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Joshua chapter 6 verse 1. We're just going to look at the first five verses here.

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This is a story that some of you may be familiar with. Joshua and the battle of Jericho and

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the walls came tumbling down. These stories are good. Oftentimes we kind of think of

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these stories as being children's stories and oftentimes these are, we see them taught

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in children's Sunday school. But there's a reason why they work good for children because

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the message is really, I guess it's simple you could say, and I don't mean that in a

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negative way, I mean that in a good way. It's a simple message that's easy to connect with.

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It's good for us and easy for us to find application and make connection with stories like these.

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And that's why we revisit them from time to time. And that's why they're good foundational

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stories for young kids and even good for us to revisit if we've heard the story before

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as adults. And so we're going to talk about it today. Maybe you've never heard this story

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before. We're going to kind of read the introduction to the story as opposed to just kind of seeing

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how it all folds out. I encourage you to read the rest of this chapter and even read before

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and after it if you'd like to this week. But what we're going to look at in the first five

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verses are going to be the commands that God gives to Joshua and the people as they're

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going to Jericho. And all of these commands that God gives the people are carried out

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just as God tells them to. So we won't necessarily look at the whole chapter of them being carried

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out but but they are carried out exactly in the way that God had commanded. So let's pray

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and then we'll dig into the text. Father God we come to you today and I thank you that

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we can be here in your house. Dear Lord I pray that you would hide me behind the cross

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God I cannot preach any word today that's worth anything God if it's not from you. So

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dear Lord I pray that your Holy Spirit would just take control of me dear Lord I am unworthy

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to be here to preach your word but dear Lord you have called me to do so and I pray God

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by your strength and your power by your grace God that you would let your spirit feel this

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place today that that your people today God would hear your word. God you know where we

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are you know what we're going through in our life and God we all come here because we're

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searching for you. And so God I pray today we find you in your word we find the strength

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or encouragement or correction whatever it may be that we need God that we find that

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in your word today that your Holy Spirit would open our ears that you free us from distractions

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God the worries of the world the things that probably have already been popping into our

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minds along the service God I pray that you just would block those things out for a few

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minutes that we would hear your word and that it would really have an impact in our life

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dear Lord and I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Now a little bit of a background

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before we get into the text Moses had led the people out of slavery in Egypt and and

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ultimately led them almost to the promised land but but they ended up wandering in the

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wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience and so many of that generation most did not

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get to enter the promised land and Moses himself didn't even enter into the promised land that

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fell to Joshua and and and Joshua had been there with Moses along the way and he'd kind

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of been prepped for this and he was kind of Moses his right hand man and it was Joshua

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who was going to lead that generation into the promised land so Moses led them they crossed

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the Red Sea they wandered around the wilderness but now the time had come the 40 years was

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up and Joshua is going to lead them the rest of the way into the promised land and so that

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kind of gives us a little background that gets us to where we are in Joshua chapter

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six verse one now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites no one leaving are

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entering now this is an important note now if you go back and you read the chapters before

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this you begin to see this story unfolding what you see in the chapters before this is

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you see God's people and as they're getting ready to enter into the promised land they

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arrive at the Jordan River and they needed to be able to cross the Jordan River now it

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was likely a bunch of them probably hundreds of thousands maybe over a million there the

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estimates get pretty high it was it was likely a large group of people that Joshua was leading

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to go into the promised land and they arrived at the Jordan River they need to be able to

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cross the Jordan River so what God does is he tells the people he says look he tells

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Joshua you need to get the priest that are carrying the Ark of the Covenant now the Ark

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of the Covenant was this big big huge beautiful ornate box that that that that said in the

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Holy of Holy places and God's presence would come down there in the Holy of Holy places

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and there was some some cool stuff inside the Ark of the Covenant and God's people would

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carry this around with them now at that time they were still putting up this tabernacle

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it was like a tent they were building it and taking it up as they went on their way and

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they constructed it just the way that God said and and in that in that Holy of Holy

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places of the tabernacle was this Ark of the Covenant and so they had to take it along

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their journey and the priests were carrying it and God said the priests need to go and

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they need to they need to step into the edge of the Jordan River and of course the priest

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and Joshua did just as God had commanded and and as the priest stood in the Jordan River

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as their feet touched the river the river began to stand still the scripture says it

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said that the that the waters begin to to kind of stack up to build up to to become

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a mass now I don't know what that looked like that's a that's a crazy thing to imagine

