I preached this sermon back in July of 1998 at the Towers Jail in Phoenix. And I still remember it distinctly. At that time, we did the Church Service in the visitation/common room near the front of the Jail… but that day it might as well have been an old-style Baptist Church.
I remember it clearly because among the inmates sitting on the first row there was this young African American man who not only was paying attention, he was doing so enthusiastically. It began with a few “Amens”, but soon he was repeating aloud to himself (and his friends around him) the main points of the sermon.
Having grown up in Catholic Church – where you don’t speak unless spoken to – that was a new experience for me. But it was great! Because when your audience talks back to you, you know they are listening.
To put the sermon in context: this was the second of a series through the book of Joshua, where a central message of the series is that the Joshua’s name tells you all you need to know: (it means) the Lord saves. Furthermore, that Joshua is a “type” or foreshadow of our Joshua=Jesus. And his leading of the people of Israel into the Promised Land, is a foreshadow of Jesus leading us into the real ultimate Promised Land: the Kingdom of God.
Are we ready to follow?
Since it is the Lord that saves (not ourselves), as we go into the Promised Land with Jesus (our Joshua) our principal job is to learn how to go there along with Him… how to stand in relationship with Him, how to follow.
We do not lead. He leads.
Why is it a bad idea for us to lead? Paul said in Romans 7:18, there is no good that dwells in me. And the prophet Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17:9, man’s heart is above all things deceitful. This, in my chest, is not a good heart to follow. But Jesus is perfect. He was perfected in suffering. We cannot go wrong by following Him.
The Israelites were supposed to have learned this lesson in the wilderness: When the cloud moves, we move. When it stands still, we camp out. Why can’t I go on my own? You could… But without the shade of the cloud by day, are you going to have fun in the desert sun? And without the fire by night, are you going to have fun keeping the coyotes and the mountain lions at bay?
But there is more to it than that: The picture is bigger, a lot bigger than your life. If it was just your life, I’d say go do whatever. But it is your eternal life that is at stake, and that of your family, and the world, and God’s Universe… for eternity. You see, He has a plan. These things we do, here on Earth, are the little things we have been called to be faithful in – for a short while – so that we will be ready when we are given the big things.
We need to get this eternal mentality in our heads.
With that mentality, we understand why the author of Hebrews warns us against enjoying the pleasure of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25.) We understand that, even a little sin, if it goes on eating at you, it will eventually mess you up, and you won’t be able to do your real job… And the consequences that you pay are eternal. This why Paul the apostle, in his epistle to the Ephesians reminds them of that early Church refrain: “Arise, O Sleeper!” We need to shake ourselves awake and say, No, to what my flesh wants now. Instead, we need to look to the cloud, to the fire, to the Lord, and say, “OK, where are we going now? What’s my job now?” And if we do, we will hear Him say: “Follow me.”
My message today is that, in this following, what matters most is not what I can do (which isn’t much, anyway) but how I stand, my posture, my response to what the Lord is doing. Think of yourself as a fireman. A house is on fire. Now, you can go over there and try to spit it out. Or you can hold the hose with thousands of gallons per minute and point it where it needs to go. That’s what being a vessel means: let the water, the living water, flow through you to where it belongs. And it will do the work.
What should my posture be? I find there are several to learn.
The first, is to learn when to shake.
Joshua 2:1-11 (NIV) Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Rahab the prostitute:
- Faced with her country’s gods, the gods of the Amorites, whom she knew were powerless…
- Faced with the evidence of a Real God: Who does miracles for His people and who purposes Judgment…
- Faced with a life she knew was a lie: buying and selling flesh, not love; which meant realizing that she was a sinner twice over in the eyes of that Real God…
- And faced with the certain head-on clash between that True God and her country…
She was shaking.
We need to shake when we grasp the sinfulness of our hearts and the fact that God IS.
Because if He IS, then He is coming with Judgment one day. And on that day, nothing is going to be able to hide me from Him: not life, not death, no cave or mountain… (See Revelation).
The question I have to honestly ask myself is: “Can I face Him?” And if not, then I need to shake and tremble… That is the only appropriate response when we first realize this Truth, this full picture: that God is HOLY and that nothing, no one, ever stained by sin could ever stand in His presence and survive.
