The Bible books of Joshua and Judges cover around 300 years of the history of Israel between 1400 and 1100 BC. Out of all the events we read about in that period, the best known is certainly what we know as the Battle of Jericho in Joshua chapter 6. However, the most important event by far in all of those centuries is recorded in Joshua 3 and 4 and it would be criminal to gloss over that. So I am going to tackle two passages in one sermon. Thankfully they both teach us exactly the same things.
The Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. In God’s masterplan the time had come for them to enter Canaan and take possession the land flowing with milk and honey which God had promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob hundreds of years earlier. There was just one little problem. Canaan was over the other side of the River Jordan. Normally in that region the Jordan would only be 50 feet wide. But actually there was a second little problem because this was the flood season. At that time, due to the spring rains and the snow melting from Mount Hermon the Jordan was probably closer to a mile wide, 12 feet deep and flowing very, very fast. And actually there was another tiny problem because there were somewhere between two and three MILLION Israelites, men women and children, queuing up to cross the Jordan.
It had taken the miracle of God parting the Red Sea for all the Israelites to escape from Egypt. And it would take another miracle for this generation to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. For Israel, crossing the Jordan would be the most important event between the Exodus and the birth of Samuel and the reign of King David. We have just read about it in Joshua 3 POWERPOINT 1
Joshua 3 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is in flood all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
For God’s plan of salvation, the people needed a miracle and God gave them a miracle. This was such a massively important event in the history of Israel that God wanted the people never to forget it. So we read in chapter 4 that Joshua commanded twelve men, one from each tribe, to pick up twelve great stones from the middle of where the Jordan had dried up, and place them beside the bank of the Jordan in Canaan. They would form a memorial,
POWERPOINT 2 Joshua said,
4 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever.’
It is so easy to forget the miracles God has worked in our lives. Perhaps we need memorial stones to remind us of God’s mighty acts of salvation. In any case, it was this amazing miracle which established Joshua as the leader of the nation.
4 14 That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.
More than that, news of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan spread throughout Canaan and we read in Joshua 5:1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
That is the amazing way the Israelites crossed the River Jordan into Canaan and that brings us to our second story. We sometimes call it the Battle of Jericho but in fact there was no battle at all. If we didn’t know the story already, we have just heard how God told Joshua what the Israelites had to do.
On six days, Israel’s army marched around the impenetrable fortress of Jericho, led by seven priests blowing trumpets and following the ark of the covenant. Then they returned to camp for the night. But on the seventh day the army went around the city seven times.
6 16 The seventh time round, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
And then came the battle which wasn’t even a battle. POWERPOINT 3
6 20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.
The walls came tumbling down. The miraculous crossing of the Jordan and the tumbling walls of Jericho both teach us the same very obvious thing.

GOD DID THAT! POWERPOINT 4
This is a truth so self-evident that we can easily overlook it. God did that. It wasn’t Joshua’s leadership or the priests’ obedience which dried up the River Jordan so that the millions of Israelites could enter into the Land of Canaan. It was the mighty act of the Almighty God! God did that! And all the Israelites knew it! POWERPOINT 5
3 9 Joshua said to the Israelites, ‘Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites (and all the other nations) … 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.’
God did that!
4 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.’
Crossing the Jordan. God did that! And when we come to the so-called battle of Jericho, Joshua knew very well that it was God giving them the victory.
6 2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
POWERPOINT 6
God did that! And all the Israelites knew that it was God who had given them the victory.
6:16 Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
So despite what Hebrews 11 says, it was not actually the faith of the Israelites which brought down the walls of Jericho. It was the mighty act of the Almighty God. God did that! The same is true of all the important events in God’s masterplan of salvation: the plagues on Egypt, the Passover, the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land and the waters then drowning all the pursuing Egyptian army, the waters from the rock and the manna and quail which sustained the people of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. It was Almighty God who worked all these amazing miracles. Our God is great big God. God did that! POWERPOINT 7
The Old Testament is not the story of God’s chosen people Israel. It is not the story of great leaders like Moses and Joshua. The most important stories in the Bible are not even the examples of faith and obedience of the great saints which we have been looking at for nearly a year. Instead, at heart the Bible is really the story of the amazing mighty acts of God giving salvation to His people. It’s all about God! God did that!
When it comes the Israelites crossing the Jordan and then taking possession of Canaan, the Old Testament doesn’t talk about the Israelite’s victorious battles. Moses had looked ahead to God giving the promised land to the Israelites like this.
Dt 7:1 | When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations … seven nations larger and stronger than you 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, …
So the Israelites always knew that it was God who would give them the promised land. In the time of the Judges, God reminded his people of this fact. He said,
Judges 6 8… I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
Even centuries later, King Jehoshophat looked back 2 Chronicles 20 “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
God did that! The Israelites never claimed to have won the battles for themselves. They recognised the truth – God did that! Three things will follow for us too.

WE MUST PRAISE GOD POWERPOINT 8
The Bible talks about praise more than 450 times, and half of those come in the Psalms. Of course we praise God for who He is, almighty, eternal, Creator of heaven and earth. But then we are also called to praise God for his mighty acts of salvation.
Psalm 145 4 One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. … 5 They will speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty, …6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds.
Psa 105 1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Psa 78 4 … we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
The Israelites celebrated God’s historic mighty acts of salvation. And it is right that we should also remember and praise God for all he has ever done in our lives too. Our God IS a great big God, and He holds us in His hands!
1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Our God is a great big God. He deserves our praise. Walter Moberley once wrote to Christians, “If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.
God has provided us with such an amazing salvation! The least we can do is praise him!

IT’S ALL ABOUT GOD, NOT ABOUT US POWERPOINT 9
God’s masterplan of salvation was never about great leaders and powerful armies. Israel’s salvation and our salvation are all about the mighty acts of God. God did that!
Psalm 44 1 We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. ….
It’s not about us. It’s all about God. God did that!
6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; 7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
Over the decades I have been a minister it seems to me that many Christians and many churches have been forgetting this important truth. I hear people worried about the future of the church. Many Christians and even some ministers talk as though the future of the church rests on our human efforts. We need to welcome people more and love people more and tell more people about Jesus. We need to work harder and be more obedient and pray more and have more faith. These things do matter a bit. But here is the thing. It’s not really about us. It never has been. It never will be. It’s all about God. Our God is a great big God. God did that!
I can sing “I am free, Yet not I but through Christ in me!
I shall overcome, Yet not I, but through Christ in me!
It’s not about us – it’s all about God. And so we cry out

SHOW YOUR POWER O LORD POWERPOINT 10
We can look back at mighty acts of God in the Old Testament, so many occasions when God did that! Our God is a great big God! Then of course as Christians today we are still celebrating Easter and the most amazing and glorious act of divine power when God raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The stone was rolled away. The grave was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead, never more to die. Death has been defeated. Because He lives, we will live also. God did that!
But more than that. The resurrection was the greatest of God’s mighty acts, but it was not the last. Miracles of healing and deliverance and transformed lives continued through the Book of Acts and through the Early Church and through the ages even into the church today. Romans 8:11 tells us that the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us! Powerpoint 11
Our God is a great big God! The God who piled up the floodwaters of the great River Jordan lives in us. The God who brought down the walls of Jericho lives in us. The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in us! So we long for the almighty eternal and unchanging God to show his power and send his power, to work mighty acts of salvation even in our lives and in our church.
He longs to do much more than Our faith has yet allowed
To thrill us and surprise us With His sovereign power
Restore, O Lord, The honour of Your name,
In works of sovereign power Come shake the earth again;
His touch has still its ancient power! We can ask and expect that God will still work in power in signs and wonders in our lives and in our church, even today, even in us. Show your power, O Lord. Send your power, O Lord! We long for God to move among US in mighty acts of salvation, so that everyone will praise and glorify God, shouting out “God did that!”

In the New Testament the Acts of the Apostles should best be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament the story of Joshua and the Israelites conquering the promised land could equally be called

The Acts of The Mighty Hand of God

Crossing the Jordan to enter the promised land
Joshua 3:14 ¶ So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is in flood all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
So we learn that in the uncrossable Jordan’s in our own lives, the insurmountable barriers to blessing we all encounter – God WILL give us the victory.

The “battle” of Jericho.
Joshua 6:16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! … 20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.
In breaking down the barriers to blessing, in sharing the gospel in a God-rejecting world – we learn that the battle belongs to the Lord!

