Heroes Week 6

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Hero series where we dive deep into the lives of heroes in the Bible.

Well, good morning, Northiron Church.

I am excited to be joining you this Sunday morning and to be able to uh share a message with you all.

If I haven't had the privilege of shaking your hand or meeting you yet, my name is Noah, and I am the next gen pastor here at Northiron Church.

That really just means I spend my Thursday nights preaching and teaching to teenagers.

And so this summer we have a lot of exciting things happening for the next generation, just like your campus pastor shared.

Uh, we've got kids' camp coming up.

I feel like in the summer, like I just live at camp the whole summer, and so there's a lot of exciting things.

I think our Ranger Boys are coming back from camp actually today, and so um a lot of exciting things happening this summer for our students in the next generation.

And so um, we're continuing in our series though, Heroes of the Bible.

And earlier I actually had the privilege of starting this series, and so it's not every uh time that I get to jump back into a series with you all, and so I'm excited about that.

But we have been in the book of Hebrews and uh going over in chapter 11 all the men and women of faith.

There is a list of some of the greatest men and women who have lived out some incredible stories of faith.

We call it the Great Hall of Faith.

And so if you need a Bible this morning, you just can raise your hand wherever you are.

We have some gentlemen here who will get you a Bible.

We believe in having a physical Bible.

You can use just this morning and leave it on your seat.

But if you don't have a Bible, like we want to give this to you, you can take this home and use that.

We want everyone to have a physical Bible, and you can also follow along with my notes online on the Church Center app so you're not missing anything uh that comes up on the screen.

And so um it's not often that I get to share with you on a Sunday morning, so when I do, I like to kind of give you guys a little bit of my personality.

I like to get you guys to get to know me a little bit.

You students really know me, but you guys don't always get that, and so I like to share a little bit about myself every time I get to speak.

But one of the things that you may not know about me is that I love movies, okay?

I'm a huge movie guy, I love watching movies.

Ever since I was a kid, I've watched way too many movies.

I have like a top 10 list of the bet my favorite movies of that year for like every single year of existence.

Like I've been obsessed about movies.

A little bit of it has to do with me growing up as a missionary kid.

We uh were missionaries to Russia back in the day, and so a lot of traveling.

There's only so much you can do on a 20-hour flight, okay?

And so I watched a lot of movies, and it was also how I experienced American culture, okay?

Because I was just a kid living in the middle of nowhere in post-Soviet Russia.

I didn't really know what was going on over here, okay?

So movies were how were how I would experience like what America was like, like what was going on.

And so when I came back to America and I had to go to Ishmering Public School, I was terrified because I thought, okay, it's either like high school musical or mean girls.

And I was not ready for that, okay?

I was freaked out, a little scared.

But my dad would travel, uh, he would always travel and bring me because he would go to different churches and preach.

We actually came here a couple times before my dad was the lead pastor here, and we would go around and preach around the Midwest, and so he would take me, and then long car rides, we'd put the little DVD player up front on the dash, and he would show me his favorite movies.

Anytime we got pulled over, he'd be like, hide the DVD player, Noah, and I would shove it under my seat.

But he would show me uh all of his favorite movies, and so one of the movies that I grew up just loving because of that, um, and it's a movie a lot of you probably know and love, and it's the the iconic movie, The Karate Kid, okay?

I love the Karate Kid, it is a classic.

I love Mr.

Miyagi, I love Daniel, Johnny Sweep the Leg, all of it, you know, the wax on, wax off, all that stuff.

Like, there's something about showing a 13-year-old boy, like the karate kid, that just like sets something off in their brain.

Like, oh, I need to be a karate master, like right now.

Like, I love the karate kid.

I will love even all the bad sequels, I love all of them.

I've seen them all, even karate dog, that's a real movie.

Where Mr.

Miyagi's dog, it does karate.

I used to watch that even.

But I I love the karate kid.

I love the classic underdog story of like a kid rising up.

If you haven't seen the movie The Karate Kid, it's okay.

My wife Hannah hadn't seen it till last year, and I showed her, so I'll give you a little recap.

But really, the movie is an underdog story.

This kid Daniel's getting picked on, and so he finds a wise old Japanese man who teaches him karate, Mr.

Miyagi, and so he's teaching him karate.

It culminates at the end of the movie where they're in a big new arena, and Daniel has to take on his bully in this huge new karate championship.

