From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart, Pastor Jeff Shreve continues through our journey of the book of Joshua to learn how to conquer our Jericho.

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The chapter ends saying this: So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land. What makes Joshua such a great man? One word, obedience. He obeyed the Lord.

You can do the same thing. You can be a great person of faith, a great man, a great woman, a great boy, a great girl for God. If you will simply say, yes, Lord, and do what he says, God will bless you, and you will walk in victory.

There is treasure, there is blessing, there is hope that you always bring love. He can heal every scar of real, true love, real from his heart.

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In the Book of Joshua, Israel came up against its first major obstacle, a small fortified city named Jericho. And that city is symbolic of your sin and my sin, all sin. Listen, what sin or sins in your life are strongholds that you just can't seem to shake? Whatever your Jericho is, God wants to bring it down in your life.

And today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, he'll show you how. The lesson is called "Conquering Your Jericho," from Pastor Jeff's 10-lesson series, "Rising to the A Study of the Book of Joshua." Go to the Listen link at fromhisheart.org to listen again to any message you may have missed or download a free MP3 of this or any broadcast right now.

Open your Bible to Joshua chapter six. Here again is Pastor Jeff with the truth about how to conquer your Jericho.

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God gives us a beautiful picture in Joshua chapter six of how to conquer our Jericho. Three key truths for conquering your Jericho. Truth number one, understand that you fight from victory, not for victory. The Lord made it clear to Joshua, Jericho has already been given to you. He had told them in Joshua chapter one, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, that land I have given to you." As I spoke to Moses, the promised land is yours. You just have to go get it. Jericho has already been given to you. You're just going to have to go and get it. Look at verse two again. And the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given," not "I will give." "I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the valiant warriors." So first key, understand that you fight from victory, not for victory.

Secondly, understand that you overcome through faith and patience. Those two things are critical: faith and patience. The Scripture says in Hebrews chapter six that you may not be sluggish, that you may not be lazy, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Faith and patience—those two things are critical. Look what it says in verse six. So God gives Joshua the battle plan, and it's a strange battle plan. Joshua did exactly what the Lord told him to do, and the people obeyed and they did what the Lord told them. Understand that you experience the victory. The victory on paper is experienced in practice through faith and patience.

Now, if the Lord told you something to do that sounded reasonable to you, you wouldn't need any faith to do that. It'd be like, "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, God." So God doesn't give you plans like that. He gives you plans that sound ludicrous to you so that you have to say, "Ah, okay, I guess I'll do it your way." The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. He will make your way straight." So I have to do what God says to do, even though it sounds crazy, perhaps to me. And then we take a step of faith and we do it like Joshua did, like the people did. We do it. And then when we do what God says to do, then God does his part.

And God tears down walls, and God parts the rivers, and God does miracles. Listen, you mark it down. God will not do what you can do, and you cannot do what he can do. They could march around the city. God wasn't gonna march around the city. They could march around the city. They couldn't just say, "Well, Lord, you know, you're God, so why don't you just take the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolizes your presence. Why don't you just miraculously take that around and we'll go play, you know, free cell. We're just gonna do something at the camp. We're just gonna go roast marshmallows." Do something. No, God's not gonna do that. You do your part, and then God will do what you can't do. And God's gonna bring down the walls just like he said he was going to do.

It takes faith to do things God's way. And it takes patience to wait on God's timing, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those (Hebrews 6:12) who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So I have faith, but then I have to be patient. And so you see that in this story. Because why does God need them to walk around for seven days? Because seven is the number of completeness. And God wanted them to wait on the victory so it would be like, "Well, God, I think it would be better if we just walked around one time. I mean, if you like this marching thing, Lord, we can walk around one time, or we can walk around seven times in one day. But then let's go. Let's take Jericho." No, we're gonna do it my way, and we're gonna walk around once, and then after 20 minutes, then you're gonna go back to camp. Then you're gonna wake up the next morning, you're gonna do it again. Then you're gonna wake up the third morning, you're doing it, and the fourth morning, do it again. Fifth morning, do it again.

Hey, listen, you think about Jericho, that sin in your life that always seems to be there, that always seems to stop you, that you can't get around, you can't bypass. It's there, and it's like that again. And maybe you've been walking around that stronghold one day, two days, three days, four days, and you just say, "There's nothing happening. I'm not seeing any victory. I just keep walking around this. I just... I give up. I quit. I can't win." The Lord says, "You keep going. We're not at day seven. We're not at the 13th time around Jericho. I told you to walk around it for 13 times. Once for six days. One time for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day."

