When There's a Wall In the Way - Jonathan Pickens

Well, if you've been journeying with us up to this point, you know that where we are in the story collectively is that Joshua has been leading the people of God, the Israelites, into the promised land. And as he does so, we've seen God split the sea again and the people of God come through. We've seen God prepare his people and consecrate them through Passover. And last week, Pastor Louis did an amazing job on the message and thankfully took this section on circumcision. Praise God. And we've seen these stones of remembrance. But here, today, we come to the moment where God is going to bring his people into the land. God makes good on his word. God does what he says he's going to do. And this story is about people that are God's people, the Israelites. It's about taking down the wall of Jericho. It's about God being faithful and leading them into a real land that's a real place that became the real nation of Israel. But at the same time, as believers, we can interact and engage with this story as people who are also God's people, who know what it means to know him and follow him. And as God leads us on his mission, we encounter obstacles in life. Amen? There are some walls that many people in this room

are facing today. And what I want to do as we're talking about this story is ask the Lord to speak to us in such a way that reveals what do we do when there's a wall in the way. And as I was thinking about this and wondering what they were feeling like, it made me think of our building here at Cumberland. I love that we have a ton of windows. It's amazing. It's not wonderful for birds in the summer when they're extra clean. We get a few of those that run into the window. But it's also not just birds. There are many of you in this room who have been walking, and there was no trash can in the middle of a glass wall, and you ran straight into it. And I remember just last year, it was passion camp time. We were selling King of Pops outside. And my daughter, Ray, sees the King of Pops, gets extremely excited, full speed in the invisible line back, or called the glass window, absolutely punishes her. And she ends up on her face. We have a video, but it's not funny, mostly sad. Play that today. But it's not just her. It's people in this room, and we've got your videos as well. We just keep the funny ones, man. Don't worry about it. But that's why we started putting trash cans

in front of these walls. And maybe it wasn't here, but maybe you've been to a beach house, and you know that feeling where you're trying to walk outside. And the cleaners, God bless them, are doing a fantastic job. And you're trying to walk outside. You've got your morning coffee, and as you're walking, you immediately coffee all over yourself. There's this moment. There's this feeling of you know where you're supposed to be going, but something's stopping you. There's this feeling of you've got direction and a desire to go there, but something's in the way. And today, we're going to talk about what to do when there's a wall in the way. What do you do when faced with a wall? And what we're going to see in this story is that when God's people are faced with a wall, their first response was worship. When there's a wall in the way, worship is the way forward. Our job is worship. God's job is to take down the walls. Our job is obedience. God's job is the miraculous. Our job is to do what God's asked us to do. God's job is to do what only God can do. So when there's a wall in the way, we're going to walk forward in worship. So let's see that together.

We're going to pick up where we left off last week. Chapter 5, verse 13. This is what the word of God says. When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, are you for us or for our enemies? Neither. Wow. I have now come as a commander of the Lord's army. Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in homage and asked him, what does my Lord want to say to his servant? The commander of Yahweh's army said to Joshua, remove the sandals from your feet for the place where you're standing is holy. And Joshua did that. Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites. No one was leaving or entering. The Lord said to Joshua, look, I've handed Jericho, its king and its best soldiers over to you. March around the city with all the men of war circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Then have seven priests carry seven ram's horns, trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day. They march around the city seven times, and while the priests blow the ram's horns.

When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse and the troops will advance each man straight ahead. So Joshua, son of Nun, summoned the priests and said to them, take up the Ark of the Covenant and have seven priests carry seven ram's horns in front of the Ark of the Lord. He said to the troops, move forward, march around the city and have the armed men go ahead of the Ark of the Lord. After Joshua had spoken to the troops, seven priests carrying seven ram's horns before the Lord moved forward and blew the ram's horns. The Ark of the Lord of the Covenant followed them. While the ram's horns were blowing, the armed men went in front of the priests who blew the ram's horns, and the rear guard went behind the Ark. But Joshua had commanded the troops, do not shout or let your voice be heard. Don't let one word come out of your mouth until the time I say, shout, then you are to shout. So the Ark of the Lord was carried around the city, circling it once. They returned to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua got up early the next morning, the priests took the Ark of the Lord and the seven priests carrying seven ram's horns