This week we see again it is GOD who gives the victory! Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
10:8 The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.” . 10 The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. 11 … the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
12 On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

The sun stood still! Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
The Acts of the Mighty Hand of God BUT one point we must never forget
We still have to fight the battle
Some people believe that because Christ has won the victory on the cross, because Christ has defeated sin and death and the devil, then they think that Christians don’t have to do anything except sit back and enjoy the blessings Christ has won for us. They think that because victory is assured, which it true, then victory will be effortless on our part, and that is false!

In his book on the story of Joshua, Alan Redpath wrote this.
“Strange paradox as it may seem to some, nevertheless it is eternally true that the land of full blessing is a land of intensive warfare. We have to learn to conquer and then we have to learn to possess all that is ours in our Risen Lord.”

There are TWO keys to blessing and victory we have seen time and again in the books of Joshua. Not only faith but ALSO obedience. Trust AND obey! The Jordan only stopped flowing and the waters piled up in a heap when the priests actually dipped their toes in the river. The walls of Jericho did not come tumbling down until the Israelites had marched around them 13 times. Even in tonight’s story God did not begin to fight for Israel until, at God’s command, Joshua led his people out to battle.

In living a victorious Christian life, we will always have our part to play! Phil 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Not just “Let go let God!” But human effort and the Holy Spirit as CO-WORKERS
In prayer, worship, witnessing, serving others, we must play our part!

In the battle we each face against temptation, we have our part to play!
1 Cor 10:11-13 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
In 1346, during the Hundred Years’ War, the English army of King Edward III met a French battalion at Crecy, France. The King’s Son, Prince Edward, led one vital division of the British force while Edward III stood nearby with a strong band of soldiers, ready to send relief if he saw the need. Soon after the battle started the prince thought he was in danger, so he sent for help. But the king didn’t come. So young Edward sent another message, pleading for immediate assistance. His father responded by telling the courier, “Go tell my son that I am not so inexperienced a commander as not to know when help is needed, nor so careless a father as not to send it.”
God promises the help, but we have to accept that help! God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. God promises the victory – but we have an obligation to claim the promise by faith and act on it!

Then in the spiritual battles we all face as Christians, we have our part to play!
Ephesians 6 – there’s a war on!
10 ¶ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

We have to put on the armour of God. We have to take our stand against evil – and stand firm. In all these things we do not just sit back and enjoy life and do nothing. The blessings God promises are ours to claim – but they do not come to us without effort on our part. In the battles to fight against the world the flesh and the devil, we must play our part!

God could have destroyed Israel’s enemies immediately without them doing anything? Why didn’t He? Why the sun standing still in the sky?
Partly to mark THIS victory over King of JERUSALEM – because of place Jerusalem would have in God’s purposes.
More important, to teach us the
Need for Perseverance

God’s grace gave all the time and energy needed to vanquish and bring judgement on God’s enemies. ALL night march then TWO DAY battle in one day!!

God even stretched time so victory could be won!!
Sometimes in our own experience – so many things to do, or deadlines to meet – seemingly impossible but by God’s grace we end up achieving everything he wants us to accomplish.

BUT these victories will not come without any effort on our part. We need to step out in faith, to WORK in our service and our witnessing, until the task is completed.

A wise man once said “We are judged by what we finish, not by what we start.”

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Perseverance! “I never stopped trying. And I never tried stopping.” (Dolly Parton)
Put another way – “Triumph only comes when we put a lot of umph into what we try.”

1 Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

We shouldn’t expect miracles immediately in everything we do. We need to learn to persevere! It is said that Beethoven rewrote each bar of his music at least a dozen times. No wonder it’s so good! Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment,” is one of the greatest paintings ever. That’s because not just because he was talented, but because he produced more than 2,000 sketches during the eight years it took him to complete that masterpiece.

Let’s not forget that God calls Christians to stand firm especially under trials and persecutions.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

We know very little of this compared to other churches around the world. On one visit to Bulgaria I had the privilege of preaching in the largest Baptist Church in Bulgaria in the capital city of Sofia. I met its pastor,Teddy Opranov, General Secretary of Baptist Union of Bulgaria. Members of his family spent years in prison for their faith! Like many Christians in many parts of the world, these brothers and sisters have learned to stand firm!

And if there’s one more part of the Christian life where we all need to learn perseverance, then that is in prayer! Jesus’s parable of the persistent widow encourages us to persevere in prayer and never give up asking God for the things we care about.
This story of Joshua is actually a story about the power of prayer!
Joshua 10:13… The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man.

Last year in Colossians we learned that that prayer is both the means to Christian maturity and the measure of Christian maturity. So Paul commands, Devote yourselves to prayer, continue steadfastly in prayer! We thought about wrestling in prayer, and the examples of Epaphras and of Paul.
Col 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
Prayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer IS a greater work for God! Col 1:28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
Paul’s example is of hard work in evangelism and preaching AND in praying for others! Wrestling in prayer – persevering until God answers and gives the blessings!

We work and we pray in the strength that God supplies. We rely on God and not our own human efforts to complete the tasks he gives us to do. But still we need to play our part – to persevere!

For many athletes the Olympic Games were the peak of their careers – the competition they trained for and made great sacrifices for over many years. God calls us to give just as much time and effort to our Christian faith! In witnessing, in service, in victory over temptation, in spiritual warfare, the Battle belongs to the Lord. We WILL be victorious by the Mighty Hand of God. But the blessings do not come automatically. We need to claim them, to play our part at working for them, and to persevere!

2Pe 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is short-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

0 Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter,
grant us also to know that it is not the beginning,
but the continuing of the same unto the end,
until it be thoroughly fininshed, which yieldeth the true glory:
through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life,
our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our story tonight is one of the most dramatic warnings of the seriousness and the far-reaching consequences of sin.

ACHAN’s SIN
Joshua 7 But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel.

Normally after a battle the fighting men would be entitled to the spoils of war. This was the case for most of Israel’s battles as they took possession of the Promised Land. By the time the tribes separated and took up residence in their allocated portions of Canaan they would each amass vast fortunes of gold and silver and metal objects as well as clothing and livestock as plunder. But for Jericho God had given different instructions.
6 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. …. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.”
After Jericho was defeated, God had commanded that certain things – items of silver and gold and bronze and iron –were to be “devoted” to the Lord, set apart for God. Perhaps this was because Jericho was such a significant city – it was the gateway to Canaan. Perhaps it was to remind the Israelites that they had not had to lift a finger to bring down the walls of Jericho. God had given them the victory. And more than that, destroying the spoils of war would be symbolic of God’s judgment on the Canaanites and their worship of false gods. So when God brought down the walls of Jericho, this is what happened.
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
….24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.
The whole of Jericho was devoted to God. But out of all the Israelites one man, with the knowledge of his family, Achan disobeyed God.
Joshua 7 But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.
When Joshua confronted Achan, here was his confession.
20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

The name of Achan itself means trouble. Achan would go down in history as the man who brought trouble on Israel by violating the ban on taking devoted things. Not only was this an act of direct disobedience to God’s specific command. It was an act of selfishness and greed. Even more than that, Achan robbed God of what was rightfully His. Not only did he rob God of the spoils of war but also of the glory which was due to the name of the Lord for bringing down those walls of Jericho. Joshua 7:1 tells us that this was an act of unfaithfulness and so the Lord’s anger burned against the whole of Israel..
I am sure Achan thought his sin wouldn’t matter. He kept it secret. He buried the loot under the tent where nobody would find it. But his theft was much more serious than that! Achan put his personal happiness above the glory of God and the welfare of the whole nation and God was angry! In many ways Achan’s attitude was no different from the attitudes of many people today. They think their own happiness is more important than anything else, more important than other people, more important than God. They rob God of what is rightfully His,
Even Christians can fall into this trap. If ever we think that the most important thing in life is for me to be happy and that God is only there to make me happy. If ever we think that compromise doesn’t matter, that God doesn’t care about our little sins as long as nobody else finds out about them.
The fact is that true happiness does not come from riches or possessions, or popularity or success or any of the things which this materialistic world chases after. True happiness only comes from knowing God. Yes, God wants us to be happy, but more than that God wants us to be HOLY! Consecrated. Set apart for Him. That is the only way to real happiness!
A. W. Tozer said “The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy.”
Oswald Chambers. “The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. God’s one aim is the production of saints. He is not an eternal blessing machine for men; he did not come to save men out of pity; he came to save men because he had created them to be holy.”
Achan thought he could get away with his dishonesty and greed. But all sin has
CONSEQUENCES
2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.
3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” 4 So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

