Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Thanks for joining us today. Our series today is titled Victorious, and Pastor Paul Cannings takes us to this most amazing victory for the people of Israel as God works through Joshua. What God wants of us is our worship. In dealing with Israel's strong enemies and insurmountable walls, God shows us his power in obtaining victory for his people when they worshiped him. Challenging us to grasp the importance of worship in our lives, here's Pastor Cannings now with today's message: Worship Directs Everything.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Worship today has become what we need, not what Christ is demanding that we provide to him in honor of him. As a matter of fact, worship is about respect. His worth-ship. His value is highlighted so that we lift him up so that no matter what we face, he stays high. We don't bring him low.

But worship today has become about what people want, what people desire. People are coming for pep rallies. They're not necessarily coming for worship. Encourage me. Make me feel better. Make me feel stronger. Our emotions, our feelings, our suspicions drive us in whatever direction we feel. So the church doesn't drive us to victory. It drives us to experience who we are.

Who we are does not lead to victory in the major issues of our lives because we stumble through them when the Bible is saying in Second Peter chapter one that if we walk in the truth, verse nine through verse 11 says we don't stumble. We don't stumble through life. We get better in our trials. We're perfected in our trials. We get stronger in our trials.

The only place that God has designed to make that possible is the church. Ephesians chapter four, verse 12 through 13. That's the only place that can take a person from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. So when we come to the issues we face in life, the Bible says the victory is stirred up, developed based on how we grow, how we develop to face what we're facing.

And that's what you see here in the book of Joshua chapter six because I want you to see that nowhere in Joshua chapter six he is saying that they're going to win this war because of how valiant the military is. No, that's why they ran off 40 years prior to Joshua chapter six because they knew they could not handle these valiant warriors. They knew it.

The spies understood that. They looked at their own ability. They saw what these men looked like. They saw their ability at war. They saw how efficient they are, and they understood looking at themselves that is impossible to go defeat in a small country called Jericho. They understood that. They were not trained for war. The Egyptians are not going to train them for war then hold them in slavery. It makes no sense.

So you've got these people coming against valiant warriors with a double-reinforced wall, and the people in the wall are well-trained and equipped. That's why they ran off as I said. So God is putting them in a situation where he's actually not saying I want you to fight for me. He hasn't asked them to fight since before leaving Egypt.

He puts them in a situation where he is saying worship me and we'll get this done. Let's take a look at verse four of chapter six of the book of Joshua, and this is what he says: "The seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns. And on the seventh day, you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets."

What you doing with priests doing worship? What you doing with priests in the first place, and right next to the wall? These guys are supposed to be in the temple. That's what. You've got the military up front, the armed part of the military up front, the men that are in battle array. Then you've got the priests in the middle, then you've got some more military guys in the back.

And they're walking around a city that's really not that large. They get this done in a day. It's not a large city. It's just a well-fortified city, and they've got to go through that city to get to the rest of the Promised Land. And God set it up that they have to fight these people that are the worst they're going to deal with in the Promised Land.

So this is what God teaches them to do, and he says it right here: the seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns. Rams' horns, when you start to check them out and follow them in scripture, they are for worship. It's a call to worship. What God is saying, Joshua meets the Lord of Hosts.

What is he doing before the Lord of Hosts? Bowing down his head. What does the Lord of Hosts tells him? I'm the Lord of Hosts, Joshua. Take off your shoes because where you are is holy ground. Right there in verse 15. So Joshua, worship me. I'm going to take this city for you, and I've already given it to you because he's already promised Abraham this.

Abraham has walked on this land hundreds of years before. He has walked on this land. This is all set up. So this is already done. This is already set. And he says, worship me, Joshua. You, I'm lining up here as the Lord of Hosts. Do you see a bunch of angels behind me? I don't need them. I don't need a bunch of angels. Just think about it for a minute.

Hezekiah, when he is praying and crying out to God and beseeching God because he knows he's not able to deal with the Assyrians that are there, in the next day, 185,000 Assyrians are dead because of hail. So God, he doesn't need a big army. He doesn't need the Israelites. He could just wipe them out. Egyptian army that is in the sea, open up the Red Sea, swallow them.

So who has been fighting all along? God. We don't fight our battles. God just wants to see if we're going to trust him, obey him, surrender to him, and go smack dab in the middle of the fight to see how he's going to change this marriage. How's he going to change the development of this child? How we going to change a job environment that is very difficult?

How he's going to change our finances when we trust him? How he's going to change our medical issues when sometimes the doctors are saying there's no hope? All these different things, he says go smack dab in it because it's not your battle. What I want to see is whether or not you will worship me in it.

And that's why there's a call to worship. He's saying, Joshua, you started worshiping me. Now get the rest of these people to worship me. Joshua, every time I try to get these people to worship me, I've got a cloud coming down over the Holy of Holies. I've got priests who will die if they go in there with sin. How much more evidence do they need to know that I work in this temple?