There's hundreds of people all around them.

They're in this big, huge dojo.

Everything is bigger and more epic.

And we see that Daniel is getting a little overwhelmed, and we see that his coach, Mr.

Miyagi, comes to him and says, listen, the arena that you're in is different, okay?

It's much bigger, but the basics are still all the same, okay?

The arena you're in is different, but the the paint, the fence, the wax on, wax off, what I taught you, the basics of karate are all still the same, even if it feels new and scary.

And I think this really relates to uh the story that we're gonna talk about in Hebrews 11, or we're gonna be in the book of Joshua because we're gonna be talking about Joshua in the Wall of Jericho.

That's an iconic story.

Maybe you've grown up hearing about it in Sunday school and watching cartoons about the wall of Jericho.

It's one of the most epic stories of faith in the Bible.

But I feel like Joshua kind of felt like how Daniel felt a little bit going up to the wall of Jericho, seeing it, being intimidated, and God kind of like shows up as his coach and says, Listen, this is a new arena that you're playing in, but the basics of what I have taught you are still the same.

What I have taught you, the faith that you've grown is still applies to this new era.

And so maybe this morning you're in a season of newness.

You find yourself like in a new arena that you're not used to.

I've found myself in a new arena recently as being a new father, and so suddenly I'm in a whole new I have a new sense of responsibility that I have now in leading my daughter.

And maybe that's for you.

Maybe you just got married, maybe you have a new venture that's upon you, and you have new leadership roles in whatever career that you're in.

Maybe it's not something so positive or exciting.

Maybe you're in a season of suddenly figuring out how to live without someone you've loved for so long.

Maybe you're in a season of figuring that out.

You're in a season of newness, a new challenge has approached, and now you have to take it on.

And can I tell you this morning, God is maybe showing up as your coach, telling you, listen, the arena, the challenge, the season that you're in is new, but what I have taught you, the basics are still apply here.

It's still the same.

And so Hebrews 11 30, we see the verse about Joshua says this by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

And if we if we look a little backstory on Joshua a little bit here, but Joshua we see is he is gonna become the newly appointed leader of Israel, God's chosen people.

And God had promised Israel that they can have the promised land.

They've been wandering around in the desert in the wilderness for 40 years, and Moses was uh the previous leader, right?

The iconic Moses.

And Joshua is now stepping into a new arena where he has to now take up the mantle after like a leader like Moses.

And we see early on that Joshua came to fame as one of two out of the 12 spies that came back with a positive report.

Okay, they sent out spies to report and scope out the promised land, to scope out the wall of Jericho and see what was going on.

All ten of these spies came back and said, the guys over there are beefy, like they're scary, they're huge, they're giants.

I don't know if we can do this.

And then Caleb and Joshua were the only two who came back and said, Hey, they're big dudes, but like we got this.

Like they're intimidating, but we got this.

And we see that early on, he established himself as a man of faith.

A man of faith, and God made him the next leader of Israel.

We see this promise that God gives Joshua in Joshua 1 through through 5.

It uh says this, you can hit that next verse.

Every place, this is God, you know, speaking this over Joshua, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you.

And I highlighted this just as I promised to Moses, your previous leader, to Moses from the wilderness.

Go to the verse 5.

It says, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses.

Again, just as I was with the previous leader, so will I be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

That's a comforting promise, right?

That that that's a comforting promise.

That not only that he gives to Joshua, but it's a it's a promise I feel like he gives to, it's a Christian promise that he gives us.

Just like I was with Moses before, I will be with you, Josh.

Just as I was with Joshua, I will be with you.

Just as I was with all the men and women of faith listed out in Hebrews 11, I will be with you.

And I love that promise that we get from God.

But we go down to Joshua 5, we kind of pick up where Joshua is now the leader of Israel, and now he is suddenly in a new arena.

He's in a new his next biggest challenge that he has to take on.

And that's to get and take over the city of Jericho.

We see that the promised land, the Israelites and the promised land are in between them, is the wall of Jericho, the city of Jericho that they have to take over.

And we see that he is coming upon this challenge to give you some context on why Jericho would be so intimidating, is that the wall of Jericho, the city of Jericho, was the most fortified city in the world.

And actually the walls are so thick, as a kid I would just think, okay, like the wall of Jericho is just a you know a brick wall or a fence, right?