marched in front of the Ark of the Lord. While the ram's horns were blowing, the armed men went in front of them and the rear guard went behind the Ark of the Lord. On the second day, they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. We doing okay? Making our way through, almost through. Here we go. Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way. That was the only day they marched around the city seven times, and after the seventh time, the priests blew the ram's horns and Joshua said to the troops, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. But the city and everything in it are set apart for the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone with her in the house will live because she hid the messengers we sent. But keep yourselves from things set apart or you will be set apart for destruction. If you take any of those things, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and make trouble for it. For all the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron

are dedicated to the Lord and must go into the Lord's treasury. So the troops shouted and the ram's horns sounded. And when they heard the blast of the ram's horns, the troops gave a great shout and the wall collapsed. The troops advanced into the city, each man straight ahead and they captured the city. They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword. Every man and woman, both young and old and every ox, sheep and donkey. Just to end things on a positive note. Hey, there are a few things I wanna point out in this text. The first observation that we come to when we see what God's doing in this text is this, that worship starts with a right view of God. It starts with understanding who God is. And we're gonna see here in just a minute why this really is centered on worship. But before we even get there, there's this mysterious figure who enters the scene. And it's this man who's a messenger from the Lord, the commander of the Lord's army. And he stands with a drawn sword. And this figure appears a few other times in scripture. And some scholars are like, man, this is just a weird interruption. I don't really know what's going on. But the majority of scholars throughout history

would agree that the man in this story with the sword is not a simple messenger. But this is Jesus in the story. This is God personified, which is why just a few verses later, when he tells Joshua who he is, what's Joshua's response? He worships him. He says, take your shoes off, it's holy ground. And the same way God appeared to Moses in his holiness, Moses took his shoes off in his presence. And now here Joshua is about to engage in the same act of God's deliverance. And he encounters the Lord again. What's he do? He takes his shoes off. Why? Because he sees God's holy. The person in front of him is not a person. It's the almighty God. And he recognizes that. But then something extremely interesting happens. He asks this man, whose side are you on? And if there was ever a time for God to affirm a position or a side, it was here. God wrote the laws for Israel. He sent them to this land. He's the reason that they are where they are. And yet when Joshua asks him, whose side are you on? His response.

Neither. Why? Because God doesn't join sides. He invites us to join His. God isn't a partaker in positions. God is saying, I'm going here, are you with me? And it's, what we have is there's no sense in which we can join in with the story of Scripture and say, there's this means or method by which we could say, I'm gonna live my own life. Now, God, would you bless it? No, no, no, when you come to God, you become aware of who He is and then you surrender to Him as Lord. God is not joining sides. God is not blessing a mission. What God is doing is saying, I'm going here, you can join me or you're against me. God is not joining sides. God offers us to join His side. And here, Joshua is saying, I'm going to join in with your agenda. And can I just tell you our goal in our heart as a church is not to do something and then ask God to bless it. Our goal as a church is to say, God, what would you like to do? Help us get on your page and join your agenda for today. And might I encourage us to be a people who don't say, God, would you bless what I'm doing without giving thought to what you wanna do?

God's inviting us to be a people who start with who He is in view and then submit and surrender and say, God, what do you wanna do in my life today? I'm saying yes to that. Let's start with a right view of God because this is how worship begins. Neither, says the Lord, will join you and follow you into the battle. And then many believe that the instructions that he receives for the Lord are actually this man continuing to speak because he's talking to God. That's why you see the next thing is that worship is a weapon. Worship's a weapon. In this text, I don't know about you, maybe you were a bit put off guard while we were reading it because growing up, if you're anything like me in VBS, you know how this story goes. It doesn't take 19 verses to describe, it takes two. They walked around the walls, they shouted, and the walls fell down. Maybe you even know the song, "'Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho." But he takes 19 verses. In good grief, did you hear how many times he used the number seven? He keeps talking about the Ark of the Covenant, why?

Because God's goal isn't just seeing walls come down, God's goal is worship. He uses the number seven 14 times in this chapter, why? He's pointing back to the day of creation, seven days, completion. He's completing his promise and his work for this people. But also, they just celebrated Passover. Passover took place at the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which took seven days. So as they're going around the city seven times and blowing seven trumpets from seven priests, what are they doing? They're talking about God's completion and they're rehearsing redemption. It's worship. But not just that, what's in the center of this story? It's the Ark. 10 different times from verses four to 13, the Ark of the Covenant is used. Ark, Ark, Ark. And then look again with me, just real quick, So the Ark of the Lord was carried around the city, circling it once. Then they returned to the camp and spent the night there. It's interesting. There were many men who surrounded the city. There were many people blowing trumpets, but yet only the Ark is mentioned, why? As a point of emphasis, what was the Ark? It was the manifest presence of God.

