This sermon is a powerful message of encouragement and empowerment for those feeling weak and battling fear and dismay. It emphasizes the need to surrender our own strength, plans, and efforts to God, trusting in His supernatural power to bring victory and fulfill His promises. The speaker uses the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho to illustrate the importance of relying on God's strength and following His leading, even when faced with seemingly impossible situations.

I have a message this morning for a specific person. You've come in this morning, you're in such a battle that it's do or die now. You don't know where you're going to find the strength to get through. You know, and as pastors, we're quite often talking about hard times ahead, and you're sitting here thinking, God forbid, if it gets any harder than it is now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Now, whether it's a depression you're fighting, whether it's just a fear of the future, whatever it is, this is for you. And I promise you, we're going back to worship after this message today. And I do believe that God's going to bring gladness into your heart. Message is entitled, Fear Not, Neither Be Dismayed. Deuteronomy, please, chapter 31. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Now, Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the strength that you give to those that are weary. And Lord, those that have no might, you come, O God, and you confirm that which is your inheritance. Today, Lord, I thank you that as I give my body to you, I yield this vessel to you, Lord, that you will come and overshadow my frailty. Lord, you will speak through me. You will animate me. God, even the intonations of my voice will come from your heart and from your hand. Help me, O God. I don't want to be in any part of this message. It has to be something birthed and delivered in the Spirit. Give us the ears to hear this, O God, I pray with all my heart today. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. We ask this in Jesus' name. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verses 7 and 8. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage. For thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord has sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Fear and dismay. It's a condition common to all of us from time to time. There's struggles that are part of your life, they're part of mine. If we recognize them for what they are and know how God has given us a remedy to defeat them, then they will never take you down. And the devil will always come against the children of God with these two weapons. They're actually very distinct, one from another, and I'll explain that in a moment. Now, by definition, in the Old Testament, fear is an anticipation that we may suffer harm or that things might go wrong. Now, every one of us live there from time to time. And dismay is a discouragement. It's when we feel beaten down, when we feel demoralized, or we're in despair. Fear comes when we're opposed by something of superior strength to our own. We find ourselves suddenly in a battle, whether it's from the basics of being confronted by somebody who's going to rob you on the subway, to spiritual attack that comes into your life. And it's something that is opposing you. You are very, very aware that it has superior strength to your own. That's the one common factor about fear. Now, dismay comes when we consider our own resources. We look inside of ourselves and we come to the conclusion that we're not strong enough to fight the battle that is before us. Now, that's how the two work together. Fear is an opposing force coming against you, causing your heart to stand back and tremble just for a moment. And then dismay comes when you finally realize that I'm not strong enough to fight this. I thought I could defeat this. Now, some here are fighting with besetting sin, and you thought you could defeat this in your own strength. You thought that coming to church, listening to some messages, reading your Bible a little bit, giving your life to Jesus, which is a wonderful thing, obviously, if you've done that, you thought that was good enough. And then suddenly you find out you're in a battle that is stronger. There's something in your character, there's something that has found a lodging place perhaps in you, in your flesh, and try as you will, you cannot defeat this. And it's produced such a in your heart that you're literally on fumes, spiritually speaking. You drag yourself to church and you're just hoping for a miracle, just a touch. Something's got to happen somewhere, something sovereign, maybe another truth, maybe just another how-to message that I can get through this. I don't know how I'm ever going to get through this. It happens to everybody, happens to pastors in pulpits, a despondency sometimes can settle on the heart. And here we are preaching faith, but ourselves fighting an inner despair, it can happen and does happen. It happens to all people, it's common to everyone. First Samuel 17 11, speaking of this, it says, When Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, that's Goliath, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now, this is an army under a kingship that has lost touch with God. They've not been inquiring of God. Their strength is not in God. They have ranks, they have armor, they've had training of sorts. They have a king that's head and shoulders taller and more handsome, I suppose, than all the people in the land. It looks like a king. Yet they've not been seeking God. Remember when David brought the ark back into Jerusalem, he said in the days of Saul, they had not been inquiring of the presence of God. And so they are standing as it is on this cliff, overlooking a valley, and then on the other side there's an enemy that's threatening the very fabric of the society