No, the walls were so thick that you could have not only one, but two chariot races like on top of the wall.

That's how thick and fortified this city was.

And actually, just recently we uncovered some of the wall.

Scholars for a long time believe, like, is this a metaphor?

They didn't really, some people even didn't think it was real, but we've uncovered parts of the wall.

So like it is a huge, massive, fortified city.

And we see that in Joshua 5.13, Joshua is walking around and he's a little bit freaked out, okay?

It's the eve before the big battle.

His army is ready, they're about to go, they're about to storm the walls of Jericho, and he's a little nervous.

This is his his first bad, next battle as leader, right?

He needs he needs to step up to the plate, he needs a little breather, so he goes out at night walking around to clear his head.

And we see in Joshua 5.13, it says this when Joshua was by Jericho, when Joshua was by Jericho, and the word by, I just want to say in Hebrew, which is what this is translated, means like right up next to.

So we see that Joshua is not just like looking at the wall, Jericho.

He's like in enemy territory, like touching the wall.

Like he's up next to the wall, walking at night.

And we see that he's walking around and he lifts up his eyes and looks, and behold, a man was standing before him with a sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua goes up to him and he says to him, Are you for us or are you for our adversaries?

I just want to say, like, Joshua is like a man's man here because like he's in enemy territory, it's at night.

He sees a guy with a sword and he's like, Are you f are you my friend, or am I gonna have to like take you down?

Like he's ready to fight, he's ready to lead, like he's ready.

And we see that this guy, this messenger, gives him a one-word answer.

He simply says, No.

He simply says, No.

It wasn't a yes or no question, right?

He was like, Whose side are you?

My side or Jericho's side?

And he simply says, No.

You're asking the wrong question, Joshua.

And then he says, But I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come.

Basically, this messenger is coming down and saying, Listen, I'm not a lieutenant here to help you, Joshua.

The question isn't if I'm on your side, the question is, hey, I'm the commander of the Lord's army.

Are you on my side, Joshua?

I'm showing up as God's, as God's commander of his army.

I'm not coming as a lieutenant to help you.

I'm coming as a general for you to follow me, Joshua.

At the realization of this, Joshua falls, you know, on his face.

He's on the earth, he starts worshiping him, and he says, What then does my Lord say to his servant?

And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.

And Joshua did so.

A question I think we often get is like, okay, well, who is this messenger?

And I think easily people say, Well, it was an angel.

But we see that angels don't allow you to worship them.

We see this in Revelation 22, where John gets a revelation, and an angel appears to him and is giving him visions, and John is overwhelmed, he starts worshiping the angel.

And the angel says, like, stop, hey, stop, stop worshiping me.

Like we worship God in God only.

So we know from this that this angel doesn't stop Joshua.

So it must not be an angel.

And what theologians call this moment that we're seeing is a moment of Christ uh Christophany or Christophani, I don't know.

Either one, okay.

I am my no dad's son, so.

But it really means it's a it's a prenativity moment, a pre-nativity Old Testament appearance of Jesus on earth, which is very interesting.

Jesus, before he was conceived in Mary's womb, before he showed up, before he was born, before the Christmas story and all of that, he is showing up as the commander in chief of the Lord's army to Joshua.

And the question is never whose side is he on?

The question is whether we are on his side.

These are his battles that he's fighting that we can join him on.

He's not coming in and joining our battles.

And so I did skip over this a little bit, but Joshua 5, I just want to briefly mention that.

In Joshua 5, God commands all the men in the army before they go out and have this epic battle.

The day before, he commands them all to be circumcised, okay?

Every single man who's going into battle.

And I don't want to get into too much depth about circumcision this morning, but as you can imagine, as a guy, as all the guys in this room, the next day you probably aren't gonna feel like 100%, okay?

You're not gonna be feeling like real, you're gonna be feeling a little vulnerable, okay?

It's probably hot out and sweaty, and you're in those okay, I don't I just don't really want to think about it.

But I was like, God, you really had you had 40 years to circumcise all these guys.

Like they had 40 years of they were just wandering around and you couldn't have done it then.

But God was like, No, I want you guys to rely on me.

Like, I need you to not be at 100% because you need to know that the victory that is going to happen, the victory of the walls of Jericho falling down, is going to be by my hand, not yours.