What are they doing? What are they doing? The manifest presence of God, what are they doing? They're circling their problem with God's presence. Again and again, God's presence is surrounding what's in front of them that they can't get past. And as a people, we need to see that worship is God's weapon of choice. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to war, the worship team's not my first pick. No offense. It's like, these jokers are the ones that they formerly fled from because they were huge. So we're like grasshoppers in their eyes. We can't take them. God says, get the trumpet player. You're like, you sure, God? What about the sword fighter? No, the trumpets. Get the Ark, why? Because worship is God's weapon. God's heart was not for the people to take down the city. God knew he was going to take down the city. You can worship him amidst it. And when you're facing something in front of you that you can't get past, God's inviting you to surround it with his presence. Drench it in who he is. Talk to him about it and put it before him. for him more than that, talk to that about him.

Surround it with his presence. Worship is a weapon, but not just that. Worship is fueled by faith. Could you imagine what this would have been like? Here in the moment, look at verse one. It sets the scene for you. Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites. No one was entering. No one was leaving. No one could get in and no one could get out. Something significant was in front of them. And yet God tells them, yeah, I've already given that to you. The thing that they couldn't fix, God had already solved. The thing that they couldn't get past, God had already defeated. And so he commands them. I mean, by faith, they listen. There was no hesitancy here. There was no hesitation. There was simple obedience. It was faith-filled and faith-fueled. I love the way that it says this in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days. Notice, as important as the shout was, which we'll get to, it wasn't the shout that took the walls down. God did that. And they accessed God by faith.

What would it have been like for them walking around their greatest obstacle? Day after day. And as they're walking around the city, I don't know, man, God told us to blow some trumpets and walk around the city. You seeing the walls start to crack? Not yet. Does it look any different today? It's been three days. Not yet. Day four comes along. You think these trumpets are starting to have their effect? Nope. What are they doing? They're walking by faith. They've received their marching orders and they listened. They trust God to do what he says he would do even when their eyes could not understand what God was saying. And in the same way, if you've been in a season before and you had no idea what God was doing, here's the encouragement, keep walking. Walk by faith, not by sight. The walls will fall. It did not make much sense when God told Abraham to leave his family and everything he knew, but when God made him a nation, it made sense. It did not make much sense when God told Noah to build an ark in the middle of the desert,

but when the flood came, it started to make sense. It did not make much sense when God told Moses to lead his people to a sea, but when God split it, it made sense. It did not make much sense for God to shrink Gideon's army to 300 people, but when they won the battle, it made sense. It did not make much sense when God sent a shepherd boy with a slingshot to face a giant, but when he fell, it made sense. It did not make much sense for the poor widow to give all of her food that she had left to Elijah, but when her jar never ran empty, it made sense. Let me tell you this, it did not make much sense when the promised Messiah to deliver and free his people came and died on a cross, but three days later when he rose and there was an empty grave, it made sense. Your obedience does not need to be understood to be effective. Listen to who Jesus is, say yes to what he's given you to do. Oh, day six, the walls aren't cracking, he still told me to walk. Day five, I still don't understand, he still told me to walk. Walk by faith, not by sight. Eventually the walls are going to fall. God will do what God says he can do, walk by faith. Worship is fueled by faith. Next, worship is expressed in obedience.

Notice faith and obedience always work together. It's hard to distinguish the line. Faith naturally leads to obedience, that's what they were doing. Because they had faith, they listened, because they understood, they obeyed. And that's exactly what worship is. Worship is primarily expressed as obedience in our lives. Yes, of course worship's singing, of course it's song, but it's so much more than that, we say it here all the time, worship is a lifestyle. I like the way Jesus says it, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 12, one. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercy of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. It's the presentation. of our bodies as obedience that God calls worship. And just as a side note, I can't help but notice verse 10. It's not just obedience that they had, it was quiet obedience. Look at what he says in verse 10. Do not shout or let your voice be heard. Do not let one word come out of your mouth. I'm wondering if the hardest part of this whole journey for the Israelites was quiet obedience. Could you imagine the temptation?

