IN EVERYONE LIFE THERE COMES A JERICHO.
JOSHUA 6: 1-21.
The Chief of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Southern Alberta gave the C.P.R. permission to cross the Blackfoot land from Medicine Hat to Calgary. In return the chief was given a lifetime pass on the C.P.R. Chief Crowfoot took the pass and put it in his medicine pouch which he wore around his neck.
The Chief never got on a train; so the pass which said that he could travel anywhere C.P.R. went was never used.
I found throughout my pastoral ministry that many Christians never seem to enter into the promise land simply because they can never get through their Jericho. I believe one of the problems we have comes from our perception of time. We live in a society that says if I walk into a fast food restaurant that I expect to be waited on in 4.5 seconds. Everything about our society is about things in our lives being done faster and faster. So when we come to our Jericho and we begin to deal with it by the same format; we find that by the time we are about half way through our Jericho that we quite. The result is that we never truly conquer our Jericho ad we never truly receive everything that the Lord has for us. Every game that I know of isn’t won in the first few minutes or the first period. I remember when I was playing High School hockey and we had enough point to go on to the provincials but we had one game left. When we started playing the game the other team told us that they were just going to have some fun and that they would let us win. As we played we figured that we didn’t really have to try because they were going to let us win. For the first two periods the other team was giving us a pretty good beating until we started to really play. A lot of times we live our lives like that. We figure we don’t rally have to try to hard and pretty soon we find ourselves in trouble. If we examine our lives we may find that the first time we have tried something we very likely didn’t succeed because we didn’t give it our all. I remember the first time that I made biscuits with Barb help. They turned out not too bad. Then one day Barb was away so I decided to make biscuits but I didn’t do it the way that I was shown. When the biscuits were cook you could of used then for cannon balls.
1. To get through our Jericho we have to know what our Jericho is.
The Israelites knew what their Jericho was. They could see the city that was surrounded by a very high and thick wall.
Jericho had a reputation of being a city that no one could capture. For the people to have what the Lord promised them the first step is to capture this city. God’s people can’t get to the promise land unless they go through Jericho. The Lord has many good things for his children but they are all on the other side of Jericho.
What is our Jericho? Our Jericho is those things in our life that are stopping us from going forward to inherit the promises of the Lord. The thing is that we, like the real city of Jericho, have put up a huge wall to protect us.
SIN. I am not talking about the sin that we have already confessed and been forgiven for. I am talking about the stuff in our lives that the Holy Spirit has convicted us about and we like King David in the Bible haven’t confessed it nor have we ask the Lord to forgive us. The reason we haven’t don’t what we should have done is because we just don’t see what we are doing as sin, even though we know the Spirit of the Lord is saying that it is sin. King David not only sinned against the Lord but from what I see in the Word he lived his life as if nothing happen. It is like people who say that they only tell white lies. I have always wondered how a lie which is a lie can be either white or black. Another example would be renting certain movies or reading certain books. I have listened to Christians say that they know that it is wrong but they don’t see the harm in one book or in one video.
TEMPTATION. Have you seen the start the car commercial? The whole point of the commercial is that it is ok if you don’t go and tell the store that they have made a mistake. If the store has made a mistake and you know it and you don’t tell then the truth, then you are stealing. I remember that I got gas at the Reservation in Woodstock. I paid the attendant. As I sat in my car I knew that they had made a mistake so I moved my car and I went inside to correct the mistake. They though that I was a native. Now I could say well that is their mistake but if I know that it is wrong and I don’t correct it then I am stealing. Satan doesn’t tempt you and I just do something wrong. Satan tempts us so that he can have a hold on our lives. Satan also tempts us to get us to relax our standard. Satan wants us to shift our view point just a little bit to the left. Now you may think that there is nothing wrong with a different point of view but as a Christians we are to have the same point of view at the Lord would have.
OTHER CHRISTIANS. How other Christian live their lives can sometimes become the biggest Jericho that we will ever face. I remember as a new Christian I would watch the older Christian in Church. I figured since they were older in the faith that I could learn. I need to tell you that some of the stuff that I learned was wrong. I figured that since they were doing it that I could. What I had learn was that while I had my eyes on people instead of Jesus Christ the people in the community were watching me.