of God's people at that time. And as they are being challenged, they realize that, first of all, this giant is bigger than any of us, and secondly, there's none of us here that have the resources to fight him. And that's, of course, where we can all get from time to time in our walk with God. Think of the children of Israel under Moses after they had come out of bondage for 400 years and they're coming into the promised land. This is a place God said, I've prepared it for you, it's for you. And they came to the shores, just like you and I do. You have an incredible inheritance in Christ, did you know that? Freedom is yours, victory is yours, peace of mind is yours, the soundness of heart is yours, strength of character is yours. All of these things are yours just as they were, and even more in this generation as they were for that generation. Now they got to the shore, they sent in some spies from all of the tribes, and they went in and they came back. And what they had seen from their own mouths, they said, there's a land. Yes, it's everything God said it was, but in that place it's so big and we're so few, the land just swallows us up. And we saw giants there, we saw the sons of Anak there, and they're so huge, we felt like grasshoppers in comparison to them. And they said, we're not able to go up against the people for they're stronger than we are. That's fear, fear, that's how the devil always operates, fear. Puts some big battle before you and comes against you with some booming voice in your mind, in your heart, in your conscience. And it says, you can't go any farther. If you try to defeat this, you're going to end up a slave to it all of your life. Why don't you just make peace with it now? Why don't you just settle it in your heart and say, this is the way things are always going to be. You're always going to be angry, you're always going to be selfish, or you'll always have a problem telling the truth, or you'll always be in a position of never fully trusting God, or your marriage is always going to be like this, it's never going to get any better. Your children will go astray, give up praying because you're not going to be able to bring them home. And there's always this, this roar of the enemy against everything that God has ever promised that is going to come into your life. And the congregation heard this report, they listened to this report, even though there's, there are two other voices, Joshua and Caleb, but I guess they're being drowned out by the volume of the other 10 who are coming in and just saying, no, can't be, big land, grasshoppers, giants. And you have that war, and I have that war, you have it going on inside of you all of the time. It almost seems like the voice of the enemy gets as big as Goliath, and the voice of God becomes almost a whisper in the dust. Joshua and Caleb are saying, no, their defense has departed from them, they're bred for us, let's go against them, we're well able to overcome it. But the people gave in to the louder voice. It's not the voice of truth, and it's not speaking for God, it's just in their heart, and in their ears at that moment, it's louder than the voice that is speaking, the voices that are speaking for God. And number 14, one says, all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. Fear gives in to dismay. The giants are there, we don't have the resources to fight, we're not going to win this battle, we're all going to go down in defeat. And so all night they begin to cry. I know there are people here today that you're, you cried last night. Now you know the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. You cried, you went to bed crying last night, you get up this morning brokenhearted, you weren't even sure you were going to come to church today. How will I ever get out of this battle? How will I ever beat this thing? I thought I could, I thought if I read enough, I thought if I went to church enough, I thought if I tried hard enough, I would get the victory. And suddenly I'm beginning to realize that the more I try, the louder that voice is getting that's opposing me, and I just don't know how I'm going to get through. And God forbid that they should get tougher than they are today. Paul speaks to this in 2 Corinthians 7.5, this struggle is being common to both he and those who are in his company on their journey. Paul said it this way, when we were coming to Macedonia, now keep in mind they were called to the Spirit into Macedonia. Remember that Paul had that vision of a man saying, come over help us. So he and his company go into Macedonia, and just as Joshua was called to go into a place of promise. Now here's Paul's report, our flesh had no rest. We were troubled on every side. Outside of us were fighting, inside of us were fears. Common, Paul says. Outside of us there were battles, there were struggles, there were things coming against us, and inside of us, Paul the Apostle said were fears. Fighting is without, fear is within. But he also writes in 1 Corinthians 10.13, there's no trial or temptation taken you, but such as is common to men. The devil will try to tell you, you're the only one who's fighting this. No one else is fighting. Everyone else in Times Square Church lives in victory, except for you. You come into the sanctuary, and you see today how people worship God in this place, and there's this voice that says, you see, it's true. Everyone's in victory, and except for you. And you've just got this giant that's just in your mind, it's in your heart, comes against you, and roars against the life of Christ that's promised you, and you're never going to get the victory. But you see, Paul says the temptation that's taking you is common to men. Common to men. Common. That means everybody goes through it. That means everybody goes through it, from time to time. Everybody has sudden fear that will try to grip their heart