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how God pulled that off a really similar event to what we see in the parting of the Red

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Sea but it says that as the priest stood there and in the water in the edge of the water

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with the Ark of the Covenant that the water stopped almost it sounds like like there was

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a wall there and the waters just begin to back up and they begin to pile up because

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there was nowhere that they could go because God was holding the waters back and it says

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that as the priest stood there that they stood on dry ground and the people walked across

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the Jordan River on dry ground now this was a big deal you can understand as this water

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backs up and don't have anywhere to go the people in the land would know that there's

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something going on the people in the land begin to hear about what was taking place

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we see this in the chapters before they hear about this event that the God of the Israelites

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was able to stop the Jordan River and they became afraid what in the world who are these

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people and who is their God that he can stop the Jordan River and so word began to spread

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among the people in that area as God's people had made their way across the Jordan River

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the people in the land were afraid of Joshua and the Israelites and the God of the Israelites

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and so that's why when we see here in Joshua chapter 6 verse 1 that Jericho was a strong

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strongly fortified because of the Israelites well that's what it's talking about it's

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talking about hey these people in Jericho had heard that God's people were on the way

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and there was something special about these people and there were some some powerful things

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that were happening around these people of Israel so they had it locked down no one was

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entering or leaving now Jericho had a big wall around it it had some gates some doors

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they kept those doors closed they didn't want anybody coming in and anybody going out they

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wanted to they didn't want any way for the Israelites to be able to come in because they

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knew that God's people were headed that way and so they were trying to be prepared they

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were fortified they were ready to stand against the people of Israel or at least they thought

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they were verse 2 the Lord said to Joshua look I have handed Jericho its king and its

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fighting man over to you now this would have been a good news for Joshua to hear that God

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says hey you're fixing to go to Jericho it's going to have some big walls it's strongly

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fortified but I'm going to hand them over to you so God gives Joshua this good news

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that that everything is going to be okay there's a there's a there's something big before you

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something that that may even appear to be insurmountable but know that I'm with you

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and everything's going to be okay I'm going to get you through it I'm going to hand them

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over to you now there's a good lesson in there for us too because sometimes there are things

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that we approach in life that are that are bigger than we can handle we may approach

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some Jordan rivers in our life and we say well here's where I am and here's where I

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want to be but man there's this there's this river in front of me I'll never get to where

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I want to be I'll never get over this thing I'm struggling with I'll never I'll never

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be able to accomplish this thing I want to accomplish or this thing I want to do life

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is too hard and and it's just no way I can get past it but yet in the story of the Israelites

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and the and and Joshua we see what God does he takes things that are in our path that

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look insurmountable and yet he leads us through those things he brings us to moments where

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we come up against things perhaps like Jericho things that seem too big for us to overcome

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and we say well this is too much how will I ever overcome this how will I ever get through

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this well we'll get through it the same way that the people of Israel and Joshua did we'll

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get through it with the power of God now God tells Joshua here everything's going to be

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okay but let's continue on as we read the story in verse 3 God gives him specific instructions

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in verse 3 he says march around the city with all the men of war circling the city one time

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do this for six days now this is kind of a strange instruction now I don't know I don't

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know what the people thought maybe when they heard it they didn't question it at all they

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said hey God told us to do it maybe there were some that were scratching their head

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because this is kind of odd God says okay you're going to this big fortified city and

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what I want you to do is every day I want you to march around the city one time all

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the all the men of war now we see a couple of chapters back that there were about 40,000

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men of war here that was in this group so this is the group that was supposed to march

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around the city every day once a day for six days and as we see the story continue as we

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continue to read through the rest of the chapter you'll see that that the that the priests

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were supposed to blow the horns every day they were going to walk around and the priests

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would blow the horns and they were to do this once a day for six days now God says I'm going

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to hand the city over to you and here is what you need to do so the instruction is pretty

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simple if not a little strange and maybe not make complete sense it's simple instructions

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to follow nonetheless let's see what the next part of the command was in verse four have

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seven priests carry seven ram's horns trumpets in front of the ark but on the seventh day

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march around the city seven times while the priest blow the trumpets okay so the first

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six days are all the same they're going to march around once a day on the first six days

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but on the seventh day it's a little different they're going to march around seven times

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on the on the seventh day now again kind of crazy instruction but nonetheless these are

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God's commands for his people he says look I'm going to hand these people over to you

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and here's how I'm going to do it here's your instruction here's what you need to do march