What should have been an easy victory for the Israelites at Ai became a humiliating defeat. Some preachers say that this was because the Israelites had failed to consult God about the battle of Ai. Some preachers say that the Israelites were overconfident or that they weren’t trusting in God as they should have been. All of these suggestions completely miss the point.
Joshua 22:20 says this. 20 When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.’ ”
The disastrous defeat at Ai was due entirely to the sin of one man, Achan! It was his action which stirred God’s anger and brought suffering to the whole nation.
10 The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

Did you notice how God Himself says that it is the nation of Israel who have sinned, even though it will come to light that it was only one man, Achan. But because of that one man’s sin, God withdrew his blessing from the whole nation. This will not always be the case. But this story is a solemn warning that even secret sins can have spiritual consequences, not just for the individual but for the whole community. Remember what the apostle Paul teaches us about the church as the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. …. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. …. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27
The actions of an individual Christian can have an enormous impact on the whole body. This isn’t just the case when prominent televangelists or senior clerics are accused of immorality. The actions of any one of us can affect the whole church.
We may think our sins are secret. But God sees everything. And listen to these words of Jesus.
Luke 12:1 …. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
Our secret sins not only bring God’s anger on us, but can affect His church as well!
Ultimately of course it was Achan and his family, who must have been in on what was going on, who had to face the consequences of his sin.
God said 15 He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!’ ”

And so it was that Achan was identified as the person responsible for Israel’s failure.
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. 23 They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the LORD.
24 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today.”
Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. 26 Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.
This story, like the story of Ananias and Sapphira lying to the apostles in Acts 5, remains a solemn warning of the seriousness of sin and the importance of holiness. Its message to everyone is simple.
Joshua 713 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.
CONSECRATE YOURSELVES
Make yourselves holy. Set yourselves apart for God. We find the same call in so many places in Scripture.
1 Peter 113 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Heb 1214 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord
I preached a couple of years ago on that saying of the 19th century Scottish preacher Robert Murray McCheyne who said “The greatest need of our church is … my personal holiness.” It was McCheyne’s famous prayer, “Make me as holy as a saved sinner can be.” Personal holiness is not just for super-keen Christians .We are ALL called to be saints – to be holy people!
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
4th century St John Chrysostom (C. 347–407)
“If only ten among us be righteous, the ten will become twenty, the twenty fifty, the fifty a hundred, the hundred a thousand, and the thousand will become the entire city. As when ten lamps are kindled, a whole house may easily be filled with light; so it is with the progress of spiritual things. If but ten among us lead a holy life, we shall kindle a fire which shall light up the entire city.”
To be consecrated means to be holy, set apart for God, dedicated to God, sold out for God. It is up to each one of us how holy we are. Every Christian is as holy as he or she wants to be. We may not be as holy as we would like to be, or as we pretend to be to other people or even to ourselves. None of us is as holy as God longs for us to become. But every Christian is as holy as he or she wants to be. The church can’t make us holy. Home Groups can’t make us holy. Fellowship with other Christians can’t make us holy. The church can help! Home Groups can help! Fellowship with other Christians can help! Every Christian is as holy as he or she wants to be.
2 Timothy 2:19 “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” 20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
The biography of the great American evangelist D.L.Moody contains an inspiring story. In the summer of 1872 near Dublin, Ireland, Moody met with the prominent British evangelist Henry Varley. As they were talking Varley made a throw away remark, but the Holy Spirit took that remark and burned it into the heart & mind of D.L. Moody. It was a remark that affected him for the rest of his life. This is how Moody recorded it in his diary:

“ ‘The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.’ … A man! Varley meant any man. Varley didn’t say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man. Well, by the Holy Spirit in me I’ll be that man!”

Consecrate yourselves. ‘The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.’

There is an expression people often use when we are talking to another person and getting absolutely nowhere. When they just don’t seem to be listening and whatever we say we can’t make them understand. They just couldn’t care less about what we are talking about. “It’s like talking to a brick wall,” we say.

For so much of the time, when it comes to evangelism and witnessing and sharing our faith, it seems as though we are talking to a brick wall! Our words make no impression. It’s as if there is a thick solid brick wall between us and them and people just can’t hear what we are trying to say.

Sometimes that is our fault. Sometimes the walls can come from us and from the way we try to share the gospel. We fail to communicate, we use jargon, they really cannot understand a word we are saying. But at other times the walls come from the people we are speaking to. Consciously or unconsciously, many people have built up barriers of resistance to anything we could say which would unsettle their comfortable lives, anything which would get them thinking about the important issues of life and eternity, anything which would remind them of their own mortality,
And sometimes it is actually the devil who builds those walls to stop people who are lost from ever getting found! There can be genuine spiritual barriers which mean that our preaching and witnessing are ineffective.
2 Cor 4:3 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

How can we help these people blinded by the devil to see God? What can we do to bring down these walls which stop people from believing in Jesus and being saved???? The answer is as simple as it is obvious. Prayer! Prayer!

Prayer is vital as we are sharing the gospel with people we already know. But prayer is if anything even more important before we go out to share the gospel in new places with people we don’t know. Sometimes we can be tempted to leap into action too quickly. Delivering leaflets. Knocking on doors. Organising special events. We do not do enough of these things! But sometimes even before we do these things there is something even more important God wants us to do. And that is to pray!

Which brings us to Joshua and the battle of Jericho. It was a battle which the Israelites did not even need to fight, because God gave them the victory and God brought the walls of Jericho down!

Joshua 6:15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! …….
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

God gave the victory. It is tempting to think that the Israelites did nothing at all. But read the story and you will see that the Israelites did several important things. They marched. They shouted. They blew their ram’s horn trumpets. They carried the ark of the covenant. And when they seventh day came – they shouted! God gave the victory but the Israelites were not passive there. They were obedient. Even when they did not understand what God was commanding them to do, they trusted and they obeyed.
Hebrews 11:30 tells us, By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

Just as faith and obedience brought down the walls of Jericho, so faith and obedience will bring down the barriers which stop the people of North Springfield from hearing and responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience, expressed in prayer.

All prayer is an exercise in faith and obedience. Especially for those of us who are the kind of people who like to be busy. We are the kind of people who could easily be tempted to put our trust in human activity. Perhaps that is why we often find prayer very difficult. But prayer is vital! Prayer shows that we really believe Zechariah 4:6: `Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
We might actually find it easier to deliver leaflets or knock on doors. We could be tempted into thinking that if we did those things we would achieve more. But praying is an expression of our faith in God. Prayer is a way of acknowledging that only the Holy Spirit can bring people to Christ! By spending the time praying instead of doing, by praying enough before we even start doing, we show that are looking for God to do what we never could.

I am sure we all believe in the power of prayer enough to agree that prayer works. We don’t necessarily believe enough to actually make the time and space to pray – but we agree that prayer is important, vital, essential! We already pray in our own devotional lives. We pray together in Home Groups. We pray together at our Sunday morning prayer meetings. But this evening I want to introduce us to another way of praying: prayer walking.

So what is prayer walking? It is praying as you walk! Prayer not at home or at church but “on the hoof”. Why prayer walking?

 We know that we do not have to be in a church building for God to answer our prayers.
 We know that we do not need to be on our knees or have our eyes closed for God to answer our prayers.
 The more we know about other people and can empathise with their needs the easier we find it to pray meaningfully for them. So if we are praying for other people who we don’t know, why not go to their streets and their neighbourhood and pray for them there!
The first account of prayer walking comes from as early as 467 AD! Following a series of devastating events that plagued the local people, the Bishop of the town of Vienne in France instituted processions around the town’s perimeter, in order to seek God’s blessing on the inhabitants. The celebration of ‘Rogation Days” (from the Latin rogatio to ‘intercede’, ask or beseech) probably reached England around the 8th Century as part of the Roman Church’s calendar of festivals.

In the Middle Ages “beating the bounds” of the parish around Ascension Day became a major event in the church year. Led by the priest, the faithful would walk around the boundaries of the parish with banners depicting the saints, chanting from the Scriptures and erecting stone crosses at intersections with other parishes. During each pause at a boundary mark the priest would give a blessing and pray for the people. For particularly large parishes these processions might take several days! Although the practice of “beating the bounds” died out in 19th century it has been revived in many places in recent years, especially during the Millennium celebrations.

The people would also literally “beat the bounds” with branches. This was not merely to mark the perimeter of the parish. They believed that doing so would drive demons out of the parish so they would no longer trouble the people. Their seemingly strange practices may well show us important and neglected truths.