And what happens to many of us? We don't have patience. Abraham was told by God he was going to have a son. He was in his early 70s when God told him that. Never had any kids. Well, he didn't have Isaac until he was 100. He had to wait. Wait for the Lord. The Bible says in Psalm 27, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Just wait for the Lord." We have trouble waiting, and God's way is waiting. You know, we have microwave ovens in our homes. And, I mean, sometimes you put something in there, it's like, "Man, I had to punch in more than a minute. What's up with this? This is a crummy microwave." And I'll put things in there all the time. I always just hit the speed one. It's whatever, you know, it's like 30 seconds. So I hit it a couple times. It's like, "Well, that's a minute." Debbie's like, "You don't do it that way." I was like, "That's the way I do it." She goes, "No, you put it on a lower setting, and you do it for like five minutes. And then it comes out good." And so I get it, and it's cold. And then I do it again.

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It's cold.

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I do it again. It's boiling lava.

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Hot.

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You know, it comes out like that. But here's the thing. We don't like to wait. And God says, through faith and patience, you inherit the promises. We go on his timetable, not our timetable. It's a good word to learn, is the word.

Yet you say, nothing has happened. I've been walking around this Jericho situation in my life, and nothing has happened. Nothing has happened.

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Yet. Yet.

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Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. And then thirdly, understand that God is faithful and expects obedience. God is faithful and God expects obedience. Now, Joshua told the people, not a peep out of you all the time you're walking around this city. Don't say anything. Now, remember, it's not all the people in the camp that were walking around there. It's the soldiers that are walking around, along with the priests and entourage of several thousand people. But it's not a million and a half people that are doing that. And so Joshua said, nobody say a word. You just be silent. You just wait on the Lord.

And then when the Lord says, shout after the seventh time and there's a loud blast on the ram's horn, then you shout, God is faithful and expects obedience. Look what it says. Verse 17. And the city shall be under the ban. It and all that is in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them. And take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it.

We're going to read next week about a man named Achan, whose name means trouble, who did just that. He took some of the things that were dedicated to the Lord, and it brought destruction to him and to his family. Verse 19. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpet. And it came about when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout. And the wall fell down flat.

So that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city and they utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old and ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword. And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her. So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had. They also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

And they burned the city with fire and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had Joshua spared. And she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn, he shall lay its foundation. And with the loss of his youngest son, he shall set up its gates.

So the Lord was with Joshua. And his fame was in all the land. God is faithful. God is faithful. God always keeps his word. God always does what he says he's going to do. In his timing. The Lord was faithful when they shouted to cause the wall to come down.

And this is what's so cool. And this is the neat thing about archaeology, when you go and study archaeology, when they look at these biblical places. So the archaeologist that went into Jericho, I think it was in the 1950s, this is what she found. She found that at that stone wall that was like the embankment of the city, there were a bunch of red bricks that had fallen down, almost like making a rampart for the children of Israel to come up. God says that the wall was going to fall down flat and literally it was going to fall beneath itself. It was going to fall to the bottom.

And those walls, those 20-foot high mud brick walls, that's what they did. They fell to the bottom, to the base, and they made a rampart for the children of Israel. The soldiers to come straight ahead and go up on that. And that's what archaeology has found. And you know what else they found so cool? They found a section of the wall that didn't come down, an 8-foot tall section of the wall that didn't come down because the wall fell down everywhere except Rahab's house.

And you remember what the Lord had said or the messengers had said, told Rahab you get everybody in your house. Your mother, your father, your brothers, your family, your relatives. They have to be in your house. If they're not in your house, all bets are off. But if they're in your house and you have that scarlet cord coming out your window. She lived on the wall, remember? Because the spies were able to get out her window. That part of the wall didn't fall down.

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Why?

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Because God is faithful. God is faithful to save. And if you take one step toward the Savior, my friend, you'll find his arms open wide. Jericho was a wicked city. It was an immoral city. It was an idolatrous city. And God was going to wipe it out. But if anybody in Jericho would put their faith and trust in Yahweh God, that person would be saved. That's our God. That's Jericho's. A picture of our world. Our world is destined for judgment because God is holy, holy, holy. And our world is sinful, sinful, sinful and getting more depraved by the day. And God says, judgment is coming. There is coming a day when the Lord will judge every single person. The Lord says every idle word that man shall speak, he’ll give an account of it on the Day of Judgment.

But here's the thing. It's almost like in Noah's day, he had an ark. And so he preached for 100 years, "Hey, God's bringing judgment. He's raining down judgment on this earth. But if you'll come into the ark, you'll be saved." And Rahab could say, "Judgment is coming. But if you come into my house, you'll be saved." God will save anyone who will put his faith and trust in him. The Bible says in Hebrews 7:25, he's able to save to the uttermost those who come to him by faith in Christ. Old preachers used to say he can save from the uttermost, from the guttermost to the uttermost. He can save the Rahabs, and he can save the religious folks like Nicodemus.

You know, between the Rahabs and the religious folks, you know who's harder to save than Nicodemuses? Why? Rahab knows she's a sinner. She knows that she doesn't deserve heaven. She knows she's covered in the slimy fingerprints of sin. The Nicodemuses, the church crowd, the upstanding folks, they feel like they're pretty good. They feel like, "Well, you know, salvation is for other people, for the bad people. But I'm a good person. I don't really need that." He saves from the guttermost to the uttermost, the Rahabs to the religious, anyone who puts his faith and trust in Jesus. And if you don't, he's coming in, and there's going to be destruction.