So we go over the chapter six, and it says this, chapter six, verse one.

Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel.

We see it's the next day.

They're all ready, they're all suited up, they're ready to have a battle.

None went out and none came in.

And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I've given you the city, I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and its mighty men of valor.

Joshua is like, Okay, I see the city, but it's not destroyed.

Like, there's no battle happening, like what do we do now?

And then God proceeds to give them very specific instructions.

And I'm gonna list these out because a lot of you probably know these instructions, but if you don't know, they are very odd to say the least.

Uh the first instruction is they needed to put the Ark of the Covenant out in front of them.

Okay, so they needed to march around.

If you don't know what the Ark of the Covenant was, it is uh it's a little mobile tabernacle, basically, that housed God's presence.

So they're taking their church around with them, basically, around this city.

He had them march around the city once a day for six days in total silence.

They weren't talking, they're just marching around, okay?

No fighting, just walking, some more walking.

On the seventh day, march the wall seven times, and then on the seventh time, I need you guys to start shouting, and then I'm just gonna do the rest of it.

Okay, from there on, I'm doing the rest of it.

Now, I think we take these instructions for granted.

I think I do, because I've grown up hearing the story a million times in Sunday school.

I'm like, yeah, they walked around for seven times.

I've seen the Veggie Tales cartoon with the French peas, like I get it, right?

I'm showing my age a little bit because kids don't know what veggie tales are anymore.

But like it, but I think we take for granted, like, these guys are ready to battle, and they are showing up and they're ready to like have an epic war.

And God is like, I need you to start marching around for a little bit.

And they're like, these guys are like amped.

They're like, we just got circumcised the day before, like, I'm ready to like kill some dudes.

Like, I'm ready to battle right now, and you want us to walk around?

Like the absurdity of what's happening, I think we sometimes take for granted.

And so I'm gonna, we're gonna, I'm gonna continue with the story.

I think we all know how it ends, but I want to put a pin in that story real fast because I think, again, we can hear these stories, hear these Bible stories, and we sometimes get a little get it a little bit twisted.

I think we often read these Bible stories like they are all about us.

We read these stories like they are all about us.

And so if we're talking about Joshua and we're talking about the wall of Jericho, I think it's easy for us to think in this story, like, oh, I'm Joshua.

I'm Joshua, and whatever problems I'm facing in life, that's the wall of Jericho, okay?

Like, and God is gonna come along and He's gonna help me destroy whatever problems I have, and you know, he's gonna get me there, and it's gonna be awesome because God is for me and not against me, right?

And I think we we think that like God is gonna solve, like, okay, me being single, that's my Jericho.

I've been single for way too long, and God's gonna help come alongside me, He's gonna find me a girl.

I can walk around her seven times, and then suddenly, you know, I'm gonna be married, it's gonna be awesome.

Or fill in a blank whatever problem that you have.

Like, hey, my kids are acting up, you know, my marriage is a wreck right now.

I need God to come in and destroy and help me figure this out, destroy whatever sin's going on.

Like, I need whatever problem is happening in my life, God is gonna help me fight my battle.

And I want to give you guys a little bit of a news flash this morning.

Listen, the Bible is not primarily about you, but it's about Jesus.

Okay?

It's not about us.

I think it's just easy as human beings to just we get in this mentality.

It's I'm Joshua, God's gonna help me fight my battle.

It's not about us, but it's about Jesus.

And listen, this story is not even about us, it's not even about Joshua, really.

And if you're looking for someone to relate to in this story, I think we actually relate more to the wall of Jericho.

Jericho is the citadel of our sin that stood between us and the promised land, which is salvation.

And there was nothing that we could do or do about it to get there.

And then Joshua comes along.

Jesus, the truer and better Joshua, comes, and through a counterintuitive, humble obedience of the cross, he overcame that barrier.

And the final cry on the cross of saying, like, it is finished, is them screaming and the walls crumbling down, and death and sin being destroyed in that one moment.

And so the main point is still Jesus.

I love that even in the Old Testament, like an Old Testament is still referencing it is about Jesus.

I'm gonna say I love that.

It's still beckoning back to that, that it's really all about Jesus.

It's not about us or our problems.

We oftentimes, I think we sing these worship songs about how God's just gonna show up and you know all our problems are gonna be taken care of, and we won't have any stress in the world, and he's gonna break down all barriers, and everything's gonna be okay, and we're gonna live the American dream and be nothing bad is ever gonna happen.