So prayer walking simply means praying as we walk around a neighbourhood. What kind of praying do we do?
0. Praising and worshipping God

God deserves all our praise and worship. We meet to praise and worship God here in a building. Why not praise and worship God out in the real world! Just think. If you are walking around a new development like Beaulieu Park, on streets and outside houses which weren’t there even ten years ago. You might be the first person to praise and worship God in that particular spot for centuries. Possibly the very first person to praise and worship God on that spot on the face of the earth, EVER!

Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole of creation.
Not just to all the people, not just to all the nations, but to the whole of creation! We sometimes think of the gospel as an invitation – but it is not. The gospel is an announcement. A proclamation. The good news that God is creator, Jesus is Lord and Jesus is saviour. Christians praising God are proclaiming to the whole of creation the greatness and the glory of God! So we praise.
1. Praying for the homes you pass

Eph 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. That must include prayer walking! Pray for any people you see. Pray for their homes as you pass by. Try to imagine their needs and pray for them. Try to imagine what it must be like to live in a community which is not a community because there are no facilities, not even a shop. Prayers of intercession – asking prayers. Pray as you are led that those people will be open to Christians seeking to share the gospel with them. Pray that the walls will come tumbling down!
2. Listening to God as you walk
Part of prayer walking is listening to God so that we will know more precisely what to pray for
Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
God gives spiritual gifts of prophecy, discernment, knowledge and wisdom to His church. The Holy Spirit at work in every Christian allows all of us to hear God’s voice and be led by Him. We also listen for specific guidance about the approach we should take to evangelism, and for discernment about the presence of evil in particular places.
3. Proclaiming Christ’s victory – claiming the ground

Beyond praising God and praying for people, listening to God and expressing our faith and obedience, prayer walking is also an activity of what some people call “spiritual warfare”. `The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.’ (1 John 3:8)
The experience of church history and of churches in many parts of the world today suggests that some places can be particularly influenced by evil spirits as a result of activities there in the past or present.
Part of prayer walking is simply praising God and declaring Jesus’s victory over all the powers of evil. But we also seek the Spirit’s guidance in discerning whether evil powers have any claim over any particular places or people. This is one way we fulfil Jesus’s commission to His church, not only to proclaim the gospel but also to bring healing and deliverance. As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. (Matthew 10:7-8) This is such an important aspect of prayer walking that I will explain the Biblical basis for Spiritual Warfare on another occasion. But we should never forget that behind the scenes of our efforts to spread the gospel, there is a spiritual war on!
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Claiming the ground in Spiritual Warfare.

4. Blessing the homes you pass
The closest thing to prayer walking we find in the New Testament is the way that Jesus sent out both the Twelve (Matt 10:5-15) and the Seventy-two (Luke 10:1-12) to heal, to minister deliverance and to preach the gospel. In particular there is one command Jesus gave to his representatives in Luke 10:5-6 which is very interesting .
“When you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.”

This command, to “give peace to a household” may seem strange to us. Jesus was teaching that the words His disciples spoke would convey the blessings of God’s peace on those who received them, or equally bring God’s judgement to the people who rejected them.

Jesus has delegated HIS authority to his disciples and to his church. So Christians have the power to pronounce God’s blessing – to declare how God will bless. And when we do this, it will not just be empty words, nor even an optimistic prayer. Those words will be authoritative and declarative – even PERFORMATIVE!! Because we speak on behalf the Lord Jesus Christ, representing God, the blessings we command WILL happen.
We find an example of the power of blessings in the story of Jacob blessing Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 49. The verb to BLESS or give a blessing is a very biblical word. We find it more than 400 times in Bible. A blessing is a “bestowal of some good” which can be any form of material or spiritual well-being. Most of the time it is God who gives the blessing. God speaks – and people are blessed! But in the Bible we also find the idea that human beings can give THEIR blessing to others, can pass on material and spiritual well-being to others. The priest of Salem Melchizedek blessed Abraham, Abraham blessed his children, and Isaac blessed his children. Remember the lengths Jacob went to in Gen 27 to trick his father Isaac into giving HIM the special words of blessing which should have been reserved for his older brother Esau. And how angry Esau was when he found out that his special blessing had been stolen! They really believed that “giving a blessing” and “receiving a blessing” in this way made a difference!!!! Genesis 49 is a whole chapter recording the 12 separate blessings Jacob gave to his 12 sons.

The people in the Bible believed in giving blessings. But that is not just some obscure part of ancient history. We should still be doing the same today. It is significant that throughout the 4000 years since Abraham, worship services in Jewish synagogues and Christian churches alike have always included words of “blessings”, as we often conclude our services with the words of “”The Grace”.

We know the power of prayer. We believe in a God who answers prayer – an all-powerful Father God who lovingly grants the requests of his children. We believe that time spent making those requests is not time wasted. But in the Bible pronouncing a blessing on someone is distinctly different to praying for them. Declaring a blessing on another person is not what we PRAY for them, but what we SAY directly concerning them. I suspect we don’t actually DECLARE God’s blessings to each other very much. Most Christians don’t believe or realise that they CAN bestow material and spiritual good on others by speaking words of blessing. We can see the point of prayer – asking God to bless. But here in 21st century Europe we don’t go a bundle on declaring blessings for each other.

But remember how Jesus blessed the little children when they came to Him. Those mothers who brought their children to Jesus certainly believed that His saying a blessing on them would make a difference to their lives. And Jesus encouraged that belief!

When a Minister visits people, even folk who are not Christians usually expect the Minister to pronounce a blessing on them and on their house. But Ministers aren’t the only Christians who are allowed to pronounce blessings. Christians share in the priesthood of all believers. So we can ALL pronounce God’s blessing as Jesus did and the OT priests did, on each other and on a needy world. ALL Christians can pronounce blessings!!!! Those blessings aren’t just encouraging words or optimistic wishful thinking. A blessing declared in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit WILL BRING good on others!

We know the power of words, and the power of prayer. We can discover the power of blessings as we bless each other, and also as we join in prayer walking. As we walk we don’t just pray for the homes we pass. We can also proclaim God’s peace and blessing upon them. We actually declare God’s blessings upon them. What difference will it make? LET’S TRY IT AND WE’LL FIND OUT!!!

So what can we do for our neighbours now to prepare the way for evangelism in the months to come? How can we help people who are blinded by the devil to see God? What can we do to bring down the walls which stop people from believing in Jesus and being saved???? Prayer. Praising God. Interceding. Listening to God. Spiritual warfare. Declaring blessings. The secret is prayer! The secret of bringing down these walls which are stopping people from hearing the gospel is prayer.

Do you care about the destiny of your immortal soul? A few years ago the high street retailer Game Station added the following clause in the small print of their online customers.
“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamestation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”

GameStation’s fiendish clause specified that they might serve such notice in “six foot-high letters of fire” too, but also offered customers an option to opt out, rewarding them with a £5 money-off voucher if they did so.

Alas, hardly anyone noticed the clause, let alone the substantial bonus for spotting that this was an April Fools joke. 7,500 people carelessly signed their souls away to GameStation that day. (Fri Apr 16 04:25PM by Yahoo! UK Games Editor)

Newspapers have seized on this story to illustrate how few people actually read the small print when they buy anything. For me the point is much more serious. For most people, “the destiny of their immortal soul” is something to make a joke about. Something they never really think about and don’t care about.

But how much to WE care about the eternal destiny of our friends and neighbours? I want us to think about that this evening by considering one simple question. It’s a question on the form a church has to fill in to apply for a Grant from Baptist Home Mission.

What risks do the church think they have taken in the past year for the sake of the Gospel?
What risks have we as individuals taken for the sake of the gospel? What risks have we as a church taken for the sake of the gospel.

I came across a book called “A dangerous faith” by Peb Jackson and Jim Lund of Saddleback Church in California, the home of the Purpose Driven Church. It tells the stories of some people like pioneer missionaries, who have taken risks for the gospel.

The book reminds us that from our youngest years and our first steps human beings are naturally explorers. We are driven to take risks to find out more and more about the world around us. But then as we grow up we learn to play it safe. To put our trust in a steady salary and a retirement plan and good insurance. We choose prudence over adventure – we learn to play things safe. So we get trapped in our comfort zones and settle for superficial friendships and passionless careers and mundane lives. Our sense of adventure is stifled – even the wonderful adventure of discovering God. We don’t let God surprise us in Scripture and prayer and new friendships and new places to serve and changed lives.

Jim Lund writes, “I’ve found that deep faith isn’t possible without substantial risk, and that faith without risk eventually leads to emptiness. It takes a commitment to dare, risk, trust, and grow to find answers to the questions we all confront. Am I capable of going where others fear to tread? Only our willingness to risk and believe enables us to discover the gifts God offers each of us: love, a sense of being fully alive, forgiveness, hope, and meaning.

