Lord. Let me just go on and say this. Anybody who attacks calling upon the name of the Lord and mocks calling upon the name of the Lord, I mark that person as probably they're not even saved. You can disagree with me about you know calling upon the name of the Lord. But when you go out of your way to start mocking calling upon the name of the Lord, you're mocking God's word, I just think you're not saved. You say what are you trying to say? I'm trying to say that good hope, no hope is not saved. Sorry to burst your bubble. He's a good brother though. He's going to make good fuel. Let me just say that. But you know people want to mock calling upon the name of the Lord. They want to mock soul winning. They want to mock us preaching the gospel. That doesn't work anymore. You know we need to have a rock band, you need to have the hoochie mamas up here and have an evangelistic service. And you know we need to appeal to the world. That's how we're going to reach them. Folks, if God told us to do it this way, this is the way we're going to do it. And look, let me just say this. Even if it doesn't work, we should still do it. Well that's not practical. No, it's called obedience. So if God told us to do it, even if it doesn't work, just reference the beginning of the sermon. But you know people say, how do you really know all those people got saved though? They're not even in church. We're all those people. I get this all the time. We baptize people in our church, we get people saved, and then this is what they say, who are all those people now? And this is what I typically say, like home? I don't know, probably at their house? Not here? They exist, they're somewhere. But I'm just going to go ahead and guess that they're just at home. But what they're insinuating is, well if they're not in church that means they're not really saved. Which is a false gospel. But here's the thing folks, obviously we understand that the law of numbers teaches us that if we get 10 people to call upon the name of the Lord, it's possible that some of those 10 really didn't get saved. That's a possibility. That does happen. That doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't work. It doesn't mean that God's commandments doesn't work. It doesn't mean that His mandate is not true. It's just fact. It just happens. But here's the thing, we don't know that for sure. If you were to ask me, if I get 10 people saved this week and you're going to ask me, do you believe all those 10 got saved? I would tell you, yeah I believe they got saved because I preached the gospel, they called upon the name of the Lord, I followed the method there that God has set forth and based upon that I believe they got saved. Is it possible that some of them didn't? Of course it's possible. But look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 18. All things are of God. I'm sorry, where did I have you turn? 1 Corinthians 4. Go to 1 Corinthians 4. Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of view or of man's judgment, yea I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Look at what it says in verse 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God. So the principle that we see in Joshua chapter 6, he's like don't open your mouth, don't say anything. You know you kind of wonder if there's some Israelites wondering, hey Joshua are you sure Rahab really, she's legit? You know what I mean? Well she put the scarlet thread outside her window. Yea but how do we know though? How do we know? Well judge nothing before the time. Are you guys sure you guys got 100 people saved last month? Yea I believe so but you know what judge nothing before the time. We don't know 100% sure but I'm going to go on a limb and say yes. And I'm not going to doubt that people didn't get saved, right? Obviously there might be people who didn't get saved and they just kind of went along to get along kind of thing, but I'm not going to judge anything before the time. And I'm not going to allow that to cause me to change my methods on how I preach the gospel. Because regardless if it works or not, which by the way it does work, it's the best way to get people saved. But even if it wasn't, even if it wasn't we would still do it because that's what God told us to do. Go back to Joshua if you would. So we have here the Israelites with the Ark of the Covenant going around, and by the way they're armed just as we are supposed to be armed with the word of God. They have the rear ward there, they're blowing the trumpet, they are doing it peacefully, and they're blowing the trumpets for six days. And of course the trumpet could symbolize proclaiming the gospel but it could also symbolize that war is coming. And here's the thing is that when we preach the gospel we don't just come to people and tell them, like God loves you and he wants to save you. That is a major part of the message but you know what we also have to tell them about is hell. Which is the judgment to come. When we're out there we're blowing the trumpet letting people know that hell is real my friends. And by the way talking about hell in your gospel presentation should not be neglected at all. When we're preaching the gospel we need to talk about hell and not be apologetic about it. We need to explain to people that they're sinners and because they're sinners they deserve to go to hell. Obviously we want to do it with meekness and fear and not just say hey you know I just want to let you know you're going to die and go to hell. You know there's a way of telling people things folks. And I know you want your cool story to bring back but you know better than a cool story is getting someone who's actually getting someone saved. But when we blow the trumpets for six days we are warning the masses regarding hell. We're warning them about the judgment to come. Go to Ezekiel chapter 33. Ezekiel chapter 33 if you would. Ezekiel chapter 33 look at verse number one. So we're compassing the cities every week every you know year every month we're compassing the cities we are proclaiming God's word. We're also warning them of the wrath to come. Look at Ezekiel 33 verse 1 it says and again the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man speak to the children of thy people and say it to them when I bring the sword upon a land if the people of the land take a man of their coast and set him for their watchman. If when he seeeth the sword come upon the land he blow the trumpet and warn the people then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning if the sword come and take him away his blood shall be upon his own head. Now look folks people you know and obviously this this particular passage has been misconstrued by a lot of Baptists. I'm using it as an application but we obviously can't use it 100% in regards to sowing but we can extrapolate principles from them. And people have often said in times past that if we don't warn people that their blood shall be upon our hands. How