Listen, the main point is for you to worship and obey Jesus, to stand amazed in the presence of the Messiah and to wonder how he could love me, a Jericho sinner, condemned and unclean.

Remember, don't read the Bible like a narcissist, okay?

Read it like a worshiper.

Read it like a worshiper.

Yeah, I think there's still some important things that we can take away from the faith of Joshua.

It's in Hebrews 11.

Obviously, they want us, obviously, the author, the intent is for us to learn and kind of hearken our faith after Joshua.

And so I want to leave you guys with four basics of the faith that we can learn from Joshua this morning.

And so the first is this the Christian life, the Christian life is something that we do with God, not for him.

Okay?

It's something that we do with God, it's not something we do for him.

It's a subtle, it's a subtle twist that I think sometimes we kind of forget, right?

Christianity isn't you for God, it's Christ in you through you, okay?

In you through you.

Again, it kind of goes back to the question that Joshua gave to Jesus or that messenger that that night, right?

Are you for me?

Are you are you here to help me in my battle?

And again, the commander-in-chief is saying, no, like you got it wrong.

You're asking the wrong question.

Are you for me, Joshua?

Are you for me this morning?

We should be asking first and foremost, God, what battles do you want me to join you in on?

Okay, what does God want me to do, and how do I join him in that?

I think it's easy for us to view God in a couple different ways.

I think we like to view God as the lieutenant who comes to join us in our battles.

Okay, it's easy for us to want God to show up, to be, to give us some wise words, to be our right-hand guide, to help us fight, to comfort us, be sweet to us, all that stuff, right?

Or, and it's hard for us to view him as a commander of the army, someone that we obey.

It's easy for us to view God as the lieutenant who comforts and gives us wisdom.

Listen, he does do those things.

I'm saying he he does give us wisdom.

He did, he is the prince of peace, right?

But listen, he is first and foremost the commander of the Lord's army.

He is first and foremost our Savior, our Lord Jesus.

So people say all the time, like they want the loving Jesus, they want the helpful Jesus, they want the save me from my sin, Jesus, take me to heaven and comfort me, Jesus.

But then they don't want the commanding leader.

They don't want the commanding Jesus, the holy Jesus, the I'm called to be set apart like Jesus, the giving me rules about my sexuality, Jesus, or Lord Jesus, and say we want to pick and choose which one.

But listen, it's it's either all of him, it's either the commander or nothing in our life.

This view of Jesus as only like a helper in our life to fight our battles, it's almost like viewing him as like a pocket Jesus, like, oh, I show up to church, I'm a good person, I go every Sunday, you know, I tithe, I do all this stuff, because and then Jesus is just gonna bless me, right?

And then because of that, we make choices in our life to kind of keep that blessing rolling.

Like we think we need to like keep how can I keep the blessing of Jesus?

Jesus is on my side rolling, right?

Like how much do I have to give to maintain this blessing?

Like 10% or more, like every once in a while?

Like, how involved do I really need to be at church?

Like, where, like, do I need to go every single Sunday?

If I go more, will I get a little bit more blessing, right?

What sin really makes God upset?

Like, which one does he get really mad at, and which ones does he really not care about so much?

So that you know, I can, does he grate at a curve?

If I get a B, do I still get in, right?

Like, we're really thinking about like how much can we get away with almost?

And if we really follow Jesus as Lord of our life, we would want to submit and give him every part of our life, our whole life.

So it's not God, like, oh, I'll just give you back your 10% and tithe.

It's like, no, God, you actually own all of my finances.

And so not only am I tithing giving in generosity, but like for the rest of it, God, what do you want me to do?

How do you want me to spend the rest of my money, your money, wisely?

It's not, God, I'm gonna tithe a couple hours of my week to you, my first Sunday to you.

It's no God, you actually own every moment of my life.

You own my every hour 24-7.

So how am I going to spend it?

What are you calling me to do?

Come not to solicit his help, but just to follow him.

Just to simply follow him.

I think this is hard for us who want to maintain control, right?

That's a human desire.

Like, I just need to control it.

But it also can be a little comforting knowing that you're not fully in control if you allow it, right?

Just think of like parenting, okay?

I'm in the whole realm of parenting, so I'm just thinking about that a lot.