We’re all born with that sense of curiosity, with an instinctive need to stretch and learn and discover. It’s one of God’s gifts for this life. Sadly, most of us grow out of it. We become analytical, judgmental, protective. We fear what failure will do to us or make us look like to others, never mind that failure is one of our greatest teachers. … (But) God created us with this innate desire to risk. It’s what makes us grow, spiritually and otherwise. Taking risks for His sake brings Him glory.

Risk. Adventure. Danger.We don’t normally associate those words with a devout faith. But in reality, the explorer and the believer are both walking the same path. The life of faith is a daring adventure, full of risk and danger. Jesus said: “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag” (Luke 19:26, MSG).

The disciples risked everything to follow Christ. So did Stephen, Paul, and the other believers of the early church. In the first century, Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long’ ” (Romans 8:35–36).

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther wrote: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times.”

Today … too many of us aim to avoid risk entirely. We’ve worked hard to achieve what we already have—relationships, status, possessions. We don’t want to put our comfortable lifestyles in jeopardy. Yet as we struggle to preserve our complacent existence, we miss out on the amazing rewards of risk.

We are called to pursue a dangerous faith, living every thought, every activity, and every moment at risk for the Lord.It may mean speaking up when you’d rather be quiet. Or quitting a job to preserve your integrity. Or revealing your deepest fear to your spouse. It is an intentional stretching of long-held beliefs. Only here, on the precipice between the comfortable and the unknown, will faith truly thrive. Only here will you discover the ironic truth: the more you risk and trust God, the closer you move to His heart—and the safer you become.”

What risks do the church think they have taken in the past year for the sake of the Gospel?

The story of Rahab is a classic example of taking risks to serve God. She risked death when she hid the spies. Others have taken similar risks. Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian who hid Jews in her home during World War 2 and paid the price in a Nazi concentration camp. Muslims who convert to Christianity face the threat of death today. Jesus warned his followers that they would be persecuted. Evangelical faith is unpopular and misunderstood in Britain today. People can feel threatened by aspects of our faith and react negatively. Archbishop Rowan Williams rightly commented recently that it is a strange paradox where the world around thinks that the claims of Christianity are so unimportant that they can be ignored but at the same time so dangerous that outward symbols like wearing a little silver cross have to be suppressed.

Rahab risked death to help the spies but she reckoned that the risk was worth taking. The price of obeying God was high, but the benefits were out of this world. Risk is a price worth paying. The writer to the Hebrews chose Rahab as an example of true faith. And Hebrews 11 gives us many more examples of believers who have taken risks in order to obey God.

Hebrews 11 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country;

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

What risks do the church think they have taken in the past year for the sake of the Gospel?

“Faith is spelt R-I-S-K”. The problem is, most Christians and most churches are risk-averse. We like to play things nice and safe. Thinking about this topic a phrase came to my mind: “Jesus Freaks”.

I first became a Christian at the time of the “Jesus Freaks”. They were a Christian subculture which started in America but spread around the world, even amongst the young people of Manchester. They brought the gospel to the hippie generation and focussed on the radical nature of Jesus’s message and lifestyle. They were people who were totally sold out for God. Remember people like George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilisation who took Scriptures into countries established missionary societies couldn’t go into. People like Arthur Blessitt who walked the length of Britain carrying a six foot high cross, to proclaim the gospel that Jesus saves. It turns out that “Jesus Freaks” is now also the entirely appropriate name of a series of biographies of Christian martyrs.

And to this day there is a youth movement in Germany called The Jesus Freaks. They began in Hamburg in 1991 when just three people started meeting regularly to pray together. They started meetings called “Hang Out with Jesus” which moved to a café when they outgrew their flat and by 1994 200 young people were coming along. Since then Jesus Freak groups have sprung up all over Germany and they have an annual gathering called “Freakstock” where in their words they “meet together and party with Jesus.”

They say this about themselves.
As Jesus Freaks we claim that in spite of crusades, burning of witches, boring church services, TV preachers who rake in money, and all the pseudo- religious affectation, there is something true and very wonderful behind the story about Jesus!
To be honest we even believe that there isn´t anything better in this whole world than to live with Jesus. Relationship with Him is the meaning of life ,,, a personal relationship with the creator of this earth. Jesus lived on this earth as the son of God. He died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead, and is the only one who can close the gap between God and us today. Jesus is the way to God. … He turned particularly to the outcast and poor, to those who do not fit the values of our society. As Jesus Freaks we want to live as Jesus did; he is our example. Everybody can come as they are, no matter which social background they come from.

It is not our aim to entertain people or to improve their lot but to introduce many to the resurrected Jesus. Our vision is to see our generation stand up for Jesus in our country, in Europe and all over the world, because living with Jesus is the most cool, compelling, intense and exciting thing of all.

“Jesus Freaks were never known to be particularly impressed by signs like „No splash diving“ or “please swim clockwise“. On the contrary: when we landed in the big Christian paddling pool, it was with a head-on cannonball and we have made waves that roll till this day. Even if we have learnt not to jump right on people’s heads or necks in the meantime, we still appreciate a good cannonball and are still keen on making waves. Could this possibly be connected to the fact that we have a God whom the lifeguards of this world would certainly have banned from the swimming pool? A God who likes a good wave and prefers a lot of motion to static aquarobics?”

“Jesus freaks.” Sold out for God. A fanatic is just somebody who loves Jesus more than we do.

What risks do the church think they have taken in the past year for the sake of the Gospel?
Some churches are the fortress churches. The goal is preserving sound doctrine and mission is about tossing grenades of judgement into society. Other churches are shopping mall churches, led by entertainers and sales people and full of consumers. Other churches are cemetery churches, lost in time, lifeless and irrelevant. The church is not meant to be a fortress, or a shopping mall, or a cemetery. The church is meant to be the body of Christ, God’s new community, the household of faith, the Temple made out of Living Stones where God dwells by His Holy Spirit! (Jonathan Dodson, “Stop Going to Church”)

There are churches which really rise to the challenge of taking the gospel to the post-modern world. I read the mission statement of one such church:
“To continue to grow as a community of believers radically devoted to Christ, irrevocably committed to one another and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those outside God’s family with the gospel of Christ.”
A few words there illustrate what I am talking about. “radically devoted” “irrevocably committed” “relentlessly dedicated”. That is what every church is meant to be. 100% commitment. “No-holds barred” discipleship.
Becoming totally devoted to Christ. In Acts 20:24 in the Message translation, the apostle Paul puts it this way. “I no longer count my life as dear unto myself; I have abandoned my personal aspirations and ambitions; I have offered myself as a living sacrifice to Christ.”

Paul said 1 Corinthians 15:31: “I die daily.” Dying to personal ambition, to worldly pleasures, to people’s applause, to greed which is idolatry
Jesus commands us in Luke 10:27 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.” This means we need to obey God’s Word and order our lives in such a way that we can live in the constant awareness of his presence. “Seek first the kingdom of God,” “Always abound in the work of the Lord,” or “Set your mind on things above,” “What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” This is risky living! This is the adventure of faith”

George Verwer puts it like this. “We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.” “Anything less than absolute dedication must be considered insubordination to our Master, and mockery of his cause” “There isn’t such a thing as too much enthusiasm for Jesus!”

What risks do the church think they have taken in the past year for the sake of the Gospel?

Maybe we are a bit brave sometimes – but we need to be more brave for Jesus.

I have told you before about a prophetic dream I had a few years ago. I dreamed that on the wall of the church there was a painting. Maybe I might even try to draw that painting some day. Because that painting was of fields next to a river on a bright sunny day. And on the riverbank a large group of people were having a lovely picnic together as rowing boats went past along the river.
But then there was a second painting next to the first. A bit further along the same river, just round a bend so the people having the picnic couldn’t see, there was a Niagara Falls sized waterfall. And all people in all the boats that were passing by were plunging to their deaths over the waterfall.
And all the time the people on the riverbank just went on enjoying their picnic. Nobody was throwing out lifelines to the boats passing by. Nobody was even shouting out warnings to the boats. Nobody had even put up a sign saying, “Danger, waterfall ahead.” They just went on enjoying their picnic.

What risks have YOU taken for the sake of the gospel?

The wonderful story of the Israelites entering the Promised Land has always been understood by Christians as a picture of Victorious Christian living. Last week we looked at the first part of Joshua 1 which gave us three secrets of Christian Victory.

1st secret of Christian Victory – God’s presence: God is with you!