many of you have ever heard something like that? You know if we don't warn them their blood is on our hands but that's not true folks. Now it is true that their blood shall be upon their own heads and upon their own hands because they didn't give heed. But the reality is this you know to say that their blood is going to be upon our hands it's like God's going to rub that in our face when we get to the judgment seat of Christ or something. Like he's going to pull a panoramic screen of all the things that we should have done and we didn't do and then say oh man you didn't warn this person. You know I believe obviously there's going to be shame and there's going to be sorrow at the white throne judgment. Which I'm going to talk about I'm preaching on the white throne judgment tonight. I'm actually preaching on the books and the book of life tonight. But there's going to be shame and sorrow because we're going to see people cast into the lake of fire. But at the end of the day it's our job to simply warn people of the wrath to come. Right? So don't get discouraged if you don't get people saved. Now you will get people saved. Just keep at it you will get people saved. And let me just say this people go through a dry spill all the time. So if you're going through a dry spill you feel like you haven't seen people saved just move to a different location. And keep at it keep preaching the gospel it's going to happen. But look folks if it doesn't happen it's OK because you warned them you still took care of your responsibility to go and warn them. Of the sword that's going to come upon the land. You understand? Go back to Joshua if you would. But even aside from the fact that we're blowing the trumpet to warn people of the wrath to come we're blowing the trumpet for Christians too. We're blowing the trumpet to let them know God's going to judge this world you better get right with God. Not because they're going to suffer with it but because it's time for them to get serious about the things of God. Right? You see we want to turn people to get saved but we also want to turn believers to righteousness to awake to righteousness and sin. Not for some have not the knowledge of God and I speak this to your shame. God wants Christians just to get right with God. And it's our job as pastors is our job as Christians to blow the trumpet blow the horn and let them know hey don't get so caught up in the things of this world. Don't be entangled again with the things of this world because we still have a job to do. Enjoy life enjoy your possessions enjoy your families but just remember this we still have a job to do my friends. There's still something to do. Now I'm not one of these Christians who are just like these holier than thou hyper spiritual you know yeah that's right you know we should we should you know have soul winning 24 7. Why even have church taken away from soul winning time. We should just be preaching the gospel 24 7 and there's people out there like that. And let me just say this the moment that comes into our church I'm going to blow a gasket. Why would you blow a gasket when someone wants to preach the gospel 24 7 because no one wants to preach the gospel 24 7. They're lying. It's called being hyper spiritual. It's called being a holier than thou. And typically people who blow that trumpet. You know what I mean they're just doing it to be seen of men. They just want people to live. Oh wow. Spiritually they just priest the gospel so much and they're just all they want to do. They don't want to do anything else but just preach the gospel. They don't want anyone to obey anything else in the Bible. Old Testament don't need it. I just want to soul win. I just want to preach the gospel. And look folks I love soul winning. Our church is called First Words Baptist Church. But let me say this. Did you know there's like other commands in the Bible. And the ones who place such a heavy emphasis on sowing and just emphasize everything else is like a fisher who just has their pole in just one pole in the water. Because they think oh I'm going to get so much rewards just from this. But hold on a second. We get rewarded not just for sowing my friends. We get rewarded for everything we do in the Christian life. If my wife makes me a sandwich she gets rewarded. Like what? What kind of sandwich? I'm serious. Why? Because she's serving her husband which is something that God's commanded her to do. When a man leaves his family he gets rewarded for that. So you know what God is telling us. We need to have poles multiple poles in the water. Here's my soul winning pole. Here's my fatherly pole. Here's my pastoral pole. Here's my discipleship pole. Here's my studying pole. Here's me reading the Bible. Here's my prayer pole. Here's my encouraging people. I want to have multiple poles. And the person who has multiple poles in the water will receive more rewards than the person who just has one pole. Think about that. But at the end of the day the person who has one pole in the water probably doesn't even have bait on the pole. They just want to show people that they have the pole in the water. What I'm saying is we want to blow the trumpet to warn people of the wrath to come but we also want to blow the trumpet of God's word of his statutes and his principles and his precepts because God wants us to teach people righteousness as well. Now unfortunately no one else gave heed to the sound of the trumpet. The only one who was saved in Jericho was Rahab. Rahab and her family. But you know what the Bible says? Many are called but few are chosen. And the principle that we learned there is the fact that you know broad is the way that leads to destruction and many be there which go in their act. And Rahab is simply a testament to us to show us that although we're going to get people saved not everyone in this world is going to get saved unfortunately. Now that should not cause us to kind of get lazy and lax about so many because at the end of the day we're still going to get a lot of people saved but in comparison to the rest of the world obviously there's going to be more people in hell than there are going to be in heaven. Now I do want to mention this just because I kind of just want to get it off my chest a little bit and this may bore you but I mean you're stuck here for the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes. You know because some people will say well what's the significance of the seven trumpets and then you have the seven priests and they're marching around seven times and is there an end time significance to that? And people have wrongly interpreted the seven trumpets to parallel with the seven trumpets of God's wrath in the book of Revelation. How many of you have ever heard anything similar to that? How many of this is the first time you've ever heard it? How many of you are just hungry and just want to leave right now? Ah! Got you! Wicked! I'm just kidding. Here's the thing though