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Guest (Female): Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. Have you discovered that life is a battle and that there are many battles to be fought throughout our lives, that we are living in a combat zone? That we fight against forces that we do not even understand, invisible, powerful forces? On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about what it takes for you to be someone God can use. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, Triumphant Faith.

Jack Graham: Now take your Bibles and turn with me to the faith chapter, Hebrews chapter 11. Real stories, real faith, and real people. We all face battles in life. Have you discovered that life is a battle? And that there are many battles to be fought throughout our lives, that we're living in a combat zone? That we fight against forces that we do not even understand, invisible, powerful forces?

Paul spoke of these principalities and powers. We fight the battle within with our own flesh, the struggle of the old nature that resists the work of the Spirit. And then there's the entire world system, the lure of the world and the anti-God, anti-Christ culture that is constantly seeking to suck us into the vortex of its life without God. And so we all face these battles in life, and it's very real.

And we, therefore, are to be soldiers for Christ. One of the most important metaphors given to us in the scripture describing who we are and what we're about as believers is that we are soldiers, that we are to endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, that we are to fight the good fight of faith, that we are to be fit for the battle, that we are to be prepared for every spiritual and any other kind of battle that we face in life.

The passage before us today involves a battle and the victory of God's people, the victory that God gives His people. Title of the message is Triumphant Faith. The children of Israel had been wandering in the desert for 40 years. Moses had brought them out of Egypt, and yet because of their rebellion and disobedience, they trekked through the desert, lived as nomads, desert disciples. Round and round and round they went in the wilderness because they refused to believe God.

It was the world's longest funeral procession as an entire generation of Israelites died out. But one of the men who was full of faith throughout the entire journey in that wilderness experience was Joshua. Joshua and Caleb were two of the spies who, overlooking the land of promise, had come back with a positive report that God has given us the land, though there are giants and obstacles and difficulties that we face. Yet we can do it in the name of our God.

The people took the majority report, and as a result of that unbelief, then came the wilderness wanderings. But Joshua, along with Caleb, is still alive. And as a matter of fact, he has become the successor to Moses. He is the captain. He is the leader, and he's about to lead the children of Israel now into the promised land. Now, the promised land is not heaven. Some of our old hymns talk about the promised land as being heaven.

Well, there were battles to be fought in the promised land. There were still victories to be won in the promised land. When we all get to heaven, there will be no more battles. We'll lay our swords down. Every battle will be finished and won. But the promised land is a picture of the abundant Christian life, the full blessing of the Christian life, the land that was flowing with milk and honey, fruitful and fresh.

The promise of God, this is the abundant life that God has promised every believer. We're not to be living in the desert, but we are to possess our possessions in Christ, claim our victories in Jesus, and live in the fullness and in the freshness and in the fruitfulness of that blessing. But there are some battles to be fought. So Joshua and the children of Israel are on the brink of this blessing, and they come against the great city of Jericho, the walled city of Jericho.

It was a city great in antiquity and great in enormity. The walls surrounding it, you could drive several chariots around the top of these walls. This was not just a little chain-link fence around this city. This was a massive, fortified city. And of course, the children of Israel didn't know what was on the other side of the wall, though they'd sent an espionage team over there. They didn't know what they were facing.

And so they were there looking at this walled city that seemed to say, "Keep out" from the blessing of God. This fortified city that said, "Stay out, keep away." Maybe you're standing in front of some Jericho today. I mean, you're right on the brink of God's blessing in your life, and yet there stand walls. Could be a family crisis, a crisis with one of your children, could be a health crisis, it could be a financial disaster, it could be an unfulfilled dream or career or unrealized potential in your life.

I don't know what your Jericho could be, but Satan always sees to it to raise up obstacles that indicate that we cannot experience the blessing of God. And so we must fight those spiritual battles and win them with triumphant faith. Remember this: faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And so in Hebrews 11 and verse 30, the scripture says, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days."