Joshua 1:5 As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
We discovered that God is always with us, everywhere. And for Christians, God is with us in a very special way. God is in us! “Christ in you – the Hope of glory.” Christ lives in us! God’s gift of the Holy Spirit lives in us. Our God is with us wherever we go, whatever we are doing, whatever challenges or worries or fears we may experience. God never leaves us or forsakes us.
And we remembered that the way to recognise that God is with us everywhere is to pray. To acknowledge God’s presence by praying to Him, wherever we are, whatever is happening around us. By fixing our mind on God all the time. As the 17th Century monk Brother Lawrence put it, to practice the presence of God. Praying without ceasing.
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

2nd secret of Christian victory – God’s Word

Joshua 1:7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
We need to study the Bible to discover what it teaches us. But more than that, we also need to learn to meditate on the Bible, to learn to hear God speaking to us through it, so that God’s word gets through deeper than our minds and into our hearts.

3rd secret of Christian victory – Obedience.

We begin by making a conscious effort to obey everything He has revealed to us in His Word the Bible.
Joshua 1:7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
8 … meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
But then we also need to find out from God what He wants us to do, day by day, minute by minute. Just as God had specific plans and instructions for the Israelites for them to take possession of the Promised Land, so God has plans for each of our lives and we need to be obedient to His plans. We need to find out what God wants us to be doing, as individuals and also as a church, and then we need to obey.

Three secrets of Christian Victory. Recognising God’s presence by praying – practising the presence of God. Studying God’s Word and meditating on it. And obeying what God commands us. If you want to read the whole sermon from last week it is online on the blog. And then God’s words of encouragement to Joshua are His words to us also.

6 “Be strong and courageous, 7 Be strong and very courageous. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,

But then there is a fourth vitally important secret to Christian Victory in Joshua chapter 1. Did you spot it?
12 But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, 13 “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ 14 Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers 15 until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

The fourth secret of Christian Victory. So simple. So important. So easy to forget. So obvious in verse 14. You are to help your brothers.

For two and half tribes, their wives and children and livestock were allowed to stay in that portion of the Promised Land to the East of the Jordan which God had allocated to them. But their fighting men were obliged to play their part in taking possession of the rest of the Land for the whole nation. A simple principle of Christian Victory which applies to all Christians everywhere. You are to help your brothers.
In other words, we aren’t in it alone! None of us has to fight the battle of the Christian life by ourselves. God calls us to help each other. You are to help your brothers. We win the victory and possess the land by helping each other! Christians can help each other in so many different ways.

HELPING EACH OTHER IN OUR CHRISTIAN WALK
In prayer
In understanding the Bible
In meditating on the Bible
In living obedient lives
You are to help your brothers.

HELPING EACH OTHER IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES
There are many ways in which Christians can support and encourage each other in their everyday lives.
In our work
In our witness
In our Christian service
In the difficult times
You are to help your brothers.

HELPING BY PLAYING YOUR PART IN CHURCH ACTIVITIES
At a meeting of ministers last week I heard about another church in Chelmsford which is introducing a new principle. In that church every member of the church and regular congregation will be expected to have at least one responsibility in the life of the church, but no more than three!
• Helping with the Crèche
• Helping with Sunday Club 5-11s
• Helping with Sunday Club 11-16s
• Helping with Impact Youth Group
• Helping operate the sound system
• Helping operate the projector
• Helping welcome people on Sundays
• Helping with the flowers
• Helping with cleaning the premises
• Helping with maintaining the premises
You are to help your brothers.

After years of battles the Israelites finally took possession of the whole of the Promised Land. And so in Joshua 22 we read this. Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh 2 and said to them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. 3 For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the LORD your God gave you. 4 Now that the LORD your God has given your brothers rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
All the time until the battles were finished and victory was completely won, the fighting men of the two and a half tribes were faithful and obedient to the command: “You are to help your brothers.”

SPECIFIC STEPS WHICH MAY BE RIGHT FOR YOU IN THIS NEW YEAR

Committing yourself to encouraging and supporting one or two particular friends who God brings to your mind and lays on your heart.

Committing yourself to some new area of Christian service in the church.

Attending the church prayer meetings regularly

Starting by coming to the Morning of Prayer 9 am to 12 noon NEXT Saturday 2nd

Joining a Home Group – meeting for Bible Study, prayer and fellowship on Tuesday morning, Tuesday evening and Friday evenings.
Hebrews 1-:24 says this. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Beginning to meeting regularly with another Christian “one-to-one”
There are so many good reasons for meeting with another Christian one to one.
Jesus tells us to pray together.
Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18:19-20)
The second promise Jesus makes here is that He will be present when believers meet together in some special way in which He is not present with them when they are apart. And this is linked to the first promise which is that God the Father will answer the prayers of believers who come together in agreement about what they are praying for, more than if they had prayed alone and separately. If it was not already abundantly clear from other parts of Scripture, Jesus here is specifically promising to bless Christians who meet together and pray together. And that doesn’t have to be at a church service or a prayer meeting or a Home Group. The minimum number meeting together to claim these promises is precisely two. Praying together is always good. Intercessions carry more power because they are united. Praying for each other is good. Praying through each other’s decisions and problems is good. And having somebody else committed to praying for your personal spiritual growth is guaranteed to be good – because God answers prayer.

Dialogue teaches the parts monologue can’t teach
We learn all kinds of things much better by talking about them and by doing them with other people than just by reading or listening to sermons. Talking things through with another person brings blessings for you and blessings for the other person –so double the blessings! And the wonderful thing about meeting regularly is that in times of trial the relationship of sustaining friends already exists.

Opening up to each other is opening up to God
If we really mean business with God we need to open up every part of our lives to Him. And an important way of doing this is to open up our lives to other people. And being accountable to each other is a good thing. Accountability means we can‘t cheat ourselves, or God.

There are many things “better caught than taught.”
In the Christian life there are individuals who inspire and encourage us by their passion in prayer, their boldness in evangelism, their commitment to holiness and their complete devotion to God. From their examples we learn skills, attitudes and character. We learn hospitality, patterns of prayer and devotional reading. We learn how to cope with life. We seek to imitate their work/life/church balance. We are fired by their wisdom, zeal and love. They are our role models. We catch their faith.

Meeting together involves seeing Christ in each other.
And God gives us other Christians so we can practise His kind of love. Learning to be Jesus to other people. A very good way to learn to love your enemies is to practise by loving your friends! For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

There are so many ways in which we can help our brother, and be helped ourselves, by meeting regularly with another Christian! Perhaps the best next step for a number of folk here will be to begin to meet one-to-one.

The “Fan The Flame” guided discipleship course
Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. (Romans 12:11 The Message)
Fan the Flame is a challenging and demanding course for mature Christians who are serious about wanting to move on with God. For five weeks you will need to set aside periods of at 20-30 minutes for reflection and prayer on five days each week. You will also have a weekly meeting with your Guide for an hour, or longer if you choose. Each week you will think and pray about a different theme in Christian discipleship. Each week has five separate studies on the theme, each with a Bible passage and a page or two of notes to read and think about. Each study also has two or three questions for prayer and reflection. The week ends with a One-to-One meeting with your Guide to discuss and pray through your answers to the questions. The themes are:
1) Knowing God better
2) Becoming like Jesus
3) Living in Christ’s body
4) Becoming a servant
5) Be filled with the Spirit

Prayer meetings. Home Groups. Meeting one to one with another Christian, or following the Fan the Flame course. There are so many ways we can help each other just by meeting together regularly! But for some folk here there may be other steps which we need to take in our walk with God which we can only take as individuals.

Being baptised as a believer

Becoming a member of the church

The “Meet Jesus” Course inquiring about the Christian faith. Six weeks in a small group watching excerpts from the video Jesus of Nazareth, with Robert Powell as Jesus, and talking about what we have watched.

Whether it is in the area of your personal walk with God, or serving in the church, or helping your brothers and sisters, God has in mind the response he invites us to make this morning.
When Joshua called on the two and a half tribes, this was their response.
16 Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses.

May God help each one of us to be bold and be strong and to trust and obey.

Joshua 1:2 Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them- to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates- all the Hittite country- to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No-one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.

For 2000 years Christian preachers have been preaching about the wonderful story of the Israelites entering the Promised Land – and they have interpreted it as a picture of Victorious Christian living.

Exodus – a picture of escape from slavery of sin and beginnings of salvation;

Wanderings in the wilderness – a picture of our Christian pilgrimage and growth in grace;

Book of Joshua – a picture of Christian victory. And so it is!