Your feet starting to hurt yet? When do you think these walls are gonna fall? Silence. But notice, quiet obedience gave way to a loud victory. And I'm wondering if in our lives, if you're anything like me, it's tempting to talk about our obedience. Would you give up for Lent this year? Oh, for me, social media, it's hard, man. Oh yeah, for me, it's sugar this year. Just a few more days. Yeah, you're doing that, you took that step. Awesome, I'm sorry, man. Just posting about it, selfie. Yeah, just another day fighting for the Lord. We're becoming a people who are quick to speak and slow to listen and quick to become angry. Scripture invites us to be people who are slow to speak, quick to listen, slow to become angry. And here, it was quiet obedience that took the city. Oh, I understand God's got you in a season that's difficult. There's no denying it. I understand you may not understand. Let it be true that because God sees, nobody else has to know. God sees your obedience. Be free from the temptation to let everyone else know about it. God's faithful, you keep walking, you'll get to watch the walls fall.

God will be glorified by our quiet obedience, but it's not just obedience before the walls fall, it's also obedience after the walls fall. Did you see that in verses 17 through 19? Look with me again there. Verse 17, but the city and everything in it are set apart to the Lord for destruction. Verse 16, he says, hey, the walls are gonna fall. After the walls fall, here's how you obey. Look again, verse 18. Keep yourselves from things set apart or you will be set apart from them. You will be set apart for destruction. If you take any of those things, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and make trouble for it. And then again, down in verse 20, the troops advanced into the city, each man straight ahead and they captured the city. They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword. Every man and woman, both young and old, and every ox, sheep and donkey. I've got several things to say about this. First, I want us to see the heart here. Is God wants his people to put to death anything that will keep them from him? This is the goal. The goal is worship. The goal is obedience.

The goal is I want to be faithful to him. So we say no to what keeps us from him so that we can say yes to him. But then second, maybe you're newer to the faith or you've listened to an atheist talk about a verse that's like this. And maybe you've even read it yourself and say, see Jonathan, this is why I don't read the Bible. I don't understand it. Maybe it seems like God can be cruel at times. I mean, seriously, look at that. He instructed them to put them to death. And I want to just briefly address this. One, context is essential. Because yes, what God was doing in this moment was absolutely delivering the Israelites. But also what God was doing in this moment was providing justice and judgment on wickedness. Because what was happening in the land of Canaan was utterly wicked. That you can go back and read about practices of child sacrifice, bestiality. And though it can appear harsh, it is good news to have a God that hates wrong. And it is good news to have a God who's not okay with bad things. And so he brings that to justice. And he doesn't just do that for the Canaanites we're gonna see in the next chapter. He does that for the Israelites.

God is just and has no favoritism. But then second, not just that, I want us to understand what's also happening here in this language. It's something called the Harem. It's intentionally hyperbolic language. In fact, you can study ancient Near East traditions and religions, and you're gonna see similar people describe what they did to the Israelites in the same language. Saying that they killed every man, woman and child of the Israelites, which obviously they didn't. We've got the nation of Israel still around today. What are they doing? They're using intentionally hyperbolic language to emphasize their victory. That's why in a few chapters you're gonna read, they're still fighting the Canaanites because there's still people around. And then third, it's not just just, and it's not just hyperbolic, but God's also emphasizing mercy. Both times he talks about what to do when you get into the land, the very next thing he talks about is giving mercy to Rahab the prostitute. There's a woman in the story, we're gonna get to talk more about her, but she's a prostitute in Canaan. And yet by face, she reaches out,

and God has mercy and invites her to become part of what he's doing, because God's heart is not just for justice, but his heart is always for mercy. Look at verse, in Deuteronomy 20, it's a similar thing that's happening. We'll get to see God's heartbeat, verse Deuteronomy 20, 16 through 18. He uses similar language about what God's people are to do when they enter Canaan. And then verse 18, here's why. So that they won't teach you, put them all to death, so that they won't teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, like child sacrifice. And you sin against the Lord, your God. God's heartbeat for his people is that they would be with him and not be taken from him. He's jealous for us to belong to him. And he's inviting us to put to death in our life what keeps him from him. It's like this, a few years ago, we bought a house and the yard was atrocious. And so finally, I felt like a real dad, we've got to get a lawnmower, get out, start taking care of our land, and got somebody out there to help us with weed management. But we didn't know why this particular kind of what looked like a weed kept coming up, even when we put sod down, even when everything was going,