FEAR. Did you know that fear is one of the main tools that Satan uses to get you and I to not be all that we can be for the Lord. We’ve all been there. Your heart begins to beat rapidly. There’s shortness of your breath. You have difficulty swallowing. Your knees are weak. Your hands are cold and you’ve never been so hot in your life. No I am not talking about going through the change of life. I am talking about the symptoms of fear. Fear is one on the greatest hazards that interferes with the Christian living a successful life. While not all fear is bad, everyone knows what it is like to be afraid. When fear immobilizes us and keeps us from doing that which we have been called then we are controlled by a spirit of fear. I believe Satan is so successful using this tool that he is able to completely mess up a Christian life so that they are unable to walk a successful life for Jesus. Max Lucado wrote fear doesn’t want you to make the journey to the mountain. If it can fear will persuade you to take your eyes off the peaks and settle for a dull existence in the foot lands. This is an area where Satan doesn’t want a child of the Lord to reach the mountain top. Satan wants to get us to settle for second or even third best. The reason for this is because if we get all the Lord has for us we become a stronger Christian and we can use our new strength in the Lord to defeat Satan. Another effect is that as we become a greater witness for the Lord in our community.
SELFESTEEM. There are times that we are more concern about what the world may think than we are about who we are in Christ. There was a test conducted at a university on ten students. They were all placed in a room together and they were told to raise their hand when the professor pointed to the longest line of three lines on the board. Nine of the students were told to only raise their hands when the professor pointed to the middle line which wasn’t the longest. When the professor pointed to the longest line only one student raised his hand and then he look around and when he saw that the other nine didn’t raise their hands, he instantly pull his hand down. Everytime the one student who was right raised his hand once he found out that he was not in the majority he would instantly pull his hand down. It wasn’t long until he only raised his hand when the professor pointed to the middle line. He would sooner be wrong and fit in with the rest the class than be right and be the only one.
JEALOUSY. I have come to the conclusion that we don’t like to admit that we as a Christian can be jealous. Did you know that the only way that you can ever be ahead of everyone else and never be jealous is if you are the richest person in the whole world and you have everything that the whole world has to offer? It seem to me that there is a person in the Bible who spent part of his life to find out what is the most important thing in the world to have. Whether it is money, possessions, etc. What he found out is that the most important thing in life to have is a personal intimate relationship with the living Lord.
ATTITUDE. One of the greatest handicap toward our Christian lifestyle is our attitude. Do we see our Christian lifestyle as an one hour a week requirement. Is it a requirement only on the Lord day. Maybe it is a requirement only when we know that there are other Christians present.
You may have seen places where the city or business have painted or put up blue signs which state that only a vehicle with a handicap sign can park there. I have found out that most people think that the space is only from 8-5 and after 5pm anyone can park there. When you tell then that the sign is placed under the provincial law and it is in effect 27/7/365 they think that you are wrong. I remember one person whom I had given a ticket to and we went to court. On the stand he told the judge that he had been driving for over 25 years and he never knew that you couldn’t park in a handicapp spot. There are sometime that our attitude say that our Jericho are impossible and even the Lord can’t do anything about them. Every time we come up against our Jericho we have an opportunity to show the world what the Grace of God can do to bring about a victory in our lives.
2. To conquer our Jericho we need a plan.
Let’s look at the Lords plan that he gave to Joshua. Joshua was to get all the men of war together. Then he was to have 7 priests carry 7 trumpet of Rams Horn who were to follow the men of war. After the priest came the Ark and then the rear guard. They were to march around the city once every day for 6 days while blowing the rams horn. Then on the seventh day they were to march around the city 7 times and at the end of the 7 trip everyone was to give a loud shout.
If you are inside the city what would be going through your mind. I know that when you first saw the Israelites coming you would probably sound the alarm. But what would you be thinking by the third day or even the fourth day. Now as you march around this city you are told that you can’t speak a word.
1. A lot of time when we are dealing with our Jericho we spend too much time talking about our problem instead of being quiet and listening to the Lord.
A lot of times we simply underestimated the Lord.
I can see that by spending a lot of time just talking about our Jericho can make our Jericho so big that we may even think that the Lord can’t solve the problem.
I would imagine that there may have been time when we got so involved in talking about our Jericho that we never really dealt with it. What if you were with the Israelites and you hear the plan. You get ready to begin to march around the city. The first day after the march I would imagine the thing you would be talking about would be those walls and that you just can’t see any way of tearing them down. I believe that by the 5 or 6 day you may have just begun to wonder if maybe Joshua has lost it. What about the people who are on inside the city. I would say that by the 3 or the 4 day that as you march around this city that the people who are on the wall are very likely making fun of you. Then on the 7 day there is a change of plans but once you hear the plan you think maybe you stay in camp. But you don’t and you march around the city once then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and now you are on your seventh trip and you turn and face the city and you give the loud shout and suddenly the walls instantly crumble. That is when you have realized that you have underestimated the Lord. The Lord could have done in a few seconds what he did in seven days. Then why seven days. Well I believe that’s the lesson the Lord wanted to teach is that the Lords plan only works in the Lords time. God plan doesn’t work according to our idea or our version of how things should go.