Of course we do well to remember that that we will ever fully enter the Promised Land while we are still living in this world. We will never be perfect this side of heaven. We will still experience suffering and pain. We will still be tempted and sometimes we will still fall. To be in Christ means not only riches but also suffering. But the book of Joshua which we will be looking at in our evening services describes how the Israelites entered the promised land and took possession of it., And that story gives us pointers to things we should be doing if we want to live victorious Christian lives. Joshua Chapter 1 gives us THREE secrets of Christian victory.

Secrets of Christian victory: 1. God’s presence – God is with you!

Joshua 1:5 As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Of course, we know that God is always with us. God is everywhere. And for Christians, God is with us in a very special way. God is not only with us, God is in us! Remember the wonderful message of Colossians: “Christ in you – the Hope of glory.” Christ lives in me! Christ the image of God lives in us. Christ the firstborn of God lives in us. Christ the fullness of God lives in us!! God’s gift of the Holy Spirit lives in us, and gives us the first instalment of heaven.

Our God is with us wherever we go. He never leaves us or forsakes us. God is with us in church. God is with us in Home Group. God is with us in our daily times of prayer and Bible Study. But we need to remember that God is with us everywhere! So God is with us when we are at home doing housework, or enjoying our hobbies, or watching television. God is with us when we are in our workplace, or doing the shopping, or driving the car or walking down the street. God is with us in the good times but He is even closer to us in the hard times, the sad times, the painful times. In times of sickness or grief or anxiety or fear God is always there. This promise is for you and for me as much as for the Israelites. God says “I will never fail you or forsake you.”

God is with us wherever we go. But many Christians do not experience this continuous presence of God. It is not that we are deliberately rejecting Him or ignoring Him. It is just that we keep on forgetting that God is there! So how can we know and experience the reality of God’s presence with us more? Well it’s all about prayer. Since God is with us, we can acknowledge His presence everywhere by praying to Him everywhere. Praying without ceasing!

Let me remind me of some words about prayer from a 17th century monk called Brother Lawrence in his little book. The Practice of the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence teaches us to cultivate – `a habitual sense of God’s presence’ – `to be always with God’. The way to know that God is with us always is to make a point of fixing our mind on Him and turning to Him all the time. And we can do that by taking every opportunity to pray, wherever we are, whatever we are doing!

“Our biggest mistake is to think that a time of prayer is different from any other time. It is all one. … It is not needful always to be in church to be with God. We make a chapel of our heart, to which we can from time to time withdraw to have gentle, humble, loving communion with Him. Everyone is able to have these familiar conversations with God. Some more, some less – He knows our capabilities. Let us make a start. Perhaps He only waits for us to make one whole-hearted resolve. Courage!”

“Think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected?”

“You need not cry very loud. He is nearer to us than we think.”

“The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees.”

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

FILL THOU MY LIFE, O Lord my God, In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone, Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up Of praise in every part:
Praise in the common things of life, Its goings out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed, However small and mean.
So shall no part of day or night Unblessed or common be;
But all my life, in every step, Be fellowship with Thee.
(Horatius Bonar)
Brother Lawrence:
“We can do little things for God: I turn the cake that is frying on the pan, for love of him; and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. When I can do nothing else, it is enough to have picked up a straw for the love of God. People look for ways of learning how to love God. They hope to attain it by I know not how many different practices. They take much trouble to abide in His presence by varied means. Is it not a shorter and more direct way to do everything for the love of God, to make use of all the tasks one’s lot in life demands to show him that love, and to maintain his presence within by the communion of our heart with his? There is nothing complicated about it. One has only to turn to it honestly and simply.”

Teach me my God and King, in all things Thee to see.
And what I do in anything, to do it as for Thee. ….
A servant with this clause, makes drudgery divine.
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, Makes that and the action fine.
(George Herbert)
Brother Lawrence
“The depths of our spirituality does not depend upon changing the things we do, but in doing for God what we ordinarily do for ourselves. … A little lifting of the heart suffices; a little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship, are prayers which however short are acceptable to God.”

So here’s an invitation for 2013. Let us learn to draw on God’s strength by acknowledging God’s presence all the time! Praying without ceasing. God IS with us wherever we may go. He will never fail us or forsake us. So let us learn to live in God’s presence!

Secrets of Christian victory: 2. God’s Word

Joshua 1:7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

We would know more of God’s strength and God’s presence if we could only hear what He is saying to us better by learning to recognise His voice as he speaks to us through His word. We are accustomed to studying the Bible. We are very good at learning what the Bible teaches! We are not so good at hearing God speaking directly to us through his word. That’s why we need times of Retreat! That is why we need to learn what is means to MEDITATE on the Word of God, and actually spend time in meditation, so that God’s word gets through deeper than our minds and into our hearts.

DAVID WATSON: “Today, the majority of Christians find it extremely hard – almost impossibly so – to hear the voice of God. The problem is that we have forgotten how to be still before him, and we give little time (if any) for Christian meditation.
We need to use God’s word to bring us consciously into God’s presence. Let God’s word speak to us, drawing us to the Father and glorifying the Son. By letting our whole mind and being dwell on one of the names of God or on one aspect of his character, the Spirit will help us to ‘see God’. Words, phrases or even whole passages of scripture are invaluable for this fresh encounter with God. …
The purpose is not to empty the mind of everything, but to detach the mind from worldly cares in order to attach them to Jesus and his word. This aspect is often neglected because in many circles it is assumed that the most important thing about the Bible is its “teaching”. However, much of its poetry, its psalms, its parables, its humour and irony, is lost when it is reduced conceptually to “teaching”. It confronts us not just with information, but with verdicts. In one direction the evangelical approach may be criticised for being too cerebral. The question: “What can I learn from all this?” is not always the right one to ask. Some parts of Scripture serve not to speak about joy, but to give joy; some serve not to instruct us about reconciliation but to reconcile us. The Bible not only tells us about Christ, but also brings Christ to us.
To begin with, start with five or ten minutes in silent meditation. As you continue, you will be able slowly to increase the length of time, and, more important, you will begin to hear God speak to you through his written word or by his Spirit in your heart. Soon you will be able to enjoy an increasing sense of the presence of the living God, and better able to hear him as he speaks to you each day.”

8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

1. God’s presence, 2. God’s Word, and
Secrets of Christian victory: 3. Obedience.

Obedience begins by obeying everything He has revealed to us in His Word the Bible.

Joshua 1:7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
8 … meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

But then we also need to find out from God what He wants us to do, day by day, minute by minute. Just as God had specific plans and instructions for the Israelites for them to take possession of the Promised Land, so God has plans for each of our lives and we need to be obedient to His plans.
Joshua 1:10 ¶ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, `Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.’
Joshua 1:16 Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you.
We need to find out what God wants us to do, as individuals and also as a church, and then we need to obey. It’s no use knowing what we OUGHT to be doing – if we don’t do it. There is lots of football to watch on television. But it seems to me there is even more talking about football! Watching bits of snooker this week there is much more talking than there is actual snooker! Some of the great players in any sport can talk from their own experience, and we can learn a lot from them. But there are some pundits who give the impression that they may have got all the theory right, but they’ve never kicked a ball, or held a snooker cue in their lives! The church has no need of non-playing commentators. The Kingdom of God needs players – not spectators! We need action! We need a continuing commitment to obedience.

There are many areas of life I could suggest where we could be obeying God more: from proclaiming the gospel to loving our neighbours. But for this morning, think about the things we have already been talking about. Practising the presence of God in prayer. Don’t just think about it – DO it! Make lots of little spaces in your day to think about God and acknowledge His presence by praying?

Then there is meditating on God’s Word. Letting God speak straight to our hearts. Make some space over the next few days for meditation. We have our Morning of Prayer coming up on Saturday February 2nd. Write it in your diary TODAY. Come along and give that morning to God.

So step out in faith! Open your life anew to God the Holy Spirit. Be bold, be strong! And be careful to obey!

We have the same command from God THREE TIMES in FOUR verses!
6 “Be strong and courageous, 7 Be strong and very courageous. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,

Back when I was a boy one of the very first television science fiction series told the story of a spacecraft which crashed on a planet remarkably similar to earth, except that on this planet the spacecraft is only a foot long and the passengers only an inch tall. The series followed the adventures of this gallant band in what was called “The Land of the Giants”. Anybody else remember that series? It was really “Gulliver’s Travels” in space! But that plot was really borrowed not from Jonathan Swift but from the Book of Numbers, where ten out of the twelve spies found the promised land of Canaan to be “a Land full of Giants”.

The spies reported back that it was indeed a land full of blessing.
Num 13:27 “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
All God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and the Israelites in Egypt were fulfilled. God keeps His promises!