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around that wall once a day for six days on the seventh day you get everybody together

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and you march around seven times on the seventh day with the priest blowing the horns and

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toting the ark of the covenant these are my instructions to you and we continue on in

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verse five when there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound have all

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the people give a mighty shout so this is the last part of the command the marching

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around the wall the blowing the trumpets all of that that was part of the command but the

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last part of the command was on the seventh day after you've walked around the wall seven

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times as the trumpets are blasting in the ark of the covenant is going around when you

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hear a long trumpet blast then all of the people are to shout and these were the commands

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of God this is what God says this is what you need to do now it's important that we

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recognize the significance of the commands of God God gives us commands today we see

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plenty of commands in the scripture perhaps through the Holy Spirit God calls us to do

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things and leads us to do things that may not seem to make much sense we may have experiences

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where we feel like God's saying okay I'm with you I'm going to deliver you I'm going to

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be with you I'm going to help you with whatever it is you're up against but here's what I'm

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calling you to do and sometimes the things that God calls us to do are scary sometimes

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it may not make much sense but if we feel that God is calling us to do it if we feel

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that God has commanded us to do it then we need to be obedient to the commands of God

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even if we don't always understand how God is working even if what is before us seems

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like it's impossible even if it seemed impossible for the Israelites to be able to overtake

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Jericho to be able to overcome the walls that surrounded Jericho even if it seemed impossible

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to them you know what the people of Israel did they did what God commanded we don't see

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that they give God any question here we don't see that there's any doubt here if there was

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it's not recorded God commanded Joshua this is how it needs to be done Joshua told the

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people and God's people did exactly as God commanded and God told him I'm going to hand

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Jericho over to you and that's exactly what God did on that seventh day they marched around

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seven times and after that trumpet blasted for that long blast and Joshua gave the command

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all of the people shouted and the walls came tumbling down the second part of verse five

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here says then the city wall will collapse and the people will advance each man straight

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ahead this was the command of God God spelled it out for his people here here's what I'm

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going to do for you I'm going to deliver you I'm going to deliver your enemy over to you

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I'm going to let you overcome your enemy I'm going to be with you and here are my commands

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to follow and praise the Lord God's people here followed his commands that's how we overcome

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that's how we overcome the struggles in our life that's how we overcome those walls in

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our life and those burdens in our life and those things that are too big in our life

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that sin that is so big in our life what's the wall that's been built up in your life

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today maybe it's a wall of addiction or a wall of depression or a wall of any number

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of sins and and perhaps we've been building these walls for years perhaps we just keep

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putting another brick in the wall each time we sin and we give into this sin and we've

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built these walls up and we see these things before us and these life situations before

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us and these sins that are so heavy and so tough for us things that we want to overcome

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but we look at them and we say there's no way I can overcome that it's too big it's

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too difficult I'll never make it through I'll never find any peace I'll never be able to

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overcome this sin but I want to tell you today that when we are obedient to the word of God

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that's how we get the walls to come tumbling down that's how we read the word of God and

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we see what God's Word says and we begin to be obedient to God when we begin to do the

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things that God calls us to do when we begin to live the way that God calls us to live

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and love the way that God calls us to love it is then that those walls come tumbling

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down when we shout out to the Lord and say God I need you God there's this wall in front

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of me God I can't overcome it God you're gonna have to help break this thing down and praise

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the Lord that through the power of Jesus Christ that there is not a wall in your life that

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cannot be broken down there is not a burden in your life that God cannot lift from you

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there is not a sin in your life that God does not give you the power to overcome through

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Jesus Christ crucifixion and resurrection there is not a wall in your life of addiction

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that you cannot overcome there's not a wall in your life of pain or depression or anger

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or whatever it may be these are walls that are constantly around us some of which we

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do a little bit of building on ourself with our sin and some of which are just walls of

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life just life circumstances that hit us in the face things we aren't prepared for we

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lose a job we lose a loved one there's something that just goes on and we say man I don't know

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that I can overcome this this wall is too big for me to overcome but praise the Lord

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we serve a God who can help us overcome the walls in our life but we got to be obedient

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to him that's the key we got to be obedient to what God says now now I don't suspect that

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God's gonna come to you tonight in a dream and tell you whatever your your wall is to

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go walk around it six days once a day and seven times on the seventh day he might but

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there are other other ways that maybe God speaks to us and there are other ways that