It is the appropriate response… But there is another reason…
We need to shake so that we REPENT and let Him come into our “country” (our life) and tear down all those false gods. And then, once we have learned to shake, we can never forget it, because the reality is that this flesh of mine knows how to sin again… And that Holy God has purposed to dwell in here, in my heart.
We learn to shake so that we remember to repent… and ask for Mercy, like Rahab did:
Joshua 2:12-13 (NIV) “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”
Rahab asked for Mercy and she received it:
Joshua 2:14 (NIV) “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
You need to know when to shake. And you need to know when to bow.
- When you shake from the heart, you are ready to ask for forgiveness and be healed by the Lord that Saves.
- When you bow with the same heart, you are ready to be led by Him wherever He takes you…
The spies got back. The Israelites crossed the Jordan. And now they are standing before the gigantic city of Jericho. But how do you go through walls of stone 10 or 20 feet thick, three or more stories high?
Joshua 5:13-15 (NIV) Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
How do you break through those walls? The Lord saves.
But for Him to save us, more often than not, we need to remember to forget ourselves… abandon our plans, our strategies, our wisdom, our viewpoint. Joshua got this lesson real quick: He asked the angel, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” And the angel’s reply, paraphrased was: “What do you mean us, boy? I am here on the side of the Lord.” And Joshua says, “oops”, and falls down on his face.
US, OUR enemies? How pathetic! This war is not about YOU and YOUR enemies, Joshua, it is about the Lord and His enemies. This war is a lot bigger than you are. The question is not whose side the Lord is on, the question is, whose side are you on?
Bow, Joshua. Don’t you realize this is Holy Ground?
This is Holy Ground… where you are right now! Your life is Holy Ground. It is the ground where the Lord desires to build His Temple; where He desires to carry out His awesome work of saving the world. Do you see? If you are a believer, you are part of the Body of Christ. Through this body, He, the Living One, moves in this world… and wages war.
(But the only way He can come in is if we have bowed down to Him, For the Holy Spirit will not share this territory with another.)
Bow down, Joshua, this is Holy Ground. This is not about what you think and what you want. This is not about how you think this problem needs to be solved. It is not even about what problem it is you think needs to be solved. I have come to solve them all. Are you coming with Me?
We need to know how to bow down and shut up and let God speak. Let God tell us, let God use us, to accomplish HIS PURPOSE.
We need to know when to shake; we need to know when to bow. We need to know when to stand and sing, and we need to know when to shout.
Listen to the Lord’s instructions:
Joshua 6:2-5 (NIV) Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
And that is exactly what Joshua did. For six days there was no war cry, just the people of the Lord following the symbol of the Lord; and the music played. On the seventh day, the scene was repeated six more times and then came the shout. And the walls sunk into the ground. At that point the battle was won. The Israelites only needed to go in and carry out the command, as the last detail.
When you go into the warfare (and notice I don’t say if), you need to know how to fight. And know that the weapons that you have are awesome, beyond human comprehension.
Two of the most powerful are STAND and SING.
About 550 years later, a King of Judah used these very weapons again, His name was Jehoshaphat. At a time when he was weak, after his army had taken a beating for being in the wrong war, allied with a wicked king, three armies rose up against him.
2 Chronicles 20:1-3 (NIV) After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
He turned to the Lord. And the Lord answered:
2 Chronicle 20:15-17 (NIV) He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”
Does this sound familiar? WHO SAVES? The Lord saves.
Stand firm and see.
Stand is the first half of the battle. Stand proves that you trust in the Lord, Him who is greater than any enemy. Stand firm and see. Those were the words of Moses to the people before the Red Sea. What happened to that sea? What happened to Pharaoh’s army?
Stand firm and SEE. Oh, if we could grasp the power of standing, we would see so much more victory!
Standing means you don’t retreat. You don’t give in. You say, “I’m here and I’m not moving until God says so. Devil, you can try your worst – any temptation, any lust, any treasure, any weapon, any terror, any pain – I am not moving from the will of God.” You know what happens to the devil? James 4:7, he will flee.
And while you are standing, you might as well sing:
2 Chronicles 20:21-22 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.
Sing, praise, worship the Lord. That’s the second half of the battle. That’s how the walls crack, that’s when the enemy falls. What power there is in worship! (Psalm 149). Then you go in with the war cry and mop up the field.
We need to learn when to shake, when to bow, when to stand and sing, and when to shout.