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00:00 I've lived long enough to know what depression is like.
00:03 I know how easy it is to fall into it
00:06 and how hard it is to climb out of it
00:09 once you find yourself in that situation.
00:12 So every time I start to lose my joy,
00:15 I immediately check my hope.
00:17 And I've learned we must accept finite disappointments
00:21 but never lose infinite hope.
00:23 Despite what just happened,
00:25 despite what they just said,
00:27 despite what you just saw,
00:30 somehow God is going to work all things together for good.
00:34 Now Jericho was securely shut up
00:45 because of the children of Israel.
00:50 Now this may surprise you,
00:52 but Jericho was not a particularly large city.
00:57 Actually Jericho was under 10 acres large
01:02 or small if you will.
01:03 But Jericho was older than Athens, older than Thebes.
01:09 The city was built like a fortress
01:13 and it was one of the oldest and best defended cities
01:17 of the ancient world.
01:19 And right before this point,
01:22 God had miraculously parted the Jordan.
01:26 But you know, this is important.
01:28 Now to get them out of bondage,
01:30 God opened the Red Sea and they walked as on dry land.
01:34 But also to get them into the promise,
01:36 God also did a very similar miracle.
01:40 And at flood stage, He opened the Jordan.
01:43 And God will do miracles to get you out
01:46 but also to get you in.
01:47 So God had just performed this miracle
01:53 and everyone in the city knew about it.
01:56 And despite Jericho's great walls
01:59 that everyone talked about and its great history,
02:02 everyone in the city was uneasy.
02:06 Now the Bible teaches if God before you,
02:09 who can be against you?
02:11 But the Bible also teaches if God is against you,
02:15 who can be for you?
02:17 It is a fearful thing for a person,
02:20 for a city, for a nation to fall
02:24 into the hands of the living God.
02:26 And it said, "None went out and none came in."
02:31 The city was on complete lockdown.
02:35 Now the Lord just appeared to Joshua
02:38 at the end of chapter five.
02:39 It's actually the Lord Jesus Christ
02:42 and Joshua wanted to know, "Are you for us or for against?"
02:45 And Jesus is like, "Listen, I'm for the Lord
02:47 and you need to decide if you're for me or against me."
02:50 But the Lord said to Joshua,
02:55 a one word sentence that almost out of the gate
02:58 brings us to our focus today.
03:01 And this one word sentence is, "See."
03:05 Now we are only in verse two of chapter six of Joshua
03:12 and the walls don't fall down until verse 20.
03:16 But what God is trying to show us
03:18 is if you want God to bring down walls in your life,
03:23 you first got to see it before you see it.
03:25 But as we go on, we're also going to learn
03:29 that this type of vision requires the help
03:32 of the Holy Spirit.
03:34 And Jesus in the gospel calls the Holy Spirit our helper,
03:39 says he will teach us and guide us into all things.
03:42 And the Holy Spirit's job is basically to give us vision,
03:47 to help us see what we cannot see.
03:50 And there's no better teacher than the Holy Spirit.
03:52 And no better textbook than God's word.
03:55 So Jesus says to him, "See,"
04:03 watch the way Jesus speaks though,
04:05 "I have given," that's past tense,
04:09 "Jericho into your hand."
04:12 Now, no wall has fallen, there's no block has fallen,
04:14 no soldier has circled the city.
04:16 But God wanted Joshua to see it as already done.
04:23 If you want to walk with a God who calls things
04:26 that are not as though they are,
04:27 you got to be willing to see things that are not
04:30 as though they really are.
04:32 (congregation applauding)
04:36 In Isaiah chapter 46 and nine,
04:38 God explains his omniscience.
04:42 And this is the way he does it.
04:45 He says, "For I am God, and there is no other.
04:52 "I am God, and there is none like me."
04:55 God doesn't have a confidence problem, by the way.
04:58 And then he describes the thing
05:02 that makes him uniquely God.
05:04 Declaring the end from the beginning.
05:10 According to scripture, God is a reverse planner.
05:16 His work in our lives always begins
05:20 with the end in mind.
05:22 Now, we're disappointed, we're sad and upset
05:28 and bent out in the lips because we often focus
05:31 on the pain of the present and the hurt of the past.
05:34 But God's focus is the results in the end.
05:39 God doesn't think the way we think.
05:43 He said, another place in Isaiah,
05:46 "My ways are not your ways.
05:47 "My thoughts are not your thoughts."
05:50 Your thoughts, understand.
05:51 As high as the heavens are above the earth
05:54 are my ways above your ways.
05:56 Second Corinthians picks up on this idea,
06:02 and Paul says it another way.