and grip their mind. Everyone has times and seasons where we look inside, and we get dismayed at how little of strength sometimes, and the character of God we find that we should have and don't have in certain areas of our lives. But God is faithful, Paul says. He will not suffer you or allow you to be tempted above your able. God is faithful. He will not allow you. He will not allow you. He will not allow you. He will not allow you to be tried above that which you're able to bear. He will not. If God is your God, this is for you. He will not allow you to be tried above that you are able to bear. But with the temptation will make a way to escape that you might be able to bear. He will make a way to escape for you. Now, how did God bring Paul through? And his companions in Macedonia, in 2 Corinthians 7, 6, it just says, by the arrival of a man with a good word. He was a good man. His name was Titus, and he had a good rapport, and he had a comforting word. And Paul starts out, he says, Our flesh had no rest, and we were troubled on every side, and without were fighting, and within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. I was thinking of that when Pastor Nick came on the platform this morning when I was praying. I didn't know you were going to be here this week. I thought it was next week. And I was so comforted. He's such a friend. He always brings such a good word. How much more of a friend is God? How much more in your struggle will God not come to you and bring you a word? It's not a zap at an altar somewhere. It'd be a word that God brings to you. He says, I'm going to speak to you about your situation, and I'm going to bring good words to you, and these words will comfort you, and they will give you good cheer. Now, Joshua was, just as many of us feel today, was sent to a humanly impossible task. There was a place on the earth of promise that had been set apart for the people of God, and he and the people were to go in and conquer everything that would try to keep them from obtaining what was rightfully theirs. It's an impossible task, folks. We are sent into the Scriptures, the life of Christ now, because if his victory is ours, we see the promises in the word of God. We read them, but it's really impossible to us. I'm talking about you and I in the natural. It's an impossible place. You look in the Bible. I remember when I was a young Christian, I got into the word. I loved God's word with all of my heart, and I remember reading Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church. Good grief! I remember reading that, saying, how is that possible? How do I do that? As Christ loves the church, you think of the love of God. You think of this indescribable love of God for you and for me, that sent him to the earth to walk as a man, to go to a cross, to endure everything he had to endure from the spiritual ignorance as it is of his own creation, and I'm called to love my wife in that capacity. How do I do that? I remember the Lord saying, no, you don't do it. You let me do it. I come to you and I will show you how much I love you. You'll begin to understand you've got to open your heart to my love. You've got to let me come. You've got to let that perfect love of God cast out the fear that you'll never be able to go to this place. It's all God, folks. It's all God. It's all the grace of God. It's all the goodness of God. It's nothing of us. It's all of him. Now go ahead to Joshua chapter 5. We're going to just see some of the very key elements that are required before we are able to go in and possess this place of promise. Joshua chapter 5. We'll start at verse 10. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after Passover, on leaven cakes and parched corn in the shelf same day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. Now they were about to be taken into an impossible place. They're about to go into the promised land. And most of you know the story about a huge walled city called Jericho that occupied that place. It was the first battle. It truly was impossible for them to conquer it in their own strength. There had to be something other than them and other than their strength with them to allow them to possess this. Now there's some steps to this. The day before they go in, they eat of the old corn and the manna ceases. That means that the old provision they had kept with them and the manna, that bread that had come to thus far for many, many years, faithfully had fallen to the ground. They had gathered it most every day, taken it home. They'd eaten it. It was heavenly food really. It had sustained them. But suddenly it stops. Now there are seasons in the Christian life where what used to satisfy you no longer does. You were quite satisfied to come into church. You had John 3.16. It was a pillar of scripture. You had Ephesians 2.8 and 9. You had tapes. You read your Bible five minutes a day. You sang the odd song. You listened to songs of worship CDs on the subway. And in your mind it was, oh God, it just doesn't get any better than this. And then suddenly, all of a sudden, the Bible goes dry. The worship songs are not doing it anymore. There's a troubling in your spirit. It's like the old corn is gone. And the manna that used to sustain you, you go out in the morning and you find that five-minute scoop from the Bible is just not doing it for you anymore. And you see, you must consider that God might be leading you into something deeper than you've ever known. To get you to move from one place, he's got to dry up the well, folks. Or you and I will camp there, and it might be a shallow well. It might be an experience in God that isn't deep enough to take you and I into the fullness of our inheritance. And how does he get us to move? Because we're all campers by nature, you know. We'll all build a tabernacle in what we think God's supposed to look like, and where he is, and