We all understand and believe that the Lord is working in our lives. We just would like for the Lord to work a little bit faster. Our impatience causes us to skip some of the plan or to try to take a shortcut. The thing is that if we want to be victorious then we have got to learn that we must go the way of the Lord, even if that mean that we march around the wall for seven days and seven times on the seventh day.
In 2 Kings 5FF we have the story of Naaman who had a skin disease. What is good for him is that a young Israelite girl who was a captured slave said that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him. Naaman went and when he finally got to Elisha, Naaman was told to go and bath himself 7 times in the Jordan River. When he was told this Naaman got mad and started to leave.
What is Gods plan? God’s plan is never difficult nor is it complex.
For Naaman it was to Go to the Jordan and wash 7 times.
We see from scripture that Naaman also had a plan as to how it should have gone. I thought he’d personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hands over the diseased spots, and get rid of the disease. Most times what the Lord asks of us is very simple. The problem is that we usually have our own [plan where we are expecting something completely different and maybe even a bit complex.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14. The Lord informs us that there is a condition that we have to meet if we are to hear from the Lord. When you see the word “IF” in scripture that means there is a requirement or a condition that we have to meet.
John 15:7. If you make yourself at home with Me and My Words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.
Matthew 17:20. If you had a mere kernel of faith, the size of a mustard seed you can say the this mountain move and it will move.
The Lord is always willing to give us a plan but the Lord will only follow His plan until his plan if completely finish. That is the Lords part. Our part is that we would be in the centre of the Lord plan. If we are anywhere else but in the centre of the Lords plan then we are the one who are out of position.
I want you to notice that the men of war were put at the front. If we put the Lord at the front we are expecting the Lord to do everything and then call us. If we aren’t where we are suppose to be in the Lord’s plan than we are not doing our part. If we put the Lord at the rear then we are saying that we know better than the Lord what is good for our lives. We feel that we can handle what ever is happening and we don’t need the Lord. Usually when we don’t follow the Lord plans and we mess up that is when we blame the Lord for the mess up even though it wasn’t the Lord fault. When this happen we need to turn the Lord and confess and seek the
Help of the Holy Spirit to get us back on track again. This means that we accept responsibility for mess up.
Note verse 2. The Lord wants you and me to look at situations from his point of view. The Lord said “see I have given Jericho into your hands. There is another point here and it is in verse seven. The Lord gives the plan but if we are unwilling to move forward then we will never succeed.
Note verse 16. Shout. I see the Lord saying that we need to give praise to the Lord for the victory that He has accomplished in our lives and through our lives.
3. To conquer our Jericho we shouldn’t settle for the temporary. We need to seek and claim the eternal.
Joshua told the people that everything in the city belong to the Lord. The reason Joshua did this was so that the people would keep their focus on what the Lord’s plan was. So often when we take our eyes of the Lord or when we go from the Lords plan to our plan that is when we sink.
Matthew 14: 22-31. Jesus told the disciples to get in the boat and go ahead of him to the other side. Then Jesus after sending the crowd away went to the mountain to pray. Now while Jesus is praying the disciples are in the midst of a storm. Between 3am & 6am Jesus was approaching the boat when the disciples noticed him walking on the water. Because they saw Jesus walking on the water and because they didn’t think that was possible nor had they ever heard of anyone walking on water the disciples figured they were seeing a ghost. I believe that they couldn’t believe what they were seeing and they assumed it was a ghost. It wasn’t until Jesus spoke that they actually realized that it was Jesus.
When Peter saw Jesus walking on water Peter said Lord IF it is you command me to come to you on the water. I want you to notice that Jesus didn’t issue a command all Jesus said to Peter was come, and Peter instantly got out of the boat and started walking on the water towards Jesus.
Verse 30 tells us that when Peter took his eyes of Jesus and began to look at the effect the wind was having on the water that he began to sink. It is when we take our eyes of the Lord and put then on our Jericho that we too begin to sink.
God has a reason for going his way and that is to make it very clear to his children that we have victory only because of the sovereign will of the Lord. The victories that we have in our everyday lives are not because of our goodness or our smarts. Our victories come because we stay on the plan of the Lord. Have you noticed that the Lord consistently uses seemingly ridiculous strategies to accomplish his purpose? The Lord used an Ark to rebuild the planted with animals and people. God used a cross as the bridge to span the gulf between mankind and the Lord.
During the American civil war one of President Lincoln’s officers asked the President if he though that God was going to help them win the war. The President said that we need to be more concern about whether we are in the center of the Lord’s will than we are of wanting the Lord to give us what we want. Our life in Christ is not about getting what we want. It is not about hoping that the Lord will see thing our way. Our life in Christ is all about our being in the centre of the Lord’s will. We should act like Joshua did in Joshua 5 when he met the Lord and that is to fall on our knees and ask the Lord what he wants to say to us.