when it comes to the trumpets okay let me just explain this briefly and this will come in handy one day for you okay you're going to be like oh okay now I get that alright. If you don't if you're not interested just tune out but the seven trumpets of God's wrath in the book of Revelation are not happening at the same time. They're happening one after the other you have trumpet one, viol one, trumpet two, viol two, trumpet three, all the way up into the seven where the last three of those seven is referred to as the woes. And so the trumpets and the viols are happening concurrently but they're not happening all at once. Whereas the trumpets that are being blown here in Joshua chapter 6 are happening at the same time. So the seven priests are blowing those seven trumpets at the same exact time. Now what I believe this is signifying here is actually the rapture. Okay and let me explain to you why I believe this is referring to the rapture in Joshua chapter 6. Number one is because of the fact that the seven the number seven is that completion and at the end of those seven laps they give one last trumpet sound. Okay and the Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 15 when talking about the resurrection which is synonymous with the rapture he says that we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. Now people could say that and say well isn't the last trump like the trumpets of God's wrath? Well obviously if you want to just like be nitpicky about it yes the last trumpet is the seventh one during God's wrath. But let me just say this God just calls the rapture's trumpet the last trump. Okay you got a problem with that? You got to take it up with him. Because obviously no one's going to argue the first Corinthians 15 when it says the last trumpet is referring to the rapture. Now what do we see at the seventh one? We see the trumpet is blown, we see a shout, right? Just as we see in first Thessalonians chapter 4 that the trump of God shall sound and there shall be a shout. And then what happens? The walls come down and God's people ascend up the Bible says. Which is a picture of the rapture. Because you have the trumpet sounding, the people shouting or the archangels shouting and then what happens? The dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So Joshua chapter 6 is a picture of the rapture which fits perfectly with the numeric value that's given to us. Because if the seventh one is the completion of the world well the end of the world technically speaking is at the rapture as well. You understand? And so I know that was extremely interesting to you and I know you want me to just keep going on that. But at the end of the day here's the thing is that what we're seeing here is just a wonderful beautiful layer that's given to us. And here's the thing you know when we read the Bible we obviously have to extrapolate the main principle from the word of God and what God's trying to communicate but don't ignore the layers though. God put in so much work to put in the layers for you and for me. Don't ignore them. You know if you went through so much trouble to kind of fit all I mean he literally said six days and then on the seventh one seven times seven trumpets seven priests. You're going to give it a long blast it says then there's going to be a shout and then you're going to send up. You know we should give heed to those things and appreciate God's word for the fact that he was willing to put that in the Bible for us. And what does it do? It just simply reinforces other doctrines in the Bible. And so in conclusion with Joshua chapter 6 is that you know this simply teaches us that God's ways are not our ways but God's ways always work. So they may not you may not like the way God's telling us to do certain things but just know this they work better than your ways. Our ways suck. We think we know best. We think we we can produce better results. We think we can just work it out better with our own logic and our own witty inventions. But at the end of the day God's ways are always superior to our ways. It doesn't matter how silly you look too. Doesn't matter if he if he tells you to march seven for seven days straight then do it. If he tells you to go into the lake right to wash yourself of the into the river to wash yourself of the leprosy do it. Obviously he's not going to tell us to do that but there are commandments in the Bible that may seem irrational to us not logical but you know what they will produce the results that we desire. We just don't get it the way we think we should get it. We need to just trust God and have faith that God's ways are superior and that they work. But even if they don't we should still march. Amen. Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for your word. We're so thankful for the story of Jericho Lord and the initiation of the conquest of Canaan land and what it pictures what it means to us as Christians for the millennial reign. But even us here as in a sense we're we're probably on the sixth lap. It may be quite possibly be that in this in this in this in this matter of of the the end of the world that maybe we're we are on the sixth lap. And so we need to make sure that we're going from city to city house to house preaching the gospel blowing the trumpet and peace and hope that we will get someone to save Lord that someone will call upon the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ. And I pray you help us to do so Lord. We love you. We thank you pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Song number 119. Till the storm passes by as our last song. Song number 119. Song number 119. We'll see you on that first. In the dark of the midnight at my heart in my face. While the storm howls above me and there's no hiding place. With the crash of the thunder. Precious Lord hear my cry. Keep me safe. Till the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over. Till the thunder sounds for more. Till the clouds go forever from the sky. Hold me fast. Let me stand in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe. Till the storm passes by. Many times Satan whispered. There is no need to try. For there's no end of sorrow. There's no hope by and by. But I know you'll have heart with me. And tomorrow's the night. Where the storm's never gone in the sky. Till the storm passes over. Till the thunder sounds for more. Till the clouds go forever from the sky. Hold me fast. Let me stand in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe. Till the storm passes by. Where the long night has ended and the storm's come no more. Let me stand in my presence on that bright piece of shore. In that land where the tempest never moaned. For may I dwell with thee when the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over. Till the thunder sounds for more. Till the clouds go forever from the sky. Hold me fast. Let me stand in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe. Till the storm passes by.