But it was also a land full of dangers.
28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there … 31“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

The Nephalim were the great warriors, a legendary race of ancient giants. So the spies’ description of the Canaanites may have had some truth in it! Humanly speaking the Israelites did face great odds. But God is Almighty! God can do anything! Nevertheless the spies were afraid about the cost of the battles ahead and the Israelites began to grumble and complain again.
3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Like many other stories in the Old Testament, this story of the Land of the Giants is a picture for us of our own story. God calls us to claim the victory in our own lives and enter into the promised land. In particular God calls us to proclaim Christ and share his gospel with a needy world. But too often the world around, even Chelmsford, can seem like a land full of giants. Sent out as lambs amongst wolves, we can be paralysed with fear at the task of evangelism God has entrusted to us. We can be made to feel like grasshoppers when we consider the challenge of mission! And indeed in some ways even North Springfield is a land full of giants! Indeed the whole world can seem full of giants!

Nationwide challenges to the gospel

Britain is no longer a Christian country! But so often churches and Christians try to live as if it was! We live in a rapidly changing world. God calls His church to be “the people of the future” but too often we live as “people of the past”. The last 30 or 40 years have seen enormous changes in the world around.

SECULARISATION – the declining influence of Christianity and Christian values, decreasing importance of the church in the lives and thinking of ordinary people. We live in a “disenchanted” world, where worship of God has been replaced by science and technology. Now if people are looking for spiritual experiences, they no longer look to the church but rather to the occult and the New Age.

PLURALISATION – Christianity is no longer the only, or even the dominant faith. It is now seen only as one option amongst many on offer in the supermarket of beliefs. Political correctness now forbids Christians from claiming that Christ is the only way to God. Some local authorities are now removing Bibles and Christian symbols like the cross from places like hospitals and schools and prisons, ostensibly for fear of upsetting the other religions.

PRIVATISATION – our lives are becoming more and more isolated, local community and even family life are being replaced by the anonymity of “society” and the individualism which encourages us to communicate with strangers across the globe by phone and text and email, when we don’t even know the names of the people who live across the street. Faith is squeezed into our private lives – as the media portray Christianity as outdated and irrelevant.

CONSUMERISM – in every area of life people demand choice and satisfaction guaranteed, not just in shopping and entertainment, but this week in health and healthcare, and increasingly even in religion.

“Land of the Giants.” Against the international giants of Secularisation and Pluralisation and Privatisation and Consumerism, it’s very easy for Christians to be discouraged! Against such giants, God calls us to stand up for the historical truths of our faith and to give the world an example of true community, to believe what we preach and preach what we believe! We have GOOD NEWS – how can we keep it to ourselves?
Local Challenges to the gospel – particularly in Chelmsford

MATERIALISM – very many people in North Springfield have plenty. They don’t just have enough to survive. They don’t just have enough to be content. Compared to billions around the world most people in Chelmsford have more than enough and plenty to spare. Of cash. Of possessions. Of money in the bank to guard them for a rainy day. Very many people never consider whether they need treasures in heaven because they have plenty of treasures on earth. They are not necessarily trapped by greed, which is idolatry. They are simply deceived by all the earthly goods they possess into thinking that there isn’t anything more to search for. Instead of possessing their goods, their goods possess them! The God-shaped-gap in their hearts is buried under career and hobbies and holidays and “things” and that great god “entertainment.”

BUSYNESS – even if people in Chelmsford do start thinking about the ultimate questions of life and eternity, those questions get squeezed out of many lives by sheer busyness. Commuting. Hobbies. The demands of family life rushing to get the children to three places as once. The pace of life here means that nobody has time to reflect on spiritual things.
“What is this life, so full of care? We have no time to stop and stare!”

COMPLACENCY – the people around us, our neighbours and friends, are not usually people who are struggling to cope with life. They are not usually burdened with guilt looking for somebody to forgive them, because most haven’t ever done anything particularly bad. They are not ground down with poverty. Most aren’t trapped in alcoholism or drug abuse. Most people in North Springfield are living satisfying, contented lives. They don’t worry about what will happen when they die, because life here and now has been generally good to them. Most people are happy non-believers. They never ever ask the really important questions of life – where did I come from, why am I here, who created me, does God really exist? They never see the need to think about questions like that. They are not trapped by obvious sin, but simply by complacency.

“Land of the Giants”. Against the giants of materialism and busyness and complacency the church must be BOLD to proclaim the gospel. God is God Almighty, creator and sustainer of the universe! God deserves to be worshipped! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and exalted at God’s right hand! The gospel is not an offer which people can choose to accept or reject. The gospel is an announcement which demands our obedience. Jesus is Lord! And EVERY knee must bow!
Specific Challenges to the Gospel WITHIN the church

North Springfield Baptist Church is a small church.

Not enough people – to run all the activities we want to run. Not enough to do the kind of outreach we want to do.

Not enough money – facing a deficit of thousands of pounds in the budget for 2013

Not enough space – we had NINE babies and toddlers in crèche this morning. Not enough space in what we call the crèche room!

And then many of our church members and friends are facing all kinds of giants in their own lives. Battles with illness. Challenges in the workplace, or even to find a job. Struggles to survive on fixed incomes. The limitations which the passing years bring on. Stress, anxiety, insecurity, feelings of inadequacy,. And perhaps when it comes to evangelism, the great giant very many of us have to do battle with is fear. Fear that others will laugh at us or reject us. Fear that we aren’t really very good at sharing our faith and that we might make a mess of it. Fear that we will let God down.

“Land of the Giants”. God is calling us to claim the victory over all these giants we face as a church and indeed in our own personal lives!

Just as the Israelites had to face their fears, so God is calling us to face our fears and go forward to
Possess the land!

We face the same discouragements

We feel we aren’t strong enough!
13:30 “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
If we take on all the giants at once we will indeed be overwhelmed. But if we seek God’s guidance to do the work God has for us, the specific good works He has prepared beforehand for us to do, we will be victorious. If we go out in our own strength we will fail. But in Christ’s strength, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We feel it will cost us too much.

14:3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Sharing the gospel does cost! Helping people in need does cost. In time as well as money. In energy and emotion too! But in God’s strength we CAN cope!

2 Cor 1:3-5 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

As well as the same discouragements as the Israelites, we also have

The same promises

Just two of the twelve spies sent into Canaan had faith. Caleb and Joshua had vision
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
We can certainly do it! If everything I have said so far has left you discouraged and depressed like the ten spies, I have failed and the devil has won. Instead let God win!

Deuteronomy 1 records what Moses said to the Israelites on that day.
29… “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

The Lord your God will fight for you. He will carry you! We need to learn to see our giants from God’s perspective. We seem like grasshoppers to them. But they are smaller than grasshoppers to God. Humanly speaking the giants can crush us! But in God’s strength we can trample over them.

Listen to the voices of Joshua and Caleb as they pleaded with the Israelites.
“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
God will be with us! God will lead us! God WILL give us the land. Do not be afraid. But more than that – do not rebel! For the Israelites, choosing not to go on with God was not just a missed opportunity. It was an act of rebellion against God! Choosing not to enter the land at that point was a sin which God would punish severely – with forty years of wandering in the wilderness. And apart from Joshua and Caleb, not one of that grumbling generation lived to enter the promised land! And so it can be with us. If Christians choose not to step out in faith and claim God’s promises, they don’t just miss out on the blessings. If Christians disobey God’s commands to reach out with the gospel, they can end up in the wilderness!

God commanded the Israelites to take possession of the promised land – and they disobeyed. That wasn’t just a missed opportunity. They delayed God’s purposes for forty years until every one of that faithless generation had been punished by death. That is certainly a warning of a sin to avoid! God calls us to stand up and be counted – to be bold and be strong in living the gospel and proclaiming the gospel and so to take possession of North Springfield in Jesus’s name! It’s a land full of giants, but if we have faith and prayer and obedience, God WILL give us the victory!

There is a song which that tremendous children’s worker Ishmael has made popular.
You may think I’m so young, Too young to understand
Don’t forget in God’s eyes He looks on me as grand
He never never limits The giant that’s in me
He leads me through my childhood, Supernaturally
I’m not a grasshopper I’m a giant in the Lord
I’m not a grasshopper I’m a giant in the Lord
I’m not a grasshopper I’m a giant in the Lord
I’m not a grasshopper I’m a giant in the Lord

Secularisation. Privatisation. Pluralisation. Consumerism. Materialism. Complacency. Busyness. The challenges of being a small church. And a hundred and one very personal giants we may need to confront.

May God give us the faith and obedience Caleb and Joshua showed.
“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”