Overcoming Fear: Walking Through Walls

 Overcoming Fear:

Walking Through Walls

Opening Illustration:

13 days. That’s right friends, 13 days. We are 13 days from the most glorious, the most wonderful day of the year. Do you know what happens in 13 days? It is the start of the college football season. On that day, everyone is happy and hopeful. Everyone has a chance. Everyone’s favorite team is a national title contender and everyone’s teams is undefeated. 

With the start to the season just around the corner, I recently heard a story about a football game that took place on January 1st, 1929. It was the Rose Bowl, Georgia Tech and Cal were playing. A player for Georgia Tech named Jack “Stumpy” Thomason fumbled the ball 30 yards away from a touchdown. The ball bounced into the arms of the Tech’s center Roy Riegels. Roy was immediately hit by several Cal defensive players. He was rocked, disoriented, confused. He saw the end zone and began to run as hard and fast as he could. The only problem is that Roy was running the wrong way. He ran 65 yards to the wrong end zone and gave Cal the go ahead touchdown. Georgia Tech lost the game by 2 points. 

Roy Riegels for forever immortalized as “Wrong Way” Roy. Newspapers reported that Roy was heartbroken. He cried for several days after the embarrassing event. He could hear his teammates begging him to stop. He could hear his coach yelling at him to turn around. Half the stadium was yelling at him, shouting that he was going the wrong way. His teammates even tried to tackle him. Nothing helped. He just kept running the wrong way. 

Wrong Way Roy did make something of the play as he became a widely sought after speaker. He became a motivational speaker encouraging kids to set goals and overcome their obstacles. 

Roy illustrates a powerful truth, before Jesus we were all running the wrong way. Scripture tells in Matthew 7:13 that “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” There is an entire world of people, all of them sinners, who are running as fast as they can, as fast as we can, to hell. There are people who are yelling at us, begging us to stop, turn around, go a different direction. Repent! The good news is that many people will hear the call and turn to Christ. Sadly there are many more who will hear the call, deny it, and cross the goal line and into eternity. Oh the joy for the saved and oh the misery for those who do not obey. 

Brothers and sisters, the last several weeks we have been talking about fear, worry, and overcoming obstacles. No matter what you are going through today, no matter what obstacles you face, to overcome that obstacle we must obey the Lord. We must dive into His Word, remember His promises, and obey Him. Go His direction, follow His mission, trust and obey!

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still

And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

Perhaps one of my great missionary heroes is Watchman Nee. Watchman knew a thing or two about overcoming obstacles and finding power over fear and worry. He stated the following, “A person who wholly follows the Lord is one who believes that the promises of God are trustworthy, that He is with His people, and that they are well able to overcome.”

Today’s Thought:

To Overcome Obstacles, We Must Obey!

Today’s Quote:

“A person who wholly follows the Lord is one who believes that the promises of God are trustworthy, 

that He is with His people, and that they are well able to overcome.”

-Watchman Nee

Background and Context:

This morning we are reading from Joshua 6:15-21. Moses is gone. He has died and now the leadership of the Israelite people has fallen to Joshua. The people of God have made it to the promised land. They have entered Canaan. The only problem is that the Canaanites lived in Canaan and go figure, they were not going to willingly give up their land to this rag tag band of former Egyptian slaves. Jericho was the center of the Canaanite world. It was also an exceptionally wicked place filled with sin, idol worship, and immorality. Israelite spies had been sent to the city where they meet Rahab, a prostitute who lived in the city wall. Rehab, a gentile, believes that God has given the city to the Israelites. She protects the spies in an attempt to be spared. The Israelites honor the request and as many of you know, Rahab is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ Himself. God sends and angel to meet with Joshua, giving him specific instructions on how to take the city. Over the next six days the Israelites marched around Jericho once each day, and then returned to the camp at Gilgal (8-14).On the seventh day the Israelites were to march around the city seven times. When the walls of the city fell, they were to destroy all the people except Rahab and those in her house, and all the goods except the precious metals. The Israelites were to keep nothing for themselves (15-19). So, that is where we pick up this morning. We have reached the seventh day and God’s people are marching. Let’s read together from God’s Holy Word, Joshua 6:15-21. 

Today’s Scripture:

Joshua 6:15-21 ESV

15 On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” 20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

So, Joshua had a PhD in overcoming obstacles. He overcame the death of Moses. He overcame a challenging people. He overcame foreign adversaries. So, what can we learn from his leadership?

Observations From Overcoming Obstacles!

I. Learn About Barriers vs. 15

Joshua 6:15 ESV

15 On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 

Jericho was an exceedingly fortified city. Meaning that the cities defenses were nothing like the Israelites had ever encountered or seen before. The wall of Jericho has been examined meticulously by archeolotists and they have been able to give us modern day readers a detailed description of what the wall looked like, how tall it was, and how thick. The wall of Jericho was actually 2 walls. These walls were separated by a mound and the great city was at the top of the mound. The mound, or “tell” of Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen rampart, or embankment, with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was 15 high. On top of that was a mud brick wall six feet thick and about 26 feet high. At the crest of the embankment was a similar mud brick wall whose base was roughly 46 feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall. This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the impregnable bastion of Jericho.