I'm not praying to God, like, God, help, can you help me parent my daughter?

Like, no, God is the one who can save my daughter.

God is the one who's going to be leading her.

And in that, I'm going to smit and obey in how He wants me to parent her, okay?

When it comes to the success of this church or the success of this church, the elders and the board members and the staff here at North Iron, we're not saying, okay, we're gonna go out to Antonagon.

God, can you bless that venture in our that we're doing?

No, God is saying, hey, I want you to go to Antonagon, I want you to go to Lonce, I want you to go to Marquette.

And because of that, because we're obedient in that, we're saying, yes, God, we'll go where you want us to go.

You may be praying, God, can you bless my career?

But maybe you should be praying, like, God, you can have my career.

You can have all of my days of my life.

Listen, God's plan is always better.

His plans always come pre-blessed.

I think sometimes we're like, God, I'm about to do this thing, can you bless it?

But first we should be asking, God, do you want me to do that at all?

Like, what do you, where are you leading me?

Do you see the difference?

And oftentimes I think we come running back to God when like sin, the walls of Jericho in our lives seem overwhelming and everything is going wrong, and this battle is happening, it feels overwhelming, and so we run to the church because we need that blessing again in our lives.

And listen, I love that the church is a place for that.

Like, come if that's you this morning, like, yes, like get here, come here.

Like, God has a lot of healing.

He's gonna bring, he's the Prince of Peace, He's gonna bring all that.

But listen, I think what you're gonna find is a lot more.

Like coming and finding Jesus, what he's looking for in your life is a lot more radical than I think you can imagine.

Like, I wish following Jesus was just showing up to church a couple, you know, every week and then giving money.

That would be easy.

But God wants way more than that, He wants your whole life.

You came wanting comfort, He is demanding control, control of your life.

He's demanding all of your life.

I love how C.S.

Lewis explains this.

He explains following Jesus, kind of like living in an old house, okay?

Like an old ruckety house that's got like pipes leaking, and it's got patches on the walls.

And you call up Jesus as a repair man, like, Jesus, I need you to come fix my life, fix my house right now.

And so Jesus comes, he fixed the fixes, does some plumbing, he patches some walls, everything's looking nice, and you're like, man, this looks good, Jesus.

And then suddenly he takes a sledgehammer and he starts smashing walls, destroying things, and you're like, whoa, like what is going on?

Like, this is not what I asked for.

And then C.

S.

Lewis says this, I love this.

He says, the explanation, you can hit that next one.

Yes, the explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one that you even imagined, okay?

He launches out a new wing here, he puts an extra floor there, he runs up towers, he starts making courtyards, and I love this.

You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage.

Like that was your plan for your life, just a little, decent little cottage.

That's what you could have mustered up.

But he is building a palace.

Like his plans for your life are so much more extraordinary than you could even imagine.

And he intends to come in and live in it himself.

Listen, the Christian life is not something that you do for him, but it's something you do with him.

Again, it's something you do with him.

God has a better plan for your life.

God has it if you just submit and follow him.

Submit every area of your life.

The second thing I think we can learn is that God's ways often seem a little crazy.

God's ways often seem a little crazy.

We see this clearly in the story with the instructions that he gives the Israelites.

He's giving them some crazy things.

He's making them actually demonstrate like a public act of like humiliation in a way.

But listen, the crazy nature of these instructions, I think, are very intentional because a lot of the things that Jesus, if you can hit that, a lot of the things that Jesus commands us to do seem crazy and counterintuitive.

They seem oftentimes like counterintuitive.

Like think about forgiveness.

Like I have to forgive people.

Not like, oh, someone lied to me, oh, I forgive you, or someone stole something from me.

Oh, I forget.

Not like small petty things, but imagine, like, we have to forgive someone who has hurt my family.

I have to forgive someone who's hurt me or hurt people that I love.

Like, that seems crazy.

Taking a Sabbath, like I gotta really stop my work.

I really have to stop and take a moment to worship you in that.

Tithing, like it's crazy.

Like I'm living paycheck to paycheck, and yet, God, you are asking me to step out and tithe.

Like the math isn't mathing in that, right?

Seems a little crazy.

Being patient and in a situation that you feel like giving up in, I'll talk about that a little bit later.

But listen, Jesus was kind of the preeminent model of this crazy obedience, of these crazy rules.