where we're happy, and we'll just stay there. We'll never move. That's just the nature of who we are. And so the Lord has ways to get us up and move us forward. And they're quite often not pleasant ways. Creates a hunger. A battle comes against you that is so fierce, it comes suddenly. And you thought that your few minutes in the Scriptures and your tapes were good enough, but suddenly you're in a battle. You can't win this with that kind of a relationship. And the Lord's saying to you, I'm taking you to a deeper place than you've ever been before. Now, you just get up and move with me. Now, when the manna ceased, they had to go in. Now, either conquered the land or they starved to death, folks. There was going to be nothing in the middle. When the manna stopped and they crossed over into the promised land, it was victory or death at that point. And if you're finding that today, thank God. I thank God. You know, some of the times that the Lord has had to move me from one place to another, spiritually speaking, and they're not pleasant times. You find yourself out on the street just shouting. You get so frustrated trying to just get rid, as it is, of the leading of God. That's an awful way to say it, but we do that. And finally, you find yourself just crying out, Oh God, please, what are you trying to tell me? And you know, when we get there, sometimes it just, you know, speak very simply into our hearts. Listen to what Isaiah says. I'm just going to read it to you. And from chapter 43, verses 18 to 21, he says, Remember not the former things, and neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, and now it shall spring forth. And shall you not know it, I'll even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me and dragons and owls, because I've given water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. He said, What I'm about to do in your life is going to bless a lot of people around you. I'm going to give you a drink in a dry land. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you water in parched places where others are starving to death. But because of what I do in you, that there's going to be blessing come all around you because of it. This people I've formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise. God says, I redeemed you. I bought you with my blood. I intertwined my name with your name. I'm going to bring you through. I have formed you as a people of praise. You are not a people who are to get through this in your own might, in your own effort, and with your own thinking. I'm going to bring you through, and your songs are going to be about me. It's going to be about divine deliverance, not human effort. Nothing you did, but something that I did. Your song will be about Jesus, not about yourself. Your whole story, your whole testimony will not be, Look, I figured it out. I got the plan to get through and get the promises. Oh no, your story will be about meeting the giants and not knowing how to go forward until God's Holy Spirit came upon you. Don't let your mind be entrapped by the old things. Don't think that going back is better than going forward because it's not. God says, I'm going to do a new thing in your life. I'm going to bring you into new strength, a new supply, a new depth, a new relationship, a new level, new trust, new understanding, new confidence in the promises and the power of God. You're going through this battle because God is leading you into something new of himself. That's why you're going through the battle. God has not failed you, and you are not the worst sinner on the face of the earth. Put away the lies of the devil. You are right where God wants you to be. You're in the hand of the father. Jesus said, those who put their confidence in me, I place you in my father's hand and nobody can take you out of my father's hand. That's where you are today. You're in the hand of God. God is leading his people. God is leading you. God is leading me. Hallelujah. Joshua five again, verse 13. Now Joshua goes, is moving in. I remember the men of Caesars, and the old corn is gone, and it's conqueror starved now really at this point. And it came to pass when Joshua, verse 13, 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 to him and said unto him, are you for us or for our adversaries? Now here, this is interesting. Now, most every scholar agrees that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Now, various reasons for that. I don't have time to get into all of that. You can get a concordance or a commentary and study that. It's fairly clear. But he meets a man with a sword drawn in his hand. Now, when Jesus, for example, was risen from the dead and he joined the men on the Emmaus road, it says he just kind of walked up and started walking with them. And I see Joshua coming in as it is to this place that needs to be conquered. He's coming into this area of Jericho, and here is the pre-incarnate Christ who's standing, but he's standing with his sword in his hand, and he's standing in such a manner that Joshua is confused. Now, Joshua is a soldier. He's done a lot of fighting. He knows what fighting is all about, but he's unable to determine if this man is for us or against us. You know, it appears perhaps on one side that he's against them because it says he's standing against them. His sword is drawn in his hand. Now, when a man's sword is drawn, there's a reason for that. His countenance speaks of something that says, this far and no farther. Now, Joshua is not a fearful man at this point, and Joshua walks right up to him. He says, are you for us or are you for our enemies? Who are you for? Whose side? In other words, he didn't know whose side he was on. Whose side are you on? It was that simple, because I feel Joshua was prepared to engage him at this point, but of course, once he found out who he was, that all changed. Jesus said it