Worship: he spells it out in the book of Leviticus saying exactly how this works. Not listening. In the New Testament, he works it out in the book of Acts. He would teach us what worship is. Do we stick with that? Do we even look at what he doesn't accept in Revelation and say, you know what, I will worship you the way you say your value is respected?

That when you are held high... What does he say to Joshua? Joshua, the ground you're standing on is holy ground. Take off your shoes, man, you're right here near me. And I'm the Lord of Hosts. Are you going to stand up here talking to me like this? When we don't realize that when Jesus Christ cut the veil in two, he invited all of us in.

Nothing changed. It's just a different system of respecting, honoring God, and blessing his name and keeping him high. And that's why he says this: I want you to go around this city seven times. None of it makes sense. Go around the city seven times, and when you go around the seven times, the priest shall blow with the trumpets.

Now, with the priest blowing with the trumpets with these military guys behind and in front of them does not move anybody to anything other than: we are going to have worship service. And what's the funny thing about this whole thing is Rahab has told them that the people in the city are scared of them.

So they actually spent 40 years running from people that are already scared of them. And they ended up dying over something that was already a victory. How many of us do that? God tells us what to do, we don't do it, we suffer as a result, and then we're mad at God. And when we get way into the situation and really need a rescuing, we cry out to God.

His grace is sufficient. He rescues us, he brings us back, he re-establishes us, and we go back and do the same thing like the book of Judges teaches us not to do. So they blow the trumpets. Went around seven times. What is he saying? Worship comes when there's true obedience. When there's true obedience.

It doesn't make any sense. What does this do? Does it make the walls shake? Does it make the walls rattle? Does it make the guys inside any more fearful? Does it make the soldiers get any riled up? Nothing. He said, well, why are we doing this? Could be the question that is asked. God is saying, no, you're not understanding me.

I am asking you to simply obey me because you didn't do that. and that's why people died for 40 years. I've kept you, 20 years and below. I made sure without hospitals, medications, anything else that your shoes didn't wear out, your clothes didn't wear out, and nobody 20 and below ever died. So I did that without medications, hospitals, anything. I took care of you.

So what I'm wanting you to understand is that you must obey me. You didn't do that the last time. I couldn't even get you this far. Worship begins with respecting what God is calling for and recognizing number one that it's not about us first, it's about him first. And therefore, since it's about him, whatever he's telling us to do, we do it whether it makes sense or no sense.

And that's why he says, "And it shall come to pass that when you 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 will fall flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight forward." I want the priests to start this out. Not the people.

I want the priests to model obedience. Not the people. I want the priests who are carrying the ark, I want them to be able to grab these horns and blow this because I said so. I want obedience to be modeled by the people that I've called to leadership. Many of us want to see people change, but how many of us as leaders are willing to change when God calls us to?

When God is demanding for us to grow, to trust him, demanding for us to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust the leadership structure that's in front of us so that we don't because we're this or that we need to tell everybody what to do? No, he's saying, no, Joshua, I'm telling you to go tell the priests what to do.

I'm telling you how to get them to function. You do exactly like I told you to do. He met with Joshua, the Lord of Hosts. Met with him. He didn't meet with Joshua and the priest when the Lord of Hosts met Joshua. He met with Joshua. God always has a key leader. The key leader is accountable and God will hold him accountable, as he did Moses who is not here right now because he's buried on the top of the mountain.

And then he comes to the other leaders: the priests who are serving the people. And he's expecting them to do what he says. And then he goes to the people. We want the people in the church to do what God is calling them to do, but we have to start that out first. If we're going to overcome the obstacles we face and live in these last days in a manner that would bring victory.

Whether the victory's on the outside or the inside, because victory begins on the inside in the Bible, not on the outside. John would say, 'He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.' It begins there. Then we can call the church to worship. But we can't call the church to worship when we ourselves are not willing to submit and do whatever God tells us to do and to worship him with a sincere heart.

If we want the church to worship God, it must begin with us. And when we do so, that's the victory because we're showing our dependence, we're showing our respect, we're showing our honor for the one who fights for us. We're showing that we trust him and because we worship him because we value his worth-ship, worship, the Lord of Hosts fights our battles. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): It's true, God doesn't need a big army. Instead, he wants to see if we're surrendered to him. Friends, this is true in the battles Israel faced, and it's true in the battles that we face today. Now, if you're up against your own personal battles and you want to know what it is to have God on your side, then give us a call at 281-260-7402 and let's talk about having Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

That's 281-260-7402. You can write us at PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 77092. To learn more about Power Walk Ministries or to obtain ministry resources, log on to powerwalkministries.org. We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday.

For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. And now remember Joshua's story and how effortlessly the walls of Jericho fell. So let's also prioritize sincere worship and see the victories that God gives to us.