06:03 For our light and momentary affliction,
06:06 which is but for a moment,
06:09 anything compared or divided by eternity equals zero.
06:14 So as much as you think you gotta go through in life,
06:18 when you compare that to eternity,
06:20 it's absolutely nothing.
06:22 So as much as Paul had to go through,
06:26 he said it was but for a moment.
06:30 But watch what he understood.
06:33 And it is working for us.
06:35 Your momentary affliction is working for you.
06:40 Watch this.
06:41 A more exceeding weight in glory.
06:46 And what we see here is God doesn't promise
06:49 that it will always be easy.
06:51 He just promises that in the end it will be worth it.
06:54 Back to Joshua 6 and 2.
07:00 So God begins this portion of Scripture
07:05 with this one word sentence, see.
07:09 And in order for them to do what God wanted them to do,
07:14 they had to see first.
07:16 He said, "See, I have given," past tense again,
07:21 no stone had fallen out the wall.
07:24 They hadn't circled the cities.
07:26 Nothing tremendous had happened yet,
07:30 but see it now,
07:32 that I have already given Jericho into your hand.
07:38 It's king and the mighty men of valor.
07:44 So God wanted Joshua to see himself
07:48 defeating the whole kit and caboodle.
07:51 He wanted Joshua to see himself taking the city,
07:57 defeating all his political leaders,
08:01 and its army through the power of God.
08:04 Now, the reason many of us find ourselves depressed
08:13 and often confused
08:14 is because we don't see ourselves winning.
08:17 We feel hopeless.
08:22 We feel trapped.
08:25 We see no way out,
08:27 not because of the circumstances
08:31 as much as what we see on the inside.
08:38 Romans 15 and verse 13 has helped me over the years.
08:43 Paul says, "By the Holy Spirit."
08:46 Now, may the God of hope,
08:49 we could spend the rest of the morning talking about that.
08:53 God is a God of hope.
08:55 If you think you're hearing from God
08:58 and there's no hope, it's not God.
08:59 God specializes in hope.
09:06 Hope is what God brings and what he does.
09:09 Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy.
09:18 Now, we see in this verse that joy comes from hope.
09:24 So if we lose hope,
09:28 that's when despair and depression follows.
09:32 Now, you may not know this about me,
09:36 but my wife does,
09:37 and anyone that knows me well does.
09:39 I fight discouragement regularly.
09:43 It tries to visit me, if not monthly,
09:47 weekly, if not weekly, daily.
09:50 Some days it feels like hourly.
09:51 But I fight so hard
09:56 because I've lived long enough
10:00 to know what depression is like.
10:04 I know how easy it is to fall into it
10:07 and how hard it is to climb out of it
10:10 once you find yourself in that situation.
10:15 So every time I start to lose my joy,
10:22 I immediately check my hope.
10:26 And I've learned we must accept finite disappointments,
10:32 but never lose infinite hope.
10:35 (congregation applauding)
10:38 All Bible hope is,
10:44 is the expectation that somehow,
10:49 despite what just happened,
10:52 despite what they just said,
10:54 despite what you just saw,
10:57 somehow God is gonna work all things together for good.
11:03 (congregation applauding)
11:06 Hope is knowing that by just hang on,
11:09 morning's coming.
11:11 Hope is the understanding weeping may endure for a night,
11:17 but joy will come in the morning.
11:22 (congregation applauding)
11:31 Hope is recognizing that whatever you're facing
11:35 is temporary,
11:36 but God's word is eternal, invisible,
11:41 and more powerful than any weapon on the planet.
11:44 And if I just hold on to that word,
11:48 hide it in my heart,
11:49 I'm gonna get to the other side
11:51 of whatever I'm dealing with in my life.
11:54 (congregation applauding)
11:58 - Come on, come on.
12:00 Come on.
12:01 (congregation applauding)
12:03 - And Paul said this, he said,
12:04 watch the, now.
12:06 Not after everything's all right.
12:10 - Come on.
12:11 - Come on, Jesus.
12:12 - In the midst of the battle,
12:13 when folks are still acting ugly,
12:16 now, may the God of hope, watch this,
12:20 not just a little bit,
12:22 fill you with all joy.
12:28 God-sized hope will fill you to overflowing.
12:35 May the God of hope fill you, watch this,
12:39 with all joy.
12:41 So we see hope that comes from God will what?
12:45 Fill you.
12:46 And peace in believing.
12:50 Now notice joy and peace are connected.
12:56 Lose hope, lose joy.
12:57 Lose joy, lose peace.
13:00 But it all starts with hope.
13:03 That you may abound in hope.