Because if you think about it, coming to earth in the way that you and I come to earth, humbling himself in a human form, that's kind of crazy.

He overcame evil not through a display of strength and power.

Like the Jews at the time thought Jesus was gonna come in or the Messiah was gonna come in like on a golden chariot and like come, he that he was going to, you know, force all the enemies into submission.

But he overcame evil and the devil himself through his own submission and weakness on the cross.

That seems counterintuitive.

Jesus defeated sin and death by dying.

That seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?

The next thing that I think we can learn is this beware of the off-ramps of compromise, okay?

Beware of the off-ramps of compromise.

Um, some of the earlier instructions that Jesus gave or God gave to the Israelites before they won this war is that they were not allowed to plunder or steal anything, okay?

They weren't allowed to, after the victory, after they won the battle, they were not allowed to take cattle, they weren't allowed to take treasures, which was normal for a victory because they're the winners, right?

They can take what they want as part of winning the spoils of war.

They weren't allowed to take anything because God wanted them to know listen, this battle, you didn't win it, I won it for you.

Like this is my victory, not yours.

So he gave them specific instructions.

You are not to take anything at all.

He wanted them to take nothing.

But we see in chapter 7, verse 1, it says this on that next one.

But the people of Israel broke faith.

They broke faith in this moment in regard to the devoted things.

For one of the soldiers, Achon, the son of list of the sons, okay, he's a son of Judah.

He took some of the devoted things.

He stepped out and broke faith.

He took something, hid it in his tent, and then the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

He took a little bit of control, if you will.

A little bit of control.

Like, God, I I know you just want us this victory, but I just need, I can't fully give you my whole life.

And we see actually, because they broke the faith, they had this amazing victory.

They just destroyed Jericho, they just took that over.

And then later they have another battle with a much smaller nation, a very much smaller village that's way less intimidating.

And they actually lose that battle because God left them.

And Joshua's freaking out.

He's like, God, like, what happened?

We just had this amazing victory and now we lost.

Like, did you leave us?

Did you forsake me?

And God says, one of your people broke faith with me.

And that soldier, when he did that, he took a little bit of control, right?

He quit depending on God to meet his needs, and he took control of filling his own life with happiness.

It was a small thing.

You're like, oh, he just stole one thing.

But it was a demonstration of a lack of faith.

Listen, the deadly off-ramp of any venture of faith is always a small compromise.

It's always like a small thing, a small treasure, a small bit of control that you try to take back with you.

A small little thing.

Like, uh, what's a couple of videos when my wife's gone?

Some OnlyFans a little bit, just once in a while.

Uh, you know, a couple of text exchanges are fine.

Like, I like the attention he gives me.

Doesn't it's not really harming anything.

Like, do I really have to tithe every single income that I have?

Do I really have to tithe the side hustle?

Do I really need to go to church every single Sunday?

Like, uh, like I wanna watch my kids' game or I got these things.

Like, do I need to go every single beware of the small compromises?

Because when you take matters back into your own hands, when you take back that control, when you try to control your happiness for your life, and you stop obeying, even for a little bit, you're gonna open a door.

You're bringing curses into your life.

You're lit literally opening a little foothold for the devil to jump in.

Not only in your life, but maybe in your family's life.

It's like that casting crown songs.

It's a slow fade.

You know that song?

When you give yourself away.

I was listening to that song.

I was like, it's a banger song.

But it's true, it's like a slow fade away.

The small moments of what you're doing, of like, I just need a little bit of control here.

God, just for a moment, will you be my lieutenant instead of my commander?

And lastly, I want to end with this.

Listen, endure, undergo, persevere, suffer, persist, abide, remain.

I really just Googled like seven synonyms for the word endure.

Because I just wanted to make the point like endure, endure, endure.

And I wrote it seven times, you know.

They walked around the wall seven times, on the seventh time, right?

The number seven in the Bible all the time.

Listen, endure, endure, endure, persist, persevere.

Like the Israelites had to keep walking around the wall and nothing changed, okay?

Like, imagine like walking, being there and walking around the fourth time, and you're looking around and you're like, like, is something happening?

Like, is are the walls at least shaking or vibrating a little bit?

Like, is what's going on?

Like, it was completely silent, nothing was happening.

Then imagine the sixth time.

The sixth time was the same as the first time.