Imagine what the Israelites must have been thinking. 

This is impossible.

There is no way that we will take this city. 

They had to have feel defeated. Imagine walking around the city day after day. As you walk you see the walls of Jericho. Can you get a sense of their frustration? Can you feel their fear? You know I think it is comforting to know that there were characters in the Bible that felt just like you and me. 

What is your wall today? What is your impossible situation? What barrier are you facing? Sadly life is filled with barriers. Your barrier may be an addiction. You barrier could be mental illness. You may be battling a physical issue, disability, or disease. You might be facing fear. 

I’ll be transparent with you this morning. On Friday of this week, I am having surgery and I am terrified. Surgery scares me. It really does. 

Maybe your barrier is parenting a troubled chid. Maybe your barrier is trying to share Christ with someone who continues to deny Jesus. 

What is your barrier?

You know what, I think that barriers can be blessings. Obstacles are opportunities. Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you - depending on how you respond to them.

God is in the barrier removal business by the way. Isaiah 57:14 reminds us that God clears away rocks and stones. He removes the barriers in time for our good and for His glory.

Do you know what I have discovered? I have discovered something about barriers. Everyone in this room is either looking at a barrier, trying to make their way through that barrier, or they have just come through a barrier. That barrier either beat them or they beat it. The good news is that everyone in this room, no matter what their Facebook account says, struggles with the barriers of life. We are all apart of the human family and if you are human you need help! Look around this room family and you will see humans, flawed human, in need of help. 

So with the understanding that life is full of barriers, how do we overcome them. Well, let’s look at what happens next in our story. 

Isaiah 57:14 TLB

I will say, Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones. Prepare a glorious highway for my people’s return from captivity.

Observations From Overcoming Obstacles!

I. Learn About Barriers vs. 15

II. Learn About Belief vs. 16

Joshua 6:16 ESV

16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. 

So, there you are, walking around the city of Jericho in the hot sun. Trumpets blaring. You see the priests and there is the ark. You march and march but nothing is happening. You think to yourself, “hey at least Im close to getting my 10,000 steps”. At some point you probably ask yourself, “just why am I doing this again”. Then the answer hits you. You believe. You believe that God is real. That God is good. That God is going to come through in the clutch. He showed up in the plagues. He showed up at the Red Sea. He showed up when He sent manna from heaven, water from the rock, and quail from the ground. Even though you may have some earthly, physical doubts, your faith takes over and belief kicks in. 

What happens with you face your impossible barrier? Are you defeated? Depressed? Downcast? Or do you turn your devotion to Christ, depending Him to deliver. 

Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Joshua was a believer. He believed that the barrier was no problem for the God of the universe. God’s power trumped the Israelites problems. 

The author of Hebrews puts it best, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Faith is visualizing the future. It’s believing in something before you see it. A lot of people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” God says the exact opposite is true: “You’ll see it when you first believe it.” Many things in life must be believed before they can be seen. 

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union sent the first cosmonaut into outer space. He circled the earth, and when he came back down, he did a press conference and said, “I searched the heavens, and I looked for God, and I did not see him anywhere. Therefore, there is no God.” The Communists, an atheistic regime, concluded, “We now have scientific proof that there is no God.”

About six months later, John Glenn, an astronaut from the U.S., went into space, circled the earth three times, came back down, and held a press conference. He said, “I saw God everywhere! I saw his glory in the galaxy. I saw his splendor in the universe. I saw his majesty in the stars.”

Jesus knew how important belief was and is even today. He tells us in Matthew 17:20 that “if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Isn’t it great that Jesus doesnt tell us that we have to have a mountain of a faith to move a seed. Hardly. Just a little faith will go a long long way. Just a little belief can change the trajectory of your entire life. 

Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NLT). Before there is spiritual transformation in your life, you’re too narrow-minded to see the possibility of what God is doing in the world around you. This is true of every person. Faith comes before seeing.

It is faith that causes an architect to design a building, first believing it can be done. It is faith that causes an Olympic athlete to practice and go to the Olympic trials because she believes she can win. It is faith that causes the scientist to believe that we can put a man on the moon.

It is a universal principle of life: You have to believe it before you see it. When you have faith, you will see the amazing things God is doing in you, through you, and around you.

We know the rest of the story. The trumpets blare and the people shout. The walls come tumbling down. Yet, there is another important lesson to learn in the midst of this great victory. Tucked away in the middle of this story is a lesson on purity, pride, and arrogance. 

Observations From Overcoming Obstacles!