this way. In Matthew 5, verse 25, He said, Agree with your adversary quickly while you're in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Or, in other words, put into a place of helplessness where you can't escape. Now, there are certain times in your walk with God that God will become your adversary, but not for evil, but for good. He will stand, in a sense, and tell you, this is where you stop. This is where you stop relying on yourself. This is where you drop your plans. This is where your ambitions die. This is where your self-image is thrown to the wind. You will not win this battle in your own strength. Jesus said, Agree with your adversary when you're in this, especially if it's God. If God is saying, this is not the way, this is not the plan, this is not where strength is found, agree with your adversary, because if you don't, you'll be cast into a place of helplessness where you can't escape. Agree with your adversary. You and I are all prone. We're prone to plans. We're prone to directions. We're prone to an image of ourselves. We're prone to having this measure of 60% God and 40% me. We're prone to charting our own course and coming to church and saying, God bless him. I know exactly what my life is supposed to be. And you find all of a sudden that the Lord is your adversary. He's drawn his sword before you. His word is drawn before you, and you're not sure even who God is now. Is he for me? Is he against me? He's not stopping Joshua at this point for evil, but for good, knowing that flesh cannot go into this place. Flesh cannot occupy this land of promise. Flesh cannot take any of the glory for what's about to happen. It's got to be all God and none of me. Verse 14, he said, But as the captain of the host of the Lord, I might now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said to him, What saith my Lord to his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Loose your shoe. Now that's significant. Remember the prodigal son when he came home after really making a mess of the family name, and the father met him on the road, and first he gives him a robe, then he gives him a ring, and then what does he do? He puts shoes on his feet, which is symbolic of the fact that I've got a plan for you now. There's places you're going to go. You and I are going to walk together in this. You're going to represent as it is my house. But the Lord said to Joshua, Loose your shoe. Remember Jesus said to Peter in John 31, When you were young, you dressed yourself. That would include shoes, wouldn't it? And you went where you wanted to go. But as you're getting older, it's going to change. Someone else is going to dress you. You're going to stretch forth your hands, and you'll be taken into places that you don't want to go, and that you're not capable of going as a natural man. Now, Jesus is standing before Joshua. We're talking about going into the promised land. We're talking about possessing what God has promised, and he says, Loose your shoe from off your foot. Joshua, not your plans, not your might, not your strategies, not your power. You remember the scripture? Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. No, the Lord says, No, I don't need your plans. I don't need your might. I don't want your strategies, and I don't need human effort. Loose your shoe. I'm going to give you instructions. Now think about it for a moment. The instructions are totally foolish to the natural man. Doesn't the scripture say that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing? The ways of God are foolishness to those who live in the natural or are governed by that which is their own fallen nature that they feel has a measure of intelligence in it. He says, You're standing on holy ground. It's a sacred place, an innermost place, a place where God and God alone is to be glorified. You're standing on holy ground in Christ. Praise God. Isn't it a better testimony to get to the end of this life and just say, It's been all God. It's been all grace. It's been all goodness. It's been all mercy. It's been all glory. It's been everything of Christ and nothing of me. Isn't it wonderful if you get to the end and whether you preach to 10 or 10 million, it doesn't really matter, but you get to the end of the journey and your children say, Mom, Dad, how did such change come into your life? How did you become the person that you became? And at the end of the journey, you don't have a list of books for them to read. You don't have a stack of Proverbs. You don't have a whole list of how tos. You have only one name on your lips, only one victory, only one direction, only one God. Hallelujah. You're standing on holy ground in Christ. Take off your shoes. Take off your plans. Take off human effort. Take off everything in the flesh. All you can produce in the flesh is an Ishmael and then you have to support it for the rest of your life and try somehow to prove that God's been in it. Take it off and begin to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Give God the glory when he opens the door, go through it in the strength of your God. When the giants tell you you can't, you pick up five stones out of a brook and go down to meet that giant and say, no, no, no, no. You're challenging the honor of God. Jesus said in the book of Luke chapter 14, he said, what king going to make war against another does not sit down first and consults whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20,000. He said, or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sends ambassadors and desires conditions of peace. Now in other words, without Christ and his power, you will make peace with your enemies and you will let your enemies stay in the place that is rightfully yours. You've been given the victory in Christ. You've been given a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit. Everything in this book is