13:09 Now, the only way we can abound or flourish
13:13 in hope in such a dark world
13:17 is if we see things differently.
13:21 - Come on, come on.
13:23 (congregation applauding)
13:26 - And the only way you're gonna see it before you see it
13:29 and see life differently than your neighbor
13:33 is included in this final clause
13:37 by the power of the Holy Spirit.
13:40 (congregation applauding)
13:42 This type of sight, this type of vision
13:46 in the midst of a crisis, in the midst of a trial,
13:49 in the midst of a challenge
13:52 is not something you can naturally manufacture on your own.
13:56 It requires a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
14:02 Now, I know we sing songs about this
14:06 and we mean well when we sing it
14:09 and I'm not criticizing you for saying it,
14:12 but I wanna tell you this.
14:13 No one really needs more of the Holy Spirit.
14:17 He just needs more of us.
14:20 (congregation applauding)
14:24 And if we would yield who we are and what we have to him,
14:28 he is already more than sufficient, more than enough.
14:34 Back to Joshua 6 and 3.
14:35 He said, "You shall march around the city,
14:40 all you men of war,
14:42 and you shall all go around the city once."
14:46 And this you should do for six days.
14:50 So I want you to put yourself in their shoes.
14:53 To the outside and watching world, they look silly.
14:57 They look foolish.
15:00 Your worship may look silly.
15:03 Your worship may look foolish.
15:07 (congregation applauding)
15:09 Your tithing, your giving, your serving,
15:11 your decisions may look silly.
15:14 It may look foolish.
15:19 But when you see it on the inside,
15:22 you march to the rhythm of a different drummer.
15:25 You hear what I'm saying?
15:26 Now people may criticize our faith,
15:31 but they won't be able to criticize our results.
15:35 I am preaching good right there.
15:38 I want you to tell your neighbor,
15:40 "Laugh at me now, but in a few years,
15:44 you're gonna come to me asking for advice."
15:46 Come on, tell your neighbor.
15:47 "Laugh at me now, get the laugh out right now.
15:50 But just give me a little while,
15:53 you're gonna come to me for advice."
15:56 "And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns
16:06 before the ark."
16:08 Now I'm a thinking person and that's part of my problem.
16:12 I'm very analytical and it gets in my way at times.
16:17 So any reasonable person that just got these directions
16:20 from the Lord is gonna say, you know, in their minds,
16:23 "Well, tell me, how is walking around walls
16:27 and blowing horns gonna win a military battle
16:35 against the most fortified city in this part of the world?"
16:41 But first Corinthians chapter one and 18 tells us,
16:45 it says, "For the message of the cross
16:48 is foolishness to those who are perishing,
16:52 but to those who are saved, it is the power of God."
16:57 So would you stop trying so hard to be like everybody else.
17:06 You don't even like everybody else.
17:10 So as silly as you may look at times,
17:15 as different as we may seem at times,
17:18 God's plan always wins, always wins,
17:23 always lasts, always gets the final word.
17:28 Joshua six and four.
17:32 "But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times."
17:42 And what we see here is when you walk with God,
17:45 follow his instructions, the results will not always be instant.
17:49 They had to keep at it for days before they saw results.
17:58 So it's on the seventh day, you're gonna go around seven times
18:04 and the priest shall blow the trumpet,
18:07 and it shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn.
18:12 And when you hear the sound of the trumpet,
18:14 that all the people shall shout with a great shout,
18:18 then the wall of the city will fall down
18:23 and the people shall go up every man straight before him."
18:28 Now I would like you to imagine what it was like
18:33 for Joshua to tell this to his generals.
18:36 "We're gonna face the most fortified city in the ancient world,
18:44 the oldest city in the ancient world,
18:50 and what God told us to do is just walk around it.
18:55 On the last day, you gotta do it seven times.
19:03 And just out of nowhere, the walls are gonna fall."
19:10 And what you need to realize,
19:14 this is really the final exam for the children of Israel.
19:17 They had been in the wilderness for 40 years and they refused to listen.
19:25 But finally, this new generation learned
19:31 obeying God's word is the most powerful weapon in all of our arsenal.
19:36 And if it makes you look silly for a little while,
19:40 look silly because in the end it will speak and not lie.
19:45 So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests
19:50 bearing the seven trumpets of the ram's horns before the Lord advanced
19:55 and blew the trumpets in the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.
20:00 Verse 9, "The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets
20:04 and the rear guard came after the ark while the priests continued blowing the trumpets."
20:09 A little bit wordy there, but simply what is being written here,
20:15 the ark of the covenant was protected by the people from the front and behind.