I. Learn About Barriers vs. 15

II. Learn About Belief vs. 16

III. Learn About Balance vs. 18

Joshua 6:18 ESV

18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 

Once the walls come down, Joshua warns the people to not fall into temptation. When the walls came a tumbling down, the people of God will be exposed to the excess of Jericho’s sin. They are exposed to the perversions of the city, the sexual immorality, and the excess of materialism. Remember, these people, the Israelites are slaves. They have never had anything and now they are conquerers. To the conquerers go the spoils. Joshua understood a very important deep truth. Do you know the problem about spoils? Spoils will spoil you. Joshua did not want his people to fall into sin, distracted by the evil of the people living within the city. 

Remember what I said earlier in this message. You are either looking at a barrier, trying to make your way through the barrier, or you are on the other side of the barrier. You have either been defeated or maybe, just maybe you have overcome. Do you know what happens to people who have seen great victories in their life? The temptation is to start believing that you did all the work. That you are just that good, that smart, that powerful. 

You start believing your own press clippings. Oh friend, watch out for arrogance and remain committed to purity. 

In the Bible, yeast is often a metaphor for pride and arrogance. Why? Because both pride and yeast make things puff up.

When you put yeast in dough, the yeast puffs up the dough. It only takes a small amount for this to happen.

Pride in people is similar. Just a little pride can puff you up and quickly take over your life, getting you in all kinds of trouble.

On occasion my wife and I will have an argument. Sometimes in those arguments, I have a tendency of taking a small thing and blowing it up. I will take a small thing that she has said and blow it way out of proportion. 

We all do this. When you’re filled with pride, you blow things out of proportion. All of a sudden, little things get you really upset. When that happens, you know you’re dealing with pride. Wherever you find conflict anywhere in the world, pride is always involved. When you’re filled with pride—when you have the yeast in your spirit—guess what? You can’t see life clearly. Pride even blocks you from seeing what God is doing in your life.

Beware the spiritual yeast so that you can more closely follow God. As you clear the pride from your life, you’ll start to see how God is working. You may even realize he’s working a miracle in your life.

Solomon gives us a good thought about pride, purity and self control.

Proverbs 25:28 ESV

A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Observations From Overcoming Obstacles!

I. Learn About Barriers vs. 15

II. Learn About Belief vs. 16

III. Learn About Balance vs. 18

IV. Learn About Blessings vs. 20

Joshua 6:20 ESV

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 

So Joshua overcame. The people of God overcame. God overcame. God is an unstoppable force. Brothers and sisters our God is truly awesome! I love the fact that Scripture records that the wall fell down flat. There was nothing left to the wall. The impossible was suddenly possible. 

Friends, I have no idea what you are battling today. I have no idea what you are facing but I will promise you this, God will have the victory. Put your faith, your trust, your hope in Christ. He will not let you down. 

Know this church family, there is a real entity, a real presence trying to prevent you from discovering God’s victory. His name is Satan. 

Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world (Ephesians 6:12 NCV).

The Bible names a real and present foe of our faith: the devil. He is not just a symbol for evil, he is the source of evil. He doesn’t live in myths and fables, he is an actual being who stalks our planet. He knows his time is short so he seeks to wreak havoc on every occasion.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He comes “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John. 10:10). You’re enjoying happiness? Satan wants to steal it. You’ve discovered joy? He’ll try to kill it. Love your spouse? Satan would love to destroy your marriage. He is the enemy of your God-given destiny and longs to be the destroyer of your soul.

Don’t dismiss him.

Agree with the witness of Scripture. From the Bible’s earliest to final pages, we are confronted with an arrogant anti-God force of great cunning and power. He is the devil, the serpent, the strong one, the lion, the wicked one, the accuser, the god of this age, the murderer, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Beelzebub, and Belial. He oversees a conglomeration of spiritual forces: principalities, powers, dominions, thrones, princes, lords, gods, angels, unclean spirits, and wicked spirits.

Satan appears in the Garden at the beginning. He is cast into the fire in the end. He tempted David, bewildered Saul, and waged an attack on Job. He is in the Gospels, the book of Acts, the writings of Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude. Serious students of Scripture must be serious about Satan.

We play into the devil’s hand when we pretend he does not exist. The devil is a real devil.

Be alert to the devil, but don’t be intimidated by him.

Learn to recognize his stench. Since he comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), wherever you see heists, death, and destruction, turn to God in prayer. Since his name means “divider”, wherever you see temptation, rejection, and isolation, you know the culprit. Go immediately to Scripture. Stand on the promises of God regarding Satan.

God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world (1 John 4:4 NCV).

God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear (I Corinthians 10:13).

Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

[The devil] is filled with fury because he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12).

Put on God’s full armor … with the belt of truth tied around your waist and the protection of right living on your chest. On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One.

Brothers and sisters, your ultimate barrier is Satan Himself and we can overcome Him with the weapons of faith. 

So believe.

Remain pure!

And God will have the victory! 

Amen!

Psalm 108:13 ESV

With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.

You Are Not Alone. You Are Not Abandoned. God Is With You!