yours, folks. Everything in this book is yours. But if you're not willing to sit down and consult and say, can I, do I have the power to come against an enemy that's much stronger than me? And folks, you have to come to the conclusion. I don't have the ability. And he said, so likewise, whosoever, he'd be a view that forsakes not all that he has. He cannot be my disciple. Now he's stating an absolute. He's not barring anybody from the kingdom of God. He basically is saying it this way. If you don't forsake human reasoning, human plans, self-effort, if you don't let it all go, you can't follow me where I'm going. You simply can't because it's a spiritual kingdom, folks. These are spiritual battles. It requires a spiritual victory. It requires a strength that's deeper than ours and more powerful than anything that you and I could ever be in ourselves. Joshua, take off your shoes. You're unable to possess in your own strength what has been promised to you. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Stand in faith. And through the victory of Christ on Calvary, it will supernaturally become yours. Take off your shoes. Take off all your efforts to gain the promises of God in your own strength. Take off all the plans of what you think your life is destined to be and give everything into the hands of God. Get rid of every voice that tells you you can't because God says you can. Get rid of every thought that says you won't because God says you will. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Every tongue that rises against you in judgment, you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness is of me, says the Lord. I've cleansed you. I have touched you. I've forgiven your sin. I've put my Holy Spirit upon you. The victory is already yours if you will let it be a spiritual victory. If you'll let the Holy Spirit carry you. If you go through every door that God opens and never say no to God. Paul said the destiny of the Christian is to go from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That means more like Christ. More—the glory is the weightiness of God. More of the weightiness of God in your life. Stronger reasonings. Deeper courage in the heart. More ability to be compassionate, even in a generation that might spit in your face because of your compassion. Deeper ability to forgive those that have wronged you. More of a light in the eye than those who just simply walk by what they see and read and sensually feel and think. And oh, God's going to have a church in this generation that are standing, that are filled with the glory of God. And just like Jericho, they know how to keep quiet. They don't need to call anybody on the phone during their crisis. Remember the instruction, just be quiet. Just do what I tell you to do. Walk around. Let confidence build in your heart. Know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted. And when the time comes, the Lord said, I'm going to put it in your heart to shout. What a shout when they knew that they're in the promised land, not in their own strength. They had no military plan. The promises were not going to be given because they were running with battering rams into the walls of Jericho. They were just simply trusting God, knowing that the Lord of hosts was with them. And God supernaturally brought the walls of that first and impenetrable city down as a sign. This land is yours. The promises of God belong to you. The new life, the new mind, the new heart. The future is in the hands of God. You do not have to be afraid of any voice. You do not have to be dismayed because it's not about you. It's about the Christ in you. Hallelujah. When we get to the end of this journey, folks, I don't want anybody, there won't be anybody there with a formula and a plan. I'll tell you right now, but there'll be a whole lot of people that are just speaking the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus. All through heaven and for eternity, when people say, how did you get here? How did you get through Jesus? I don't need any other name. I don't need any other plan. It's all in Jesus. Everything is about Jesus. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Put away your strength. Put away your plans. And by faith in the finished work on the cross of Jesus Christ, by faith in the word of God given to you and I, the promises, these incredible promises of God, by faith in the Holy Spirit of God, given to us to make these promises a reality in our lives by faith. The whole kingdom is by faith, not by sight, not by power, not by human reasoning, not by our plans, but by faith in God, by faith in God. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Take off your shoes. Hallelujah. Glory to God. The scripture says, Joshua fell on his face and worshiped God. There must have been something so of gratitude in his heart. Oh, thank you, God, that I don't have to figure this thing out. Thank you, Lord. I look at this city is so powerful. I don't know what I would do. All we've got is pitchforks and sticks. How are we going to take down a city as big as this thing? Hallelujah. He was so thankful that God finally showed up in this situation. I hope that's how you feel today, especially the weakest. You see, that's what will confound the wise in heaven and in all time, that God chose the weakest to glorify His own name, to show that it's not anything of us, it's all of Him. The weakest physically sometimes, but strong in faith, strong in faith, pressing through. I love the scriptures. You've got the Pharisees with their scritchy beard standing on the hilltop trying to figure out this man, and here you have the leper pressing through and getting touched, and the woman with the issue of blood, and the blind man saying, hey, son of David, have mercy on me. And the weak and the nobodies and the nothings of society are pressing through, and the power of God is touching