How do we experience and embrace such faith? Well, number one, triumphant faith begins with a surrendered life. Before victory comes in our lives, there must be surrender. I need you to flash back with me to the book of Joshua, chapter 5. And here is when Joshua, the commander, the leader, meets the Captain or the Commander of the army of the Lord. Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 to 15.

And when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" And he said, "No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, "What 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. Joshua is out surveying the scene. He's trying to figure out how he and the children of Israel can possess the land, scale the walls of this city, overcome these adversaries, the Canaanites, who were vile and dangerous people. How are they going to win this battle?

And as he's meditating and praying, an individual shows up. He thought perhaps an adversary from the Canaanite city of Jericho. And Joshua says, "Who are you? Are you for us or are you against us?" And the answer came: "Neither. I am the commander, the captain of the host of the Lord." That means God Himself, the Lord Jesus, showed up in that moment. And He said, "I haven't come here to take sides. I've come here to take over because this is My battle."

And before you can win this battle, you need to recognize that the battle is the Lord's and surrender your situation completely and totally to Him. And in this battle, the stakes are high: heaven and hell, life and death, your children, your grandchildren, your future. This is a war we must not, we cannot lose. Therefore, we come as surrendered soldiers and faithful and fit for the battle, and to possess what God has given us.

So Joshua led the children of Israel in this act of surrender, and it becomes a model for us of spiritual victory, that we are not victims in life, that we're victors, that we are not overcome in life's battles. We are overcomers, that we are more than conquerors, super conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ. Francis Schaeffer said this: "We are locked in a battle. This is not a friendly gentleman's discussion. It is a life and death conflict between the spiritual host of wickedness and those who claim the name of Christ."

We face a battle on many fronts. And just as the Canaanite city of Jericho was a satanic stronghold, there are satanic strongholds that we face in our lives. Battles in the mind, spiritual battles of immorality, perversion and homosexuality and pornography, strongholds. And don't get me started on the satanic stronghold of the 30 to 40 million babies that have been aborted in this nation over the last generation.

Satan's grip. This is a struggle. It is a spiritual battle, and we must be ever vigilant in the battle for life.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Triumphant Faith. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the seven words from the cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, text CROSS to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text CROSS to 59789.

Right now, you have an incredible opportunity to help someone experience the hope and truth of Jesus Christ. And thanks to an exciting $150,000 matching grant, your gifts this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's word even farther through PowerPoint Ministries. And as our way of saying thanks, we'd love to send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, a powerful resource showing you how Jesus meets you in your struggles with strength, comfort, and hope. Text MAR to 59789 to give today. Again, that's MAR, M-A-R, to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, Triumphant Faith.

Jack Graham: Can you imagine after Joshua visits with the Commander-in-Chief and apparently the Lord gave him the battle plan? He goes back to his military staff and they say, "Okay, Coach, what are we going to do?" He says, "Okay, I got the plan. We're going to get the people. We're going to put some armed men out in front of the people. We're going to put the priests with trumpets out in front of the people. We're going to put the Ark of the Covenant there, and then the people."

"And then we're going to have a rear guard of military force. And then, and then we're going to, for six straight days, march around the city in silence. And then on the seventh day, we, same setup, same formation, we're going to march around the city. But this time we're going to march around this city seven times. And on the seventh time around, those priests are going to blow those trumpets, and the people of God are going to shout. And those walls are going to fall down."

Now, is that the craziest plan you have ever heard in your life? Yeah, we're going to get the band and the cheerleaders out in front of the fighting forces and the people of God. We're going to cheer and yell and blow trumpets and win the battle. That's exactly what they did. And by faith, God took those walls down and they won this great victory. It made no sense. But listen to me: often God's strategies in life, the way He helps us, delivers us, and gets us through battles, makes no human sense.

One of our problems is we try to reason everything and fix everything rather than trusting the divine strategy of God. God's weapons are not carnal and fleshly or fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And God's strategy is to test our obedience, our dependence, and yes, our endurance. There are times that we must simply wait and be still and know that He is God.