Like, it was the same, but it they just kept doing it.

It would drive you a little crazy.

Like, what's going on, God?

Like, is something going to happen?

I don't, I'm not seeing anything.

Then imagine the seventh time halfway through, and they're like, We're almost done, but like, it still looks like the first day when we did this.

You would think, like, you know, like God would give them something.

But listen, they couldn't see, they couldn't experience or know that it was working until they fully did what God had commanded them to do.

They couldn't experience it yet.

If I were, if I was God, I'd probably be like, man, give them like a little bit of something, like a couple bricks falling, like, can they like stab the wall a couple times or something when they're walking, right?

Nothing.

It was completely the same.

And maybe that's you this morning.

You feel like I'm doing what God has called me to do, but it feels like nothing is changing.

It feels like I'm just hitting this, you know, metaphorical brick wall, the wall of church.

Like I feel like I'm just bumping up again.

Nothing's changing, God.

Like I thought you said if I did these things, I would be okay.

So maybe you're obeying, but you're still not seeing the fulfillment of the promise that God has given you.

And you're like, I'm I'm doing all the things you told me to do.

Like I'm bringing my kids to church, I'm I'm leading my kids the way that you told me to, but they're still making stupid mistakes.

They're still being dumb.

Like I keep praying for healing in this one thing in my life, but to no avail.

Like I'm still not healed.

You keep coming to church over and over again, but you're still not feeling 100% connected yet.

You're still tithing, you're still giving generously, but it feels like you're not moving further in your career at all.

You try to be the bigger person and you forgave someone, but yet they still haven't forgiven you, and that relationship is still held over you.

There's this bitterness there.

And you're like, God, can you just give me a break, please?

Can you just show me something?

God wants us to walk with faith, just like Joshua and the Israelites.

He wants us to walk with faith, not walk with sight.

Even when you can't see it, he's working, right?

Even when you can't feel it, he's still working.

Listen, endurance is faith expressed over time.

Endurance is faith expressed over time.

Like it's easy to follow God when there's like this big, huge moment in our life.

There's coming a faith moment, and then suddenly you're gonna have to start following God.

And then it's in that in-between time where a lot of people start to fall off, where they're walking around the wall and they're like, God, like what is going on?

I I'm gonna, you know, my life is actually better now, and I'm just gonna stop walking and do something, do my own thing, and then just give up.

Listen, keep the faith.

Keep walking, endure, persist.

I know you feel like nothing is happening.

Listen, just because your progress is not obvious does not mean your faith is not working.

And I think God wanted to do something in the Israelites first.

He promised them the promised land, that that was their goal, that was the promise he gave them.

But he wasn't preparing the promised land for them, he was preparing the Israelites for the promised land.

So maybe God is doing something in you, he's processing you.

So endure, keep the faith.

He wants us not to keep our eyes on the outcome, but to keep our eyes on the promise.

Listen, outcomes are his responsibility.

Faithful obedience is ours.

Faithful obedience is our responsibility.

So keep on marching, keep on walking.

When it feels like nothing is happening, when it feels like your family is still in turmoil, when it feels like the weight is on your shoulders, keep on walking.

Keep your eyes on the promise that God has given us that you are a child of God, that you are a citizen of heaven.

Keep the faith.

And so this morning we're gonna have prayer partners up front.

And if that's you this morning, and you're like, I need something in my life right now.

I need a break because I feel like nothing is changing God.

Like, I just want to encourage you to get prayed for this morning.

Listen, we're we're we're the family of God.

We're we're uh we're the God's chosen people right now, and so we're marching together.

So let's pray together.

I'm gonna come to a closing prayer.

Can I let everyone in the room stand up with me?

And I want to pray for you if that's you this morning and you feel that way, and you're still marching, and you feel like to no avail.

I want to pray for you.

Lord God, I just pray right now in this room, Jesus, that you would be moving in our lives, God.

When we feel like nothing is changing, that you would remove our eyes from the outcomes, and that we would fully, Lord Jesus, have faith in you, that you're gonna take care of the outcome.

And that we would just step out in obedience after the fourth time and the fifth time and the sixth time, Jesus, that you would be doing a good work in us, that the work that you started in us would continue, God, and we would press on, that we would endure, Lord Jesus, as you've called us to.

We just give that to you in your mighty name, Jesus.

Amen.

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