and we had no idea what was going on. And so I kept mowing over it. I kept mowing over it again and again and again. And so finally, we had to get an expert out and say, hey, what is this? Why won't this go away, even though we're giving it fertilizer? And he looks at me, he says, sir, this isn't a weed. This is an invasive species of tree. What you need to do if you want to get rid of this is you've got to uproot it, find where it's coming from, and then poison it. And I was like, oh my gosh. He's like, well, can you do that? He's like, sorry, man, can't do that. I'm like, awesome, thanks. And so I went out there by myself, and I found one of these little weeds that I'd just been mowing over, and I tried to pull it up to see what was underneath it. We've got a picture of the first little weed that took place. See that little guy? And you can see all his little friends down there that I'd been cutting. And then we have another picture of what it was like when I uprooted it. It was about 30 feet long, and I had to cut it off because it got too close to the stump to pull up, and there were 10 of those running underneath my yard.

And here's what I think the Lord might want to say to us this morning. You don't have a sin management problem. You've got an invasive species, and it's called sin. And I'm worried that what many of us call sanctification, weed is really just image management. I'll just mow it down, I'll just hide it so that nobody sees what's really going on. Yet under the surface, sin is only growing stronger, and it's a root system connected of sin that's popping up in different areas, and we're doing our best to keep it under control, but it's getting stronger and stronger underneath. And what God wants to say to us through this text is our job is not simply to maintain it, protect it, or cultivate it in a way that looks okay. God's saying He wants us to find it, uproot it, trace it to the source, drill into it, poison it with gospel truth. This is why Paul picks up this same imagery, and he gets to Colossians 3, verse five, and he says, put to death sin in your life. This is something to play with, this isn't something to maintain, this is something to kill. Because when Jesus came, He revealed that our primary problem is not external, it's internal. The biggest enemy isn't out there, the biggest enemy is in here, so put to death the sin in your body.

So he says in Romans eight, put to death the misdeeds of the body, and the Spirit will give you life. And so our job, our responsibility as believers is to take it to the Lord and say, God, would you kill it? I wanna say no to what's keeping me from you so that I can say yes to you, that's worship. Worship is the goal, so sin is the enemy, because sin is what keeps us from Him. We say no to this so we can say yes to Him. What in your life do you need to kill that is keeping you from Him? Put to death the sin among you. Find it, where it is. Is it popping up? What's underneath? How can we trace it back to the root and destroy it with gospel truth? Worship is obedience. And then just lastly, as we close, worship is loud. And if you come to Passion City Church, you know that. The pinnacle moment of this story is when thousands and thousands of people are surrounding this city. And he says in verse 16 and also in verse 20, shout. Could you imagine being in that moment? The roar that would have taken place? Ah, deafening, a shout of praise. And make no mistake, that shout was worship.

That's why the psalmist used it again and again and again. And listen to this in Psalm 98 verse four. Let the whole earth shout to the Lord, be jubilant, shout for joy and sing. Sing to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song, with trumpets and the blast of the trumpet, shout triumphantly. Psalm 95, come, let's shout joyfully to the Lord. Shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation. Let's enter his presence with thanksgiving. Let's shout triumphantly to him in song. For the Lord is a great God, a great king above all gods. Psalm 100, let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord. But it's not just us about how we worship God, though it is primarily that, but it's also used about how God takes on his enemies. Look at Isaiah 42. The Lord advances like a warrior. He stirs up his zeal like a soldier. He shouts, he roars aloud, he prevails over his enemy. So in this story, they're shouting, but God's shouting. They're shouting because they know God's gonna take care of his enemies. That's exactly what you see in verse 16. It blew my mind when I was reading this text. My whole life, I thought that the shout is what made the walls come down. I thought they were shouting so that they could win the war.