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God leads us and and and what we need to do and how he speaks to us and God's us and we

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need to be obedient in those days in those ways in whatever ways that God is leading

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us and speaking to us those are the ways in which we need to be obedient to God now what

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I think is that wall probably wouldn't have come down if God's people wouldn't have been

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obedient if Joshua would have told the people here's what God says and the people wouldn't

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have done it I don't think the wall would have come down that that day and perhaps there

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are some walls in your life today and maybe you just need to listen to the word of God

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maybe you need to listen to the Holy Spirit in your life maybe you say well I don't know

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about all that well have you have you tried to live in obedience to God now if you've

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walls are there and and and they're and they're tough then the way you're doing it if you're

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not able to bring those walls down maybe the things you're doing aren't the right way to

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do these things maybe you need to try to do things a different way maybe we need to try

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to do things God's way and listen to what God commands us to do and when we're obedient

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to God we may find ourselves amazed at the power of God we may find ourselves amazed

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that when God says go and we go that he provides a way for us that he parts the seas for us

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that he stacks the waters up for us that he that he takes ground that otherwise look unpassable

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and he makes it dry ground and we walk across with no trouble we may find that the biggest

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walls that we've been trying to scale our whole life and continue to fall off of we

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may find that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and live in obedience to the

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word of God we may find that God shatters those walls in an instant now even when God

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shatters the wall sometimes sometimes we still have to walk through the rubble if a wall

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comes tumbling down yeah they still could they still had to get into the city the wall

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was was down but certainly there was some rubble there and sometimes in our life even

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when God tears the walls down our journey is not always easy there still may be some

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rubble that we have to go through but God will help us tear that wall down and God will

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help us to overcome those temptations and God will help us to get to the other side

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of that wall and to the other side of that rubble and to the other side of that mess

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and he'll bring us into a place of freedom that's what God wanted to do for his people

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he wanted to bring them into a place of freedom he wanted to bring them into a place of rest

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he wanted to bring them into a place where they would be provided for and as they went

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into the land when they were obedient to God he was with them and when they were disobedient

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to the God to God they paid the price so let us not be those who are disobedient and lose

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our battles and lose our struggles and lose against our sin let us be those who seek the

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word of God who seek to be obedient to the word of God and the commands of God we know

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and the things that God places on our hearts let us be obedient in those ways let us lift

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our voice to the Lord let us lift our prayers to the Lord let us lift our requests to the

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Lord let us lift our struggles to the Lord whatever they may be and know that the power

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of our God is able to overcome the biggest and tallest and toughest walls that are before

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us today through Jesus Christ let's pray Father God we come to you we thank you for this simple

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but powerful message dear Lord God there are there are always struggles before us just

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as there were before your people back then but God whatever our struggles are whatever

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enemies that we are up against dear Lord you are bigger than our struggles you are bigger

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than our enemies and God you want to lead us you want to protect us you want to help

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us but dear Lord we got to trust you and God sometimes the things you call us to do may

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not make sense we may not understand the things that are going on in our life but dear Lord

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we got to learn that whatever you call us to we just got to trust you dear Lord because

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it's the right thing we've got to learn to be obedient dear Lord and so I pray God that

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we would do that that whatever walls may be before us today that God that we would seek

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you that we can overcome those walls that those walls can be torn down dear Lord that

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we no longer give in to the sin that we no longer give in to the depression that we no

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longer give in to the anger that we no longer give in to the pain and the stress and the

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struggle dear Lord but that we would just be obedient to you in whatever way that we

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know dear Lord maybe maybe all we know is that we need to love other people dear Lord

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let us let us start there whatever little bit of knowledge that you have revealed to

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us whatever truth you've revealed to us dear Lord let us be obedient in that and let us

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continue to seek your truth that we could be obedient to you in every way dear Lord

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so I pray that we trust you this morning I pray that if there are some that are that

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are up against something today that today they'd give it to you and maybe they've been

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trying to figure it out on their own but God I pray that today they would know that it's

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only through Jesus Christ that the walls can be torn down and deliverance can be had for

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them so God I pray that if there are some that do not know Jesus that today they put

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their faith in Jesus Christ to know what freedom and peace looks like God you desired it for

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your people back then and and God we thank you that through Jesus you give us a better

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freedom and a better peace and a better rest today and so God I pray that you would help

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us to bring our walls down today and to find peace into that into that better place in

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Jesus Christ and I ask these things in Jesus name Amen.