Now, some people don't like the idea that God judges. "Well, who's God to judge?" Well, he's the judge of all the earth. That's who he is. To judge well, for those people, to kill all those people, I mean, that's not right. He shouldn't have done that. God is God. Listen, you have been given a loan on life. And at any moment, God can call your loan. At any moment. You don't know when it is. I don't know when it is. So you think, "Well, you know," like the person in the parable in Luke chapter 12, "I have many goods stored up for many years. Take my ease, eat, drink, and be merry." And God said to him, "You fool. This very night, your soul is required of you. I'm calling up your loan, and you're not ready. You're not prepared. You saved up everything for this life. You have nothing in the next life. You're not ready for the next life. You're not ready to face the judgment."

The Lord says, "The soul who sins shall die." All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. Those who lived in Jericho heard about the Lord just like Rahab did, but they rejected. Rahab responded. God is faithful to save anyone who will respond to him. God is faithful to forgive anyone who will confess his sins and forsake his sins and come to him. The Bible says, "If you, Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand? But there's forgiveness with you that you may be feared." He's faithful to save, he's faithful to forgive, and he's faithful to judge.

Sometimes you hear people say, "Well, I had a lady tell me this once. She said, 'Well, I would never follow a God who would allow a whole city of people to be killed. I'd never follow a God who would drown a whole civilization of people in Noah's flood.'" I said, "Well, okay, God's not making you follow him. But listen, God is God. He is who he is. He's not who you want him to be. And God is perfect in love. He's perfect in goodness. He's perfect in holiness. He is not just holy God; he is holy. And what is mind-blowing is when people who are sinful, sinful, sinful point the finger of accusation in the face of holy God and say, 'God, you're not right. God, you're not fair.' Boy, if I were God, I would do it so much better than you." It's like Hitler lecturing a group of kindergartners about morality. God is God. God does what he does. He has every right to do what he does. And as Abraham said, "Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?" And the answer is yes. Yes.

At the Great White Throne, when the Lord judges every single unsaved person, he'll say to them, "Not my will, but yours be done. You didn't want me. I died for you in agony and blood. And you said, 'No, I'd rather have my sin than God's son.' So depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Not my will, but yours be done." God always keeps his word. And God expects us to obey his word.

You know, it's interesting. It says in verse 26, after they were supposed to give all that stuff over to the Lord—all the gold, all the silver, all the bronze, all the metal, the stuff that wouldn't burn—that belonged to the Lord. Everything else, you know, you burn with fire. Achan is going to take some of that everything else, bringing a lot of grief into his life. But everything else, you burn with fire. God expects you to obey that. If you don't obey that, you're going to pay a price for that. God wants to give you victory, but you have to be obedient.

And listen, I'm speaking this message to myself because it's easy to flirt around with sin and play around with sin. Here's the thing about sin: You can't manage sin. You have to murder sin. You have to mortify sin. We try and manage sin. We think, "Well, I can handle this." You can't. You get rid of it. You put it to death, just like Joshua. The people came up those walls that had tumbled down and made a rampart. They came straight up and they killed everything in the city and burned it all with fire. That's what we do with sin.

Hey, the chapter ends saying this: "So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land." What makes Joshua such a great man? One word: obedience. He obeyed the Lord. You can do the same thing. Hmm?

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It is the way, the only way you and I can conquer our Jericho. And that is to be obedient like Joshua. And appropriate all that we've heard from Scripture for ourselves today. When you do, it'll free you up to be all that God wants you to be and to defeat Jericho, the Jericho of sin that's been holding you back from living out the truth of Christ in your life.

What a great message today called Conquering your Jericho. We heard part two today from Pastor Jeff's ten lesson series Rising to the Challenge: A Study of the Book of Joshua. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and this is a nonprofit broadcast ministry supported by our listeners who are touched and impacted and are growing in their own heart from these messages that God shares with Pastor Jeff, who is simply a volunteer for us.

When you give a gift today, we'll say thank you by sending you the brand new six lesson series that we aired earlier this month called Strong and Courageous. In it, you'll discover how to stop letting fear call the shots in your life, how to stand firm in God's promises when you feel weak, how to boldly live out your faith in a world that desperately needs truth, and how your courage can point others to Christ. This resource will encourage you personally, and it'll also be a gift that will help countless others hear the truth of God's Word through this ministry.

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I'm Larry Nobles, and on behalf of all of us at From His Heart, we want to thank you for listening to the lesson Conquering your Jericho, which was from Pastor Jeff's series Rising to the Challenge. We trust you'll be able to be right back here next time for the next lesson in this empowering series. It's going to reveal that trouble is coming our way. It's simply called Trouble. Join us Thursday when we'll open God's Word again and hear real truth, love, and hope from His heart.

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There is true, there is bless, There is hope that you always dream Love we can heal every scars.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

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