But look with me at verse 16. Look at what it says. After the seventh time, the priest blew the ram's horn and Joshua said to the troops, shout, here's why, for the Lord has given you the city. Past tense, God is encouraging them to shout, not to win the city, but because they've already won the city. God is encouraging them to shout, not to get victory, but because he's already accomplished victory. They are not worshiping to win, they're worshiping because they've already won. Oh, there's a wall in the way. And there might be a wall in your way. There might be a diagnosis you can't overcome. There might be uncertainty in a job. There might be financial need and breakthrough that has to occur. There might be family things that nobody else knows about. But can I tell you, our encouragement and our response today is to shout and worship, not for victory, but from it. The position and posture of a Christian is to know that Jesus has come. He died and he won and he rose from the dead and he's promised to come and return and redeem and renew all things, to make good on his promise, to dry every tear, to turn every hard thing into a good thing, to right every wrong and use everything wrong in your life

for good purposes, so that when we're standing with a wall in the way, we can shout and we can sing from victory. This is what he wants you to do in your life. This is what he wants me to do in my life. And I got to see this on display beautifully in one of our students in the past. Her name's Victoria. She's sitting right over here, Victoria Johnson. Victoria, stand up for us really quickly. Y'all make some noise for Victoria. We've got a picture of Victoria on the screen as well. Just recently, her and her mom, Shantae. And just before this picture was taken, Victoria was hospitalized. And she was in the hospital for two months. One of those months, she was in the ICU. It took place over Christmas. And what had happened in her life was that she had had three diseases come up out of nowhere and attack her body. The doctors had no idea what was going on. She was losing her energy, losing strength. She soon became unable to walk. Then she became unable to stand. And then soon she became unable even to eat. So they had to put a feeding tube down her throat. And that took place for 20 days in the ICU, not drinking any water, not eating any food, being fed through tubes.

In fact, we've got a picture of Victoria while she was in the hospital as well. And what you'll see is a feeding tube going down her mouth and into her body. And our amazing leaders soon came and visited Victoria and learned of how much she loves worship music. So they told our team and pretty soon myself, Landon, Savannah, Chris, our whole team came out and would visit her every so often. And without fail, we'd go and she'd have a whiteboard to talk to us. And we'd ask her how she's doing. And every time we'd hear how she couldn't wait to put on lip gloss and drink Powerade. But then pretty soon after she'd motioned, she was ready to worship. And we'd ask her, what song you wanna sing? And with a heavy hand that was unable to write straight, we'd make out the song of her request. Sometimes it was gratitude. Sometimes it was the Lord will provide. But every time without fail, the song she wanted to sing was Good Plans. And there are pictures and videos and moments that are seared into my mind where we would be singing over her in this hospital room. He has good plans. But if you looked closely, her mouth was moving to the words around her feeding tube, singing, he has good plans for me.

In deserts and valleys, he's got good plans for me. Oh, there was no hope of a diagnosis at the time. There was still a wall in the way. The doctor still didn't know what was going on inside of her. But can I tell you, he's got good plans for me. We were singing loudly, but she was worshiping loudest. We were shouting on her behalf, but no one shouted louder than her. Oh, there was no noise, but heaven was vibrating. Walls were coming down. Why? Because she was singing from victory, facing a wall, confident that God was gonna come through and he already had. Because she knew, she knew that the God she was singing to had good plans. She'd seen it. If he could turn a crucifixion into a resurrection, he was gonna use her hospital bed for his purpose. She was confident. And so I wonder, if all of us could take up this spirit of the shout, it may not look like a literal shout. She couldn't shout. But all of us can have the attitude of the shout. Before you get the job offer, let's shout. Before the family tensions resolve, let's shout. Before the breakthrough comes, let's shout.

Before everything is completely restored, let's be people who are found worshiping. There might be a wall in the way, but God is good. He's got good plans and he has surrendered and won the city on our behalf. We can sing from victory. And this becomes possible when we see that the greatest wall that stood between us was not the wall of Jericho. It was the wall that separated us from God on a result of our sin. And in the end, when we turn to Revelation 19, we also see this same character on a white horse with a sword coming from his mouth. And he's not wrapping around the city seven times. No, no, he has seven seals of justice and judgment he's gonna bring. But before that day comes, another day came. And he came and he entered this same commander of the Lord's army. But he did not come to swing his sword. He came to get underneath it. And on the seventh day, the Passover, he got underneath the sword. And he died for you and for me, taking our sin on himself, crushing the wall that stood between us. That's the way that Paul says it in Ephesians 2. Listen, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. He broke down the ultimate wall that separated us from God. And now as a result, in grace by His Spirit and in His power, we have everything we need for a life of godliness. And we can enter in fully to the land He wants us to possess and put to death sin, confident in the victory that He's already won, regardless of what wall we're facing.