GOD IS WITH YOU IN YOUR BATTLE...
BUT AS LEADER
September 22, 2002 am
Mike Blume
TEXT:
Joshua 5:13-15 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he
lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against
him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said
unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? (14) And he
said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua
fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What
saith my lord unto his servant? (15) And the captain of the
LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place
whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
Joshua was surveying the enemy territory of Jericho before a battle
he knew would have to occur.
- Israel had spent forty years after leaving
Egypt in the wilderness.
- They were ready to enter Canaan
where God promised to give them a land of their own.
- And in that land were many enemies
God said would have to be driven out.
- Jericho was the first obstacle in
the land to deal with.
They had never
fought a city like this before.
- Yet God told them to go in and possess the place.
- Imagine Joshua's thoughts.
- How will they ever do this?
- No catapults, ladders to scale the
walls with, no battering rams.
- What a dilemma.
- They only had swords, spears and
slings.
But God was going
to meet Joshua and give the answer.
- God never leaves us at these moments to fend for ourselves.
- And then it came.
Joshua suddenly
saw a man standing in front of him with a sword drawn in his hand.
- Anybody would immediately realize that one of two things
was indicated by this man with sword wielded in the air.
- He's either there to challenge Joshua
and fight, or come to offer his services to Joshua.
- So Joshua asks, "Art thou for us,
or for our adversaries? "
Joshua was bold.
- He was not afraid to confront the soldier if he was
an enemy.
- The man was going to fight for or
against Israel.
But this man standing
there said something that was absolutely unexpected.
- "Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now
come."
- The man simply said NO.
- No to both questions.
- No to both alternatives.
- No to two things which Joshua was
convinced one of which was the answer.
This tells us something
about Joshua and about ourselves in situations we enter.
- There is an immediate reaction we have when faced with
similar situations.
- Its a common reaction but its absolutely
wrong.
- This man was actually an angel.
- And he told Joshua he did not come
to fight with Joshua or fight against Joshua.
- Simply put, he came as captain of
God's host.
- He did not come to challenge Joshua
and fight against him, but neither was going to join Joshua's army with
Joshua as captain.
- He came as captain.
- And He was captain of God's army.
We face battles
of everyday life and immediately think we have to deal with them in our own
power.
- We think forces are rallied against us and we have to
deal with them.
- Its even noble to face your battles
and tackle them.
- However, this is not the way we
should actually react as Christians.
- In fact, its not OUR concerns that
are at stake here.
- Our individual concerns and issues
are not the issue at all.
- The angel did not come to take sides
with anyone.
- He came to do God's will.
- He came to take over.
If we can learn
this lesson, our battles with Satan, the world and temptation will be far
more easily dealt with God's way.
Joshua was not supposed to look at God and realize that God will join
his army and be on his side.
- The army is not Joshua's.
- It is God's.
- God does not come to join you.
- God is in control, not us.
- The battle is therefore not Joshua's.
- It is God's battle because God is
King.
No matter how right
your heart is and how holy your cause may seem to you, God does not join
you.
- God takes over, and we let Him have His way.
Too many people
have some sort of pie-in-the-sky idea of God that He is there whenever you
need Him to do what you think should be done.
- No.
- God has a purpose and He does not
adapt to our situations and our agendas and purposes.
- We let Him be God and we learn what
He desires to do, and we offer ourselves to Him for That Purpose.
God is not a servant,
church.
God wants to have you serve Him, and fall in line with what He wants
to do.
This angel did not ask Joshua what instructions Joshua might want to
give to him.
- He came to take over.
- He did not ask for Joshua's battle
plan.
- He did not ask for Joshua's opinion.
- Joshua was to submit to this one
and be servant, not vice versa.
Joshua would take
orders from him.
- Joshua would ensure he realized all leadership was in
this one's hands.
So many times we
have all these instructions for God to follow.
- We think we've got just the plan and battle strategy
for God to follow.
- But God refuses to fall under our
leadership.
- God is God, not us.
- And His will is that we seek Him
and ask what His will is for us, instead of dictating to Him what we want
Him to do for us.
When we face a
battle, we need to seek God and feel for His directions for us.
- Don't move, don't make any decisions.
- The captain of the army makes the
decisions, and we're not the captain.
- You think this is right for you
or that is right for you when you get in a fix.
- But God alone has the right answer.
- And you need to relinquish your
desires to be captain, and let Him be captain.
We go at it backwards
and try to get God to come and join our forces and be our next in command
beside us and do whatever we ask.
- We are told to be specific in prayer requests, and we
take that wrongly and think we must give specific orders to God for what
His part should be in this battle.
- "God, make them get no rest at night.
Cause that enemy of mine to fall down every step of the way."
- No.
- The Bible says we have not because
we ask not.
- But it does not stop there.
- Even if we ask, we can still be
offbase.
- It the reads we receive not, after
we ask, because we ask amiss.
- We need to be specific when it comes
to needs.
- But when it comes to marching orders
and directions and plans, we do not tell God what we think He should do.
- He tells us what we should do.
Now don't get this
wrong.
- We just do not sit there and think God is going to do
everything.
- We work with God.
- But the marching orders come from
Him.
- We do not give God any orders.
- And they may not seem as orders
sometimes, as well, because we may simply ask God to do this or to do that
in our situation.
- But that is giving orders, too.
- Let God take command.
- And follow His leading and He will
give you orders to act, because you will be involved, as well.
Always remember
that God is Supreme Commander!
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said
unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
Joshua got the message!
- He knew what the man meant when he said he was not going
to side with Joshua or was he of the enemy.
- He was leader.