20:21 And we must protect the presence of God in our lives above all else.
20:29 [Applause]
20:33 I keep saying on Sunday, and I'm going to keep saying it till you get it,
20:37 peace is not the absence of trouble, it is the presence of God.
20:42 But watch this, verse 10,
20:45 "Joshua is smart. He had commanded the people saying, 'You shall not shout.'"
20:56 He's like, if y'all don't get that, let me say it another way.
20:58 "Or make any noise." I don't want to hear, "Mmm," I don't want to hear, "Uh, uh, uh, nothing."
21:05 I don't want to hear the slightest grumble.
21:09 "Any noise with your voice." They say, if you didn't get that.
21:14 "Nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth."
21:21 You see, their fathers had died in the wilderness because of their constant griping,
21:27 complaining, and criticizing both God and Moses.
21:33 And Joshua refused to let this happen on his watch.
21:38 And what I've learned in my life,
21:42 is particularly when my emotions want to run away with me, sometimes you just got to shush.
21:50 You got to learn to stop talking yourself out of the miracle that God has for you.
21:56 You have to caution yourself again about overthinking and just hide it in your heart.
22:07 You know, that's what Mary did. That's what made Mary so wise.
22:11 The angel spoke to her and she hid it in her heart.
22:15 And then Jesus would say certain things and then she would hide it, the Bible said, in her heart.
22:20 Why should we hide God's Word in his heart? Because he who promised is faithful.
22:25 He said, "You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice."
22:33 So this is not nothing.
22:36 "Nor a word proceed out until the day I say to you, 'Shout.' And then you shall," what? Shout.
22:49 See, I have learned the hard way that silence is an answer too.
22:55 And when I want to flip out and lose it,
23:03 God said to Moses, he said, "Be still and see the salvation of your Lord."
23:16 He said, "Moses, stop crying out to me. Just be still, shut up,
23:21 and watch me do what only I can do." Isaiah in 30, 15, he says this,
23:33 "In quiet and confidence shall be your strength."
23:38 Sometimes people are doing all that talking because they really don't have confidence.
23:45 But there's a quiet confidence that God wants to give each of us.
23:54 But watch this, "Quiet and confidence shall be your strength." But you would not.
24:02 You just had to keep talking. You just had to let your opinion be heard.
24:10 You just had to let everyone, you know, understand how rational and logical
24:14 you were and release all your fears into the atmosphere.
24:18 But when it comes to second-guessing God, never miss a good chance to shut up.
24:32 6, verse 14. So watch this. I think this was a bigger miracle than imparting the Red Sea,
24:43 what I'm about to read. So they did for six days. God's big-mouthed people
24:53 stayed quiet, did not murmur, did not complain, did not second-guess for a whole six days.
25:05 Now, the Bible teaches that faith speaks.
25:11 But we also learn, particularly from Jairus, real faith also knows when to be quiet.
25:23 And there are times you just don't put your emotions on blast.
25:28 Just because you feel it, you don't have to say it.
25:31 And just be still and see the salvation of your God.
25:40 So as they walked around the walls, God was trying to bring a level of peace and tranquility
25:48 into their hearts and lives. You remember when Jesus spoke to the storm?
25:53 If he was upset, he couldn't have said what he said. He said, "Peace, be still."
25:59 The peace on the inside of him, he wanted to get out on the storm.
26:04 But often, the storm raging on the inside of us just shoots out of us, and all it does is add
26:13 to the storm. But he said, "Peace." He was sleeping on a pillow. He wasn't upset. He wasn't nervous.
26:21 He had a peace that passed understanding. And God wants to give you such a peace
26:27 that in the midst of your turmoil, you can speak peace into your situation.
26:38 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day
26:44 and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. So they quietly circled the city
26:52 for six days. Then on the seventh day, they circled the city seven times.
27:00 And here's the question. Can you keep circling the situation
27:05 the Lord has already given you a victory in, but you can't see it
27:11 without complaining and with no signs of change?
27:17 Can you keep your mouth shut when it's not going exactly how you would do it
27:29 and your situation is still right there, staring you in the face
27:35 without saying, "God, I thought you loved me. I thought you cared for me.
27:43 You love everybody else but me. God, how can I be in this situation?" God says, "Shh."
27:51 "Would you just trust me? I got you. Don't be like mama in them. They perished in the wilderness
28:01 over all their talk. Would you just shush up and trust your God?"
28:14 On that day only, they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time,
28:26 it happened. I don't know what number time it will happen for you.
28:33 I don't know for you if it will be the first day, the second day, the third day, the seventh day.
28:39 I don't know if it'll be the first time, the second time, the 55th time.