I think there were a couple of reasons God told them to be silent as they marched those days. They'd been murmuring all throughout the wilderness, and God was going to break them of the habit of murmuring because, sure enough, on about the third day, somebody would have said, "This isn't working." Faith is infectious and contagious, but so is fear. So God told them to be silent. But also, those days as they were marching silently around those walls, it must have unnerved the people on the other side of those walls.

What are these people up to? While they were walking, they were worshipping and meditating. Our job is not to understand faith or even to understand God, but to undertake faith and trust God and obey God. I mean, think of several areas. For your children, while the world says there's one way to raise your kids and you can't keep your kids responsible and their purity and morality and all of that, that's crazy, you can't do that with your kids today.

But God's strategy says raise up your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he's old he'll not depart from it. What about money? I mean, it doesn't make sense. This is a financial strategy, alright? This is God's financial strategy. It doesn't make sense that if you take the top 10% of your income and tithe it and try to live off the 90, it doesn't make sense that that computes or that that works.

But Christian after Christian who has practiced biblical tithing and stewardship will testify to the fact that it not only works, but the blessings of heaven flow as never before in their lives. Think about sharing your faith. I mean, it doesn't make sense that that person at your office who seems farthest away from God would ever come to Christ. And yet if you by faith will share Jesus in a faithful way and a loving and life-giving way, many people who are far from God will come to Him that you would have never imagined.

But of course, the strangest strategy of all was a cross. That God would become a man and be nailed to a cross, to die an excruciating death for our sins on the cross and then to rise again on the third day. What a strange way to save the world. But God's strategies, even though they don't make sense to us, doesn't mean they don't make sense. God knows what He's doing. He knows what He's about.

I know sometimes, I know, I know that it's hard to wait. It must have seemed like that week of marching around those walls must have seemed interminable to the children of God. But they waited, they worshipped, and then God did His part. It's a beautiful example of human responsibility and divine activity at work together. By faith. Hebrews 6:12: "So that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience endured the promise." Be still and know that I am God. Throw away your clock and your agenda and your schedule and trust God to give you the victory in His own time and in His own way.

One final word: the triumphant faith, this triumphant faith expects a powerful result. Faith is expectant. It believes that God will work. Mark Batterson, in his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, said this: it's called the Lion Chaser's Manifesto. "Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention."

"Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop criticizing and start creating. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilacs. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Laugh at yourself. Keep making mistakes. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks."

"Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. And remember, if God be for us, who can be against us?" Run to the guns, soldier. Don't quit, don't stop, don't give up, don't leave your comrades behind. Stay in the battle with God. John Wesley said, "Give me 100 men who hate nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and we will shake the gates of hell and bring the kingdom of God in our generation."

Are you that kind of person? Shaking hell's gates for the sake of the kingdom of God. You say, "Well, I'm not that strong. I'm not a soldier." Jim Elliot, the martyred missionary, wrote in his journal, "Oh, that God would make us dangerous." Are you dangerous for God? You say, "Well, I'm not all that dangerous. I'm not strong." Well, God chooses the foolish and the poor and the weak and the simple. 1 Corinthians 1 tells us: it's not the wise or the powerful or those of noble birth, but the foolish of this world that confounds the wise.

God chooses the low and the despised in the world to bring to nothing the things which are. Our strength is not in ourselves; it is in our God. The battle is in the Lord. And when those children of Israel shouted, they shouted praise to God. And what we need to do in advance of every battle is to praise our God because the victory is on the way. Don't wait until after the victory is won to praise Him. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

Shout unto God with the voice of praise. Speak the word of faith. Here's just a few: many are the affliction of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or dread them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for your welfare and not for your evil, to give you a future and a hope."