- So Joshua immediately fell down
on his face in a humble position, and offered himself as servant!
And sure enough,
we read instructions given to Joshua...
Joshua 6:1-5 Now Jericho was straitly shut
up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
(2) And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand
Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. (3)
And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the
city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. (4) And seven priests
shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh
day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with
the trumpets. (5) And it shall come to pass, that when they make
a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet,
all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city
shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight
before him.
But God was not only reminding Joshua that God Joshua is not the leader.
- God also comforted him and reassured him that He was
with Joshua and with Israel.
- He was their God.
He did not abandon
them in this hour of need.
And the captain
of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot;
for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
When the man said this, we are reminded of words spoken to Moses as
God spoke from the burning bush.
Moses had tried to deliver Israel and failed.
- He slew one Egyptian soldier and ran for fear of his
life.
- Forty years later God shows up in
a burning bush and tells him the same thing.
- Take off your shoes.
- You are on holy Ground.
- In other words, OBEY ME AND GET
IN A POSITION OF SERVANT.
- And then God said I AM COME DOWN
TO DELIVER ISRAEL.!
God would do the
leading.
- Moses made his own battle strategy and blew it.
- He devised a scheme to deliver Israel
slowly by using his Egyptian authority and smiting any Egyptian who hurt
a fellow Hebrew.
- But that plan was a disaster.
- God came and showed Him that He
would lead.
Removing shoes
was an act of respect and obedience and submission.
- God told Moses to stand still and see the glory of the
Lord later when Pharaoh's armies pursued Israel by the Red Sea.
- God is in control and has a battle
plan all arranged that is perfect.
- And He is going to deal with the
enemy.
- Moses had to tell the people to
let God be God!
David stood before
Israel and told Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:47 And all this assembly shall
know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the
LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.
The last time God showed Himself on holy ground, and commanded shoes
to be removed was when He worked to deliver Israel and save them from Egypt
by the blood of the lamb.
- But this time was not salvation from Egypt by the blood.
- This time it was victory over the
enemy after they were saved.
- Church, we need to realize that
God is not just the leader when He saves us from sin.
- But He remains leader throughout
our entire lives and leads every battle and makes all the strategies for
us to follow.
Perhaps we felt
we were to make our own battle plans after we let God save us, because we
knew we could not save ourselves.
- But after being saved, we felt we can now fend for ourselves.
- However that is wrong!
- And after you concoct a few plans
and fail, you'll realize that soon enough.
- God is till the leader after He
saves us.
- He planned our salvation, and He
also plans every battle we face.
- He's got a battle plan for the trial
you're in right now.
- Remove your shoes, fall down on
your face, submit yourself as His servant, and ask Him what does He want
you to do in this present battle.
He's not just there
at the start to save you.
- He sticks with you personally, and is there to guide
you in these battles after you are saved as well.
If you want to
experience a deliverance from God in your present battles, then take your
shoes off and offer yourself as His servant.
- Stop acting like leader, and telling God what to do.
- You're on His territory since you
gave your life to Him.
- This is holy ground and He is head
of this house!
- Only when you do this, will you
enter warfare and succeed with God giving the victory!
----------------------
IT'S ONE THING TO REALIZE HE IS LORD, BUT ANOTHER TO BE ABLE TO LET
HIM LEAD.
We're so used to leading and contriving battle strategies, that it's
hard to have real faith in God and believe we shall win without making our
own plans.
So...
Joshua 6:1-7 Now Jericho was straitly shut
up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
(2) And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand
Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. (3)
And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the
city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. (4) And seven priests
shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh
day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with
the trumpets. (5) And it shall come to pass, that when they make
a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet,
all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city
shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight
before him. (6) And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests,
and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests
bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD. (7)
And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that
is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.
They were to go around the city for seven days.
They took seven ram's horns.
- Seven in the Bible is always associated with completion.
- Horns are always associated with
power.
- And rams from which the horns were
taken speaks of the sacrifice of Christ as a lamb slain.
- And blowing a trumpet or horn is
always associated with declarations and instructions.
- Put it all together and you see
a declaration that we have all power because of two things.
- (1) We have the power of the lamb
of God slain for us, Jesus Christ.
- (2) God is therefore with us, and
we acknowledge HIm as Leader and follow His directions, and have confidence
WE WILL WIN!
The priests blew
the trumpets and circled the city once every one of those seven days.
- They blew a short blast.
- But on the seventh day they circled
the city seven times, and then a long blast of the trumpet was made.
- And that was when the people shouted
along with the trumpets.
- They shouted because the Lord gave
them the city.
The message is
that we need to hear the preaching of the COMPLETE POWER OF CHRIST (seven
horns of the rams) repeatedly until we come to fully know about it (seven
days speaks of time to fully learn - -God knows we need time to let this
sink in), and then we will shout with confidence!
Had they only experienced one day of blowing a toot with the seven horns,
speaking of the full power of God, they would not really the revelation
get into the hearts of the people.
But seven days and the same seven horns sounding for each of those days,
would bring them to enough time to "fully" understand the truth.
And their shout would then be full of UNDERSTANDING AND CONFIDENCE.
And THAT resultant FAITH would allow God to work on their behalfs!
Joshua said SHOUT BECAUSE GOD HAS GIVEN YOU THE CITY!
In other words, shout because you are convinced it is your's before
you actually enter it and enjoy it.
- They received the faith after the seven days, in type,
and shouted a shout of FAITH!
When you speak
forth, if it is not in faith, it will do nothing, whether or not you do
it in Jesus' name.
- We have to have faith! When we have faith, and speak
forth the will of God, IT WILL BE DONE!