28:44 But what I do know is if you keep trusting him and obeying, it's going to happen.
28:50 God's timing is perfect.
28:54 And the seventh time, it happened.
29:08 When the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, "Shout,
29:14 for the Lord has given you." Now watch this. "Not the Lord will give you."
29:22 Past tense. You need to look at that child and say, "No, the Lord's already fixed it. God has
29:34 already fixed it. God has already handled that situation. I know what I see with my eyes, but I
29:41 see something different on the inside. My children will live and not die and proclaim the works of
29:47 God. Great is the peace of my children, for they are taught of the Lord." Meaning God knows how to
29:55 define your child. When the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout,
30:10 for the Lord has given you the city." If you really believe that God has already given you victory,
30:24 believe that God has already done it for you, a Sunday shout only makes sense.
30:30 A Sunday shout only makes sense.
30:43 Come on, give him praise. God, you are faithful. God, you are holy. God, you are just,
30:53 and you'll do it again. You'll do it again. You'll do it again. You did it back then,
30:58 and you'll do it again. You did it back then, and you'll do it again. You did it back then,
31:06 you'll do it again. You did it back then, I see you doing it again.
31:20 That's all right, I'm going to give you a minute, because some walls about to come down.
31:24 Some walls about to come down. You're about to get free. You're about to get free.
31:48 Verse 20, "So the people
31:56 shouted. They released a shout because they saw it before they saw it.
32:06 You will find your shout if you will see it before you see it."
32:15 Amen.
32:17 "So the people shouted. Priests blew the trumpets,
32:24 and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet,
32:30 they took their shout to the next level."
32:33 It's amazing how much stronger we become when others join their praise alongside our praise.
32:44 It's just two or three of us that gather together, and there he is at the midst,
32:49 and it's just a strength. When you add your praise to my praise and her praise and her praise,
32:56 and when we do it together, walls start to come down. Folks don't understand. They might make
33:03 fun of us, but the walls in our lives are coming down, and theirs are still up. Pay attention
33:10 to what I'm saying this morning.
33:14 So when they heard the sound of the trumpet, they went from a shout to a great shout.
33:25 The people shouted with a great shout. They began to act like the victors and the winners.
33:39 God called and created them to be before they saw the victory.
33:43 Don't wait till the battle is over. Shout now. Now. Now. Here is the place to shout.
33:54 See it before you see it. Know that wall is coming down. You will step into your promise.
34:03 It will be as God said. You see, your shout is connected to your depression,
34:19 is connected to your discouragement, is connected to your promise,
34:30 but you got to see it before you see it, and if you see it, you'll shout. If you see it, you'll dance.
34:36 I'm going to say a scripture that I've been saying almost every other Sunday
34:43 that hopefully this Sunday you finally get it. The Bible says, "Jesus, for the joy set before him,
34:52 endured the cross and his shame." That means while they were beating him,
35:00 all the pain he was in, he saw something on the inside.
35:06 He saw the world change because of his sacrifice.
35:11 He saw you and I born again, filled with his spirit in relationship with God.
35:19 What kept him on the cross is what he saw in our life. He had a hope on the inside.
35:24 He saw it before he saw. We weren't even born yet, but he saw you.
35:29 For the joy set before. Where does joy come from? Hope. He had an expectation that what he was going
35:38 through was going to change the world, and what you're going through can change your life if you
35:43 just stay the course. He endured the shame. The cross will look silly to everybody, just like
35:52 your worship looks silly to people, but he endured the cross for the joy set before. On the inside,
36:01 he saw something that made him happy despite how bad he hurt.
36:10 And God wants you, if you are a child of God, to see something, no matter how bad it hurts,
36:17 that you could see weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. If I just hang on
36:24 till morning, I'm going to be okay. This situation is going to work itself out
36:30 because my God is faithful. I see it on the inside. I don't know how, but I know He will.
36:38 He will do it.
36:46 And we are right there. Our final verse.
36:51 And the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat.
37:05 Even the darkest hour only has 60 minutes.
37:09 Trouble can't last always,
37:15 but if you want the walls to come down, you got to get your roar back.
37:22 You got to rebel against your doubts and your fears. You got to resist the images of the worst
37:32 case because you know God is on your case. At first, the people shouted,
37:43 but then there was a great shout. And then with that great shout, the walls fell down flat.
37:55 And my prayer is that you find your shout, and you can see victory before you see it.
38:03 You can see God performing His promise before you see it. If you see it before you see it,
38:13 your walls will come tumbling down. Give God a hallelujah.
38:27 [Music]
38:46 (upbeat music)