1 John 4:4: "Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Romans 8:37: "We are more than conquerors through him who loved us." I could go on and on, down to Psalm 60, verse 12: "With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes." Shout the word of God. Speak the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And when you face problems and fortresses and strongholds and difficulties and trials and tests, it is the word of God that will give you victory. God will always come through. The very idea that God could save the world through a cross is an amazing thing, an amazing act of grace. But He has. He will. There was inside the Canaanite city before the destruction came, when you read the story, it's quite alarming because God told them to go in and take out every Canaanite in sight.

And that's what they did. You say, "Why? Is God a cruel and vengeful God?" No. The Canaanite city of Jericho, along with others, was a cancer upon the earth. They were vile, evil, and wicked people, and God knew if His children were going to live in this promised land, that the evil had to be eliminated. But there was a woman who was delivered from death. Her name was Rahab. She was a harlot.

It's amazing that of all the people in this Canaanite city, that God in His providential sovereign grace reached in, and this woman Rahab helped the spies that the Israelites had sent over, gave them some information, housed them there. And she ends up, listen to this, if you read Hebrews 11, Rahab by faith believed in God. She ends up in God's Hall of Fame. She ends up as the great-grandmother of David the King and in the genealogy of Jesus the Lord.

If that's not a picture of grace, I don't know what is. So yes, even in the midst of judgment, God says, "I'm coming with judgment upon the earth." When Jesus comes in great victory, He's not coming again to a cross. He's coming to a coronation, and He's coming to rule and to reign and send judgment upon the earth. But before He does, there is grace extended. Just as Rahab was given grace before the judgment came, all of us are now given this grace.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Triumphant Faith. I want you to know that right now, your support goes even further to help share the hope of Jesus with people around the world. Thanks to a generous $150,000 matching grant, every gift this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's word through PowerPoint Ministries. That means you'll help reach even more people who desperately need truth, encouragement, and the gospel.

And as a heartfelt thanks for your generous gift this month, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, to remind you that you are not alone, your pain is not unseen, and God's peace is real. Text MAR to 59789 to have your gift doubled and request your copy today. Again, text MAR, M-A-R, to 59789. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the seven words from the cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God.

Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, just text CROSS to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text CROSS to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: It's so very important that we realize in the scripture the promised land is a picture of the abundant life that every believer has been given in the Lord Jesus Christ. So God doesn't want you living in the desert, out in the wilderness like the children of Israel, living in disobedience and defeat. He wants you to possess your inheritance now and to claim your victory in Christ.

So often along life's path, the enemy will place obstacles in our path that keep us from experiencing all of the abundant blessings that God has for us, that we don't live triumphantly. We don't live in the abundance that God has given us. And the only way that we can get that blessing is to fight spiritual battles with triumphant faith. Even this moment, you may be standing on the brink of God's great blessing for your life, but all you can see is some huge obstacle.

Our enemy lives to raise up obstacles that keep us from receiving the blessing of God, but God has equipped us to fight the good fight of faith and to overcome every obstacle. Joshua and the children of Israel showed us what this kind of faith looks like when he went forward to bring down the walls of Jericho and claim the promised land for God and His people.

But Joshua taught us something else in this important spiritual battle. He taught us to put the battle in God's hands, for the battle is the Lord's. And your battle is the Lord's. God is our glorious commander and we are called to be surrendered soldiers who follow Him from victory unto victory. So the key to victory comes not only from fighting with triumphant faith, but really surrendering to the Captain of the Lord's host, to God Himself.

Yes, again I say, the battle is the Lord's. Give your battles to Him. And then all we need to do is faithfully, obediently do what He tells us to do. This is the way to experience victory. This is the way to receive the abundant life that we have in Christ. So let me ask you: are you winning or losing the battles that separate you from God's blessing? Don't allow the victory that is yours to slip through your hands.

Don't be a defeated disciple. Surrender your life to God and each battle that comes your way, give it over to Him. Then follow your commander into the promised land with triumphant faith.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. Join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about the world-changing impact you can make. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.