them. The sooner we get to the point of knowing we're nothing, the better off we are. Nothing in ourselves, but everything to the heart of God, everything to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm giving an altar call in the annex today in the main sanctuary for every Joshua. Time to take off your shoes. Time to get rid of your plans. Time to put away your efforts. Time to come to God in faith. Time to start reading and obeying God. Time to be led a little deeper than you've gone before into prayer and into the Word of God. Time to let God be God. Hallelujah. This is for you, Joshua. You can receive it or reject it, but this is for you today. Praise be to God. We're going to worship at this altar for a little while, and if the Lord is speaking to your heart, every backslider, people that are stuck in sin, those that are filled with fear, people have come in and you say, God has spoken right into my life today. He's answered my question. I had a deep question. He's answered it today. This altar call is for you, Joshua. And if it means something, take off your shoes. Take them off. I'm speaking spiritually. You don't have to physically do it, but if it means they're already off. Praise God. He's already taken his shoes off. Let's stand. Balcony, you can go to either exit, please, and make your way down here. Main sanctuary is the same thing. Just make your way here. You want victory? You're going to get victory. It's as simple as that. Just make your way down. If you're lost in your sin, make your way here. Christ will receive you, forgive you, restore you, give you help and hope for the future. Have the courage to admit that you need a Savior. In the annex, just stand between the screens, if you will. I don't think there'll be enough room here, but make your way in, folks, and we're going to worship for the next 10 minutes or so, so don't be in a rush. Take time. Let the Word sink deep. Let God begin to speak to you. Open your heart now. Let the Holy Spirit show you the way out. Now, I have a word for those that have responded to this message. From Revelation, Jesus spoke to one of the churches. It had the name Philadelphia. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things says, he that is holy, that is true, that has the key of David, he that opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. I know your words. Behold, I've set before you an open door, and no man can shut it, for you have a little strength. You have just a little strength. That's all you've got. And you see, the beauty is that you know that. You know that you only have a little strength. He said, but for you, I've opened a door that no one can shut. You have a little strength. You've kept my word, and you have not denied my name. I'll make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they're Jews and are not, but do lie. I'll make them to come and worship before your feet to know that I've loved you. So there's other people who've claimed to be stronger. They've claimed to have a deeper proximity as it is to the throne of God, but it isn't true, God said. But I'm going to so bless you that they're going to come to where you are in the days ahead and say, however you found to worship God, that's where I want to worship God too. I'm going to worship the God that you're serving. He said, I'll also keep you from the hour of temptation or trial, which is coming on all the world to try them that dwell on the earth. And surely that's the hour that we're living in now. Don't let anyone take your crown. He said, I've given you the victory. So don't let anybody come and take that away from you. The one that overcomes, he said, I'll make you a pillar in the temple of my God. In other words, I'm going to give you strength and you're going to be able to stand no matter what comes your way, you're going to stand. I'll write upon you the name of my God. Now this is, I mean, this is a father. I'll write upon you. Remember that you'll have this understanding that you're secure in the hand of God. In the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. In other words, you will be clothed upon which that which is supernatural, that which comes from the hand of God. It does not come from the hand of man. And I'll write upon you my new name. Now, raise your hands, give God praise and ask him to fill you with the Holy spirit. Do that. Do that right now. Whole church, God, just you, you open your mouth. I can't do it for you. Ask God to fill you with the Holy spirit. Father, we need the strength of God. You promised to this church, Lord, that you would clothe us from on high. You would write upon us the name of God. The life of Christ would become our life. God almighty. We're here in our weakness to say, Lord, we can't do this in our own strength, but you will come. Oh God, I ask you in Jesus name to fill every hungry heart with the Holy spirit of God. Fill us with the strength of almighty God. Give us the strength Lord to stand in this generation, not by might nor by power, but by the spirit of almighty God. Oh Jesus. Thank you Lord. Thank you that you will keep us standing in these days. Oh God, you'll give us strength over all of our enemies and lead us Holy spirit into our inheritance, which is ours fully in Jesus Christ. God, we thank you. We praise you. We give you glory. We give you honor. Yours is the only name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory, glory, honor and power and majesty and dominion and might of thine oh God. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Bless your Holy name oh God. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you God. Thank you Jesus. Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God. Hallelujah. We just gotta shout and give him praise. We just gotta give him praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. Thank you God. Thank you Jesus.